Open Thread – Mon 17 Jan 2022


Dido building Carthage, J. M. W. Turner, 1815

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Bruce in WA
January 20, 2022 11:09 pm

He’s getting rattled. Suffer. you prick!

Pedro the Loafer
Pedro the Loafer
January 20, 2022 11:09 pm

I will predict that there will be enthusiastic support for the ongoing closure of the WA border amongst rank and file Sandgropers. The morning news will be instructive.

One of the dominant characteristics of Western Australians is rampant parochialism. It has been a feature since before Federation.

You have to live here to realise how deep this sense of isolation and separation from the rest of Australia runs in the average punter and the Wuflu crisis has only deepened this characteristic, especially in regional WA.

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
January 20, 2022 11:10 pm

Sneakers admitting his exemption criteria are just to stop murderous Sandgropers caught out by his new rules by going interstate or overseas from acting on their fury.

rosie
rosie
January 20, 2022 11:10 pm

Mark is keeping you safest.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 20, 2022 11:10 pm

Goodness gracious.

It sounds very much like Mr McGowan is within sight of the bridge.

At Remagen.

rosie
rosie
January 20, 2022 11:10 pm

Dan couldn’t beat the virus but Mark can.

custard
custard
January 20, 2022 11:11 pm

Pedro nails it as usual

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2022 11:12 pm

Great news Rex. Little Kerry must have heard the drumbeats.

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
January 20, 2022 11:12 pm

Sneakers trying to blame Ohmigod! for the economic woes in the East he is locking us away from.

Not the panic the policies of stooges like him have stoked for the last 2 years.

rosie
rosie
January 20, 2022 11:13 pm

First I’ve heard of economic woes.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2022 11:14 pm

The lights on the codpiece have gone out.

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
January 20, 2022 11:14 pm

The Kicker, dear Cats:

“How long do you think you can keep this up?”

Sneakers dismissive of legal action by business or if Ohmigod keeps spreading unchallenged. While continuing to evade a date.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
January 20, 2022 11:14 pm

The drums. The drums!

It is a feature of frontier towns.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2022 11:15 pm

Filthy Omicron-ridden Eastern States furriners.

rosie
rosie
January 20, 2022 11:17 pm

Twitter going nuts, obviously my feed is biased against McGowan but still.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 20, 2022 11:18 pm

One of the dominant characteristics of Western Australians is rampant parochialism. It has been a feature since before Federation.

Western Australia went into Federation under protest. The Colonial Office in London had planned that, if Western Australia voted “NO” to Federation, the colony would be divided in two. There would be a new colony encompassing the Goldfields, with the capital at Kalgoorlie, and the port at Esperance, and largely populated by “T’Othersiders, who had migrated from the Eastern States to join the gold rush. They would vote “yes” to join the Federation, while the agricultural and pastoral districts on the coast could sink or swim, as they pleased.

Bruce in WA
January 20, 2022 11:20 pm

On the wearing of masks.

“Restrictions will just increase”

Fuck.Off!!

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
January 20, 2022 11:20 pm

I’m told that WA is Northwest of here.
Only sandgropers would name a state with the wrong direction.

custard
custard
January 20, 2022 11:20 pm

I’m still listening to the commo McGowistan

rosie
rosie
January 20, 2022 11:23 pm

Yes back in 1900 there must have been thousands and thousands of people with their roots firmly established in WA for untold number of generations and desperately wanted to remain a British colony.
They could have been sort of a West New Zealand.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
January 20, 2022 11:23 pm

McGowhatever and Dan of the dead have been hired to destroy their state’s economies.
Nothing else makes sense.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 20, 2022 11:24 pm

I’m still listening to the commo McGowistan

You’re a better man then I am, Gunga Dinh.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
January 20, 2022 11:25 pm

East Argentina.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
January 20, 2022 11:25 pm

I live-tweeted the Sneakers presser to winnow out who the really unreachable fascists/surrender monkeys were in my friends list. Man, I’m glad I tuned in and paid attention to the end- I really believe that MaoGowan’s rail run will now be tripped up, the press have finally risen up to him and he’s gone full Dan Andrews with his dismissive nasty responses.

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
January 20, 2022 11:26 pm

Goodness gracious.

It sounds very much like Mr McGowan is within sight of the bridge.

At Remagen.

And it is on fire…

#ArooRooRooRooRuff!

#That’sMyOtherDogImpression

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
January 20, 2022 11:30 pm

the press have finally risen up to him

Wait and see how many of them can be found tomorrow.
Vee haff vays to halt zee bad mouth.

Indolent
Indolent
January 20, 2022 11:33 pm

Regarding requirements for travelling. I don’t know what the situation is to leave Australia, but I doubt anything will be required to go to England if they drop all their vaccine mandates and passports and Israel is starting to recognise that it’s all pretty pointless in terms of outcomes, although obviously that may take a while to percolate through to any action to remove mandates. And didn’t a change of government eliminate the vax mandate in the Czech Republic?

There seem to be some hopeful signs so waiting as long as possible to do anything would appear to be the best option.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2022 11:36 pm

Wait and see how many of them can be found tomorrow.

I expect they will be given their riding instructions before anyone goes home.

Indolent
Indolent
January 20, 2022 11:39 pm
srr
srr
January 20, 2022 11:41 pm

James O’Keefe
@JamesOKeefeIII
·
December 30, 2021
BREAKING: Per CNN Head of Strategic Comms – Rick Saleeby, Producer for Jack Tapper, has RESIGNED from CNN following Project Veritas reporting of horrific text messages and FaceTime calls alledging sexual fantasies and potential misconduct with underage girls
Translate post
Posted on 7:29 AM · Dec 30th, 2021

Indolent
Indolent
January 20, 2022 11:41 pm
srr
srr
January 20, 2022 11:43 pm

The Babylon Bee
@TheBabylonBee
·
13h
Entire Medical Establishment Threatened By Comedian Who Gets High And Talks About MMA And Aliens

Entire Medical Establishment Threatened By Comedian Who Gets High And Talks About MMA And Aliens

U.S. – The political and medical establishments throughout the world are sounding the alarm about the dangers of Joe Rogan, a comedian who gets high and talks about MMA and aliens.’JOE ROGAN! HE MUST BE STOPPED!’ said Dr. Fauci in a very calmly writt…

babylonbee.com

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
January 20, 2022 11:44 pm

Wait and see how many of them can be found tomorrow.
Saturday’s West will be a doozy, expect record sales.
The Oz will have nothing until Saturday- one advantage of a late west coast presser.

Thefrollickingmole
Thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2022 11:54 pm

Brief look on fecechook.

One contact is literally saying “ thank you for locking us down harder daddy”.
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/cerylean.tumblr.com/post/161952461775/amp

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 20, 2022 11:58 pm

Sandgropers!

Unite behind our great leader Kim Il McGowan! Line up and bare your arms to have your fifteenth vaccination needle! The borders will be open in 2050! What does the rest of Australia have that we need, anyway?

Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
January 20, 2022 11:58 pm

Bruce in WA,
If you need a care package of durries let us know.
I’m sure we can help.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 20, 2022 11:58 pm

Did the alleged perpetrator’s tortured life have anything to do with his time at Cranbrook, I wonder. At the prole (but very good) school I went to, the word was ‘if you can’t get a woman, get a Cranbrook boy.’

My Big Sis sent her son to Cranbrook for primary school when she was doing her residency: it was a good school then and now. Her kid went off the wires over dope and later other drugs in the 80’s and at another private school in his mid-teen years he didn’t stop going downhill. She brought him back to Sydney and tried hard to keep him in school, or tech, or something, but it became a losing battle. She had several new relationships. The child felt unstable and lived in a cloud of marihuana and petty crime and later heoin addiction (he’s the one who died recently of pancreatic cancer, leaving a child and a grandchild, both of whom Bis Sis’s grandparenting has pulled back from the brink). This follows a pattern I note in my recent Quadrant article that was repeated with the easy break-up relationships culturally encouraged during that period by the ‘progressive’ left. My own two boys from my first marriage were similarly badly affected, dope use leading to school failures. Hairy was a good stepfather who tried hard with them when their own father partially opted out, but they were testing times for our marriage also rearing two very small children at that time of teenager rebellion. The boys, now in their forties, both feel positively towards him these days and he likewise has more understanding of them and their reactions. It is never ideal and the culture in those days was terrible for the kids of divorce. Stay with the biological mum and dad if you can is still a good maxim. And keep those kids busy and within the new family as much as you can if you separate.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 21, 2022 12:01 am

Eyrie – re the jabs, plus the ‘boosters’ and travel, it’s not just my problem as you call it, it’s everyone’s problem. This country operates in a contemporary economy of international travel for business as well as for pleasure. Get your head in the sand and keep it there, if that is your choice, but more sensible people recognise the reality of the vaxx passport for the economic as well as social problem that it is. Boris it seems has seen the light. We. Need. To. Travel. No fortress Australia. No tryanny of distance.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
January 21, 2022 12:02 am

I’m somewhat chuffed to discover that I , near as dammit, share a birthday with Judge Dredd.

Barry
Barry
January 21, 2022 12:08 am

Looks like there’s a new Chairman in town.

Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
January 21, 2022 12:11 am

Zulu,
I find your optimism inspiring.
In a smug, East Coast sort of way.

Barry
Barry
January 21, 2022 12:18 am

Trending on Twatter: #McClown

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
January 21, 2022 12:30 am

Trending on Twatter: #McClown

(Politically) Dead Man Sneakin’…

[/Not an Unauthorised Election Material or Voting Influence Threat]

slackster
slackster
January 21, 2022 12:56 am

WA will never open with McClown as Premier
He has backed himself into a political corner he can’t get out of

Bill From the Bush
Bill From the Bush
January 21, 2022 1:16 am
Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
January 21, 2022 1:21 am

What happens with that nonstop flight to London that used to leave from Perth?

slackster
slackster
January 21, 2022 1:23 am

Miss Anthropistsays:
January 21, 2022 at 1:21 am
What happens with that nonstop flight to London that used to leave from Perth?

It was moved out of Darwin last year
Guess its never going back back

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
January 21, 2022 1:28 am

I have been banned from taking my wife to medical appointments at the RNS hospital.
The explanatory letter was signed “Warm Regards”.
That’s just twisting the knife in the wound.

Time to gird the loins for a battle with bureaucracy.

Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
January 21, 2022 1:34 am

Old School
Bastards.

Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:12 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:13 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:14 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:15 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:16 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:17 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:18 am
Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 4:19 am
Figures
Figures
January 21, 2022 4:43 am

Any solutions to this insanity?

Ate you kidding? The PM of our country would never be too gutless and myopic to allow such a situation to occur.

ScoMo will do the right thing. You’ll see.

rosie
rosie
January 21, 2022 5:23 am

Not as buoyant as the UK then.

“I tell you clearly, even attenuated, this virus is not trivial,” said Jean Castex. “It is absolutely not a simple flu. A single figure to demonstrate this during a normal year, the flu epidemic causes an average of 10,000 hospitalizations over the entire winter period. With Omicron, we reach this figure in three months, but in only five days.””

en France

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 6:04 am

Barrysays:
January 20, 2022 at 8:48 pm
Nanna would have had multiple “social workers” badgering her to send the little girl to stay with her “mum” for the holidays, because that would have been in the “best interests of the child”.

Guaranteed the State has their cold rancid fingers in this pie, just like the pigs who attended the location of the wife/child murder by the Indian loon last week an hour before the killings.

This!

The grandmother may not have custody but what they call in my state ‘Kinship care’(gag). This effectively gives her no more right than a foster parent.
She would also have no right to litigate custody away from the department. Politicians have made these departments a law unto themselves on the black of public hysteria.

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 6:11 am

back of

Anchor What
Anchor What
January 21, 2022 6:30 am

Democrat plan for voting reform inspired by Hugo Chavez!
link

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 21, 2022 6:32 am

Black is the key to this. The stolen generations were actually children being protected from such as these two. So they were rescued and placed with foster carers, grannies and aunts.

Now nobody dares do anything like that, the kids suffer horrifically and the whole festering disease has spread to the wider community. Mal Brough tried to do something, but the entire Left closed shop against him to perpetuate this foul endless mess.

Anchor What
Anchor What
January 21, 2022 6:43 am

Are the Democrats becoming a fascist party?
John Hinderaker at Powerline blog.
They have looked like that for some time, and the so-called antifa brigades are their running dogs, not anti fascist at all.

Anchor What
Anchor What
January 21, 2022 6:46 am

Is it just me, or is getting a comment through the gatekeepers at The Australian harder than it used to be?

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 21, 2022 6:47 am

re ‘Kinship care’ for our grandson at risk, both I and our son’s father (my first husband) wanted to take over care of the child, but our legal situation would have been tenuous and useless in combatting the mother’s tendency to up with the child and move to yet another State; also her serious psychotic episodes when the child was in her ‘care’. It was better to support our son to exercise his paternal legal rights in a Court of Law to gain full custody with oversight of the mother’s state of mental health. This gave him the ability to refuse access if he deemed it necessary due to defined evidenced reasons (such as active psychosis, amphetamine use, the presence of undesirable male associates etc).

We could then support our son (who had his own mild autism issues with coping) in the care of our grandson, having the child stay grandparentally for holidays and weekends as needed and for me, paying for and supervising karate lessons, music lessons, extra tutoring, school uniforms and requirements etc. as well as subsidising the household expenses of my son. Our son said thank you by starting another relationship and producing another son, this one autism spectrum level 2. But the mother there is competent and we work with her to assist her child and financially help out as well; she doesn’t live with my son but has been another significant figure in the life of the grandchild at risk.

There are grandparents’ aelf-help organisations for the thousands upon thousands of grandparents who have grandchildren in a similar sort of situation. But the legal rights are undefined. I looked on the internet but never joined any because we were lucky enough to have found a way to manage.

The mother of the schizophrenic woman has done it extra tough as a grandmother. Not just having a schizo daughter but also an amphetamine addict son, so took over the son’s little daughter, who also went off the rails and got pregnant at seventeen, producing a great-granddaughter for this woman to also rear. Now the great-granddaughter is showing signs of disturbance. A very well known Labor family originally, btw, where dad left this mum with four children to ‘find himself’ elsewhere in his magnificent career which she had worked so hard to help him gain. She and I are good friends in regular contact now over her daughter, whom I keep a weather-eye on and to whom I offer support.

One becomes fairly familiar with the public housing areas of large cities with these problems in your life. They are full of people damaged by the loss of identity, jobs and a future, often sick, and using drugs and alcohol for escape and for ‘meaningful’ relationships based on drug sharing with others. It’s a cultural thing, and it is inter-generational too. We have fought against that; our grandson is now in work and wanting to stay that way, drug-free too. My two kids with Hairy, his aunt and uncle, both in stable marraiges with good careers, have been a support and role model for him too and well as his two aunts in Qld; for in his mother’s middle-class family of four kids, two who were older during the break-up did well, and the two who were younger both went in their own ways off the rails.

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 6:50 am

Black is the key to this. The stolen generations were actually children being protected from such as these two. So they were rescued and placed with foster carers, grannies and aunts.

The system has moved away from the public expectations to using the vulnerable as a Petri dish of social experiments to feed the bureaucracy. It’s also an insight on what is install for the rest of society.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 21, 2022 6:56 am

Re commenting on the Oz. About the time I renewed a sub after Hairy eschewed and dumped one in his name, they did seem to have a less censorious approach, but I have noticed some tightening recently. I’ve had a couple reinstated after protest, but there’s not a lot of point in that because things have then moved on. It does, however, help to keep those journo-school moderators on their toes. I’ve been too busy lately to comment much there anyway. One they do won’t tolerate is criticism of their journos.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 21, 2022 6:56 am

Glenn Greenwald amplifying a story today.
JP Morgan & former Obama AG colluded to stitch up one of their clients to give information to the Jan 6th committee.
Which looks like it’s unconstitutional (under the Quinn v USA SCOTUS ruling).
I would expect Tucker will have Glenn on today to further amplify it.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 21, 2022 6:57 am

aarg. Loss of syntax. Mind ahead of fingers. Tea urgently needed. Or coffee.

win
win
January 21, 2022 6:58 am

I was told yesterday Unvaccinated parents and Carers can not take sick children to the Brisbane Childrens Hospital.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 21, 2022 7:00 am

Well said, Bruce, at 6.32am.

It is the same problem, black or white or brindle, as they used to say but we no longer can.

Anchor What
Anchor What
January 21, 2022 7:01 am

Cleaning up voter rolls the Democrat way!
31 states have subscribed to a dodgy system developed with funding by …
link

Anchor What
Anchor What
January 21, 2022 7:05 am

“I would expect Tucker will have Glenn on today to further amplify it.“
Indeed.
If people are not watching Carlson, Ingraham and the others on Fox News they are getting a very abbreviated view of what’s going on in the USA.

Anchor What
Anchor What
January 21, 2022 7:13 am

Meanwhile over at News dot com dot au they are doing the usual scantily clad female stories and noted authority Norman Swan about the efficacy of masks.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 21, 2022 7:14 am

Quinn v USA was one of the SCOTUS rulings that ended the gotcha moments at the McCarthy hearings & ended their effectiveness.

PS I’ve always found it amazing how Bobby Kennedy was airbrushed out of all the unpleasantness surrounding McCarthy.

Cassie of Sydney
January 21, 2022 7:35 am

“PS I’ve always found it amazing how Bobby Kennedy was airbrushed out of all the unpleasantness surrounding McCarthy.”

Joe McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy were good friends.

Cassie of Sydney
January 21, 2022 7:43 am

From The Daily Telegraph…

Police claim Charlise Mutten’s mum was living in caravan before alleged murder

Charlise Mutten’s mother was staying 80km away from a lavish wedding venue in the NSW Blue Mountains where the nine-year-old was allegedly murdered. See the photos.

Police say it has been difficult to speak with Charlise Mutten’s mother Kallista as they try to uncover the details of her daughter’s death.

Charlise Mutten’s mother was staying at a ramshackle caravan park on the secluded banks of the Hawkesbury River when police allege her fiance murdered the nine-year-old schoolgirl more than an hour’s drive away.

Kallista Mutten is understood to have been staying at the Riviera Ski Park at Lower Portland in the lead-up to her daughter’s death last week, with police swarming the park over the weekend as part of their search for answers.

The caravan park is 80km east of Wildenstein, the lavish wedding venue where Charlise was allegedly murdered by Justin Laurens Stein between 7pm on January 11 and 10am on January 12.

Residents at the park said they believed Charlise and her alleged killer Stein even joined Ms Mutten there in the time leading up to Charlise’s death.

“The daughter was there for a couple of days, she was playing around with the daughter of a friend of mine,” one witnesses said.

The owner of a nearby caravan park in the town said detectives had been seen taping off a caravan near the water’s edge and carrying evidence bags out over the weekend.

When the owner of Riviera Ski Park was ­approached for comment he said: “Why do you want to talk to me? I have spoken to police, f*** off.”

It comes as The Daily Telegraph sheds more light on the movements of little Charlise, her mother and her alleged murderer over her final days.

A ute towing a boat similar to that police allege Stein tried to use to dump Charlise’s body was captured on CCTV passing the popular Tractor 828 cafe at Ebenezer about 2.20am last Friday, January 14; six hours before Ms Mutten made the call to triple-0 to report her daughter missing.”

A left turn off Sackville Rd onto West Portland Rd takes drivers up towards the Colo River, where Charlise’s body was found late on Tuesday.

Locals in the area said a man believed to be Stein had been seen travelling with Charlise around the area in the days before she was killed, even using the ferry to travel across into Lower Portland, where Ms Mutten was ­staying.

One ferry driver said his colleague claimed to have spoken to the “chatty” little girl, but noted “the bloke with her wouldn’t look him in the eye and just kept staring straight ahead”.

Police are also understood to have seized CCTV from the ferries that ship cars across the Hawkesbury River at Lower Portland and ­Sackville.

Detectives were also seen on Thursday visiting businesses along Bells Line of Road, which leads from the Colo River towards Mount Wilson.

Charlise’s trip to NSW to stay with her once-jailed mother for the school holidays was not due to a court order, it can also be revealed.

The decision to let the Tweed Heads schoolgirl stay with her mother and soon-to-be stepfather two weeks ago was made by her grandmother in Coolangatta, who was given sole custody of Charlise in 2018 while ­former ice addict Ms Mutten was in jail.

It is understood that there were no court orders to let the mother spend any time with her daughter but any visits were left up to her grandmother. The distressed grandmother could not be contacted yesterday.

There were also no court orders for the little girl to spend time with her biological father, who lives in northern NSW.”

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 21, 2022 7:45 am

Pleasing to see rssrrsss has added the Bee (at 11.43 last night) to her collection of satire sites.

Not before time.

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 7:47 am

The decision to let the Tweed Heads schoolgirl stay with her mother and soon-to-be stepfather two weeks ago was made by her grandmother in Coolangatta, who was given sole custody of Charlise in 2018 while ­former ice addict Ms Mutten was in jail.

Ok Cheers Cassie.

calli
calli
January 21, 2022 7:47 am

When the owner of Riviera Ski Park was ­approached for comment he said: “Why do you want to talk to me? I have spoken to police, f*** off.”

A completely legitimate way to treat reporters. Should be more of it.

No wonder they then took petty revenge with the “ramshackle” slur.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 21, 2022 7:53 am

Slackster at 12.56:

Bang on. McGowan, having painted himself into this corner and then barricaded himself into a couch fort in said corner, will never open WA while he is in office.

He’s gone too far for that, and can’t walk it back.

Governments with no opposition to rail against invariably turn on themselves, because nature abhors a vacuum and ‘damn dirty East Coasters’ are a poor substitute.

Cassie of Sydney
January 21, 2022 7:56 am

“A completely legitimate way to treat reporters. Should be more of it.”

I’m reminded of when I was approached by a journalist with a film crew at CPAC in November 2020. I simply said that I don’t speak to garbage media. The look on her face was priceless.

Cassie of Sydney
January 21, 2022 7:58 am

“Bang on. McGowan, having painted himself into this corner and then barricaded himself into a couch fort in said corner, will never open WA while he is in office.”

I reckon he’ll open up again after the federal election. This is all politics.

rugbyskier
rugbyskier
January 21, 2022 8:03 am

No wonder they then took petty revenge with the “ramshackle” slur.

calli, that’s what I call a ‘gratuitous adjective’, a favourite tool of journalists to add their prejudiced opinion into a story.

calli
calli
January 21, 2022 8:03 am

Done the same to wheedling ambulance chasers too, Cassie.

After letting them run on the timer for a while. Why not? I wasn’t paying. 😀

calli
calli
January 21, 2022 8:09 am

I know the area at Lower Portland quite well. The van parks are definitely not “Big 4” or glamping.

People go up there for weekends for the water skiing, and of course being a budget type of place, the permanent sites have the usual array of misfits and druggies and people down on their luck.

The gentrification of the outskirts of Sydney has been slow to reach the place, but it’s getting there. It’s beautiful and quiet and time has passed it by – until the boats and jetskis start up. I used to go there for stitch n’ bitch retreats.

lotocoti
lotocoti
January 21, 2022 8:10 am

Justin Castro’s Junior Spies.

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 8:13 am

lotocotisays:
January 21, 2022 at 8:10 am

Hitler youth!

rickw
rickw
January 21, 2022 8:20 am

Latest Pauline Hanson cartoon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiYF_o6ho1U

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
January 21, 2022 8:35 am

By any measure Israel and its triple/quadruple jab policy is a spectacular failure in controlling omicron infections.
Active cases peaked at around 100,000 cases during the Delta wave and now stand at 500,000.
Hospitalisations are at 73% of the previous high points. The desperate health establishment would put this down vaccines but a quick look at South Africa pulls the rug out.
Omicron hit SA at about 25% fully vaccinated, that number stands at 27% now and yet the wave of infection has passed. Not vaccination at work but variants.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/health/covid-19-new-data-on-south-africa-hospitalisations-reveals-how-omicron-dodges-vaccines-81151
The sun appeared to rise today but we can’t be sure until experts confirm it.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 21, 2022 8:37 am

rickw that clip had me in tears.

Barry
Barry
January 21, 2022 8:39 am

Curious non-mention of social workers and child services. Only that the stay was “not due to a court order”. There are many other ways that custodial parents can be coerced into “making decisions” which let the busybodies keep their hands clean.

Either they were truly not involved, or they were guilty as hell.

You choose.

Aaron
Aaron
January 21, 2022 8:41 am

Maybe it would have been easier at the start to say:

“The Chinese are messing around with biological weapons and viruses and have had an accident.
But don’t worry we have big pharma working on an antidote”.

Fucking clown World we are living in.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 21, 2022 8:41 am

CDC finally says that prior infection should be taken into account.
How will the Cathedral spin this?

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 21, 2022 8:43 am

Twitter saying McGowan sure does hate easterners for a chap from Newcastle.

Please note, I haven’t googled to see if McGowan really is from Newcastle.

calli
calli
January 21, 2022 8:43 am

The sun appeared to rise today but we can’t be sure until experts confirm it.

Thank you. In a morning of rubbish and depressing “news”, that made me laugh.

calli
calli
January 21, 2022 8:47 am

Yes he was born in Newcastle. Edumacated at Casino and Coffs. Indoctrinated in Brisbane.

Exported in 1994. No warranty, so buyer beware.

Indolent
Indolent
January 21, 2022 8:49 am
lotocoti
lotocoti
January 21, 2022 8:50 am

A little digging, after reading an account from the Crimean War:
Mrs Evans and her pal Beeky Box.
Apparently Mrs Box was running her own forward area hospital
long before Florence Nightingale turned up at Scutari.

Her daring was most noticeable, and she would find her way to the French lines and procure Brandy, so that her boys should have something to “warm them up a bit.” Possessing Herculean strength, it is said she could pick up a big six-foot man, and put him on her shoulder.

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 8:53 am

I’m sure that some nudging happened Barry. Only the ones with PC credentials get scrutiny free pass. I know of one case a woman and her girlfriend with a history of trafficking and house partly collapsed got custody of her niece.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 21, 2022 8:54 am

There are many other ways that custodial parents can be coerced into “making decisions” which let the busybodies keep their hands clean.

A neighbour had three foster kids all siblings. Child services said we’re going to take one of them and put them with someone else. Neighbour said in reply, come and pick them all up. What do the arrogant fools think they are doing. How many have families of their own and if they do should be investigate for potential child cruelty? It makes me so mad. Children are so precious.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 21, 2022 8:56 am

Just saw a promotion on the teev for an AFLW double-header being televised on the weekend.

Seriously.

I understand that network contracts have been signed and all those sorts of things, but – why would you advertise something like that?

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 21, 2022 8:59 am

In McClown World WA there are signs all is not in line with their Dear Leader’s announcement late last night.

Front page of the West Australian has a big pic of him and the headline ‘658 days and he’s still not ready” with the editorial leader under that: “McGowan’s abject failure of leadership”.

Now the Oz is running a lead story “Perth’s Lord Mayor slams WA border plan”:

Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas says it’s time for Western Australia to safely open up to the rest of the country.

Mr Zempilas said no doubt many residents supported Mark McGowan’s decision to indefinitely delay the opening of the state, but they may not need to travel, have business interests interstate or rely on tourists.

Indolent
Indolent
January 21, 2022 9:01 am

ScoMo will do the right thing. You’ll see.

You forgot the sarc tag.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 21, 2022 9:04 am

‘Nudging’.

The DHHS and like organisations all across this land will, if given the chance (and they are), operate on a ‘let’s try this and see what happens’ model.

Naturally, there are no consequences for those decision makers because they live in an abstract, theory-based environment. They will never see the results of their actions, and never carry small bodies out of stinking houso flats.

On the very rare occasions they are asked questions in a formal environment, they have the now-standard Ruby Princess defence only available to unaccountable public servants:

‘Yeah, but we’re trying really hard.’

Indolent
Indolent
January 21, 2022 9:05 am

“I tell you clearly, even attenuated, this virus is not trivial,” said Jean Castex. “It is absolutely not a simple flu. A single figure to demonstrate this during a normal year, the flu epidemic causes an average of 10,000 hospitalizations over the entire winter period. With Omicron, we reach this figure in three months, but in only five days.””

Firstly, if I understand it correctly, it cannot be attenuated because the virus hasn’t actually ever been isolated. Isn’t that the case? And secondly, what is that point anyway if the vaccine doesn’t stop infection and spread and, in fact, now appears to make it worse.

lotocoti
lotocoti
January 21, 2022 9:06 am

ScoMo will do the right thing. You’ll see.

By the right thing, I assume you mean he’ll put a horse blanket over the chair in the library, before reaching for the Webley.

Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
January 21, 2022 9:12 am

Canada’s phucked.

Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
January 21, 2022 9:13 am

Some commentators yesterday mentioned Cranbrook.
Please don’t. This is not that sort of blog.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 21, 2022 9:14 am

Now lead story on the UK Daily Mail site…looks like this is going to be the Brit version of the USA wedding cake scandal:

‘We are Christians… we’ve done nothing wrong’: Church-going wife who banned gay couple from buying her £650,000 Surrey home due to their sexuality says they are just sticking to their beliefs

Daily Mail

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 21, 2022 9:20 am

Front page of the West Australian has a big pic of him and the headline ‘658 days and he’s still not ready” with the editorial leader under that: “McGowan’s abject failure of leadership”.

For the first time, in a long time, I will buy a hard copy of the “West Australian.” That would the the first criticism of a Labor Government, printed in that newspaper, in, oh, thirty five years?

Cassie of Sydney
January 21, 2022 9:29 am

““McGowan’s abject failure of leadership”.”

A truth bomb.

Cassie of Sydney
January 21, 2022 9:30 am

“Now lead story on the UK Daily Mail site…looks like this is going to be the Brit version of the USA wedding cake scandal:

‘We are Christians… we’ve done nothing wrong’: Church-going wife who banned gay couple from buying her £650,000 Surrey home due to their sexuality says they are just sticking to their beliefs”

I don’t see the comparison to the wedding cake…….I can’t understand why you’d not sell a house to a gay couple.

lotocoti
lotocoti
January 21, 2022 9:31 am

658 days and he’s still not ready

Æthelred has already claimed the sobriquet The Unready,
what’s left for the King of the West?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 21, 2022 9:34 am

This will be fun:

UN adopts Israeli resolution to combat Holocaust denial (20 Jan)

A historic debate is being held at the United Nations today, at the end of which the General Assembly is expected to adopt an Israeli-proposed resolution to combat Holocaust denial.

At the beginning of the debate, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan presented the draft resolution he initiated on behalf of Israel on the issue of the fight against Holocaust denial and distortion, and will tell the personal story of his family.

“Beyond defining Holocaust distortion and denial, this resolution is a commitment to make sure that this phenomenon will be tolerated no more.” Erdan said.

Since the UN General Assembly routinely votes overwhelmingly against Israel anytime a vote comes up, the results of this one will be most revealing.

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 9:36 am

I don’t see the comparison to the wedding cake…….I can’t understand why you’d not sell a house to a gay couple.

Correct. And why not refuse the offer and give no reason.

Twostix
Twostix
January 21, 2022 9:37 am

Such meetings have been held for many years under different names.

Yes everyone remembers the previous National Cabinet – where premiers and PM used to meet in secret every single month micromanaging the country and claiming their deliberations secret as a formal arm of the Commonwealth government under its cabinet protections, before 2020.

Which was already found to be unconstitutional last year and as roger points out they are simply ignoring the law and the ruling against them meeting like this and Morrison has been creating legislation to formalize “National Cabinet” it as an official new arm of the commonwealth government in response. A junta.

But yeah. It’s just the yearly COAG talkfest.

The fact that you and fellow dumbo Rex don’t know any of this, yet still have a strong opinion based off “the vibe”. Lol.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 21, 2022 9:39 am

It will be a cold, cold day before I sell my house to a ranga.

Just saying.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
January 21, 2022 9:39 am

In Brussels, the mood is also jumpy, with a top EU diplomat telling the BBC that “Europe is now closer to war than it has been since the break-up of former Yugoslavia”.

Brexit was not the end of the world: CONFIRMED.

Roger
Roger
January 21, 2022 9:39 am

ABC RN AM today said US SoS Anthony Blinken spent the day “cleaning up after his boss” in regard to Biden’s “minor incursion” blunder.

When a Democratic POTUS loses the ABC, he’s in trouble.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 21, 2022 9:41 am

I don’t see the comparison to the wedding cake…….I can’t understand why you’d not sell a house to a gay couple.

I can’t either actually – but that’s not the point. The media will beat it up now to say that the couple should be forced to sell it to the gay couple.

That will result in a pile-on on social media against the home owners….and so on, and so on.

Twostix
Twostix
January 21, 2022 9:43 am

Just like COAG…except needs vast fundamental changes in the law and structure to of federal government to cover what they’re doingdoimg:

The purpose of the COAG Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 (the Bill) is two-fold:

to amend a range of legislation to update terminology, to reflect the cessation of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the introduction of new federal structures and
to expand the meaning of Cabinet in several Acts with the purpose of making clear that where Commonwealth legislation has existing provisions to protect from disclosure the deliberations and decisions of the Cabinet and its committees, the same protections apply to the deliberations and decisions of the National Cabinet and its committees.

the introduction of new federal structures and
to expand the meaning of Cabinet

to protect from disclosure the deliberations and decisions of the Cabinet

This place is in serious danger of being overwhelmed by mediocre shit posters.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 21, 2022 9:49 am

Surely we must be approaching peak stupidity by now:

A flight from Miami to London Wednesday night turned around and went back to the point of departure because a passenger refused to follow the federal mask mandate on planes, causing her flight to be canceled and her fellow travelers forced into hotels until they could re-book the trip.

The airline called Miami-Dade police and once the plane landed, officers escorted a woman off the plane at Miami International Airport Wednesday evening without incident.

A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Police Department said American Airlines staff dealt ‘administratively’ with the passenger, which involved her being placed on the airline’s no-fly list pending further investigation.

The passenger, a woman in her 40s, was not arrested. It was unclear if she was British or American. She was put on American Airlines’ internal no-fly list pending further investigation. In September, President Joe Biden increased the fine for people refusing to mask up on planes to $500.

The flight was canceled as a result of the incident. Many passengers had to stay overnight in Miami to catch a re-booked flight on Thursday.

Link

Twostix
Twostix
January 21, 2022 9:52 am

The “national cabinet”, if allowed to stand, will (and already has) made Australia similar to the EU. Where legislation and direction is created and debated by a secret highly corrupt insider “council” in a distant city, and Parliaments only get to vote on and rubber stamp it.

rickw
rickw
January 21, 2022 9:56 am

I just had a long and heartfelt talk with a wonderful ER Nurse. We were both pretty misty eyed by the time the conversation was done.

Most of her friends lost their jobs over refusing the vax. She almost lost hers but got vaxxed at the last minute. I explained that I had lost my job over vax.

“We’re in code brown and there are highly qualified people sitting at home doing nothing”

“Omicron? Let it rip! I’ve been doing check ups via phone and almost everyone is OK, it’s no worse than the flu!”

“The world is moving on and Australia is still in this insane lockdown mentality. The number of people with mental health issues that we’ve been treating has skyrocketed, I even fell like my own mental health has been damaged, I need to get out of Australia!”

She is leaving for Germany in a month.

I’m leaving for ME as soon as I get work squared away.

Australia has been destroyed.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 21, 2022 9:58 am

Good work rickw.

Hope you get over there and make a squillion bucks.

Transferable skills are transferable.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
January 21, 2022 10:02 am

Morning all.
Jab Heil!

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 21, 2022 10:03 am

For the first time, in a long time, I will buy a hard copy of the “West Australian.” That would the the first criticism of a Labor Government, printed in that newspaper, in, oh, thirty five years?

A collectors edition. Buy one for the kids too. Will go well alongside the WA Inc editions.

Tom
Tom
January 21, 2022 10:03 am

Remember all those arguments with leftards at the old Cat who could never accept that Hitler and fascism were a branch of leftism – and there was just an internal dispute among leftists about which was the better way to crush their opponents and impose fascism on the unwilling proletariat.

Well it turns out leftism and leftards n the 21st century have done the full circle all the way back to the Third Reich.

Look at what pollster Rasmussen found out about the attitudes of American Democrats and. by extension,those supporting leftard parties in the rest of the world, including the ALP and Greens in Australia – all enthusiastic supporters of the road to Auschwitz:

* 59% of Democrats favor legislation that would confine all unvaccinated people in their homes, except in case of emergency.

* 48% of Democrats think the government should fine or imprison individuals “who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications.”

* 45% of Democrats would favor requiring unvaccinated citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations.

* 47% of Democrats favor a government program using digital devices to track unvaccinated people to ensure that they are quarantined or socially distancing from others.

Rasmussen polling here (h/t Anchor What at 6.43am).

Roger
Roger
January 21, 2022 10:04 am

I noted yesterday that in August a Federal Court Justice ruled that the NC minutes were not the subject of Cabinet confidentiality and should be available for scrutiny via FOI and that Morrison’s office, on his orders no doubt, had since failed to comply. Somehow the September legislation referred to by twostix above has escaped my attention (too much time on the Cat, perhaps!). Thanks for drawing our attention to it today, stix.

Aside from the obvious problem of very weighty decisions on the freedoms (such as they are) of Australians not being subject to close scrutiny there is another aspect to this would normally mystify me:

The press coverage has been mild, to say the least, even though Labor, Greens & Independent senators have been vocal in their criticism.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
January 21, 2022 10:08 am

* 48% of Democrats think the government should fine or imprison individuals “who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications.”

In AU that would be 100% of Gangrenes and 997% of LNP.

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 10:08 am

rickw.
You may cross paths with my older brother who fly’s in for busines. I think you’ll get a long.

calli
calli
January 21, 2022 10:09 am

Good luck, Rickw.

As for Australia being ruined…we’ll see. I still have hope for the place.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 21, 2022 10:11 am

Theodore Roosevelt statue removed from New York’s Natural History Museum

By Jennifer Calfas
Dow Jones
An hour ago January 21, 2022
81 Comments

A statue of Theodore Roosevelt that stood in front of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City for decades was removed, the result of years of debate over a monument that critics said glorified colonialism.

A crane lifted the bronze portion of the statue up from the museum’s Central Park West entrance overnight, according to the museum and images and videos of the removal process.

The statue, by James Earle Fraser, shows the 26th U.S. president on horseback flanked by a Native American man and African man on foot. Named the “Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt,” it was commissioned in 1925 and unveiled in 1940 at the museum, which his father had helped found.

The museum requested the statue be removed in June 2020 as the movement for racial justice after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis prompted many institutions to re-examine monuments. Owned by New York City, the statue sat on public parkland. The New York City Public Design Commission approved its removal unanimously in June 2021.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
January 21, 2022 10:13 am

Today, again, I am vewy, vewy cwoss.
Dogs would be well advised to walk the other side of the street.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 21, 2022 10:14 am

Seems Sneakers has not got his tummy rub from Teh Worst. There could be some ugly scenes at The Big Mark today. The codpiece has been removed and placed in storage as a precaution. Viewer discretion advised.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 21, 2022 10:16 am

Surely we must be approaching peak stupidity by now

Well I don’t know about that. Three stories I saw this morning:

Gaia hates fridges

New Yorker Staff Writer David Owen took a nosedive into eco-extremism. He argued that the refrigerator has become — wait for it — “an agent of climate catastrophe.”

M&Ms are sexist

Until now, the green M&M’s character was portrayed as a sexy female with a sultry voice and white go-go boots. But that portrayal is no more, the company said in its announcement.

Joe Biden is black

ABC legal analyst Sunny Hostin said Thursday on ABC’s “The View” that Republicans treated President Joe Biden like a black president.

More summits to scale yet methinks.

lotocoti
lotocoti
January 21, 2022 10:22 am

Dogs would be well advised to walk the other side of the street.

Dogs aren’t the only ones advised to walk the other side of the street.
For fecks sake.

twostix
twostix
January 21, 2022 10:23 am

This should scare the shit out of every Australian, Morrison and his little gang of six are attempting to create a permanent, new superior arm of government in the Commonwealth. Renaming “National Cabinet” permanently to “First Ministers Council” and giving it formal recognition and protection in law inside the Commonwealth:

“Schedule 2: to replace references in legislation to ‘COAG’ with references to the generic concept of a ‘First Ministers’ Council’. In addition, the term Ministerial Council would be redefined and references to specific names of a Council (such as COAG Health Council) would be replaced with the term ‘Ministerial Council’”

“Schedule 3: to amend the definition of ‘Cabinet’ in the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) so that documents of the National Cabinet and its committees are subject to the existing Cabinet documents exemption in section 34 of that Act. Schedule 3 also amend numerous other Acts, expanding the meaning of ‘Cabinet’ and providing that where legislation includes provisions to protect from disclosure the deliberations and decisions of the Cabinet and its committees, these provisions apply to the deliberations and decisions of National Cabinet and its committees.

The premiers and PM are already operating like this, it is the “National Cabinet”. They have been ordered not to, they are ignoring the order against them to release their deliberations which they illegally claimed are secret because too-clever Morrison declared that state premiers are actually part of a brand new never before seen concept of a commonwealth cabinet that doesn’t involve the commonwealth – by his personal invite. And are now attempting to pass this legislation to cover what they have been doing and make it permanent: operating as a secret junta inside the Commonwealth government.

calli
calli
January 21, 2022 10:27 am

the fear women carry with them in today’s society

What “fear”? Hyperventilating slop.

My family member was murdered in her own home by a random nutcase. Doesn’t mean I’m carrying around unspecified “fear” and looking askance at debbildebbil men. And neither are any of my family.

Rotten things happen to people who don’t deserve it. Always has, always will.

Dot
Dot
January 21, 2022 10:29 am

the introduction of new federal structures and
to expand the meaning of Cabinet

They will rely on s. 62. of Ch II of the Commonwealth Constitution to try to get around it.

“No no, they are Executive Councillors, by gum they are certainly not Ministers

…but being in Cabinet

Nah yeah nah mate, that’s against the vibe, per s. 64 (cl. 3).

Come on Fat Clive, get onto the lawyers…

Roger
Roger
January 21, 2022 10:29 am

ABC legal analyst Sunny Hostin said Thursday on ABC’s “The View” that Republicans treated President Joe Biden like a black president.

Didn’t Democrats treat Trump like an uncouth interloper who had no right to be in “the big house”?

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 21, 2022 10:30 am

Teddy Roosevelt bought the US another 100 years.
Without his trust busting, could you imagine FDR’s expansion of big government working hand in hand with unbroken up monopolies ?
It’s happening now, but at least they had a few more years.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 21, 2022 10:30 am

The premiers and PM are already operating like this, it is the “National Cabinet”.

Perhaps it should be called the “National Wardrobe” instead, seeing it is filled with empty suits.

Dot
Dot
January 21, 2022 10:31 am

“Schedule 3: to amend the definition of ‘Cabinet’ in the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) so that documents of the National Cabinet and its committees are subject to the existing Cabinet documents exemption in section 34 of that Act. Schedule 3 also amend numerous other Acts, expanding the meaning of ‘Cabinet’ and providing that where legislation includes provisions to protect from disclosure the deliberations and decisions of the Cabinet and its committees, these provisions apply to the deliberations and decisions of National Cabinet and its committees.”

Mr Justice Dot would rule they can choose to be subject to the three month limit on being a Commonwealth Minister without a seat OR they are not subject to the FOIA exemptions.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 21, 2022 10:32 am

This should scare the shit out of every Australian,

It does.
But remember, Australia is a good place for the draw bridge boomers.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 21, 2022 10:33 am

How the hell did this FOI request get into the public domain with usable data?
The UK needs to learn from the Victorian government Borg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UHvwWWcjYw

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 10:35 am

lotocotisays:
January 21, 2022 at 10:22 am

Just another ghoul attaching themselves to promote their own story.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 21, 2022 10:37 am

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare

There is a strange cult of “dont separate from family/peers” which prevails in a lot of child protection.
A real unwillingness to admit that it might actually be family/peers that are wrecking the kids life, and exposing them to a new better set of peers is a good thing.

I think back to one of our shearers who used to take on kids from detention and have them work on the shearing team for a month or so at a time.

The pattern went… every time.

1: Street clothes/ shit attitude/ tough talk
2: Clothes you can work in, curiosity at the work, being exposed to actual hard blokes.
3: Worked out why we dress like greasy hobos and is the same, had a few goes on the handpiece & run the board now, Has some serious farm fitness & strength happening.

Every time.
Keeping kids with defective peers is a way to wreck them.

twostix
twostix
January 21, 2022 10:38 am

The “First Ministers Council”, aka the “National Cabinet”, if made permanent as is proposed is similar in operation to the utterly loathed by brexiteers Council of the European Union.

In the Council of the EU, informally also known as the Council, government ministers from each EU country meet to discuss, amend and adopt laws, and coordinate policies. The ministers have the authority to commit their governments to the actions agreed on in the meetings.

Together with the European Parliament, the Council is the main decision-making body of the EU.

Except, unbelievably (believable in clownworld though) our version that they’re attempting to sneak in, is a million times worse, because the Council of the European Union at least has to operate and debate in public, the president of the council rotates and there are known rules and procedures on voting for its outcomes.

Our equivalent – foisted upon us without a change in a single law yet:
– Meets in top secrecy
– Doesn’t have a rotating presidency
– Nobody knows who is voting for what and nobody can be held accountable for anything – by design.

You literally could not come up with a more clear case definition of a proper attempt to create a new branch of government and fundamentally alter the governance of the country. Which as we all know, in Australia requires a referendum.

Dot
Dot
January 21, 2022 10:42 am

stix

If they want to keep their council, they’re better off not formalising anything.

The current challenge would be they are ultra vires. This might be very hard to prove.

The proposed law is weak at face value and should be belted over the boundary for seven runs.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 21, 2022 10:42 am

Victoria needs to pull its socks up.

18,176 cases of coof today. 3K down on yesterday.

Not nearly good enough, complacent fools. You’ll never get to 100,000 a day at this rate.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 21, 2022 10:43 am

rickw

Awful stupid shit being done to you.

Our site nurse, a “covid Karen” of the first water, is teary today because Premier smooth brain slammed the borders on her seeing her family (planned for middle Feb).

I dont expect any scales to fall from eyes, but i think the codpiece might only be brass studded with cubic Zircon not glittering gold and gems after all.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 21, 2022 10:45 am

On National Cabinet:

Like most things Morrison touches, National Cabinet is a pigs breakfast of poorly thought out political expediency and happy-clappy sloganry – as well as an astonishing administrative failure.

Australia went into 2020 with an existing, lavishly resourced, and tested mechanism to ensure the Commonwealth Government was informed of the needs and objectives of the States and Territories.
It was called ‘Parliament’.

Unsurprisingly, Moron was unable to make 120 years worth of constitutional arrangements work in a way that tailored the National interest to the issues of Australians.

Not wholly Moron’s fault – Canberra is fully stocked with grotesque careerists who will instantly sell-out the National interest for any one of hundreds of personal and factional interests.

But National Cabinet is entirely Moron’s creature: created wholly to cover over the personal, political and administrative inadequacy of his Government.

In the result, thanks to his personal weakness, Moron has managed to degrade his own stopgap, so that its only obvious purpose is as political cover for the warlords running Australia.

Nobody (other than, perhaps, Moron himself) even slightly pretends that it’s a unifying experience, or that it delivers anything that coordinates the States and Territories to better respond to Covid. Whether it’s kids on forklifts, internal and external borders, or the provision of medical arrangements – it’s a 360° fuckup.

It’s an emblem of the failure of the Commonwealth that will outlive the pandemic and the Moron Government.

And it’s 100% owned by the Coalition.

Roger
Roger
January 21, 2022 10:48 am

There is a strange cult of “dont separate from family/peers” which prevails in a lot of child protection.

A reaction to the time when children were too readily separated from family, mole.

But families are often not what they’re intended to be anymore, thanks in large part to government policies over several decades, illustrating Reagan’s dictum that there is no problem that government intervention won’t make worse.

johanna
johanna
January 21, 2022 10:56 am

Twostix says:
January 21, 2022 at 9:43 am

Just like COAG…except needs vast fundamental changes in the law and structure to of federal government to cover what they’re doingdoimg:

The purpose of the COAG Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 (the Bill) is two-fold:

to amend a range of legislation to update terminology, to reflect the cessation of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the introduction of new federal structures and
to expand the meaning of Cabinet in several Acts with the purpose of making clear that where Commonwealth legislation has existing provisions to protect from disclosure the deliberations and decisions of the Cabinet and its committees, the same protections apply to the deliberations and decisions of the National Cabinet and its committees.

the introduction of new federal structures and
to expand the meaning of Cabinet

to protect from disclosure the deliberations and decisions of the Cabinet

This place is in serious danger of being overwhelmed by mediocre shit posters.

Oh, enough with the hysteria. The Commonwealth cannot compel States/Territories to do anything different, including participation in whatever the heads of government meetings are called this year. They do not have to attend, they do not have to provide information if they don’t want to, and they are not in any way bound by its ‘decisions’, except those the Commonwealth already has power over, like funding.

As for the secrecy provisions, in practice they are not going to stop a State/Territory from leaking if it is to their advantage, as has happened since such meetings began. If something appears in the Adelaide Advertiser that is supposed to be a secret, what are they gonna do? Arrest the SA Premier? Get real.

The impact of these changes are primarily on Commonwealth public servants, who do stand to be prosecuted if leaks can be pinned on them. But that is not where the leaks come from, in the vast, vast majority of cases. They come from State/Territory politicians who are less than gruntled about something, usually to do with money.

I can understand the appeal of conspiracy theories about these matters. But in this case, few would claim that the National Cabinet (spooky!) has been much of a bonus for the Commonwealth, or indeed for any of the other players. It has been shambolic rather than sinister.

If any of the other jurisdictions thought that the legislation is unconstitutional, don’t you think they would have challenged it in the High Court?

There have also been, for decades, annual or bi-annual meetings of portfolio Ministers from the Commonwealth and the other jurisdictions, including Health Ministers. I wonder if the Health Ministers have been getting together over the last couple of years? They may have been muscled out by their media tart bosses since COVID arrived with attendant publicity opportunities. 🙂

Roger
Roger
January 21, 2022 10:58 am

Nobody (other than, perhaps, Moron himself) even slightly pretends that it’s a unifying experience…

Indeed; if it’s a cabinet entitled to secrecy provisions where is the cabinet solidarity?

It’s only a “cabinet” in name. At best it’s an intergovernmental panel, at worst it’s an attempt to install a layer of government by executive fiat.

The fallacy behind it is that covid put us on a “war footing” that demanded a commensurate response from government.

lotocoti
lotocoti
January 21, 2022 10:59 am

Just another ghoul attaching themselves to promote their own story.

But wait, there’s more.
Oirish TVs ChiComPox Doc decided to test his new found celebrity way outside his lane.

You need a license to drive a car. You need to do a test. Do we need some sort of, almost, qualification, licensing, education for men to go out into the social sphere?

twostix
twostix
January 21, 2022 11:05 am

A people’s history of an aussie coup:

1. Scott Morrison creates a fake new “Cabinet” in the Commonwealth government. He lies and claims “it’s just COAG” – retards believe him.
2. As PM he personally invites outsiders – state premiers into this secret new “Cabinet” that nobody else is allowed into.
3. He claims that this conglomeration of the countries political ‘leaders’ are all now part of the Commonwealth as a “Cabinet” – this is the obviously “unconstitutional” bit. A defacto new arm of the Commonwealth government, under its protection – and they begin meeting bi-monthly and micromanaging the country as a secret council, secretly voting, binding each other, making promises to one another and the public is not allowed to see what is going on. Very EU like no?
4. Last year a brave senator notices this and takes it to the law, who immediately laugh in Morrison’s face and tell him no, without a change to the law it is just an ordinary meeting and the deliberations must be made public.
5. He and his junta – having all the guns which they showed they are more than happy to use last year, laughs back in their face, completely ignores them, continues operating in secret – now illegally, and now attempts to formalise this tricky setup as a permanent council that governs the country like this forever. Relegating our parliaments to the rubber-stamp cuck impotents that all parliaments inside the EU are.

It was a coup, and it’s a junta, and whether you like it or not you’re living in it, complete with violent police states, empty supermarket shelves, collapsing medical system, hospitals without doctors and nurses and schools begging for volunteers to operate, all of which, every single thing that has happened 100% was created directly from the decisions and machinations of the command and control, “National Cabinet”.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
January 21, 2022 11:07 am

Friend of a friend heading stateside to work on the newk boats for Aus. This guy makes stuff happen so this might actually happen. Fingers xed.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 21, 2022 11:08 am

Ronald Reagan:

government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem…

Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 21, 2022 11:11 am

I think back to one of our shearers who used to take on kids from detention and have them work on the shearing team for a month or so at a time.

That was a scheme practiced by the Child Welfare Department, in Western Australia, in the mid 1960’s – get them “out of the city, and away from “the mates”, and gainfully employed, learning farm work. We would have had eight of these youths on the payroll over the years, and only one ever relapsed.

twostix
twostix
January 21, 2022 11:14 am

Roger the problem is the Labor and Liberal parties utterly loathe federation, and the people who gave Morrison the idea for this have big plans for this country, and competitive federalism isn’t one of them.

But they know the population will never in a million years vote yes in a referendum to abolish the states and create a single central government in Canberra that they want to happen.

That’s why nobody is kicking up much of a fuss, particularly Labor. Both because of that, and once Labor get hold of the Commonwealth, with Vic, Qld, WA and soon NSW in their pockets, imagine what they can do with this secret new ‘council’.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
January 21, 2022 11:14 am

Knuckle Dragger says:
January 21, 2022 at 10:42 am
Victoria needs to pull its socks up.

18,176 cases of coof today. 3K down on yesterday.

Maybe, just maybe, the punters aren’t bothering with tests and just sitting out a case of the sniffles and their close contacts without symptoms are just getting on with life.
As my Doctor said to me, over a year ago “stop testing”

Eyrie
Eyrie
January 21, 2022 11:15 am

Friend of a friend heading stateside to work on the newk boats for Aus. This guy makes stuff happen so this might actually happen.
Albosleazy will reverse the decision.

bespoke
bespoke
January 21, 2022 11:17 am

Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
January 21, 2022 at 11:11 am
I think back to one of our shearers who used to take on kids from detention and have them work on the shearing team for a month or so at a time.

That was a scheme practiced by the Child Welfare Department, in Western Australia, in the mid 1960’s – get them “out of the city, and away from “the mates”, and gainfully employed, learning farm work. We would have had eight of these youths on the payroll over the years, and only one ever relapsed.

Now they get them to chase useless certificates separated by weeks and months. Credentialism and cronyism is poison.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 21, 2022 11:23 am

Nothing wrong with a brass codpiece. Best to have a manservant prewarm it in winter though.

Vicki
Vicki
January 21, 2022 11:26 am

Had to laugh at the discomfort and confusion of Breakfast TV presenters (you can’t call them journalists) this morning when they raised the issue of the release of Novavax.

Some knew people who had been “waiting” for this traditional vaccine. They grilled the pollies and medicos regarding why this wasn’t released sooner, and why it was “safer” than the vaccines that they had been persuaded to have.

Needless to say, the”experts” soothed their concerns with platitudes and untruths.

calli
calli
January 21, 2022 11:28 am

I always thought the brass codpiece warmers were monkeys.

There goes another myth.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 21, 2022 11:29 am

Maybe, just maybe, the punters aren’t bothering with tests and just sitting out a case of the sniffles and their close contacts without symptoms are just getting on with life.

Likely the case.

In my own family circle, three of us are just about finished isolating with Covid + two close contacts.

We infected went down with runny noses and sneezing last Thursday/Friday, self tested with RAT’s, and have been working from our various homes for the past week.

Sensible personal hygiene, no reporting, or nanny state supervision required.

I suspect this approach is becoming the standard ‘model’ – and control of the plague is slipping away from governments because they really have nothing to add.

lotocoti
lotocoti
January 21, 2022 11:30 am

Nothing wrong with a brass codpiece. Best to have a manservant prewarm it in winter though.

Bronze would be better.
You could play Testicular Bells.

Roger
Roger
January 21, 2022 11:31 am

Roger the problem is the Labor and Liberal parties utterly loathe federation

Their (Labor’s) first strike against it was rescinding income tax powers from the states under the guise of the “war emergency” in 1942. Surprise, the emergency ended but the powers were retained. On the financial basis that income tax afforded, Menzies – for all his ostenisble conservatism – expanded the role of the Commonwealth in health, education, marriage, aboriginal affairts, and so on, laying the foundations for the Canberra Leviathan which every government since has built on.

C.L.
C.L.
January 21, 2022 11:31 am

Scott Morrison is the worst prime minister in Australian history.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 21, 2022 11:32 am

I always thought the brass codpiece warmers were monkeys.

Only if you have fallen on hard times.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 21, 2022 11:32 am

The decision to let the Tweed Heads schoolgirl stay with her mother and soon-to-be stepfather two weeks ago was made by her grandmother in Coolangatta, who was given sole custody of Charlise in 2018 while ­former ice addict Ms Mutten was in jail.

Maternal grandmothers can find it very hard when their beloved daughters go off the rails. There is at first a lot of denial and a tendency to think that the daughter can never really harm her own child, or more to the point, put her own child in harm’s way. There can also be a lot of emotional pressure by the daughter on her mother, and claims of not loving or helping the daughter in a time of trial and missing her child. We had this situation at first with the maternal garndmother of my grandson at risk, who at first tried to block us in getting custody for my son. She was not prepared herself to go for legal custody of her daughter’s child against her daughter’s fierce determination to keep her child, which might have been more favorably looked upon than me and my first husband’s initial grandparental desires for this, as mother’s rellies in court are deemed somehow to matter more. She may have tried to block us in favour of her daughter. Later, she came to realise how serious matters were, and now we are friends, sharing tales of trials and where possible, cheering good news. Since turning twelve our grandson and his mother regularly holiday with his family in Queensland. She pays for the tickets and supervises his welfare.

When I attended the Family Court in both WA and NSW in support of my son, women at first rushed up to me and offered me tea, biccies and legal aid and a domestic violence support worker and a special comfortable waiting room – until they found I was there for my son. Then it was cold hard chairs in the open area, a cold shoulder, and no comfort for us. I’ve said this here before but it is worth repeating to fill in newbies.

Lysander
Lysander
January 21, 2022 11:33 am

80% of West Aussies agree with Mcgowan.

FFS, get me out of here.

C.L.
C.L.
January 21, 2022 11:34 am

Courier Mail reporting possibility of meat rationing and electricity grid shutting down for “weeks.”
S’ok, though. Scotty is going to build a nuclear submarine.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 21, 2022 11:34 am

Roger the problem is the Labor and Liberal parties utterly loathe federation

The High Court certainly hasn’t done it any favours over the years.

johanna
johanna
January 21, 2022 11:35 am

Indeed; if it’s a cabinet entitled to secrecy provisions where is the cabinet solidarity?

All Cabinets, State and Federal, have secrecy provisions. That has not stopped the occasional Cabinet Minister from spitting the dummy, but in most cases they understand that it is in their interest that Cabinet meetings and internal disputes not be put on the front page so that the Opposition can make hay.

There seems to be a fair amount of naivete around here about how governments actually work, as opposed to how they might in some unattainable Utopia.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 21, 2022 11:35 am

Albanese backs McGowan on border closure
Angelica Snowden

Anthony Albanese has backed Mark McGowan’s decision to keep his state’s borders closed, saying he spoke with the West Australian premier before his announcement and endorsed the call.

“I told (Mark McGowan on Thursday night) I respected and supported the decision,” Mr Albanese told Sky News.

“People were keen to visit loved ones, but the first priority of Mark McGowan has been to keep WA safe. People in WA enjoy life almost as normal, certainly compared with NSW,” he said.

Mr Albanese said Mr McGowan did the right thing by retaining a two-week quarantine period for travellers.

“Mark McGowan has done the right thing by WA which is keeping their health ok, which is a precondition for keeping their economy ok,” he said.

custard
custard
January 21, 2022 11:38 am

A very different mood today in the McGowistan mass psychosis industrial complex with previously silent people becoming very vocal about the lack of a clear direction.
Marky Mark was smashed on social media last night.
Many people are commenting on how nervous he looked at the presser.
I was told a couple of weeks ago that the ANF had threatened to go on strike if he opened up on Feb 5th.
Maybe this was the reason for the backflip…

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
January 21, 2022 11:39 am

Oh, enough with the hysteria. The Commonwealth cannot compel States/Territories to do anything different, including participation in whatever the heads of government meetings are called this year. They do not have to attend, they do not have to provide information if they don’t want to, and they are not in any way bound by its ‘decisions’, except those the Commonwealth already has power over, like funding.

Thanks Johanna. And to Doc Faustus as well.

TwoStix’ Hanrahan-esque narrative about total power and control by a secret cabal of elites who will oppress us into the ground is crumbling as hard as his Thought-Leader Struth’s is.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 21, 2022 11:39 am

Karen Albanese.

Roger
Roger
January 21, 2022 11:39 am

There seems to be a fair amount of naivete around here about how governments actually work, as opposed to how they might in some unattainable Utopia.

Jo, the utopian vision is that more government is the answer.

Nobody here holds to it.

We want less government and more accountability.

twostix
twostix
January 21, 2022 11:41 am

Also consider the immediate failure of “National Cabinet” in this context: in a private company, who thinks that say, Gladys had it in her, personally, to go toe to toe with the likes of Daniel Andrews in high stakes, high emotion, secret meetings that are personally binding?

Who do you think would get their way 10/10 times? When Andrews, beyond simply being an overt menacing shit, also has a bunch of maaaates at the meeting, McGowan and Gunner and their mole Palachook vs feeble Gladys and cuck Morrison, who do you think is going to utterly dominate those meetings?

Exactly.

Ultimately a ‘council’ comes down to a couple of people screaming at each other in secret. A handful of individual humans acting like losers.

This is why after 1000 years of effort we figured out that humans that sit at such things must make their deliberations open to all of us, and we created ‘constitutions’ and vast frameworks of rules to tell those people how they must act and when they are allowed to meet and in what context. Our laws made no mention of any sort of secret ‘council’ of premiers and PM, for this exact reason. It’s not just for our benefit, it’s for theirs too. To deliberately separate them so we don’t end up with this exact situation.

Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
January 21, 2022 11:44 am

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/01/after_covid1984_never_again.html

Whatever threat to human health the China Virus poses, it has been dwarfed by the threats to peace, stability, and freedom caused by two years of government tyranny run amok. For people who either never experienced the authoritarianism practiced by dictatorships abroad or stubbornly believed that the “leaders” of “free” nations would be somehow immune to the corrupting influence of power, these two years have hopefully been a wake-up call. If and when we get on the other side of this COVID-1984 war against citizens, “never again,” must take on a new, additional meaning that includes peoples’ resolute promise never to allow their governments to embrace totalitarianism in the names of “health” and “security.” Take this shameful moment in the history of nation-states once committed to liberty and use it to advantage by teaching your children and grandchildren how quickly freedom can be smothered by politicians and bureaucrats with “the best of intentions.”

Memes and sound bites replace concern for truth.

The end effect is rampant nihilism among those with power. Human life becomes insignificant next to the self-interest of government actors. The natural rights and liberties of any individual become undermined and forgotten. And those who choose to defy regime-enforcing propaganda become “domestic enemies.”

What two years of COVID-1984 should have taught people by now is that bureaucracies can never be trusted to police themselves for our protection. When the powerful treat the powerless as meaningless statistics to be manipulated and kept in the dark, then it is up to the powerless to determine how much tyranny they are willing to endure before deciding they’ve finally had enough.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 21, 2022 11:45 am

I always thought the brass codpiece warmers were monkeys.

Please don’t go the naval brass monkeys cannonball myth.

Just don’t.

That Jo
That Jo
January 21, 2022 11:47 am

Dr Faustus
I suspect this approach is becoming the standard ‘model’ – and control of the plague is slipping away from governments because they really have nothing to add.

They have fines to add! Although a fine for neg RAT seems harder to enforce than they imagined (what were they thinking – I mean do they even think at all?)

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/coronavirus/nsw-customer-service-minister-concedes-1000-rapid-antigen-test-fine-very-hard-to-enforce/news-story/fc3db56b1ae9c41174b9984325e98aa8

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 21, 2022 11:47 am

When I attended the Family Court in both WA and NSW in support of my son, women at first rushed up to me and offered me tea, biccies and legal aid and a domestic violence support worker and a special comfortable waiting room

I had a similar experience in the Family Court in Western Australia – the sisterhood offered the Creature From The Black Lagoon tea, biscuits, support and sympathy, while I was treated as though I had a highly contagious, highly virulent disease.

Dot
Dot
January 21, 2022 11:48 am

If any of the other jurisdictions thought that the legislation is unconstitutional, don’t you think they would have challenged it in the High Court?

Notice how they’re all ALP and LNP Premiers?

Craig Kelly and David Leyonhjelm are not State Premiers.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 21, 2022 11:49 am

Parliamentarians are certainly keen to have as little oversight of their activities as possible. The WA Upper House has been keen to get one of their laptops back from the CCC for some reason. I think they failed.

Dot
Dot
January 21, 2022 11:52 am

When I attended the Family Court in both WA and NSW in support of my son, women at first rushed up to me and offered me tea, biccies and legal aid and a domestic violence support worker and a special comfortable waiting room – until they found I was there for my son. Then it was cold hard chairs in the open area, a cold shoulder, and no comfort for us. I’ve said this here before but it is worth repeating to fill in newbies.

Know a bloke who works in male DV victim support.

He reckons the chicks working in female DV victim support don’t even talk to him!

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