Ah, one lonely downtick for my 9:21 p.m. comment. Just one? That’s a bit weak.
Open Thread – Wednesday 23 Mar 2022
- Open Thread – Anzac Day 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 22 April 2024
- Open Thread – Weekend 21 April 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 18 April 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 15 April 2024
So Reagan’s VP did a Pence. What a disloyal deadshit. A Bush so what would you expect I suppose.
Weren’t they accusing Reagan of ‘voodoo economics’? Milt, George Bush Snr alleged the Reagan was purveying ‘Voodoo Economics’, but that…
Iran reportedly supplies $100 million in financial and military support annually. Hamas officials praise Iran for sending “cash, equipment and…
The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, claimed the lives of 22 citizens from the United States, 17 from Britain,…
Whoops! Someone’s reeling! I knew it!
yr not right but, yr not wrong either.
premium valuations for the most part, are based on yield.
what is happening is that tenants are vacating or shrinking
cost of cap-ex is going up
cost of outgoings is going up
serious pressure on yields
as if they weren’t bad enough already
about the only thing putting lift under valuations is institutional investors like consolidated Super who are gobbling up distressed but over-priced assets with everybody’s retirement money
something’s gonna give eventually
the city is a slum or soon will be.
its a shit-hole because we have local and state govts with shit-holification policies.
‘Way beyond that Pogria! Just back from a walk I do most days when I feel like it. I take food, which makes exercise more interesting. Several magpies come swooping down usually at points along the route and today I had a cockie watching me handing out bread to some noisy miners in the middle of the street. The noisies are graduates of the Cafe assembly line who’ve moved away. Cockie wasn’t sure, but then two more noisies arrived, accepting bread bits. So then cockie comes over and takes a bit of bread too. They are intelligent enough to work out motives from watching how someone interacts with another creature.
The best moment of the walk was when a peewee landed on my hat. That was about half a k from home. He’d been booted recently from the Cafe by two other peewees, but has now established himself in a territory at the far end of my street. He collected a bit of mince and flew off to enjoy it.
I remember when the Sydney trams stopped running and all the lines were pulled up, they were a traffic hazard particularly if you were on a motorbike.
The Canberra tram is a stupid idea, the rail service used to run from Queanbeyan to Canberra city (Garema Place is where the Canberra railway station was), with stops at Kingston, Russell and Reid on the way. That could have been extended through Belconnen to Yass to connect with the Sydney-Melbourne line, trams are a waste of money.
Dot, I’ve been seeing my doctor twice a week since it happened, which I just did again this afternoon.
Another new nurse, also aghast at what wasn’t done at the hospital, but I am on the mend (poor nurse cringed when she saw the state of it, then was shocked to see the photo of how much worse it was 4 days ago), and I’m happy with that for now.
My doctor’s been photographing it at each visit, I have my family to testify that I’ve been following doctor’s orders, so if it goes backward & lose my foot I’d have damages that may be worth the extra hell of going to law against medicos, if I also ‘called up a favour’, because that’s the only way to beat that mob.
Sadly, depending on who went to Law against who for what, that ‘standard’ was set long ago.
It’s one of the reason’s I don’t take problems to Law.
No, JC. I avoid the CBD like the plague, as do all sensible people these days.
https://www.sro.vic.gov.au/car-parks
I know one building where they cut the number of carparks in half to reduce the levy from about $8M/yr to &4M/yr
Melb council required that they install cyclone wire fencing to make it ‘permanent’
Aspiring rapper?
A crime-linked Sydney rapper has attacked another controversial music group, OneFour, in his latest song, sparking fears a feud could erupt between the rival groups.
Ali Younes, who goes by the rap name “Ay Huncho”, was arrested on December 16 as part of a major crackdown by NSW Police on the alleged workings of the Alameddine and Hamzy clans – whose bloody war has been running rampant across Sydney’s west for almost 18 months. After spending the summer in jail, he was released on bail in February.
The airport used to have a row of clocks showing the time in London, New York, Paris and… Hobart.
Once you’ve seen the Cat and Fiddle clock, nothing else compares
Hastie not helping BRS.
I presume the rail line into the canbra cbd was removed when the started the fake lake.
Postcards from Mariupol.
Hastie is just telling the truth.
Is there anyone in the SAS that doesn’t despise Roberts-Smith?
If there is, he hasn’t come forward yet.
Drove the length of Collins St early this morning and I couldn’t help thinking how much Melbourne has declined. Still quite nice at the “Parisian” end.
Sometimes though people can live with stuff stuck in them.
William Rooke Creswell, the naval officer who eventually pretty much founded the RAN, got shot in an anti-piracy raid, from memory in SE Asia.
The hit was from a .577 Snider bullet, again from memory. Was somewhere not too crucial and as the medicos couldn’t get it out safely, they left it there. He carried it around for the rest of his days.
So the ‘tards mooing and lowing over “you can fit 100 bikes in the space taken up by ten cars” seem to be missing the vital factor.
I ride 7 days a week being retired and trips range from 50kms to 150kms a day out in western Sydney (Fairfield/Parramatta/Liverpool/Blacktown) and, to be honest, I could count on my fingers how many other cyclists I see in a week & that includes on bike tracks .. During the lockdown(s) this increased by 10 to 20 times but now things are going back to normal they all seem to have disappeared back to whatever they were doing/using originally …
Spencer St end is turning into the Elizabeth/Flinders tram terminus.
Brisbane had trams.
Then Clem Jones went to LA on a Fulbright around the time they were closing their streetcar system and saw the future. It didn’t include urban passenger light rail but focused on the automobile. There’s something to be said for that, provided roads keep up with population.
Islam is the shit stain of humanity:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/03/israel-four-killed-several-injured-in-islamist-terror-attack/
Yep, used to love catching the tram up St Kilda Rd from home back in the 80s. The tree-lined boulevard up from Glenhuntly Rd through Ripponlea, Balaclava, then St Kilda was beautiful, with houses to match. The second half up through Prahran and South Yarra had become commercial by then but you could still see some of the mansions that once lined this half of the boulevard.
I cant get givesendgo to open, has anyone heard if they are being attacked by bad actors again?
Hastie is just telling the truth.
You keep fucking that donut donut.
Goatherders and farmers don’t wear uniforms, dickhead.
‘We made a total mistake’: Jack Dorsey questioned over Hunter Biden censorship
Dorsey doesn’t look like a member of The Taliban by accident.
Correct. Europe to China via Kazakhstan.
https://www.sinoeurorailway.com/service/china-to-europe-railway
Nothing official has come down from Queensland Education.
My contract has been extended next term as the refusenik I am replacing has been stood down for another term.
You have a similar network of Chinese-funded roads along that way, but the road transit may be somewhat slower.
When you’re too dumb to get into sports administration.
The climateers want people to ride electric bikes. No surprise that. But despite ebikes not needing licenses and despite their being quite cheap I don’t see many when out on treadly myself. Sometimes one or two. They’re split between two types of people. Very elderly, who can’t do a standard treadly, and ferals who’ve clearly lost their car licenses.
At least with the ferals their ebikes aren’t those filthy petrol ones they used to ride, that’s an improvement.
Point missed, Grigory.
From 2008 onwards under the Obama Government, as the US pivoted towards Afghanistan (being a more ‘palatable’ war for the woke), the convergence of legalism and woke ideology steadily eroded military morale and combat capability by rendering the rules of engagement all but impossible, incentivising captured enemy by letting them go free to kill again (Catch-and-release) and aggressively prosecuting, railroading and jailing anyone who was even said to have transgressed. This was the era of the Biden 4 debacle, and more.
This second Afghanistan campaign was not only the most tightly scrutinised, surveilled and micromanaged conflict in human history to date, it also, in my opinion shows the first instance of a national power going to war and then going to the very limits of its abilities to deliberately lose it. Short of physically opening fire on its own troops…
I’m not against a city or town designed around walking and PT but that is only going to work in a space that has medium-density apartments/ townhouses and. Getting around NYC for dinner in PT was never a problem and if you couldn’t be bothered using it to get home or to someone else’s place you got an Uber. But Melbourne is not that city.
I would, however, like to see something like that tried in a regional town. Three/ four-story townhouses and five/ six story apartments adjacent to the retail/ commercial centre.
Would’ve been nice to still be able to stroll up to Old Cleveland Rd
and catch a tram to the Gabba for the Lions.
srr
Does Vicco have an ‘Elf Ombudsman?
Or the cricket.
Although the bus service on OCR was decent enough.
I just missed out on the trams but the tracks were still in situ.
A stop or two inbound and you’d go past Clem’s bungalow.
It looks like the Canberra Railway Station has only ever been at Kingston since 1924, sadly.
And gosh, that 1966 rebuild hasn’t aged well. Then again, most Brutalist structures don’t…
Dettol is actually necrotic in that it kills cells so best not to use inside anything, fine for cleansing outside. Inside, better off with bettadine. I found out the hard way, killing a foal by cleaning its barbed wire wounds inside its hind legs with Dettol. Active ingredient in dettol is chloroxylenol, a phenol, which is corrosive and necrotic to tissue.
Pivodine ointment or bettadine or iodine is fine.
IT was right, Melbourne had (still does) some of the most beautiful suburbs. I used to live for a few years near Central Park in Malvern. Tree-lined streets, gorgeous Victorian, Edwardian, Queen Anne, and Californian houses. Taking a walk through the streets was always a visual feast. I hope that area of Melbourne never changes, but it will.
They are a pest down my way so i’t my melancholy duty to declar war on you.
It’s just amazing how bad Woodrow Wilson was.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/03/the-haters-guide-to-woodrow-wilson/
It’s even more amazing how his racist, luddite behaviour began 4 years after Teddy, not 40 years before.
Did you discuss your convoy plan with all your drivers beforehand?
And have you nobbled every tractor within a forty-mile radius of your intended route? 😉
Graders v. cyclists. Nasty…
It no coverage but an Obama appointed judge tossed an case against Amazon this week.
The FTC brought a poorly put together case.
Everyone knew it would fall at the first hurdle.
As if the Biden administration is going to do anything that will penalise one of his biggest supporters.
What a swamp.
Tossed an anti-trust case against Amazon.
All he is contributing is scuttlebutt. Reckons he doesn’t want to be there but was subpoenaed. Well, why did they want him to testify unless he had been talking to the press. Fuckwit.
Corrupt Politicians Are to Blame for Massive Inflation – The Increasing Price of Oil is Leading to an Emerging “Inflation Bomb”
A hipster Obama. In before it was fashionable.
Teddy Roosevelt, by comparison to both of them, was an utter badass.
Hastie is an arsehole.
Who’da thunk the Ruskis are the go to guys for Brisbane trams/
Where the US goes, we follow.
In the supermarket I’m noticing price increases of 10% within a week.
Order one before they’re banned!
Keep your eyes on the eagles’ Jack Darling against the Shinboners. He didn’t want the vax but eventually gave in and was jabbed in mid January. Booster in late February (presumably) means he’s right in the zone for exertion-related heart trouble.
Christian charity recommends the hope that he suffers no ill effects. The growing incidence of ticker troubles in fit young folk says otherwise.
Or a Ukranian collector rolls up with his model tractor and tow-rope and says “mine!”
Net Zero Watch:
Multiple stories on the effect of the Green anti business movement.
Who’da thunk the Ruskis are the go to guys for Brisbane trams
Also the go-to guys for getting into all sorts of trouble when pissed as 40 czars under the Queensland sun. A very funny story:
https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2018/01-02/vladimir-petrov-surfers-paradise/
Hastie is an arsehole.
Why else would he have moved into politics?
Hastie whether we like it or not is telling the truth about the “incentivising”. I had heard about this from a Special Forces guy with multiple Afghan tours probably 3/4 years ago when the stories were coming up in newspaper articles.
The SAS guys risking their lives to pick up targets who are released a few days later. Then in some cases tasked again and find it is same guy picked up before. They know what is going to happen if goes back to base again and so, allegedly, take the appropriate / inappropriate action depending on your viewpoint.
You know who never gets mentioned in any of the inquiries or in this defamation case? The Intelligence guys who gave SF the briefings and allocated targets. As Jupes said the ADF higher ups were happy to let the situation go and were culpable. Based on what Hastie is saying there is no way the SAS/SF command and Task Force HQ did not know what was going on. Plus there was a lot of drone activity watching from above although obviously not captured every incident. You can bet if it did it was destroyed. Did the Bereton inquiry look into whether incidents or suspicions were recorded by senior NCO’s or officers and past up the line ? Inconvenient as some of those commanders have gone on to become top leaders in the Army and have the medals to show for it.
Then you have the other factor that the SF guys were seriously overworked and rotating through Afghanistan at much higher rates than they were supposed to. This is because they bore the brunt of the fighting even though there were infantry and others deployed in larger numbers. One of the main witnesses against BRS clearly had psychological issues before being deployed and yet he went up again.
The SAS guys like BRS took out the trash and constantly risked their lives whilst pretty much every senior officer got a medal for “leadership” just for appearing in the country.
If somebody said to me I had to pick a team to go overseas on a dangerous combat mission BRS would be top of the list. Note I have no military experience. Plus of course he is a big unit and good for hiding behind if bullets start flying.
Personally I hope BRS is not found guilty of anything at the end if he ever faces a criminal trial. It was a shitty war with the other side not playing by the rules and most of the time hard to know if a local was Taliban or not.
“SAS officer turned MP Andrew Hastie warned top military brass that Australian troops were “incentivised” to execute detained Afghans because the suspected Taliban insurgents were being released within days of capture, a court has heard”
Ed Casesays:
March 25, 2022 at 6:42 pm
Since when did not wearing a uniform in combat situations offer you any protection under “warfare” rules?
Goatherders and farmers don’t wear uniforms, dickhead.
Sa, low energy.
Dick Ed, QC, LLB, High Court associate, is unaware of changes dating back to the 1990s. Under those changes, people like those “goatherders and farmers” are required to wear a visible identifying uniform or insignia, to distinguish them from genuine goatherders and farmers, if they want to receive the protection of the Geneva Conventions.
Looking at the prices, one of Peter Faberge’s descendants
hand carves them from platinum ingots.
Diogenes,
Have never met the guy before. The way he said he was from Education Qld suggested to me he was admin type in a Govt office and not a teacher.
Last night I mentioned a relief teacher saying she was happy with all the extra work. I will ask her if word come down to her about booster as she gets called to different schools. She was supposed to go on a camp today and she was one of main organisers. Tested positive for Covid yesterday !
“Nothing official has come down from Queensland Education”.
lotocotisays:
March 25, 2022 at 7:23 pm
Who’da thunk the Ruskis are the go to guys for Brisbane trams/
That door ahead of the front bogies was a problem. The bogies swung out as the tram went around corners. People who didn’t want to walk back from the official stop would hop out that door at the corner. The occasional one would stumble on the tracks, and go under the bogies. Much delay would ensue.
Dover Beach:
Sounds like a somewhat less developed version of Todos Santos from Oath of Fealty.
Ha ha.
I said that on our recent trip to Canbra.
“Someone has been to Brussels.”
Thanks for the article Zulu.
If he was a Captain then it suggests he was telling a Major at least and you would think a Lt COL. Does not indicate if he raised issues in Afghanistan or back in Perth.
Either way the whole thing is a disaster for the SAS in terms of morale and reputation and backstabbing each other.
So Hastie knew the rules of engagement were bound to lead to repeat prisoners ( id’ed by intelligence as bombers/ Talibs) being removed permanently.
Then goes on to brief a journo on “ stuff he heard”.
And is apparently comfortable with no repercussions for the mongs who set the catch and release policies.
What a turd
I have been fielding calls with offers of contracts since this term began and, today, Murphy struck, after agreeing to the extension, I was offered a job in my teaching area, 15 minutes from home, as opposed to the hour drive and I don’t have any classes in my area.
The DP HR was making noises that they would like me to stay on all year, even if only as guaranteed relief teacher.
Todos Santos from Oath of Fealty.
Liked the bit about the diving board on the roof with the sign “Think of it as evolution in action”.
Either way the whole thing is a disaster for the SAS in terms of morale and reputation and backstabbing each other.
Hastie is a fucking snake.
Far out. West Coast will be missing 12 players with the ‘rona on Sunday. TWELVE. Only 17 listed players are available, which means some top up players will be making their debut who haven’t even trained with the team or met the coach.
McClownshow has done a great job protecting WA.
That grinning idiot Sally Capp on the news every night with a plan to “revive the CBD”.
Almost invariably shit people don’t want or are indifferent about at best.
Bike lanes, street art (i.e. graffiti), a zip line over the Yarra, e-scooters, you name it.
One idea which has evaded all of them for some reason … CLEAN THE FUCKING PLACE UP.
Chockers full of junkies and beggars, which is going to improve no end when they open an injecting room in Flinders St.
Just a little example. On two trips into the city I have seen three separate examples of toothless mongs just walking out into traffic against a red light, and going off their nut if anyone tells them to get off the road.
Ignore Facts and Stick To Your Beliefs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z7T4iPtyHY
Mar 25, 2022
Discernable
33K subscribers
Dr Debbie Garratt explains how her academic research into abortion uncovered a tendency to ignore facts and stick to ideologies in the face of contradictory evidence.
Watch the full interview with Dr Debbie Garratt: https://discernable.io/dr-debbie-garratt-manipulated-by-covid-19-messaging/
Dr Debbie Garratt: manipulated by Covid-19 Messaging
1 Hour 50 Minutes
Dr Debbie Garratt is an author, counsellor to physicians, clinical supervisor and registered nurse. As the counsellor to GPs and other medical practitioners, Debbie is witnessing first hand the unnecessary destruction to our healthcare systems in Australia by governments on the warpath to ‘keep us safe’.
Wow. The creep runs to the press because he “suspected” wrongdoing. Just wow. The mystique of the SAS blown by a junior officer. For what? To suck up to the press in order to further his political career? Stupid and venal.
No Milton, it was closed quite a few years before they started to fill the lake. The line ran from Kingston over a causeway raised above the Molongo floodplain, then over a wooden trestle bridge over the Molongo River somewhere between Russell and Duntroon.
The bridge was washed away sometime early in Canberra’s history one year when the Molongo River flooded and it was never replaced. That’s why the railway terminates at the Kingston station these days.
Back when I was still playing soldiers in the ARes, I would have trusted any of the SAS cadre with my life,OTOH the ex SAS officers, I wouldn’t trust as far as I trust any politician.
It looks like things have changed for the former, and not at all for the latter.
Andrew Hastie’s reputation is now in the toilet as far as I’m concerned. He is perfectly situated as the biggest and most despicable snake in the snake pit that is masquerading as our government.
Same with Royal Parade at the other end back in the day. The RMH and Melbourne University have bought everything in their way and with the assistance of council turned it into a sinkhole of mediocrity.
From 7 news (I made a search because of cohenite’s link and found this from the 18/11/21)
Perth politician and Australia’s assistant defence minister Andrew Hastie has revealed he’s being paid a gift by Nine.
He’s listed the media organisation as providing the gift of legal advice and representation, as Nine and the member for Canning fight defamation claims linked to a covert recording.
Hastie has revealed on his parliamentary register of interests, “gifts in relation to a future legal proceeding to be heard in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, legal advice and representation is being provided by the Nine group of companies.”
Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus >>
The “proceedings” are a defamation fight ignited over two stories run by Nine News masthead WA Today.
At the heart of the case is a recording of a meeting at the Subiaco Hotel between businessman Greg Poland and three others.
Poland’s lawyers allege it was made illegally, and distributed by Hastie to former WA Today journalist Nathan Hondros in a breach of the WA Surveillance Devices Act.
The legal team also argue that a 22-minute call the day before the first article was published, inferred Hastie may have had some control of the article.
When the Member for Canning was named in the action in August he said he was “not intimidated.”
“One of the enduring lessons that I’ve taken from Afghanistan and I know many other veterans share the same view, and it’s this – weakness is provocative,” he said.
“So I’m not intimidated by this legal action, I’m proud of my service as a federal member for Canning.
“I’ve fought for my community, I’ve fought for my country.
“And so I welcome a thorough forensic searching and expansive examination of the plaintiff’s claim in open court.”
No comment
On Wednesday Hastie’s office issued a statement saying, “as this matter is before the courts, Mr Hastie is not going to comment.”
“He has always stood by his conviction that elected government officials and their appointees should behave transparently and in the interests of the community, not themselves,” the statement read.
“Mr Hastie has complied with all requirements in disclosing his legal representation to the Prime Minister and to the parliament.”
Nine wouldn’t comment on the payments when contacted on Wednesday.
But 7NEWS understands they plan to cover the costs of Hastie’s legal fees as the litigation plays out in court.
There’s no dollar amount on the legal support because it’s not yet clear how long the trial run.
There are questions as to why Nine is footing the Perth politician’s legal costs when he’s appearing as a defence witness in the media company’s own defamation trial.
🙂 Mister Understatement, you know you have to give some more reason to click than your feather light little tease here 😉 –
Not only significant, it’s times like this I wish we could post images here – anyway, custard’s link above begins like this –
“EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden Bio Firm Partnered With Ukrainian Researchers ‘Isolating Deadly Pathogens’ Using Funds From Obama’s Defense Department.
The U.S. President’s son was instrumental in funding a firm conducting pathogen and anthrax research in Ukrainian biolabs.
by Natalie Winters
Raheem J. Kassam
March 24, 2022″
– then gets really juicy!
We need more Nivens and Pournelles.
Now I’m going to have to read all the Known Space stories again.
Then King David’s Spaceship.
Not sure if anybody mentioned before but The Daily Wire have created their own brand of razors in response to being dumped by a razor company, Harry’s Razors, over comments made by one of their guys.
Check out on YouTube
Jeremy’s Razors – the greatest commercial ever made.
Jeremy is Jeremy Boreland boss of Daily Wire and the ad is brilliant. Involves a sports car, hot babes and an Elon Musk flamethrower and is an ad against woke corporations including Gillette. When Jeremy goes into his office one of his staff goes to high five him and he rejects it. That is Michael Knowles who made the comments complained about.
For further background the latest Tim Pool podcast features Jeremy with more background to the ad and why got into the razor business. Interesting to hear DW turns over US$120m a year. The actual footage that was complained about was not even a DW clip but a Praeger U clip with Constance Owens. Harry’s dropped DW due to some woke nerd complaining.
Harry must be regretting going woke as the commercial has had 5 million views in 2 days and takes a big swipe at Harry’s. Harry’s sales will be taking a hit.
Col. Douglas Macgregor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXmIT6JW9pM
Thanks to mh from the polite Cat.
Hastie is so hopelessly compromised he can’t remain in a decision making capacity.
Luckily he’ll be in opposition shortly.
We need more Nivens and Pournelles.
Unfortunately Lrry is pretty old and Jerry’s gig is in Murphy’s Hall nowadays.
Sorry, Larry not lrry..
As for Murphy’s Hall, old (1970) Poul and Karen Anderson story. Look it up, worthwhile. Dark and frightening when you look round today.
The Brits really are a sad bunch of bastards you know.
Is Donald Trump Worried About Nuclear War?
Is Donald Trump Running In 2024?
feelthebern says:
March 25, 2022 at 12:45 pm
From the AFR.
Australians opening TikTok in the run-up to the federal election will be directed to check or update their enrolment status after the popular social media app committed to removing damaging political misinformation.
While the major parties put finishing touches on their campaign pitches to voters, TikTok will on Friday release an in-app election guide, supported by the Australian Electoral Commission.
How about they spend more time on cleaning up electoral roles & making sure activists aren’t voting multiple times.”
_______________________________
Because our Electoral Commissions (Fed & States), are as filthy as $#@!, which means they not only install who is to be installed, but even better for our enemies within, who the mobsters inflict on us keep average Aussies bitching and fighting with each other instead of the mobsters.
Seriously, even, especially at the various cats, you think of how many attack people both for “who they elected”, and for daring to suggest that our EC’s are screwing us over.
It always has to be ‘the voters fault’, never the crooked bastards everyone bitches about being filthy crooked all the rest of the time.
Up to 1923 the train terminated at Garema Place in the CBD, then it went to the marshaling yards in Braddon, just to the north of the CBD. The bridge over the Molongo was washed away in July 1922 and from then on all rail services terminate in Kingston.
Why does the Sydney-Canberra train stop in Kingston and not the CBD?
The Climate Sceptics Blog which was a library of information about AGW and ruinables was closed down by an offshoot of google. With Liddell slated for closure this no longer available article on Liddell explains why this is such a stupid decision:
In digging around for ‘Energy Crisis’ data, I contacted the former Chairman of Macquarie Power, Evan Rees, whom I have known for many years, looking for some best evidence on Liddell Power Station. As a result, Evan provided the response to my question below, that provides some very interesting, but disturbing information:
Here is Evan’s email to me on 14th October 2017:
Hi John
As you know I was Chairman of Bayswater and Liddell power stations from 1996 till 2008. During this time we spent millions on up grading facilities to ensure that their life was extended and we also did a study on building a third plant called Bayswater 2 . The govt. did not strip maintenance funds from us. We had a $300M per year, depreciation figure which we used to enhance the future continuation of the business. In fact the treasurers both Michael Egan and Michael Costa were very supportive to us improving the business.
In 1996 the biggest problem facing Liddell was their control systems. These were replaced with a DCS system over two years.
This system was state of the art and good for another at least 20 years. We spent some $30M on this and there is not a plant in Australia that has a more modern system. We went from 4 control offices to one.
Next we upgraded the Dust Collection system to the best standard.
In approx.. 2002 we upgraded the 4 X 500Mw turbines with new state of the art Turbines that paid for themselves with efficiencies.
From memory we increased them to 6ooMw and improved efficiency by 7 %. Which is a lot in this type of equipment. This production improvement and coal saving per Mw produced gave us something like a 5 year payback. Again with regular care and maintenance [R&M ] this plant could last 20 to 25 years.
The boilers are a different problem they are old but again we tackled the main problem areas. Boilers by nature are self-destructive and require costly and regular attention.
However what we did we re-engineered many of the regular trouble spots such as Ash-handling, Ash-pumps, water treatment so these areas had the best gear available.
Boilers did have some internal changes to reduce repair costs.
In my opinion if you had the WILL to keep this plant running it can be done. The cost is easily off-set by current power prices. We had this plant making handsome profits with a dispatch price of $27 / Mwh.
Today’s dispatch price is in excess of $ 100/Mwh.
Added other plant to reduce costs of production for Bayswater and Liddell and make provision for a new ” Clean Coal Plant ” of 2000 Mw with the following additions.
To ensure that the plants were Drought Proof we increased pumping capacity at the cost of $60M
To ensure that increased coal demands in the future and reduce current day costs we put in a coal unloader that could take the largest of Coal Trains at a cost of $100M
Started two new coal mines to provide ample coal into the future. I believe AGL is aiming to sell this coal to an exporter and so make millions of profit. At the time of sale these contract between buying and selling were worth in the order of $3 Bill.
The new ” Clean Coal ” station was to be on existing land held by our company. It would be what we call a ” Brown Fields ” site . This site had Geo-Tech testing and approved. EPA provisionally approved the air quality. So all the major impediments had been covered. On a dispatch figure of $30/ MWh and allowed to run at full performance 24 X 7 Hrs it had an investor return of 30% ROI. The idea is that you would run the new more efficient plant to full capacity and flex the older plants like Liddell.
John, I believe that the management of AGL are conspiring to close coal fired plant to make power cost go much higher and improve their personal wellbeing. One of the Power Engineers did a brief estimate of how many Wind Turbines are required to replace Liddell’s Power capacity. He said if you placed all the turbines in the most favourable place for breeze ie on the coast then if you put them starting at Sydney North Head and inland as far as Strathfield. You would need to extend the field as far as Byron Bay. The shear cost of the Turbines and the subsidy will send Australia broke.
Regards Evan
Evan has confirmed that I can use this information and he is happy to confirm his statements.
When Macquarie handed over Liddell to AGL, we had a plant at Liddell with an estimated life of 20-25 years that was delivering to the Grid at $27 – $30/MWh and providing in the order of 30% Return on Investment.
AGL is now being paid >$100MWh despatched to the grid that must provide a financially viable and profitable operation, so they are obviously not operating Liddell at a loss.
To suggest Liddell has reached the end of its life by 2022 is obviously untrue and therefore, there must be a reason other than lack of plant profit generating capacity to justify its early closure.
If AGL is exploiting energy market opportunities to gain highly elevated income by its unnecessary but deliberate restriction of supply to the grid from a plant that could efficiently and profitably delivered higher output, in order to obtain an elevated despatch price to the grid to the consumers’ major financial penalty, would AGL be in legal breach of the Trade Practices Act ?
If so, what can be done to correct this Restrictive Trade Practice ?
Even ten years ago, an adaption of The Legacy of Heorot would’ve been a blast.
These days, only the alphabet people would be unaffected by hibernation instability.
The Rosemont Seneca investment fund, led by Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, is involved in financing biological laboratories in Ukraine, Chief of the Russian Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces Igor Kirillov said on Thursday.
The media is softening the photos of that swimmer bloke; his dick still sticks out though:
https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2022/03/24/photog-blasts0nbc-softening-pics-lia-thomas-more-feminine-look/
Even ten years ago, an adaption of The Legacy of Heorot would’ve been a blast.
Grendels on speed. Shudder.
AGL is protected by the need to spend a decent chunk of capital ($500m+) on the Liddell boilers to give the joint another 10 years beyond 2022.
The spend would return a ball-tearing ROI. But not as much as a crop of subsidised windmills and batteries employed to game the market.
The ACCC has no power to make anyone spend investment capital to achieve a market outcome.
Trivia:
Today is the six month anniversary of the hilarious Bosi speech to a magistrate over the phone, that turned out to be less of a speech and more what happens when you pull into your driveway with the missus and she’s on the screech about something or other, and you get out and shut the car door with her still inside.
His (unheard by the beak) ‘six days to repent or esle’ has evolved into 180+ days and counting.
Compared to now, Bosi was 100% sane and leveled out when he made those remarks.
Matt Lucas is.
Peter Kaye is fucking hilarious.
He went out in a way any SF guy should.
I was reading his blog, he went to a SF con.
Came back saying he felt unwell, with flu.
Died blogging to the end. Well done sir!
Vale.
David Weber then stepped in with Jerry’s son Phillip to complete the fourth novel in the Janissaries series from Jerry’s extensive writings, which became a fine story and an excellent epitaph.
Oh johanna, how badly do you miss bitching WITH Lizzie, first you turn others into her, then you try turning me into … sign …
First bit of the first aid was trying to staunch the blood that was pumping out into the air like something from a horror movie, second bit was onto the ambos, taking their instruction while waiting for them, third was getting me into the ambulance where the ambo undid my DiL’s excellent job of bandaging to have blood piss all over the place again, quickly wash over the surface & bandage it back up.
It was about 9 hours before I got to see a doctor, by which time I was doped to the nines and just happy to see a doctor.
We called the ambos knowing it had to be Opened Up, Cleaned Out and Stitched.
That the doctor didn’t do that but ordered a rebandaging because the blood was trying to clot by then, is the main complaint I have.
Not prescribing antibiotics was another major concern.
I was sent away made to believe it wasn’t that bad, just a script for a few days of pain killers and to just have my doctor see it in 4 to 7 days.
If I had have waited the 7 days the untreated infection would have likely killed me.
I mentioned this in relation to all the other stories of people missing out on appropriate medical care because of the Wu Flu BS.
I’m only one of countless who’ve suffered due to all the Covid BS leaving hospitals terribly understaffed & overworked, one of the lucky ones because I was not killed by it, thank God.
“Indolent says:
March 25, 2022 at 3:15 pm
This is from when Zelensky became President.
Zelenskiy’s Oligarch Connection
Gonzola Lira is proven right again.”
______________________
Yep, again & again & again, which is why so many race out to bury posts of his videos, one in particular under mountains of cryptic, click & see, one liners.
Funny how many Jab Sellers also sell the cover stories for the US involvement in Ukraine Biolabs.
BBC after Justice Thomas:
Texts reveal wife of Supreme Court judge urged for 2020 election overturn
Part of a longer article, from WA Today, on the shooting of Walker at Yuendumu.
Another Michelle for the GOAT.
Thank you very much Pakis, for your middle order collapse. Nothing like one of those on the last day of the series, handing it to the opposition in the process.
One wicket to go.
Jackie Lambie latest victim
KD at 9:33.
You have no standing.
Zero
Zilch
Zip.
Fuck all.
None.
This –
And This –
‘It’s about time’: Trump suing Hillary Clinton over Russiagate scandal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe9wZmNmFpU
Mar 25, 2022
Sky News Australia
2.32M subscribers
Donald Trump has officially filed a $24 million lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and her “cohorts” over their “unthinkable plot” to falsely tie the former president to Russia at the time of the 2016 federal election.
– make things rather interesting …
bad news for incessant noise makers
Washington Doesn’t Want Peace in Ukraine
You have six days to repent. Backdated to 25 October 2021.
federal government is allowing some biosecurity measures to lapse from 17 April no tests required required to enter Australia and cruise ships are back
⚽
bosi gets his very own fact check
Bluddee hell, Sacré bleu – as if the Schlockeroos woeful performance last evening wasn’t enough, the Azzuri have gone from Roosters to Feather Dusters in less than 12 months. The latter will now be absent from two Woild Cups in a row. As a mate observed this afternoon, it’s like a GP without a Ferrari.
⚽
X(
Sanctions never deter.
How can anyone apologise for something with which one had nothing to do? Except in the rhetorical, Bertie Wooster sense?
The vice-chancellor of Bond University has apologised to students who have been sexually assaulted on campus.
Key points:
A national survey revealed Bond to be the worst for sexual assault among students in the country
Vice-chancellor Tim Brailsford has promised “a task force to oversee an inquiry, review and reform”
He says “any number above zero is unacceptable”
Bond University has the highest reported prevalence of sexual assault among students since they started studying, according to the National Student Safety Survey of Australia’s 39 major universities.
The survey found that 13.2 per cent of students surveyed at Bond said they had been sexually assaulted — almost three times the national average of 4.5 per cent.
Vice-chancellor Tim Brailsford has apologised to victim-survivors.
How come you get a soccerball emoji?
B!
Mel Gibson from 1987.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORxcC_55X6s
And they laughed at him.
Was at the SCG the day when the Paki wicketkeeper dropped five catches.
Funny how that happens.
So has Geriatric Joe the illegitimate syphilitic ol’ corruptocrat managed to engineer a nuclear contretemps yet?
I’ve tuned out peoples. After those many regrettable debacles of the twentieth century, you would have hoped that humanity had finally realised that slaughtering peoples en masse really wasn’t a great way to solve various imaginary tribal problems.
Yet here we are, again.
Hopefully only tripled vaxxed patrons ran onto the field tonight to celebrate Buddy’s 1000th.
MT
??
??
???
??
Another year, another fact and evidence free “campus rape epidemic study”, is vomited forth, the “findings” of which are loudly trumpeted incessantly on the ALPBC until the next Cause du Jour raises its uglee head (which would be about 23 hours later).
Give it a rest, you preposterous pious knobheads.
All that tells you, Rabz, is that it’s Grant Season once again.
Ditto the last few weeks of Ermagerding about the Great Barrier Reef.
And whatever other pet projects make the news
Biden is a wooly headed wombat.
Looks like he’s keen to have war for all of 2022.
Indeed, Rex, it’s enough to make one want to superglue oneself to the driveway of Kirribilli House, surrounded by a massive mound of flood damaged household rubbish while screeching incessantly about a non existent climate emergency, I tells ya. 😕
ussr @ 9:40.
Saving Private Whinin’.
Yep, both an Ombudsman ‘Service’ –
And a, “Health Complaints Commissioner”, so yes, two mobs to cover Govt arses re: their stuff ups in health.
Victorian Health is sadly as bad as VCAT and our Ombudsman ‘Service’, well you know they started calling it a ‘service’ when enough people complained that the bastards never did anything for the people.
Unless you ‘trust the system’ and happily believe them when they say, ‘nothing else can be done’, you’re best off avoiding any entanglement with those mobsters.
Funny, to me, the best thing about the Covid scams is that finally the world’s waking up to the “Health Profession”.
Again, good & bad in every field of human endeavour.
Thank God when you find the good but know the bad in some can be so very bad as to be demonic.
OK.
Thanks.
That explains me being knocked down by a lightning ball on Cup Day.
Well, a lightning ball and three bottles of Mumm.
OK.
He’s jumped the shark.
Now he’s doing figure-8’s around the shark on a jet-ski.
With a bleeding crushed foot.
MT
💻🐛
🔖🖱
🚗📢📢
🕵😈
Berka, how did you do that?
?
Test
Doves – I know, but I’m not telling.
Got an update from cop contact in NZ. NZ PM / Government are scum.
“on the last working day before the appeal deadline date, the Crown announced this morning they were appealing the ruling.
Our lawyer has reviewed the basis of the Crowns appeal and deemed it weak at best and very narrow regarding a point of law.
It’s obvious now the decision to appeal is politically motivated as opposed to an actual legal issue.
The Govt are trying desperately to hang on to the ‘mandate’ option which is evident by the PMs comments on Wednesday.
According to our lawyer the JR decision seriously damaged the Govt and in turn the police.
Regardless the appeal announcement today was upsetting for our group as it not only threatens a return to work but questions the validity of the JR”.
They are appealing a High Court Judge who gave them a major smacking over sacking people for not taking a jab. I guess they have a Supreme Court or Court of Case also involves NZ Defence.
I think we have unveiled the phantom upticker.
??
??
???
??
Pancho – a certain commenter here, who shall of course, remain nameless, revealed the secret.
I’ve only just started the (subsequent) mining. The soccer ball above was the tip of the proverbial iceberg. 🙂
Not to mention purple monsters.
People, you can game it with much effort, but I can do this.
F-
for Berka
Yield is the rate of return on an investment expressed as a percentage
now fuck off and eat the bugs
The revelations above have caused a Panic in … 😕
FFS, crank it, peoples – this is Rock ‘n’ Roll 🙂
MT,
As your comment is content-free, I guess fucking off is the only option as there’s nothing to talk about.
Any time you want to start making sense, I’m sure you have the ability.
And we have an unbeatable winner in the Uptick Stakes! Congrats dover.
Hide Your Crypto [Warning, Hillary in opening!]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-69xOAbXFjA&t=21s
Mar 25, 2022
Discernable
33K subscribers
Government closing the last escape hatch…if you’re going to use crypto to either preserve your wealth, or to transact away from government eyes, make sure you are not relying on an exchange to hold your crypto keys.
‘Not your keys, not your coins’ as they say.
Wallets are not hard to understand – so take responsibility for your own.
This excerpt is from Season 6 Episode 2 of The People’s Project which you can watch in full at: https://discernable.io/the-peoples-project-season-6-episode-2-floods-masks-crypto-and-fear/
Yes Megs, but who’s going to win the figuring out the emoji lingo?
There’ve been some not so auspicious attempts above, all of which have given me a laugh.
It only took one “word”* to figure the concept out, peoples.
You know you want to**. 🙂
*Posted here about eight days ago
**Crank it.
Cats, it’s the weekend!
And I am feeling both Arthurian and Anarchic.
So, following the example of Howard and Vince from The Mighty Boosh, I am going to take retro music to its logical conclusion:
Medieval Coffin Dance
And for the Ancient Rus, Raesputane
For the Memes, Cats.
For the Memes….
#AllTheMemes
#RexIsABardMan
#AVeryBardManIndeed
All Hail the Emperor of Upticks.
This is like a marginal booth in Ohio in a Presidential election.
Rabz.
You know I know.
And I know you know.
As the only two holders of the emoji superpower, we could divide the Catworld between us.
Or I could just paste my Python script here and then anyone who can follow 5 instructions on their computer could join the ⚛ club, causing a mushroom cloud of emojis to blossom all over the blog at least until the novelty wore off.
👍
a string of emojis apparently make sense ?
you’re fucking insane
Bugger!
the fuck is wrong with you mongs??
Hehehe ?????????
Darn!
dover,
Yeah it would be easier if we could just copy and paste unicode characters as-is into the comment box and not have them utterly devoured by WordPress, which e.g. turns a ? (House) codepoint into question marks.
But when that wasn’t working, I decided to write some code in Python to do it.
Here ya go.
“emojii2html.py”:
#!/usr/bin/python3
import sys
s = sys.stdin.read()
for c in s:
if ord(c) < 127:
print(c, end='')
else:
print("&#%i;" % ord(c), end='')
So to use this…
Install Python.
Save that script to your computer, (and on Linux or Mac OS make the script executable).
Use Character Map or https://unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html to find the right characters for your message.
Run a command line and echo whatever emoji-laden message you want into the script with a pipe.
You can then paste its output into the WordPress comment box.
Linux example:
$ echo Monty eats ? all day. | ./emojii2html.py
Monty eats 🍩 all day.
Having said all that… I later found there is an even easier way.
You just go to onlineunicodetools and their tool does it all for you in the blink of an eye.
I still like my version better because it leaves all the letters and punctuation intact and only encodes the characters that need it.
I am now the A.Q.Khan of emojis.
And your version of WordPress does not accept the <PRE> tag either, so it messed up all the spacing and that text won’t work as a python script.
Ah well, you have the onlineunicodetools doomsday device instead, which is more than sufficient.
Come on peoples, what’s with all this bonhomie?
No-one’s been called cock smoker all day. Lift your game!
Andrew Hastie’s entry cannot be topped.
A German porn star would in my opinion be envious of the grogan Mr. Hastie has in my opinion unloaded onto BRS.
Have I time to move into the electorate of Hastings, so that I may vote against Hastie?
How the heck did that happen? Bluddee autocorrect! Canning.
Yep, this is one of the main reasons I follow the Cats. The unmasking of Hastie is a revelation – to think that some of us (not me, I had no idea one way or the other) thought that Hastie was a valuable asset to the conservative cause. Now we know otherwise, but the average follower of events via the MSM or worse, social media, will have no idea.
That story about a media outfit covering his personal legal bills is just appalling. How can a Minister of the Crown justify that? He should be sacked forthwith.
Beware military people going into politics.
The joint’s awash with them. They use their previous military background (and, I suspect in some cases – looking at you Hastie – planning to use it while they’re still in) to gain instant cred with a large chunk of their prospective electorates. ‘Oh, a military man. Not just some layabout’ and so on.
Too often, as demonstrated by Hastie, Lambie, Tinley (in WA), Urban (speaking of WA) and others, it’s all about them – and they use their prior service as a platform for their own profile, to hide their uselessness and to establish a firm place at the trough.
Don’t start me on Bosi.
Not here, no. I’ve been yelling it at people outside the shops all afternoon.
Mixed reviews.
Tom’s toons for today at the end of ye olde fredde.
Been here after waking up late in the pm because (a) my sleeping patterns have never been of the 24 hour variety; and (b) roofers have been working on the next door building, starting at 7 am, but basing themselves on the balcony outside my door. This means that from about 6.30 am there are shufflings and murmurs and phlegmy coughs and chuckles and bangs about 3m from my bed. Then they get on the metal roof next door wearing work boots and fire up the power tools. Usually 3 or 4 of them.
I get that being a roofer is a hard job – even on days here when it was only 25C it would be searing hot on a metal roof in the sun. But the one hour smokos, the rubbish (discarded drink cans/bottles and food leftovers, plus boxes and bits of tape and plastic) left here and there do not endear them.
I’m not doing an Elizabeth Farrelly on tradies here. Tradies are the bread and butter of the motel, and the vast majority of them are ordinary people, not particularly virtuous or bad. But they do work hard, and I just heard the first of them leave the carpark. I am told by management and the housemaids that some of them leave their room as though nobody was there, except for the slept-in bed.
Could it be that because it is a hard job, roofers get away with more?
Local anecdote time – grasshoppers aplenty around here. Presumably that means that there are many, many more grasshoppers in the rural areas they came from.
Oh, and I note from way back the (correct) comment about Dettol not being suitable for deep wounds because it kills everything. Then again, deep wounds should not be treated at home.
It is wrong to suggest that therefore it should never be used when the skin is broken. It’s one of the best ever household health products, along with Tea Tree Oil. Both need to be diluted at least 300% before use on skin or wounds.
Looking up, I see that the Space Station’s still up there, despite some master trolling by Putin about where it could fall. They had an infusion of Russians in the last couple of days, allegedly wearing ‘controversial’ colours that looked like the Ukrainian flag.
Russians said that they were allowed to choose their own outfits, but there was a surplus of blue and white, so …
Right.
Slugabeds Inc.
Eyrie:
Interesting novel.
The social pressures that weren’t very well explored in it are probably a necessity if we are to develop Generation Ships.
The attempt in the US didn’t – as far as I am aware – have the necessary population density or numbers to do a proper trial.
Again, IIRC, the trial there was more about construction methods. And the funny part of that was the diminishing levels of CO2 when the curing concrete started to suck it out of the air supply and the crops were failing. You’d think the fact of lower CO2 and dying crops would have been remembered with the gerbil wormening crowd, but no, inconvenient facts are ignored.