Open Thread – Tues 19 April 2022
1,906 responses to “Open Thread – Tues 19 April 2022”
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JC says:
April 22, 2022 at 5:24 pmIt’s not meaningless in the least if we consider the average. Perhaps the author was talking about the aboriginals that greeted Cook or the First Fleet because. As I said, I read it 20 plus years ago. Obviously, the aristocracy had a superior diet to all, but the drifting from coastal aboriginals to Tasmanian would be like comparing the very high caste to the low. We’re comparing averages.
I am explicitly not comparing averages, because there are no averages to compare.
Don’t put words in my mouth.
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Some funny memes here. If you don’t like them you can get stuffed.
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Amy Remeikis
@AmyRemeikis
‘Cancel culture’ (which doesn’t exist) has officially entered the Liberal election campaign platform.
Morrison:”…And so they walk around on eggshells in the office, they walk around on eggshells in their community and feel that they just can’t, you know, be themselves”.These same people denied the existence of ‘the culture war’.
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Good effin’ luck getting something like this in Australia.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/Oak-Grove-Rd-Grafton-WV-26354/125342710_zpid/
$57,000
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Time on Zillow
2 hours
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ATTENTION Contractors/Builders Stunning views with this 2.60 AC meadow ready for you to build your dream home on. No zoning restrictions, Cable, Wifi, & City Water accessible. Septic needed. Your options are limitless with this property. Hand dug well for animal grazing on property. Additional adjoining 1.29 AC with Log Cabin also available MLS# 10143246. Mineral rights do not convey. -
The Beloved was pinged doing 120 in the 110 zone in the middle of the mulga between the SA border and the first little town. His first driving offence in 50 years.
The New South Wales Highway Patrol.
Pigs among pigs. Cops hate traffic cops, and other traffic cops hate the NSW Highway Patrol concrete heads.
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The Beloved was pinged doing 120 in the 110 zone in the middle of the mulga between the SA border and the first little town.
We used to live in SA. Just before leaving we did a trip to NSW in our then new Commodore (a mistake, recommended by a “mate” – buy Jap). Somewhere west of Broken Hill when Mrs Eyrie was driving she was complaining that the thing felt “squirrely”. “You’re doing 145kph, dear” -
From “The Age.”
Roberts-Smith’s friend denies colluding over evidence in defamation case
Michaela Whitbourn
By Michaela Whitbourn
April 22, 2022 — 1.30pmA friend of war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has denied colluding with the decorated former soldier and three other former comrades about the evidence they would give in his defamation case.
Person 5, whose identity cannot be revealed for national security reasons, is a former Special Air Service patrol commander who served in Afghanistan with Roberts-Smith.
The men are close friends and Person 5 is the first SAS witness to give evidence for Roberts-Smith in his Federal Court defamation case against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times.
Nicholas Owens, SC, acting for the newspapers, put it to Person 5 on Friday that the reason he spoke to Roberts-Smith and former comrades dubbed Persons 29, 35 and 38 in the weeks before their written outlines of evidence were due in the case was to collude to produce a “coherent version” of events about a key mission in Afghanistan in 2009.
Person 5 denied the allegation, saying he spoke to the men “all the time” and “we’re all friends”.
“Are you saying that because there’s a trial on you can’t speak to your friends any more?” he asked.
The newspapers allege Roberts-Smith directed a subordinate, Person 4, to execute an unarmed Afghan man in April 2009 at a compound dubbed Whiskey 108, and that Person 5 officially gave that order as the men’s patrol commander. Both Roberts-Smith and Person 5 deny the alleged events took place.
Under the rules of engagement that bound the SAS, prisoners cannot be killed. The newspapers also allege Roberts-Smith executed a second unarmed prisoner during that mission. Roberts-Smith denies that allegation, and says he acted lawfully in killing a combatant in battle.
A serving SAS soldier dubbed Person 14 has previously told the court that he witnessed an Australian soldier on that day shoot an Afghan man at close range with a “distinctive” machine gun, known as the F89 Para Minimi, that he later saw in the possession of Roberts-Smith. “Not many” soldiers carried this light weapon, he said in February.
Person 14, who was called by the newspapers to give evidence, also said that one of the Australian soldiers he saw near the Afghan man’s body had camouflage paint or “campaint” on his face with a grey hue in it that was “the same, or similar, campaint style as Ben Roberts-Smith”.
Roberts-Smith was Person 5’s second-in-charge on the mission in 2009. Person 5 told the court on Thursday that his patrol wore brown, green and black camouflage paint on that mission, “like 99 per cent of all camouflage paint”.
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I don’t know why people think the American establishment is embarrassed by Biden’s decrepitude, it is not a bug but a feature. As long as he is there nobody knows who is actually making decisions and giving orders and nobody is accountable. There is no “the buck stops here” at present. The last thing the junta wants as president is someone who knows what they are doing or what is going on.
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Russian Tanks Head into battle On Mariupol Frontline
Patrick Lancaster -
OCO, I feel for you, I have spent many days recently in a course conducted by an indigenous consultant, who must have scored a jackpot from my employer, yes a university. I spent most of the long hours taking notes of all the incongruities and illogical concepts.
It was the oddest series of seminars I have ever attended in that attendees simply kept their mouths shut, me included. We did talk among ourselves later and even then it was guarded.
Anything that is inflicted on people is going to fail spectacularly at some point. The whole thing reminded me of the vaccines mandate, you must participate to keep your job.
The saddest part was the plight of the indigenous children and young people in remote communities who are more and more being alienated from the mainstream by the very people who claim to want the best for them. If they really want to save the younger generation move everyone into larger population centres that are also populated by the despised colonisers. You can still keep the best parts of your culture and get the best parts of the mainstream culture.
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Gonzalo Lira alive and well. Was in SBU custody since last Fri. Released today but cannot leave Kharkov for the time being. Looks pretty shock up.
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Multiple sudden deaths in the Bodybuilding world.
https://therecenttimes.com/news/what-happened-to-stacey-cummings-texas-bodybuilder-dies-at-31
It’s a mystery, eh? -
You’re doing 145kph, dear”
Your sense of speed does get a bit iffy in the desert. My grand tour on the bike was around that till you had to stop for petrol. It did result in one crash when I locked the front wheel in blue metal at what felt like walking pace but was probably 40-60kph. Not happy about it still.
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The Poot.
Standing up for oppressed Russians?
A bulwark of Christianity?
Battling Nazis?
Seeing off poovedom?
Crushing Klaus Schwab’s evil globalist plot?Nope.
Land grab.Russia says it plans full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine – Ifax
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More B&B news. In the kitchen, which beautifully set up for someone who likes cooking, is something inspirational. Not quite LLL, but “Happiness is not a destination. It’s a way of life.”
I made The Beloved face it as we ate our pan fried barra and salad (tomorrow is restaurant night). The sentiment is a-okay with me.
I noticed waaaaay up thread something in a JC comment about success and optimism and turning up. This has been my experience – you have to be hopeful, whether in parenting, business, relationships, life in general. And then not just sit back and “allow” it all to happen – it won’t. You have to work for it. And setbacks cultivate resilience.
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Rogersays:
April 22, 2022 at 7:40 pm
Nope.
Land grab.And if the Donbass was all he’d gone for at the outset he would have gotten away with it largely scott free.
Hubris.
According to this analysis there is an important historical perspective to this.
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H B Bearsays:
April 22, 2022 at 7:33 pm
You’re doing 145kph, dear”Your sense of speed does get a bit iffy in the desert. My grand tour on the bike was around that till you had to stop for petrol. It did result in one crash when I locked the front wheel in blue metal at what felt like walking pace but was probably 40-60kph. Not happy about it still.
It is unsettling. The number of times I slowed down entering a country town thinking I was doing 60k when I was closer to 100K. Max Wrist has no excuse. 135mph in a 45 zone.
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Gonzalo Lira is alive. Here is a short interview with Alex Christophorou on The Duran today.
He was picked up by the authorities on 15th April and has not had access to his accounts since so anything appearing there since is not from from. He is still in Krakov and not allowed to leave. He is obviously very shaken and very circumspect in what he is saying.
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The Great Emu War of 1932? ?
My grandfather was farming in the district where the Great Emu War of 1932 was fought. Another of the locals received a bill from the Army for the .303 ammunition used. He countered with a bill for supplying quarters and victuals to His Majesties Forces, and never heard another word.
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Standing up for oppressed Russians?
A bulwark of Christianity?
Battling Nazis?
Seeing off poovedom?
Crushing Klaus Schwab’s evil globalist plot?Nope.
Land grab.Russia says it plans full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine – Ifax
A land grab doesn’t exclude any of the above even if that report is correct. Given what they’ve committed, the cutting of the aqueduct to Crimea since 2014, and so on, that or something like that, was always going to happen if war ensued. Which is why Zelensky had to go all out to prevent war since 2019, and reason he was a catastrophic failure.
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Multiple sudden deaths in the Bodybuilding world.
https://therecenttimes.com/news/what-happened-to-stacey-cummings-texas-bodybuilder-dies-at-31
It’s a mystery, eh?Juice death. The ladies incline towards NPP, a variety of Decca, which has has shorter ester and is in and out much quicker. But it is hard on the heart short term and the liver and kidneys long term.
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Before moving up to Scotland I spent two weeks in a BnB in St Albans. It was very expensive. There is always a shortage of accommodation in the Home Counties.
The bird who owned it obviously lived there and had equally obviously just moved around the corner to stay with Mum while ripping me off.
She left all of her junk in place. It was incredibly uncomfortable, embarrassing and enraging. I went back to the BnB promotion page and there was no mention of having to step over her knickers to get to the shower.
I was about to go nuclear on the review but was warned off by a Brit friend who assured me that BnB would ensure that no BnB host would have anything to do with me after BNB did me down.
Lessons.
My BnB up here also has a high degree of host inteference. Bringing around food, offering to take me on guided tours and offers of horse trail riding. Now that is BnB that I can live with. -
And if the Donbass was all he’d gone for at the outset he would have gotten away with it largely scott free.
I’d like it explained to me how someone just goes for Donbass. The two republics in Donbass are disputed, with UKR in well dug-in positions in both. Are RUS ‘allowed’ to traverse in Kharkov oblast in order to flank UKR forces in near south? But if so, why wouldn’t UKR puts its mobile reserve just there ready to counter. Of course they would. There is simply no way you limit this to Donbass.
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cohenitesays:
April 22, 2022 at 8:04 pm
Multiple sudden deaths in the Bodybuilding world.
https://therecenttimes.com/news/what-happened-to-stacey-cummings-texas-bodybuilder-dies-at-31
It’s a mystery, eh?Juice death. The ladies incline towards NPP, a variety of Decca, which has has shorter ester and is in and out much quicker. But it is hard on the heart short term and the liver and kidneys long term.
Cardiomyopathy related deaths are a leading cause of death in bodybuilders. Too many aren’t using the drugs under appropriate medical supervision.
Strong muscles, weak heart: testosterone-induced cardiomyopathy
BODYBUILDING GONE WRONG: ANABOLIC STEROID INDUCED CARDIOMYOPATHY
Conclusion
Abuse of AAS has become prominent among athletes and non-athletes alike. In this case, prescription hormone therapy without close monitoring by a medical practice lead to toxic and life-threatening levels of testosterone. While the half-life of androgens varies, this case exhibited reversibility of AAS cardiomyopathy after cessation of medication within one month. Awareness of testosterone abuse and its potentially fatal outcomes has important clinical implications. -
It was posted before but this Tucker video about the effects of demorat policies on blacks is beyond belief. The segment at the end showing the murder of a black security guard by some other black witnessed by other blacks is ghastly. Yet blacks will still vote for demorats at a 90% rate.
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Given what they’ve committed, the cutting of the aqueduct to Crimea since 2014
A nuclear power seaside can’t get drinking water and also expects no retaliation for just marching in and stealing land? The pipeline was the ONLY source of water? Preposterous.
All of these stupid Russian justifications inevitably end with “just let us take over”.
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Many restaurants survived the first lockdown in Sydney with the help of job-keeper payments. The second lockdown was the final blow to the devastation of the restaurants in Sydney CBD. Many long term staff left the hospitality industry altogether during the second lockdown. They had their own rent to pay and they felt they now longer worked in a secure industry. They obtained other jobs and will not be back.
An online ad for restaurant workers which once received up to 200 replies now receives none. Restaurants still have to pay their rent. -
“We’re all in this together” (Scott Morrison, March 2020)
The second lockdown was the final blow to the devastation of the restaurants in Sydney CBD. Many long term staff left the hospitality industry altogether during the second lockdown. They had their own rent to pay and they felt they now longer worked in a secure industry. They obtained other jobs and will not be back.
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A nuclear power seaside can’t get drinking water and also expects no retaliation for just marching in and stealing land? The pipeline was the ONLY source of water? Preposterous.
All of these stupid Russian justifications inevitably end with “just let us take over”.
I’m not providing a ‘justification’. I’m arguing that Russia is going to claim the Kherson oblast to prevent that from happening again.
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My son has for 25yrs established and managed six restaurants presently operating, three of which are in the Sydney CBD.
He is working day and night. Always an optimist, he is not so at this time.
Tomorrow he will be 53yrs old. He is glad he will have passed the 52 which was not so good for Shane W and Kimberley K. -
BTW, Crimea has always been a part of Russia. It was completely idiotic for it to have remained a part of Ukraine once the latter became independent. There was supposed to be a referendum re Crimean independence in 1992 but Ukraine squibbed it. Crimeans have always felt themselves to be Russian. Denying reality always has a way of catching up with individuals, families, and nations.
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An online ad for restaurant workers which once received up to 200 replies now receives none.
Here’s what the readership of The Australian recently had to say in comments under an article on this topic of understaffed restaurants:
“Problem is employers who won’t consider training new employees and just want skilled people.”
“Pay above award wages and you would have staff. I have no trouble attracting staff.”
“It would be interesting to know how Many hours they were offering their front of house staff. If like many restaurants they were only needing staff to cover max 20 hours per week.”
“Do they have enough business to be able to offer full time work?”
“If a business cannot pay a living wage to its employees then that business needs to change its business model are go out of business. Businesses should not survive on the backs of underpaid workers.”
“Do we really need to list the cases of wage theft in Australia over the past 2 years?”
Comments, many even stupider, continued for many scrolls of the page.
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Right this second, rival online dating coaches across the globe are sitting in their gamer chairs yelling ‘Curses!’ at their screens.
Now that Lira MAY HAVE successfully faked his capture and release to improve his audience (and subscription) share.
It’ll be name yer price time for the faithful when he eventually decides to put up a ‘tell-all’.
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I want to see Scott Ritter explain how Javelin missiles don’t work against 50 year old tanks and how Gonzalo Lira is dead.
Go Scottie!
Scott Ritter doesn’t have to make sense – he just needs to say whatever keeps the Kremlin happy (and stops them from releasing all the compromising photographs they have of him!).
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Would world leaders ACTUALLY consider NUCLEAR WAR?
Glenn Beck
A now-deleted message from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation originally warned citizens last weekend to prepare for a possible ‘retaliatory nuclear strike from NATO countries.’ According to Newsweek, Russian officials say the message was written and posted by hackers. But despite the warning’s uncertain origin, the fact we’re discussing even the SLIGHTEST possibility of a nuclear war means our world leaders have gone too far, Glenn says: ‘[The world] is being run by a seemingly group of crazy people. And the rest of us are sitting here going, what the hell? Where are we going? What’s happening?!’ So, would leaders ACTUALLY consider escalating today’s conflict into a nuclear war?!
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DAFisk
Scott Ritter doesn’t have to make sense – he just needs to say whatever keeps the Kremlin happy (and stops them from releasing all the compromising photographs they have of him!).
Dick Ed denounces almost anyone in the public eye as a “spook”, except Ritter, who probably is one. Ed ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he really is a tool.
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If a business cannot pay a living wage to its employees then that business needs to change its business model are go out of business. Businesses should not survive on the backs of underpaid workers.”
That’s somebody’s standard comment to any article involving business. I’ve read that comment several times to articles involving farming.
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That’s somebody’s standard comment to any article involving business. I’ve read that comment several times to articles involving farming.
Lol yeah, a bloke can write the comments for them:
“The operators did not factor [insert the applicable politician/public service brain-fart here] into their business plan, so they deserve to go out of business”
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Makkasays:
April 22, 2022 at 8:37 pm
dotty,
As a free movement of people across borders ardent advocate, you sound pretty stupid criticizing Russia for standing up for their own brutalized ethics across the Ukr border. Especially when Ukraine harbor such foul nazi worshiping ideologues, heavily invested in Russian ethnic slaughter.Keep that in mind the next time you bank a cheque for the work you do outside of Australia. Maybe you can retire and give them their money back?
I’m here to help you.
https://impakter.com/deadly-ideology-putin-eurasianism/
Contrary to what many people think, Putin’s goal is not simply a matter of restoring the Soviet Union or the empire of the Tsars. It’s much more than that. And it is terrifying. Russia is an economic midget but it has chosen guns over butter and as a result, it is a military giant. With immense ambitions and a single overriding objective: establish Eurasia as a world power displacing America. The ideology driving Putin has a name: Eurasianism.
The idea is to kill off, once and for all liberalism which is viewed as “the greatest threat to the ethno-cultural survival of all the earth’s people”. Those are the words of the man behind Putin, his informal but very vocal ideologue, Alexander Dugin. Eurasianism, the Eurasia Party and the International Eurasian Movement are his brainchildren.
Eurasianism, a sulphurous combination of ideas drawn from metaphysics, symbolism, esoterism and racism. It has deep roots in Dugin’s bizarre ethnocentric view of History where Russia is placed at the center and the West in the periphery. Western liberalism is roundly rejected and the Russian people are elevated to the status of masters of the continent: Dugin argues they appeared at the dawn of Time and predate all other people. That is why they deserve to govern every other people on the Eurasian continent.
It has some seriously weird stuff, like the actual Nazis:
“The long march of history, from our earliest Hyperborean roots to the present day, confirms that it is only the Russian People who possess the spiritual and cultural purity, hence the collective virility required to produce a future binding Eurasian State and supra-national Union for those who have traditionally comprised the peoples of Eurasia”
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It’s good to see Putin’s Islamic militias taking back Mariupol for the Caliphate!
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Anyone know how to link to this? This blithering plank is the Shadow Minister for Agriculture, for chucks steak.
Zulu, is this the trainwreck you were referring to?
Link -
Contrary to what many people think, Putin’s goal is not simply a matter of restoring the Soviet Union or the empire of the Tsars. It’s much more than that. And it is terrifying. Russia is an economic midget but it has chosen guns over butter and as a result, it is a military giant. With immense ambitions and a single overriding objective: establish Eurasia as a world power displacing America. The ideology driving Putin has a name: Eurasianism.
Dot the link elaborates on that point. People who think this is just about the sins of Ukraine don’t understand Putin or the history of Russia. It’s not that weird, other countries entertain similiar mythologies, but this one is very dangerous.
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Russia’s invasion not only poses an existential threat to Ukrainian sovereignty, but it also represents a direct challenge to American power and credibility globally. If Vladimir Putin prevails, the promise of the United States to act as a security guarantor through NATO in Europe or on its own anywhere will be in shambles.
Moscow is clearly pursuing two goals simultaneously: territorial gains in Ukraine as part of the revanchist ambition to restore the Soviet-era sphere of influence and, more importantly, degrading American strategic prominence, with the goal of driving the United States out of Europe.
China and Iran are happy to cheer this on. What is at stake is therefore much more than the legitimacy of Ukrainian independence, as important as that is. We are facing a hot war as part of the global competition between the United States and its strategic opponents.
This global competition found its first prominent expression in the 2017 National Security Strategy of the Trump Administration. Thus, the Russian invasion provides an important opportunity to evaluate relevant Trump-era policies and to measure them against the track records of the preceding and subsequent administrations—that is, the foreign policy of the Obama and Biden teams—given the significant overlaps in their personnel.
In light of the war and the efforts by Europe and NATO to scramble to respond, it is striking how much the Trump Administration got right, often against the shrill opposition of the liberal foreign policy establishment. It is equally clear that the Democratic administrations made severe missteps. Five key points stand out.
First, by the beginning of the Trump Administration, a rebalancing of U.S. interests in Europe had become timely. The Brexit vote, prior to the Trump victory in November 2016, meant that the United Kingdom would no longer participate internally in the formulation of the foreign policy of the European Union. Because the UK had formerly often advocated positions aligned with Washington, this change diminished American influence in Brussels.
It consequently became urgent to find new best friends inside the EU. Donald Trump chose to cultivate bilateral relations with the countries on the Eastern Front, from the Baltics to Bulgaria, and especially Poland—where the president delivered one of his best speeches—and Romania. Many of these countries had—and continue to have—a much sharper perception of the Russian threat than did so-called old Europe further to the west, notably Germany, which was no longer the front-line state it had been during the Cold War.
Trump tried to move troops from pointless deployments in Germany to the east where they were needed. In light of Putin’s aggression, the wisdom of that planned repositioning is indisputable, both to defend NATO allies and to assert American power. The Biden Administration is belatedly following the path that Trump laid out.
Second, like French President Emmanuel Macron, who famously diagnosed the brain death of NATO, Trump called out the endemic lack of commitment of many NATO members to their own defense, especially their refusal to meet the Wales Pledge to dedicate 2 percent of their GDP to security. Trump critics howled when he appeared to make U.S. security guarantees contingent on the behavior of allies, yet the allies’ reluctance to contribute to their own defense was eroding NATO. The issue became especially pointed in Germany—Europe’s largest economy, whose 2 percent meant the most—as Trump’s ambassador Richard Grenell hammered on this point and succeeded in beginning to turn German public opinion.
Yet only in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine has German Chancellor Olaf Scholz finally promised to increase defense spending. The jury is still out as to whether he will make good on the promise. Meanwhile, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht is dragging her feet on supplying arms to Ukraine. Trump and Grenell were right to push back against the Putinversteher, the Russia apologists in the German establishment who still have a lot of sway.
Third, coupled with the achievement of American energy independence, the Trump Administration repeatedly called out European reliance on Russian energy resources, notably Germany’s pursuit of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
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the thing is that everybody these days seems to rush to an opinion based on some very loose information
ridiculous reports
contradictory gibber
all of it purporting to be factrussia v democracy
the dick-less v testosterone
etchaving functioning cahones means appreciating that a bunch of brain-dead mongs can, and will, think up the most retarded shit possible and then try to visit their idiocy on your world
positioning one-self to be as far as one can be from their idiotic influence is non-trivial
eat the bugs you clowns
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I saw the opposition diversity pick for agriculture on Michael Smith News.
Same thing last time and Gillard then allowed the Greens to slip in highly damaging ideological regulations for their support.
They made it compulsory for any agricultural chemical that was up for licence renewal to undergo a complete new registration process.This costs millions and chewed up staff time for the companies involved.
The immediate damage was done to the supply of off patent generic chemicals. The margins are small for these products and so no company could justify the cost of reregistration. Highly effective and cheap products started to disappear from shelves.
This was exactly as the Greens intended, death by bureaucratic regulation without publicly stating their extreme agenda.
Our Labor girl is keeping the options open for a repeat performance. -
Bespoke,
Grader.
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