EXCLUSIVEThe eye-wateringly high legal bill the former Seven staffer who blew up the Bruce Lehrmann trial wants the rapist to…
Open Thread – Tues 19 April 2022
- The beach which banned vanilla ice cream
- Bumtree #4
- Open Thread – Thurs 2 May 2024
- Bumtree #3
- Bumtree #2
LOL It’s true. Mr Elston’s tweet linked to a February Daily Mail article which made reference to Cook’s use of…
One other thing. I believe a world with cheap oil&gas is potentially a safer world as it brings the producers…
An elderly Vietnamese villager muttered “Ah, the French are back.” Lucky he was close enough to hear.
I’m not a magpie, Bespoke. 🙂
maybe he’s getting the same google recommendations…. NSFW
they knew, the “trials” were pretty clear, there will be deaths and casualties aplenty
Saw that, Faustus.
Funny now watching Putin apportion blame to everyone but himself.
The chap being grilled is reported to be favoured to take over from Putin in a coup. If he lives that long.
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
April 20, 2022 at 8:53 am
Numbers is still over at Quadrant Online. Yes, he’s worked the thread round to how he was conscripted and served in Vietnam….
……until the fetid sippy cup falls from his dead fingers.
unmasking the truth
So Morrison’s changed his tune on women’s sport?
The focus groups must be working overtime.
Did you ask him if the tent has recovered after his weapons handling failed.
The tent drew first.
Biological males competing in women’s sport is the (current) pinnacle of woke bullshit – and so obviously destructive to enjoyment of the individual sports concerned.
So Ms Deves position is only contestable by grifters, the unwell, and the nutters on the progressive left, who will never vote Team Morrison.
After making that point Morrison needs to back away.
Sport is an individual and social pursuit and one of the many, many areas of human activity from which governments should fuck right off.
If sporting associations are unable to make correct decisions on behalf of their biological female membership because of woke, they need to be reformed from the grass roots, or wither and die. That’s problematic and scruffy – but it’s where loathsome identity politics has nudged real people.
What we absolutely do not need is an another opportunity for politicians to bid up, offering to ‘fix’ community problems.
(On a purely political level, it’s another mine field marked out with signs saying ‘Danger Mines’ – and Scummo has a track record of stamping around in them.)
Where’s the truth? How the CIA shapes the minds of Americans
Like Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, propaganda is pouring out of the US that is shaping our perceptions of the war in Ukraine. It is produced by the CIA, it is pronounced by the State Department and it is published by the media. It is coming from everywhere.
The heroes and the villains were cast from the start. The media rewrote history and created the myth of the “unprovoked war.” As if Russia’s launching of an illegal war was not sufficient to cast them as the villain in our minds, the media everywhere added the adjective “unprovoked” to create the super-villain needed to produce the necessary support for the war.
. As if NATO had not broken its promise not to encroach on Russia’s borders.
. As if Russia’s security concerns had not been ignored.
. As if Russia has not been surrounded by military bases and missiles.
. As if Ukraine wasn’t being flooded with weapons.
. As if Yeltsin and Putin had not protested and drawn their red lines for years.
The heroes and villains were further developed and characterized by stories that came out of Ukraine in the early days of the war. On the first day of the war, a Russian ship aimed its guns at Snake Island and demanded the surrender of the Ukrainian forces. Establishing the roles of super-villain and super-hero in our minds, the Ukrainians bravely defied the Russians, and the Russians remorselessly murdered the Ukrainians. The Ukrainian guards “died heroically,” Zelensky said, promising that “All of them will be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.”
But the guards couldn’t be posthumously awarded anything because they weren’t dead. They were captured and released a few days later. But the characters had been cast in our minds. Not enough that the Ukrainians really were heroically defending their land against an illegal and villainous Russian assault, to produce the necessary war fervor, a super-villain was needed.
An alternative view – “One less traitor”: Zelensky oversees campaign of assassination, kidnapping and torture of political opposition
Amen.
Absolutely reject anything other than that.
TGIF: Shades of Gray in the Russia-Ukraine War
I must be on The Australian watch list now. More than 50% of my comments are rejected. More recently I have been calling for an audit of Greens funding to see where it is coming from. That never gets past the gatekeeper. Considering Bandts comments about China and Australia’s security it has all the hallmarks of Chinas fingerprints. Then reading other comments which are more provocative and accepted, I can’t help feeling special.
“It’s a simple matter of male bodies that have been through male puberty and adulthood and female bodies that have not. Testosterone levels don’t compensate for that muscular upper body strenth advantage nor for the greater heart and lung capacity.
Get real. This is men muscling in on and destroying women’s sports.”
Men also have greater bone density, more fast-twitch muscle, and a different centre of balance.
The entire idea for having womens sports is that in many cases, XX’s are at a significant disadvantage because of these physiological differences. In most cases, “men’s” sport is in fact open to women, it’s just that very few women can be competitive due to said differences. There are, of course, some areas where these differences favour women – endurance events, for example.
Men and women are different – it’s not that one is better than the other, each has advantages and disadvantages. They are complimentary. Wearing different clothes, having surgery and taking hormones doesn’t change the differences, at best it mildly reduces the difference. And in sport, it is always the “extremes” that succeed, so generally “closing the gap” doesn’t help that much.
It has to be remembered that bills of rights historically arose in England and later the US as a means of limiting the power of government.
It’s the TikTok likes which count.
No matter what happens.
Poll: Almost Two-Thirds of American Voters Believe Biden Is Compromised by China
Local independent has more corflutes around than the LNP incumbent and a shiny website.
Big on renewables and the environment, short on detail.
Local ABC radio interviewed her. No questions about funding.
Penny Wrong on ABC RN AM this morning:
“Climate change is the biggest threat to Pacific island nation security.”
Obviously! .. this is why the Solomons Islands have gone all the way with Xi .. LOL!
You’d need a sphincter of steel to remain calm after being identified as a potential successor to Stalin’s Polyp (HT Rosie).
Old mate on the video didn’t quite seem up to the task.
Russia Today Report Disappearance of Gonzalo Lira – Inside Russia Report
Oops…getting my spies mixed up. This one. Looks to be made of sterner stuff.
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
April 19, 2022 at 11:16 pm
From “The Age.”
Ben Roberts-Smith’s first SAS witness and the men who did not exist
Harriet Alexander
By Harriet Alexander
April 19, 2022 — 6.46pm
Justice Anthony Besanko has heard many variations on the story of what happened at the village compound dubbed Whisky 108 in southern Afghanistan on Easter Sunday, 2009.
Now the real story emerges. The lick spittles and malcontents have had their turn. I hope BRS takes nein and fairfucks for millions.
No worries.
Getting spooks mixed up has been known to happen here.
Katherine Deves is standing for Warringah, huh?
My electorate.
I’d think of voting for her on the basis of her stance on Women’s sports – except I wouldn’t just be voting for her, I would be voting for the Liberal party.
Her webpage has a couple of highpoints
> Cost of living relief now. (I.e. more welfare)
> A long-term economic plan that creates more jobs. (More government intervention in what only works when it is free)
> Record investments in essential services. (Investment = government spending. And what is essential?)
> Stronger defence and national security. (I don’t see them really cleaning out the upper ranks that have neutered defence. They might buy some hardware – like floats for the Mardi Gras)
They really don’t get that the economy will work fine with minimal input from them, and they have long surpassed that threshold. Maintain the courts, protect property – then the whole population will busy itself to find the avenue that will provide most beneficial outcomes of its own accord.
But I do love the channel 9 headline “Under-fire Liberal candidate declares she’s ‘not going … – 9News”
Who is she under fire from – the MSM, Labor and Greens*, and activists. Not by the public. I foresee no circumstance where the public – the voters – would reject her stance on biological men playing women’s sport. So when they say ‘under-fire’ they mean under fire from that thin layer of scum on society, the self-styled elites. Is that really a bad thing?
*I include Matt Kean in the Greens, of course.
And now watch Nein and Fewfacts run dead on reporting.
Local Independent has more corflutes around than the LNP incumbent and a shiny website.
Big on renewables and the environment, short on detail.
Local ABC radio interviewed her. No questions About funding.
These Green Independants are a cancer on Australia. They are rotting us away from the inside …and all with the best intentions…apparently.
The Most Popular President in US History Speaks to Paltry Crowd in New Hampshire (VIDEO)
Before, ISW was characterising Russian advances as slow, now they are describing them as ‘hasty’.
What a winner Boambee John that gave me such a laugh — thank you was having a rather tedious clerical morning and now taking a break – thanks
Yep and when the difference is explained to the poorly educated equality of opportunity wins every time — the other is just cheating.
Katherine Deveney…who is she under fire from..
The Australian this morning described her as ‘embattled candidate for…’
As the saying goes …when copping flak you know you are over the target’
As for Scomo, don’t look now buddy, but you may actually be standing for something.
Well, they do have a dog in the fight. Happens everywhere. Especially if you stars get a bit tired and emotional on Logies night.
Thats gonna need more CO2
Local Independent has more corflutes around than the LNP incumbent and a shiny website.
same where I am in FOWLER but given the “independent” is being backed by Fairfield Council .. not surprising .. after all, it’s someone else’s money .. LOL!
And after his performance over his time in office, don’t look now buddy, but you may be getting taken in by a bullshit artist before an election.
These people deserve prison, nothing less.
I note on Sky, everyone’s female warrior princess who you can’t criticise without being accused of being a sexist, Credlin, “admitted” that the Libs are struggling in the polls for a number of reasons, debt, and not taking on the culture wars………………………….WHILE IGNORING THE LAST TWO YEARS as if they never happened.
These people are sick.
But there you go, I criticised Credlin again, for the vacuous whore of the globalist Liberal party she always was, so start grizzling.
She’s still after Andrews………..how’s that working out for her.
Between her and fatguts Murray, it’s just a competition to see who can push the criminal Liberals higher in the polls.
Another one of gascon’s white supremacists; some karma here:
https://nypost.com/2022/04/19/jacqueline-avants-killer-aariel-maynor-sentenced-to-3-life-terms-in-prison/
Story in one of the papers about Doug Walters and Jack Newton. Says Walters was ‘drafted into the Vietnam War.’ As far as I know he was a sports instructor in Wagga.
Below is the quality of what’s being presented in the mainstream, borrowed from a blogger I read. Any wonder why I don’t believe them?
Now (34 days after “experts” were saying Russia would be out of ammo and men):
Washington Will Fight Russia To The Last Ukrainian
Kiev faces a choice: make peace for its people or war for its supposed friends?
Kramatorsk train station attack: The key to finding the perpetrator lies in this overlooked detail
The flight characteristics of the Tochka-U result in a debris pattern which has the cluster munitions impacting on the ground first, followed by the depleted booster, which hits the earth some distance behind the impact of the warhead. This creates a tell-tale signature, so to speak, of the direction from where the missile was launched, which can be crudely calculated by shooting a reverse azimuth from the point of impact of the warhead through the booster.
It is this physical reality which provides the first real clue as to who fired the Tochka-U that hit Kramatorsk. The relationship of the booster when it came to earth, when assessed to the impact zone of the cluster munitions, provides a reverse azimuth which, even when factoring in a generous margin of error for potential drift, points to territory that was under the exclusive control of the Ukrainian government, which means that there is little doubt that the missile that struck the Kramatorsk train station was fired by a launcher under the operational control of the 19th Missile Brigade, Ukraine’s only Tochka-U-equipped unit. More specifically, a forensic evaluation of the missile debris clearly shows that it was launched by the 19th Ukrainian Missile Brigade, based near Dobropolia, some 45 kilometers from Kramatorsk.
Zelensky might want to be careful about what he wishes for. Any serious investigation into the Kramatorsk train station bombing will include an inquiry into the missile involved, and questions of ownership in which the missile serial number inscribed on the booster will play a leading role. If this is indeed the case – and the available evidence strongly suggests that it is – then it will be Zelensky and his leadership on the docket for the crime of slaughtering the very civilians whose lives he claims to be protecting.
oops link – https://www.sott.net/article/466909-Kramatorsk-train-station-attack-The-key-to-finding-the-perpetrator-lies-in-this-overlooked-detail
Tintarella di Lunasays:
April 20, 2022 at 10:05 am
The Stradivarius seems to be out of tune, strings sounded better when they were in the cat?
What a winner Boambee John that gave me such a laugh — thank you was having a rather tedious clerical morning and now taking a break – thanks
I took some violin lessons in my youth, I was not very good! Hence the comment about strings and cats! Experience.
Re the US judge ruling the mask mandate unlawful – The Babylon Bee is onto it:
Sorry, link fail before.
https://babylonbee.com/news/conservatives-assure-liberals-that-were-only-gonna-not-wear-masks-for-2-weeks-to-slow-spread-of-tyranny
This bloke has been right from the get go.
This looks like it might be very well done horror type movie.
The witch.
Watch until the goat milking scene*
https://youtu.be/iQXmlf3Sefg
*This is not a cryptic reference to 2 girls one lama…
thefrollickingmolesays:
April 20, 2022 at 10:42 am
This looks like it might be very well done horror type movie.
The witch.
It has a few jolts. The most horrifying movie I’ve seen was an edit of aoc, shrillary and pelosi.
Check out this load of shit from the “most trusted news source”.
Victoria expected to ease COVID-19 rules as more than two-thirds of over 16s reach three vaccine doses
Maximum Leader’s science catamites have been screeching for months that people need a booster after three months. Victoria hit 90% of 18+ people vaccinated on 25 November last year. There’s now 67.1% of 16+’s with a booster. However the cake is cut, there’s about 20% of the adult population who, according to Maximum Leader-approved science, are at least close to two months overdue for a booster and thus with negligible “protection”. That’s in addition to the 5.5% of adults who have never got their two shots at all.
In fact the rate of adults getting a booster has slowed to a crawl in recent weeks, and seems to have almost totally stalled.
If Maximum Leader does ease restrictions it won’t be because of the “science” of more than 2/3rds of over 16’s having got boosters – it will be because of the political science of voters seeing restrictions eased everywhere else east of the Nullarbor without an apocalypse occurring.
Meanwhile, at Twitter HQ…
Guardian Essential poll: Labor loses ground in first week of campaign but remains ahead of Coalition
Yet another poll showing the Uniparty locked up each in the mid thirty percent of the primary vote.
Given the margin of error, the Grauniad is perhaps being a bit generous placing Labor ahead. Its two-party preferred “plus” measure has Labor is on 47% (down three points in a fortnight), the Coalition on 46% (up one point) with 7% of respondents undecided.
Still shaping up as an election that will be determined by Indies and the Penis-Drawing vote.
Although Scummo and Albo both still pretend that they’d prefer not to govern at all, rather than do deals with the cross bench.
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
April 20, 2022 at 8:53 am
Numbers is still over at Quadrant Online. Yes, he’s worked the thread round to how he was conscripted and served in Vietnam….
Was Numbers in Vietnam? I never really got a sense of that from him….
Like a lot of men who served courageously, it is something he does not talk about.
Day after the election it will be an Emergency. Four for Australia!
CALLS FOR FOURTH COVID VACCINE TO BE MADE AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE (Ncl local news, 19 Apr)
That was that federal government, this will be a different more enlightened federal government. You must be quadruple vaxxed, peasants, to protect you from yourselves.
Lest anyone think I’m merely a one-eyed anti-Russian troll, I do post news of (rare) Russian victories when they occur.
Here is a video of Russian soldiers hoisting the Soviet flag at a victory parade, having captured the city of Kherson!
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1516412649298350088
Ok groomers…
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/apr/19/sex-education-theatre-show-children-cancelled-violent-threats
A theatre show that promised to reimagine sex education by discussing the issue in a frank and open manner with audience members as young as five years old has been cancelled after “violent threats” were made against its organisers.
Good.
The Family Sex Show was due to tour this spring but was pulled from venues after what its creators called a series of “violent and illegal threats and abuse” were directed at the company and venues by “a small group of people with extremist views”.
Because if there is anyone you can trust with your kids its actors and their associated hangers on. The ghost of Jimmy Saville smiles.
The show had been in development by Josie Dale-Jones since 2017 and promised to confront subjects including boundaries, gender, relationships and masturbation in a production aimed at families that included some nudity.
Because when I see a class full of 5 year olds my natural instinct is to perform “look at the Australian elephant/squashed wombat in front of them.
After the show was announced and news of its content began circulating online, a petition was started, which claimed the production was “wholly inappropriate and is a blatant attempt to sexualise children and break down their natural boundaries”.
Everything was fine until people found out what we wanted to do…
The Guardian understands threatening and abusive calls and communications were sent to the venues hosting the show and ThisEgg, which led on 14 April to the cancellation of the performances.
The show had been due to visit the Tobacco Factory in Bristol and the Norfolk & Norwich festival in May, but just an invite-only date in Bath remains, “ahead of subsequent public performances in the future”.
Bath date an underground facility, with attendees wearing red shoes and fed pizza???
Made in collaboration with Outspoken Sex Ed and the School of Sexuality Education, the production would have offered free family workshops before the performances, which included sex educators available to answer questions. There was also a spin-off podcast.
So a bunch of people who have encouraged and led to the trans-mania/ boys will be girls fad in schools now?
Its statement said: “We believe that what has happened is reflective of structural and societal attitudes towards relationships and sex education as well as art, culture and who is allowed to create and what we are allowed to engage with in the UK.”
Nope, its a reflection people dont want their kids “instructed” on sex by professional perverts, nonces and weirdoes.
ThisEgg said its creative team would continue to work on the showso it was “ready for a time it might be able to meet a public”. It also apologised to those who had bought tickets and said it wanted to respond to “the events of the last few weeks”. “Removing work that celebrates freedom of expression from stages cannot be the answer,” it added.
Sod off groomer.
From Micheal Smith News,
NOW – Gov. DeSantis wants to hold Twitter’s board and directors accountable for potentially injuring Florida’s pension fund.
I like this guy more every time I see him.
FFS: Fans Claim Thor Is ‘Gay as Hell’ After ‘Love and Thunder’ Trailer Reveal: ‘Thor Is Gay! We Won’
a family that …. together……
Zipstersays:
April 20, 2022 at 11:28 am
The Family Sex Show was due to tour this spring
a family that …. together……
The Aristocrats!!!
Mariupol Road Of Death “Ilicha” (EXTREMELY GRAPHIC 18+)
Patrick Lancaster
Fisky – You might like Kamil Galeev’s latest epic thread, which is on Russian motives behind the war.
It’s due to Pushkin’s poetry…
https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1516162437455654913
Worth it if only for all the fine art, historical documents and pics he inserts. Actually it’s a good analysis of the cultural difference between the two nationalities, and the incomprehension of the other which it causes. Wars have started over such things many times.
Wish they would bring back duelling, it seems so much more equitable than relying on things like the courts to adjudge slanderous behaviour. Fuckwits would be far more circumspect at least, or shot. Either way, if duels were commonplace we would have never heard of Kevin Rudd.
Even if Andrews does away with his mandate, I don’t trust him not to slap it back on at the drop of a hat. Especially coming into winter.
Any trust in government I may have had, is well and truly gone.
It’s the vibe.
Nolte: Woke ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Sequel Tanks at Box Office (18 Apr)
Hollywood is on the grooming bandwagon, so no surprise if Thor is made to join in.
This is the future we all signed up for…!
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-catgirl-robots
To SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the future is teeming with humanoid robots.
During a lengthy and freewheeling conversation with TED’s Chris Anderson last week, Musk expanded on his vision of what it could look like to share everyday life with automatons doing our bidding.
And, predictably, the conversation jumped directly to the sexual implications of humanoid androids. Despite his busy personal schedule, Musk clearly does have some time to daydream.
“It’s probably inevitable,” Musk said after being asked if robots could ever become romantic or sex partners.
“I mean, I did promise the internet that I’d make catgirls,” he added. “We could make a robot catgirl.”
ding dong… pfizer calling
Looks like the babylon Bee has been reading the cat.
https://babylonbee.com/news/husband-shows-wife-how-to-close-her-8537-mobile-browser-tabs
I managed to swipe the script for the new Thor movie, it has this touching exchange between him and his catamite.
IM THOR!!!!
Your thor, after last night I can hardly walk!
Thank you Struth for the vid of “an old man in a chair”
China in Focus – NTD
01:11 373M Chinese under full or partial lockdowns
02:16 Shanghai: Pet dog of COVID patient beaten to death
03:46 Shanghai residents face repeated COVID-19 tests
06:14 China to ‘stick with’ zero-COVID-19 strategy
07:50 WH aims to produce #RenewableEnergy in U.S.
10:30 U.S. bans anti-satellite missile tests
12:21 China to send up next space station crew in June
Mountain biking is a dangerous sport.
‘An alarming trend’: Armed thieves are targeting mountain bikers in the Oakland Hills (19 Apr, via Lucianne)
I should send this one to my brother in Sydney, since his bikes are roughly $20k each. Being mugged for one would suck. Lately due to the lockdowns he’s bought a Peloton ride-in-your-home system, which given how he rides like a maniac, and breaks bones regularly, is probably a good thing.
You realize why Elon pitched his takeover price at $54.20 don’t you?
He’s fun.
It certainly is pal.
I am glad I didn’t take an mRNA vaxxxxxxxxxine.
Novavax, ain’t mRNA tech.
That would be the jab that was created before Delta and has been shown to wane. No doubt he will want us to take whatever further ones Pfizzer come up with.
Quite frankly the Professors and other experts are welcome to keeping jabbing themselves but the less I hear from them the better.
“Newcastle professor is calling for the fourth covid jab to be made available to everyone, as New South Wales braces for a surge in cases during winter.”
The Simpsons, predicted everything.
Libs of Tik Tok is a wildly successful journalism idea that simply showcases videos of radical liberal whackos talking about the weird shit in their heads in their own words.
So obviously the American media establishment had to shut it down because it provided too much information about its activist campaigns like gender fluidity that it didn’t want shared.
So Jeff Bezos doxed the woman who invented Libs of Tik Tok and sent one of its female goons to track her down and publish her address so that she could be physically attacked by the zombie mob.
It turns out that a foreign government is one of the Deep State actors who wants Libs of Tik Tok shut down. Tucker Carlson Tonight interviews the brave founder of Libs of Tik Tok.
UK is rabid at the moment.
Hopefully they can get together with D’Joker and start a parallel comp.
Kerry Packer’s shade would bid for the TV rights I’m sure.
NEWS: Russian tennis players will be barred from competing at Wimbledon in June, a decision that will prevent current world No. 2 @DaniilMedwed from playing in the season’s third Grand Slam.
Meanwhile in the home of the Winter Olympics…
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/mysterious-missing-un-report-human-rights-abuses-xinjiang
Is Covid Actually Snake Venom?
Mainstream media covers up pilot cardiac arrest because they don’t want to create vaccine hesitancy
Elbow today faced his moment of truth: cave in to poofter mafia on the Liars party loony left or appeal to swinging voters in the outer suburbs. Indicating how tight the ALP-LNP race has become, Elbow chose the latter (Paywallian):
Bomb Honiara:
This is too funny.
Venom-Derived Drugs and the Toxin Libraries of Venomtech and ToxinTech
Jack Dorsey Goes After CNN For Deliberately Stirring Division
Roger:
Putin the Pussy.
Stalin was once so annoyed at a particular intelligence section and the quality of their work, that he had the entire department shot, and when a new department was filled, he arrested and shot them too.
Must have been a bad hair day.
What with? To the best of my knowledge and belief, we never replaced the F – 111’s.
COVID-19 is Man-Made: From Fauci, to Gates, to Daszak; a Timeline of Bio-Terror
That’s how a human resources department should do their job.
Australia distance to Solomon Islands = 3282 kilometres.
Aka a stationary target.
The best kind.
What a ridiculous take re sex-segregated sport and trans but not surprising given his priors.
In one of the most awful “remote communities” of the north, the usual is happening:
Man dies after assault in Wadeye, violence in community grows: Police
NT Independent
China explains how the Russia-Ukraine conflict should be managed:
Translation:
When we go into Taiwan, we will probably find that the PLA is a bit shit and the Taiwanese military will give us a hard time.
We have a much bigger army, so we’ll continue to hack away – while simultaneously negotiating Taiwan’s surrender
a ceasefire on terms that suit us.In the meantime, we’d prefer the US /Running Dogs not to keep the Taiwanese supplied with weapons that will give our guys a hard time and stretch things out and force us to smash up Taiwanese infrastructure we’d quite like to keep.
For the children.
Happily the Solomons would not be too hard to destabilise.
And it would be nice to get a dividend on the billions of $ we’ve spent stabilising the place over the last couple of decades.
There’s a lesson in that…somewhere.
The Libs are now visibly to the left of the ALP. Amazing.
People here read Macrobusiness?
EWWW! Gross!
132andBushsays:
April 20, 2022 at 12:45 pm
Once it is completed, it will be a stationary aircraft carrier
Aka a stationary target.
The best kind.
Like those concrete islands in the South China Sea. A single hit by a penetrating bomb (modern Tallboy or Grand Slam), and they will collapse.
There will be no eruptions, just more complaining and increased cynicism.
The working class in Australia have always depended on the trade union movement to safeguard their interests but no help will come from that corner. The unions are controlled by the ACTU which in turn is beholden to the International Labour Organisation. The ILO, like all United Nations organisations, is in bed with the World Economic Forum so we have this unholy trinity of big business, big government and the worldwide labour movements.
This came as a surprise and a major wake-up call to many trade union members as the unionist’s destruction of the CFMEU building in Melbourne bears witness.
All the institutions in this country are corrupt, I don’t think that we’ll ever get back to 2019.
New ‘electric’ chopsticks make food taste saltier
Tokyo – Japanese scientists have put the flavour back into a low-sodium diet by developing electrically charged chopsticks that fool a diner’s taste buds into believing their meal has been liberally sprinkled with salt.
Scientists at Meiji University have teamed up with Kirin Holdings Company, one of Japan’s largest drinks makers, to transform traditional chopsticks into a state-of-the-art solution to high blood pressure, strokes and other illnesses associated with a high salt intake.
The chopsticks are attached to a mini computer that is worn on a diner’s wrist and transmits a weak electrical current into the utensils. The electrical stimulation transmits sodium ions that are present in the food into the mouth to enhance the sensation of saltiness.
On the Meiji University website, Professor Homei Miyashita said tests have demonstrated that his “electric taste chopsticks” have proved popular with dozens of people, aged between 40 and 65, who have been advised by their doctors to reduce their salt consumption for health reasons.
Test subjects were given food containing varying levels of salt. Professor Miyashita’s team concluded that the chopsticks allowed them to reduce the salt content by 30 per cent without compromising the flavour of the food.
“In an experiment using low-salt miso soup, we were able to confirm that the salty flavour was enhanced and test subjects even expressed the opinion that the richness, umami, and overall taste were improved,” Professor Miyashita said.
This is where you end up when you stupidly imagine (I’m looking at you, John Howard) that a centre-right political party can be a “broad church.”
TE try 1550km from Townsville to Honiara.
Our F-111’s never had tanker support from the RAAF but I think you could bomb Honiara from Townsville with careful tanker support using our Super Hornets.
Bruce of Newcastlesays:
April 20, 2022 at 12:58 pm
Anthony Albanese says it’s “not appropriate” to have non-gendered sport in schools and girls should be playing against girls.
…
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has said there was “no place” for such views in the Liberal Party and called for her to be kicked out.
The Libs are now visibly to the left of the ALP. Amazing.
And Dick Ed is visibly even further to the left.
Stalin was once so annoyed at a particular intelligence section and the quality of their work, that he had the entire department shot, and when a new department was filled, he arrested and shot them too.
https://www.infobae.com/en/2022/03/21/abolished-census-code-of-silence-and-censorship-when-stalin-concealed-the-famine-that-killed-eight-million-ukrainians/
Hate to bring the Ukraine into it but the census mob copped a mass purge for reporting population numbers in the Ukraine accurately after the Holodomor.
As part of its ‘we are fantastic” it was supposed to show an increase in population numbers, not the 4 million or so short it came up.
Everyone involved was executed/Siberia.
2nd group of census takers was a little wiser, they found just the expected number.
In 1937 there was a census. And a drama. In 1934, Soviet propaganda had enthusiastically calculated that the population of the USSR was one hundred and sixty-eight million people. And they projected for 1937 a total population of one hundred seventy million or one hundred seventy two: a symbol of progress and the welfare of the regime.
But when the actual census data became available, they showed that the population was still anchored in one hundred and sixty-two million inhabitants: eight million people were missing, including not only those killed by famine, but the unborn because of the death of their parents and that the optimistic screening of 1934 was considered born. A preliminary report of that census indicated, with great caution and fearful caution, that population levels “are perhaps below expectations in Ukraine, in the North Caucasus and in the Volga region,” areas where peasant resistance to handing over crops to the State had been most tenacious.
The Soviet leaders began to get nervous. They prevented the employees of the statistical offices from giving any kind of information. The order was: “Not a single census figure can be published.” But what to do with propaganda? The partisan newspapers had announced a rapid increase in population, “evidence of the rise in the standard of living of workers after ten years of our heroic struggle for socialism.” And of all that, there was nothing. Soviet statisticians should not be ordered anything: they were willing not to open their mouths for fear of being considered “transmitters of a negative message”, and therefore, true enemies of the people.
When Stalin heard about the results of the census, he abolished it. The publication of the numbers stopped in the printing press and the results never saw the light of day. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decreed that the census had been organized “incorrectly and unprofessionally”, and that it was “a serious violation of the basic foundations of statistical science”. One magazine, Bolshevik, claimed that the census had been “altered by despicable enemies of the people, Trotskyist spies and traitors to the homeland, all infiltrated the headquarters of the Central Directory of People’s Economic Accounting”. Ivan Krával, director of the Soviet Institute of Statistics, was arrested and shot in September 1937, a fate followed by his closest colleagues. Hundreds of officials from the Russian territories were dismissed, many executed, especially in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Mikhailo Avdienko, editor of the Soviet Statistics magazine, was arrested in August and executed in September of that year. And Olexándr Askatin, head of the Department of Economics of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, was also shot.
AGL suffers outage at Loy Yang as coal worries grow
AGL Energy has suffered an electrical fault at its large Loy Yang A coal power station, which supplies about 30 per cent of Victoria’s electricity, threatening to keep one-quarter of its capacity offline until the start of August, late in the winter peak demand period.
The major electricity supplier, the country’s biggest coal power generator, said it is assessing the length of the potential outage at Unit 2 at the 2210-megawatt plant, the largest in Victoria, “as well as measures that may be taken to mitigate the impact of the outage”.
It has advised the Australian Energy Market Operator that the outage at the circa 550MW unit may last until August 1, while noting the estimate is “highly preliminary and subject to change”.
The outage at the generator in the Latrobe Valley comes amid growing concerns about unscheduled breakdowns at Australia’s coal power generators and the possibility that such incidents at units nearing the end of their life could lead to them not being restarted. Loy Yang A is however due to generate until into the 2040s.
This snake venom thing, where are they keeping all the snakes?
Is there a secret laboratory somewhere in the Ukraine?
A worldwide web of snake tunnels?
Haha, I was trying to work out this one earlier.
Government ‘fought over Chinese climate policy’ instead of securing Indo-Pacific (20 Apr)
This was fun since Bad Penny said “the leaders of Pacific Island nations say climate change is their number one economic and national security issue”. Then when Sky lady points out that China is the biggest emitter in the world Penny replies “Sure.”
So I was confused. Is Penny concerned about:
(a) Pacific security threatened by China
(b) Pacific security helped by China’s climate policy
(c) Pacific climate concerns threatened by China
(d) China helping the Solomons fight climate change thereby threatening Australian security
I confess I have no idea what she meant, but clearly ScoMo was to blame for whatever it was.
Top Ender:
Eyrie:
I’d have said it was a couple of hundred km further than that Eyrie, then again I’m blogging & calculated in a hurry, were I actually about to drive it I’d be more precise.
Bruce of Newcastlesays:
April 20, 2022 at 12:58 pm
Anthony Albanese says it’s “not appropriate” to have non-gendered sport in schools and girls should be playing against girls.
…
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has said there was “no place” for such views in the Liberal Party and called for her to be kicked out.
The Libs are now visibly to the left of the ALP. Amazing.
Not only that Bruce:
However, [Rub and Tug Man] said current legislation and sporting bodies were already empowered to manage that, and the government didn’t need to step in.
OK, in reality that’s Rub and Tug Man’s fence sitting, so he can say to the LGBTQWERTY’s that he’s not going to actually stop XY’s smashing the shit out of XX’s on football fields. Nevertheless if Rub and Tug Man keeps advocating for government to butt out of this issue people might ask whether there are other areas that the same principle might apply.
Power providers struggle with coal closure plan
Large electricity generators are trying to come up with a plan to manage the shutdown of the country’s remaining coal-fired power stations to present to the next federal government after the election but are struggling to find consensus.
Well-placed sources say the proposal was aired recently among electricity generators by the Australian Energy Council in what would be a major step-up in industry lobbying for a long-term plan for the phase-out of coal power along the lines of policies in place in countries such as Germany.
Origin Energy’s Frank Calabria has also warned of the harmful consequences of a “messy” transition as a result of unexpected breakdowns of ageing coal generators, which still meet more than 60 per cent of demand in the National Electricity Market.
This year, Origin brought forward the likely closure of its huge Eraring coal power station in NSW, the country’s largest, to as early as 2025. AGL has meanwhile cut several years off the remaining lifespan of its Bayswater coal plant in NSW and its Loy Yang A generator in Victoria, and shut down the first of four units at its Liddell plant in NSW at the end of March.
Locked into unviable assets
The early closure plans have unsettled the government, with Mr Taylor earlier this month putting forward a proposal to lengthen the required notice period for a coal unit closure to five years from three to give the market more time to adjust ahead of the removal of chunks of generation capacity.
Tom says: April 20, 2022 at 12:38 pm
This very clearly explains why the ALP has stopped the ‘noise’ about Katherine Deves.
I imagine putting a Chinese military base into the Solomons would take several years.
Of course it would take that long for the Oz government to decide what to do about it, if anything.
Shatterzzz:
April 20, 2022 at 10:22 am
Wait a minute, a Local Government Organisation is backing a political candidate?
WTF?
Wadeye/Port Keats from 14 years back…
https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2008/12/wadeye-failed-state-as-cultural-triumph/
Clever people can work out how to generate power from wind and waves and sun and convince people it’s good.
Smart people have their houses wired up for an emergency generator.
Numbers fighting a losing battle over at Quadrant.
His latest:
1735099 – 20th April 2022
“the thuggery of union leadership”
I was a member of the Queensland Teachers’ Union from 1968 when I started teaching, until 2017 when I retired. Those 49 years were interrupted by the two years I was a conscript, but in all my roles (teacher, principal, regional administrator and consultant) I never met one union thug. I did, however, observe union organisers working to support teachers, especially in remote locations where I worked for many years, with issues such as accommodation, remote area allowances, and basic conditions important for teachers in bush communities.
I met a few thugs (mostly regular soldiers who couldn’t hack life in civvie street) whilst in the army, however. They found that throwing their weight around with national servicemen was not a good idea.
As the Chief of Defence observed when conscription was introduced in 1964 – “The average IQ of the army went up by about twenty points….”
A worldwide web of snake tunnels
Tunnel snakes rule!
Get ready for Australian Private Hospital care prices to go up
Ramsay confirms $20b takeover offer
A consortium led by global private equity giant KKR has lobbed a $20 billion-plus offer for the nation’s largest private hospital operator, Ramsay Health Care, the ASX-listed company confirmed on Wednesday morning.
Given the size of the equity cheque, the group also includes offshore sovereign wealth funds looking to take advantage of the attractive and growing healthcare space.
The KKR-led consortium has been in Ramsay’s data room for two weeks conducting due diligence on a non-exclusive basis, and appointed UBS and Herbert Smith Freehills as its advisers. Barrenjoey Capital Partners and Credit Suisse are advising KKR.
Europe stake included
Any binding offer would also include Ramsay’s 52.79 per cent in the French operations, Ramsay Sante, which is the second largest private care provider in Europe. Ramsay owns the stake in the French subsidiary through its UK business.
As the Chief of Defence observed when conscription was introduced in 1964 – “The average IQ of the army went up by about twenty points….”
But somehow we never won another war…..
Not many people know that.
I suspect this is about hCVF (= “humanized cobra venom factor”), which is recombinant DNA synthetic cobra venom factor. It’s a immune system stimulant. It’s based on the CVF protein, which is one of the components of king cobra venom, but which has been structurally altered to be safe for pharma uses. The V word appears to have sent the usual suspects into orbit.
TE, just checked Google Earth. Call it 1790 km or 966nm.
Bit over 2 hours each way in subsonic cruise. Could put tanker at say 600nm from Townsville and refuel going in and out.
Areff, my heartfelt apologies.
Mal Brough had the right idea, when he was the Minister. He was visiting that community. Two of the Wadeye gangs were shaping up to each other. He walked in between them, and yelled “I’m the man from Centrelink. Any more of this nonsense, and all your “sit-down money” stops NOW!”
everything is spiraling out of control
The United States government has committed to ending practice of anti-satellite missile test in space. The Vice President who chairs the National Space Council Kamala Harris has announced a self-imposed ban on destructive tests.
china right behind this wink wink
Confront financially out-of-control NDIS or pay higher taxes
No one questions the need to support those with disabilities, but the present gigantic welfare scheme has expanded far beyond the original bipartisan intent.
Whoever wins the federal election must confront the financially out-of-control National Disability Insurance Scheme, and an honest and empathetic conversation with the public and disability sector is required.
Providing a proper safety net for people with serious disabilities – and relieving their under-pressure family carers – should be one of the primary roles of government.
But the NDIS has become a gigantic welfare scheme and has expanded far beyond the original bipartisan intent.
The NDIS is now the desired social security program for participants, more than 18,000 service providers and consultants.
A decade ago, when the NDIS was conceived by the Gillard government and then implemented by the Abbott government in 2013, the Productivity Commission estimated it would cover 411,000 participants and cost $13.6 billion at maturity.
As of December 31 last year, there was 502,413 active participants, equal to about 2 per cent of Australia’s population. The Australian Government Actuary estimates there will be 859,328 participants by 2030 – double the original estimate. Total participant costs are estimated to be $29.2 billion in 2021-22, growing to $41.4 billion in 2024-25 and $59.3 billion in 2029-30.
It is not surprising that a free public good with largely uncapped assistance is being over-consumed.
Real cost blowouts
The arbitrage opportunity defies the principle of equity and fairness in government support payments. Moreover, there is no check and balance on medical professionals diagnosing people to be eligible for the NDIS.
And who can blame them? The incentive for doctors and psychologists is to over-diagnose the seriousness of problems to secure the best financial support for their patients.
“Doctor shopping” is more common among people from affluent backgrounds. The Coalition government tried to introduce independent assessments to get a second opinion on people’s eligibility. But Labor and the states ran an almighty scare campaign about the Liberals trying to take money off people with a disability.
Open to interpretation
Children experiencing mild developmental delays, such as being a year behind on talking or reading, are also being classified as disabled. Mild autism can also qualify.
Parents of young people are cottoning on. Of the 20,384 new participants with an approved plan in the December quarter, 38 per cent were aged younger than seven years. Overall, 41 per cent of total participants are aged 14 and under.
The Commonwealth and states originally agreed to split the NDIS costs 50-50. But the Commonwealth is now on the hook for about 65 per cent of the cost. Under the intergovernmental agreements, the states pay fixed dollar amounts.
The Commonwealth wears the upside risks of cost escalation. Whoever in the federal government signed off on this cost-shifting mechanism should be embarrassed. There is no incentive for the states to reduce cost overruns.
It’s going to be genuinely interesting reading how these takes unfold in the wash.
whats the bet someone is going to try and see where else it make feel good
This came up in my timeline last night. The guy is a historian himself. No words.
War never changes!
A fun option is to play Fallout 3 with no armour and no weapons. Works quite well.
I did defeat a Behemoth once doing this, mano-e-mutato, but Deathclaws were too much. Have to avoid those.
Good to see that Dumbledore and the Closet of Grown-ups is depicting a real world problem- high self-regard, low self-esteem blokes losing their shit after rejection, when they are taught to take pride and affirm their entitlement in a world of sexual plenty.
Numbers has a dossier of comments to copy and paste as required.
I’ve read that particular comment at sincs several times.
No surprise that Queensland tachers union didn’t run to maoist thugs.
Boring!
The solution to America’s crisis of masculinity: Tanning your ‘nads?
Just watched the latest Nutrien Ag weather update (Eric Snodgrass)
A third LaNina virtually locked in.
If it comes to pass we are never going to see this confluence of high prices and high yields again.
Unbelievable.
The down side is the thought of what’s causing the prices being elevated. A country getting the shit blown out of it and a lot farmers in NA facing another year of drought.
This has been commented widely upon re the Russian army in this campaign. Weirdly they appear to have no professional NCO class. Ukraine by comparison built a NCO layer after 2014 under the influence of Western trainers.
That has tended to a very top-down structure with limited initiative being shown at the platoon and section level. By contrast the Australian Army in WW2 leant heavily on NCOs, many of whom led platoons especially as junior officers became casualties. If a platoon LT was wounded in an engagement he’d immediately be viced by a SGT or CPL and oftentimes the engagement would be carried through successfully.
I think I trod in it once at a Hume truckstop.
Top Ender says:
April 20, 2022 at 1:23 pm
I imagine putting a Chinese military base into the Solomons would take several years. Of course it would take that long for the Oz government to decide what to do about it, if anything.
The west couldn’t do anything about the Chinese building bases in the South China Sea.
Over time, the Chinese will gradually increase their foothold with public largesse (+ private bribes) and then both the Solomons and China will see the ‘sense’ in permanent Chinese wharfing facilities which will need Chinese nationals to staff the ‘sensitive’ or ‘delicate’ goods being loaded/unloaded. For the Solomons, the replenishment of food supplies and fuel to the ships will provide dozens of jobs for locals plus inject more millions of dollars into the local economy.
Win/win they will both claim.
Except this isn’t the end and the Chinese creep into Solomon sovereignty is just getting started. Meanwhile, Australia is still wondering what happened and what to do (if anything).
As the Chief of Defence observed when conscription was introduced in 1964 – “The average IQ of the army went up by about twenty points….”
History fail. There was no “Chief of Defence” in 1964.
The utterly useless, brain dead, perpetual victim likes to spread his idiocy around like horse manure on roses.
He makes a complete pest of himself with his content free ramblings covered in incoherent dribble until he’s unceremoniously booted.
Sinc gave him the longest stretch of blog employment until the pitiful Numberskull was out-Matered and he slunk off under the cover of pandemic darkness.
To the undying relief of everyone.
* Note to self: Avoid said website until sanity returns.
Panicky moment ‘each-way Albo’ REFUSES to let his deputies comment on whether trans women should play sport against females – as Labor leader tries to avoid ANOTHER press conference catastrophe
– The issue has dominated the past week of the federal election campaign
– Mr Albanese would not let two Labor shadow ministers answer a question
– Liberal candidate trolled by vile activists who sent rape and death threats
ZK2A:
Fairy* Swordfish Painted in Rainbow colours, carrying torpedoes with nuclear tips and operating off our deadly-as-buggery aircraft carrier HMAS “Hello Kitty.”
OK, one mistake. No nukes.
Umm. Make that two mistakes. We have no carriers.
Bugger. Three mistakes. We have no Fairy* Swordfish.
Bloody ‘ell. Hows about we just mail some poison pen letters?
*Deliberate mistake.
Numbers exited Michael Smith with his tail between his legs..
From Russia with love.
Crikey, if there was one army in WWII at which such an accusation could not be levelled, it’d be the Germans.
Mater’s daily vivisection of NamBob was a thing of beauty.
You may be safe by now Megan.
The comment Top Ender copied & pasted seems to have disappeared from Quadrant.
This would make the Catallaxy copy the only record of that … particularly ignoble… uttering by Numbaz.
Cripes.
It’s a good thing they couldn’t think for themselves, then.
Otherwise the western allies would still be hung up somewhere in the Hurtgen forest.
It’s more than just cobra venom Bruce, there is also components of krait venom* and conch shell venom. It’s a great combination, who wouldn’t rush out and get more of this lovely snake juice.
*either Chinese krait or Malay krait snake venom, reports of the genome matching differ, for example the toxicology report Zippy posted a few days ago suggested Malay rather than Chinese krait venom.
It’d be fun to surmise how Australian infantry would go in Ukraine.
The principle developed during WW2 especially was incessant patrolling. Patrols would be anything from three guys to a company in size, and were heavily relied upon especially in jungle battlefields like PNG and Borneo. A patrol is headed usually by a NCO, who knows how to find his own arse and tie his own shoes without help, unlike an officer.
We’ve had the Rasputitsa, the mud season. What comes next is the green season. All those trees sprout leaves. And under all those leaves stalks the light infantry.
In such forests patrols of five or six Aussie infantrymen with a Bren and two or three NLAWs would be terrifying to an armour-heavy opponent. I see signs that the UAF is developing their light infantry tactics along similar lines in this war. By contrast the Russian infantry is still very APC-bound, which is a false security in such a battlefield as Spring is about to produce.
On the other hand Ukraine to the east and south is mostly steppe, which should suit the Russian armoured BTG model very nicely, especially as the RAF becomes more active in tactical support (like it has overnight in Donbas). Light infantry patrols still can do well in such circumstances, but they have to be small – three or four guys, and they have to operate in darkness. It will be interesting to watch what ensues, especially in behind the Russian advance spearheads.
And yet people can’t seem to understand they’ve got very different doctrine and ways of doing things that make sense for them. It’s not built the same way a western military is.
Dover Beach:
Excellent suggestion. But make the positions on the regulating boards subject to votes from the players or their proxies.
A crazy Ukrainian lady in action.
SFW, from a few days ago. Ukrainians are seriously bonkers.
One answer to the Solomon’s is to get an agreement to build an official armed to the teeth AUKUS base on one of the islands (to counter any unofficial or creeping China base)
Top Ender:
Is this what we get for $34 Billion a year?
No wonder so many of us have given up on these stupid, stupid people.
That’s the textbook definition of Fascism I believe.
All Western nations that are supposedly capitalist, are in fact now Fascist.
Labour movements’ role in the unholy trinity have to varying degrees been supplanted by (billionaire owned) Social Media curated mobs of thugs.
ukrainians wyminsis are in a league of their own. not recommended
someone get rub’n’tug his own easter bunny
Winston Smith says:
April 20, 2022 at 2:52 pm
Top Ender:
In one of the most awful “remote communities” of the north, the usual is happening:
Man dies after assault in Wadeye, violence in community grows: Police
Is this what we get for $34 Billion a year?
No wonder so many of us have given up on these stupid, stupid people.
If that was the total amount I would not be as pissed off as I am. If you add ALL the spending from all governments the figure is probably 80 or more billion per annum. I often travel in the NT and north west of WA, there is no hope.
You really have to look carefully at the incentives across all AGL assets. It is probable that keeping the fault unrepaired for longer is actually financially beneficial to AGL.
No-one in AEMO would have a clue, populated as it is by lawyers and magical thinkers.
I can bet you if AEMO offered the renewable going rate for electricity from the broken unit, that it would be up and running by 13:00 the day after tomorrow.
Some military historians believe that one reason Hitler’s army fell apart in 1944-1945
If anyone thinx the German army fell apart one has to wonder what might have been if they’d stayed resolute! .. given that they were short of most things, equipment-wise, and in retreat they held it together quite well, out-gunned, out-manned, out-equipped and very little air cover left yet they, basically, made the allies pay for every yard they gained ..
Even at the end the majority of the military defenders of Berlin, mostly the remnants of the Eastern campaigns, were foreign born SS troops who fought doggedly with the knowledge that surrender, for them was a likely and painful, death sentence ..
Albo isn’t doing himself any favours. He should take a leaf from Sleepy Joe and stay at home and let the party ballot stuffers take it from here.
This came up in my timeline last night. The guy is a historian himself. No words.
Amazeballs.
Considering this was their way of war.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11519-008-0031-7
To deal effectively with the “fog of war,” German war doctrine increasingly encouraged individual initiative, independent thinking, and responsibility at all levels of command. This doctrinal approach became known as “Auftragstaktik,” a command and control system in which commanders were being given missions, rather than orders. In this system “the mission must unmistakably express the will of the commander. The objective, course of action and mission constraints, such as time, must be clear and definite without restricting freedom of action more than necessary in order to make use of the initiative of individuals charged with the tasks to be accomplished. Limits as to the method of execution, within the framework of the higher commander’s will, are imposed only where essential for coordination with other commands”
So apart from having used it as part of their fighting tactics for 200 years, they were all robots.
Pauline’s happy little debunkers beat you to it, somewhere around ep 19 of Please Explain on YouTube.
That’s true Bluey. The BTG model fixes something our guys had great difficulty with in WW2, which was combined arms. You have to have good communications between the infantry, artillery and air assets. In Egypt our guys suffered because coms were erratic (tactical radios were new and unreliable, and telephone lines were constantly cut by enemy action). Coordination between the guys on the ground and the heavy support got better and better during the war, until in the PNG campaigns the Japanese were losing ten guys for every Aussie killed in action. Artillery and close air support were very accurate and very efficient in late 1944-5.
By contrast the BTG model fixes a lot of the problem by combining the tanks, infantry and support into a single battalion sized unit. (Then the BTG’s were all supposed to integrate into a battlefield IT network, unfortunately the coms to do that haven’t worked in practice – but that’s another story.)
What I’m seeing in the Russian doctrine is an emphasis on armoured warfare. A BTG is essentially like a WW2 German panzergrenadier formation. The infantry are in APCs indigenous with a squadron of tanks, plus SPG support. That would work very well indeed in a battlefield which suits armour – like SE Ukraine. It has to have air superiority though, or dug in infantry with smart AT systems would eat them up.
I think the BTG model is a hangover from the Cold War. The whole Fulda Gap thingie. Whether the Soviet armour charge would’ve worked I don’t know. Battlefield experience like Norfolk suggests not, and the poor performance so far of Russian armour in this war seems to be reflective of such experience.
You really have to look carefully at the incentives across all AGL assets. It is probable that keeping the fault unrepaired for longer is actually financially beneficial to AGL.
Yes so we were better off when the government run those power stations. Of course those ‘incentives’ result from government (canbra) meddling so there is that. Again I ask how the fuck did canbra even get involved in what used to be a state responsibility.
Is this what we get for $34 Billion a year?
No wonder so many of us have given up on these stupid, stupid people.
The folk that benefit from the $34billion are never the ones on the front line tho ..
It makes you wonder, bit like Mal-odious $440 million, why there is no public accountability for all this money? ..
This is tax-payer funding not personal withdrawals from politicians bank accounts .. why do we never have any dotting the i’s & crossing the t’s forensic accounting of who with, what on and where OUR money finally settles ..
As long as we, the mug vote-herd, have no public, or criminal, accountability for tax payer funds these tens of thousands of yearly rorts that seem to make folk-in-the-know a lot better off will never end.
Old Ozzie:
This has been in the wind for years – the electrical system of Eastern Australia is on the ropes.
Our governments have been told repeatedly about the problems, the causes, the solutions, and the costs.
I don’t want this grid to fail, because the cost to the nation and the citizenry will be disastrous. But a simple warning of perhaps a week long blackout of a major city will wake people up.
Mind you, the gas supply disruption to Melbourne didn’t do much -we ended up with more checklists and Disaster plans with little to no hardware backup.
German war doctrine increasingly encouraged individual initiative, independent thinking, and responsibility at all levels of command.
Which all ground to a sudden halt when Hitler took over total command of the military leadership in 1941 ……..
Panicky moment ‘each-way Albo’ REFUSES to let his deputies comment on whether trans women should play sport against females – as Labor leader tries to avoid ANOTHER press conference catastrophie
Ed-Mong will be along to instruct us shortly that we are wrong and Elbow is playing Morriswine like a brass razoo, or something.
Ist it amazing, standing up for the shattered remnants of a once universally accepted norm (men arent women/women arent men) seems to indicate its actually a popular position.
Mind you, the gas supply disruption to Melbourne didn’t do much -we ended up with more checklists and Disaster plans with little to no hardware backup
was that in the late 90s?
From what I recall about the structure, they’re armor heavy, but it’s really artillery with attachments. I keep telling people, Russia views artillery as the god of the battlefield and their army is built around it. Effectively they find where the enemy is then smash them flat with artillery, it’s not subtle.
Ask John Howard.
No, we were not!
One answer to the Solomon’s is to get an agreement to build an official armed to the teeth AUKUS base on one of the islands (to counter any unofficial or creeping China base)
This is just fear-mongering reds-under-the-bed military scary stuff .. LOL! ..
I knoze this cos “that chap Wong” sez the Solomons went Chicom cos of “global warming” concerns .. nuttin’ to do wiv military -minded plotting ..
after all, she is a politician and we all knoze Oz pollies tellz it like it is .. straight! .. LOL!
Winston Smith says:
April 20, 2022 at 3:17 pm
This has been in the wind for years…… Our governments have been told repeatedly about the problems, the causes, the solutions, and the costs.
Parallels with Ukraine/NATO expansion/ Russia/USA.
Sorry Winston, I know you’re talking about AGL but your words just leapt off the page at me.
Again I ask how the fuck did canbra even get involved in what used to be a state responsibility.
Ask John Howard.
possibly also Hilmer and national competition policy.
We had HMAS Albatross, a RAN carrier, in 1929 designed for Fairey III’s. Built at Cockatoo Island. Interestingly she fought in WW2 for the Poms, and was torpedoed by Germans.
Megansays:
April 20, 2022 at 2:18 pm
Numbers is still over at Quadrant Online*.
The utterly useless, brain dead, perpetual victim likes to spread his idiocy around like horse manure on roses.
There would be a certain amount of wry amusement to be derived from watching Numbers and Mr Ed going toe to toe on the subject of Curtin’s alleged willingness to hand Australia over to the Japanese in 1942, without a fight, prevented only by the arrival of the Americans.
IMF Plan To Replace Bitcoin/Gold/Dollar With Digital SDR!!
shatterzzz
This is tax-payer funding not personal withdrawals from politicians bank accounts .. why do we never have any dotting the i’s & crossing the t’s forensic accounting of who with, what on and where OUR money finally settles ..
As long as we, the mug vote-herd, have no public, or criminal, accountability for tax payer funds these tens of thousands of yearly rorts that seem to make folk-in-the-know a lot better off will never end.
Plus twice infinity.
shatterzzzsays:
April 20, 2022 at 3:19 pm
German war doctrine increasingly encouraged individual initiative, independent thinking, and responsibility at all levels of command.
Which all ground to a sudden halt when Hitler took over total command of the military leadership in 1941 ……..
It sometimes ground to a halt at higher levels, but not at the sharp end. And even Hitler could bend under pressure. Rundstedt was fired thrice and re-hired twice during the war.
Bruce of Newcastle:
I assume you are referring to the Kampfgruppe model here?
Not criticising, just trying to adjust doctrinal labeling.
Unfortunately we’ve passed the point of no return.
Liddell is in the process of closing and will be shut down in less than 12 months. Locked in.
Origin has seen AGL’s gentailer strategy – and likes it. So Eararing will be gone in 2025.
So, 4,800MW of power taken out of the system – 16% of demand, 33% of baseload capacity, 25% of dispatchable supply.
At that point, east coast Australia will have regular supply shortages during summer months.
AGL and Origin won’t give a fuck. While there are rolling brownouts, and load shedding (think smart meters that shut off your A/C, or oven, or electric cooktop, or stop you charging your EV for the morning) – those boys will be selling clean green electrons into the grid at $14,000/MWh (or whatever the distress peak price will then be).
Every evening.
Short of sacking the entire energy bureaucracy and nationalising the existing coal fired power stations, there is nothing that can avoid this. Even then, that would only be a temporary fix.
a bigger dickhead than we thought if that is possible.
Artillery ammunition is heavy. Really heavy, as in massy. Shells are heavy lumps of metal with stuff in them. And the Russian logistics train has been very light on trucks. Trucks are needed to get the ammunition to the guns in the SPGs and artillery regiments.
The UKR light infantry have been going after these trucks, and also the supply routes. With some success. There’s been a fair bit of discussion in the last day or so about squeezing the supply line from Beograd in Russia to Izyum. Izyum is on the northern side of the Donbas pocket that the Russians want to capture the Ukrainians inside of, but most of the Russian’s supply is coming down one road, which the Ukrainians have pushed forces from the west and south to interdict. It’s all very strategic and interesting.
Which all ground to a sudden halt when Hitler took over total command of the military leadership in 1941
I was waxing enthusiastically about some of the Americans planned new toys, particularly the HUD helmets which would allow command and control down to the individual level.
Old man dismissed that with “so the general will direct the privates”.
Which was a good thought, what level of micromanagement would that introduce to a battlefield if “eye in the sky” and near universal communications took hold?
https://newatlas.com/army-heads-up-display-soldiers-tar/49726/
Information is power when a soldier is enveloped by the fog of war. Precisely locating the positions of both friends and foes is key for a mission to roll out both smoothly and without avoidable casualties. The US Army has just revealed its latest innovation, a head-up display system for soldiers called “Tactical Augmented Reality,” or TAR.
The TAR system is a small, one-inch-by-one-inch (2.5 x 2.5 cm) eyepiece that is mounted on a soldier’s helmet. The eyepiece overlays a map onto the soldier’s field of vision, instantly offering target information and GPS-tracked data showing where the rest of their team is located.
Designed to replace a soldier’s handheld GPS device, the TAR device is also wirelessly connected to a tablet worn on a soldier’s waist, and to a thermal site mounted on the their rifle. This means additional data, such as an image of the target or the distance to a target, can be displayed through the eyepiece. This visual data can also be wirelessly sent to the eyepieces of other members of the team.
MiltonF:
1998 – here ya go.
Light infantry patrols still can do well in such circumstances, but they have to be small – three or four guys, and they have to operate in darkness.
Infra red and NVG’s/light amplification gear largely negate that nowadays. They will die not knowing what hit them.
Definite Steiner vibes here. The media/ social media blackout re Ukraine losses, positions, movements, etc. appears to be directed at one single aim and that is maintaining a false estimation of the progress of the war on the UKR side.
Dot:
How about “We were better off when Engineers ran those power stations?” instead of politicians, lawyers, and assorted spivs.
Yep.
This is and example of what’s really happening to the Ukr’s;
https://twitter.com/Cyberspec1/status/1516342603943329796
Winston – Here’s what a Battalion Tactical Group is made up of. I’ve seen better quality versions of this graphic but this is what I could immediately find. Captures the essence.
No they would just be hostage to China and well before the installation was put to serious use, the equipment would be taken and the troops killed.
A quiet word to the people of the Solomons would be that the base when constructed would be classed as a belligerent target in the event of hostilities.
It sometimes ground to a halt at higher levels, but not at the sharp end. And even Hitler could bend under pressure. Rundstedt was fired thrice and re-hired twice during the war.
Stalingrad occurred because of Hitler not in spite of him .. the “higher level” obeyed .. the “sharp end” followed their orders ..
Von Rundstedt was a “yes” man which during 1933-1945 Germany allowed the possibility of a longer life tenure ……
We are living in an age of intitlement. The list will grow larger then ‘genders’ within week.
Dying like flies. But since they have about 900,000 trained reservists they have a lot of flies.
The morale factor favours the UKR side from what I see, which isn’t to say the Russians aren’t serious. Read the Kamil Galeev link I posted upthread – which shows where the Russians are coming from. It’s all an existential mess.
Egg head Hilmer certainly didn’t help. Plenty of blame to go around.
Short visual representation of BTG.