Ben Garrison.
Open Thread – Tues 19 April 2022
- Open Thread – Weekend 27 April 2024
- Nuclear power and the foundational lie
- Open Thread – Anzac Day 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 22 April 2024
- Open Thread – Weekend 21 April 2024
Lisa Benson.
Henry Payne.
Chip Bok.
Matt Margolis.
Tried to post this earlier: Saw a comment about Labour Leader Harold Wilson which put me in mind of the Australian Labor leader:
Anthony Albanese is going round and round the country stirring up apathy
Another reason for the media/ social media blackout. Maintaining the morale of the existing formations and reservists.
Building and running a power station is all about:
• Spending a very big bunch of capital upfront on heavy engineering.
• Buying a big bunch of coal on a steady demand basis;
• Spending regular big bunches of capital on boiler refits, mills, etc;
• Maintaining the joint.
• Sending power out by load following, or nomination.
Private enterprise actually has no material advantage in doing these things.
Government has a particular advantage. Its cost of capital is significantly lower than the private sector, and its shareholders don’t usually expect capital parsimony, an 18%+ ROI ,and affordable electricity.
It’s one of the very few industrial activities governments do well.
Dover – The Mariupol situation is coming down to the Azov steelworks pocket. That place has such heavy infrastructure that even artillery is not especially effective. (Being a metallurgist I know what metallurgy needs, which is lots of heavy structural stuff that mere artillery would bounce off of.)
There’s a real danger that Mr Putin will call in a tac nuke. As a use of such a weapon it would fit the tactical profile perfectly. Strategically and politically though the result would be global hysteria.
I really hope he does not do this.
Armchair Warlord on the BTG:
Good thread.
Bruce of Newcastle:
OK.
Interesting formation. Light on arty and engineers. More of a standardised unit than the German model, which was more an ad hoc formation with artillery/armour/engineer/infantry as available. Tailored around the immediate problem and then disbanded after the mission completed.
I don’t have examples to hand but most German Kampfgruppe usage seemed to have a large Engineer component – mainly due to the need to overcome terrain/obstacle impediments to allow armour/infantry access to enemy positions.
Anyone who has experienced a unionised GOE may have a different point of view.
Why would RUS bother? Whatever is left in Azovstal has no offensive capabilities. They will simply isolate whatever is left and slowly clear the area. It’s done.
Dover – Opposite of that. Social media is pushing heroic sacrifices. Eg the gorgeous Ukrainian lady fighters dying heroically (there’ve been several of them on Visegrad 24). Designed to foster fury, and that I think is the general vibe. Social media is an extension of social consciousness a lot of the time.
There’s a nihilistic flavour on the UKR side. Valkyries riding and whatnot. Very emotional and not especially conducive for rational diplomatic outcomes.
Depiction of the Azovsteel works and tunnel system. Built for a nuclear attack.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQvOlvVVIAQDBIE?format=jpg&name=small
He’s such great value. He never stops and always goes in for the kill. The younger articulate Trumpster and just as fearless.
DeSantis looks to hold Twitter board ‘accountable’ for response to Musk’s buyout bid
*rotates dial….bzzzzt…pop*
Checking in from beautiful downtown Cobar. The sun is shining and the air is crispening. Dinner at the mighty Empire Hotel tonight – choice of schnittie, parmie or steak. What’s not to love about Australia?
The countryside is as green as and everything looks fresh as new paint. The only downside to the 8hr trip was much…much roadworks and extremely officious lollypop personages. Everyone else involved was either scratching their behinds or leaning on shovels.
Spotted at Denman – several weirdos walking around in the fresh air in masks. They must like their own fumes.
It’s one of the very few industrial activities governments do well.
It’s true that from Monash’s SECV onward for many decades the lights stayed on.
But the problem at present isn’t privatisation. In the decade or thereabouts after Victoria’s privatisations the lights stayed on and electricity was cheaper.
Our problem now is that we’re in the worst of all possible worlds – fantasyland government regulatory interference propagated by green-tinged theorists with no skin in the game*, but the actual risk/reward element being in the hands of the grubbiest of spivs whose only real talent is in gaming financial systems.
*Or so they think. If people for whom the weekly grocery bill is a significant expense lose enough freezer-loads of food because of blackouts, piano wire time isn’t out of the question.
flood it
Anyone who has experienced a unionised GOE may have a different point of view.
Have to agree with the Bear here.
Victorian State public sector unions could turn the miracle of the loaves and fishes into mass starvation and billions of dollars of debt.
Dover, please. Mariupol is essential to Mr Putin as the key link between Russia and Crimea. That geographic linkage is not feasible without full uncontested control. He has to have it in hand before any peace negotiations. That means either his guys must go in and take on the defenders, which would be catastrophically bloody, or they have to be neutralized in some other way. A tac nuke is absolutely perfect for the job: limited affected area, enough power to disintegrate even a blast furnace. Unfortunately for Mr Putin the political fallout would be worse than the nuclear fallout.
I think the Russians will take the place. But at what price? The choice between siege, assault and nuking is a bummer. Each has a seriously painful cost.
ABC: PM ‘continues’ to support ‘hand picked’ candidate in Warringah.
Bruce of N
The BTG looks very like a Motor Rifle Battalion reinforced to enable it to operate away from its parent Regiment for a specific task. Or the remnants of a Motor Rifle Regiment reorganised to continue operating.
Tim
You may not recall as you were too young. The unions essentially ran the electricity/energy side of the nation and we had strikes all the time resulting in power shortages. Nothing good ever comes from government controlled enterprise. We had blackouts as a result of the strikes.
These days the left tries to blame privatization for the mess we’re in, but the system we have now is essentially run along fascist economic principles. This means, the government sets a morass of regulations, companies then absorb the additional regulatory costs burdens and pass it on to the consumer.
BoN, you seem a big supporter of The New World Odour?
I like Cobar. Serious amounts of copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc to be had there.
Had a nice flight to Cobar once where I met our lady metallurgical director. Seriously competent. And she liked science fiction, so we talked SF in the Cessna on the way to Bourke (or maybe Nyngan, can’t recall which). Later I ran into her again at Townsville Airport, as you do. Australia is mostly made up of airport lounges.
Bear: I’ve followed several coal fired power stations from government ownership to private hands. I’ve also had the regular opportunity to compare operations in private and government-owned.
All just as unionised; all operate with similar staffing in pretty much the same way.
Which one?
World Economic Forum Envisions a New World Order (2019)
Russia And China Are Leading A New ‘World Order,’ Russian Foreign Minister Says (30 Mar)
I think I will stick to my current world order thanks, which at the Cafe currently features hungry currawongs and cockatoos.
JCsays:
April 20, 2022 at 5:17 pm
JC, it’s true that I don’t recall them but I believe it. I’d believe almost any story of catastrophe created by Victorian public sector unions.
And the fascism comment is 100% correct.
No argument there.
But that’s mostly downstream of generation.
If one was stupid enough to decide on windmills as the way to go, GovCo would still produce a cheaper train wreck than AGL/Origin on generation.
It’s simple a DCF calculation, using same capex, +/- the same opex, and unit output price adjusted to give either a 5% ROI, or 18%.
BJ – I’d say more a panzergrenadier formation, with those nifty halftracks the Germans had.
I loved the Avalon Hill Panzerblitz boardgame.
One of the great myths of the war. He wanted the river cut to deny the Russians oil and is quoted many times as saying it wasn’t important.
Given many German units were at the end of their collective tether, ie regiments that were little more than two reinforced companies(300ish men) and food was already short going into Stalingrad. Once 6th Army was surrounded, breakout was never feasible and at that point the orders were to fight to the last man/bullet to keep as many Soviet units as occuppied as possible.
I think this TIKhistory explains the operational (not tactical or strategic)need to enter Stalingrad.
https://youtu.be/rK0SuYi4Hho
Shatterzzz;
The estrangement between Hitler and the OKW/OKH commanders was the principal reason for the failure of Germany’s war efforts (apart from all the other causes).
I’ve spoken of them before but they bear repeating.
The first Russian winter caused casualties far beyond what was logical – for both sides. Russia lost hundreds of thousands in hopeless defensive battles that served only minor strategic importance. Germany wasted casualties in the supremely over confident Operation Taifun – the offensive that overextended German capabilities and ended up in the Rzhev Pocket. Better to have not tried to take Moscow and winter on the solid line that could be held with minimal and sub par troops.
The Luftwaffe field Divisions were an utter waste of good men who should have been fed through the army training and replacement program. As it was, the 230,000 men could have been put into the units in front of Moscow, and instead Halder took the replacements that should have gone to Army Group South for the Plan Blue Offensive.
Anyway, the issue was that as Stalin was coming to trust his Generals in the end of 1942 and allowing them leeway in their operational planning, Hitler was distrusting his own, and with good reason.
Both leaders in effect swapped management positions and techniques at the same time.
#BREAKING China says it has signed security pact with Solomon Islands
Ausmong Government to busy fucking Australians to do their actual job.
As Chris Farley would say.
This is going to leave a scar.
It’s interesting to reflect on pre-grid electricity supply to Sydney. Lots of little power stations dotted all around the harbour – Pyrmont, Balmain, Rozelle and others. Many…many blackouts according to my parents.
Then up went the mighty plants in the Hunter. Highways re-routed, dams dug, great stanchions and vast networks of lines. And guess what? Very few blackouts, usually because of local transformer faults. Now all into the dustbin.
We passed a huge solar “farm” on the way out here. I thought of rosie’s “absentee landlords” and the useless blot on the landscape.
Nothing a good hailstorm couldn’t fix.
Bruce of Newcastlesays:
April 20, 2022 at 5:27 pm
The BTG looks very like a Motor Rifle Battalion
BJ – I’d say more a panzergrenadier formation, with those nifty halftracks the Germans had.
Half tracks were a compromise.
Go back to the 1980s Soviet Army, look at a MRR, break away a reinforced battalion, you have a BTG.
Bruce of Newcastle:
I think he would go chemical before then – the facility would be no more damaged than it is now, and chemicals are lower down on the scale in terms of pucker factor.
A point TIK makes often. I’ve mentioned the parlous state of 6th Army before Stalingrad, it was the lowest priority for replacements, the 4th Panzer Army came a close second last, and any reinforcements that were going to AG South, went to the Don Bend.
Hahaha. Chris Kenny on Sky has NSW Liberal leftard Treasurer Matt Kean trying to walk back his attempt to cancel Katherine Deves, the Liberal candidate for Warringah, What a slippery dissemblinbling creep he is. The “moderate” Photios wing of the NSW Liberals is the modern face of fascism.
Not so fast…
Ukraine: Nato will respond if Russia uses chemical weapons, warns Biden
There’s a bright red line, right there. Even the Poot couldn’t mistake that.
Oh…
The only hope for the Liberal Party is renewal.
Hey. I can buy a small agricultural island with some hot blonde hippie chicks.
It’s only April now, but Sumer is icumen in!
Years ago family member ran his labour force at $100 hr. Started doing higher priced work for ACT government, they said increase your rate to $140 hr, to cover government requirements e.g. red tape. When even higher contract work was needed the rate went to $160 hr. The same work was being done only more of it.
Dr Faustus at 5:19 – may certainly be true at the plant level. I would need to be convinced it holds true at the enterprise level. Labour certainly isn’t one of the major costs of running a base load coal plant much of which is given the day it is built.
Putin is more likely to use thermobaric weapons, I would.
Winston – The problem with BTGs is the infantry component are all in armoured personnel carriers.
Which they don’t want to leave. It’s a psychological thing. False security.
Combined arms requires infantry surrounding armour, not a km behind in BMPs. This has been the problem for the Russians in Ukraine – the infantry aren’t doing their job. So the Ukrainian light infantry can get into range with their NLAWs and pot the Russian tracks, which if the Russian infantry were doing what they’re supposed to do they wouldn’t be able to do.
Really?
Then why are you selectively quoting Anti-Putin/ Anti Russia site Infobae?
They really need to start negotiating and soon.
The USAF used all of its late Cold War era air superiority fighters (F-14, F-15, F-16, F/A-18) either (or both) as strike and close air support planes.
A MiG-29 sits between a F/A-18 and F-15 as an equivalent.
This isn’t really ground-breaking news.
News today of some “chemical attacks” by Russia which sounds like CS gas.
That sort of thing has a morale effect, but going the next step up would be politically perilous.
Please? Mariupol is in the hands of RUS. The remnants of Azov Reg. in Azovstal are in hiding and pose little threat to anyone in Mariupol. Everything that comes out of it trying to escape is destroyed or captured.
Hahahahahhahhahahahahaha But it’s independent!
Get a load of this two super models.
Local Party.
Yeah right.
I bet London to a brick they’d travel interstate to protest against a coal mine or a pulp mill.
Errr, what? I don’t think I’ve seen any pictures where the troops are riding inside the APCs. On top yes, inside no. Too vulnerable to anti armor and much easier to jump off instead of try to scramble out of. But I’m only going by what I’ve read and seen, not experience.
Here you go Dot.
Best fighter jets in world: Top war planes ranked as Ukraine launches bid to defend skies (Express, 20 Apr)
A fun list. I didn’t agree with all of it, but the venerable F-15 came in at a very laudible #6.
You’ll have to read the story to see which birdy was #1.
Today’s AFR [paywalled]
Is horrific [for Labor] internal Polling the reason they’re banging on about Medicare Co-Payments and a Pensioner Cash Card?
Well said
The problem starts at enterprise level when Masters of the Universe realise they can game the ‘market’ rules set by knobgobblers who are trying to force political market outcomes.
It is a little bit different in WA.
Not often that you see a mildly inefficient, but well-meaning vertically integrated gentailer like Western Power Corporation (circa 2006) turned into a shitstorm of shockingly inefficient competing GOC fiefdoms.
But it can be done.
makes sense…
Don’t see why the Russians would nuke Azovstal, they’d be well aware it was build to shelter the workers during MAD. Pointless trying.
Diogenes:
The river could have been cut at Krasnoarmeysk, or many points east.
Yes, the river was an important oil route – the refineries were (IIRC) in Moscow. The US aid would not have made up the shortfall.
is this what you are getting at, Indolent?
Bunker Busters? Destroying the egresses (except 1 or 2)?
LOL
Only the F-35 and F-22 are superior to an F-15C.
Nothing is nowhere as good as an F-22. NOTHING. China and Russia are shit scared, these K-Mart air superiority fighters they unsuccessfully as copy are not as bad as the Iranian ones, but they’re not much chop.
Xi Xiping needs to perform at the next Melbourne Comedy Festival.
No. The F-22 is so far ahead in air to air combat it doesn’t even fight other planes, it just blows them up.
America doesn’t need to make another “fighter” for a while. They’re probably already flying a new bomber secretly, as the F-117 and B-2 were secretly flown for years.
Several ambush vids are on the net. Jav team offs a T-72 in a column, no infantry out. This one is classic. If the advance was with infantry patrols that would not be possible.
How about “We were better off when Engineers ran those power stations?” instead of politicians, lawyers, and assorted spivs.
Agree- the old Electricity Commission under Harold Conde were pretty impressive.
Thanks for the example, I’ve not gone hunting for anything one way or the other. Though that is dated a month ago, I’d expect survivors to have learned a thing or two by now. It’s a rather brutal selection process.
Admittedly it is around 15 years since we were consulting in the electricity sector. Certainly the interplay of electricity and politics hasn’t made it any easier – and I’m not sure it was easy to begin with. Like Oil & Gas the numbers soon get big.
So much ‘privatisation’ is absurd when the ‘private’ owner turns out to be a owned by a foreign government eg China or France. Stupidity on stilts.
But the Germans needed the railway into Stalingrad for logistics, hence my statement about needing Stalingrad for operational not tactical or strategic reasons.
Just watched a “real world” style interview where a chick demands a 6’3″ man (because she’s 6’1″ with heels on…), she’s young and in college…let’s say she’s picky, wants a fit dude who is also white and earns six figures and under 30.
https://igotstandardsbro.com/
My ideal man
not married
white
at least 6′ 3″ tall
not obese
earning at least $100,000 per year
According to statistical data, the probability a guy of the U.S. male population ages 20 to 30 meets your standards is 0.0000%
that is 0.0000% of all white men in that age range
Women are basically choosing to not only not get married, but retire the human race.
Candace Owens: These are sick, sadistic people
“We would respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use,” he said.
Watch the Ukes use chemical weapons on their own troops to escalate this mess.
Checking in from beautiful downtown Cobar. The sun is shining and the air is crispening. Dinner at the mighty Empire Hotel tonight – choice of schnittie, parmie or steak. What’s not to love about Australia?
That sounds great Calli. Would be great to see the stars out there tonight, rather than a light-polluting spot like Sydney at present.
A few years ago my wife and I were returning to the Mid-North Coast from North West NSW. We stopped in the black of night on Thunderbolt’s Way and looked at the stars. It felt like we were in space rather than looking at it. Psalm 19 demonstrated above us.
Look at this map of the Solomans and the surrounding islands; we’re fucked.
Yes, we also liked Cobar. Plenty to see, surprisingly, including a huge, open-cut gold mine. And the Big Beer Can, of course. Toohey’s, I see, as I check the pics.
A drama, though, that still worries me several years later. We arrived in the afternoon and I was cooking dinner when a large van pulled up in front of our site. The driver tried again and again to park the monster, but it seemed to have a mind of its own, snaking all over the place. Now, it’s bad form to remark on – or even appear to notice – bad van parking, but this was crazy and in the end Best Man said, “I think something’s wrong.”
Indeed it was. When he offered to help, a tearful woman leapt from the car and explained that her husband had fallen very ill in Wilcannia (c150 Ks to the west) and she’d never towed the van until then. And never parked up, of course. While BM parked the van and connected power etc, she sat in our lounge, shaking and sobbing, sipping a restoring Chardy.
BM said that her husband, still in the passenger seat, mumbled thanks and an apology and instantly passed out again. He looked very poorly indeed. Wife and I located the address for the hospital, BM helped him into their car and off they went.
I left dinner for them outside their van. She called in next morning to return the plate and said they’d kept hubby in for checks. But she was determined to leave with him that day and head for home on the coast, some 800ks away.
I wish I knew how she managed and if he survived the trip.
Hehe, Dot I see you enjoyed the story as much as I did! I love the Express, they’re fun.
The F-35 compared with a F-22 is like comparing a Swiss Army Knife to Croc Dundee’s chunk of sharpened metal. I admit I have three Swiss Army knives lying around the Cafe somewhere but no bowies.
senior public servants have been alerted to probable general mobilisation.
yep
And people wonder why younger guys just drop out of society. SJW types are always banging on about men not getting the message about being sexist, racist, etc. but I think it’s the opposite. Too many are hearing the message that there’s no reason for them to participate in society.
So they step aside and wait for it to all burn down so they can laugh in sheer spite.
I hope the Russians capture all the mercs in the Azov factory including the various countries military in there alive.
I want them also to reveal All the docs that the West has been building bio labs in Ukraine, also all the filthy money laundering the western politicians & their supporters have been up to, probably including the slime here.
Fucking delicious.
I reckon the Solomon islands would be gonsky too.
@Winston – Thanks for the link re Longford ‘de-engineering’ was all the rage then
What a slippery dissemblinbling creep he is. The “moderate” Photios wing of the NSW Liberals is the modern face of fascism.
I attended a function a year or so ago in Kean’s electorate. I performed a function at the ceremony, other local pollies were there such as Julian Leeser and Philip Ruddock. They were available and statesmenlike and stayed till everything finished. Keen left after his speech before formalities ended.
He had to get past me to the car park and as he passed me he patted me on the shoulder (I don’t know him). It was a reassuring pat to a possible constituent as though to say “I’m important, you’re a little person, I don’t care enough to stay and engage with people, but here’s a pat for you”. To clean up a phrase from an old workmate; ” I wouldn’t give him the steam off my kettle.”
Diogenes:
One of the cleverest military management techniques I’ve heard of is the coterie of lower rank Officers and NCOs that FM Montgomery had in 21st Army Group.
A dozen or so men who he had confidence in would do the rounds of his formations and come back with an accurate picture of the armies in the field and not the sanitised version FM Montgomery would get from his Generals.
Of course, the Generals were pissed off with the activities, but had they been more forthcoming with problems instead of glossing over them, it would not have been necessary.
New ‘independent’ party wins big green, union donors
New party receiving big sums from climate activists, Green business people and unions, but denies it’s a ‘Greens front’.
Get a load of this two super models.
For the love of Pete JC, I clicked on that link! They had to pour them into those t-shirts.
Bluey
The worst thing of all is the young men know they women are lied to, but the women don’t come to terms with it until they’re too old to conceive. A friend of mine admitted to me she blew her chances at being a mother, and she’ll regret it until the day she dies
On 90 day fiance (I know, roast me) there is a 52 year old chick who wants to have kids.
Pretty sure a gal I knew is an alpha widow too. Well to do, early 30s, from a well to do family and a single mother, seemingly by choice. At a point pride becomes vanity and even pathological narcissism.
“Phantom’, of which David Niven was a member.
I have this odd feeling that she is not exactly the ideal for a guy who’s 6’3″, white, unmarried, slim and who earns over $100k. I also have this odd feeling that such a guy would run screaming in terror away from such a gal. I think I would and I’m only 6’2 and 3/4″.
Hey man, if China are between us and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, it’s not all bad.
Most of the guys in the Azov factory are Azov nasties who Vlad wants to de-nastify.
I think they’ve decided to die in battle rather than be tortured to death.
Memo to Mr Putin: always give your enemies an exit pathway.
Costs a lot less if you do that. Just saying.
Doc Faustus:
Depends – If Russia was to claim the Ukrainian forces had chemical weapons before they used theirs, it becomes a case of “he said/they said.” Especially if Russia was to be able to display multiple ‘victims’ of chemical warfare to the Western Media.
NATO doesn’t have chemical weapons, so they claim. So it only leaves them with retaliatory nukes. Who would authorise use of the retaliatory forces if they do get used? Biden? The NATO Secretary General?
This whole NATO encroachment on Russia thing is getting out of control.
Bruce of Newcastle:
Correct.
Once the Russians take their objectives, the Ukes will give up, right?
They just cede the territory and not try to retake it with ever increasing supplies of superior western weaponry?
Vlad can’t stop this without controlling the entire country or attacking NATO neighbours.
Putin loses no matter what.
I swear the first time I read that sentence I misread it as:
On 90 day finance there is a 52 year old chick who wants to have kids.
I guess if you can take it for a spin and return her within 90 days for a full refund instead of fully purchasing it’s okay.
NATO will only conveniently respond and a token one at most.
Bruce of Newcastle:
Sounds like a cheap Asian perfume my wife brought back from Bali.
I have since used it as an accelerant for getting rid of a semi decomposed cat I found in the back yard.
Perhaps perfume in a litre bottle isn’t a good buy – but it does burn well.
Does anyone recognise them?
Elbows daughters?
link! They had to pour them into those t-shirts.
Dot at 6:42 – think that is very much true of Gen X chicks. Millennials hitting child rearing age know they were sold a pup. Most girls I knew from uni went on to have kids and family, including a few you probably wouldn’t have expected. Biology is a pretty powerful force.
We’re less than a minute in to the Sky News leaders debate and Elbow has blown it. He’s trying to convince Australia it needs radical change. Australia needs radical change only if you’re a Trotskyist radical like Elbow.
Should i be the first to say that Catherine Deves is quite the fine lookin’ femme?
The estrangement between Hitler and the OKW/OKH commanders was the principal reason for the failure of Germany’s war efforts (apart from all the other causes).
I think using “estrangement” for the differences between Hitler & his army commanders is a mild way of putting it .. Hitler took control of the entire military apparatus tho seemed to favour his own, virtually, non existent military leadership expertise primarily on the army .. there was no one in the German High Command that was going to, forcefully, argue against his decisions as they knew the consequences of such folly .. occasionally, if caught in the right mood he did/might acquiesce to the odd change of direction but overall everyone did as they were told .. or else!
The only time I can recall anyone, actually, directly disobeying a Feuhrer Order & surviving was Albert Speer when, in 1945, Hitler ordered the destruction of Berlin only for Speer to tell him that he had ignored him .. by then, of course, it was all but over tho Speer must have thought all his Xmas’s had come at once when he left the meeting still free & alive …..
I reckon the Solomon islands would be gonsky too.
They’re gone already. Sogavare is a corrupt grifter who has been in Xi’s pocket for some time. Look at the bastard: he looks and dresses like Xi’s black sheep of the family.
None of this would have happened if Trump had not been cheated.
cruise missiles 1500km range
Wally Dali says:
April 20, 2022 at 7:12 pm
Should i be the first to say that Catherine Deves is quite the fine lookin’ femme?
I’ve covered that territory as the reason the fuggly left ladies hate her.
He had to get past me to the car park and as he passed me he patted me on the shoulder (I don’t know him). It was a reassuring pat to a possible constituent as though to say “I’m important, you’re a little person, I don’t care enough to stay and engage with people, but here’s a pat for you”. To clean up a phrase from an old workmate; ” I wouldn’t give him the steam off my kettle.”
Why didn’t you deck him?
How did DFAT miss this?
Alas, Morrison can’t, like Putin, order a purge of the dead wood.
They’ll be back at work on Tuesday opining about the importance of climate change to Fiji.
China warns of Ukraine-style ‘tragedy’ for Asia in US Indo-Pacific plan
In a phone call with his Vietnamese counterpart, the Chinese foreign minister warns Washington’s strategy is damaging to regional peace
Diogenes:
You’re right. I understood that while the railways didn’t connect, there was a railway ferry that would take multiple carriages/freight wagons etc. Either it was sunk or removed to prevent use by the Germans if captured.
I hadn’t seen the particular TIK episode but it does make it fairly clear the operation into the Caucuses was the right move.
RSLWA has made the Dawn Service at Kings Park invitation only so I sent this little missive to them.
I’ve had correspondence with the CEO of RSLWA before and he thinks I’m “a very rude man”, so I don’t expect any reply from the fuckwit.
transgenderism in tuvalu
One of my closest mates is extremely bitter because he has tried hard to be everything demanded of him by society, only to be used and thrown away because he’s only a tradie not the $100K, fit, handsome, man of their dreams. Part of it is he still believed in what society used to be, part of it is the way women have treated him, but he’s close to 40 now and doesn’t see much reason to keep the machinery of our society going.
Multiply that over millions of blokes under 40 and we, as a society in the “west”, are in serious trouble.
Bruce, the main problem the Russians have in the steelworks isn’t the heavy infrastructure, it’s the network of tunnels which run beneath the works, see Makka’s 4:13 PM post.
https://twitter.com/Cyberspec1/status/1516342603943329796
They were designed to be bomb proof during the Cold War so the only way to get them out is via gassing if they don’t want to surrender.
Elbow is getting slaughtered, in my opinion. There needs to be a groundswell for a change of government and Elbow doesn’t have it.
That too.
Dickless
Today’s AFR [paywalled]
Is horrific [for Labor] internal Polling
But, but, but, you assured us that the yoof would march to Labor if your mate Scotty the Stradivarius player did not condemn and disendorse the candidate for Warringah.
That’s the worry….he might still form government with the help of a few independents and Greens.
Elbow is getting slaughtered, in my opinion. There needs to be a groundswell for a change of government and Elbow doesn’t have it.
Given that AnAl’s best asset is BRADBURY & BRADBURY’s best asset is AnAL both the main parties sides of this election campaign, apart from pix of Katherine Deves, are a farce .. LOL!
Winston – It’s the stuff of life, or the odour of its demise anyway. A small Cafe story:
A pong at the Cafe last week was the sign of the passing of a resident. A young rainbow lorikeet, which I’d mentioned last year. Neighbour had handed him over the fence, whereupon he immediately bit me. He had no flight feathers. I put him in a cage hoping he’s grow some (he was a juvenile, with a brown beak.) Two months, still no flight feathers, so I rang up Hunter Wildlife Rescue. “I have a lorikeet with no flight feathers” says I. “Ah, a runner” says HWR person. She says sorry, it’s infectious, best thing that I can do is take it to vet for green needle. Oh. Bummer. Nope, sorry not doing that.
“Runners” I found are young raindow lorikeets suffering from beak and feather disease. A sad nickname for fine birdies with a disease they can’t help having.
Anyway, I couldn’t keep leper lorikeet because that would be illegal. So I let him go into a flowering bush near my carport. Which he liked. And so he stayed, eating bread provided by me and sipping on the small white flowers. A friend, for the last four months, until a couple weeks ago when he suddenly lost his appetite. Something had happened. A disease or an accident, I dunno. Then he disappeared, only to leave a brief passing odour a few days later A small sad loss of one of God’s innocent critters.
Elbow is getting slaughtered
He’s a conniver and is presenting a blend of slippery shit and polite jabs. Scomo knows his stuff and is possibly the best politician I’ve heard at condensing difficult stats.
Albo is what you can become kids if you spend 26 years in Govmint and then put your hand up to be the next PM.
So stay close to your desk and never go to sea
And you too could be
the Leader of a minority ..govmint
Laughing out loud. Elbow reckons Australia’s economic performance is due to the Hawke-Keating government.
Tuned in after dinner to the debate – recorded it in case it had adverts.
10 minutes in and boring. Housing and nursing, and “everything is fairly good but could be better”.
Audience seem asleep. I presume there are no zingers allowed. Credlin at least said beforehand that she hopes someone asks “what is a woman?”
Debate? I chose a good night to eat at the pub.
To which he was an economic adviser.
That’s my concern – an Albanese Government with Greens support.
If Australia gives the L/NP-ALP-GRN axis 80% + of the primary vote, we get what we deserve.
Prime Minister, what is best in life?
Albo presents as someone who doesn’t believe in what he’s saying…as though he is reading a brochure to the audience.
Scomo is looking relaxed and tanned.
Great Reset- What do they think of people who will live in the country?
What a beautiful piece of prose.
Thanks for telling the fascist pricks to get fucked, they truly deserve it.
Bluey:
Too true.
And a dog is cheaper.
Fuck they do look like bookends though. (Albo and Scomo).
He’s actually amazing in that respect. Too bad, though, he’s a spineless amoeba.
Interesting! .. something that never gets any publicity when the “environmental” aspects of TESLA batteries are mentioned .. LOL!
https://ibb.co/cLMy5Cw
Dot, the LNP-ALP primary vote, according to this week’s polling, is about 70% of the total primary vote — a record low. The major parties are being abandoned because they’re shit.
Cohenite
Why didn’t you deck him?
I’m a man a peace.
Though I was sorely tempted to do the Benny Hill head-slapping thing like he used to do with Little Jacky Wright on the Benny Hill Show.
Runnybum:
Westerners alive today have never thought of themselves as the baddies. Those scales have been quite rudely lifted the last couple of years.
Bwahaha. Audience member with tie die face mask.
What a beautiful set of numbers to literally “pour” over.
Albo reminds me of Harry Reid.
But why do they need to care about the primary vote if the votes return through preferences? The two big big parties don’t give a shit for this reason. It would be a concern if the lack of primary support was listing to one side. But it’s not.
Apologies, as you were then Gez. Paysants have a good eye for fillies.
IMO, the parliament Midwinter Ball is an opportunity wasted by the parties, , and not only because so many of them are too ugly for showbiz. A photo of a genuine lady- say, Nicolle Flint- frocked and dancing with a well brought-up man – say, for instance Alex Antic- would be an image that many aussies young and old would warm to, and many pinkos would not be able to tolerate for the tears of rage and confusion. Confusion not only of facing the platonic complimentary of women and men arm in arm, but of the hint that being bodily disciplined, having your shit together mentally go hand in hand, and it equals havingyour life on track for success.
Laughing out loud again. Elbow says it’s an “outrageous slur” that he’s on the side of the Chinese Communist Party. Too funny.
If their primary vote goes below 30% individually, they are threatened.
Maybe I’m wrong but once their image as the “natural” parties of government goes, then it’s on for young and old.
My pleasure, Milton, I have had many run ins with people who are incapable of noticing the difference between an “Action Plan” and the hardware necessary to achieve it.
Rudd was a master at this sort of denial – wave a piece of paper and think it’s all that’s necessary. Then when things go to shit, are completely lost.
Like what is happening to our Electrical Grid, our Immigration Policies (And if there is a famine in Indonesia, how are they going to deal with it?) and the diesel/petrol shit fight, what have they learnt about the Ad Blue debacle?
It’s like watching a teenager go around a house sticking knives into power points but insisting they know what they’re doing. “They didn’t do it right.”
Perhaps, however of preferences get them to 50% plus one vote then they’re okay.
First order of business for Albos Govmint would be to call a Summit and get the best of celebrity minds together to tell us how wrong everything is. Then develop a report and maybe one or two recommendations over the following 2 years and prepare for the next election.
RSL really hammers home Conquest’s Second Law, “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.”
$2.90 per vote, that’s why.
Kevin07, come on down!
And then we have our beloved Liberal Party of Australia.
Albo wants the economy to work for people not the other way around. WTF does that mean?
Smart move if correct.
Why does an image of Neville Chamberlain spring to mind?
Is this the financial support that comes from the state?
Audience member claiming Sky was biased timewise against Albo.
Jupes:
Where on Earth did he get that impression?
Is there another place you could organise a counter service?
Jupes, I just reread my post – No not that sort of counter service, an alternate place?
I don’t think tonight changed any minds, just reinforced people’s previous positions.
Yep.
She sat there with a stopwatch, timing them?
(Union plant)
Roger:
I read that as “transgenderism in gerbils.” I have no idea why. The page was scrolling up as I read it but still…
Further comment to a piece, about a week ago, which discussed a French economist’s thoughts suggesting the Russian economy is much bigger if comparisons are made through PPP. Instead of being the size of Spain when comparisons are made through currencies, PPP (purchasing power parity) showed the Russian economy to be about the size of Germany, according to the Frog. This could be correct as I checked a couple of sites and they more or less indicated the same thing.
Maybe so, at least, before the war. The sanctions and the other restrictions have turned that argument on its head. There is a very strong case to make in support of PPP over the long term when the currency is somewhat convertible, even if there are some restrictions with respect to its convertibility. The Rubble is no longer internationally convertible and if it is accepted, Russian imports would trade at a huge premium and similarly exports at a huge discount. The idea that the Rubble has gone back to its old level pre-war is a Russian made mirage. It’s total bullshit.
These days the Russian economy is probably 50% smaller than before the invasion. If it’s not there yet, it will be soon enough. Furthermore, there is no rebound from this.
I agree Tom. Tonites Wouldn’t have shifted too many minds. I thought Albo as a challenger really needed to really nail it and be at least the equal of the incumbent. I didn’t get that impression.
Sky now banging on about how Albo would consider it a win as he didn’t stuff up big time. Talk about setting a very low bar of expectation.
Elbow is a follower. He isn’t a leader.
I wouldn’t trust him to cut a sandwich, let alone run the tuck shop.
I’m going to my dad’s driveway service. He’s been doing it for years, well before it was the only option. It will be the first Dawn Service I have with him since I was a kid in PNG. I would have gone to dad’s anyway but the ‘invitation only’ call fucking incensed me.
I couldn’t help thinking ahead ….should Albo get the gig and the first big issue comes along, I doubt his ability to handle the heat, defend a position. Just doesn’t seem to command the space and deliver gravitas.
Richos growth on his arse is coming along nicely. It now talks and wears glasses.
Aren’t all “peacekeepers” already eligible for a Gold Card?
Good luck!
Good summary comment on Sky. ‘Both leaders playing it safe, which could cost them both dearly come election time.’
Nevertheless, one faction or the other of the duopoly will win because they will preference each other instead of directing preferences to a third party. More than anything else, they want to retain their stranglehold on power.
Well said Jupes (re the harsh but justified letter to RSL)
Two things get on my goat re ANZAC Day:
1/. The concept that it is the exclusive property of the RSL.
2/. Cops in uniform turning up to the dawn service & then the march, participating as if they’re insiders to concept of Anzac Day.
Tomsays:
April 20, 2022 at 7:48 pm
Dot, the LNP-ALP primary vote, according to this week’s polling, is about 70% of the total primary vote — a record low. The major parties are being abandoned because they’re shit.
Perhaps, but they have fixed the electoral system so that most valid votes in the HoR end up shared between the major parties. And they will unite against any attempt by minors in the HoR or Senate to change that, even to an optional preferential system.
I don’t give a damn about his gravitas. What concerns me is that his grasp of economics is even worse than that of numbers, who we all know to be an ignorant imbecile.
“….in this supposedly monogamous society, a man can leave behind two widows – his legal widow and his de facto. In one notorious case, he left behind three.” “The Repat Racket”, Malcolm Smith, P 148.
I’d say Lego Masters, Master Chef and The Voice were the winners of tonight’s debate.
Libs of Tik Tok:
Someone put up a site showing tiktok videos of leftists bragging about how they brainwashed kids.
The site was shut down by twitter, and ….
Watch the Tucker episode where the doxxer complains about being doxed and being criticised on twitter, who then goes on to dox and harass the site owner.
They can dish it out but it’s a crime when they cop it back.
Link to the above:
Tucker.
I had to escape the ‘debate’ – it sounded like dog fight – a snarling corgi and a robust bulldog –
Struth, how about a paragraph and a link next time.
How can we gauge this? Very unlikely at the minute. A contraction of that magnitude would be a catastrophe.
Really got my goat last year when Andrews put strict limits on the ANZAC day march, but the footy was nearly open slather. A clear demonstration that whatever he might say, he’s got no clue what it means.
ZK2A:
Because it’s accurate.
Wasn’t there a B.L.M. march that was also nearly open slather?
????? ?? ?????? ??
Woe betide the Liberal Party (fools, power of a king, willing volunteers, born again virgins), but the apple harvest will be good thanks to the landlord’s daughter!
Well shoot. That looked good as runes.
Sumer is icumen in!
Ben Fordham eviscerated that POS matt kean today in respect of his verballing of Katherine Deves. Little johnny needs his broad church stuck up his puckering little arse.
Check out this guy and succeeding in the face of adversity.
How dare you!
Bluey says: April 20, 2022 at 9:03 pm
It is moments like those Bluey, which make it impossible for anybody to argue that it was about either health or science.
Correct me where I’m wrong; Weren’t marchers or attendees required to register & apply for a permit to attend, simultaneously to the march tens of thousands were free to queue to get into the grandstand at the football?
One thing about United Cloive Party; the number of good well-paying public service jobs will skyrocket.
Somebody will have to administer the umpty billion spend, adjudicate on 200km tax residency, sort out the lending crisis when 3% doesn’t cover the cost of funds, revise the Constitution, “restructure the system to keep business going and to keep people employed productively” – and peer into my SMSF to make sure my investments don’t go to naughty overseas capital markets.
Fat Bastard: offering to yank the biggest government levers in 2022.
No as it’s likely to be a gay porn site.
Niall Ferguson | The Utopian Myth of Equality | #CLIP
John Anderson
Not with the current jurisprudence used by the High Court in constitutional matters.
Move over literalism, originalism, textualism or a living constitution; French, Kiefel et. al., have authored the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia Act: Choose Your Own Adventure Edition.
This is what should be keeping people awake at night. The Lieborals can’t afford any loses but it’s only a two horse race. Despite Albo I still can’t see how the Lieborals can pull it off.
Spready to the Gods: A Deep Dive – Ozzy Man Reviews
What a damning indictment on the ALPBC that one branch of the UniParty regards them as unable to present an unbiased coverage of a general election debate. What a damning indictment of that branch that they have been in government for a decade and done nothing about it.
Anybody able to tell me the last time the Liberal candidate won one of these debates? From memory, didn’t John Howard wipe the floor with Paul Keating in 1996?
Not quite.
I didn’t go on that day, but I went to another match under similar conditions.
I have a numbered membership card with photo ID which entitles me to free entry.
I still had to book a ticket online for $0.00 and get an assigned seat.
I then had to show that ticket and QR code to get through the gate.
The probability of 100 genuinely undecided voters self-selecting to sit through a Leaders Debate is slightly less than that Div 1 Lotto win.