Open Thread – Tuesday 26 April 2022
1,741 responses to “Open Thread – Tuesday 26 April 2022”
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Timothy Neilsonsays:
April 26, 2022 at 10:57 am
lotocotisays:
April 26, 2022 at 10:26 am
Wait.
What?“Models” and “simulations”. We actually have data from disparate jurisdictions all round the world for about a year and a half as to what, if any, effects vaccination has had on transmission. How do the models and simulations match up against the reality? Strangely the article doesn’t say.
Facts? Data? Don’t waste my time with facts and data when I can get a lucrative grant to do some modeling that will produce a result conforming to my prejudices!
Just missed the podium!
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Saw some photos of Andrews at the shrine yesterday. Didn’t go anywhere without a wall of cops between him and everyone else, and clearly had a protective vest under his jacket.
I’m rather insulted he showed after his restrictions on ANZAC day last year, but the footy was important so lets go easy on it. Just don’t have the words to describe what a vile individual he is.
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Is Elon Musk Coming to the Rescue?
Will his belief in free speech release the social media giant from its slavery to woke ideology? Will he be able to change Twitter’s censorious ways?
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Caravaggio may have been an arsehole but damn, he was a good painter!
I was thinking of this earlier this morning. Caravaggio is like Shane Warne, a total genius at leg spin but very human in the arts of humanity. Often happens with guys, moreso than the ladies. I don’t know why that is. I don’t understand, either, why ladies don’t ever seem to produce great art like the old masters. I see no reason why that should be so; it’s just for some reason I don’t comprehend there isn’t any.
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I was thinking of this earlier this morning. Caravaggio is like Shane Warne, a total genius at leg spin but very human in the arts of humanity. Often happens with guys, moreso than the ladies. I don’t know why that is. I don’t understand, either, why ladies don’t ever seem to produce great art like the old masters. I see no reason why that should be so; it’s just for some reason I don’t comprehend there isn’t any.
you can generalise that almost every field. woman have a focused role in evolution, the rest is window dressing. no amount of equity is going to change that any time soon.
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Finally an outfit that hides The Bat Eared Mongs most hideous feature:
https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/premier-andrews-visits-gurdwara-bangla-sahib
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I would have thought that head shots would have been his main concern given the target area?
Have you ever heard of spaced armour, rickw? 😉
Not even a thermobaric warhead behind a tungsten penetrator is going to go any damage in there, such is the empty space…
(1st Shitpost of the new OT. You are all welcome.)
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The motorbike memories are too good to be left on the old thread…
Back in the 1950s, motor bike riders were known as temporary Australians
And in the 70′ and 80’s too.
Used to ride from Hobart to Launceston in a pack for the races up north. Average cruise speed was about 140 kph. Ducati 900s; Kawasaki 900 and 1000s, the occasional H2; Suzuki GTS; Honda CBX 6-cylinder etc etc.
In those days the coppers used to run a speed trap in the small towns which had a 70 or 80 limit. Used to get a wave as we went through.
Not any more.
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About the Thomas banner: I once had it read to me (and cannot remember from where) that Thomas, upon investigating the wound, did not say ‘That’s interesting.’
Thomas himself is interesting. After the finger-in-hole thingie he went far afield. The historical evidence is pretty strong that he caught a boat to Augustus’s trading post on the western coast of India. Then attempted to convert the locals in southern India. Did not work. But they accreted his teaching and apparently he was included in the iconograpy of the local temples in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
In our church we have links with a number of churches in Tamil Nadu. Thomas would be very happy with those people I think.
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Flicked on the Teev and lo! another travelogue about China. Looking at travelogues on FTV lately, you’d be forgiven for thinking there was no other o/s destination worth a look. Completely objective and above board.
Those cheap sluts in travel TV will do and say anything for a free flight and accommodation, booze, and prawns on a stick. Probably girls/boyz/whateverz thrown in.
One of the weirdest examples was an FTV show promoting tourism in WA, while the State was completely closed to tourists. It went on for months. Presumably, the vendors of the program included a clause to protect them against unexpected dictatorship. Well done.
So, week after week, this show went to air urging punters to come to WA, which was impossible.
Fortunately, the political class is unembarrassable.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Western arms shipments to Ukraine mean Nato is “in essence engaged in war with Russia” and there is “considerable” risk of the conflict going nuclear
Not because of any existential risk from NATO: more because the Poot has fucked up at an historic scale – and l’état, c’est moi.
No winners. The sadly inevitable result of 30 years of piss poor diplomacy – still going strong today:
U.S. wants Russian military ‘weakened’ from Ukraine invasion, Austin says
Helpful.
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BoN
You do know there are lady ‘old masters’?Rosie – Do you have any links? I’m interested in such things since my old mum is a professional artist, and some of her stuff is breathtaking. But I have seen little of ladies’ artwork in the space of Rembrandt or Michelangelo. I’m not an art appreciation person myself but I have works from my mum, sister and step-granny in my house. Fine stuff. I don’t recommend it as a profession though since they’ve all been poor as churchmice.
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Indonesia banning palm oil exports has pushed the canola price even higher.
It’s been revised a few times but the latest estimate of Australian gross ag production for 21/22 is $81 billion.Seeding progressing steadily here. Longer canola all in with some already out. Shorter season variety about 1/4 done.
Long season wheat (Lancer) will be 2/3 in by the time rain stops us tonight.
The urea spreading in front of the sowing rigs was held up for 36hrs thanks to an electrical problem with the spreader, the CAN control unit failed. Replaced and reprogrammed this morning, luckily had enough spread to not cause hold ups or plan changing.
Could do with a kip ? -
U.S. wants Russian military ‘weakened’ from Ukraine invasion, Austin says
Helpful.
Quite.
Many people on the Prague side of post-1991 Europe consistently wanted to draw the wrong lessons from observing the Russian armed forces in action.
They chose to ignore 2 consecutive debacles in Chechnya and the ongoing messes in Syria, in favour of them rolling over the comparatively tiny and defenceless Georgia in 2008.
The old Red Army boogeyman was really only a boogeyman because of its Czech, Polish and East German constituents,* whose breakout attempts might broaden the Russians’ sole avenue of approach through the Fulda Gap. And it was more or less assumed that the USSR would resort to chemical and tactical nuclear attacks to un-stymie any particularly snarled-up advances.
* Whom the Russians didn’t really trust with something as important as breaking NATO in a ground war, anyway.
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Bruce-
I don’t understand, either, why ladies don’t ever seem to produce great art like the old masters. I see no reason why that should be so; it’s just for some reason I don’t comprehend there isn’t any.
Quick explanation- the European masters came from long apprenticeships, wherein boys would start very young and spend decades learning the physical and material craft, in the servitude of a studio master who himself had spent years training and learning and building on the knowledge of the enlightenment, and gathering material goods and consumables. Art production is a physical trade, as well as a mental discipline.
Needing more explanation- boys were always apprenticed into the physical trades, smithing, strapping, carpentry, masonry- sculpture, painting. Not only did these activities need the body to be ready to shoulder the load (menstruation or pregnancy could not be allowed to disrupt the task- indeed if any family were mad enough to send a daughter to live and work with in an all-male trade floor) but they suited the male mind of pattern detection, individual problem solving, and ambition- and the title of “Master” was won only by the self-possessed.
The female apprenticeships- seamstressing, millweaving, kitchen, nunnery- suited the female disposition of pattern making, communal problem solving, peacemaking. All these could be conceivably be done while pregnant or nursing.
More queeries- what about the trades which might cross over the boundaries of male-physical-ego v female-interpersonal-id? ie, musical composition?
-what about non-European cultures? I seem to recall Japanese printmakers and painters were famously some female…
-what of the upper-crust european women who were only considered well brought up if they had a good handle on drawing and draftsmanship? Were these activities only seen as personal passtimes- whereas visual Art production was overwhelmingly industrial production for a commissioning market.
…
Anyway, I’m waffling a bit. I quit my art apprenticeship long ago, but I wish all of these questions (not to mention, valuable artworks) had not been buried under race-gender-n-what-are-you-bonking relativism at the time… which leads on to my final question-
If the West had allowed women into the tradition of figurative visual art before the tradition was sundered at the altar of The Artist as Everything and The Art as Negligible- with the sacrificial knife being wielded by the Big State art buyer-
… what art may have been produced?
…and, could the madness of Race-Gender-Sexuality art have been somewhat mitigated? -
Quick explanation- the European masters came from long apprenticeships
Wally – My old mum showed me some of her stuff from her teen years. Extremely good. Yet never did she crack the big time. She has a lot of works on the internet but I can’t link them without doxxing myself, unfortunately. She described to me her latest project a few weeks ago, sounded very good – a book full of art (she does those and they sell pretty well.) It’s a field where there’s a million penniless trojans for every very rich successful artist. My mum has never gotten any of the Arzzzz Council largess because she’s a knuckle dragging rightie, even though she’s pretty well known.
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here’s a list of eight BoN
Rosie – Thanks, that’s a fine article! Ms Sirani approaches a Caravaggianist style, but not so out there as he was. Ok, he was pretty out there in all directions. I haven’t seen her work before your link. Sad she laid her brush down so young.
I like Ms Anguissola’s as well. Her self portrait is very good indeed. (From wiki.)
They’re the ones who appeal to me. I thought Lavinia Fontana’s painting was funny since the lady in the painting, her six children, and the dog, all have the same expression.
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Caravaggio’s Bacchus has always struck me as a little disturbing.
The head does not merely look boyish, nor even epicene. Looks like a sheila. Yet the body is male. Perhaps not the physique of Apollo, but at least Adonis.
The facial expression and the offering of the wine glass is great. Not just because it makes you feel that you are being directly addressed, but that there is a hint of risk – a risk that is always present in a glass and the ones that become easier to say ‘yes’ to after that.
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Because the Chinese show such exemplary concern for the environment:
After all, they have given the Greenleftians their solemn assurance about their 2050 emissions target, haven’t they?
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Sorry it is so small. Could not find a larger one that was not merely a detail.
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If I hear another response from a Labor spokesman /spokeswoman that does not commence with “let me be quite clear”, I will choke on my popcorn. These orations are then usually followed by a series of obfuscations, generously littered with the words clearly, obviously and plainly. On no occasion is the question to hand actually to be answered. Spare me days (daze). Is the budget so low that they only have the one speech writer or is the formula ingrained within their genes. 🙁
Richard Marles seems to have refined the technique and often attempts to deflect the question by calling into doubt the integrity of the questioner by taking (pseudo) offence at the temerity of the poor hack from the press for even asking the question. He then proceeds to not answer the question as per the handbook. Grrrr. -
Co-founding HTML coder Jack Dorsey became a billionaire by inventing a clever digital idea, Twitter.
But Dorsey allowed Twitter to become an echo chamber where everything that didn’t toe the leftist tribal line was banned as “hate speech” and made it unusable for everyone not inside the tribe. All that ended today when Elon Musk bought the company.
Changing the company culture necessarily means parting company with most of the staff — fascists who are emotionally unable to handle the concept of free speech.
That starts tomorrow. Meantime, non-leftists are celebrating the return of a usable digital town square to which everyone has access. Tucker Carlson Tonight.
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I see there is a Fontana at the NGV
She does good self portraits too. From your link:
Self-Portrait in the Studio, 1579
Self-Portrait at the Virginal with a Servant, 1577
I like those, they have more power than the others on the page. I don’t know why I think that, but that is the impression I get. Take it for what you will.
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U.S. wants Russian military ‘weakened’ from Ukraine invasion, Austin says
This is what opposing empires have wanted since the Assyrians got onto their horsies.
I don’t blame the US for this. I do think, though, that Vlad has chosen…poorly.
That may be because time has caught up with him.
The guy with the scythe don’t care about plans and empires. -
“Changing the company culture necessarily means parting company with most of the staff — fascists who are emotionally unable to handle the concept of free speech.”
A very accurate description. I suspect that any changes within the organisation will involve a massive clean out of staff. In the meantime I’ll only believe there’s change when President Trump is asked to return ..oh and…..
Milo Yiannopoulos
Alex Jones
Laura Loomer
Meghan Murphy
Graham Linehan
Mike Lindell
James O’Keefe
Michael Flynn
Roger Stone
Steve Bannonto name just a few. Irrespective of whether you like or dislike any of the above, their banning from Twitter was a disgraceful affront to free speech and democracy.
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They really are bear.
I find the art world quite fascinating.
The Felton bequest acquired quite a bit when the Bolsheviks were selling off Russia’s patrimony, another reason to visit.
When I was in Carcassone the local gallery was displaying five or six works with the notation that more or less said recovered from the nazis, former owners unknown.
Thousands such cases. -
Greetings from Coober Pedy! The approach to the town reminds me of the prairie dog city in South Dakota…many…many mounds.
We drove through some quite torrential rain on the way through, and all the lakes along the way are full. There is plenty of evidence of where the orad was cut a couple of months back. Fascinating to observe the change of vegetation from the “Welcome to the Outback” sign at the start of the Stuart Highway to here. Trees and shrubs to shrubs to grasses and stunted saltbush to rocks. Everywhere is a film of pale green, as if living things are struggling to break through the crust.
The Beloved dodged several tanned frilly lizards sunning themselves on the road. Living dangerously indeed.
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“…I’ll only believe there’s change when President Trump is asked to return…”
He’s already said he won’t and that in the next week or so, he’ll be using his own TRUTH Social account for that.
Now they’ve moved TRUTH Social to Rumble infrastructure, they should have the computer and bandwidth resources they need on a pretty much “un-censorable” hosting. Most TRUTH posters seem to agree that you get much better engagement on TRUTH than on Twitter anyway. -
People such as Tucker Carlson have already had their accounts reinstated.
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One guess who wrote this headline.
I love social media, it’s a window into the soul of homo sapiens.
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I had an experience reinforcing my enlightenment while dropping by the GP’s office today to collect some paperwork. As I’m waiting at the counter for the office manager to fish out some records a rather desperate sounding older lady fronted the counter seeking an appointment:
” I’d like to make an appointment for a covid booster, I had my fourth in December.”
Fourth all up or fourth booster? A fellow perhaps tending toward his mid sixties then fronts requesting:
” Could I also get a covid booster shot today along with the flu shot”?
Well, there you go, I will expect the median price of real estate to begin inversion later in the year. Perhaps the real reason the Libs wish to return to voluminous migration levels.
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Wealth is quite perplexing. Another mates father used to collect bronze sculptures and other stuff. I think he had several Henry Moores, a lot of Norman Lindsay’s stuff and other bits and pieces. It was not unusual to go round there to find half a dozen (presumably valuable) Persian rugs still rolled up in a corner.
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U.S. wants Russian military ‘weakened’ from Ukraine invasion, Austin says
If the Russians interpret this as an existential threat the stakes have been raised considerably.
Precisely my point.
Hard to see how they wouldn’t. After all Austin is the US Secretary of Defence and probably has some say in US policy.
As far as I can see, Austin had already got his wish – Putin’s Russia is in deep trouble. The truly scary bit is that the Biden Administration appears to think this is ‘winning’.
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From Bruce’s quality news link:
“He may even bring back… DONALD TRUMP! REEEEEEEE!” cried Piddlewonk before tearing at his clothing and diving out of a nearby window.
Seizing the moment, Mark Zuckerberg has invited everyone to move over to the Metaverse, which features robust and progressive content moderation, leading dozens and dozens of people to join.I love those guys.
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Calli, fond memories of Coober Pedy as a youth, waiting on the northern outskirts of town for 24 hours as a hitchhiker. A truckie from the Adelaide suburb of Rostrevor eventually picked me and took me all the way to Darwin en route to my first foreign adventure in East Timor (prior to the Indonesian invasion). End of the wet season so we spent days in East Timor wading through raging rivers on the “bus” trip from Bacau to Dili in what was then still a Portuguese colony.
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Hahaha. After two years hiding in someone’s laptop, this has reappeared on Twitter doctored to include Elon Musk. Very catchy!
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The US wanted this war
Strictly speaking, so did Russia…
Correct.
Putin warned W. European nations some weeks ago of unspecified but serious consequences if they became engaged in a proxy war alongside the US in Ukraine, saying the retaliations were already planned. The UK was singled out particularly.
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I’m pretty certain Musk won’t allow repulsive crap to be posted there. He will have standards, but the difference is that those standards will be transparent and the aglos will be open sourced so everyone will know the parameters and these rules will apply to everyone equally.
Possibly JC. I think he doesn’t care how raaaacist or “racist” you are. He just wants free speech. Perhaps he’ll build it into the T&C’s? I see Tucker Carlson has tweeted “we back” – this is great news!
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So we now have the continuation of a well planned campaign to try and unseat the Libs in NSW. I refer to the announcement of a 24 [sic] hour strike by teachers. I’ll leave aside the fact that teachers do not work for 24 hours so maybe a six or seven hour strike. This comes on the heels of stoppages by train drivers, nurses, bus drivers and paramedics. These public service union members were largely untouched, financially, over the last two years while private sector workers (mostly ununionised) lost income, and indeed employment, on a large scale. So the privileged are pushing for more taxpayer money from tax payers who are now less well off. If this sounds a little convoluted, perhaps someone can explain it better.
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Greetings from Coober Pedy!
Was there quite a few years ago in the course of an outback trip with a camper trailer. We stayed overnight in the town’s caravan park and was amazed at the level of violent abuse being hurled at each other by an group of Aborigines on the other side of the fence.
We put on a disc of the lovely voice of Nora Jones, and silence immediately followed – alas, only for a short time.
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Putin’s Russia is in deep trouble.
Yep. They haven’t discovered forklifts.
The logistics footage coming out from the Russian side is amazing. Early 20thC level much of it.
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He’s going to have a few issues, Lysander. See what happens when a knucklehead or two or three start posting racist crap on there and what the advertisers do. It’s likely to be leftwingers too, just to fuck him over.
Yeah you’re right JC.. some LWNJ’s are going to go on the platform and try and incite a Congress insurrection by violent means or something. The Dems will legislate against the platform… from the great post Tom put up of Tucker, it seems the Dems already tried to stop the sale last night in Congress… (which, actually heartens me cos it means it’s real)
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Lysander – Diamond Princess. Ruby Princess is the one Gladys let all the passengers take off from.
It was the Diamond Princess where only 20% of people on board caught coof despite being stuck on board for a month because the Japs wouldn’t let them off. Best empirical experiment so far in this whole sorry situation.
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Best empirical experiment so far in this whole sorry situation.
No it’s not, Fester. It’s all we had at the time, but since then there’s been plenty data that is superior. People confined in close quarters for a month is NOT how people live, you dimbus. You’re beginning to embarrass the site these days, Fester. Just remain silent.
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Lysander
It closed at a slight discount to Musk’s bid. It’s just under 5% below. It shows there still could be risk with the deal going through. Demented’s DOJ could oppose it on some anti-trust grounds. There’s still some risk and I believe the discount isn’t big enough.
In fact, I’d be inclined to short it if it goes a little higher as the risk/ reward the deal goes south maybe worth the bet.
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Pharaoh is kind to the slaves…….
COVID-19 restrictions eased: What will go and what will stay
Kate PhillipsThe West Australian
Tue, 26 April 2022 1:45PM
WA will move to new ‘baseline measures’ on Friday April 29. Here is a list of the COVID restrictions that will go – and the very few that will stay.
Gone:Proof of vaccination to enter businesses and venues
Proof of vaccination for interstate travellers
G2G passes for travellers into WA
Third vaccine requirement
Capacity and gathering limits and the 2 square metre rule
Caps on weddings or funerals
Capacity limits on community sports, stadiums and community events
Blanket indoor mask mandate (masks for people aged 12 and over in aged care, health care buildings and hospitals, prison taxis, ride share and public transport still required).
Masks for children aged 8 to 11
Quarantine requirements for asymptomatic close contacts (however they will need face mask and daily RAT tests and avoid high-risk settings) -
Looks like the “secret digger”
is getting a bit of attention online.
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Gone:
Proof of vaccination to enter businesses and venues
Proof of vaccination for interstate travellers
G2G passes for travellers into WA
Third vaccine requirementIsn’t that interesting- Force the vast majority of us into taking the damn thing, only to drop it at the first sign of an impending Federal Election…
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It closed at a slight discount to Musk’s bid. It’s just under 5% below. It shows there still could be risk with the deal going through. Demented’s DOJ could oppose it on some anti-trust grounds. There’s still some risk and I believe the discount isn’t big enough.
In fact, I’d be inclined to short it if it goes a little higher as the risk/ reward the deal goes south maybe worth the bet.
twitter could be so much more then just stupid tweets, I think musk knows what he is doing
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Avid Commentator ??
@AvidCommentator
This is a hell of a chart from Bank of America.There are fewer flights operating daily in China now than during the height of lockdown at the start of the pandemic.
https://mobile.twitter.com/AvidCommentator/status/1518822671433494533/photo/1
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WA “new baseline measures”.
Still along way off getting our God-given free lives back.
Still sounds a lot like “The New Normal”.
Rex A, I don’t think Mao Gowan cares two ways about the fed election- in fact, he’d probably prefer a LNP national government. But there’s no doubt that they have tried to bury the news behind the Twitter swithcheroo, striking teachers, a hot war, and with the arsehole himself locked away. -
high doses of prednisone is my guess. probably got ccp virus
Speaking of prednisone and other anti-inflammatories – it is interesting to observe some GPs belatedly recognising what the FLCCC frontline Covid physicians have been recommending for over a year.
In two cases that I have heard of in my circle – one with Covid, the other with “Long Covid” (aka post viral syndrome) – prednisone was prescribed in the first (after first trialling a steroid inhaler), and Dymista (combination anti-histamine and steroid) in the other.
I suspect that many GPs are quietly reassessing their treatment protocol. The initial official line of “go home and ring an ambulance if you can’t breathe” was disgraceful.
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China in Focus – NTD
01:06 Survey: foreigners plan to leave Shanghai
02:44 Supplier for Tesla, Apple struggles w/ infections
04:24 Is Beijing locking down? Locals are worried
06:43 Columbia rejects Chinese student for #HateSpeech
08:25 Wuhan lab can destroy secret files: Doc
11:01 Japan promises a stronger military to help U.S.
12:44 Japan, New Zealand discuss Indo-Pacific
13:33 European Union head meets w/ India’s Modi -
Dredging thru the remains of the old thread and found this:
Tim Blair:
And they don’t want to be pushed around by the likes of former diplomat turned net zero scooter boy Sharma or multi-millionaire Carla Zampatti heiress Spender.No worries, but it was only a few years ago, after Malcolm Turnbull left Parliament, that Tim Blair was shilling for Dave Sharma’s bid for Preselection, calling Dave a good bloke.
Now Dave isn’t a good bloke, he’s a pushy former diplomat.
Blair has a consistency problem here.
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Not to Adam Assbandt. His response to Musk on twitter was “Tax the rich.”
What a complete and utter turd.
If Musk (or Gates, or Bezos) have billions of dollars it is because people gave them billions of dollars in exchange for goods or services that they wanted. If they have billions of dollars it is because they gave people billions of dollars worth in exchange.
Can any politician honestly claim to have done anything at all equivalent.
And what does Bandt offer. What is his stock in trade? Taxes and laws. (Well, also retarded soundbites.) Point is no one being hit with these laws, regulations or taxes are asking for them.
Considering his posturing as a great crusader of one type or another, is there a single thing worthwhile that you would ever even briefly consider Bandt for. He will presume to adjudicate on everything but no one would turn to him for anything.
And with Twatter/Twitter being opened up he might have to hear that.
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From the Daily Telegraph. What is it with Liberal progeny, we have Allegra Da Big Spenda, daughter of former Liberal John Spender and granddaughter of Liberal Percy Spender running as one of these fake independents and in news from Victoria….
“Rob Baillieu, the son of former Victorian Liberal premier Ted Baillieu, has penned an article in The Age detailing his rejection of an offer to work for an unnamed “moderate” MP because being sounded out for the job was “one of the most homophobic experiences of my life”.
Instead he is now campaigning for Monique Ryan in an effort to unseat Josh Frydenberg from Kooyong.
Of course Baillieu, who is gay himself, has every right to campaign for whomever he chooses. Yet the movement which he has joined is actively seeking to remove two out and proud gay men from parliament: Tim Wilson in Goldstein and Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney.
This seems an odd cause for someone concerned about homophobia in the Liberal Party.”
Well, given the legacy or should that be “non-legacy” of Ted Baillieu we shouldn’t be surprised, should we?
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Outside my pay grade, but I can’t see what sort of off ramp is now available to Putin.
For example, Ukraine could have ceded the break away provinces to Russia after a cease fire and plebiscite according to their constitution. They could have also provided a guarantee not to join NATO. In exchange, Putin withdraws from occupied Ukrainian territory in the south (Crimea excepted) and can claim a strategic victory. This assumes he was amenable to negotiation; but it is all moot now.
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Looks like the “secret digger”
According to the puff piece, he was in Vietnam anyway, servicing the trucks and Mal Fraser personally asked him to go to Cambodia servicing Army Trucks.
A few Questions:
Didn’t the Army have any mechanics at the time?
What’s so special about an International Harvester Truck that it needs it’s own International Harvester mechanics? -
“Rob Baillieu, the son of former Victorian Liberal premier Ted Baillieu, has penned an article in The Age detailing his rejection of an offer to work for an unnamed “moderate” MP because being sounded out for the job was “one of the most homophobic experiences of my life”.
He knocked back a job offer from Josh, is that what he’s saying?
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Old Lefty:
Because the Chinese show such exemplary concern for the environment:
Someone who was really, really, suspicious of Chinese intent could be persuaded this wasn’t just land clearing – it was a really, really, wide road.
6 lanes wide.
That you could land a plane on.
But only if you were really, really, suspicious or something.
Here -
For example, Ukraine could have ceded the break away provinces to Russia after a cease fire and plebiscite according to their constitution. They could have also provided a guarantee not to join NATO. In exchange, Putin withdraws from occupied Ukrainian territory in the south (Crimea excepted) and can claim a strategic victory. This assumes he was amenable to negotiation; but it is all moot now.
this was the easiest war to avoid in modern history
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Dickless
No worries, but it was only a few years ago, after Malcolm Turnbull left Parliament, that Tim Blair was shilling for Dave Sharma’s bid for Preselection, calling Dave a good bloke.
Now Dave isn’t a good bloke, he’s a pushy former diplomat.
Blair has a consistency problem here.No real problem.
How Sharma behaved before he entered Parliament, and how his behaviour changed after, might give you a clue.
Also, compared to his predecessor in the seat (the raving idiot Phelps), Sharma might indeed have seemed to be “a good bloke”.
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It was the Diamond Princess where only 20% of people on board caught coof despite being stuck on board for a month because the Japs wouldn’t let them off. Best empirical experiment so far in this whole sorry situation.
A PR study was done. It found:
Of the 634 confirmed cases, a total of 306 and 328 were reported to be symptomatic and asymptomatic, respectively.
Nearly 52% had no symptoms; this in a population weighted towards the elderly.
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Winston Smithsays:
April 26, 2022 at 5:08 pm
Old Lefty:Because the Chinese show such exemplary concern for the environment:
Someone who was really, really, suspicious of Chinese intent could be persuaded this wasn’t just land clearing – it was a really, really, wide road.
6 lanes wide.
That you could land a plane on.
But only if you were really, really, suspicious or something.Winston
Where is that, and what kind of foundations/surface went over the ditch?
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Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet website page for the Australian Active Service Medal:
The Australian Active Service Medal recognises service of Australian Defence Force and certain other persons in prescribed warlike operations.
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Doesn’t sound like Russia is losing to me.
As mentioned previously, I wonder if those Bushmasters we sent are still in one piece. Or maybe they’re in the possession of an Albanian arms dealer, bought for cents on the dollar, and en route to goodness knows where.
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Russell Brand
5.55M subscribersFrom left to right, from Noam Chomsky to Tucker Carlson, war-skeptical voices are being denounced. Guess who benefits.
#Tucker #Chomsky #MainstreamMedia -
Doesn’t sound like Russia is losing to me.
Well, they’ve already lost in that they’ve reverted to Plan B after Plan A failed. Massive overreach based on bad intelligence.
Now they’ve called in the commander from Syria to flatten the Donbass with artillery, after which they’ll be fighting an insurgency for how long?
Nobody really comes out of this winning from this point.
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For example, Ukraine could have ceded the break away provinces to Russia after a cease fire and plebiscite according to their constitution. They could have also provided a guarantee not to join NATO. In exchange, Putin withdraws from occupied Ukrainian territory in the south (Crimea excepted) and can claim a strategic victory.
Yes, that might have got Russia off Ukraine’s neck – possibly five or six weeks ago. And Putin would probably have sold it in Russia as a famous victory.
But in terms of being an ‘off ramp’, I doubt that Russia only taking a modest bite out of a neighbour by military force would have calmed Western Europe – or former Soviet states now in NATO.
And as for the US…But that wasn’t Putin’s plan then, and as you (and I) say, that’s moot now.
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But in terms of being an ‘off ramp’, I doubt that Russia only taking a modest bite out of a neighbour by military force would have calmed Western Europe – or former Soviet states now in NATO.
And as for the US…Barack pointedly looked the other way when Vlad Bae rolled his tanks into Georgia in 2008…
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But in terms of being an ‘off ramp’, I doubt that Russia only taking a modest bite out of a neighbour by military force would have calmed Western Europe
No, there would have been a concerted effort at rearmament throughout west & central Europe.
But that would have been the best deterrent to Putin’s “Greater Russia” ambitions, at least on Russia’s western borderlands.
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Re SAS guys, this story hasn’t been mentioned, so I will.
SAS officer Roger Woodiwiss, 1929-2022 – Obituary (23 Apr)
FIGHTING deep behind enemy lines in Malaya, SAS officer Roger Woodiwiss had to contend with thick bamboo forests, leeches and booby traps while on the trail of communist terrorists.
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Later, as Operation Commander for 22nd Special Air Service Regiment from 1973 to 1976, he played a major role in planning multiple operations across the world.As an obituary goes it is very sparse. But an innings of 92 as a SAS guy is pretty damn good. The UK Tele appears to have a more extensive report but I can’t read it because of their paywall. God Speed Maj Woodiwiss.
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“Secret digger” looks like a bit dubious.
Carried a weapon? Most civilian blokes were well aware that gets you shot out of hand if no uniform.
Also why would you do it? He says he was a civilian, so presumably for a whole heap of money, which basically makes him a mercenary.
Briefed by Fraser himself in his time as Minister. Sure!
If the USA really wanted this sort of op done, they’d have got the CIA to do it. They were running the Air America operation at the time.
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Putin needs an off ramp? Lol. Who is holding all the trump cards here? The US has thrown everything it can at Russia (bar the literal nuclear option) and hasn’t quite cut its own throat in the process, but its self-injury is worse than a gunshot wound to the foot. Turns out it isn’t only the Chinese and the Russians who are suddenly very interested in finding alternative currencies to trade in. And seizing the reserves of the Russian central bank, as well as the assets of anyone guilty of being Russian, is probably going to have rather serious mid-long term consequences for London and New York, as foreign investors are probably going to have a different view of their reliability as jurisdictions where capital can be accessed, stored etc. The Euros are ineffectual as always – Russia has them by the balls, energy-wise. They send military aid to Ukraine and Russia smokes it at stand-off range. Some people here don’t seem to realise what a bind the Ukrainians are in.
The West is being led by the most incompetent ruling class since the Great Depression, and we will have to make some humiliating concessions to our adversaries over the next few years as a consequence. But it’s Putin that needs an off ramp, it’s Putin who’s in over his head. My goodness.
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Now they’ve called in the commander from Syria to flatten the Donbass with artillery, after which they’ll be fighting an insurgency for how long?
They could have done this from the start and would be ruling over the pile of rubble that was Kiev if simple conquer was the objective.
And what you meant to write was ‘flatten the Ukrainian positions in the Donbass’. Shelling indiscriminately in the Donbass is the Ukrainian strategy.
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Doesn’t sound like Russia is losing to me.
Depends on your perspective.
In the bag:
• Massive economic damage;
• Political ostracism;
• Fear and loathing in Western Europe leading to boosted defence spending;
• Reassessment of Russian conventional military power – use of tactical nukes now a necessary option.Down the track:
• Russia garrisons along the Black Sea corridor to Crimea;
Europe decouples from Russian energy and trade;
• Arms race – Congress showering money to counter ‘super weapons’ with more awful US super weapons;
• Finland and Sweden join NATO;
• Russia becomes a vassal state to China to replace European trade. -
Tucker: You just became a little more powerful
766,146 viewsApr 26, 2022
Fox News host reacts to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonigh -
Well, they’ve already lost in that they’ve reverted to Plan B after Plan A failed.
I think they’re up to Plan D.
A was a quick takeover in one or two days, via the para battalion at Andropov airport. They were obliterated. B was three or four days because the Ukrainians would welcome the Russians with open arms. That didn’t work either. C was take Kiev by assault and overturn the regime. Also didn’t work. D is get whatever we can and call it victory. Unfortunately it takes two to party and the Ukrainians, from what I’m seeing, aren’t going to party.
I suspect a lot of the stuff the Russians are doing right now is to produce results prior to the May 9 parade. Unfortunately war theaters rarely cooperate with the wishes of politicians, particularly since the enemy has a say in such things.
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Krudd would have had us at war with China over the Solomon’s in two days…..
1 hour ago
Government ‘messed up’ Solomons: Rudd
Rachel Baxendale
RACHEL BAXENDALEKevin Rudd has taken a swipe at the Morrison government’s handling of Australia’s relationship with the Solomon Islands as he campaigns with Labor candidate Carina Garland in Liberal MP Gladys Liu’s marginal seat of Chisholm in Melbourne’s east.
The former Prime Minister has been practising his Mandarin while walking the streets of Box Hill.
Almost 20 per cent of Chisholm residents have Chinese ancestry, and 14.2 per cent were born on the Chinese mainland.
Hong Kong-born Ms Liu won the seat against Taiwanese Labor candidate Jennifer Yang in 2019 by just 1090 votes, following the resignation of Liberal-turned-independent Julia Banks.
Mr Rudd said the government had “messed up” in “somewhere called the Solomons”.
“And they’ve messed up in the Solomons by doing a bunch of silly things, like cutting Radio Australia, cutting foreign aid, not standing up for climate change, turning your back on the Pacific Island countries for nearly 10 year. Guess what? It doesn’t turn out so well,” Mr Rudd said.
Asked what he would have done differently, Mr Rudd said: “I would have got on a plane on Day One, which is what I asked Mr Morrison to do with their Prime Minister, and it never happened.”
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Vicki:
I suspect that many GPs are quietly reassessing their treatment protocol. The initial official line of “go home and ring an ambulance if you can’t breathe” was disgraceful.
I’m scathing of the bureaucratic response – given the opportunity, they really did show us their dictatorial side.
Purge the Bureaucracy!
🙂 -
From The Age.
Former SAS soldier denies lying for Ben Roberts-Smith as part of alleged deal over legal fees
Michaela Whitbourn
By Michaela Whitbourn
April 26, 2022 — 5.50pmA friend who served alongside war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan has denied that he lied for his former comrade in court to ensure his legal bills would continue to be paid by Robert-Smith’s employer in a separate war crimes inquiry.
Person 5, the first Special Air Service soldier to give evidence for Roberts-Smith in his defamation case against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times, ended a four-day stint in the witness box on Tuesday.
He has rejected the newspapers’ allegation in court that soldiers he commanded, including Roberts-Smith, murdered two Afghan prisoners during a mission in 2009.
Person 5 told the Federal Court last week that he only found out on his first day in the witness box that Roberts-Smith’s employer, the Seven Network, had been picking up the tab for his legal costs.
The bills, which the court heard totalled about $65,000 over two years, cover work for Person 5 relating to the defamation case but also to an inquiry by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) into war crimes allegations against Australian soldiers.
Roberts-Smith is general manager of Seven Queensland and has taken leave from his role during the defamation case. Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes is bankrolling his lawsuit using private funds.
A spokesman for Stokes said in a media statement last week that Person 5’s legal bills were not paid by Seven shareholders, but had been “re-charged” to the Stokes family’s private company, Australian Capital Equity (ACE).
But Nicholas Owens, SC, acting for the newspapers, asked Person 5 on Tuesday if he was aware that Channel Seven had only requested last week that the private company repay the bills, after the funding arrangement was disclosed in court.
“Are you aware that after that fact was disclosed in court last week, on Thursday last week, Channel Seven requested that a company called Australian Capital Equity repay any amounts that Channel Seven had paid in relation to your legal fees?” Owens asked.
“I didn’t know that,” Person 5 said.
“You haven’t been told … that the company that has now agreed to bear the cost of your legal fees is [ACE]?” Owens said. “No, I did not know that,” Person 5 said. Person 5 said he was also unaware that Stokes had originally approved the payment of his legal fees by Channel Seven.
Stokes’ spokesman said last week that Stokes believed soldiers should have legal representation when they appeared at the IGADF inquiry.
Person 5 agreed with Owens that he was aware at all times that the Commonwealth government would provide him with legal representation for the inquiry, but he said he had told Roberts-Smith he wanted a different lawyer.
He insisted Roberts-Smith “never said” he would arrange for Stokes to pay for a lawyer for him. He denied he was aware Stokes was paying his legal fees in some capacity, and he rejected a suggestion that he understood he “needed to keep giving evidence supporting Roberts-Smith” for the funding to continue.
“It’s the case, isn’t it, that you’ve come to court to lie about what happened [in Afghanistan] … to ensure that Mr Roberts-Smith continues to intercede with Mr Stokes to ensure that your legal fees are paid going into the future,” Owens asked.
“No, that’s not correct,” Person 5 said
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calli says:
April 26, 2022 at 3:20 pm
Greetings from Coober Pedy! The approach to the town reminds me of the prairie dog city in South Dakota…many…many mounds.Look at gidgee wood museum coober pedy
From memory https://www.cooberpedy.com/umoona-opal-mine-muesum/
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Explosions hit state security building in Transnistria
Incident comes days after Moscow said breakaway Moldovan statelet could be drawn into Ukraine war
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ukraine is getting desperately short oil, the russian worked out how to shutdown the entire electrified central uke train system for several hours yesterday, till it was repaired. both train lines into donbass are within days of capture.uke troops in donbass are in for a world of hurt over the coming weeks
this could stop in a day if the obama…er… biden administration would just give the word.
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Massive economic damage;
• Political ostracism;
• Fear and loathing in Western Europe leading to boosted defence spending;
• Reassessment of Russian conventional military power – use of tactical nukes now a necessary option.Agreed, the West has taken or is about to take these hits. Now, how are the Russians losing?
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A PR study was done. It found:
Of the 634 confirmed cases, a total of 306 and 328 were reported to be symptomatic and asymptomatic, respectively.
Nearly 52% had no symptoms; this in a population weighted towards the elderly.
Dude, It was the alpha variant. It’s now as prehistoric as the dinosaurs.
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I smell an election.
NSW paramedics ‘pushed beyond the limits of fatigue’ to ramp up industrial action for better conditions and pay (Sky News, 25 Apr)
NSW public school teachers to escalate industrial action and walk off the job next Wednesday over wages and conditions (Sky News. 26 Apr)
I’ve a fair bit of time for the ambos, but the teachers all need to be deported to Urumchi, where they can teach English to Chinese people and try to avoid being broken up for parts.
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The Ukraine War Is Biden’s Second Proxy War With Russia
America’s Proxy War with Russia in Ukraine Heats Up
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, the United States has given Ukraine $3.4 billion in military equipment. To put that in concrete terms, below is a list of actual equipment given to Ukraine so far (presumably, this doesn’t count Biden’s latest $800 million installment announced on Thursday).
As America’s latest proxy war with Russia heats up, it’s worth remembering what happened in our last proxy war with Russia. The short answer is that President Trump ultimately ended it, by shutting down the CIA’s Operation Timber Sycamore, which funneled weapons to Al Qaeda and other radical groups in Syria. Journalist Aaron Maté detailed this insanity in a recent post, and how Russia stepped in to prevent Al Qaeda and other Islamic radicals from toppling the government in Syria. I’ve included his post in full below.
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Dr Faustus says:
April 26, 2022 at 5:48 pmDoesn’t sound like Russia is losing to me.
Depends on your perspective.
In the bag:
• Massive economic damage;
• Political ostracism;
• Fear and loathing in Western Europe leading to boosted defence spending;
• Reassessment of Russian conventional military power – use of tactical nukes now a necessary option.Down the track:
• Russia garrisons along the Black Sea corridor to Crimea;
Europe decouples from Russian energy and trade;
• Arms race – Congress showering money to counter ‘super weapons’ with more awful US super weapons;
• Finland and Sweden join NATO;
• Russia becomes a vassal state to China to replace European trade.The last one is the biggest problem for both Russia and the West going forward.
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Over two decades before Ukraine erupted, how another post-Soviet conflict set a bloody precedent
The uprising in Transdniester was a monument to human stupidity and idealism
The current crisis in Ukraine, in which Russia has recognized the rebel republics in the Donbass, looks unusual, but this is not a new story for the post-Soviet space. Something similar to the events happening in the Donbass today took place in 1992, and the enclave that then arose still exists.
The unrecognized territory, formally part of Moldova, was formed as a result of a short war, which was simultaneously absurd and cruel. That war contains many parallels with the current conflict – including even the personal stories of many of its participants.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was accompanied by a series of armed conflicts. Some have gone down in history as examples of insane, unbridled violence, comparable only to conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. However, a strange little war in the Transdniester region stands out among them.
This is a barely discernible area on the map, stretching north to south along the Dniester River on the border of Ukraine and Moldova, about 200 kilometers long and only about 20 across. At the end of the Soviet era, it had a population of about 680,000. Before the collapse of the USSR, Transdniester had been a sleepy land where almost nothing happened for many decades.
Experts warned for decades that NATO expansion would lead to war: Why did nobody listen to them?
Read more Experts warned for decades that NATO expansion would lead to war: Why did nobody listen to them?In 1992, a conflict raged there for several months, when rebels made up of Russians and Ukrainians took up arms against the government of the newly independent Moldova. Despite its very small scale, this war became a kind of prologue for the entire bloody history of post-Soviet armed conflicts.
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@ Bruce-
I suspect that the Donbass and Luhansk operations are long-term consumations of the insurgencies Russia instigated there from 2014 onwards.
An 8-year civil war that you proxied up and played NVA to the locals’ VC (while aggressively propagandising them in the same way as Russia and Hanoi did in the 60s) makes a pretty good casus belli for later on, when the tactical and strategic situations appear to favour you…
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As mentioned previously, I wonder if those Bushmasters we sent are still in one piece. Or maybe they’re in the possession of an Albanian arms dealer, bought for cents on the dollar, and en route to goodness knows where.
Will let you know how much I paid when it arrives. Going to be a pretty cool fox shooting rig!
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Explosions hit state security building in Transnistria
Someone shot up “Government” House with AT munitions, as has been widely reported.
The Transdniester kiddies (and I spell the name correctly) must be crapping their Depends right now. They have had three Russian battalions to defend their kleptocracy. The border with Ukraine is 100 times longer than their “country” is wide. As soon as the Ukrainians have any extra forces they’re going to cheerfully turn the Transdniestrian Russians into mincemeat and hand the place over to Moldova.
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Certainly, the invasion is not running like clockwork for the Russians – it isn’t clear they ever expected it to, as such things never do – but there haven’t been any serious setbacks that could imperil the entire operation, either. The Russian broad strategy looks clear enough, and they have the luxury of time on their side. If they wanted a war of annihilation and a quick victory, this could have been achieved within weeks. There is now the live question of how many provinces on the eastern side of the Dnieper will decide to secede.
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A leaked call to Zelensky led to Trump’s Impeachment:
Trump is accused of withholding nearly $400 million of military assistance to Ukraine as well as a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky unless the Ukrainian government opened investigations into Trump’s political adversaries, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. A whistleblower complaint filed about the July 25 call, during which Trump raised the issue of investigations into his political adversaries while also discussing security assistance to Ukraine, kicked off the impeachment inquiry.
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