1,859 thoughts on “Open Thread – Weekend 30 April 2022”
What time do we crack the first Dark ‘n Stormy today?
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Key witness in Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial ‘can’t remember’ tunnel where Afghan men were alleged to have been executed
Another SAS soldier in defamation trial backs up Ben Roberts-Smith claims
The witness began giving evidence in Federal Court in Sydney on Monday
Veteran is suing The Age and Sydney Morning Herald over war crime claims
They don’t sound much like independents based on Simon’s description. The sound more like a Holmes a Court Climate Party. Could it be they’re lying about their independent status? Perish the thought!
Lefties of course would never lie about anything, especially not rich ones.
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Sometime before 5.11 am?
The sound more like a Holmes a Court Climate Party. Could it be they’re lying about their independent status?
Please note again that this is peer-reviewed with the data being critically appraised and vetted before publication in the journal Nature. ASSOCIATIONS DO NOT IMPLY CAUSALITY.
“Never let a crisis go to waste,” those were the words of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Chief Samantha Power on “This Week” Sunday. She explained the emerging global food crisis would transition farmers toward a green new world.
“We’re working with farmers to also increase their production so you actually have more supply brought on the market.
“Fertilizer shortages are real now because Russia’s a big exporter of fertilizer, and even though fertilizer is not sanctioned, less fertilizer is coming out of Russia.
“As a result, we’re working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost, and this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually, anyway. So, never let a crisis go to waste,” Power said.
Sri Lanka must’ve done it wrong. People just keep doing socialism the incorrect way. But Ms Power knows how to do it right!
Creating a great opportunity for Australian entrepreneurs though.
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Leaving aside the lack of integrity by the ‘reporter’ – why on Earth would an ethnic group try to poison the PM with – drum roll – undercooked chicken?
Absurd and desperate.
Hang about…the story I saw had the PM serving raw chicken up to his family.
“As a result, we’re working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost, and this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually, anyway. So, never let a crisis go to waste,” Power said.
There’s certainly no shortage of bullshit coming out of Washington.
Hmmm.
Perhaps you’re not in the best position to judge.
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Elon Musk
NBC basically saying Republicans are Nazis …
I truly believe progressives do not know what the word ‘Nazi’ denotes, or even connotes. That they should be ignorant of history is no surprise. In fact they have striven to dissolve history in a bucket of epistemological solvent – class and gender privileged perspectives, there is no truth, only ‘truths’ (is that true?), everything is subjective, etc. And why not? The history of the left is disastrous: The eloquent inept duping a people and then rending them to pieces when it turns out eloquence is not enough.
They will know the name Hitler. They may know that of Goebbels. Perhaps also Eva Brown, and Adolf Walkmann who was involved with the horoscope or something. Maybe even the Red Baron and the Bits of London.
They won’t really know what they did. They are just abuse words. They are flags. They are decals to be attached to current political or social foes to signify they should be hated without the bother of working out why.
If they had the least introspection and knowledge they would at least speak in a slightly halting manner as they denounce people as Nazis for wanting to protect freedoms while they themselves want to empower the state to persecute its enemies.
Here is another German they might as well be ignorant of who has something to tell us censorship and controlling what can be said and thought:
“Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.”
-Heinrich Heine
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I did not know Morrison was in the habit of sharing his culinary delights on social media.
He’s such a chump.
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At least they know Australians volunteered in World War One to defeat Hitler and Nazism.
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If you stopped people sharing photos of what they’re currently eating the entire internet would shrink noticeably.
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‘Do some boxercise’: Bill Shorten’s on-air clash with Nine News journalist
Ex-Labor leader Bill Shorten has sledged a journalist during a live interview after being grilled over speculation about key figures in the party.
Sulky retort serves to remind the electorate of his cup size by accident. Fine specimen.
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“The more I hear about this Hitler fellow the less I like him”.
Norm Macdonald
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I did not know Morrison was in the habit of sharing his culinary delights on social media.
If they could just get a picture of him biting into an onion they will have him!
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Zulu. Just catching up. Very best wishes to Mrs Zulu and to yourself.
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‘Do some boxercise’: Bill Shorten’s on-air clash with Nine News journalist
If anyone to boxercise, vat is sumfink Albo can tell vem about.
‘Cos he fights Tories. Vats what he does.
Seriously though – what sort of turd calls anyone in Australia ‘Tory’. Not even Pirate Pete would do that, and his histories are stuffed full of such caricatures as foils to his larrikan Aussie heroes.
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Sri Lankan government going from strength to strength
You have to wonder…if Sri Lanka’s best and brightest hadn’t left the country – beginning with the Eurasians in the ’60s after the government took a decidedly socialist turn – would they be in this position now?
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Seriously though – what sort of turd calls anyone in Australia ‘Tory’.
Someone who’s spent too much time with Jeremy Corbyn.
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we’re working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure
Once they’ve got rid of their climate destroying cattle.
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ALPBC has again mistaken itself as at media arm of defunded climate loons Flim Flannery and the Climate Council.
From the Oz. Are we meant to believe that Albo has reinvented himself??????
The remarkable reinvention of hard-left Albo Troy BramstonFollow @TroyBramston
12:00AM May 3, 2022
367 Comments
The Anthony Albanese who was elected Labor leader three years ago never had a chance of becoming prime minister. But Albo ’19 is not Albo ’22. The transformation of Albanese as a political leader has been the most extraordinary in Australian history.
This metamorphosis has been personal and political. He has had a cosmetic makeover, has jettisoned long-held policy views and has embraced a small-target political strategy. Even the young firebrand Albanese would not recognise his mellowed middle-age self today.
Few people have any idea just how radical Albanese once was. In 1983, a few weeks before his 20th birthday, Albanese spoke at a Young Labor conference urging the party to express its “full support” for “the revolutionary forces in El Salvador”. You can’t get more radical than that. Albanese wanted to align the foreign policy of Australia with a coalition of Marxist-Leninist guerrilla groups – the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front – backed by the Soviet Union, North Korea, Nicaragua and Cuba.
Now, to be fair, that was a long time ago even though Albanese was a young adult at the time. But make no mistake, Albanese was a radical socialist in his youth. That is how he identified himself. He was a leading figure in the Hard Left faction of NSW Labor.
This is why he was a critic of the Hawke-Keating government through the 1980s and ’90s. He opposed many of the landmark reforms: financial market deregulation, dismantling the tariff wall, fiscal consolidation, wage restraint, privatising assets, exporting uranium and the Higher Education Contribution Scheme.
He attacked Bob Hawke and Paul Keating personally. The criticism was at times venomous and spilt into the media. While Young Labor president, Albanese said the Hawke government had “lost touch with the people”. He accused Keating of being “more comfortable mixing with millionaires and business executives than he is with working-class people”.
At a Young Labor executive meeting in 1985 he urged the Hawke government to introduce “a wealth tax and gift and death duties”. He continued to support inheritance taxes into the ’90s. At Labor’s conference in 1986 he voted with the Left faction to abandon the float of the dollar and return to a regulated currency.
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Dick Bong wasn’t Werner Molders, but he flew a P-38.
If I was a Jap and knew who he was, I would bug out like the Communist Libyan F5 Tiger pilots in Men’s Beach Volleyball Fighter School, The Anime.
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When you’ve lost Mavis …
Werner Mölders was no Hans-Joachim Marseille.
Unlike most of the kraut top scorers, HJM didn’t go seal clubbing in the east.
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The last time the media and the “Independents” gave us a hard Left PM didn’t end well.
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Dick Bong, Werner Mölders, Hans-Joachim Marseille.
Likely collection of namelike words that actually turn out to be true.
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Likely collection of namelike words that actually turn out to be true.
Starting some kind of WWII fighter pilot brawl and here I am at work….
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Mystery Grove Publishing Co.
@MysteryGrove
·
4h
Every single “moderate” Boomer lib I know dismissed that the trans kid fad was real and denied that it was a mainstream view on the Left. Now all of them have completely caved on the issue and becomes enraged when you press them on their previous stance.
Many such cases.
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Saburo Sakai tenno banzai!
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If I was a Jap and knew who he was, I would bug out like the Communist Libyan F5 Tiger pilots in Men’s Beach Volleyball Fighter School, The Anime.
The thing about Dick was that he understood the P-38’s strengths and weaknesses.
Bong once attacked a flight of 7 zero’s by himself after having become separated from his wingman.
Dived in head on and smoked the flight leader. Started a turn to make another pass, dropped in behind one of the other zeros and smoked him. Then broke contact by diving straight away, lest the zeros start getting organised and draw him into a turning fight.
What is the ESG and how is Klaus Schwab using it to empower Microsoft and bury Tesla?
In this edition of The Remnant Underground, Michael J. Matt discusses Elon Musk — one of the Lost Boys of the post-Christian Neverland.
He doesn’t even believe in God and yet the Left hates Musk almost as much as they hate God. Why? Michael says he knows exactly why!
Plus, it’s a small world after all and Ron DeSantis wins a round against woke corporate Disney. Now what, Mr. Schwab?
As the Chinese are caged and treated like animals in Shanghai, Pope Francis pursues a deal with their Communist wardens and then…. plants another friggin’ tree.
Finally, as the world begins to understand (to their horror!) what the Great Reset crowd has in store for them, Michael encourages all believing Christians to seize the opportunity to point to the Light of Christ as the only way out of the New World Order darkness.
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Werner Mölders was no Hans-Joachim Marseille.
Hans-Joachim Marseille was no Anakin Skywalker.
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Bong once attacked a flight of 7 zero’s by himself after having become separated from his wingman.
I don’t have a reference, but I’ve read an account of a USN carrier pilot, who set a record by shooting down five Zeros in one mission. That record lasted forty five minutes, before some spoilsport landed, having shot down seven Zeros..
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The ‘Independents’ are financed by a billionaire, have a uniform policy re climate change, and probably every other liberal issue, have adopted as their brand, teal, and they’re only targeting Liberal inner suburban seats. And I see the Guardian gaslighting for them with a fact-check article. Just wow.
That relatively recent movie ‘Midway’ had a scene where a crippled Japanese plane aims to crash into the deck of an American carrier as a final heroic act. A mechanic runs out to one of the American planes on deck and uses the rear movable machine gun to try to stop it – he hits it, the plane veers off to one side and crashes into the sea. The carrier is spared.
First thought when you see stuff like that is that it is just Hollywood – but apparently it really happened. His name was Bruno Gaido.
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Other People’s Money Party.
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Big Serge ??????
@witte_sergei At the battle of Leipzig, Napoleon attempted to withdraw his army while controlling only one bridge across the Elster River. They wired the bridge to be demolished after the retreat, but the task was delegated to a corporal, who panicked and blew it early, trapping 30,000 men.
Quote Tweet
Denyo 666
@Denyo666
· 5h
Replying to @ArmchairW
Below for illustration where the North bank of the Seversky Donetk is (blue line). Russia want’s to control the whole area towards the Seversy Donets. Ukrainian forces blew up a bridge towards Slavyansk from Liman, they can’t be resupplied and the forces will be stuck.
History rhymes.
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H B Bearsays:
May 3, 2022 at 10:37 am
Blast from the past: Slow Bern aka Bernie Fraser on ALPBC radio Perth.
A few points about last night’s Boeing vs Airbus discussion:
The Boeing 777 was also designed and flown before the McDD takeover. It is a great aircraft.
The 737 Max was result of airlines demanding a new aircraft with the more fuel efficient engines ASAP. An all new design would have taken too long and Boeing would have lost customers. Airbus did the A320/321 NEO with the new engines and were lucky in that the design had longer landing gear so didn’t have any ground clearance problems. It did however have a problem similar to the 737 MAX in that a late go round would perhaps require “more than normal pilot skill” (pitch up). There was an airworthiness directive and the problem was eventually fixed in software. However the aircraft flew for months before this was applied and there were no groundings.
The 737 MAX problem was that at high angles of attack FLAPS UP the stick force as you pulled back didn’t keep increasing at the rate it ought to. This wasn’t a part of the flight envelope an airline operation should ever get into. To get around this the MCAS system was installed which trimmed the stabiliser nose up i.e “down trim” which meant that the pull force on the stick increased to maintain the attitude. MCAS was the fifth system that could trim the elevator automatically. Besides the switches on the wheel for manual trimming there were the manual trim wheels which rotate as the aircraft trims itself or you can rotate them manually. You can stop the automatic trimming (makes coffee grinder sounds), including MCAS, by either holding on to the trim wheel or hitting the two trim disconnect switches which are at the back of the center console. This is a memory item in case there is ANY trim runaway for whatever cause in ANY 737 models. Note MCAS is disabled with flaps down for takeoff and landing and no, the 737 MAX was not always nearly stalling after takeoff.
Self certification by established manufacturers is the norm in the US. There is a certification team in the company which goes through the design and test results to make sure the aircraft complies. The FAA has a problem in that smart competent engineers usually work for the companies, not the FAA.
The greatest difference between Airbus and Boeing cockpit design is that Airbus won’t let you break or put a permanent set on the aircraft by overstressing it. Boeing lets you do that, which is nice if you are trying to avoid hitting terrain or other aircraft in an emergency.
As for the business aspects of Boeing it is an ongoing train wreck at present. There are manufacturing issues with the 787 and the 777X is delayed. The space and military side (around half the company IIRC) has some issues also. The Starliner capsule to fly people to the ISS is delayed firstly due to software issues uncovered on the first unmanned test flight where they were lucky not to lose the vehicle and on the second attempt a bunch of valves in the attitude control system stuck shut due to corrosion. This is old and well understood tech and should not have happened. They got 4.2 billion for the NASA contract and SpaceX got 2.6 billion and their capsule is making multiple flights delivering people to the ISS and bringing them back.
I’m glad I didn’t buy Boeing shares a few years ago.
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First thought when you see stuff like that is that it is just Hollywood – but apparently it really happened. His name was Bruno Gaido.
Bruno Gaido was subsequently shot down and taken prisoner by the Japanese. Refusing to “talk” under torture, he and his crewman were weighted down with a bucket of stones, and thrown overboard to drown.
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First thought when you see stuff like that is that it is just Hollywood – but apparently it really happened. His name was Bruno Gaido.
ML, if you read accounts of the actions that ground the awarding of the highest military decorations you would be astonished.
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Hans-Joachim Marseille. There’s a nice little black and white 1957 movie “Der Stern von Afrika” on youtube. Watched it a few weeks ago.
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The transformation of Albanese as a political leader has been the most extraordinary in Australian history.
Crikey.
There’s most of the morning mug of McWilliams Royal Reserve over the screen.
The most extraordinary thing is that the little bloke has lasted long enough to have a dig. The Rudd Rules and deeply unelectable contenders probably helped him.
The assured stupidity of this new order apparatchik is quite something.
“As a result, we’re working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost, and this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually, anyway. So, never let a crisis go to waste,” Power said.
Western countries mostly abandoned manures a hundred years ago. The abundant production created by man made fertilisers partly underpinned the industrial and technological growth of the past century.
We simply cannot feed enough people on shit and straw.
This lady needs to identify which few billion people she’s earmarked as “crisis waste .”
Good fertiliser if composted.
Looking at goggle maps, off-roading in the vicinity of the bridge would be… …interesting.
History rhymes.
Bit of a bridge war going on right now. Initially the UKRs were the only ones blowing bridges as the RUS side wanted to use them. Now RUS is also blowing bridges, especially on the UKR supply routes to the east and south east. UKR in turn has now started blowing up bridges inside Russia. Not a good time to be a bridge.
The 737 Max was result of airlines demanding a new aircraft with the more fuel efficient engines ASAP. An all new design would have taken too long and Boeing would have lost customers.
Boeing was caught on the hop by demands for more fuel efficiency?
Really?
Airlines have been demanding more fuel efficiency since forever. Because it not only decreases operating costs, it increases range.
If Boeing was surprised by that they are in the wrong business.
Airbus did the A320/321 NEO with the new engines and were lucky in that the design had longer landing gear so didn’t have any ground clearance problems.
Lucky?
They were lucky that they happened to randomly choose a particular ground clearance height?
I would call it good design. It not only avoids the 737 MAX problems, it reduces the chance of sucking up FOD.
I am not buying this bullshit of Boeing being ruined by MD accountants and administrators.
It is actually their dinosaur engineers who fucked up.
Old school types who simply didn’t understand the real world impacts of what their software coding colleagues were up to.
As for the accidents being a result of poor third world training, riddle me this.
Why did US pilots ban flying in them and call them death-traps?
Another old Boeing line.
Blame the dead pilot.
All the better if we can throw a bit of wink-nudge racism in as well.
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Tender just out from the NT Government:
Tender Number
Q22-0132
Title
Darwin – Review and Reform Legislative Provisions within the Justice System that are Unfair, Discriminatory or Detrimental to Aboriginal people
Description
Review the Northern Territory Bail Act 1982, Sentencing Act 1995, Juries Act 1962 and Parole Act 1971 to address and resolve areas within the legislation that are found to be unfair, discriminatory or detrimental to Aboriginal people.
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Draft SCOTUS ruling leaked.
Is that the one which was 9-0 on Christians flying a flag?
I just about fell out of my chair.
Three lefty justices voted for Christian freedom of speech. Amazing.
Do Russians Blame AMERICA For what is happening in UKRAINE ? // Public Interview
Ukrainian?
I thought they didn’t exist and it’s only a breakaway Russian state.
Very confusing.
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Alito’s draft ruling on Roe & Casey has been leaked.
Allegedly withdrawing both.
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Trying an experiment once again in the airports and associated bits, such as the actual planes themselves.
Flying Hobart-Canberra in two sectors. Flights spread apart due to having to use up credits. How far can TE get before being told to wear a mask?
1. Hobart Airport – free and not annoyed through checkin.
2. free and not annoyed through security.
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If true, it will be fascinating to see the legislation in a lot of states get triggered.
Some of these abortion acts pending Roe being withdrawn have been on the books for over 20 years.
It’s seems odd that legislation can be on the books for 20 years that gets triggered based on a SCOTUS decision.
You’d have to think some of that legislation would be challenged in each of the states.
TAIPEI, April 26 (Reuters) – Taiwan will incorporate lessons learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine into upcoming military exercises aimed at practising fighting off a Chinese attack, the island’s defence ministry said on Tuesday.
…
The defence ministry said this year’s Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual war games, would be split into two parts, in May and July.
The May part would partly be a tabletop exercise based on “various possible actions of the Chinese Communist Party in recent years to invade Taiwan, taking into account the lessons of the Russian-Ukrainian war”, it said in a statement.
There will also be five days of drills with soldiers, including live-fire exercises that will take place in July, the ministry added.The defence ministry said this year’s Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual war games, would be split into two parts, in May and July.
The May part would partly be a tabletop exercise based on “various possible actions of the Chinese Communist Party in recent years to invade Taiwan, taking into account the lessons of the Russian-Ukrainian war”, it said in a statement.
There will also be five days of drills with soldiers, including live-fire exercises that will take place in July, the ministry added.
Confirms what we all thought, which is that the Taiwanese have been watching the Ukraine fight very closely. That’s bad news for Mr Xi and his PLA guys. And doubly bad news for him in particular since the Chinese harvest is apparently terrible, and Beijing is being turned into a Covid gulag. A squirrel would be welcome right now, but the most obvious one has just grown longer fangs.
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New OT up at 12pm.
Oops, apology, I double-tapped Ctl-P for the quote and didn’t notice. The echo is me, not the Taiwanese.
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DB, see the SCOTUS news?
Alito does not hold back.
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I’ve read an account of a USN carrier pilot, who set a record by shooting down five Zeros in one mission.
Mind you, Zulu, that was likely on his own account. Once you go and examine the records from the other side – and this seems to be the case in all air forces in WWI/II – then the claims diminish, often by large amounts.
For example:
5 April 1942
The following day, 5 April, an attack was made on the Darwin RAAF Station by seven G4M1 Bettys of Takao Ku. Led by Lieutenant Takeji Fujiwara, with nine A6M2 Zeroes of 3 Ku led by Lieutenant Sada-o Yamaguchi, the formation departed Koepang at 0900.
Armed with 84 x 60kg bombs the bombers approached the target at 1150 and two minutes later released 5,040kg of bombs from 24,000 feet, causing only slight damage to the main runway.
The Japanese force was intercepted by four USAAF P-40s of the 9th Pursuit Squadron at 1155 with no losses on either side, although the bomber crews claimed to have destroyed five aircraft. The Bettys landed back at Koepang at 1420, followed by the Zeroes at 1445.
Adrian Vermeule
@Vermeullarmine
·
2m
The main play here probably isn’t an attempt to change the result at the Court. It’s an attempt to influence Congress to act before the election, either through legislation or court-packing, or alternatively to affect the election itself.
and
Rafael de Arízaga ????
@RafaeldeArizaga
·
21m
This moment—the destruction of SCOTUS’s credibility in order to save baby-killing—is one that Aristotle would say reveals the real constitution of a nation. It shows where its actual objectives and sacred principles truly lie. SCOTUS is only a means to them.
Review the Northern Territory Bail Act 1982, Sentencing Act 1995, Juries Act 1962 and Parole Act 1971 to address and resolve areas within the legislation that are found to be unfair, discriminatory or detrimental to Aboriginal people.
Talk about begging the question!
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Once you go and examine the records from the other side – and this seems to be the case in all air forces in WWI/II – then the claims diminish, often by large amounts.
TE – The Japanese especially seemed to embellish in their internal reports. Some examples were included in Long et al for the PNG campaigns from Japanese infantry sources obtained after the war. They were a lot of fun, but had zero resemblance to reality.
Same issue is probably afflicting senior officers on both sides of the Ukraine war. If junior officers are scared they’ll tend to write what their boss wants to hear, not what really happened.
It’s a serious danger for us with the wokeification of the Australian brass, and the persecution of guys like BRS. Who’d dare to accurately tell it like it is now?
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Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
May 3, 2022 at 10:28 am
Bong once attacked a flight of 7 zero’s by himself after having become separated from his wingman.
I don’t have a reference, but I’ve read an account of a USN carrier pilot, who set a record by shooting down five Zeros in one mission. That record lasted forty five minutes, before some spoilsport landed, having shot down seven Zeros..
IIRC, that was part of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. By that stage of the war, Japanese pilots were not of the original standards of 1941.
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I dunno Bruce, check this one out from 25 April 1942 over northern Australia:
P-40 USAAF pilots claimed ten bombers and three Zeroes, which were all credited.
There were in fact four Betty bombers shot down.
(Link as above)
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“There’s certainly no shortage of bullshit coming out of Washington.”
Washington DC was built on a fetid swamp.
The stench has only increased, it’s only the source that has changed – previously it was mostly single celled organisms spewing forth methane etc. Now it’s politicians spewing forth their “policies” and bureaucrats spewing out their rules and regulations. At least the prior residents performed a useful function…
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Both sides TE. I’d go find the text from the AWM history but I read it a few weeks ago and I’d probably have to scan though hundreds of pages to find it again.
I’d back the Allied reports more than the Japanese reports though, since being asked to slice open one’s belly button for the Emperor due to a poorly-received combat report would ruin your whole day.
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“Every single “moderate” Boomer lib I know dismissed that the trans kid fad was real and denied that it was a mainstream view on the Left.”
The leftie elite are wont to say “It’s not happening – but it’s good that it is”.
Censorship.
Transgender for kids without parental permission or knowledge.
You name it.
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ZK2A:
Let your missus know “Good luck” from me as well.
2
Rex Anger:
That the shells shattered or failed to detonate on impact is a divine blessing. Or severely statistically unlikely but fortunate outcome, depending on how you swing. But perhaps not a very favourable assessment of the Russian logistics train to the point of firing, or its munitions manufacturers or the storage and handling procedures employed up to the moment the breechblock clanged shut and the primer ignited.
I haven’t seen any photos of the dud shots, but could it be a mix of HE and solid shot?
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Eyrie:
BoN, sailing the Russian Space Station modules over to the Chinese one has a major problem. Orbital inclination differs by 10 degrees or so. You need to find over 1 km/sec of Delta V. That would require a substantial rocket stage.
Not a problem, Eyrie.
Just look behind the lounge chair/lift the cushions.
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And you know I used to show you respect.
I haven’t changed Lizzie.
Struth, I had thought you were a natural gentleman.
On current performance towards me, you are not.
You seem unable to comprehend the nuanced perspectives of the majority on the centre-right.
That means, in my eyes, you are a failure in life, forcing your views on unwilling others.
You and your seven upticking friends are no friends of mine. Nor of liberty.
I hope you can one day refind the man I once admired for the Convoy and his life’s experiences.
2
Good morning from here. We are in a C15th inn at St. Albans, with appropriately creaking flooring, opposite the Cathedral, and spent yesterday taking in the wonders of that great House of God. The site is recognised as the oldest site of Christian worship in Britain, for a church of some type has stood here since St. Alban was martyred in this place in the late third or early fourth century AD in the period prior to the Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Toleration of Christians. St. Germanus visited here in 429AD, to missionize the lapsing Christians and bring others into the fold, a mission both Bede in the C8th and I in the C21st identify as the defining feature of historical record about the C5th, albeit that we each do so for different reasons.
Immediately after the Norman Conquest the church here was rebuilt into a grand form, using Roman stonework and bricks dragged up the hill from the Roman fort and town of Verulamium, turning this material into a magnificent early Norman tower, still extant today, with its curved stripe-painted arches architecturally reminiscent of Cordoba’s Great Mosque. One side of the original nave also has these arches, on the supporting columns of which have been recovered from under Puritan whitewash a series of C12th paintings of biblical events. The other side of the original nave fell in on parishioners during a mass in the C14th and was rebuilt, along with an extension of the nave, in a more formal Romanesque style, with fluted columns. The whole place is sonorous and sombre with a later rose window a significant feature also.
It became even more sonorous as we sat there admiring, for the Evensong Choir set up its practice and the great organ filled the whole place with glorious sound as voices also rose heavenwards singing the Magnificat. They then shifted to a psalm sung alternately in antiphony (as ex-chorister Hairy explained to me) and we both knew it as the “I lift up mine eyes to the heavens” psalm. Quite wonderful. As we walked around the cathedral following the Pilgrim’s Walk, a medieval ancient wood structure caught my eye, double story with shutters, called The Watching Loft. It was where monks were stationed on duty to make sure the pilgrims were well behaved and didn’t try to steal chunks of anything as early ‘souvenirs’, in this case as healing talismans. Early Security Detail, offers Hairy helpfully, making me laugh at the thought of it. It pleases me to see him so happy in his 70th year as his birthday approaches, so much enjoying old haunts and old friendships. He revealed to me that when aged nine he had done a school project on the architecture at St. Albans after a school visit there.
We walked down to the river, saw the birds on the lake and looked at the last ruins of the old Roman town wall that had enclosed Verulamium, one of the towns destroyed by Boudicca’s revolt and later rebuilt. There is not much else to see now but footings, as most of it is in the cathedral on the hill, so laboriously wheelbarrowed up by a conquered peasantry. We will drive to the museum on the other side of the site this morning before heading up to my friend’s place to stay there in Saffron Walden.
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On reflection and dredging memory, I think those eyes lift up to the hills, not the heavens.
On the way to the lake we called in at what is locally claimed to be Britain’s longest-established tavern, called Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, recommended by the hotel for dinner (and a great name for Catallaxy nites in the War Room). A tavern of sorts has been here since 793 (according to the footings) but other claimants to the ‘oldest’ title also exist. I like to think of Bernard Cornwell’s fictional Uhtred and his men taking a tankard here in King Alfred’s day on the tables by the river, I comment to Hairy as we enter.
The current building is more Tudor in style and Cromwell the Protector is claimed to have stabled his horse in what is now the bar area. Sadly, they were closed for dinner, so we repaired to a huge glassed conservatory near our hotel that is a glower-filled French restaurant, where when you enter down the long avenue of tables you see sparkling at the end a ten foot high wide mirrored bar, containing bottles and glasses for drinks of all sorts. We had proper French soup, biftek and poulet, and very fine it was too. As with Hairy’s redolent trip to Hamstead, where much of Ricky Gervais’ ‘After Life’ series were filmed, this pub also featured in one of the ‘After Life’ series.
Our own pub, The White Hart, is mentioned as serving pilgrims in the C14th, and so I led in bed wondering who in the past slept in this room, looking up at some of its exposed beams in the plaster and creaking to the loo on its noisy floors (probably a bucket in those days). No old ghosts appeared though and I slept well, in spite of the rather lumpy pillows (this is Britain) and the sad worn out furniture that I would toss as they are by no means antique pieces. The room is otherwise of a tourist standard with a good ensuite, but be warned. I also had to remove the ‘atomic’ doona (H/t Calli) from its casing and just use that as a covering sheet with a light quilt (which imho had seen better days) that was thankfully also on the end of the bed.
3
that is a ‘flower-filled’ French restaurant.
White Hart is now basically Tudor but some older parts are still within it.
It’s a huge pisstake, but he didn’t carry very well. He was too out there.
I slept well, in spite of the rather lumpy pillows (this is Britain) and the sad worn out furniture that I would toss as they are by no means antique pieces.
Do they have hot water?! That’s always the other big challenge. I had 5 days straight of cold showers mid winter in Dorking. I was starting to get a bit grumpy by the end of it.
2
It’s a huge pisstake, but he didn’t carry very well. He was too out there.
I think he does it on a serial basis? He looks familiar.
There were in fact four Betty bombers shot down.
The Betty’s became known as “one shot lighters”. Good range with large fuel volume and no self sealing tanks.
Winston Smith says:
May 3, 2022 at 1:12 pm
ZK2A:
Let your missus know “Good luck” from me as well.
What has he done with his missus, brought wife number 3 home unannounced?
What time do we crack the first Dark ‘n Stormy today?
don’t worry taxpayers Federal Labor will be fiscally responsible, Elbow told me so, just yesterday.
They don’t sound much like independents based on Simon’s description. The sound more like a Holmes a Court Climate Party. Could it be they’re lying about their independent status? Perish the thought!
Lefties of course would never lie about anything, especially not rich ones.
Sometime before 5.11 am?
The AEC will be right onto it.
Is COVID vaccination associated with an increase in cardiac arrest 911 calls? There have been anecdotal reports in the media with athletes having cardiac arrests at sporting events but is there a connection? I discuss, without opinion, a peer-reviewed study in one of our premier medical journals, the journal Nature. It reviews the entire country of Israel’s experience with phone calls to emergency medical services. They looked at cardiac arrest phone calls as well as acute coronary syndrome (ACS) phone calls and the on scene paramedic assessment. They compared the frequency of these phone calls to COVID vaccination and COVID infection. In people over the age of 40 there was no association. But what about the younger age group 16-39? I review what the study found.
Please note again that this is peer-reviewed with the data being critically appraised and vetted before publication in the journal Nature. ASSOCIATIONS DO NOT IMPLY CAUSALITY.
Which worked so well in Sri Lanka recently:
“Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste” – Biden Official Says Fertilizer Shortage Will Spark Green Farming Transition (3 May)
Sri Lanka must’ve done it wrong. People just keep doing socialism the incorrect way. But Ms Power knows how to do it right!
Sri Lankan government going from strength to strength
Sri Lanka hikes price of medicines 40% amid economic crisis
Creating a great opportunity for Australian entrepreneurs though.
Hang about…the story I saw had the PM serving raw chicken up to his family.
timing is everything at the ABC
“As a result, we’re working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost, and this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually, anyway. So, never let a crisis go to waste,” Power said.
There’s certainly no shortage of bullshit coming out of Washington.
I think numbers got a mention in the raw chicken story
Hmmm.
Perhaps you’re not in the best position to judge.
I truly believe progressives do not know what the word ‘Nazi’ denotes, or even connotes. That they should be ignorant of history is no surprise. In fact they have striven to dissolve history in a bucket of epistemological solvent – class and gender privileged perspectives, there is no truth, only ‘truths’ (is that true?), everything is subjective, etc. And why not? The history of the left is disastrous: The eloquent inept duping a people and then rending them to pieces when it turns out eloquence is not enough.
They will know the name Hitler. They may know that of Goebbels. Perhaps also Eva Brown, and Adolf Walkmann who was involved with the horoscope or something. Maybe even the Red Baron and the Bits of London.
They won’t really know what they did. They are just abuse words. They are flags. They are decals to be attached to current political or social foes to signify they should be hated without the bother of working out why.
If they had the least introspection and knowledge they would at least speak in a slightly halting manner as they denounce people as Nazis for wanting to protect freedoms while they themselves want to empower the state to persecute its enemies.
Here is another German they might as well be ignorant of who has something to tell us censorship and controlling what can be said and thought:
I did not know Morrison was in the habit of sharing his culinary delights on social media.
He’s such a chump.
At least they know Australians volunteered in World War One to defeat Hitler and Nazism.
If you stopped people sharing photos of what they’re currently eating the entire internet would shrink noticeably.
‘Do some boxercise’: Bill Shorten’s on-air clash with Nine News journalist
Sulky retort serves to remind the electorate of his cup size by accident. Fine specimen.
“The more I hear about this Hitler fellow the less I like him”.
Norm Macdonald
If they could just get a picture of him biting into an onion they will have him!
Zulu. Just catching up. Very best wishes to Mrs Zulu and to yourself.
If anyone to boxercise, vat is sumfink Albo can tell vem about.
‘Cos he fights Tories. Vats what he does.
Seriously though – what sort of turd calls anyone in Australia ‘Tory’. Not even Pirate Pete would do that, and his histories are stuffed full of such caricatures as foils to his larrikan Aussie heroes.
You have to wonder…if Sri Lanka’s best and brightest hadn’t left the country – beginning with the Eurasians in the ’60s after the government took a decidedly socialist turn – would they be in this position now?
Someone who’s spent too much time with Jeremy Corbyn.
Once they’ve got rid of their climate destroying cattle.
ALPBC has again mistaken itself as at media arm of defunded climate loons Flim Flannery and the Climate Council.
SBS reporting the news
A day after Labor leader Anthony Albanese accused him of neglecting older Australians, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is set to announce an increase in the singles income test threshold from $57,761 to around $90,000 from 1 July this year to broaden access to the concession card.
It always makes me think of Rik from The Young Ones, whose political observations rarely went much further than blaming ‘Fatcher’.
Rik also had rhotacism – another quirk of pronunciation I subconsciously associate with Albo.
ndis story
From the Oz. Are we meant to believe that Albo has reinvented himself??????
Dick Bong wasn’t Werner Molders, but he flew a P-38.
If I was a Jap and knew who he was, I would bug out like the Communist Libyan F5 Tiger pilots in Men’s Beach Volleyball Fighter School, The Anime.
When you’ve lost Mavis …
Werner Mölders was no Hans-Joachim Marseille.
Unlike most of the kraut top scorers, HJM didn’t go seal clubbing in the east.
The last time the media and the “Independents” gave us a hard Left PM didn’t end well.
Dick Bong, Werner Mölders, Hans-Joachim Marseille.
Likely collection of namelike words that actually turn out to be true.
Likely collection of namelike words that actually turn out to be true.
Starting some kind of WWII fighter pilot brawl and here I am at work….
Many such cases.
Saburo Sakai tenno banzai!
If I was a Jap and knew who he was, I would bug out like the Communist Libyan F5 Tiger pilots in Men’s Beach Volleyball Fighter School, The Anime.
The thing about Dick was that he understood the P-38’s strengths and weaknesses.
Bong once attacked a flight of 7 zero’s by himself after having become separated from his wingman.
Dived in head on and smoked the flight leader. Started a turn to make another pass, dropped in behind one of the other zeros and smoked him. Then broke contact by diving straight away, lest the zeros start getting organised and draw him into a turning fight.
ELON MUSK: A Lost Boy in Post-Christian Neverland
Hans-Joachim Marseille was no Anakin Skywalker.
I don’t have a reference, but I’ve read an account of a USN carrier pilot, who set a record by shooting down five Zeros in one mission. That record lasted forty five minutes, before some spoilsport landed, having shot down seven Zeros..
The ‘Independents’ are financed by a billionaire, have a uniform policy re climate change, and probably every other liberal issue, have adopted as their brand, teal, and they’re only targeting Liberal inner suburban seats. And I see the Guardian gaslighting for them with a fact-check article. Just wow.
In Germany, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the press with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. PM Modi told reporters that there won’t be any winners in Ukraine war and everyone will lose. Palki Sharma Upadhyay tells you more.
The Privilege Party.
Blast from the past: Slow Bern aka Bernie Fraser on ALPBC radio Perth.
Teal is this season’s in colour for Karens.
I’m not sure Simon’s Girls are fooling anyone. Whether it makes any difference is a separate question.
SloJo SloJoing.
in today’s good news
Three years ago The Privilege Party would have opted for animal prints.
Discovery+ Goes Full Groomer With ‘Drag Kids’ Reality Show | Ep. 942
That relatively recent movie ‘Midway’ had a scene where a crippled Japanese plane aims to crash into the deck of an American carrier as a final heroic act. A mechanic runs out to one of the American planes on deck and uses the rear movable machine gun to try to stop it – he hits it, the plane veers off to one side and crashes into the sea. The carrier is spared.
First thought when you see stuff like that is that it is just Hollywood – but apparently it really happened. His name was Bruno Gaido.
Other People’s Money Party.
History rhymes.
Thaaaar …. Sooooper … oooof … thaaaar … foooooture.
Weekend at Bernie’s.
A few points about last night’s Boeing vs Airbus discussion:
The Boeing 777 was also designed and flown before the McDD takeover. It is a great aircraft.
The 737 Max was result of airlines demanding a new aircraft with the more fuel efficient engines ASAP. An all new design would have taken too long and Boeing would have lost customers. Airbus did the A320/321 NEO with the new engines and were lucky in that the design had longer landing gear so didn’t have any ground clearance problems. It did however have a problem similar to the 737 MAX in that a late go round would perhaps require “more than normal pilot skill” (pitch up). There was an airworthiness directive and the problem was eventually fixed in software. However the aircraft flew for months before this was applied and there were no groundings.
The 737 MAX problem was that at high angles of attack FLAPS UP the stick force as you pulled back didn’t keep increasing at the rate it ought to. This wasn’t a part of the flight envelope an airline operation should ever get into. To get around this the MCAS system was installed which trimmed the stabiliser nose up i.e “down trim” which meant that the pull force on the stick increased to maintain the attitude. MCAS was the fifth system that could trim the elevator automatically. Besides the switches on the wheel for manual trimming there were the manual trim wheels which rotate as the aircraft trims itself or you can rotate them manually. You can stop the automatic trimming (makes coffee grinder sounds), including MCAS, by either holding on to the trim wheel or hitting the two trim disconnect switches which are at the back of the center console. This is a memory item in case there is ANY trim runaway for whatever cause in ANY 737 models. Note MCAS is disabled with flaps down for takeoff and landing and no, the 737 MAX was not always nearly stalling after takeoff.
Self certification by established manufacturers is the norm in the US. There is a certification team in the company which goes through the design and test results to make sure the aircraft complies. The FAA has a problem in that smart competent engineers usually work for the companies, not the FAA.
The greatest difference between Airbus and Boeing cockpit design is that Airbus won’t let you break or put a permanent set on the aircraft by overstressing it. Boeing lets you do that, which is nice if you are trying to avoid hitting terrain or other aircraft in an emergency.
As for the business aspects of Boeing it is an ongoing train wreck at present. There are manufacturing issues with the 787 and the 777X is delayed. The space and military side (around half the company IIRC) has some issues also. The Starliner capsule to fly people to the ISS is delayed firstly due to software issues uncovered on the first unmanned test flight where they were lucky not to lose the vehicle and on the second attempt a bunch of valves in the attitude control system stuck shut due to corrosion. This is old and well understood tech and should not have happened. They got 4.2 billion for the NASA contract and SpaceX got 2.6 billion and their capsule is making multiple flights delivering people to the ISS and bringing them back.
I’m glad I didn’t buy Boeing shares a few years ago.
Bruno Gaido was subsequently shot down and taken prisoner by the Japanese. Refusing to “talk” under torture, he and his crewman were weighted down with a bucket of stones, and thrown overboard to drown.
ML, if you read accounts of the actions that ground the awarding of the highest military decorations you would be astonished.
Hans-Joachim Marseille. There’s a nice little black and white 1957 movie “Der Stern von Afrika” on youtube. Watched it a few weeks ago.
Crikey.
There’s most of the morning mug of McWilliams Royal Reserve over the screen.
The most extraordinary thing is that the little bloke has lasted long enough to have a dig. The Rudd Rules and deeply unelectable contenders probably helped him.
They did it again!
Paul Joseph Watson
The assured stupidity of this new order apparatchik is quite something.
“As a result, we’re working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost, and this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually, anyway. So, never let a crisis go to waste,” Power said.
Western countries mostly abandoned manures a hundred years ago. The abundant production created by man made fertilisers partly underpinned the industrial and technological growth of the past century.
We simply cannot feed enough people on shit and straw.
This lady needs to identify which few billion people she’s earmarked as “crisis waste .”
Good fertiliser if composted.
Do Russians Blame AMERICA For what is happening in UKRAINE ? // Public Interview
Looking at goggle maps, off-roading in the vicinity of the bridge would be… …interesting.
Bit of a bridge war going on right now. Initially the UKRs were the only ones blowing bridges as the RUS side wanted to use them. Now RUS is also blowing bridges, especially on the UKR supply routes to the east and south east. UKR in turn has now started blowing up bridges inside Russia. Not a good time to be a bridge.
Is Pfizer hiding data about all these Covid relapses? | Redacted with Natali and Clayton Morris
Redacted
Draft SCOTUS ruling leaked.
Unbelievable.
Allow me to just question the phrasing here.
Boeing was caught on the hop by demands for more fuel efficiency?
Really?
Airlines have been demanding more fuel efficiency since forever. Because it not only decreases operating costs, it increases range.
If Boeing was surprised by that they are in the wrong business.
Lucky?
They were lucky that they happened to randomly choose a particular ground clearance height?
I would call it good design. It not only avoids the 737 MAX problems, it reduces the chance of sucking up FOD.
I am not buying this bullshit of Boeing being ruined by MD accountants and administrators.
It is actually their dinosaur engineers who fucked up.
Old school types who simply didn’t understand the real world impacts of what their software coding colleagues were up to.
As for the accidents being a result of poor third world training, riddle me this.
Why did US pilots ban flying in them and call them death-traps?
Another old Boeing line.
Blame the dead pilot.
All the better if we can throw a bit of wink-nudge racism in as well.
Tender just out from the NT Government:
Tender Number
Q22-0132
Title
Darwin – Review and Reform Legislative Provisions within the Justice System that are Unfair, Discriminatory or Detrimental to Aboriginal people
Description
Review the Northern Territory Bail Act 1982, Sentencing Act 1995, Juries Act 1962 and Parole Act 1971 to address and resolve areas within the legislation that are found to be unfair, discriminatory or detrimental to Aboriginal people.
Is that the one which was 9-0 on Christians flying a flag?
I just about fell out of my chair.
Three lefty justices voted for Christian freedom of speech. Amazing.
Supreme Court Backs Christian Group in Boston Flag Flap (2 May)
Do Russians Blame AMERICA For what is happening in UKRAINE ? // Public Interview
Ukrainian?
I thought they didn’t exist and it’s only a breakaway Russian state.
Very confusing.
Alito’s draft ruling on Roe & Casey has been leaked.
Allegedly withdrawing both.
Trying an experiment once again in the airports and associated bits, such as the actual planes themselves.
Flying Hobart-Canberra in two sectors. Flights spread apart due to having to use up credits. How far can TE get before being told to wear a mask?
1. Hobart Airport – free and not annoyed through checkin.
2. free and not annoyed through security.
If true, it will be fascinating to see the legislation in a lot of states get triggered.
Some of these abortion acts pending Roe being withdrawn have been on the books for over 20 years.
Interest rate falls -“good economic management”
Interest rate rises – “independent Reserve Bank”
It’s seems odd that legislation can be on the books for 20 years that gets triggered based on a SCOTUS decision.
You’d have to think some of that legislation would be challenged in each of the states.
Interesting article via Maj Gen Ryan:
Taiwan aims to learn lessons of Ukraine in annual military drills (Reuters, 26 Apr)
Confirms what we all thought, which is that the Taiwanese have been watching the Ukraine fight very closely. That’s bad news for Mr Xi and his PLA guys. And doubly bad news for him in particular since the Chinese harvest is apparently terrible, and Beijing is being turned into a Covid gulag. A squirrel would be welcome right now, but the most obvious one has just grown longer fangs.
New OT up at 12pm.
Oops, apology, I double-tapped Ctl-P for the quote and didn’t notice. The echo is me, not the Taiwanese.
DB, see the SCOTUS news?
Alito does not hold back.
I’ve read an account of a USN carrier pilot, who set a record by shooting down five Zeros in one mission.
Mind you, Zulu, that was likely on his own account. Once you go and examine the records from the other side – and this seems to be the case in all air forces in WWI/II – then the claims diminish, often by large amounts.
For example:
5 April 1942
The following day, 5 April, an attack was made on the Darwin RAAF Station by seven G4M1 Bettys of Takao Ku. Led by Lieutenant Takeji Fujiwara, with nine A6M2 Zeroes of 3 Ku led by Lieutenant Sada-o Yamaguchi, the formation departed Koepang at 0900.
Armed with 84 x 60kg bombs the bombers approached the target at 1150 and two minutes later released 5,040kg of bombs from 24,000 feet, causing only slight damage to the main runway.
The Japanese force was intercepted by four USAAF P-40s of the 9th Pursuit Squadron at 1155 with no losses on either side, although the bomber crews claimed to have destroyed five aircraft. The Bettys landed back at Koepang at 1420, followed by the Zeroes at 1445.
Link
Two interesting takes on this:
and
Indeed.
Where is the Pope?
Talk about begging the question!
TE – The Japanese especially seemed to embellish in their internal reports. Some examples were included in Long et al for the PNG campaigns from Japanese infantry sources obtained after the war. They were a lot of fun, but had zero resemblance to reality.
Same issue is probably afflicting senior officers on both sides of the Ukraine war. If junior officers are scared they’ll tend to write what their boss wants to hear, not what really happened.
It’s a serious danger for us with the wokeification of the Australian brass, and the persecution of guys like BRS. Who’d dare to accurately tell it like it is now?
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
May 3, 2022 at 10:28 am
Bong once attacked a flight of 7 zero’s by himself after having become separated from his wingman.
I don’t have a reference, but I’ve read an account of a USN carrier pilot, who set a record by shooting down five Zeros in one mission. That record lasted forty five minutes, before some spoilsport landed, having shot down seven Zeros..
IIRC, that was part of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. By that stage of the war, Japanese pilots were not of the original standards of 1941.
I dunno Bruce, check this one out from 25 April 1942 over northern Australia:
P-40 USAAF pilots claimed ten bombers and three Zeroes, which were all credited.
There were in fact four Betty bombers shot down.
(Link as above)
“There’s certainly no shortage of bullshit coming out of Washington.”
Washington DC was built on a fetid swamp.
The stench has only increased, it’s only the source that has changed – previously it was mostly single celled organisms spewing forth methane etc. Now it’s politicians spewing forth their “policies” and bureaucrats spewing out their rules and regulations. At least the prior residents performed a useful function…
Both sides TE. I’d go find the text from the AWM history but I read it a few weeks ago and I’d probably have to scan though hundreds of pages to find it again.
I’d back the Allied reports more than the Japanese reports though, since being asked to slice open one’s belly button for the Emperor due to a poorly-received combat report would ruin your whole day.
“Every single “moderate” Boomer lib I know dismissed that the trans kid fad was real and denied that it was a mainstream view on the Left.”
The leftie elite are wont to say “It’s not happening – but it’s good that it is”.
Censorship.
Transgender for kids without parental permission or knowledge.
You name it.
ZK2A:
Let your missus know “Good luck” from me as well.
Rex Anger:
I haven’t seen any photos of the dud shots, but could it be a mix of HE and solid shot?
Eyrie:
Not a problem, Eyrie.
Just look behind the lounge chair/lift the cushions.
Struth, I had thought you were a natural gentleman.
On current performance towards me, you are not.
You seem unable to comprehend the nuanced perspectives of the majority on the centre-right.
That means, in my eyes, you are a failure in life, forcing your views on unwilling others.
You and your seven upticking friends are no friends of mine. Nor of liberty.
I hope you can one day refind the man I once admired for the Convoy and his life’s experiences.
Good morning from here. We are in a C15th inn at St. Albans, with appropriately creaking flooring, opposite the Cathedral, and spent yesterday taking in the wonders of that great House of God. The site is recognised as the oldest site of Christian worship in Britain, for a church of some type has stood here since St. Alban was martyred in this place in the late third or early fourth century AD in the period prior to the Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Toleration of Christians. St. Germanus visited here in 429AD, to missionize the lapsing Christians and bring others into the fold, a mission both Bede in the C8th and I in the C21st identify as the defining feature of historical record about the C5th, albeit that we each do so for different reasons.
Immediately after the Norman Conquest the church here was rebuilt into a grand form, using Roman stonework and bricks dragged up the hill from the Roman fort and town of Verulamium, turning this material into a magnificent early Norman tower, still extant today, with its curved stripe-painted arches architecturally reminiscent of Cordoba’s Great Mosque. One side of the original nave also has these arches, on the supporting columns of which have been recovered from under Puritan whitewash a series of C12th paintings of biblical events. The other side of the original nave fell in on parishioners during a mass in the C14th and was rebuilt, along with an extension of the nave, in a more formal Romanesque style, with fluted columns. The whole place is sonorous and sombre with a later rose window a significant feature also.
It became even more sonorous as we sat there admiring, for the Evensong Choir set up its practice and the great organ filled the whole place with glorious sound as voices also rose heavenwards singing the Magnificat. They then shifted to a psalm sung alternately in antiphony (as ex-chorister Hairy explained to me) and we both knew it as the “I lift up mine eyes to the heavens” psalm. Quite wonderful. As we walked around the cathedral following the Pilgrim’s Walk, a medieval ancient wood structure caught my eye, double story with shutters, called The Watching Loft. It was where monks were stationed on duty to make sure the pilgrims were well behaved and didn’t try to steal chunks of anything as early ‘souvenirs’, in this case as healing talismans. Early Security Detail, offers Hairy helpfully, making me laugh at the thought of it. It pleases me to see him so happy in his 70th year as his birthday approaches, so much enjoying old haunts and old friendships. He revealed to me that when aged nine he had done a school project on the architecture at St. Albans after a school visit there.
We walked down to the river, saw the birds on the lake and looked at the last ruins of the old Roman town wall that had enclosed Verulamium, one of the towns destroyed by Boudicca’s revolt and later rebuilt. There is not much else to see now but footings, as most of it is in the cathedral on the hill, so laboriously wheelbarrowed up by a conquered peasantry. We will drive to the museum on the other side of the site this morning before heading up to my friend’s place to stay there in Saffron Walden.
On reflection and dredging memory, I think those eyes lift up to the hills, not the heavens.
On the way to the lake we called in at what is locally claimed to be Britain’s longest-established tavern, called Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, recommended by the hotel for dinner (and a great name for Catallaxy nites in the War Room). A tavern of sorts has been here since 793 (according to the footings) but other claimants to the ‘oldest’ title also exist. I like to think of Bernard Cornwell’s fictional Uhtred and his men taking a tankard here in King Alfred’s day on the tables by the river, I comment to Hairy as we enter.
The current building is more Tudor in style and Cromwell the Protector is claimed to have stabled his horse in what is now the bar area. Sadly, they were closed for dinner, so we repaired to a huge glassed conservatory near our hotel that is a glower-filled French restaurant, where when you enter down the long avenue of tables you see sparkling at the end a ten foot high wide mirrored bar, containing bottles and glasses for drinks of all sorts. We had proper French soup, biftek and poulet, and very fine it was too. As with Hairy’s redolent trip to Hamstead, where much of Ricky Gervais’ ‘After Life’ series were filmed, this pub also featured in one of the ‘After Life’ series.
Our own pub, The White Hart, is mentioned as serving pilgrims in the C14th, and so I led in bed wondering who in the past slept in this room, looking up at some of its exposed beams in the plaster and creaking to the loo on its noisy floors (probably a bucket in those days). No old ghosts appeared though and I slept well, in spite of the rather lumpy pillows (this is Britain) and the sad worn out furniture that I would toss as they are by no means antique pieces. The room is otherwise of a tourist standard with a good ensuite, but be warned. I also had to remove the ‘atomic’ doona (H/t Calli) from its casing and just use that as a covering sheet with a light quilt (which imho had seen better days) that was thankfully also on the end of the bed.
that is a ‘flower-filled’ French restaurant.
White Hart is now basically Tudor but some older parts are still within it.
Is this real or a pisstake? I can’t tell anyone.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ccampbellbased/status/1520525721415860229
It’s a huge pisstake, but he didn’t carry very well. He was too out there.
I slept well, in spite of the rather lumpy pillows (this is Britain) and the sad worn out furniture that I would toss as they are by no means antique pieces.
Do they have hot water?! That’s always the other big challenge. I had 5 days straight of cold showers mid winter in Dorking. I was starting to get a bit grumpy by the end of it.
It’s a huge pisstake, but he didn’t carry very well. He was too out there.
I think he does it on a serial basis? He looks familiar.
There were in fact four Betty bombers shot down.
The Betty’s became known as “one shot lighters”. Good range with large fuel volume and no self sealing tanks.
What has he done with his missus, brought wife number 3 home unannounced?