Open Thread – Weekend 7 May 2022


The Luxemburg Gardens, Paris, Albert Edlefelt, 1887

1,359 responses to “Open Thread – Weekend 7 May 2022”

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  1. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    basic old tour driver mechanic, truckie type like me, singing Slim Dusty in me blue singlet in open air Queensland pubs can spot ye

    Seriously, the more this ‘everyman’ image is pumped up the more it fails.

    I bet that was on the CV for your political career. You should have said:

    Boat owner and aspiring revolutionary. Been to Canberra before. Drives (or used to) a half-million dollar vehicle.

    You’d have been home and hosed by now.

  2. Mother Lode Avatar
    Mother Lode

    UAP HQ

    Is that another gender?

  3. Arky Avatar
    Arky

    I’m calling it.
    Ukraine will win this war and expel Russia from most of it’s territory.

  4. OldOzzie Avatar
    OldOzzie

    Birds of a feather….

    From the Comments

    – And I have just read that these two shared a flat at some stage.

    Gees, I’d rather live on a barbed wire fence, or under a clothes line.

    – Two fine upstanding members of the liebor party!

    Mister “creeping assumption” on the left and Mister “rub’n’tug’ on the right.

  5. H B Bear Avatar
    H B Bear

    Australia’s “best retail politician”

    The Beetrooter is what you would end up with if RM Williams was doing costumes for a Punch and Judy show.

  6. Farmer Gez Avatar
    Farmer Gez

    Arky says:
    May 10, 2022 at 10:24 am
    I’m calling it.
    Ukraine will win this war and expel Russia from most of it’s territory.

    I missed that. Did Jamie Kah get the ride?

  7. Roger Avatar
    Roger

    I’m calling it. Ukraine will win this war and expel Russia from most of it’s territory.

    Putin will get very desperate before that happens.

  8. Speedbox Avatar
    Speedbox

    H B Bear says:
    May 10, 2022 at 8:26 am
    Apparently the latest Dr Who is one “Gareth ‘Cortez’ Coates” who – of course – is black and homosexual.

    It’s like winning the luvvie lottery of life.

    If he had a limp or some other physical deficiency, it would be the trifecta. Black, homosexual AND disabled.

  9. Cassie of Sydney Avatar
    Cassie of Sydney

    It seems that prayer and free speech are now forbidden by Groundhog Guy and the Victorian Liberals.

    “Outspoken Victorian Liberal MP Bernie Finn, pictured above, has resigned from his role in the Upper House just days after posting controversial anti-abortion comments on social media.

    In a letter sent to Liberal MPs on Monday evening, the Member for Western Metropolitan Region announced his resignation as Opposition Whip “effective immediately”.
    Mr Finn accused the Liberal Party of disloyalty after members of his own party, including Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, lashed him for his controversial comments.

    His resignation comes amid speculation his days at Spring Street could be numbered.

    “For the past three and a half years, I have loyally served the Parliamentary Liberal Party as Opposition Whip in the Legislative Council. Sadly, that loyalty has not been returned,” his letter stated.

    “For many months, I have been aware of separate moves by the Parliamentary leader and the leader in the Upper House to remove me at this coming round of preselections.

    “I thought this part of the ‘game’ and continued on serving the party. Best these things be kept behind closed doors, I thought.

    “Then, last Friday, the leader publicly attacked me at a media conference, issuing a threat to boot. This was the last straw – particularly when his bile-filled attack was on a policy stand that he as has long assured me he supports!!

    “This latest outrage makes my continued role untenable. Enough!

    “I hereby tender my resignation as Opposition Whip in the Legislative Council, effective immediately.”

    Mr Finn posted last week posted on Facebook he was “praying” for abortion to “come here soon” and “killing babies is criminal”.

    Following a Liberal Party meeting on Tuesday morning, Mr Guy said no decision had been made about Mr Finn’s future in the Party.

    Mr Guy would not say if Mr Finn should be booted from the Party, adding his views on Mr Finn’s comments were already known

  10. OldOzzie Avatar
    OldOzzie

    H B Bear says:
    May 10, 2022 at 8:26 am
    Apparently the latest Dr Who is one “Gareth ‘Cortez’ Coates” who – of course – is black and homosexual.

    would be interested in this

    Pride Month Panties: Target Launches Chest Binders and ‘Packing Underwear’ for LGBTQIA+ Youth

    For a long time in the world, women’s undergarments served to cinch and boost in radically constrictive ways. Eventually, we (mostly) moved past that.

    But now we’re back. Whereas underwear has contemporarily been sold based on claims of comfort, the West’s gender identity revolution brings throwback throbbing — and not just for birthing people.

    Right on time for Pride Month (June), Target will be hawking harnesses to hide breasts and another “b” word I probably shouldn’t spell out.

    Scrotums and sweater puppies? You’re being kenneled.

    Penises and mammaries? You’ll soon be memories.

    As reported by Bustle, America’s tenth largest retailer is releasing products by “two queer-owned, female-founded brands” that bind upper-body bumps and pack pelvic protrusions:

  11. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    I think we can safely say that, as far as party-starter topics go, “Cloive Dumps Craig” wins hands down over “MAFs Revisited”.
    Anyone for a date scone?

  12. Zipster Avatar
    Zipster

    Mr Finn accused the Liberal Party of disloyalty after members of his own party, including Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, lashed him for his controversial comments.

    birthing persons demand assassination rights on the unborn!!

  13. Zipster Avatar
    Zipster

    I think we can safely say that, as far as party-starter topics go, “Cloive Dumps Craig” wins hands down over “MAFs Revisited”.

    ok I give up, what the hell is MAFs, is the current thing? I thought thats Ukraine

  14. Mother Lode Avatar
    Mother Lode

    It seems that prayer and free speech are now forbidden by Groundhog Guy and the Victorian Liberals.

    Guy is more fierce fighting his own party than the one his is nominally opposes.

    What is the saying about how a fox knows many things but a hedgehog knows one big thing – and knows it very well.

    Guy has mastered a technique of losing to Labor.

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  15. OldOzzie Avatar
    OldOzzie

    A list of “LGBTQIA+ Holidays & Remembrances,” per Seattle Pride:

    January – National Mentoring Month

    16th – 22nd: No Name-Calling Week
    27th: International Holocaust Remembrance Day

    February

    20th – 26th: Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week

    March – Bisexual Health Awareness Month

    1st: Zero Discrimination Day
    31st: International Transgender Day Of Visibility

    April

    6th: International Asexuality Day
    8th: Day of Silence
    26th – May 2nd: International Lesbian Visibility Week

    May

    17th: International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia
    19th: Agender Pride Day
    22nd: Harvey Milk Day
    24th: Pansexual & Panromantic Visibility Day

    June – Pride Month!

    5th: HIV Long-Term Survivor’s Awareness Day
    12th: Pulse Remembrance Day
    28th: Stonewall Riots Anniversary

    July

    6th: Omnisexual Visibility Day
    11th -17th: Non-Binary Awareness Week
    14th: International Non-Binary Day
    16th: International Drag Day

    August

    14th: Gay Uncle Day

    September

    16th – 22nd: Bisexual Awareness Week
    23rd: Bisexual Visibility Day

    October – LGBT History Month (USA and Canada)

    11th: National Coming Out Day
    19th: International Pronoun Day
    21st: Spirit Day
    24th: Asexual Awareness Week
    26th: Intersex Awareness Day

    November– Trans Awareness Month

    6th: Transgender Parent Day
    8th: Intersex Day of Solidarity
    13th – 19th: Trans Awareness Week
    20th: Transgender Day Of Remembrance

    December

    1st: World AIDS Day
    8th: Pansexual Pride Day
    10th: Human Rights Day

  16. Bruce of Newcastle Avatar
    Bruce of Newcastle

    Putin will get very desperate before that happens.

    His ailment, whatever it is, seems to be getting worse.

    ‘Hamster stuffed with steroids’ Putin health concerns as despot hides under blanket (9 May)

    Vladimir Putin has fuelled speculation over his health by covering his legs with a blanket at Victory Day celebrations.

    The Russian President was seen with a blanket over his lap at a military parade in Moscow today in stark contrast to the strongman image he has tried to project in the past. It comes as questions have been raised over Putin’s health in recent months.

    Journalist John Sweeney, who is currently reporting from Ukraine, tweeted: “Vladimir Putin – a blanket on his knees, his cheeks full, a hamster stuffed with steroids – cuts a weak and enfeebled figure as Russian Army rolls past the Kremlin.

    From the photo it looks like a blanket, but might be a coat like the general next to him is wearing. But it does look like he’s got it on his knees to prevent tremors from being obvious.

    A desperate and dying dictator with nukes is not good thought for a Tuesday morning, nor any morning.

  17. Roger Avatar
    Roger

    A list of “LGBTQIA+ Holidays & Remembrances,” per Seattle Pride:

    The love that once dared not speak its name now won’t shut up.

    15
  18. H B Bear Avatar
    H B Bear

    The closet door has certainly been thrown wide open.

  19. Vicki Avatar

    https://brownstone.org/articles/its-not-over-its-just-begun/

    This plaintive article of Naomi Wolf expresses perfectly how I feel as life seemingly “returns to normal” after Covid and the obscenities that authorities inflicted upon the rights of citizens in the last two years.

    The feeling of loss, of betrayal, and the subsequent rage that follows….are all stages of the grief I have felt. And she is right….I want justice. While justice and acknowledgement may be some time in the future (if at all) …..by hell I will be at least inflicting some punishment on this miserable government in this election.

    OK …. we will get worse with a Labor government…but just maybe the gods will smile on us and give us a government beholden to the likes of the UAP and One nation. What joy that would bring to our household after experiencing “cancellation” during the Covid autocracy.

    13
  20. Miltonf Avatar
    Miltonf

    Re target- looks like the old left was right about big business being evil. It sure isn’t apple pie and baseball.

  21. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    Still waiting for an explanation as to why Clive’s own words a) weren’t what he actually said, and/or b) what he actually meant if they were.

    No?

    Righto.

  22. The Beer whisperer Avatar
    The Beer whisperer

    Is this where political discussion hits bottom of barrel or is there worse to come?

    Scraping the bottom of the barrel isn’t as low as they go.

    Next starts the licking.

  23. Mother Lode Avatar
    Mother Lode

    Dover will be sneaking in a new fred at sometime today, I believe.

  24. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    “Hey, Where you puckin’ goin, KD, you bin owin me a plagon”

    No no no no no. It’s all wrong.

    No matter who you are, you have to finish each sentence with ‘ay’ or ‘but’.

    Oh wait. Forget I said anything. That particular affectation is only mandatory in Quenthland.

  25. OldOzzie Avatar
    OldOzzie

    Zipstersays:
    May 10, 2022 at 10:49 am
    I think we can safely say that, as far as party-starter topics go, “Cloive Dumps Craig” wins hands down over “MAFs Revisited”.

    ok I give up, what the hell is MAFs, is the current thing? I thought thats Ukraine
    Agreed what is MAFs – definitely not, I assume, Mission Aviation Fellowship: MAF

  26. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Putin will get very desperate before that happens.

    Compared with the fixers of the US Democratic Party, Vlad has been the consummate election rigger for 20 years.

    He would think nothing of nuking Stockholm or Riga or Tallinn on his way out. He would face no domestic opposition. He’s already jailed the political opposition in Moscow. In the absence of a free press, Russians still communicate in cryptic smoke signals like they did during the Soviet empire.

  27. Roger Avatar
    Roger

    If Putin regards Ukraine is a fake nation you can imagine what he makes of Moldova, another former Soviet republic caught between East & West.

    Yesterday, ethnic Russian Moldovans turned out in the capital to celebrate Victory Day…

    “Yevgenny, 42, ponytailed and in a Stalin t-shirt, told me he hoped Putin will end the war in Ukraine soon – through total victory. “Moldova cannot live without Russia,” he said. “It has only been independent for 30 of the past 500 years, and already everything has collapsed. We should live closer to our neighbours, and not the West,” he added, as his teenage daughter in a Nirvana t-shirt stood beside him looking bored…

    …Moldova’s liberal government may have set their country firmly on the Western path, but a significant proportion of its voters, and of Moldova’s elites, would rather take their chances with Russia. Small, weak and vulnerable, Moldova seems destined to be absorbed by one empire or another: the central challenge facing it is determining which one.”

    Aris Roussinos, UnHerd

  28. GreyRanga Avatar
    GreyRanga

    nuckle Draggersays:
    May 10, 2022 at 11:05 am
    Still waiting for an explanation as to why Clive’s own words a) weren’t what he actually said, and/or b) what he actually meant if they were.

    No?

    Righto.

    Coz I said. From the safety of the couch. I know best. I’m a dinkum Aussie Hero. Been on the couch for so long the King Gees are strangling the wedding tackle causing even more shrillness.

  29. Kneel Avatar
    Kneel

    “Anyone for a date pumpkin scone?”

    FIFY Sancho.

  30. OldOzzie Avatar
    OldOzzie

    The Exasperated American

    Will the voters channel their furor at this regime of lies into an unprecedented turnout at the polls in November?

    By Victor Davis Hanson

    The bullied people also know the Biden problem has no remedy. The 25th Amendment that Democrats and the Left raised nonstop in efforts to remove Trump—from the Rosenstein-McCabe wear-a-wire embarrassment and former Yale psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee’s congressional tomfoolery to the incessant Montreal Cognitive Assessment demands—won’t apply to Biden.

    Either the media will continue to rebrand his incapacity as Ciceronian eloquence or it will privately gloat that Kamala Harris is so off-putting, so uninformed, so unpopular that the people would prefer an amnesiac Biden to a nonimpaired Harris. The truth is, the three doyens of Democratic progressivism—Joe Biden, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)—all struggle with cognitive decline and rely heavily upon the media and the Democratic Party’s political attack machine to enjoy asymmetrical exemption. (Though, in Feinstein’s case, her support is wavering.)

    Americans feel there is no remedy for this downward spiral until November. To get a sense of their dilemma, imagine a Richard Nixon in 1973 caught lying during Watergate but with Spiro Agnew waiting in the wings without a trace of scandal—except with one difference: the current media is now attacking not the president’s shortcomings, but the president’s critics who point them out.

    Even if the Republicans were to win a 60-vote majority in the Senate, they would hesitate to impeach Biden simply because Harris is a more frightening prospect. And some Marquess of Queensberry centrist RINOs would not wish to codify the Democrats’ new standard of impeaching an opposition president the minute he loses the House of Representatives in his first midterm.

  31. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    In NT developments:

    The Chief Minister, Michael Gunner has finally caved. Resigned in Parliament this morning.

    He will not be the first scalp in this cavalcade of incompetence and/or malice.

    16
  32. Kneel Avatar
    Kneel

    “I want justice.”

    Not me – it’s way too difficult, all those ethics and what not.
    Revenge.
    That’s what I want.
    That gets rid of all the crap and lets you get down to individuals and cases, and simple yes/no answers.
    Much simpler.

    11
  33. Farmer Gez Avatar
    Farmer Gez

    That’s lifted my spirits KD.
    TaliDan next.

  34. H B Bear Avatar
    H B Bear

    Yevgenny knows what side his bread is not buttered.

  35. Top Ender Avatar
    Top Ender

    A list of “LGBTQIA+ Holidays & Remembrances,” per Seattle Pride:

    I’m starting the feel like the starship trooper in The Forever War.

    He comes back home after many years – made longer by star jumps – to find that to control the population the United Nations, or whatever its become, has made being homosexuality the norm.

  36. H B Bear Avatar
    H B Bear

    The re-election of another Marcos suggests some nations (all?) aren’t ready for democracy.

  37. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    That’s lifted my spirits KD.

    Gunner sponsored a particular Commissioner of Police over the past couple of years. Sponsored him hard.

    Without the Chief Minister’s active and continued support, the ice might be getting a bit thin.

    One can only dare to dream.

  38. Farmer Gez Avatar
    Farmer Gez

    HB
    I’d say it suggests the Phillipines see China coming and want a strong leader to challenge them.

  39. Top Ender Avatar
    Top Ender

    MICHAEL Gunner has announced he is stepping down as the Territory’s Chief Minister, making his final act passing the 2022-23 Budget.

    In a teary address Mr Gunner told the NT parliament on Tuesday he would be resigning, with his deputy Nichole Manison taking his place in an acting capacity.

    “Handing down this budget is my final act as Treasurer, and my final act as Chief Minister,” Mr Gunner said.

    He declared that after the birth of his second son Nash, his “head and my heart are no longer here – they are home”.

    “There is never a perfect time to step back, to walk away, to give others a go,” Mr Gunner said.

    “But for me, for my family, this feels like the right time.”

    Be interesting to see if he’s on the old pension scheme, where you had to rack up 10 years. It was replaced some years ago, but not retrospectively.

    Nothing to do with the fact the entire police force is trying to find jobs elsewhere. With the exception of the top cop of course.

    15
  40. H B Bear Avatar
    H B Bear

    Gez – let’s hope they’re right.

  41. Bruce of Newcastle Avatar
    Bruce of Newcastle

    Yevgenny, 42, ponytailed and in a Stalin t-shirt, told me he hoped Putin will end the war in Ukraine soon – through total victory. “Moldova cannot live without Russia,” he said.

    I don’t think Yevgenny will be happy with this story then!

    Moldova President: Unification With Romania Depends On the People (Newsmax, 28 Apr)

    It’d be a neat way for Moldova to get into the EU without squawking from Frogs and Wogs and whoever.

  42. Bluey Avatar
    Bluey

    What does it say about the Libs and Labor that most of the people who’d be worth voting for, who’ve actually stood up for their principles, have either resigned or been expelled?

    I’d expect Bernie Finn will end up finding a home somewhere other than the Liberal party before the state election. There’s not really any difference between the Vic Liberals and Andrew’s Labor party, just different faces.

  43. The Beer whisperer Avatar
    The Beer whisperer

    A list of “LGBTQIA+ Holidays & Remembrances,” per Seattle Pride:

    What, nothing on August 27th?

    Rookie numbers.

  44. Zipster Avatar
    Zipster

    “There is never a perfect time to step back, to walk away, to give others a go,” Mr Gunner said.

    self-i=mmolation with background fireworks?

  45. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    Mother Lode

    when they think they are brilliant and keep pointing at me to tell me to shut up because I am too stupid – and there is nothing you can say to prove to them that they are not that clever because they arrive at it through ego rather than proof, then there is nothing to do except watch themselves flail about increasingly desperately with their limbs tangling up while they try to keep their ego above water.

    But enough about Maolcolm Turdballs.

  46. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    Knuckle Draggersays:

    May 10, 2022 at 11:05 am

    Still waiting for an explanation as to why Clive’s own words a) weren’t what he actually said, and/or b) what he actually meant if they were.

    I know this one!
    “Sinclair Davidson went back in and deleted Fat Cloive’s previous posts which explained that he was not including ‘good’ independents or Craig in the put everybody last directive.”
    Hope this clears things up.

  47. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    Knuckle Draggersays:

    May 10, 2022 at 11:31 am

    In NT developments:

    The Chief Minister, Michael Gunner has finally caved. Resigned in Parliament this morning.

    He will not be the first scalp in this cavalcade of incompetence and/or malice.

    Excellent.
    I happened to catch a snippet of 730 last night, on the Lingiari electorate:-
    LNP Candidate : “The NT Government is a shit-show, and Albo will be more of the same.”
    ALP Candidate : “The NT Government is a shit-show, but nothing to do with the Feds”.

  48. Farmer Gez Avatar
    Farmer Gez

    ABC dutifully shows a picture of Gunner holding his baby.
    Gunner hopes the Chief Commissioner will be left holding the baby.

  49. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare Avatar
    Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare

    Pack, pack, pack, pack, gotta go do it. We are leaving in fifteen minutes and things are everywhere!!

    Hollywood beckons. Absolute bullshit.

    How to respond to this? Fuck you too, Armadillo?

    No need to be nasty, just scroll. I rush in here to write something for friends here who have asked me to keep them updated on our travels, adding a line which indicates the hurried nature of my reflections here (never meant to be literary works of any sort). Surely this is something you could get over with a scroll rather than an attempt to bring me down?

    Given what I read here of the Australian election (only on Catallaxy, nothing at all in the UK about it) then I am glad to be out of it and might too suspect that small insertions indicating that there is more to life than being miserable about it might be welcome here right now.

  50. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare Avatar
    Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare

    So, to continue. We side-stepped on our way from Saffron Walden to Colchester to visit something I had vaguely heard about but hardly believed: the Bartlow Mounds, a Romano-British set of seven burial mounds. We enter the village of Bartlow and all is sleepy Spring-day quiet. A few parked cars, and I spot a church entrance down a laneway. No signs to the mounds, nothing to see here etc. This is Hairy’s nightmare. He refused to use the GPS, got us here, and now no mounds to be seen. We will have to ask someone, I say, to his chagrin. But who? They are all off somewhere investigating the murders in which these villages abound, if you believe the TV shows, I jest. Ancient sacred sites often have churches located near them, I suggest. So we head down to the church, and true enough, there is a small path around the side with a worn-out wooden finger-post sign saying ‘to the mounds’.

    The long bridle-path is lined with bracken and stinging nettles, so I am glad I am wearing jeans. We emerge to a most unusual sight – three very high constructed conical hills, the highest at fifteen metres and very wide around the base. We climb the steep vertigenous one hundred steps on the one-rack wooden stairway that leads to the top of the biggest mound and view the countryside around, to find that this group of seven mounds (four have been worn down to small hillocks) sits in a typical bronze age central sacred site surrounded by hills. More Ancient Britons than Romano I murmur, even though the grave goods found were Roman ones and a Roman villa stood nearby. This sort of mound was common enough in north-western Europe in Iron Age Roman-tinged areas, such as the Gallo-Roman villa from which the town of my ancestors in Northern France gained its name.

    The area has recently come under control of a new County Council due to border changes and it is deserted and overgrown. It was a favoured picnic spot in the C18th, with antiquarian etchings made then showing seven mounds in a cleared area still available online. I am glad to see it like it is though, deserted, unobserved and overgrown, rather as I was glad to see Sutton Hoo in 2006 in the same sort of isolation. Sometime soon its amazing tourist potential will bring it into fashion, and its lonely splendour may be diminished. The villa dated from the early second century and was abandonned, as so many were, around 350AD when the Roman control of Britain was shakey at best.

    Sadly, no traces of the Roman villa remain after inept excavations of it in the C19th. We explored the church, which has an interesting historical account of its times. And yes, I wasn’t wrong about the muthering. There was a famous murder in this village. In the 1200’s a Rector was murdered here, viciously knifed by some Lord’s men, who were never brought to account. Another lively incident is recorded in the 1400’s, where a ‘Merry Widow’ got into strife for scandalously refusing to attend church here while living in the village. Her sons rescued her reputation by saying she attended church when she visited them in a neighbouring village. A tale of local outrage long ago at a woman who had a mind of her own. As with everywhere in Britain, there are these little untold stories to be found.

  51. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare Avatar
    Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare

    Another account of the Bartlow Hills; they are more overgrown now and more desolate than ever.

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