Everyone getting ready for the dawn service tomorrow?
Open Thread – Weekend 14 May 2022
- Open Thread – Mon 22 April 2024
- Open Thread – Weekend 21 April 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 18 April 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 15 April 2024
- Projects impending
Well that’s good to hear, Cassie.
Arguing over court costs is even more demoralising than usual. Particularly as it is done after the case and the…
”reagitate” – Lisa Wilkinson has spent her working life using words for a living. Just appalling.
Tony Heller has been having fun with the Stick Mann this week. The entertaining thing is Mann’s own paper from…
1 grain of gold is a good measure.
30 cents or so.
That local call will cost two grains.
That tonne of canola is priced at 3000 grains.
That steak dinner at Nobu cost me 500 grains.
Oil got so cheap after the first Gulf War, it traded for about 800 grains/bbl.
The median salary is 280k grains.
How about me. As an original owner, I’m still traumatized.
Guineas.
Now that’s real currency that is.
Indolent:
Quite.
What steak dinner at Nobu. It’s a sushi joint.
Dot, if there is one, go to Meat&Wine sometime. Order the pork ribs but for two and go to town. It’s amazing. Wifey won’t go, so I go with the kid. He loves it.
No JC that one clashed with my pink tasselled loafers.
Gravitas: China blows up replica of Taiwan’s naval base
Satellite images showed Chinese missiles striking a replica of Taiwan’s key naval base in the northeast. Is China preparing for war? What is the alliance of democracies doing in response?
Duncanm:
It didn’t occur to me that way, but I think you’ve cracked it.
On fake and dormant Twitter accounts.
I seem to remember KRudd joining Twatter in 2007-08 and instantly attracting hundreds of thousands of followers.
He was “popular Kev” back then so the fact that most of the accounts originated in Eastern Europe, were less than a month old and had no activity went unreported.
Sorry I’m late to the game, Cats- I’ve been railroading for pleasure today.
I was trained to read steam pressure gauges in Pounds per Square Inch in Australia. In South Africa, I had to learn to read them in metric (100PSI = 770kPa. Scary numbers, in relative terms), and then I found out from the Continental Europeans there that they found Metric confusing as they did all their pressures in Atmospheres (770kPa = 7.7Bar)!
At least all the gauges had redlines on them… 🙁
(I at least knew how to read vacuum in kPa before I went over to SA- Most steamers I have driven in Australia have their brake gauges in Inches of Mercury for vacuum, and PSI for air).
lol Ranga
LMVH owns the brand now. Margin wise LMVH must be or was one on the most profitable firms in the world.
Absolutely incredible margin.
The frog fuck is making a fortune on these huge brand mark-ups.
Calli:
Funny you should mention that – I was doing it as a mental exercise the other day.
But then, I miss out on one of the criteria…
Rabz:
I used to love their work, but when I found out about the shenanigans I can’t listen to them any more.
I thought LMVH’s Bernard Anault was married to what were the best tits in Hollywood,(Salma Hayek) but it’s the other Frog billionaire Frank Pinhead or François-Henri Pinault who owns the competitor.
I’ve been retired from the wool industry a few years, now, but, from memory, the Chunks kicked off their fine wool industry with Merino’s brought from Saxony – what is now Germany?
Also, if we are doing 70’s rock tonight:
Drop your trousers and start flapping, Cats.
It’s time to do the Eagle Rock…
Don’t these so called influencers etc buy dummy accounts?
Rabz:
The Wolf Alice chickie babe. I think.
Honestly, she needs a good feed before you try any horizontal folk dancing.
dummy followers I mean
Theocratic dictatorships do not lie only in the distant past: There are a number of them on the planet today. What is to prevent the United States from becoming one of them?
Robert Heinlein thought that was quite possible many decades ago. See “Revolt in 2100”
To the best of my knowledge and belief, the deal was that the Brits would test nuclear weapons in Australia, in return they would pass on the technology, should Australia go down the nuclear path?
Now for some Foreigner from 1978:
I once got to make a riff on this song when I walked into a testing room at Fiona Stanley Hospital shortly after it opened. And a fire alarm randomly triggered. I was so pleased with myself. 🙂
“I’m hot-blooded, check it and see,
I’ve got a fever of one hundred and three.
Fire alarms go off at random ’round me,
I’m hot-blooded, hot-blooded!”
#ShitpostingInRealLife
My Mum’s barometer is in inches of mercury, but the units are not shown. Took me ages to deduce it.
Back in the 1980’s when I was playing, the captain who was also a fast bowler turns up and hurriedly marks out the wicket and bangs the stumps in.
First over is absolute off-pace trash and gets belted.
Same happens to the other quick at the other end.
Someone then notices the faded lines from last week’s game further over on the strip is a bit shorter.
Yep.
Double sided tape.
22 metre pitch.
You know, Bernard Anault is worth about US$150 Billion. Unlike the tech fuckers and even including Musk, that net worth is supported by a seriously profitable operation . Every freaking dollar of sales LMVH makes, 68 cents is gross operating margin. Just amazing.
Units get mixed up. Most of the world sets altimeter subscales in hPa (used to be millibars but I suspect the malign hand of the French). USA uses inches of mercury and the Russians used millimeters of mercury.
Anyone having trouble with metric never did physics at high school which might explain a few things.
Probably still smarting over the silkworms.
Exactly.
You need to salt the goldmine.
Who is going to follow someone with 11 existing followers?
But 30,000?
He/she/ze must really have something.
I reckon the 5% number is incredibly low.
I insist we start to sell beer in hogsheads instead of cartons.
Helpful guide here.
https://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2019/08/understanding-cask-sizes/
Timothy Neilson:
IIRC, there were about 20 of them?
It would seem that plan was kicked off.. the Lucas Height HIFAR reactor (1958) was a UK design, and I think designed to be a kick-starter for nuke power in Oz.
JC
He made about $600 profit off me getting a little handbag for the missus for Mother’s Day.
All about the brand.
Duncanm:
The Logical Song.
Much better version.
I got two answers about the Inflationary question of True or False:
Winston and Will both seemed to think this is rubbish and so you would get inflation even when the source of new money is backed by central bank debt purchased internationally.
The person arguing for inflationary complacency was someone youv’e no reason to have heard of, Nicole Foss, aka Stoneleigh, blogging here. The person they were arguing against back in 2010 was none other than… Gonzalo Lira. The same guy who has gotten some wartime slavic attention recently.
When I heard of his Ukrainian travails here on the Cat I knew his name rung a bell as a commentator who had been spruiking some impending great economic catastrophe years back. I thought it was peak oil, but he seems to have mentioned that only tangentially when talking about the USA’s early 1980s inflation. It was really the GFC where his blogging first got most circulation.
And with that obscure and minor point of trivia revealed, I bid you good night.
Hallward
Stop the grandstanding. You once told us how you were an engineer. It then turned out that you weren’t trained as an engineer but in climate science, which in the 70s would have attracted the least able. Subsequently you claimed having done a few subjects in engineering. Which meant you lied.
Laughably, you’ve been seen to criticize economics for not being able to forecast well enough, yet you have also claimed you were a weather forecaster. How ironic.
Your just a fraud and all your “complex” and frankly boring discourse is to grandstand. It doesn’t work as most people see though the crap.
J.C.
I think it’s a bit of a toss up but if he wanted to destroy them, he’s doing a great job.
There must be a lot of people who got off on being Social Media ‘Masters of the Universe’ who are regretting their actions.
It’s an amazing business, Mole. He has to ensure maximum profitability without destroying the brands by making them too common. He also has to select the right creatives to keep the brands going. He’s tops.
We went to Chandon in the Yarra Valley during lockdown and toured some of the wineries. I think LMVH still owns it. The product line was really attractive in both taste and appearance. Frankly, I think Chandon made here is by far superior to the yellow label Moet.
Turtlehead. I’ve told you before. I have zero interest in interacting with you. None. That’s never going to change, so stop groveling and fuck off.
Double sided tape.
22 metre pitch.
That old chestnut.
J.C:
Salma Hayek.
Come on, JC. That poor girl would have looked good at 18, but even then the stretch marks were starting to ruin the shape.
I feel a certain sympathy for these very large breasted women – it must be horrible having the back pain that goes along with such an unbalanced torso – let alone the straps digging in to the shoulders.
Two things.
Firstly, wouldn’t advertisers want to sue the arse off Twatter if they’ve been paying to advertise to Bulgarian bots?
Secondly, almost all the board own bugger all shares and appeared to be largely unemployable academics for whom the director’s fees would be a decent chunk of their income. This meant the board were being run by senior management, not the other way around.
ZK2A:
I understood it was from Australia because of the screeching it caused here.
Possibly a cross breed ?
Turtlhead,
Grovel trolling is a new shtick. How creative you’ve become.
Winston, you philistine – there have been few more perfectly proportioned young women in human history.
Miss Ellie, in excelsis.
Not having it, I tells ya.
Very smart branding.
Linked by using the very recognisable Chandon name, but differentiated by dropping off Moet.
It is good quality stuff and not outrageously priced.
I think they have other Chandon vineyards around the world.
One in California I think.
As long as they don’t open up in China …
Eyrie:
Robert Heinlein thought that was quite possible many decades ago. See “Revolt in 2100”
If you subscribe to history as a pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other, it’s almost inevitable.
Twatter can say they have no idea what are or aren’t legit accounts. And don’t forget the fine print of their representation. No decent lawyer would have ever allowed them to make a strict rep to outside parties about the veracity of accounts. Also, parsing words and wordsmithing is what lawyers do, so they would be able to imply they have 50 trillion accounts 🙂
Sure.
To break oneself in gently, hire ten random school leavers & see if each of ’em can add up a column of decimal currency.
It’ll cure the boss’ low blood pressure.
Sanchez
Notice they gave an estimate of the shoddy accounts. An estimate is a furlong and 30 chains wide.
a furlong and 30 chains wide.That’s Four furlongs you dunce.
I think it is 12 cubits by 3 roods.
But anyway, that is the estimate which the USD 54 offer pivots around.
Let’s say it is 25% active genuine accounts.
That means he gets it way cheaper but, perversely, it is a much diminished business in terms of perceived reach.
Mind you, he will probably attract 25 million conservative accounts on day one.
That his son isn’t as useless as he’d imagined, while wondering “where the hell did these immaculate creatures emerge from?”
Frank:
..and still cranky about the tea trade when they decided to treble the price and the Brits retaliated with the opium wars.
They keep refusing to learn the lesson – and that’s where the Fentanyl wars come from.
“Saving Face” has never been a good way of balancing trade.
I meant 25% inactive, non-genuine accounts.
I was joking and indirectly mocking you, you drunken doofus.
rosie says: May 14, 2022 at 1:15 pm
Be better off if we did.
In the olden days (i.e. 2019 & especially pre-2016) I got pretty good results from Portugese and to a slightly lesser extent, Spanish backpackers.
Never had a negative experience with a Portugese backpacker, not even after 2016, which is saying something.
No, you were just making a dickhead of yourself.
Situation normal.
You don’t have what it takes to successfully mock me. You never will.
Your life experience isn’t broad enough, for starters.
TFM:
I don’t see the steel 44 gallon there.
Is that just a miscalculation, or a deliberate slur upon the Aussie goon bag market?
Who?
Me?
Sanchez
There’s also not just the active accounts but the lurking to consider too that gives Twitter influence.
Not you, Sanchez. Driller, the midnight drunken stoush troll.
On reflection, the Twatter advertisers are stuck with it.
It is up to them to research which channels customers are being captured through.
Okay.
It’s just that I have been called a drunken doofus three times this week.
Ah, yes.
Lurkers.
They’re everywhere.
Would you be the encumbent mockee?
As one does.
Recumbent, perhaps… 😉
Sancho Panzer:
I suspect both were reasons he did it – the wailing of the left about the takeover was a delight to hear, and the thought of senior management being faced with their duplicity is good to see.
Now if Elon walks away from the deal citing dodgy books and asking the apropriate authorities to look further into it, he’d have destroyed Twitter at minimal cost.
Anyway – off to bed.
Why only three times?
I tend to think that it’s not the active accounts that are important but the lurkers reading the content. The content is what it is today and that attracts x number of readers. That’s more important I think as that’s also where the value lies.
Correct.
Pancho, I’ve actually been a drunken doofus two times this week, if that’s any consolation.
It is, what it is, what it is, ad infinitum …
Burning wheel* … 😕
*For poor ol’ Arks, who appears to have blundered off the figurative edge of the earth. If he has, it’s not something that should be gloated about, Cats. We all exist on a razor’s edge, whether we know it or not.
Why do firkins get such a bad wrap?
Who firkin knows?
Perhaps Sancho is a Butt man?
In a job, many moons ago, I had plenty of time to fill. So I would read the 96th edition of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Found a few typos and incorrect page references in the index. Should have sent them a fax. Turns out I wasn’t wasting my time as I discovered firkins, hogsheads and kilderkins.
That job was at Midland Brick when it was owned by the guys who started the company, Ric and Gerry New.
They were exporting pavers to Japan then. Packed in sea containers
try again..while they sleep it off…3 chain Road
what is wrong with you people?
the software we use has what we’d call ‘facets’ to meta-textualise numbers
if you want pascals in kg/(m·s2) just change the facets so that the high-speed idiot spits out the number you need.
the scalar bit coming in is automatically translated going out.
a bit like using a spreadsheet but without the spreadsheet
as long as the dimensions are the same (and I dont mean measurements), translating between units is a doddle
actually the other software is even betterer
all numbers are dimensioned
so just do some of these …
x = 10kWh.to(1BTU)
x = 10kWh.to(“BTU”)
x = 75°F.to(1°C)
x = to(75°F, 1°C)
for the usual stuff, I dunno why you can’t do this in your heads
it isn’t that hard
and, talk a bout stuff we take for granted
number representation inside a computer will do your head in
when the errors deriving from floating-point calcs add up to enough to ruin your work,
you may or may not be an engineer
Week In Pictures.
Hey JC.
We’re in the USA – Eastern Coast – in late August.
In NY, what would you recommend seeing, for an ageing military historian, apart from USS Intrepid, and the 9/11 site? I was there once before but only for two days.
I hasten to add Mrs TE will have us covering all of the usual stuff.
2022.05.14 Why Did Lloyd Austin Call Sergei Shoigu?
Gonzalo Lira II
LMVH owns the brand now. Margin wise LMVH must be or was one on the most profitable firms in the world.
https://www.lvmh.com/houses/
When you scroll everything they own, it’s pretty mind blowing.
When I told a Kiwi that Cloudy Bay wasn’t one of theirs he was in disbelief.
In NY, what would you recommend seeing
Have a feed at this place.
https://peterluger.com/our-story/
Remember to get a side of bacon to share.
Abbott Labs are on the front foot saying the two babies that died had nothing to do with their formula.
How long before someone inside the FDA spills the beans on the whole thing.
This pandemic treaty is the greatest power grab any of us has seen in our lifetime, says Neil Oliver
US State Department edges towards Taiwan recognition
The Duran
Russia-Ukraine conflict: Finnish President speaks to Russian Prez Vladimir Putin | WION
countdown to ww3
Hot on the heels of Bill Gates’s GERM team, the World Health Organization is drafting a global pandemic treaty on pandemic preparedness that could grant the agency unprecedented biosecurity powers.
#WHO #WorldHealthOrganization #BillGates #Pandemic #COVID
What are the Cliff Notes of this “Pandemic Treaty”?
No shit it seems like the plot from the old X Files movie. Use FEMA as a tool to usher in totalitarianism.
did she ask for a recommendation on best moscow nightclubs?
Barrasso Reads Tweets Of Biden’s Pick To Energy Dept’s Science Division That Criticize Free Market
Madness.
Sexual Harassment Inquiry Launched Into Eighth Graders’ Misuse of Personal Pronouns (13 May)
So the poor 13 year old kids are being charged with sexual assault for standing up for their 1st Amendment rights. And you can bet that the school is going to hammer them and their parents because lefties never, ever, back down.
pete of perthsays:
May 15, 2022 at 12:32 am
That job was at Midland Brick when it was owned by the guys who started the company, Ric and Gerry New.
You may have met a NZ geologist cousin of Mrs Eyrie’s named Hector. He’s sadly now deceased.
I met Ric New quite a few times through gliding. He was one of the original pioneer Western Australian glider pilots. There’s a hill near Toodyay with a small plaque set into the ground commemorating the first soaring flight in WA (actually gain height above launch point).
Ric was a good guy who tried to live like an American while actually living in WA.
Beginning to think they were meant to be one giant piss take.
Just another bunch of rich fruit loops scared of the weather using the federal election to get oxygen. Australia is becoming the world capital of the doomsday cult.
Doesn’t look like it. The New Liberals (wiki).
Never underestimate the power of stupidity.
Snap Tom!
Someone explain to me why we throw money at places like the Solomons
This is a simplistic view, obviously, but why can’t they throw their own money at their problems?
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/countries-by-national-debt
Aus: 41%
Solomon Isl.: 15%
(by comparison, PNG is 38%)
The New Liberals. We’ve taken all the Shitty parts of the old liberals and made a new party out of it. The New Liberals. Now with less.
The New Liberals. If symptoms persist, seek professional help.
rising waters at Balmoral? Someone should show him the Fort Denison records.
http://www.sealevel.info/MSL_graph.php?id=Sydney&lin_pi=0&trend_noaa=1
Hop onto a 737 and spend a day or 2 at the Smithsonian in Washington – there are actually 2 campuses, the better of the 2, the ‘Udvar Hazy Centre’ is about an hour out of town but is enormous and holds hundreds of historic aircraft.
I think its a promising development. Maybe the LNP wets will wick out to the ‘new libs’ an the libs can get back to reality.
From an ancient OED: Pantagruelian Philosophy – To treat serious matters with cynical good humour.
Warmies are far too earnest for cynical good humour, which led me to thinking either a lark or a potential nice little earner got out of hand.
Cash rates for work, a few people around here do cash work, I sometimes need a hand on bigger jobs.
For $20/hour you get someone (usually) willing to work but no experience and you will have to do a lot of monitoring and supervision and possibly end up with damages equipment.
$30/hour is the cheapest that anyone good will work for. At that price they do a good job, little or no supervision and will work 8 hours or more.
This is for relatively unskilled garden, landscape work but where the worker needs to be able to think about how to do the work and the best way to do it.
I’m starting to charge the customers $100/hour for hand and small machine work, it’s the only way to make money out of it.
Prior to the wuflu lockdowns and madness I would pay $10 and $20/hour for the same people.
duncanm
We also give money to India and they have an advanced space program. Our entire aid budget needs a complete revision.
“Beginning to think they were meant to be one giant piss take.”
Sadly no. The New Liberals is just another progressive wank outfit made up of entitled and very wealthy north shore and eastern suburbs hypocrites. Warning, warning, beware of anything called “The New”, as with The New Daily, you can be assured it’s an outlet spruiking far-left progressive gunk. These outlets aren’t conservative, they aren’t right-wing, they aren’t even Liberal, they’re Greens.
The man spruiking the climate alarmism by pretending to drown in the video is named Victor Kline. Where are the bull sharks when you need them? Kline is running against Liberal wet Trent Zimmerman in the electorate of North Sydney. He’s a Barrister who’s been around for yonks. He’s lately been engaged in a spat with Svengali Simon, I suspect Victor wanted to be part of Svengali Simon’s teal troupe but Victor, as you can see, is lacking certain criteria needed/wanted/desired by Svengali Simon in his candidates, mainly a combo of bimboism and estrogen. Victor should have put on a wig, “identified” as a woman, swallowed some estrogen and called himself “Victoria”, perhaps then Svengali Simon might have picked him.
A little song for The New Liberals.
Hot on the heels of Bill Gates’s GERM team, the World Health Organization is drafting a global pandemic treaty on pandemic preparedness that could grant the agency unprecedented biosecurity powers.
AusGov will be at the forefront of surrendering sovereignty.
Tynan believes that the full story of Operation Totem “in all its technical details may never be known”. Her own writing is both constrained and energised by the paucity of publicly available information about the Totem tests, including the black mist that appeared after the explosions. According to Tynan, this strange phenomenon has never been fully explained, or at least not in the public record.
Wasn’t there a Royal Commission into this in the 1980s? Perhaps that was before Tynan was born, and therefore she was not aware of it?
Wet, wetter, wettest. Makes perfect sense in the alarmism asylum.
Whenever the subject of EVs or panels or windmills comes up, I always ask, “do you honestly think any of this will change the weather?”. Never had a “yes” so far.
Fisher Price Offers RuPaul Drag Queen Set for Littles
The Fisher Price toy company has been an esteemed part of American childhood for nearly 100 years. Founded during the Great Depression, it has offered educational toys for children since 1930.
Now it’s offering a different sort of educational product for children: a RuPaul Drag Queen “Little People” set of dolls.
I wish I was kidding. But I’m not.
Bowing to the LGBTQ Crowd
Here’s what Mattel, which now owns Fisher Price, said about its new RuPaul Little People collection:
“The figure pack honors RuPaul’s efforts to inspire people young and old to be true to themselves.”
The company added:
“RuPaul is a pop-culture icon who has been hailed as the best-dressed queen on TV and is coming to life in a whole new way for lip-syncing, runway-slaying fans.”
Yes, because a drag queen is the ultimate role model for your five-year-old child, right?
Alternatives to Fisher Price
Fortunately, parents don’t have to shell out money to Mattel and Fisher Price for quality toys for their kids and grandkids.
Lego, of course, has offered all sorts of building opportunities for children as young as 18 months to adults. Their themes include Star Wars, Frozen, Minecraft, and Minions, as well as classic architecture and city scenes.
My grandson loves Legos. But my personal favorite toy sets come from Playmobil.
Motor racing fans might enjoy the Bathurst 12 hour race currently running in Bathurst, live on Mate.
The range of cars is small, but the conditions are challenging. It started in the dark at 5 am, featuring rain and fog. It’s still raining but the fog is mostly gone. Not for the faint-hearted.
Each car has one amateur and one professional driver, with restrictions on how much time each of the two must spend on the track.
Quite entertaining.
There was, indeed – 1984 – 85.
The truth will out?
The documentary has already reached 1 million views and already racked up $10 million in revenue. The figures reportedly make it the most successful political documentary since Obama’s America, also directed by D’Souza and released a decade ago.
“The movie is a success financially for sure, but also it is successful in its political and cultural influence,” said D’Souza. “It’s the most talked about movie out there right now, making headlines in multiple publications, and is trending extremely high on social media.”
When you want to vote Liar but just can’t.
As I’ve noted before, aid is not about aid, it’s about projecting soft power in our region.
My oldest grandson is into Lego, and every time we go over I have to build something with him.
Long story short, after 50 years, I bought my own set, and I have now built for myself the Lego Crocodile loco and have a few non genuine locos on order( a German 99.72 2-10-2 tank engine and Sd70 diesel — very very tempted by the Big Boy). The idea is to have a lego train running under the Christmas tree for Christmas and add each years Christmas themed set to the collection. We have last year’s set put away in storage. Which we are getting closer to getting it out from as
thankfully our slab finally went down week before last, just before Queensland Rainageddon 22.2 and only 4 months behind schedule ( it was supposed to go down in the week before Christmas , sigh)
Roger, I agree but I cannot see how aid to India and many other places is justified.
Interesting to see today’s Sunday Mail editorial supporting Coalition over Labor.
I know many here want to punish Coalition for various reasons but my way of looking at it is simple. With Qld, VIC, SA, WA and NT being run by Labor the country can’t afford to have them in power federally at the same time.
Another view is compare who will be Cabinet members from both sides. Most of the Labor side make me cringe.
Marles in Defence, Wong Foreign Minister and Keneally Homeland is too much to contemplate.
Essential reading.
True.
Thanks Tom.
RIP Andrew Symonds. According to channel 9 he died in a car accident last night.
An exceptional 1 day cricketer. Would be in our greatest 1 day cricket 11.
the truth ministry comes for doctors
Via Instapundit, the writer is complaining about the exorbitant cost of tickets to see Paul McCartney. He’s right the prices are ridiculous however the reasons why are sensible. Once these music acts made their money off the record sales, tours were used to promote an album and so were relatively cheap. I’m sure many here can remember seeing world class acts in small stadiums and halls around Australia in the 70’s. In Melbourne we had Festival Hall and the Music Bowl, there were a few at other places. Led Zeppelin at Kooyong were amazing, all small compared to todays mega concerts and cheap, I think I paid $13 to see CCR at Festival Hall and the other concerts were much the same.
No money in recordings now, it’s the show that brings in the big bucks.
Matt Ridley
A WHO pandemic pact would leave the world at China’s mercy
Those maskless pensioners aren’t going to beat themselves up you know!
Thanks for the tip, fdb, anything with meat makes my day.
We’re in Washington DC for five days, flyingduk, although I’ve worked there before, so have been to most great places. Will be going to several Smithsonians again.
Thanks, Bear at 8.50am. Paywallian:
The cricket world is in mourning today following the death of popular former Test allrounder Andrew Symonds in a car accident.
Symonds was involved in an accident outside Townsville where he lived in retirement.
The flamboyant allrounder was one of cricket’s most popular characters during the peak of his career.
The accident happened at 10.30pm on Saturday night in a single-car crash.
Symonds’ family issued a statement confirming his passing and appreciated peoples’ sympathy and best wishes, and asked that their privacy be respected.
He played 26 Tests and was a crucial member of Australia’s all-conquering one-day side that enjoyed World Cup glory.
Snap, Zulu.
Great minds, Tom.
Neil Oliver on the proposed WHO pandemic treaty
Think of it as pay for access.
It means when we go to India with a request, the door is open.
That’s the way it’s supposed to work, anyway.
When it doesn’t you have to resort to other means, which the Solomons may soon discover.
Speaking of ‘pay for access’, The Babylon Bee:
‘Lobbyists alarmed at the rising cost of politicians.’
Putin warns Finland has ‘made a mistake’ after country’s president tells him they WILL join NATO – despite Russian threat it could wipe them and Britain out in SECONDS with nukes – as Lavrov says ‘total hybrid war’ has been declared
Too young, far too young. Symonds was one of my favourites, with his zinc lips and ready smile.
Roger, I can understand it with our near neighbours, but India? WTF should we pay for access?
Liberal Party campaign launch today. I look forward to Scotty apologising for everything. He’s already apologised for being a bulldozer but the word “bulldozer” implies that there was and is something there to bulldoze. There’s been nothing left in the Liberal Party since September 2015, it’s an empty shell. The words I’d use to describe Scumbag are capitulator, appeaser, submitter and wrecker. He’s going to gift us Albanese as PM. Thanks Scumbag.
However before he packs his bags and leaves the lodge, Scumbag actually does owe an apology to a few people, people he’s casually thrown to the lions….
1. Cardinal Pell,
2. Bettina Arndt,
3. Craig Kelly,
4. George Christensen,
5. Christian Porter,
6. Christine Holgate,
7. Alan Tudge,
8. our SAS soldiers,
9. the accused in the Higgins’ trial,
10. the people of Victoria, for standing by and saying nothing when Victorians endured the longest lockdown on the planet and when Victorians were subjected to the violent actions of Dan’s private paramilitary goons, and
11. the Australian people, for the destruction of federation, for lying about vaccine mandates…..for everything.
The truth is that Morrison has been an utter disgrace, an appeaser who’s fed the crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. The crocodile is smiling because he knows what his next meal course is. He’s hungry.
That’s the way the world works, esp. the 3rd world.
It’s not a moral argument, it’s a pragmatic one.
There are some fairly cogent moral arguments against any international aid at the inter-governmental level, actually.
Cassie, I think he’s more blancmange than bulldozer.
It will be along shortly.
“But what caused an otherwise fit and healthy 46 year old teetotaler to drive off a straight dry road in clear conditions?”
Indolent says:
May 15, 2022 at 8:58 am
Neil Oliver on the proposed WHO pandemic treaty
Transcript here.
It would be quicker to list everything SloMo has gone in to bat for:
Ends.
I’m betting on a re- run of the Whitlam “reign of terror.”
Joe Biden Versus We the People
Inflation, illegal immigration, allegations of domestic terrorism — is Biden trying to lead our country or destroy it?
My 87 year old father has contracted Covid. I’m glad he’s been jabbed.
A very decent bloke.
After he made some inane remark about Marnus Labuschagne on a hot mic, he squared it away with Marnus. Then, at a QC function, he spotted Labuschagne’s parents and went up to apologise to them as well. Marnus’s mum threw her arms around him and assured him he was forgiven.
Vale, Andrew.
In truth SloMo’s career peaked about the same time as Lara Bingle. Coincidence?
The Pentagon Testified Assessing Ukraine and No One Noticed
May 14, 2022 – Sundance
As we contemplate the massive $40 billion transfer of U.S. taxpayer funds to Ukraine, a few things need to be emphasized.
First, congress has decided to pay the salaries, benefits and pensions of Ukraine political officials and citizens. As U.S. citizens try and figure out how to afford housing, gasoline, food and basic goods, congress has decided to subsidize another country. That’s the first point.
Second, as to the pragmatic question of “to what end?” There was a critical point made last week by Defense Intel Agency (DIA) Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, that not a single media outlet or politician discussed. During his briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Berrier was asked “can Ukraine win” the conflict against Russia?
Lt. General Berrier replied: “That is a difficult predication to make. I think where the assessment is at, is a prolonged stalemate should no factor change on either side. In other words, the Russians continue to do what they’re doing, and we continue to do what we are doing for the Ukranians.” WATCH:
The Pentagon assessment is the best that can be achieved is a stalemate. Billions of billions of dollars being poured into Ukraine, and the most likely outcome is a stalemate. More people killed, an endless need for continued money to be poured into the ‘war’, and the best possible outcome is a stalemate.
So, riddle me this, why isn’t the U.S. policy position advocating for Zelenskyy and Putin to enter negotiations for a resolution?
What possible U.S. interest can be advanced, knowing the only outcome is a stalemate, where people are killed on either side and money spent on a proxy conflict that ends in loggerheads at some distant point months from now?
Also, why has no U.S. media outlet or pundit played the remarks and assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency, so that the American people can understand the intent of U.S. policy?
Biden finishing everything the Magic Negro started.
I’m also glad Latham hasn’t publicly flagellated himself over his tweet last Sunday night. I suppose he won’t be welcome on Andrew Blot’s show but that’s no loss.
Oliver and Steyn Discuss the Continued Censorship of COVID Opinion
May 14, 2022 | Sundance
As more data leading to increased scrutiny surfaces, Neil Oliver (U.K.) and Mark Steyn (Canada) discuss the continued suppression and censorship of any COVID discussion that is antithetical to the official position of western government.
The suppression/censorship of reasonable discussion is a unique element of the COVID framework that has been maintained for well over two years. As the danger and fear have subsided, one must reasonably ask why the continued need for this level of control?
What is it they fear, and who are ‘they‘?
Mouth-breather
Miranda Devine
@mirandadevine
Kristina Keneally chewing gum and looking glum at a pre-poll in Fowler where local independent Dai Le is challenging the Labor machine.
From the Comments
– Not a good look on a human. maybe for a cow
– Just another gum chewing Streetwalker
– Chewing gum……..or keeping in practice?
Bear Necessitiessays:
May 15, 2022 at 8:50 am
RIP Andrew Symonds. According to channel 9 he died in a car accident last night.
An exceptional 1 day cricketer. Would be in our greatest 1 day cricket 11.
Car was probably vaxxed!
The Great Man’s shoes are big ones to fill. It took roughly 20 years to undo the damage. In economics things can go South quicker than they can recover. In truth, the first week of the Albo campaign should have been the end of him.
Michael Towke should probably be at the head of that list; that’s where it all began.
Republican Senate Leadership Travel to Kyiv, Ukraine to Inspect the Treasury
May 14, 2022- Sundance
Comrade taxpayers, as the glorious and esteemed senate move through the procedural hurdles to pass a massive $40 billion spending bill for the U.S. altruistic Ukraine money laundering operation, a fabulous diplomatic envoy consisting of Mitch McConnell, John Barrasso, John Cornyn and Susan Collins travel to Kyiv to meet the magnanimous defender of the international treasury and wealth transfer operation, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The magnificent republican leaders went to visit the nicest war zone their bipartisan efforts have created in the past four decades. As the angels of abundance parted the clouds, many congratulations were shared from the delegation toward their generous host and the expressions of appreciation and respect for the generosity were reciprocated. WATCH:
No U.S. border security, no gas money, no grocery money, no infant formula, no voting integrity…. Meh, no problem comrades. We’ve got Ukrainians to support. We are paying the pensions and benefits of Ukraine government officials and Ukraine citizens.
Keep in mind, the politicians are not tone deaf, out of touch or disconnected; they simply do not care. We The People are irrelevant to them.
We are in an abusive relationship with our own government.
sfwsays:
May 15, 2022 at 9:02 am
Roger, I can understand it with our near neighbours, but India? WTF should we pay for access?
Counter balance to Chynerrr.
When dealing with the woke crowd, never apologise. It’s taken as an admission of guilt and used to push for more punishment.
Map break:
Michael Towke? He was in the Monkees, right?
Boambee John: There’s not much love for China in India and even if there was, our piddling millions of $ wouldn’t be a decimal point in what China would pay if they were so inclined. We have more than our share of Indians here, why bother giving their homeland money?
So, was Symonds’ obituary appended by the Lifeline number or a reminder to get boosted?
Whining people not satisfied, whine more.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/15/im-excited-by-the-teal-independents-but-wheres-the-racial-and-ethnic-diversity
But of course, as everyone keeps telling us, the real story of the 2022 election isn’t about the blokes in suits, it’s about a wave of women in teal who have no qualms about saying what they stand for. This is partially true, of course, but I keep waiting for someone to point out the blindingly obvious.
As important as they are as a phenomenon, the independents replicate parliament’s current racial and ethnic diversity problem. If the legislature has begun to see a gender reckoning, it is clear it is still not ready for what a racial reckoning might look like.
I’d settle for a competency reckoning.
How Racist! Pelosi Opens Liquor Store In Congress But You Must Show an ID to Get Served!
Members of the House of Representatives can now order alcoholic beverages for delivery directly to their offices from 8 am to 4 pm.
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lamented the demise of Democrat legislation to protect abortions and feigned outrage over America’s “unconscionable” baby formula crisis, her administrative office ramped up benefits for lawmakers.
House members received notification from the House Chief Administrative Officer announcing two new perks offered this week compliments of the chamber’s Democrat leadership: fully paid gym memberships and “House Drinks storefront” a brand new liquor and drinks outlet in the Rayburn House Office Building.
And lawmakers must show an ID to get served — unlike voting in Democrat states.
The media “coverage” of the election campaign reflects the fact that between 90% and 99% of Australian journalists (and pollsters, for that matter) vote for the Greens or Labor.
As in 2019, the election “coverage” is mostly journalists hoping and wishing for a change of government. None of them is interested in what the public thinks. Journalists are nothing like the public; they’re the lunatic fringe.
Lydia Thorpe suggests parliament can’t handle much more racial diversity. Whiteness is arguably the least of its problems.
In case anyone is unfamiliar with Michael Towke, via Wiki:
“Morrison sought Liberal preselection for the division of Cook, an electorate in the southern suburbs of Sydney which includes Cronulla, Caringbah, and Miranda, for the 2007 election, following the retirement of Bruce Baird, who had served as the member since 1998. He lost the ballot to Michael Towke, a telecommunications engineer and the candidate of the Liberals’ right faction, by 82 votes to 8.
However, allegations surfaced that Towke had engaged in branch stacking and had embellished his resume. The state executive of the Liberal Party disendorsed Towke and held a new pre-selection ballot, which Morrison won. The allegations subsequently proved to be false, and The Daily Telegraph was forced to pay an undisclosed amount to settle a defamation suit filed by Towke. ..
In 2022, Towke accused Morrison of engaging in ‘racial vilification’ during the 2007 preselection, including ‘saying Mr Morrison told party members they should not vote for him because he was from a Lebanese family and because of rumours he was a Muslim,’ a claim Morrison denied.”
We also give money to India and they have an advanced space program. Our entire aid budget needs a complete revision.
Here’s the problem:
Aussie Lesbians are in the habit of traveling to India as tourists, where they sometimes get into trouble.
Since there’s no Rule Of Law [as we know it] in India, the Aid Money
serves as an advance bribe to get things sorted at the highest levels.
Lydia Thorpe is a constant reminder as to who the Greens deem a fit and proper person to represent those demented enough, to vote for them in the Senate.
So, this time next week, Albo will be on Day 1 of his term.
Metric/Imperial: There’s no metric equivalent for “inch that along a bit mate”, or “we had acres of fun down at the river”, or “a pound of flesh”, or the scale of “a bushel and a peck”.
Metric is bland, uninteresting, but ok for measurements. But metric has no cultural resonnances. Some of the metric unit names are from history (eg. Newtons) but none of the sizes are based on historical practices (eg. chain & link, horsepower). Metric is often impractical – how do you pack multiples or fractions of 10 items in a box compared to the variety of ways of arranging multiples or fractions of a dozen.
David Limbrick on Outsiders pointing out something that should be shouted from the rooftops again and again – Goose Morristeen was complicit in that grotesque deformed jug eared imbecile’s bonfire of human rights in Disasterstan over the last two years.
Morristeen enabled the abuse and then sat on his house sized backside and pretended it wasn’t his doing. He’s a fat evil piece of excrement.
Bottom line:
The Towkester was a shithouse candidate who didn’t have a hope of holding heavily AngloSaxon Cook in the 2007 RuddSlide.
The state executive of the Liberal Party…
This is from where a lot of the rot has stemmed.
That doesn’t begin until he’s sworn in.
Take that Vlad…
https://youtu.be/UiEGVYOruLk
Could have been absolutely anything in crikkit. He was already in the top order of somethings, but could have been up there with the Bothams and Sobers (both of whom he outclassed by miles as a fieldsman anyway) – had he not been hounded out of the team by those lovable rogues at Cricket Australia.
When Monkeygate happened (Harbajhan Singh, in a classic case of reverse racism) Symonds, Ponting and only one or two others stuck by him. Cricket Australia absolutely dead-set refused to complain about the pissweak penalty set down, didn’t back Symonds one iota and then effectively froze him out of the squad because he ‘made trouble’, which is code for daring to complain about being called a monkey by an Indian.
To his absolute credit, he didn’t perform like Harry O’Brienlumumba at Collingwood – he got on with it and made shit tins as a commentator. Semi-retired at 46 is kicking goals in any field of endeavour.
I haven’t looked, but at some point today there will be a simpering yet beige five para statement from Cricket Australia on the passing of one of this country’s best, but unrecognised as such, sportsmen.
I fucking loved him shoulder-charging that streaker.
Indeed; and note Towke was from the right faction of the NSW Libs.
Fox 501’s got his interview on Cricket Legends about Monkeygate right now.
Albanese is the stupidest politician to have run for PM in my lifetime.
No mean feat, when you think about it.
Why Frydenberg is in trouble.
My sister who works in hospital admin has a discussion with colleagues over lunch and the election came up as a topic.
“We want to vote Morrison out” was stated by quite a few of the ladies present. My sister pointed out that they’re not in Sydney so you can’t do that and you’re actually voting out Frydenberg, who they all quite liked.
As my sister said to me “These people with degrees and responsible jobs don’t even understand the Westminster system of government.”
Vale Roy Symonds. One of the few cricketers I’d actually pay to watch play.
10% for The Big Guy
No pressure Aussie farmers, but a good season might be needed to stave off a even more critical shortage of death gluten this year.
India bans all wheat exports over food security risk
Move imposed with immediate effect in attempt to control prices after heatwave damages crops
A notice in the government gazette by the directorate of foreign trade, dated Friday, said a rise in global prices for wheat was threatening the food security of India and neighbouring and vulnerable countries.
A key aim is to control rising domestic prices. Global wheat prices have increased by more than 40% since the beginning of the year.
Before the war, Ukraine and Russia accounted for a third of global wheat and barley exports. Since Russia’s 24 February invasion, Ukraine’s ports have been blocked and civilian infrastructure and grain silos destroyed.
At the same time, India’s own wheat harvest has suffered a record-breaking heatwave that is stunting production.
Even though it is the world’s second largest producer of wheat, India consumes most of the wheat it produces. It had set a goal of exporting 10m tonnes of the grain in 2022-23, looking to capitalise on global disruption to wheat supplies from the war and find new markets for its wheat in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Much of that would have gone to other developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Apart from problems with weather damaging harvests, India’s vast stocks of wheat – a buffer against famine – have been strained by distribution of free grain during the pandemic to about 800 million people.
To balance supply and demand, the government needs about 25m tonnes of wheat each year for an extensive food welfare programme that usually feeds more than 80 million people.
Does anyone know if the French Foreign Legion is still accepting recruits?
Then there’s the “Bees dick” and “Mick hair” units of linear measurement.
Almost unique in their ability to be expressed in both imperial and metric.
creeping communism
Towke is a Guardian/Crikey/SMH story.
Why is it being pushed here?
Then there’s the “Bees dick” and “Mick hair” units of linear measurement.
And for very fine measure a “Poofteenth”
Or “Two fifths of bugger all”
oops, sorry Dover.
If Scotty loses then it’s best for the Party if Frydenburg loses too.
The guy is being touted as the next Leader, but he lost their safest Seat?
He’s the Liberal Party’s Nathan Buckley.
A loser.