Faceless? They were clearly visible and unmasked. Sky report that authorities have identified them.
Open Thread – Weekend 14 May 2022
- ANZAC Day Thread
- Open Thread – Thurs 24 April 2025
- WolfmanOz at the Movies #101
- Open Thread – Monday of the Angel 2025
- Between a rock and a hard place on May 3
I only recently remembered two of mum’s cousins who served in WWII. Sgt Bob who was in North Africa with…
There’s a huge amount of detail and dot joining in this article by Flopping Aces. The NGO You’ve Never Heard…
a Maryland judge ordered once again that Kilmar Abrego Garcia (a proven MS-13 gang member) must return home to America,…
The left’s secret weapon is called ‘disparate impact.’ Trump just crushed it into dust…
Well look-ee here! The Chinks, who are playing Russia just as Stalin played Hitler (Yeah, go ahead, start a war against everyone! We’re right behind you *snigger*), have let slip their real position on Putin –
Yeah, but the Ozzie did manage to blunder into 15th spot.
Remind me again – WTF are we doing in the Eurovision song contest?
Frank, no trannies at Eurovision this year, at least not yet.
Frank, I spoke too soon, there it is, the trannie former winner and our competitor hugging zer.
Ha, Mosman!
Rabz, I have idea why we are in Eurovision.
What is that idiot trying to be with that veil or mask? A bride? A Covid patient?
Rabz, you could be in Leichhardt.
When we were looking buy in 80s I thought Mosman was too far away from work in the CBD, and so we settled on Neutral Bay.
I see Ed Case us being a dickhead again. When Gillard and the worst ag minister ever joe Ludwig banned live exports Brazil did very well, ironically without needing all the QA that Australian exporters needed.
And Zulu and 123Bush et al are entirely correct.
Gillard and gutless Ludwig cost the country a lot of dough from that one, panicky act. And non financial consequences continue to play out. An honourable minister would have refused Gillard’s demand outright, and if she persisted resigned from ministry in protest.
How’s that compensation case going?
You wouldn’t believe what is, although RickW would.
Yes, I did know that! Saudi Aramco aren’t scared of operating stuff the way woke oil is. No big sell off’s of assets, just keep building, buying and expanding.
You have to hand it to Italians, the best song at Eurovision is sung by the compère and the audience – Volare!
The UK performer and the song are not bad.
I’m watching the Eurovision Song Contest so none of you have to.
The Federal Court ruled Ludwig acted unlawfully, the ban was illegal, and the figure of a billion dollars in damages is being bandied about. Animals Australia and the Labor Party should have to pay those damages…
I realised today that one of the big movements in the 1920’s was a Social Justice one.
Apparently it wrecked nearly as many things as the current round of social justice.
Watching (and unwillingly listening to) a Jumbo fly very low over the Italian forum.
Yeah, no.
Redfern used to be pretty unfashionable in the Sydney stakes. Nightlife was somewhat colourful too.
120 comments on that story, and only one remotely supportive of Ping Pong.
As for the ongoing attack on the steelworks in Mariupol – the many plants making up the works may contain, among other things, chemical weapons, given that an aspect of their substructure described on Wiki is something called a ‘pharmacy network.’ This may mean Panadols, or not.
I’m (figuratively) watching paint dry because it’s a hell of a lot more enjoyable than enduring whatever clown show goat rodeo we end up having foisted on us from next week.
#goosemorristeen4evah
TV sucks, blogging and YouTube much better. Even under Google control YouTube have an incredible amount of material. The only limit is your imagination
Know a monastery, where they let the monks hit the town on Saturday night?
Rabz, my parents lived in Tempe right under the flight path. You could almost see the faces at the plane windows.
Before that, in early 70s, it was South Coogee right under the East-West runway approach. We used to lose TV reception when a DC-10 would come screaming down from the sea.
Translation: Wong ain’t sure they’re gonna win.
Biggish day.
Baptism. Not mine. A mate’s young bloke.
Said mate had a nasty divorce a few years back, then hooked up with a very tasty bit of kit indeed. In my view he set the bar early and high – being the handbag holder, wearing matching attire picked out by her and so on. Anyway, their infant son celebrated his first birthday this week as well so his (and her) rellos turned up from interstate .
Wasn’t a massive crowd. About 50, followed by ‘celebrations’ at their joint. Fortunately my dear friend has one or two cousins that were well worth a conversation (and some follow up work to be done later this week) but Mummy herself appears to be one of those people who regard her ‘work’ to be accomplished, and that it is now well and truly burger time.
And my mate would (now) seem to be aware of this. A damn shame.
yep
Full marks again to Latham, by the way.
Any conversation between Latham and Bolt would be akin to one between Mater and Liability Bob, and just as entertaining.
Proud to say I voted for Latham in 2019. He has exceeded expectations.
Mater vs Liability Bob was usually good for a laugh, before that “Popular Front of New England” – he was a Vietnam veteran, who had served on the Training Team – vs Liability Bob was also good for a laugh.
Dating geometry lesson.
Curves are the fastest way between par-tay and Plan-B™.
looks like the eyetalians have been instructed to be extra homoerotic this year
Latham is probably the only politician that I supported who hasn’t disappointed me. Fraser, Howard, even Abbott- pretty dismal.
I don’t know what is more outrageous about the Spanish entry, the bullfighter’s outfits, or hang on what was the question
good to see fisk has unleashed his inner neo-con
Aaaaaaand, there it is! Sweden to formally apply to join NATO this week. The way this “special” operation” is going, I wouldn’t be wholly shocked if Belarus were to join next year once Lukashenko is lynched by his own people.
Hey Zippy, I’m not the one supporting the most idiotic and self-defeating war of choice in a generation – that’s you dummy!
Zipster says:
May 15, 2022 at 10:44 pm
That’s because he has no knowledge of the history of the region in question.
Arguing with him is pointless.
(or he has a morbid enjoyment from of all this tragedy)
Sweden applied to join NATO. Big deal. They’ve been a defacto member since the cold war.
Miltonf says:
May 15, 2022 at 11:03 pm
They were ‘neutral’ in name only for a long time.
They may be accepted into NATO, but Finland has a 50/50 chance of being vetoed. I know of 3 member states, maybe a 4th, that are considering a veto.
Hahahaha! There are people here who literally thought that Zelensky took power in a “coup” in 2014 (and that he is a nazi as well). Sheesh, if that’s the standard around here it’s a pretty freaking low bar to clear.
That is exactly it – I am loving it! If I got any more dopamine from this shitshow I’d f-cking drown!!
Watching a (fake) “superpower” basically defenestrate itself in real time, entirely self-inflicted, is glorious. (N0, don’t give me your Pwwoooaorr Teh Ukrainian Pweople routine – you totally supported this war from the start!)
Russians With Attitude? I’m mildly disappointed, dover.
Especially given that the head of the Donbass Peoples’ Republic himself, Igor Girkin (you may know of him as Igor Strelkov from 2014) has already dispensed with that kind of cope and started lambasting the ‘military geniuses’ who made such a mess of the whole operation.
I thought the Armchair Warlord was more your speed…
#ItWasAllAFeint!
When I say history I’m not talking about a piddling 8 years you sad fool.
If Finland submits an application on Tuesday, there is zero chance it gets vetoed. That’s Zeeee-Row! (hint – the brown envelopes have already been passed under the table to whoever needs them)
JC gave the best advice for visitors to New York.
Be prepared to walk and take it all in.
At least since that time James Bond was there “brushing up on his Swedish”.
Australia got 2 points from public across Europe. That’s more than the act deserved.
Yes went for some great walks in NY in 2014. Was really nice then. Bloomberg may be an asshole but he seemed to keep the place together unlike de blah blah.
Ukraine got a huge sympathy vote. Compères look grim.
And Ukraine wins!
I’ve always been horrified at the disparity between the juries and the public vote. The elites are elites only in the sense that they don’t share anything with the hoi polloi.
?? Diddly-dee, top’o’t’page to ye! ??
Not sure the word elite belongs in the same sentence as Eurovision judge.
Strelkov is a pessimist, and he’s never head of the Donetsk People’s Republics. He got out of Donetsk in 2014.
I wonder if kd wrong has seen some internal Liar polling? All the public stuff has Albo moving house next Sunday.
Why?
I forgot this place does not accept literal Unicode characters.
Which is ironic since I’d written code 50 days ago to get around that limitation, and even posted it here for people to use themselves.
So my turned page comment was meant to be:
– – – – – –
🍀🍀 Diddly-dee, top’o’t’page to ye! 🍀🍀
Have they not been steadily revising down their confident predictions of Total Victory for 80+ days, while also constantly fluffing the total superiority of their side?
And coming up with declarations of Everything’s a Feint! when it doesn’t quite work out?
And they’re the ones who said the Kharkov counter-offensive isn’t real, yes? Despite it now starting to bite into the top of that huge salient and the lines of communication that stretch from the Russian border via Vovchansk and Kupiansk south to Izyum?
And persisting with the idea it can’t possibly all be Russian wrecks at the Siverskyi Donets because UkRaInIaNs UsE BmP-1s! Despite all the wrecks in question being on the Russian side of the river? And despite the fact the UA never conducted any counter-assaults across those same exploded and sunk pontoons?
It is rather fascinating to read an account that a Russian tank crewman that survived Bilohorivka admitted to his Ukranian captors that he and his comrades had been told that all the wrecks at the crossing site were ‘actually’ Ukranian wrecks, that had just had ‘Zs’ and ‘Vs’ painted on them by the Ukrainians.
So at least we cane be certain the messaging is consistent…
He still sounds far too well-connected and intimately involved in the whole shebang to be dismissed that easily…
H B Bear says: May 15, 2022 at 11:49 pm
Sky News tonight could never be accused of falling for “Bandwagon effect”
Sharri Markson laid it out very clearly why she believes Albo cannot make it, that Scomo will be a bluddee sight harder to shake than the muppetstream media would have us believe.
Paul Murray of course is so optimistic that Scomo will romp home by a furlong, that you’d pop along to the bookies & mortgage your house to back Scomo for a win.
German channel DW saying Russia retreating from Kharkiv, possible Ukrainian victory there in 1 or 2 days.
Zelenskyy still wanting bigger weapons to be donated to the cause.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/imagine-the-unimaginable_4462701.html?utm_source=Morningbrief-ai&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-05-14-ai&est=slfqBd%2FB2HKpNkQkjep6aJiNSdnSJZKjzIMcRzeF7Izjf%2F3FK%2BGxOlwbBpjoEwH2
The US is now an anarcho tyranny.
MiltonF:
I find it hard to disagree with you on that.
Johannes Leak.
Mark Knight.
Warren Brown.
Cats are all asleep so I’ll be quiet as a mouse and pinch a few more pixels.
We have returned from the two-hour double-decker ferry boat cruise on the Norfolk Broads. Excellent viewing for the many birds of these wetlands. I filled in a child’s exercise sheet that they handed out and with some help from bird-watcher trained Hairy, saw most of the birds on it, including the best, a kingfisher. I had no idea British kingfishers were so tiny, and so amazingly blue. Live and learn. I also liked seeing a Great Crested Grebe (distantly related to Penguins, says Hairy). The Captain/driver on board announced the Grebe up on the right and told us that this bird had feet too far tilted backward to land on terra firma, thus they acted mainly as paddles. They build floating nests, says he in commentary, and the male parent often takes the little ones around on his back on familiarising excursions for them. Lo and behold, a little head peeps out from dad’s back and everyone goes oooooh. Young goslings, cygnets and ducklings abound in the reeds, showing the spring has definitely sprung. The early summer waterlilies on the smaller lakes were just about to come out. That said, it was cold today after yesterday’s warm sunshine, and overcast.
Some of the Broads are very large lakes on which people sail in competitive races; once the initial peat bank is dug out and the river breached then water must have poured into low-lying land to make these; but there are also many smaller Broads, some privately owned still. The ferry trip is well worth doing, for the scenery is impressive. Housing alongside Wroxham’s river is very expensive, with some fine homes containing underground water garaging. I was actually quite impressed with what we were told about how ecological change has occurred over centuries in these waterways, and what is being done now to clean and dredge some of them.
And, I note to Hairy, the only mention of climate change was about how it got warmer 800 years ago causing water levels to rise (honesty about the medieval warm period, I see). No-one seriously thinks that is going to happen any further now. They only mention climate emergencies when it suits them.
Peter Broelman.
Warren Brown #2.
David Rowe.
Bob Moran.
Morten Morland.
Andy Davey.
Peter Brookes.
Dave Brown.
Michael Ramirez.
A.F. Branco.
Patrick Cross.
Tom Stiglich.
Gary Varvel. Brilliant.
Lisa Benson.
Thanks, Tom.
We didn’t go straight home after the ferry trip, oh no, why would I think we might do that?
Hairy wants to drive to see the coastline. If we must do that, I say, then let me pick the place. Caister-on-Sea sounds good to me, because a Caister means a Roman Fort was there from around 200AD. So we go there, about half an hour’s drive away, and discover something of a treasure: a partially-excavated Roman fort with more than just bumps in the ground to look at. There is a cobbled roadway and the low walls of a long barracks building on which lathe and beam walls were added and a tiled roof put on, one of about ten similar buildings on a grid. The interiors returned archaeological remains of hypocaust heating and scenery-painted plaster walls and a quality Roman lifestyle. You could get a good feeling for this defensive fort and its surrounds, even though most of it was now covered by the surrounding modern village. I stood in the light rain dreaming while Hairy returned to the car. Some useful interpretation panels allow orientation to what was once a seashore estuarine fort of infantry, cavalry and Roman sailors. One of the Saxon Shore forts, for trading as well as defense. All collapsing, as did much else, when it was abandoned in the late 300’s.
By the way, re our accommodation in a previous comment, I did the owners a disservice by saying that they had ‘plastic’ flowers. They are artificial flowers made of silk, and the Chintz lamp is a genuine brass antique, similarly, the Chinz shade is also an antique one. Everything is very tasteful, even if not to my taste.
Sadly, Mr and Mrs Duck have not appeared tonight for their meal, even though I stood ready with more pellets for them.
Uncomfirmed:
NATO guys are surrendering in AzovStal.
Minimalism or wagie cage?
88 sq ft apartment. 300 USD per month.
They have freedom in one sense, but they’re paying to live like prisoners.
They would have saved a lot of money but they sleep and have maritals on a mattress on the floor. FFS.
They are vegan poet minimalist gurus so I suspect they’re on welfare.
Great. This is what the UBI will be like???
https://youtu.be/ls0iQKsgGzY
Michael Shellenburger on living in California
You Pay Super-High Taxes. You Deserve Nice Things. Why Don’t You Demand Them?The Case Against Big Lebowski Syndrome
L O L
Boomers could have a 3 bdr house, two cars, wife, kids and a cat & a dog on one man’s salary.
We were so poor we couldn’t afford a cat. I’ve had counselling ever since.
Sharing a dunny with everyone else, so progressive.
I wonder if it flushes?
Exhibit A, and courtesy of internet memes – Al Bundy.
Good crop Tom.
I must say, and apropos of the US ones – what sort of shitshow country can’t manage to feed its own infants but calls itself a superpower?
Crossie, overnight and Eurovision-related:
Sympathy win from the judges – although (perhaps fortunately) I haven’t seen any of it.
Winning the war through song. If this was even remotely true Austria would have been given a free pass for WWII because of the Von Trapps.
Extra points to George Alexopoulos for the name he calls the “The Young Turks” here.
That small apartment, well its an apa, made me think about one of my nephews. He used to live in a place like that. He overlooked a lake and mountains, worked from there as the IT manager of a national company. When I visited him I asked about his life. He said everything he needed was in his head and what he saw around him. Things were not important to him. For many years that was how he lived. In days gone by I suppose he would have been an ascetic.
Plenty of tributes, highlight reels and the like for Andrew Symonds yesterday – but perhaps none better than an off-the-cuff statement by one of the newsreaders this morning.
Evidently his dogs were with him in the ute when it rolled, and they refused to leave his side when the emergency services rolled up and began futile treatment.
Better being a bulldozer than a ukulele player.
Or, wince, eating an onion.
Thanks Tom!
(Bob Moran has done a Jacinda for the ages, btw. I hope no one in NZ sees that cartoon.)
Apparently the organisers of a freedom/anti-mandate rally in Sydney over the weekend blocked Riccardo Bosi from speaking at it, sparking a three-way barney between said organisers, Bosi and Mr Cossack.
Big if true.
Sunday Talks, Finland President Sauli Niinistö Indicates a Global Cleaving Behind Decision to Join NATO
May 15, 2022 | Sundance
Lizzie
Lovely to hear you are having wonderful time. Visiting Roman site – how I envy you. Can’t see us travelling any time soon – partly because of the state of the world, and partly because our bucket list relatively empty now. But maybe a trip to Italy – husband because he loves to drive there & loves the culture – me, because still archaeological sites to be seen or just revisited.
For his term as PM Morrison has failed to convince anyone he a man of conviction.
Who the hell is he really?
Like or dislike the previous office holders, at least you roughly knew what they stood for and had a sense of their genuine self.
Some couldn’t hide their petty nature like Malcolm and Kevin but at least we knew.
Morrison is like a rote reader at a Sunday service, it’s all correct and said well but at no time do you feel connected to the word or the person delivering the sermon.
As an former advertiser he’s packaged a product that he thinks has broad appeal and seems clueless that it’s not selling.
My wife made a good simple point when I asked her to describe what’s wrong with him, she said “He’s just not interesting.”
Grand Central is breathtaking as was Pennsylvania Station before it was torn down by the barbarians.
Coincident with Askin destroying Sydney.
I love train station main halls.
The Poms have done a fantastic job of reworking London Bridge Station. The same sense of generous space and people friendly purpose.
Jab jab booster booster……………………………………..
“It was never appropriate to attempt to ‘end the pandemic’ with a novel technology vaccine. In a public health mass intervention, safety is the top priority, more so even than effectiveness, because so many people will receive it,” Yeadon states in a document he sent to The Epoch Times.
“It’s simply not possible to obtain data demonstrating adequate longitudinal safety in the time period any pandemic can last. Those who pushed this line of argument and enabled the gene-based agents to be injected needlessly into billions of innocent people are guilty of crimes against humanity.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/people-who-pushed-idea-of-universal-vaccination-are-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-former-pfizer-vp_4462787.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_campaign=Aomb-2022-05-15&utm_medium=Aoemail&est=MAt5AhsVRI2MVlsJOCZm9wWHIMmWeEuP%2BNI8cyzc5qvL527okifyN3k3dfQGnMopU09LRB4n
What?
Bosi was told he has no standing?
By none other than The People?
This is how summary justice rolls, I guess.
Royalties in this instance is a straight euphemism for bribes. Drug approvals are all henceforth tainted. Tale all new drugs at your own risk.
Just been reading this one.
US Airlines Left Scrambling Amid Pilot Shortage (Newsmax, 15 May)
What did you expect silly airlines people? You fired all the unvaxxed and then a lot of vaccinated ones came down with health issues which rendered them unable to fly.
Re Morrison.
All I can say he is a different package than the one who impressed me in 2010. But then a life in politics will do that to you.
A few years ago saw him again at a Sydney Institute function. Was happy to chat mate to mate with husband. But was “offish” with me. Not that I blame him for that! But I found him somewhat changed. A bit arrogant, even then.
But what some of you may recall – what really turned me off him was his performance (or lack of it) in the Drought of 2017/8. He simply had no empathy for the terrible toll that was taking on regional Australia. The mental toll on farmers & families was immense. I will never forget, on our small holding, of being told by local produce store that they could no longer get fodder supplies.
The man has a tin ear to rural Australia – made apparent again in the horrendous bushfires in eastern Australia. We were amazed when Tony Abbott turned up to help our local boys fighting the Gosper fire – but never even a visit from Morrison. Oh yes he was in Hawaii or somewhere.
And in the recent floods in the north? Well, where was anyone, I suppose.
Anyway. Morrison is a very urban guy. Not that other PMs havnt been urban guys. But even the very urban John Howard would grab an Akubra & at least get out there amongst his people.
What a ridiculous country.
East Coast farmers can’t get onto the paddock because of the wet; my South Australian rellies have all stopped seeding because of the dry.
Grand Central is breathtaking as was Pennsylvania Station before it was torn down by the barbarians.
I like Cincinnati Union Terminal (you have to walk through a slightly dodgy area to get there).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Union_Terminal
People are too stupid to see that our inflation is a product of our shift away from fossil fuels, with the war in Ukraine representing the schism between East and West with real ramifications beyond just petrol prices.
Of course, some of these same people believe you can raise wages while making childcare free.
Operation “Chastise” – the “Dam Buster’s Raid – carried out on the night of 16/17th May, 1943.
I don’t like “interesting” politicians. Particularly PMs. I prefer competent ones.
Labor has thrown up too many of the former and every one of them has been a disaster.
Apparently the organisers of a freedom/anti-mandate rally in Sydney over the weekend blocked Riccardo Bosi from speaking at it, sparking a three-way barney between said organisers, Bosi and Mr Cossack.
Big if true.
Oz Cossack invited Bosi to speak but apparently the bloke who organized of the rally doesn’t get on with Ricardo and wouldn’t give him the mike so an in-public slanging match commenced ……..
Paul Keating is “Yesterday’s man.”
Compare and contrast structures dedicated to the great age of rail to hideous modern air terminals.
Love the named trains too – Fast Flying Virginian, Ponce de Leon, Hummingbird.
LOL re free childcare.
Absurd property prices are anti natalism writ large.
Boomer: Oh just start off small and work your way up…
Normies: Cool, cool. So my wife and I can start a family when she’s 40?
She can help pay off the mortgage by selling packets of nails to strangers whilst her children are raised by strangers.
The root causes of our absurd false economy is the property magic pudding. Government taxation is the strongest attractor for these anti civilizational policy set we live under.
Look up the cheapest freestanding brick home in say Penrith or Altona.
You have to be on an executive salary with a large deposit to afford it.
This is the root cause of many maladies conservatives lament in today’s society.
Do most women really want to work?
Sure, they’re giving up on marriage (and regret it later) but their economic choices are often compromising their values.
The absurd level of taxation on real property and inflation based asset price targeting is so insidious it is damned near unbelievable.
“Interesting” on stilts.
Count me out.
Another reason for the pilot shortage: more are needed because the elites are refusing to use the woke airlines.
Report: Globalist Elite Rush Private Jets as Everyone Else Told to Stay Home (15 May)
Two pilots each for jets that carry nine passengers at most? No wonder the airlines are having trouble finding warm bodies.
As for global warming, well we can now see what the elites think about that. Sacrifices for thee no me.
Competent is good Calli but that’s our bag and not the current flavour of the attention span gnats that make up the majority of voters now.
He’s given the voter nothing to tick in the box next to character.
He may still get in but it will be by default because the others look an unsafe bet.
Rowe’s toon. ScoMo’s fireplace. What is DTBNYA ?
Unless you are able to get into public housing, owning your own home is generally better than the puny returns on superannuation. Unless you are in a public sector scheme, the income from all that dosh is just a small top up on the age pension.
Besides, the pension is not much use if you have nowhere to live. Private rentals, if you can get one, gobble up most of your pension, and you can be turfed out with little notice.
Keating has NFI, or even worse, maybe he does.
George Johnson turned 100 in November.
Last surviving Dambuster George ‘Johnny’ Johnson celebrates his 100th birthday (26 Nov)
That is something I have seen around Happyclappers. Patriarchal, expect women to be subservient, not in an obvious manner but at home and carries on into public life where they may be challenged. Others may have a differing view but this is something I observed when I had a lot of work from them through a relative.
Yes, Gez. I wasn’t denigrating your wife’s observation either – she is right about impact on low information voters, the ones who only look at externals.
Personally, I find him very interesting – that fuzzy, bumbling public persona that can instantly switch to a remarkable level of sharp, accurate recall. Doesn’t mean I like him.
As for Albanese, *shudder*. A not particularly bright apparatchik, risen to the top like scum, who can barely hide his malice towards opponents. He’s a real hater, that one.
Candidates in my electorate? I have a choice of a Labor incumbent who, to all intents and purposes, represents well. Or the wife of a Lib insider. Or the ragtag of single-issue hopefuls.
The list of allies grows wafer thin.
Shatterzzz at 8:31.
The key phrase in all that is, “the bloke who organised the rally”.
Sounds like Bosi tried to hijack it, (with or without the support of Cossack?) and got told to fuck off.
Totally the organiser’s call, and good to see these people are starting to cull the fringe idiots from their events.
The trouble for Bosi is, he can’t draw a crowd on his own.
I forget who it was here who said Scomo was “an arsehole masquerading as a boofhead” but it sounds about right. Come forward and take a bow!
Ahahaha! The Beloved just passed Joyce Barnaby on his way back from dropping off the car for a service.
Darwin is truly blessed. 😀
Keaing’s super was designed to give industry funds and his union paymasters an inside run and alternative income stream as they continue to bleed members. Judith Sloan writes regularly in Teh Paywallian on super and is less than complimentary.
Whatever he’s selling I’m not buying. When the “Turn back the boats” was all the thing he was just the figurehead on the Good Ship Venus. He never had to explain what was going to happen that I recall., it was all Abbott. By the way he was the Dead Man.
Have never seen ScoMo IRL. Saw Howard once at a Perth post budget breakfast and thought he was more impressive than on TV.
The Liberals will always struggle trying to play the man thanks to the media. Consequently it helps if they have a record to run on.
Locomotive names too.
Although one company’s penchant for naming them after race horses
threw up the occasional oddity.
See also Gay Crusader, Pretty Polly and Salmon Trout.
Mate’s daughter was a corporate accountant that ran the numbers for her own situation. She went to the dark side, APS on such a good wicket. Working for the the Big end of town doesn’t provide a good hourly rate when you’re not far enough up the food tree.
ScoMo should pull a sickie and let Josh take the running. It might just save both of them.
Will Western Sydney punish the LNP for lockdowns
.. and here you have it. The libs in a nutshell.
When I first heard of Bosi years ago and then Aussie Cossack initially last year I thought they were good in relation to holding authorities to account.
However the more I have seen of both of them the less impressed I have become. Whilst they both have high profiles they are not people I would want representing my views as I think both are tainted by some of their hardcore views (Bosi saying Port Arthur was a false flag operation by Govt (to go for people’s guns) and Cossack mixing in his pro Putin stuff).
I take zero notice of polls, and even less of supposed debate “winners”.
What does interest me is who has a handle on detail, on policy recall and especially situational awareness (Birthday cake anyone?). I don’t mind @holes, provided they are competent ones.
Fortunately I don’t live in Cook. I don’t like having to hold my nose when I vote, and probably wouldn’t this time around. And, of course, the “put the sitting member last” tosh doesn’t work for me.
At the risk of boring Cats, I have to report on the intrusion of Covid into our life. As you know, we are both unvaccinated and not youngsters , but in good health.
Husband and I returned to Sydney for Mothers Day family celebration, to attend a funeral & for husband to attend a (not to be missed ) lunch with mates. At one of those events – the funetal ( & note that Wake was in confined large commercial boats house/restaurant) there were about 150 people. On our return to the farm husband reported feeling unwell & tested positive to Covid on a RAT test. I tested negative. We had both tests confirmed by PCRs at local regional hospital. Weirdly – me negative despite several days close proximity to ailing mate.
Even before PCR test (on what would have been Day 2 of symptoms) I had started both of us on early treatment( although some of it was already a daily prophylactic): Vit C, Vit D3,Zinc, anti- histamine, Quercetin, Aspirin, Curcumin. Both of us now had Betadine gargle and nose spray (the new Vicks spray and/or Rhinocort) & husband religiously used his cortisone asthma inhaler. He also intermittently took various elixirs for his cough (Bonnington Irish Moss which contains Carrageen, Bisolvin ….though cough was hard to shift.
We regularly monitored his temperature (never really elevated) and his oxygen and pulse rate (always fine).
This is Day 7 & he is fine & actually testing negative on RAT. We are very pleased but I will be happier when he is past Day 8 when (with past past variants) patients can suddenly develop an allergic reaction to viral debris. It is a curious phenomenon first noted by veteran Covid physician DrShankara Chetty. It can be treated quickly with anti histamines and aspirin. And steroids if necessary. A friend suffered just such a reaction on Day 8 & was lucky enough to come across a young GP who knew to treat it with cortisone .
I am still testing negative which is strange since we are constantly in close quarters during his illness. But I have always thought it had a lot to do with initial viral load – & I think he got a good dose of virus in Sydney maybe at the boozy boys’ lunch!!!!
Anyway, hope I am not jinxing him by reporting before Day 8.
Incidentally, husband recently had regular full blood test & during this week had phone link with GP to discuss result. We always have copy sent to us- so knew it was an outstanding set of numbers for his age. Young GP was suitably impressed but upset that he would not take statins that are standard for his age , in spite of his excellent health & ideal cholesterol figures ( not that this matters). Then he was told that husband had tested positive for Covid. Instantly he prescribed that hopeless & possibly injurious drug Paxlovid. Husband, bring laid back, merely noted it, while I went beserk in background. No way that he would take it. GP asked what, if anything, he took. Husband rattled off the above regime, then, naughtily, added he had put a dab of Ivermectin cattle drench on his wrist !!!!
The reaction of GP was priceless.
They are all fringe idiots.
Gez at 8.38am, don’t blame voters for the s**t politicians Australia has. It’s not their fault and they don’t have the attention span of gnats: people have lives and don’t want to waste their time thinking about politics except for a week or so once in every cycle — a luxury they’re currently forced to forgo as we don’t have politicians we can trust on any level.
The reason the LNP-ALP contest appears to be on a knife’s edge is that the news media has zero interest in finding out what the public thinks, instead simply pressing for a change of government because of the media’s tribal alliance against whatever the public wants.
he sure has. What a corker!
Black-face Trudeau is also a winner.
Rum-sick Boris is obvious, as is Macron and Biden, but who’s the slob with the beard?
I no longer read the papers, Tom, but I do look at the front pages. Going by that, the coverage of Albanese during the first week in regard to his competence was brutal, and rightly so.
Female pastors?
“They are all fringe idiots.”
As opposed to your “fringe idiots”….BLM, Free Palestine and Socialist Unity protesters.
Had to laugh. Channel 7 reportette just said “We have another week of campaigning.”.
Yep. Looks like that to me too.
Zelenskyy I think. Clue is the pistol being handed to him.
maybe a generic US crazed-lefty – given that Biden is handing over his pistol.
At least those three groups have legitimate grievances. And are a bit organised, as opposed to the cookers who are a rabble at the best of times.
… or the Euro Winner?
https://twitter.com/bobscartoons/status/1525615163369476096/photo/1
(.. just having a conversation with myself here. Don’t mind me)
.. last time, I promise.
From Bob himself: https://twitter.com/bobscartoons/status/1525189888106184708/photo/1
Ukrainian cabin boy – smirk.
priceless..
https://twitter.com/bobscartoons/status/1525195032894005249
Will the LDP have a Senator from the NT???
Shame is Jacinta Price probably has to lose.
Tom says:
May 16, 2022 at 9:17 am
Gez at 8.38am, don’t blame voters for the s**t politicians Australia has. It’s not their fault and they don’t have the attention span of gnats: people have lives and don’t want to waste their time thinking about politics except for a week
I agree with some of what you say but not the first. We do deserve the politicians we get.
Nobody could have enjoyed a more wholehearted support from the media and the social shapers more than Gillard but beaten she was by a supposed conviction politician with three word slogans for the gnats to digest. It worked.
The faux urbane Malcolm explained everything at length, a Hewson style but it’s muzak to the punter.
monty
What rights do Israeli Arabs not have?
Not with compulsory two party preferred voting we don’t.
I’ve been passing many…many corflutes featuring a happy, wholesome looking Jacinta Price on my trip through the NT.
Given some of the grotesque opposition to her, I hope she gets over the line.
There were none that I ever saw in the locale. Later in the late 90’s a nearby woman was a pastor of a group about 60km away from where she lived to keep her out of the way. Apart from those occasions I know nothing of them and don’t wish to. The work I did for them was only coz my rellies asked.
Me too.
“At least those three groups have legitimate grievances. And are a bit organised, as opposed to the cookers who are a rabble at the best of times.”
Oh, so you regard anti-Semitism as a legitimate grievance?
Kiwi crime capers
New Zealand teeters on lawlessness
Karl du Fresne
It looked like a scene from a Hollywood heist movie. Three expensive, late-model cars (stolen, of course) race through a deserted shopping mall in the early hours of the morning. CCTV footage shows the cars followed close behind by a swarm of teenagers on foot, their faces concealed by hooded jackets – the clothing of choice for New Zealand street gangs.
Their objective is an electronics store, where one of the cars smashes through the front doors. The robbers load their bags with cellphones, tablets and laptops and within minutes have fled with their booty, leaving behind a shaken cleaning lady who had to leap out of the cars’ path.
The raid was planned and executed so slickly as to be almost worthy of admiration. It happened last month at Ormiston, in the south-eastern suburbs of Auckland, in a stylish mall that has been hit by four ram raids in the year since it opened.
Since then there have been others, sometimes several in a single night. The businesses targetted range from high-end fashion shops to liquor outlets and humble convenience stores (‘dairies’, in New Zealand parlance) in the suburbs. In one raid, police apprehended an 11-year-old driver.
The Ormiston raid, whose perpetrators were so cocky they posted their own video online, was emblematic of a crime wave sweeping New Zealand. Shootings and stabbings are also commonplace as gangs fight for dominance of the lucrative methamphetamine trade.
Even in isolation, this epidemic of criminal activity would be disturbing. But when considered in conjunction with other depressing trends – an overwhelmed health system, failing infrastructure, an intractable housing crisis and rampant inflation, to name just a few – it creates a picture of a society teetering on the brink of dysfunction.
The technical term for what ails New Zealand is that the government’s wheels are falling off. Labour’s grand ideological ambitions consistently outstrip its ability to deliver. Small wonder that opinion polls show a pronounced swing in favour of an uninspiring National party opposition.
Belatedly waking up to the realisation that public alarm was ramping up over crime, Jacinda Ardern’s government last week did what Labour governments typically do when confronted with a problem: it threw money at it – $550 million, to be precise – with a package of measures that looked rushed and half-baked.
Gun crime is rampant. A much-vaunted crackdown on firearms following the Christchurch mosque massacres in 2019 has been exposed for what it was – a piece of political theatre aimed at giving the impression of decisive action.
While law-abiding gun owners obediently queued to surrender their weapons, illegal firearms proliferated. Last year set a record for gun violence.
One of the most brazen shootings, attributed by the police to a feud between the Mongols and Head Hunters gangs, happened in the five-star Sofitel Hotel on Auckland’s waterfront. More recently, three men were shot in downtown Wellington in an apparent tit-for-tat feud between the Mongrel Mob (not to be confused with the Mongols) and the King Cobras over a stolen motorbike.
It’s not only gang members who are being shot. Last November, three police officers were wounded in a shootout near Auckland that ended with the death of the gunman.
Parts of Wellington, which not long ago rejoiced in Lonely Planet’s tag ‘the world’s coolest little capital’, are virtually no-go zones after dark, and Auckland’s no better. In the 12 months to March, police recorded 1,971 assaults, 148 aggravated robberies and 1,666 thefts from stores in downtown Auckland. Sunny Kaushal, spokesman for a group of beleaguered small business owners, described the city centre as a crime hub where criminals had no fear of the police.
Then there are the motorbike gangs. In one particularly shocking incident, members of the Tribesmen gang attacked and critically injured a motorist after he accidentally clipped one of their bikes and made the mistake of stopping to see if the rider was alright. In scenes reminiscent of a Mad Max movie, an estimated eighty Tribesmen had been terrorising drivers by riding three and four abreast, cutting across lanes, blocking the highway and trying to force drivers off the road.
Such displays of intimidation by bikie convoys are relatively common. In a gang funeral procession near Wellington, members of the Mongrel Mob took up all three lanes of a freeway and provocatively took a circuitous route through the suburbs, causing maximum disruption. It was not so much a display of grief as a triumphal show of strength.
In the face of such encouragement, it’s hardly surprising that New Zealand gang numbers have spiralled. Police data shows that gang membership doubled between 2016 and 2021, from 4,400 to more than 8,000. Eighteen recognised gangs were listed in Auckland alone.
What’s caused the surge in crime? A key factor is ‘501’ deportees: career criminals born in New Zealand who in many cases spent virtually their entire lives in Australia but have now been dumped back in the country of their birth. They have not only boosted the ranks of New Zealand gangs but upped the ante in terms of violence and the scale of criminal activity. Thanks, Australia.
A proliferation of government-provided emergency housing is another contributor. Stories abound of gang members in emergency accommodation terrorising fellow residents and rendering neighbourhoods unsafe, even in the heart of Wellington. The lakeside city of Rotorua, previously a jewel in New Zealand’s tourism crown, has been described as a dumping ground for social welfare beneficiaries and a ‘slum’ where violence is rife.
Frontline police do what they can but often seem overwhelmed and, at worst, impotent. They are not helped by a police commissioner, Andrew Coster, whose defining characteristic – perhaps modelled on Ardern – is his apparent eagerness to appear empathetic. Coster’s boss, Police Minister Poto Williams, is hopelessly out of her depth and the public knows it. In a recent poll, even Labour voters said she was soft on crime.
That phrase ‘soft on crime’ took on a new meaning last year when it was revealed the government had given $2.75 million to a methamphetamine rehabilitation programme. What, you might ask, could possibly be wrong with that? Only that the rehab scheme is run by the Mongrel Mob – one of New Zealand’s biggest and most violent gangs, and itself heavily implicated in the illegal drug trade.
The government’s explanation was that gangs were best placed to deal with drug addiction, but to an increasingly anxious and highly sceptical public it was one for the ‘You couldn’t make this up’ file.
Munty the only thing that lot are successful at is failure. None of them will do anything for themselves, its always someone else’s fault.
Bob Moran
@bobscartoons
Strangely, this is the first time I’ve drawn Jacinda Ardern.
The withered Liberté was genius. Note the flag pole has no flag on it.
Bosi’s propensity to flip the switch to full: Pedos are civilizations No. 1, No. 2 & No. 3 threat, daylight 4th, hasn’t helped him (to put it mildly)
Cossack should have left the hardcore pro-Putin stuff offline.
He was doing fantastic, just bluddee fantastic, at the time where all he did was go about his day with camera rolling, then along would come cops who’d make unforced errors on Cossack’s livestream. Or Fiona Martin would. Heh!
The videos Cossack made of traffic stops, the search of his home, and of doing normal activities during the abnormal time of lockdown – those are first grade, a timeless masterclass on how to handle cops.
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
May 16, 2022 at 8:29 am
Operation “Chastise” – the “Dam Buster’s Raid – carried out on the night of 16/17th May, 1943.
THE MAKING OF THE DAM BUSTERS | Documentary
and
Dambusters Declassified Documentary – full 1 hour version – Martin Shaw
I have purchased the Film version of The Dambusters and will watch it tonight
Palestinians have only themselves to blame – they’ve rejected every offer of a “Two State” solution since the late 1930’s, and followed every swivel eyed loon, who promised to sweep the Jews into the sea, starting with the Grand Mufti of Jeruselum.
Monty thinks BLM and Free Palestine protesters holding up banners equating Israel with Nazi Germany is a “legitimate grievance”.
Monty thinks Free Palestine protesters driving cars through Jewish suburbs in North London and screaming for Jewish mothers and daughters to be raped is a “legitimate grievance”.
Monty thinks a demonstration in Western Sydney last May, when Muslims screamed “death to Jews”, is a “legitimate grievance”.
I don’t know, I think I’ll take Bosi, Cossack and the event organiser of the Saturday protest having in a bust-up any day over Monty’s “legitimate grievances”.
I am watching a livestream of a bunch of sovcit cookers outside the ACT court, which is hearing an assault charge against a bloke charged with assaulting a police officer in an incident in a carpark last week which I also watched on livestream. This bloke called Dan was drumming and being a dickhead, a cop grabbed his drumsticks, Dan grinned like an idiot and wouldn’t let go, there was a scuffle and Dan’s drumsticks ended up knocking the cop’s cap off. Never mess with a rozzer’s headwear, they go mental. Dan went home in the back of a divvy van.
The cookers are extremely annoying to the peaceful citizens of Canberra. Every so often they graduate from disturbing the peace to breaking some more serious laws, and they get squashed. They only have themselves to blame.
There’s a third option, Cassie.
None of the above.
Dots ays: May 16, 2022 at 9:36 am
M0nty won’t be responding to that question.
We’re at one, Cassie.
It’s just that, as a troll, Monty is so cartoonish, he makes me laugh out. It’s hilarious watching a lefty trying to troll grown-ups.
“501” have been deported to NZ since 2014. Funny how all this violent criminal activity has peaked during Jacinda’s reign.
BON
Another Johnson (Johnnie)
https://www.thoughtco.com/air-vice-marshal-johnnie-johnson-2360546 Johnson.
Bosi saying Port Arthur was a false flag operation by Govt (to go for people’s guns)
When there is so much to go with, Police corruption and incompetence, a rifle handed in to Vicpol and a known nutcase that Taspol did their best to avoid.
If it was a false flag, it was the biggest fail ever, people took their semi auto shotgun money and brought scoped rifles in .223 and .308 etc. If I was Dictator Dan I would have much preferred they kept their shotguns….
My mate had to hand in a beautiful BRNO semi auto .22 to be destroyed by the state.
I’d gone and picked it out for him as he wasn’t a gun guy.
We can argue “fringe nutjobs” from left and right until the COWS come home.
My point was, they are fringe to the issue at hand.
The organisers wanted to protest vaccines and mandates.
No doubt Bosi would have gone the full 5G Red Shoe Pizza Pedos and executions by The People and Cossack would have started spouting Poot propaganda.
Those who organised the event were fully entitled to tell the hijackers to fuck off.
There should actually be a RC into Port Arthur…
Because it would prove gun control doesn’t work.
Port Arthur happened in spite of gun control.
You’re welcome, New Zealand. Enjoy your provincial home-grown shit.
while you’re there monty, what right do Jewish Palestinians have? (if you can find one).
All of Bosi’s speeches are the same. Victory is imminent, closer than you know, we’re nearly there fellow cookers, does that make sense… and then he faffs on interminably about his stupid hat theory.
And then he gets dissed by some rando at a rally. A1 is an electoral juggernaut lol.
He’s going to gift us Albanese as PM. Thanks Scumbag.
No, he’s not. The dickheads who vote for no loads who can achieve absolutely nothing will do that….
Mr Panzer at 8.54:
Unbelievable. He’s still at it. The latest ‘dispatch’ from Saturday:
Jesus wept. You must be a supporter of a non-existent political party masquerading as an unregistered political party in order to help out the leader of that party running for election not as the leader of that party, but as an independent.
Gotcha, Ricky.
Thanks, KD.
I was about write a similar reply, but you have put it superbly.
Diggersays:
May 16, 2022 at 10:37 am
He’s going to gift us Albanese as PM. Thanks Scumbag.
No, he’s not. The dickheads who vote for no loads who can achieve absolutely nothing will do that….
Agreed
For Warringah The Australian Polling
Liberal 41% Other (Zali Steggall) 59%
First Preference Votes
Liberal / National Coalition – 32%
Australian Labor Party – 12%
The Greens – 5%
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – 4%
United Australia Party – 2%
Other Candidates – 45%
If Zali Steggall is polling at 45% (probably includes Animal Justice Party in that 45%) First Preference, Liberals do not have a chance
Any clues to Socialist Unity’s legitimate grievances?
The state of Mexican health care in 1940 in general?
Or thwocking people with ice picks in particular?
The ancestral patch, forging a path to greatness yet again (the Hun):
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law No. 7172-1 that will ban opposition parties and seize their property on Saturday.
The law targets opposition parties if they deny the armed aggression against Ukraine. The law includes actions that support the Russian Federation and Republic of Belarus, the two invading countries.
The news was reported the same day GOP Senators paid him a visit in Kyiv.
The news was first published on the Ukrainian news website UKRinform.
It is expected that if a party is banned by the court, its property, funds and other assets become the property of the state.
Big Daily Mail article on the drug gang shootings and “postcode gangs” in Sydney.
List down the end of the 13 dead since August 2020. The names all have the same ethnic spellings. Very strange.
Colonel Crispin Berkasays:
May 16, 2022 at 8:42 am
Rowe’s toon. ScoMo’s fireplace. What is DTBNYA ?
I think the N might actually be a W with the left bit obscured by the B. That would make it DTBWYA which I think would be “dare to be who you are”; appropriate since its about to go up in flames.
Not a bad cartoon, but on principle I haven’t given it a tick.
The Palis are being their usual selves.
On ‘Nakba,’ Palestinian President Abbas Vows to Continue Paying Convicted Terrorists in Pay-for-Slay (15 May)
Nakba: The Arab self-inflicted catastrophe (15 May)
Although to be fair the Arab states have both encouraged them and have forcibly prevented integration of Palis into their nations. They are victims: of the Arabs as well as themselves. You’d think after 74 years that they might be starting to get over it, but no.
To get the best view of the NY skyline, you can’t beat the Staten Island ferry. That trip also gives you the best view of the Statue of Liberty, and it’s a free trip.
China is restricting citizens from ‘nonessential’ travel overseas to stop importing COVID
But this week China broadened the scope of its lockdown polices, threatening to keep all of China in some sort of national detention.
On Thursday, China’s National Immigration Administration (NIA) announced it would “strictly restrict nonessential departure of Chinese citizens” from the country in order to “strengthen disease control and prevention” across China—essentially grounding Chinese tourists from flight.
Preventing outbound flights won’t help China curtail Omicron clusters already in the country. China reported 7,426 cases Thursday, down from a mid-April peak of over 33,000 daily cases. In Shanghai, residents are enduring their seventh week of citywide lockdown, which has resulted in food shortages, avoidable deaths, supply-chain disruption, and general frustration. In Beijing, residents are panic buying groceries as rumors swirl that the capital may enter a citywide lockdown, too.
China has clamped down on the international mobility of its citizens before. Nine months ago, the NIA announced it would limit passport renewals and issuance to people who need to travel overseas for study or business.
The NIA reiterated its stance on limiting passport issuances Thursday. On social media, some users claim that airport staff in Guangzhou recently clipped the corners off their passports when they arrived back in the country, invalidating the passport. The NIA denied those reports to Reuters, on Friday.
Meanwhile – Run! The door of China is closing/The government blocks the outflow of capital, cutting passports
Their VIC senate candidate is a Tamil. Might offer some clues.
m0ntysays:
May 16, 2022 at 9:30 am
As opposed to your “fringe idiots”….BLM, Free Palestine and Socialist Unity protesters.
At least those three groups have legitimate grievances. And are a bit organised, as opposed to the cookers who are a rabble at the best of times.
Not entirely sure that the interest of BLM organisers in buying multi-million dollar houses with BLM funds is entirely legitimate. Free Palestine? They could have had their own nation decades ago, except for not being prepared to abandon their genocidal ambitions. Socialist Unity? ROFLMAO. But they would purge kulaks like you come the revolution, so there is that.
That’s funny. I distinctly recall when Covid first was seen in China in late 2019/early 2020 that China shut down domestic flights from Wuhan but allowed international flights to continue for a month or thereabouts. It was a mystery.
Re the headline there may just be another reason for the restriction…
80% Of People In Hong Kong Want To Emigrate, Number Of Multi-Millionaires Plunges 15%: New Survey Finds (16 May)
Golly, why would 80% of Hong Kong residents want to leave. It’s another mystery.
On the other hand maybe they just want to get out with all their bits intact.
Expert: China Is Harvesting as Many as 150,000 Organs from Concentration Camp Victims Annually (13 May)
At this rate most CCP nomenklatura will look like stitched-together Frankenstein monsters.
Cassie of Sydneysays:
May 16, 2022 at 9:44 am
“At least those three groups have legitimate grievances. And are a bit organised, as opposed to the cookers who are a rabble at the best of times.”
Oh, so you regard anti-Semitism as a legitimate grievance?
Points:
.1 munty claims to be a “progressive” leftist.
.2 munty supports the Palestinians.
.3 the Palestinians are anti-semites with a genocidal urge.
4. Nazis were anti-semites with a genocidal urge.
Ergo, so-called “progressive” leftists are Nazis?
Knuckle Draggersays:
May 16, 2022 at 10:56 am
Inheritors of the archetypal Australian qualities venerated by Charles Bean. Sadly lacking in the metropolis’s.
During the Arab Revolt of the late 1930’s, any Palestinians who supported partitioning the province was murdered on the orders of that barking mad fool, the Grand Mufti.
OldOzziesays:
May 16, 2022 at 11:10 am
China is restricting citizens from ‘nonessential’ travel overseas to stop importing COVID
But this week China broadened the scope of its lockdown polices, threatening to keep all of China in some sort of national detention.
So, how’s that Wuhan Institute of Virology “gain of function” research working out for you, Chairman Xi?
Checkout the memes below
Trending Memes – Try not to Laugh
Trump Lord of the Rings Meme
BoN:
Golly, why would 80% of Hong Kong residents want to leave. It’s another mystery
Bruce, I remember watching the ceremony of the last night leading to the handing back of HK. As the Governor, Chris Patten, boarded Britannia, distinctly could be heard much cheering and laughter. I bet those who were there that night, and who are still there now, aren’t laughing anymore.