Open Thread – Tues 2 Aug 2022


The Colossus, Francisco Goya, 1812

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Tom
Tom
August 5, 2022 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
August 5, 2022 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
August 5, 2022 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
August 5, 2022 4:06 am
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 5, 2022 4:31 am

Thanks Tom.
Sorry my intro trod on your opening number.
Looks like the cartoon supply chain is still having issues?

rosie
rosie
August 5, 2022 4:53 am
Gabor
Gabor
August 5, 2022 5:01 am

Never seen a picture of Matthew Guy, sorry not a Victorian.
Just had a look, I’d give him 10 years with no parole on his looks alone.

Mater
August 5, 2022 5:33 am

Never seen a picture of Matthew Guy, sorry not a Victorian.
Just had a look, I’d give him 10 years with no parole on his looks alone.

I won’t judge his looks, but on performance alone, he’s like a bad penny.

bad penny (plural bad pennies)

2. (idiomatic) A person or thing which is unpleasant, disreputable, or otherwise unwanted, especially one which repeatedly appears at inopportune times.

Not much chop the first time. His second outing not looking flash, either.
I sense he’s just plain unpopular across the spectrum, and is certainly less inspiring than Jellybeans in the Jungle.

If this is the cream of the Liberal Party…

Gabor
Gabor
August 5, 2022 5:44 am

Mater says:
August 5, 2022 at 5:33 am

Fair enough, to me, he looks shifty.
Mod, If it’s defamatory please delete it.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 5, 2022 5:44 am

Odd

Two men and a woman have been found dead after a shooting at a rural property in Bogie, near Collinsville and five people are assisting police with their inquiries, police have confirmed.

and

“We believe the persons who shot them may be in the area which is why we are conducting our own searches,” Mackay District Superintendent Tom Armitt said.

but

However, police said they did not believe there was any ongoing danger to members of the public.

ABC

Mater
August 5, 2022 5:50 am

Don’t get me wrong, looking at him gives me the creeps.
All I’m saying is that his looks are the lest of his issues.

Gabor
Gabor
August 5, 2022 6:26 am

The site behaves the same as before, one has to go to an old comment, then follow it through to the most recent comment.
A minor inconvenience but at least it works in a fashion.
We shall survive.

Gabor
Gabor
August 5, 2022 7:02 am

On the other hand, it’s 7 AM, can’t believe nobody else posted in the meantime?

sfw
sfw
August 5, 2022 7:06 am

Gabor it has a Sunday morning feel to it today, maybe they’re all hungover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbqGWTxwZEA

Gabor
Gabor
August 5, 2022 7:10 am

sfw says:
August 5, 2022 at 7:06 am

Gabor it has a Sunday morning feel to it today, maybe they’re all hungover.

You could be right, I’m having a break, we start early so others can enjoy their morning refreshments.

calli
calli
August 5, 2022 7:11 am

Here’s the cure for Friday-itis.

johanna
johanna
August 5, 2022 7:19 am

The site froze for me after your 6.26 comment, Gabor. It is now back again.

Gabor
Gabor
August 5, 2022 7:27 am

johanna says:
August 5, 2022 at 7:19 am

The site froze for me after your 6.26 comment, Gabor. It is now back again.

Sorry about that.
Never mind Johanna, it adds to the enjoyment.
Not an egg head so I can’t advise, but surely something that worked before can be made to work again? No?

Megan
Megan
August 5, 2022 7:31 am

All I’m saying is that his looks are the lest of his issues

Agreed. His lack of character, smarmy manner, cowardice, inability to strategise ignorance of the core values and concerns of core voters and sheer stupidity are much more problematic.*

Persisting with incurable stupid never works out well. Are you listening LNPVic?

No, of course not. So the Titanic Guy sails on to it’s, and our, doom.

* Just a start to the catalogue.

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 7:33 am

From The Daily Telegraph…

“Please refrain: Hanson to lead campaign against Indigenous voice
Pauline Hanson has announced she will spearhead the ‘no’ campaign against implementing an Indigenous voice to federal parliament, after claiming it will to apartheid in Australia.”

Good on you Pauline. I’m fond of Pauline but I’m not sure she’s the right person to lead a “NO” campaign. Sure, she should be involved and she would have an impact in states like QLD but we also need such names as Abbott, Howard and others, but the key question is, just who is brave enough to stand up and say NO and outline the reasons why we should vote NO?

rosie
rosie
August 5, 2022 7:37 am

Jacinta Price and others like Anthony Dillon would be way better.

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 7:42 am

“”Never seen a picture of Matthew Guy, sorry not a Victorian.
Just had a look, I’d give him 10 years with no parole on his looks alone.”

Matthew Guy represents everything wrong with the Liberal Party, both in Victoria and across the country.

I couldn’t believe that the Victorian Liberals reelected him again as leader last year, but then it’s been a small pond of talent for them since 2018 when they suffered a catastrophic electoral loss under Guy. The thing is that after November of this year, that pond is probably going to shrink even more for the Liberals after the looming electoral loss, once again under Guy.

I hope I’m wrong, because even the thin-lipped little Groundhog Guy would be better than the vile thug Daniel Andrews.

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 7:43 am

“Jacinta Price and others like Anthony Dillon would be way better.”

Yep.

lotocoti
lotocoti
August 5, 2022 7:43 am

Apparently the possible next leader of the alleged Conservative Party
cannot be trusted to put the planet first.
She might be in good company, though.
It appears the Earth cannot be trusted to put the planet first either.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 5, 2022 7:53 am

Sorry to say Cassie but Abbott and Howard don’t have the backbone. I agree Pauline probably not the best. Jacinta Price will send the left into conniptions. I can’t remember anything she has said that isn’t common sense. I admired her mum, Bess, as well.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 7:56 am

Even for a j’ismist Zoe Daniels is unimpressive.

IMHO she’s not very impressive as a human being, either

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 7:59 am

Sorry to say Cassie but Abbott and Howard don’t have the backbone. I agree Pauline probably not the best. Jacinta Price will send the left into conniptions. I can’t remember anything she has said that isn’t common sense. I admired her mum, Bess, as well.

Hear Hear — Abbott and Howard are machine men, Howard was a duplicitous, mean-spirited, little man – right for the times indeed.

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 7:59 am

I love Laurence Fox, appearing on a panel overnight on GB News he said to a progressive who’d been catastrophising about Covid…..

“Don’t worry, you’ve always got Monkey Pox to look forward to….Schlong Covid”.

LOL….methinks Fox is right.

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 8:01 am

“Sorry to say Cassie but Abbott and Howard don’t have the backbone. I agree Pauline probably not the best. Jacinta Price will send the left into conniptions. I can’t remember anything she has said that isn’t common sense. I admired her mum, Bess, as well.”

I agree. Although to be fair, Abbott is already speaking up about the dangers of the “Voice”.

Visitant
Visitant
August 5, 2022 8:01 am

Testing

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 8:02 am

Jacinta Price and others like Anthony Dillon would be way better.

. Absolutely yes, also Warren Mundine, and quite a few others who are totally against the grifting activist whiteblackfellas with 1/16 of indigeneity.

Zipster
Zipster
August 5, 2022 8:05 am
rosie
rosie
August 5, 2022 8:08 am

“The former Prime Minister voiced his opinion over the issue in a piece he penned for The Australian on Wednesday, saying the body was racially divisive, risked upturning our system of governance, and would do nothing to fix the problems of Aboriginal communities.”
Didn’t Tony Abbott spend time with people in remote communities on a regular basis as PM

Ex-prime minister RIPS into ‘fundamentally wrong’ Aboriginal Voice to Parliament – and why his opposition is a grim prospect for Anthony Albanese’s referendum

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 5, 2022 8:09 am

Ramirez can be a bit hit-or-miss, and the ‘miss’ is almost invariably related to trump.

It is like he has a persistent case of Trump Derangement in just the one part of his cerebral cortex.

Other than that his cartoons are right on point.

He also has a predilection for, well I suppose you might call them ‘posters’ rather than commentary, where a single metonymic image and a call to remembrance of something – a weeping bald eagle after a mass shooting, or army boots and helmet on veterans day.

But when it comes to anything Trump I think he can’t get past Trump’s not posing as the classic American hero. Trump is brash, acerbic, pugilistic, confident to the point you would say arrogant (except that he is usually right), and so comfortable with himself that he doesn’t care if people think him a philistine (“What? Ketchup on steak?” – but he probably enjoys his meal more than people who feel they must eat something fashionable instead).

johanna
johanna
August 5, 2022 8:09 am

People smugglers into the UK advertise on Tik Tok:

“We have a route every day until the end of July. We are the best group in France to pass people. Price is £5,000, DM for the next route,” one video said.

“Only for £4,000, what are you waiting for? Leave today, tomorrow, contact in DM. Direct line every day France – England at four o’clock,” another advertised.

The TikTok posts were initially uncovered by a GB News viewer, who told the broadcaster: “I’m just a normal member of the public and got myself down a rabbit hole on TikTok where I couldn’t believe what I was seeing… If it’s that easy for me then why aren’t the authorities doing something about it.”

Neither of the candidates for the next UK PM are going to do a damn thing about it, that much we know.

Traitors within the gates and all that. 🙁

lotocoti
lotocoti
August 5, 2022 8:13 am

and quite a few others who are totally against the …

I believe Indigenous Adjacent is the term you’re looking for.

Tom
Tom
August 5, 2022 8:14 am

Looks like the cartoon supply chain is still having issues?

Yep.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 5, 2022 8:15 am

Abbott and Howard don’t have the backbone. I agree Pauline probably not the best.

The only luminary, past or present, capable of speaking up and saving us all from the Voice is – obviously – Clive Palmer.

Hang on. Wait, wait.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 8:16 am

Contrast with Steve Kates’ Art Of The Impossible, which was an accidental yet essential account, while the member for Dunning & Kruger is still high on her own brain farts.

Steve Kates book was entertaining and informative neither of which can be ever claimed by Tealist Zoe Daniels

rosie
rosie
August 5, 2022 8:16 am
incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
August 5, 2022 8:16 am

We are so deep into the idiocracy.

Stopped wading. Now swimming.

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 8:16 am

From The Oz..

Dai Le: why I abstained from climate bill vote

Independent MP for Fowler Dai Le says she abstained from voting on the climate bill saying she did not deem the bill an emergency and there was no costing in the plan.

“For me, I’m all for a greener and cleaner environment. The important issue that I raised was that there is no plan in the bills to talk about what is going to cost, how it is going to add cost to ordinary Australians,” Ms Le told the Today show.

“So it is very important that we actually understand what it’s going to cost to an electorate like mine in Fowler where our family’ income is 20 per cent less than the income of the rest of Australia,” she said.

In a press release, Ms Le said she would consider supporting a revised version of the bill in the future provided it had better detail.”

Good on you Ms Le, contrast this with Svengali Simon and his Stepford Skanks who, along with a lot of scum who live in their electorates, don’t give a rat’s arse about “bills, what it is going to cost, and how it is going to add costs to ordinary Australians”.

Such trivial concerns are for plebs, like the plebs in Fowler.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 8:17 am

I believe Indigenous Adjacent is the term you’re looking for.

No I mean actually indigenous.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 8:19 am

Good on you Ms Le, contrast this with Svengali Simon and his Stepford Skanks who, along with a lot of scum who live in their electorates, don’t give a rat’s arse about “bills, what it is going to cost, and how it is going to add costs to ordinary Australians”.

Such trivial concerns are for plebs, like the plebs in Fowler.

Dai Le – now she is doing what those in the House of Representatives are elected to do —- REPRESENT – sorry for the shouting.

calli
calli
August 5, 2022 8:19 am

metonymic

Had to look that up. Noice.

shatterzzz
August 5, 2022 8:20 am

Titania McGrath on “white” privilege .. excellent & enjoyable .. LOL!
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/august-september-2022/what-privilege-is-really-about/

calli
calli
August 5, 2022 8:22 am

I watched Dai Le on the “news” this morning. Very impressive. It seems the people of Fowler actually have brains.

So much for dumb Westies.

shatterzzz
August 5, 2022 8:23 am

Maybe, just maybe we wuz all wrong and mal-odious did give the GBR $440 million .. LOL!
Remember when climate change was going to kill off the Barrier Reef? Now coral is at record levels.

flyingduk
flyingduk
August 5, 2022 8:24 am

#President #Biden tests positive for #COVID again today, but feels well, cough improving.. will continue strict isolation, per Dr. Kevin O’Connor’s letter to Media:

You would think with all that testing going on, they could slip in a cognitive function test too?

Zipster
Zipster
August 5, 2022 8:25 am

Some permanent long covid
Dr. John Campbell

rosie
rosie
August 5, 2022 8:25 am

Pretty obvious that dumbness predominants in electorates where the slogan ‘the climate is changing in …’ was a winner.
They should ban all fossil fuel use in teal and green electorates, immediately.

rosie
rosie
August 5, 2022 8:28 am

Which journalist is going to do an in depth report on private vehicle ownership, holiday travel etc by the teal brains trust.
Didn’t Ryan get involved because her kid was worried about sufficient snow for their weekend skiing?

rosie
rosie
August 5, 2022 8:28 am

We could call them team teal-for-brains.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 5, 2022 8:29 am

From shatterzzz’ link just now – Titania:

People often assume that I’m white because I have fair skin and I don’t have a criminal record.

But although I may appear white on the outside, I actually have Native American ancestry. I may not have taken a DNA test or anything, but I have a fondness for trinkets and I really enjoyed Dances With Wolves. So that proves it.

Debates about this subject were raging on Twitter recently with various activists asking whether Anne Frank had white privilege. To which I reply: of course she did. Just like that appalling grifter, Helen Keller.

Titania will lead us in from the cold.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 5, 2022 8:39 am

Yes Cassie I did hear Abbott but I think he can best be used on the sideline.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 5, 2022 8:43 am

Speaking of such things it’ll be interesting what Albo does with this invite.

PM Lapid invites Australian counterpart to visit Israel (4 Aug)

Someone might like to ask Tony Burqa about it.

calli
calli
August 5, 2022 8:43 am

So much for dumb Westies.

Or as the ABC calls them – “Squinters”.

Rather be a Squinter than a Sphincter any day.

shatterzzz
August 5, 2022 8:44 am

I agree. Although to be fair, Abbott is already speaking up about the dangers of the “Voice”.

problem is Abbott is yesterday’s man fluffed it as PM and regardless of his support too many folk remember when the going getz tuff Tony getsz going
better than coming out as a “yes man” but won’t have much impact other than to remind us that ex PMs should be neither seen or heard..

Tom
Tom
August 5, 2022 8:44 am

Matthew Guy represents everything wrong with the Liberal Party, both in Victoria and across the country.

The reason the Stupid Fucking Liberals have gone back to Guy as state leader after previously getting rid of him for non-performance is that they have absolutely no idea how to win the November 2022 state election and have run up the white flag.

The Victorian Liberals have a death wish, much like the WA Liberals, who have been reduced to two seats in parliament because they campaigned to adopt Labor-Green policies.

The Vic Libs have just 21 seats in the 88-member State Assembly and , like the fools in WA, are campaigning to adopt Labor policies. They will be slaughered by Labor, Greens, Teals and other independents in inner-city seats because they have disowned the Liberal Party base.

They are ashamed of themselves and self-hatred works only for left-wing voters, who have plenty of like-minded candidates to vote for in November and laugh at the Stupid Fucking Liberals’ clownish attempts to appeal to them.

The Vic Libs will be lucky to retain 12 seats in November, but because there are so many small-l liberals in their ranks, they’ll learn nothing, except that they should have gone harder to attract Labor voters with more Labor policies.

They haven’t clue about how politics actually works.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 5, 2022 8:47 am

You would think with all that testing going on, they could slip in a cognitive function test too?

They would, but since you have to write your own name on the test and he can’t remember his name (or how to write) it is not possible to process the test as being Joe Biden’s.

So there is no evidence that he is in cognitive decline.

Anyone who says otherwise is an insurrectionist.

And a racist – just for good measure.

shatterzzz
August 5, 2022 8:47 am

Nothing between 12.15am and the Rowe cartoon (top of page) for me this morning ……

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 5, 2022 8:48 am

12 minutes ago
Lambie to appear at veteran suicide inquiry
Tricia Rivera
TRICIA RIVERA

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie is set to appear before the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide on Friday to give evidence on her own experience during her military service.

Senator Lambie was medically discharged in 2000 due to a back injury from a training exercise. She served in the army for 11 years.

Ms Lambie has been outspoken on her suffering since leaving the army and her dealings with the Veterans’ Affairs.

The commission is being held in Hobart with hearings spanning seven days. Ms Lambie is expected to give evidence for three hours.

Didn’t DVA originally determine that Lambie was malingering?

Zipster
Zipster
August 5, 2022 8:51 am
Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
August 5, 2022 8:54 am

Smile food, from Westprint Maps.

Later in life

I used to be able to do cartwheels. Now I tip over putting on my underwear.

I told my wife she should embrace her mistakes… so she hugged me.

My wife says I only have 2 faults. I don’t listen and something else….

At my funeral, take the bouquet off my coffin and throw it into the crowd to see who is next.

I thought growing old would take longer.

I came, I saw, I forgot what I was doing Retraced my steps, got lost on the way back. Now I have no idea what’s going on.

The officer said, “You drinking?” I said, “You buying?” We just laughed and laughed….I need bail money.

I think the reason we are born with two hands is so we can pet two dogs at once.

Day 12 without chocolate. Lost hearing in my left eye.

Scientists say the universe is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. They forgot to mention morons.

The adult version of “head, shoulders, knees and toes” is “wallet, glasses, keys and phone.”

A dog accepts you as the boss… a cat wants to see your resume.

Oops…. did I roll my eyes out loud?

Life is too short to waste time matching socks.

Wi-fi went down for five minutes, so I had to talk to my family. They seem like nice people.

If you see me talking to myself, just move along. I’m self-employed; we’re having a staff meeting.

I won’t be impressed with technology until I can download food.

My doctor asked if anyone in my family suffers from mental illness. I said, “No, we all seem to enjoy it.”

I really don’t mind getting old, but my body is having a major fit.

Camping: where you spend a small fortune to live like a homeless person.

Project Manager…because Miracle Worker isn’t an official job title.

I told my wife I wanted to be cremated. She made me an appointment for Tuesday.

Measure once, cuss twice..

I don’t care who dies in a movie, as long as the dog lives.

The world’s best antidepressant has 4 legs, a wagging tail and comes with unconditional love.

Love is how excited your dog gets when you come home.

I’ve reached the age where my train of thought often leaves the station without me.

If you’re happy and you know it, it’s your meds.

Zipster
Zipster
August 5, 2022 8:58 am

tyrant still has the shits
?? Chinese missile drills on coast

Crossie
Crossie
August 5, 2022 9:01 am

Calli at 8:22, people with meagre resources such as the voters in Fowler need to be more careful about their votes. Fat cats like Keneally, regardless of actual lipid deposits, are cushioned from the consequences of their stupidities. Average wage earners in Fowler could lose their job due to Labor policies, then lose their house, their car and end up living back home with mum and dad. All Keneally might have to do is relocate to a mansion on the mainland.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 9:02 am

Didn’t DVA originally determine that Lambie was malingering?

And from memory didn’t she have some mammary work done on the taxpayer dime?

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 9:03 am

Look, Abbott is, or was, a good fighter. I don’t know what happened after September 2013, from thereon something happened, he was either chemically or surgically castrated but before that, he could fight and he fought hard. Remember, he was a leading figure in the monarchist campaign back in 1999.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 9:04 am

Mak Siccarsays:
August 5, 2022 at 8:54 am

Thank you Mak Siccar I think there’s something in your comment for many of those who frequent the Cat

shatterzzz
August 5, 2022 9:04 am

Didn’t DVA originally determine that Lambie was malingering?

That was before she hopped on the Gravy Train I’m betting they won’t be repeating it .. LOL!

johanna
johanna
August 5, 2022 9:09 am

From the magnificent Titania:

I’m not suggesting for one moment that Anne Frank had an easy life. And I very much enjoyed that book she wrote about getting stuck in a cupboard. But ask yourself this: would she have got a publishing deal if she’d been black? I very much doubt it.

Oh, my sides. 🙂

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 5, 2022 9:10 am

And from memory didn’t she have some mammary work done on the taxpayer dime?

Quite so – she had a breast reduction done, at taxpayers expense, t0 reduce the weight on her lower back.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 9:11 am

Magnificent trolling by Titania McGrath

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 5, 2022 9:13 am

BOM – Sydney Forecast for the rest of Friday

Summary Max 22 Sunny. Chance of any rain: 5% Sydney area

Sunny. Winds northwesterly 20 to 30 km/h decreasing to 15 to 20 km/h in the evening then becoming north to northwesterly and light in the late evening.

Anyone from Sydney BOM looked out the Window today?

Roger
Roger
August 5, 2022 9:13 am

In a rare outbreak of common sense in government, discussions are apparently underway to convert the Wellcamp quarantine facility to accomodation for homeless families.

shatterzzz
August 5, 2022 9:15 am

For those who admire big “birds” especially the military kind .. lol!
https://ibb.co/qs2tQRt

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 5, 2022 9:15 am

Imagine being stuck in a room listening to Jacqui Jackie for three hours….

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 5, 2022 9:15 am

Independent MP for Fowler Dai Le says she abstained from voting on the climate bill saying she did not deem the bill an emergency and there was no costing in the plan.

Sensible lady.
For all the hype and parliamentary gymnastics, the Climate Change Bill 2022 is quite banal.

• It sets a 43% target;

• It requires an annual Ministerial statement on achieving that goal; and

• It requires the Climate Change Authority to advise the minister on what to do.

So, all wedge politics, no substance, and blame shifting to a statutory body.

Becoming the standard Albanese MO.

Tom
Tom
August 5, 2022 9:16 am

Look, Abbott is, or was, a good fighter. I don’t know what happened after September 2013, from thereon something happened…

Abbott has Bolt Syndrome: after years of mass hatred by his political enemies, he has surrendered to them. It’s a variation on Stockholm Syndrome.

Abbott is, after all, a politician and politics works best if people love you. Politics is a drug for those susceptible to addiction.

shatterzzz
August 5, 2022 9:18 am

In a rare outbreak of common sense in government, discussions are apparently underway to convert the Wellcamp quarantine facility to accomodation for homeless families.

I’m guessing a lot of the “discussion” is how much rental they can charge without the squeals getting too raucous ……..

Roger
Roger
August 5, 2022 9:19 am

#President #Biden tests positive for #COVID again today, but feels well, cough improving.. will continue strict isolation, per Dr. Kevin O’Connor’s letter to Media:

You would think with all that testing going on, they could slip in a cognitive function test too?

Q1. Who is the President of the United States?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 5, 2022 9:19 am

Imagine being stuck in a room listening to Jacqui Jackie for three hours….

Imagine being stuck in a room listening to Julia Gilliard for three hours……

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 5, 2022 9:19 am

Didn’t DVA originally determine that Lambie was malingering?

And wasn’t it in an effort to avoid deployment?

Not sure how germane her experience will be. But, I suppose when so many politicians have been nothing but politicians (or dumpster licking lawyers) I suppose there are scant pickings to find anyone whom they can pass off as ‘speaking’ for the military.

She might also be useful on any enquiry into UPS, DHL, StarTrak etc – she said she was looking for a good package.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 5, 2022 9:20 am

rosiesays:
August 5, 2022 at 8:08 am

“The former Prime Minister voiced his opinion over the issue in a piece he penned for The Australian on Wednesday, saying the body was racially divisive, risked upturning our system of governance, and would do nothing to fix the problems of Aboriginal communities.”

Didn’t Tony Abbott spend time with people in remote communities on a regular basis as PM

Ex-prime minister RIPS into ‘fundamentally wrong’ Aboriginal Voice to Parliament – and why his opposition is a grim prospect for Anthony Albanese’s referendum

Tony Abbott deserves a chance in his Indigenous envoy role, not personal attacks

It’s been good to see Tony Abbott out in the Northern Territory, continuing the work he has been doing for a long time now — listening to Aboriginal people on the ground. I expect he will be doing a lot more of this in his new envoy role.

He has a hard task ahead of him as he seeks to find ways to improve school attendance rates of Indigenous children, particularly in remote communities.

This is not a task one person can achieve alone: it requires support from many levels. If ever there was a job for all Australians to join together, this is it.

It is therefore somewhat surprising that critics have wasted no time engaging in personal attacks on Mr Abbott.

He’s done the ground work

For many years, Mr Abbott has visited Aboriginal communities to sit, talk, share, and laugh with the people, and all for the right reasons — to better understand them.

Working in the academic space of Aboriginal education and psychology, I know that while education is obviously a focus to improving attendance rates, a holistic approach is needed if we are to see Aboriginal children thrive in school.

Having spoken with Mr Abbott about his new role and Aboriginal affairs in general, I know he understands the need to consider the broader contextual factors.

The job requires understanding people at the community level and being able to negotiate often rigid constraints of government bureaucracy. He does not speak with guile and is not afraid to make tough decisions when they need to be made.

I believe Mr Abbott can do this, but it is a challenging task which requires bipartisan support.

I imagine that Mr Abbott will seek a range of views from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous stakeholders with relevant experience in Indigenous education and related fields. And before anyone objects to him consulting with non-Indigenous people, let’s not forget that Indigenous affairs is everyone’s business.

The dominating separatist paradigm embraced by many of Mr Abbott’s critics has been a massive failure, except maybe for those who have managed to build their prosperity on other people’s poverty and misery.

Mr Abbott can expect to hear a range of views, conflicting opinions, and criticism. But for the criticisms to be useful, they must be specific and contain substance; they can’t just be the sort of rhetoric that has characterised Indigenous affairs for far too long.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 9:24 am

Mr Abbott can expect to hear a range of views, conflicting opinions, and criticism. But for the criticisms to be useful, they must be specific and contain substance; they can’t just be the sort of rhetoric that has characterised Indigenous affairs for far too long.

And who do the StupidF’ingLiberals put in as opposition spokesperpeople for indigenous affairs –oh no, not Jacinta Price who’s lived it all her life but Julian F’ing Leeser – the wettest wet there is who has already come out and said the ‘noise’ is a step in the right direction – them’s fightin’ woids

lotocoti
lotocoti
August 5, 2022 9:26 am

Not what I thought vibrant street food culture meant.

Eyrie
Eyrie
August 5, 2022 9:29 am

Tinta: Howard was a duplicitous, mean-spirited, little man – right for the times indeed.

Also a nasty piece of work.

Indolent
Indolent
August 5, 2022 9:29 am
H B Bear
H B Bear
August 5, 2022 9:30 am

BOM rainfall figures are actually a probability measure. Completely non-intuitive and probably not what you think. Look it up yourself to check.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 5, 2022 9:31 am

discussions are apparently underway to convert the Wellcamp quarantine facility to accomodation for homeless families

The final, sputtering deflation of the Death Camp balloon, and all those who sailed in her.

Roger
Roger
August 5, 2022 9:31 am

It requires the Climate Change Authority to advise the minister on what to do.

Speaking of which, one of their recent reports was Economic recovery, resilience and prosperity after the coronavirus, which recommended a government stimulus package which would have poured yet more money into renewables.

Safe hands.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 5, 2022 9:31 am

lotocotisays:
August 5, 2022 at 9:26 am
Not what I thought vibrant street food culture meant.

I don’t know – I would have thought that cooking Cat on the footpath in Italy was intrinsic for newcat.

Italian woman has had enough of being enriched

Abdü ama kendi yolunda
@GuapoYr
4 Aug
Replying to
@CryptoOnlyCoims
is he cooking “cat”? wtf

?Crypto Only?@CryptoOnlyCoims
4 Aug
Yup

Roger
Roger
August 5, 2022 9:33 am

The final, sputtering deflation of the Death Camp balloon, and all those who sailed in her.

Mind the gas pipes on your way out.

Indolent
Indolent
August 5, 2022 9:33 am
Indolent
Indolent
August 5, 2022 9:35 am

Yes, people do tend to protest at having their livelihoods wantonly destroyed.

Farmer Protests in the Netherlands Show Just How Messy the Climate Transition Will Be

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 5, 2022 9:35 am

but South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol will not meet with her.

As much as I dislike Pelosi, the refusal to meet by the President and the Foreign Minister shows an appalling lack of propriety.

Seem a bit shit, unless of course Pel-lousie invited herself against their wishes.

After all she needed a distraction from her corruption bubbling in the background.
https://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-pelosi-stocks-congress-chips-bill-nvidia-2022-7

Insider previously reported that Paul Pelosi exercised 200 call options, or 20,000 shares, of NVIDIA worth between $1 million and $5 million on June 17, 2022, at a strike price of $100.

Paul Pelosi’s trades come at a time when Congress is set to pass the “CHIPS-plus” bill, which will invest $54 billion in stateside semiconductor manufacturing and research. NVIDIA, a producer of graphics processing units and developer of integrated circuits, was one of many companies to sign an open letter in June asking leaders of Congress to pass the bill.

Last week, Pelosi denied at a press conference that her venture capitalist husband traded stocks using information she’s given him.

Speaker Pelosi herself does not trade stocks, but her husband is a frequent investor.

Insider collected each of his trades that the speaker reported in 2021 and 2022. Many of his trades are worth millions — a previous analysis from Insider found in late 2021 that the speaker is ranked as the 14th wealthiest member of Congress with an estimated net worth of at least $46,123,051.

Indolent
Indolent
August 5, 2022 9:39 am
Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 9:40 am

Also a nasty piece of work.

Yes, the platitudes and pittances man – the further away I am from his time the more I see his cunning.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 5, 2022 9:44 am

BOM now including “chance of meatballs” in their predictions.

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 9:45 am

Last night, in conversation with someone close to me over dinner, we discussed the political scene and what ensued in Canberra yesterday with the ludicrous and utterly suicidal “climate Change Bill” that will commit Australia to reduce emissions by 43% and we discussed the Stepford Skanks, always a nice thing to do in a Stepford Skank electorate like Wentworth. Well, I’ve since been mulling our conversation and I’ve also been thinking about something C.L. accurately wrote on his superb blog, which is basically that the Liberals, instead of waffling on about “nuclear”, need to go nuclear about the climate con. They have nothing to lose. So what do I mean, and what does C.L. mean? That it’s high time a political party called out the con. Of course, that would take a Liberal Party with spine and courage, traits currently lacking in the Liberal Party of Australia, state and federal. C.L. wrote the following on his blog…

“As I’ve been saying for ages, you must fight the false premise; you must get under the root ball to successfully remove the weed. By raving on about nuclear, the Liberals (and all others who do this) are conceding to the wacko climateers that there is an existential threat from carbon dioxide in the first place. Once you make that mistake, there is no path to polemical victory.”

As usual, C.L nails it. I believe that the Liberals have nothing to lose by detonating the nuclear option, which is by coming out and saying, once and for all, that climate change is a load of rot, that we can’t change the climate and that we’re on the road to not just economic ruin, but to economic and societal oblivion by pursuing this 43% nonsense. What have the Liberals got to lose? I say nothing, they lose anyway by capitulating to the climate con. Look at the results from May 21 this year, look at the West Australian electoral results, look at SA, look at Victoria, and as we’ve discussed above, the looming Victorian election is likely to see the Victorian Liberals decimated, despite thin-lipped Groundhog Guy and his minions pursuing an emissions target which is more than 43%. I think it’s time that the Liberals, instead of talking about “nuclear”, went nuclear. And I believe such atomic honesty will be rewarded, if not immediately, then certainly in time, because when people are under duress and suffering deprivation from blackouts and so on, they’ll look to the party and to individuals that spoke the truth.

Or maybe I’m just dreaming…………?

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 5, 2022 9:45 am

Independent MP for Kooyong Dr Monique Ryan, who ousted former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg from his blue-ribbon seat, has accidentally voted against Labor’s landmark climate bill.

Yet one of the Teals has opined that while Labor doesn’t need them for their votes, Labor does need them for their brains. And here it is: a sample of the Teal brain power in action.

Yep. Cut off the power in Wentworth as an object lesson. My friends and neighbours in Wentworth really do need to have their stupidity brought home to them. I’m prepared with the camping gear to sit virtuous because I voted LDP, the thinking person’s choice. Unfortunately, many in Wentworth would just move to their coastal holiday homes or book a flight overseas pronto.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 5, 2022 9:46 am

discussions are apparently underway to convert the Wellcamp quarantine facility to accomodation for homeless families

Ideal place to concentrate homeless families – 10k outside of Toowoomba. Almost absolutely no chance of entirely unexpected unintended social consequences.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 5, 2022 9:48 am

That goes for Kooyong too, of course. They really do ‘own’ Monique Ryan’s Teal Brains Trust.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 5, 2022 9:48 am

Indolentsays:
August 5, 2022 at 9:33 am
The Left is not like Us

The left’s preoccupation with defunding police, and depriving them of both lethal and non-lethal tools, restorative justice, decarceration, eliminating cash bail, decriminalizing felonies, and refusing to prosecute lower level crimes, or seek sentencing enhancements, has caused violent crime to explode in major cities, up from five to 40 percent compared to the same period last year in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The misdirect that Covid, the war in Ukraine, or tax loopholes has caused this increase is legerdemain. Criminals understand this. In Los Angeles, for example, there is a rush to obtain plea deals before the possible recall of progressive district attorney George Gascon. About 75 George Soros-linked district attorneys control the jurisdictions of 72 million Americans. With turnover exceeding 75 percent in many of these offices, experienced prosecutors are leaving, further eroding law enforcement.

The Biden administration’s war on the fossil fuel industry has erased America’s energy advantage, threatened prosperity and energy shortages, and forced America to seek accommodations from others. Bowing to radical left policies, instead of strengthening America’s infrastructure, the administration bizarrely used the Defense Production Act for solar panels, sought oil from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and has considered seeking oil from Iran.

Roger
Roger
August 5, 2022 9:48 am

I believe that the Liberals have nothing to lose by detonating the nuclear option, which is by coming out and saying, once and for all, that climate change is a load of rot, that we can’t change the climate and that we’re on the road to not just economic ruin, but to economic and societal oblivion by pursuing this 43% nonsense.

They’ll be right on to it once the polls back them.

Roger
Roger
August 5, 2022 9:52 am

Ideal place to concentrate homeless families – 10k outside of Toowoomba. Almost absolutely no chance of entirely unexpected unintended social consequences.

The social consequences of mum and three kids sleeping in the car aren’t promising either.

Just consider the impact Kevin Rudd has on the country.

(Oops…couldn’t help myself.)

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 5, 2022 9:53 am

More like watch out for the gas pipes on the way in. We’d hate for you to trip and hit your head. That’s our job.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 5, 2022 9:53 am

A group of eminent historians has criticised the Australian War Memorial for continuing to spruik a World War II biography which details the contested massacre of 25 European women by Japanese soldiers and subsequent revenge killings by Australian forces.

The massacre, which is alleged to have occurred in the darkest days of Japan’s assault on PNG during 1942, was published in a book by former journalist Daniel Lane called The Digger of Kokoda: The official biography of Reg Chard, which details the young soldier’s deployment in PNG.

In the book Lane describes how Australian soldiers set out to rescue 25 women only to find the Japanese had “stripped the women naked; lopped off the women’s heads; hacked the limbs from each body and then gutted them”, which provoked the Australians to go on a killing spree.

In addition to the allegation of a serious war crime which had gone unreported for 80 years, the historians also criticised the book for errors and inconsistencies from the soldier’s war records, which were revealed in The Weekend Australian last month. They’ve accused publisher Pan Macmillan of failing to verify the recollections of a 98-year-old war veteran who was not at fault, after historian David W. Cameron warned them about his concerns prior to publication.

Pan Macmillan defended its book as a “personal memoir” which was never intended to be a history of Kokoda and was “verified by fact-checking where possible”.

The war memorial has continued to sell the book through its online store and still has a post on its Facebook page promoting it, but has declined The Australian’s request for comment. The book has been endorsed by Australian War Memorial head of military history Karl James, whose praise is included in its early pages, author Peter FitzSimons, and former governor-general Peter Cosgrove.

University of NSW historian Peter Stanley, who was previously principal historian at the Australian Memorial, questioned how the memorial had come to endorse a book that was “inadequate”.

“They made a mistake and now they’re having to face the consequences,” he said.

“It diminishes their reputation and it’s so damaging to the memorial to be associated with a work which is so questionable.”

Professor Stanley said he remained sceptical that the massacre ever occurred and also questioned the likelihood that Mr Chard was on the Kokoda Trail during the period claimed by Lane, based on publicly available military records. “He was in PNG without a doubt, but he couldn’t have been at all the places Daniel Lane claims he was,” he said.

“To me it’s obvious this couldn’t possibly be true in every respect, but there is truth in there.”

Among the disputed claims is that Mr Chard and a handful of other soldiers were hand-picked by celebrated general Arthur Allen to leave the 55th Battalion and move to the frontline to reinforce the 2/33rd Battalion. However, his war records do not reflect this claim.

Australian National University military historian David Horner, who also questions the massacre and Lane’s claims that Mr Chard fought on the trail during 1942, criticised the Memorial for promoting the book as history.

“Rightly or wrongly the Memorial is seen as the source to go to for honest Australian military history,” he said. “They are the arbiters … they have a research centre whose job is to get the story right. They have a responsibility and in this case they have ducked that responsibility.”

Prof Horner said he was surprised at how willing people in the field had been to shrug off the controversy, putting it down to the rise of alternative facts. “We are in this post-truth era of made-up stories and innuendo and it also happens in the field of history,” he said.

In a statement, Pan Macmillan defended the book. “The Digger of Kokoda is Reg Chard’s personal memoir, told in his own words from his lucid, clear memory and verified by fact-checking where possible. The Digger of Kokoda is not a history of Kokoda, nor is it meant to be. We’re proud to publish the life story of a war veteran and national treasure.”

Roger
Roger
August 5, 2022 9:53 am

had

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 5, 2022 9:54 am

I wonder if Dr. Ryan’s failure to vote for da climate could be considered by those who voted for her as medical negligance. She made a great play of her skill set during the election: lol.

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 9:54 am

Yet one of the Teals has opined that while Labor doesn’t need them for their votes, Labor does need them for their brains. And here it is: a sample of the Teal brain power in action.”

You gotta laugh at the sanctimonious lard-arsed Karen Ryan stuffing up the vote.

I do hope the voters of Kooyong are proud of what they vomited up on 21 May 2022. They own this.

All I can say is that it’s good, very good, that these rodent hypocrites don’t have the balance of power. I’m convinced that they thought, as directed by Svengali Simon, that they’d have the balance of power after 21 May and be able to hold the government to ransom.

Vicki
Vicki
August 5, 2022 9:54 am

BREAKING: Ron DeSantis announces he is suspending state attorney for refusing to enforce Florida law.

May the wind remain strong behind his sails.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 5, 2022 9:56 am

Kids sleeping in cars? Where are they going to get their political creds from?

Cassie of Sydney
August 5, 2022 9:57 am

Yep. Cut off the power in Wentworth as an object lesson. My friends and neighbours in Wentworth really do need to have their stupidity brought home to them.

Yep…and bring in the “refugees” and house them in Wentworth, Kooyong, North Sydney, Warringah, Mackellar, Curtin and Goldstein.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 5, 2022 9:58 am

After Japan, Spain, France, Ukraine & Fiji, Therapeutic Albanese is off on leave until September

Michael Smith News – poor old Albo, it’s the first leave he’s had all year…….

sfw
sfw
August 5, 2022 9:59 am

I know it rots my brain, but like my other addictions, I can’t keep off it.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/sorry-diesel-prices-are-likely-climb-again-soon

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
August 5, 2022 10:00 am

Modern Australian non birthing parent………………………

comment image

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 5, 2022 10:02 am

Regarding articulating the ‘No’ position to ‘The Voice’.

Pauline is without a doubt in earnest, but sadly she is also (even among many on the right) considered a raaaaacist. She isn’t, but what people ‘know’ and what is true do not always align. The significance of this is that mixing her with the cause will make it easy for the ABC, Fauxfacts, Labor, the Greens, and probably the blathering Teals to paint the whole cause as raaaaacist.

If there is one thing you can count on the conservative hoi polloi to do it is try to prove they are not raaaaacist. They aren’t, of course, which is why they recoil from the accusation so violently – and the left counts on that.

Abbott actually has cred. The Cashless Debit Card, which sought to ameliorate problems with grog and gambling in Indigenous communities was his baby. But his actual record would never get airplay (he was quite schtum on his trips to help out in the communities) and the political baggage – all the bad things he was accused of – would be a boon to the same miscreants as listed above.

Jacinta (and Warren), on the other hand are in a much better position. Jacinta can make the point that none of the people demanding the voice have been to outback communities they claim need a voice. (This should dampen any desperate going to the camps afterward to disarm the point – they never thought to go beforehand.)

She (or they) can then put the question to Australians of who do they believe the people in this Voice will be? The full-bloods that live are closest to traditional Aboriginal life, or the half, or quarter, or 1/8, or even 1/16 lot in the cities? Does that sound right – having 1/4 bloods representing Aborigines more than full-bloods?

Labor, Greens and Teals will insist that they know what they are talking about because they read the reports. Well there are always new reports coming out. Most people in the mornings retreat to a unobtrusive secluded room in the house and…reduce their weight whilst in a seated position.

Other people produce reports.

It might be worth gathering together a collection of reports over the years and highlighting different and contradictory insights and recommendations – where successive reports are in disagreement but also contemporaneous ones where the same circumstances have nevertheless resulted in irreconcilable conclusions. Make the point that reports are not holy writ but change constantly. Everyone received might pose as the last word, but is anything but.

So a voice based on the state of current reports would be based on something that will change – but The Voice will be permanent.

They should probably do this with reports, studies, and milk cartons for all disciplines anyway – just to snap people out from under the spell that has been laid upon them that these damned pamphlets pretty much consigns any doubt to beyond the borders of decent discourse.

Vicki
Vicki
August 5, 2022 10:07 am

Look, Abbott is, or was, a good fighter. I don’t know what happened after September 2013, from thereon something happened, he was either chemically or surgically castrated but before that, he could fight and he fought hard. Remember, he was a leading figure in the monarchist campaign back in 1999.

Yes Cassie – it was horrifying to watch when, after becoming PM, Abbott folded on nearly every issue important to conservative voters. He seemed to want to become a “consensus” leader.

I have to say that in my one excursion into political life (in local government) many years ago, I found that instincts of decency tended to impel me to want to be fair to all in a leadership role. I quickly realised that I was totally and utterly unsuited to politics!!! But I suspect that it often happens to conservative politicians. The Left, on the other hand, are totally unscrupulous and pursue their exclusive interests with venom.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 5, 2022 10:09 am

Does that sound right – having 1/4 bloods representing Aborigines more than full-bloods?

Sorry, at least 50% Aboriginal ancestry required to sit on the “Voice.” Bruce Pascoe and Lidia Thorpe need not apply.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 5, 2022 10:11 am

Enshrined voice won’t advance equality

HENRY ERGAS

The text Anthony Albanese released last Saturday of a possible constitutional amendment on the voice is certainly a step forward. But it does nothing to address the practical issues of how the proposed institution would be constituted, precisely who it would represent and by what means it would be held accountable.

And it does not dispel the legitimate concerns that can be held about entrenching such a body in the Constitution.

There is, after all, no idea more fundamental to the Western tradition than that of political equality. To say that is not to deny that when John Locke asserted, late in the 17th century, that God created human beings in a strict “state of equality” in which “all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another”, the political principle he articulated was simply an aspiration.

Nor could anyone deny that aspiration was, for far too many years, cruelly thwarted in the case of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, with disastrous consequences both for those peoples themselves and for the nation as a whole.

But it is also clear that the history of political progress has been one of widening the circle of equal citizenship, bringing Locke’s principle, which formed the basis of modern liberalism, steadily closer to achievement.

It was very much with that aim in mind that generations of reformers fought to overturn the laws that unjustly excluded Indigenous Australians from full membership in the Australian polity; and it was the demand for complete civic equality that resounded so loudly – and so successfully – with Australians in the 1967 constitutional referendum.

Nowhere was the emphasis on equal, rather than special, rights more eloquently captured than in the song that could be heard from one end of the country to the other during the 1967 referendum – a song exhorting Australians to “ ‘Vote Yes’ to give (Aborigines) rights just like me and you”.

“The original Australians”, insisted Faith Bandler – who came to embody the campaign’s spirit – no longer wanted to be “a race apart in the land of their birth”; instead, the time had finally come for them to be “treated equally with other Australians”.

It was therefore no accident that the demand on the Indigenous petition that marked the campaign’s origin was not for the proposition that was eventually put to the Australian people – that is, an amendment extending to Aborigines the commonwealth’s power to make laws for any “race”. It was for the deletion from the Constitution of all reference to race, cleansing our founding document of the stain that had tarred it from birth.

Unfortunately, that plea was rejected by the campaign’s non-Indigenous advisers, who believed special laws, passed using the race power, would eradicate Aboriginal poverty and hardship. Now, after decades of failure that should have shattered that illusion, we are once again being told that constitutionalising inequality will promote equality and that enshrining separateness will reinforce national unity.

In reality, like all schemes that segment the political process, the proposal seems less likely to build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians than to raise higher and more impenetrable walls.

Already in the 19th century, bemoaning plans that would have allocated particular rights of political representation to specific groups in the community, John Stuart Mill argued that once representatives were instructed to speak on behalf of a specific group, they invariably became “mere attorneys of small confederacies”, fuelling sectionalism and converting political deliberation into a battle between implacable adversaries.

Only slightly later, Albert Venn Dicey, the Victorian era’s greatest constitutionalist, warned that any such plans invited “incalculable evils”, as the “special representatives” would, “from their very position”, feel impelled to “display and intensify (sectional) feeling”.

Even worse, said Dicey, instead of bringing into the legislative process the fact that the people being represented were “of different politics, pursue different professions and belong to different religious bodies”, the richness of many voices would be throttled into a single narrow voice.

The experience of recent years only confirms those fears, as Harvard’s Jane Mansbridge, who has been among the most prominent advocates of special forms of representation for disadvantaged groups, has frankly recognised.

“The diversity within historically disadvantaged groups is no less than in any other groups,” she writes; the consequence of special representation, which seeks to coax a unified view out of that plurality of interests and opinions, can only be “the suppression of (those) differences”.

At the same time, special representation is “fraught with danger” as it inculcates, both in the group itself and in the rest of the electorate, “the conviction that the individuals (who are being) represented have some essential traits that help define them and that render them unable to be represented adequately by those without such traits”, breeding the very “essentialism” all genuine democrats have always decried.

And compounding the damage, the essentialism’s effect is to “reinforce stereotypes, trap the individuals in the group in the images traditionally held of the group, de-emphasise lines of division within groups to the advantage of dominant groups within the group, and harden lines of division between the disadvantaged group and other groups”.

As a result of those harms and others, any special forms of representation are solely justifiable as a temporary measure, which ought to be repealed as soon as “structural conditions improve” — that is, once the original under-representation has been corrected. They should therefore “be kept as flexible as possible”, Mansbridge concludes, with their implementation “by voluntary adoption rather than by legislation, and by legislation rather than by constitutional mandate”.

Those lessons have been entirely ignored in the thousands of pages advocating the voice; instead, we are hurtling towards the most inflexible of all possible options.

And while that option’s possible advantages have been repeatedly asserted, little or nothing has been said about what could go wrong. Yet once the trapdoor of constitutional change has sprung, correcting it would require a referendum that could only be appallingly divisive.

In November 1965, when the proposal to extend the race power to Aborigines was put to cabinet, Robert Menzies demurred. “Shouldn’t our overall objective be to treat the Aboriginal as on the same footing as all other Australians, with similar duties and similar rights?” he asked his colleagues. And wouldn’t enacting “a separate body of laws relating exclusively to Aborigines” just perpetuate their treatment “as a race apart”, making it even harder for the ultimate goal to be achieved?

That Menzies made many dreadful errors on Indigenous rights is a fact; but as his period in office was drawing to an end, he at least asked the right question. So should we.

johanna
johanna
August 5, 2022 10:12 am

GreyRanga says:
August 5, 2022 at 9:44 am

BOM now including “chance of meatballs” in their predictions.

As lack of Vitamin D is increasingly shown to be bad news for health, the BOM is recommending ‘sun protection’ in the middle of winter, here:

Seriously, slip slap slop in the middle of winter in the Canberra region. You couldn’t get sunburnt if you tried. The sun is weak and short lived at this time of the year, as anyone who ever had access to one of those physical models of the solar system would know, not to mention anyone who lives here.

Since when were they experts on medical issues? Did none of them ever see a working model of the solar system?

no and no.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 5, 2022 10:12 am

Cassie of Sydneysays:
August 5, 2022 at 9:45 am

Or maybe I’m just dreaming…………?

Cassie,

Problem – kids are brainwashed on Climate Change and other topics

Discussing day with 10 yr old Grandson last night, he brought up they had been discussing at school The Battle of Parramatta and Aboriginal resistance leader Pemulwuy and that we had stolen the country from the Aboriginals

Stirring him first that through his Grandmother he had African and Aboriginal Heritage, then I asked if he had heard of 1066 – No – Normans won and Saxons lost and the Normans never gave anything back , although a rebellion of the Barons created the Magna Carta in 1215 from which our laws today had devolved – No, had not heard of Magna Carta

My wife scolded me for stirring and said I was an Old Grouch (correct), but I said I felt he needed to know 2 sides to story, especially global warming/climate change –

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 5, 2022 10:13 am

Letters in the Oz re “the voice”

Why the Indigenous voice may talk over parliament

Here’s another elderly Australian who has lived through decades of goodwill and support towards our Aboriginal people. In the 1960s I taught at the mission preschool in Moree run by Catholic sisters especially for Aboriginal little ones; love, caring and generosity abounded for them as well as their families. I also taught at the convent school in Moree; there were Aboriginal children in every class but there was never any distinction between them and other children. The same as when my own children went to the state primary school in Moree.

And many years later when I worked as a diversional therapist in a nursing home with a similar mix of unwell elderly people, there was no distinction between them and other patients. I acknowledge the appalling segregation at the Moree Baths that Charlie Perkins fought against during the 1965 Freedom Ride. However, my experience while in Moree showed me that goodwill and support abounded.

If the Yes vote for the voice wins, will it still be like that? I doubt it.

Margaret Brabrook, Toowoomba, Qld

I am confident that I am not a lone voice calling out to leaders, both state and federal, for some sort of apology to be made to us Victorians for having to observe the uncouth, disgraceful display against our Australian government system recently by Lidia Thorpe (“Greens’ Queen gambit backfires”, 4/8).

No workplace that I have worked in would have tolerated her actions. Nor should parliament. She must be sanctioned in some way on behalf of all voting Australians. Please address this, Mr Albanese or Mr Bandt.

Maggie Morrison, Mordialloc, Vic

Peta Credlin (“Dutton’s Libs must have guts to speak out against voice”, 4/8) is correct in pointing out the achievements of conservative governments in relation to Neville Bonner and Ken Wyatt.

Unfortunately, the Coalition has allowed Mr Albanese to take the front running on the concept of the voice. Mr Dutton needs to start hammering the fact that the concept of the voice has a place in society, but before a vote on the issue all of the cards must be put on the table.

Peter D. Surkitt, Sandringham, Vic

Despite reassurances that a voice to parliament would be purely advisory, Mr Albanese himself has said that if the voice made a certain recommendation, it would be a “brave” government to go against its advice. This suggests that even if the voice had no legal standing to enforce its wishes, it would be hard for the government to resist them.

Given this likely power, a particular concern is how such a voice could be disbanded if it became dysfunctional or was taken over by activists. This can happen to all bodies, whatever their composition, and we guard against this in our democracy by having elections every three years.

To the contrary, once a voice is enshrined in the Constitution, there seems no obvious mechanism to allow for it to be disbanded.

Nick Ingram, Richmond, Vic

One aspect about the proposed voice to parliament that, to my knowledge, has not been addressed is the number of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders who will be appointed or elected, whether the numbers are to represent a percentage of the state and territory Aboriginal population. Will they be paid and, if so, how much? Will they have an associated bureaucracy; what will be its budget? What will be the length of their appointment?

The other more important detail, sadly lacking in the proposal, is the definition of Aboriginality so that we Australians have a clear indication of who can stand for this important adjunct to parliament.

John Riley, Leichhardt, NSW

Most people, I think, would have no objection to a well thought out voice to parliament. However, a voice enshrined in the Constitution is a totally different matter. As Mr Albanese quietly admitted, it would be a brave government that ignored or amended anything that a constitutional voice recommended, thereby giving it quasi supremacy over our elected parliament.

Add to that the ambiguities that would arise from Albo’s “worry about the details later” approach. What such a voice means in practice would then be decided for us all in perpetuity by unelected, possibly activist High Court judges. No thanks.

M. Wright, Floreat, WA

Zipster
Zipster
August 5, 2022 10:13 am

After Japan, Spain, France, Ukraine & Fiji, Therapeutic Albanese is off on leave until September

Always in search of the perfect happy ending…

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 5, 2022 10:17 am

Always in search of the perfect happy ending…

After tripping around the world,rubbing shoulders and tugging his forelock, he just wants to lie back and have a cigarette.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 5, 2022 10:17 am

Some geology bling: the new volcanic fissure which opened up in Iceland on Wednesday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgk2fAf3IJQ

Pretty! This is a live cam from Icelandic television.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 5, 2022 10:17 am

By raving on about nuclear, the Liberals (and all others who do this) are conceding to the wacko climateers that there is an existential threat from carbon dioxide in the first place.

True in itself.
But worse, flying the nuclear kite without any proper technical and economic preparation guarantees that the Liberals are marginalised in any discussion about the collapse of Australia’s energy system.

A better approach would be: “OK, you’re in the driver’s seat, you’ve got the controls, show us your best masterclass moves – we won’t oppose what you have a mandate for…

Be strategic; because the forthcoming disaster is baked in.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 5, 2022 10:18 am

Hey OO, in my last years of teaching I was prevailed upon to teach a Year 7 SOSE class. They knew nothing, so one of the projects I made each of them do was their own wall chart.

A4 landscape sheets with a major Judeo-Christian event on each. Roman Empire, JC birth, a bit of King Arthur, Norman Conquest, Magna Carta, War of the Roses, Henry VIII, Liz I, Civil War…etc etc. With kids that age they like defined parameters so they had to have coloured boxes, font sizes, a pic for each, print each page on your computer and so on. We watched movies and so on as well as read articles and did quizzes etc.

Took us weeks and a lot of fun. In the end each of them had a timeline of 20 pages or more for their bedroom wall.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 5, 2022 10:20 am

such atomic honesty will be rewarded, if not immediately, then certainly in time, because when people are under duress and suffering deprivation from blackouts and so on, they’ll look to the party and to individuals that spoke the truth.

Yes, the time has to be ripe for it. I’m not sure Dutton is the man for the next election, good though he is. He’s hardly the needed new broom unless he acts soon and becomes better looking and more personally liked (note Albo’s make-over). Barnaby, another possible, carries too much baggage.

It will take the rise of a charismatic Australian, a committed individual with an organised group of fairly deep pockets behind him or her.

It should be someone in early middle age, but dynamic, persuasive and with strong scientific cred.

Some of the younger Senators like Matt Canavan might be possibilities.

Looking to left field … calling …. calling

Rabz
August 5, 2022 10:33 am

The Vic Libs have just 21 seats in the 88-member State Assembly and like the fools in WA, are campaigning to adopt Labor policies. They will be slaughtered by Labor, Greens, Teals and other independents in inner-city seats because they have disowned the Liberal Party base.

The same thing will happen in NSW next March. I’ve been pointing out for years that the NSW coalition government (if it could be dignified with such a term) has been busy furiously implementing as many labore/greenfilth brainfarts as possible (when not imprisoning people in their homes for a year and incessantly persecuting them due to a mild ‘flu variant), including the appalling abortion abortion hastily introduced after the 2019 election, of which there was no mention during the election campaign.

Just look at the line up of utterly infuriating idiots they’ve foisted on us since the ICAC* and Grange fuelled demise of Fatty O’Barrell – Greyhound Baird, Beryl Gladyschlocklian and Dumb Parrothead (leavened with equally embarrassing imbeciles such as Health Hazzard and Manboobs Kean).

Quite frankly they deserve to go the way of the gliberal idiots in WA, SA and Victoria (later this year).

Talk about repeating the same action and expecting a different outcome. Anyone who isn’t a collectivist cretin has been effectively disenfranchised by our abomination of a political system.

*Created and introduced of course, by the stupid forking gliberals.

Roger
Roger
August 5, 2022 10:35 am

Since when were [the BOM] experts on medical issues?

Careful…as ABC RN AM advised the nation yesterday, people who question The Science are in danger of drifting into political extremism.

They even had a university perfesser on hand to say so.

What begins with mocking the BOM can so easily end in planning insurrection.

Real Deal
Real Deal
August 5, 2022 10:38 am

Titania McGrath on “white” privilege .. excellent & enjoyable .. LOL!

Why is it when I read Titania Mcgrath she sounds more and more like Monique Ryan?

Vicki
Vicki
August 5, 2022 10:38 am

BTW Husband and I attended The Sydney Institute the other night to hear George Williams spruce “the Voice”. This was the first time we have been to a evening at the institute since Covid appeared, and it was great to be back.

George gave an interesting talk on the history of referendums (he doesn’t use the term referenda) but pushed the inevitable Leftie line of approval at the end.

He argued that there has been no model for such an institution and that it would have to be negotiated. I could not help myself – and raised the example of ATSIC. His face fell (the “Oh no – don’t raise THAT look) & tried to maintain that it would be nothing like ATSIC. I am unconvinced. Maybe in structure – but not in intent.

zyconoclast
zyconoclast
August 5, 2022 10:40 am

Why would the Deputy Chief of Mission be standing on the footpath like a skanky ho?

Standing outside the courthouse, Elizabeth Rood, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, called the ruling a “miscarriage of justice.”

Brittney Griner Found Guilty in Russian Court, Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison

Zipster
Zipster
August 5, 2022 10:41 am
Rabz
August 5, 2022 10:42 am

Why is it when I read Titania McGrath she sounds more and more like Monique Ryan?

For me it’s the other way around. I’ve been aware of Titania for a lot longer than that stupid performing teal (BIRM).

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 5, 2022 10:46 am

Knuckle Draggersays:

August 5, 2022 at 9:31 am

discussions are apparently underway to convert the Wellcamp quarantine facility to accomodation for homeless families

The final, sputtering deflation of the Death Camp balloon, and all those who sailed in her.

No, no, no, you dEniAList!
It is the final solution to get rid of the homeless!

Zipster
Zipster
August 5, 2022 10:48 am

What begins with mocking the BOM can so easily end in planning insurrection.

now what have the bugmen class done that might provoke insurrection?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 5, 2022 10:49 am

The AFR View

Climate challenge must be matched by energy reality

The challenge for Labor will be to hit its emissions targets while keeping the gas flowing and the lights on during the transition.

After a wasted decade of climate wars, a 2030 target of a 43 per cent reduction in emissions on 2005 levels, and a net zero emissions target by 2050, will soon be the law of the land.

Labor has done well to hold off the Greens’ anti-fossil fuel extremism after Adam Bandt withdrew the demand for a ban on all new coal and gas projects in Australia. But as Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says, the real work lies ahead.

Enshrining the 2030 and 2050 targets in legislation will help anchor Australia’s transition to the lower carbon future and provide greater certainty for business investment in decarbonisation. Labor has promised to build new transmission lines to connect more renewables to the grid, and to encourage people to buy electric vehicles.

But it is yet to provide a comprehensive blueprint for the massive and inevitably costly transformation of Australia’s carbon-intensive economy. Imposing a form of baseline credit scheme on the biggest carbon-emitting facilities will do some of the heavy lifting on emissions cuts, and should be expanded more broadly to share the load.

But the government is yet to work out the details of how this “safeguard mechanism” applies to emissions-intensive, trade-exposed industries without just exporting jobs and carbon emissions offshore.

During the election campaign, Labor promised to reduce household electricity bills by $275 a year. Amid the global energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war, the government will have to find a way to walk that back. The commitment to more vigorous climate action will also need to be balanced by energy realism.

It was business getting out in front on climate policy that helped to force the Morrison government to back net zero by 2050.

As exposed by the energy crunch, the world will continue to depend on fossil fuel energy during the decades-long transition to net zero. Australia will have a key transition role to play as a safe and reliable supplier of natural gas, especially to Asia, until hydrogen achieves scale.

Because of political go-slows and bans on gas exploration and developments in NSW and Victoria, there is now a clamour to pull the gas trigger and impose export controls on Queensland’s LNG industry to alleviate gas shortages on the eastern seaboard.

Heightened risk of climate lawfare

Gas-fired electricity will play a critical role in energy security during the transition, by backing up renewables when the wind isn’t blowing and sun isn’t shining, as coal plants are phased out. For all these reasons, Australia will need to get more gas out of its abundant reserves.

It will become feasible to close down fossil fuel industries only once reliable and affordable replacement energy sources are available. Yet climate activists are now likely to seek to weaponise the legislated emissions targets and use the courts and environmental approval processes to shut down new gas projects.

Climate lawfare, aided and abetted by judicial activists on the bench, will increase the cost of decarbonisation and jeopardise political support for the transition.

Backing Labor’s 2030 emissions target is just a tactical retreat from the protest party spoiler role that led the Greens to join the Coalition in killing the Rudd government’s emissions trading scheme in 2009. Such politicking compares poorly with the business-like plan of Atlassian founder and climate activist Mike Cannon-Brookes, who has taken control of the nation’s largest electricity company to accelerate AGL’s exit from coal and achieve 100 per cent renewable generation sooner.

During his address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Bandt railed against business in undergraduate-Marxist style. Yet it was business getting out in front of the political system on climate policy that helped to force the Morrison government to move to the centre and back net zero by 2050. Business also backed Labor’s more ambitious 2030 targets.

Labor should adopt the Business Council of Australia’s push to widen the safeguard mechanism to bigger emitters so that it can operate as a de facto carbon price.

But for the Greens holding climate policy to ransom, the economy-wide emissions trading scheme would have been helping efficiently lower greenhouse pollution for more than a decade. The challenge for Labor will be to hit its carbon targets while keeping the gas flowing and the lights on during the transition.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 5, 2022 10:53 am

There is a German scientist, Sabine Hossenfelder, I have been watching on YouToob on topics connected to relativity and quantum mechanics etc. Informative, with more emphasis on concepts than equations. And she has rather a deadpan sense of humour which, with the German accent, is quite delicious.

I stumbled upon he video of hers called ‘Is Nuclear Power Green?‘.

She presents some interesting bits of info you might not have guessed, such as nuclear actually having a lower fatality rate (measured in deaths per terawatt) than renewables. She also has the unmitigated gall to suggest that data from a certain institute regarding nuclear must be taken with a grain of salt because they are anti-nuclear.

She is a warmy – well, I don’t think climate ‘science’ is necessarily her forte but I am not going to speculate on any more than that. Economics might not be her strongest point, but she speaks with an open mind. And commenters fill in a lot of gaps.

23 min you could spend a lot worse.

Roger
Roger
August 5, 2022 11:02 am

During his address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Bandt railed against business in undergraduate-Marxist style.

Gee…maybe that’s because he is a Marxist using the Greens as cover?

Like his comrade, Lidia Thorpe, he’s on record admitting as much.

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 5, 2022 11:10 am

Cassie

Good on you Ms Le, contrast this with Svengali Simon and his Stepford Skanks who, along with a lot of scum who live in their electorates, don’t give a rat’s arse about “bills, what it is going to cost, and how it is going to add costs to ordinary Australians”.

Such trivial concerns are for plebs, like the plebs in Fowler.

More so since the plebs in Fowler had the gall to reject Nobody’s Gurrrrl.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 5, 2022 11:11 am

Brittney Griner Found Guilty in Russian Court, Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison

A few years ago Russia warehoused an Israeli lady for possession of 9 grams of weed.
A few funny cigs worth. She wasn’t even formally in the country, just a stopover.
It’s basically kidnapping for political ransom.

Naama Issachar affair (wiki)

On 11 October 2019 a Russian court sentenced her to seven and a half years in prison on drug possession and smuggling charges.

In December 2019, the Israeli Justice Ministry transferred the historical Alexander courtyard in Jerusalem to the Russian Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, which many commentators linked to negotiating Issachar’s release.[10] On 29 January 2020 President Putin signed her pardon.

Funny how this works.

P
P
August 5, 2022 11:16 am

Sancho Panzer says:
August 5, 2022 at 4:31 am

Thanks Tom.
Sorry my intro trod on your opening number.
Looks like the cartoon supply chain is still having issues?

For those who could not access Tom’s earlier cartoons today they are now up here.

Zipster
Zipster
August 5, 2022 11:20 am

keep pumping the inflation balloon

This is almost half a trillion dollars: Moore

Tom
Tom
August 5, 2022 11:29 am

In the land of the Well-Earned Break, the ABC’s public servants award themselves three months of holidays every year, signing off around the first week of December and not bothering to come back to work until the end of February.

Even Ruperdink Mudrock’s Sky News Australia awards its on-air talent a minimum of six weeks annual vacation from early December until late January.

Contrast that with top-rating US network Fox News whose stars work around 48 out of 52 weeks per year. Their mini-breaks during the year are generally clustered around the few scheduled holiday long weekends for Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Thanksgiving.

America has a hard-working culture. Australia has a bludgers culture where governments state and federal compete to nominate new public holidays that force businesses to pay double time to open.

Tucker Carlson has just announced he is taking the next week off. He did the same around this time last year to go fishing with his only son Buckley.

He deserves his time off considering how hard he works to create content for Fox via his documentaries and his second show, Tucker Carlson Today, which complements his evening show, Tucker Carlson Tonight (interestingly, only Number 2 in the US cable TV ratings behind Fox’s The Five, where a range of the networks stars discuss the day’s big stories at 5pm US eastern time on weekdays).

Zipster
Zipster
August 5, 2022 11:30 am

This is almost half a trillion dollars: Moore

straight out of the MMT textbook, print lots moola, raise taxes to rein in inflation

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 5, 2022 11:31 am

Dr Faustussays:
August 5, 2022 at 9:46 am
discussions are apparently underway to convert the Wellcamp quarantine facility to accomodation for homeless families

Ideal place to concentrate homeless families – 10k outside of Toowoomba. Almost absolutely no chance of entirely unexpected unintended social consequences.

I’m sure that Numbers Bob and the Plenary Council will quickly get a group together to provide assistance to these poor individuals. //sarc

rickw
rickw
August 5, 2022 11:39 am

The social consequences of mum and three kids sleeping in the car aren’t promising either.

Imagine the shock of walking up to a vacant kombi, only to have some rat faced 8 year old suddenly appear in one of the windows.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 5, 2022 11:46 am

Meanwhile as the Reef heals itself

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION CALLS FOR CENSORSHIP ON ENERGY

This is shocking, or would be in a sane world: Gina McCarthy, the Biden administration’s National Climate Advisor, is openly calling on tech companies like Facebook and Twitter to censor any dissent from the administration’s “green” fantasies. McCarthy says the tech companies “have to stop allowing” people to disagree with Biden. No doubt the people she wants to censor include Steve Hayward and me, among many others:

JMH
JMH
August 5, 2022 11:46 am

Psays:
August 5, 2022 at 11:16 am

For those who could not access Tom’s earlier cartoons today they are now up here.

Thank you, P. There was no way I could get to Tom’s tunes on the previous page this morning.

JMH
JMH
August 5, 2022 11:50 am

Um – I think I might have meant Tom’s “toons” !

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 5, 2022 11:50 am

So the Teals pretend to be independents, even though they are in lockstep on policies and coordinate their activity, and from such they hollowed out Liberal support.

But they are not ‘a party’.

Are there any legal conditions applicable specifically to independents that they might be breeching? The posing as a bunch of gals with similar ideas, rather than a party under the Svengali, seems devious.

Mater
August 5, 2022 11:51 am

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie is set to appear before the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide on Friday to give evidence on her own experience during her military service.

Jacqui, Jacqui wasn’t voted in specifically to represent Veterans.

Surely they need a ‘Voice’ enshrined in the Constitution?

Vicki
Vicki
August 5, 2022 11:55 am

America has a hard-working culture. Australia has a bludgers culture where governments state and federal compete to nominate new public holidays that force businesses to pay double time to open.

I agree with that. The extant generations of our family are all hard working. I am hoping that a private school education with some very privileged friends has not warped the the character of our grandson. The granddaughter works after school and has even started a little internet business selling her unused clothes. But uni age grandson tends to whinge about the low pay and hard work of the jobs he has had. Hope he will grow out of it.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 5, 2022 12:00 pm

Never Forget the Government’s J6 Political Prisoners

The J6 political persecutions claimed another scalp when Guy Reffitt was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, even though he did not engage in any violence, nor enter the U.S. Capitol. The outrageous punishment, the longest prison term yet handed down, appears to be government retribution for Reffitt’s “hyperbolic statements” secretly recorded in his home by his teenage son. So, once again, the D.C. Despots have thrown down the gauntlet against constitutionally protected free speech.

The government’s wildly inappropriate use of the FBI and courts to stamp out certain political speech and intimidate Americans into silence and compliance is such a blatantly un-American miscarriage of justice that it leaves me seething with anger. It can’t happen here? It has happened here. And the federal government’s vindictive and authoritarian response to January 6 only adds to the voluminously accumulating proof that Washington is filled to the brim with sadistic tyrants who would have felt right at home in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

The more irrefutable the evidence showing the presence of government agents in the protest crowds stirring up trouble, the more J6 has looked like a government-run setup job, not an organic mob riot. The more Congress’s ignominious J6 Commission has preposterously insisted that the day’s events were nothing less than an orchestrated conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States, the more the whole affair has been reduced to a Machiavellian charade willed into existence by a cynical and desperate bureaucracy committed to using it as a vehicle for imprisoning Donald Trump and squeezing the life out of a MAGA political movement threatening the D.C. Establishment’s cushy existence.

I want to draw your attention to the words of Nicole Reffitt, J6 political prisoner Guy Reffitt’s wife.

He went that day because the United States is the last great stand we have. And if we allow our country to be driven into the ground by the corrupt, evil politicians here in this city, one day at your kitchen table the FBI is going to come in and tell you that you stood up at the school board meeting and you are now a domestic terrorist.

So wake up, America. This isn’t just about Guy Weley Reffitt. This isn’t just about 1-6. This is about our liberties being stomped on.

rickw
rickw
August 5, 2022 12:00 pm

Dr Tony Lin: vaccination crimes against humanity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8vmbDhkK0Q

Dot
Dot
August 5, 2022 12:06 pm

Oh shit!

“You mean like what Jeffery Epstein did with the Clintons?”

calli
calli
August 5, 2022 12:12 pm

I am hoping that a private school education with some very privileged friends has not warped the the character of our grandson.

If mum and dad work hard, long hours and have expectations that the children will have part time jobs and refuse to finance their activities then they will be workers too.

The biggest mistake is shelling out money for frippery – you want it…you pay for it.

Vicki
Vicki
August 5, 2022 12:14 pm

It should be someone in early middle age, but dynamic, persuasive and with strong scientific cred.

Lizzie, Matt Kanavan is, as many will agree, the man of choice. He is genuine, a family man, very intelligent and articulate, and a Christian to boot (as his enemies do literally!). But, of course, being a Senator, he does not fit the bill.

The other candidate is Angus Taylor. Many will deride this choice as he is sometimes thought to be too concerned about his career to make hard choices. There may be some truth in the concern that he perhaps holds back on traditional conservative issues. They all do! But he combines an outstanding academic background with practical experience in commerce, and, close to my heart – a family background in farming. Since Australia’s future will be heavily dependant on regional (especially agricultural) enterprise, I think this is the man.

The following are excerpts from the Wiki on Angus:

Taylor was born to Anne and Peter Taylor, who raised him and his three brothers on their historic property Bobingah,[4] a sheep and cattle farm in the foothills of the Australian Alps of New South Wales. His father is a fourth generation sheep farmer.[5] Taylor’s maternal grandfather was engineer William Hudson, who he considered to be a role model.[6] Taylor’s mother died from cancer in 1988, aged 48. Her death preceded the collapse of wool and beef prices following a drought, which caused the Taylor family to experience financial struggles.[7] Peter Taylor’s experience of drought drove him to advocacy for farmers, becoming President of the NSW Farmers and Vice President of the National Farmers Federation.[8] Taylor’s brothers have all taken careers in either business strategy or agribusiness.[citation needed]

Taylor was educated in the public and independent systems, first at Nimmitabel Public School[9] then, as a boarder, at The King’s School, Parramatta.[10] Taylor then studied at the University of Sydney while residing at St Andrew’s College and graduated with a Bachelor of Economics, winning the university medal[11][12] and a Bachelor of Laws. He won a Rhodes Scholarship, to study for a Master of Philosophy in Economics at New College, Oxford.[11][12] Here, he studied “Smith, Bentham, Burke, Mill, Marshall, Schumpeter, Galbraith, Keynes and Friedman”[13] however, it was the game theory of John Forbes Nash Jr. which seems to have taken Taylor’s imagination. He used the model to make an analysis of English pubs, recommending they should be protected from being dominated by large brewing companies. While it is curious that a Liberal would be “arguing for more regulation, not less”[14] it’s consistent with his belief that, “we shouldn’t put up with concentration of power in the hands of a few.”[15]

Immediately after leaving Oxford, Taylor “spent the best part of two decades in management consulting.”[14] He helped create enterprises for clients, notably Fonterra.[7] Equally, he experienced “the ignominy of failure”[13] leading starts ups that did not take off, such as agribusiness dotcom, Farmshed.[7] After consulting, Taylor helped launch a number of agribusinesses with his brothers and other business partners, including Growth Farms.[8]

Consulting and creation of Fonterra[edit]
Taylor joined his brother Charlie at McKinsey & Co, a global management consulting firm, in 1994. Projects took him to Korea, the US and the UK[14] but most notably to New Zealand, where he worked with dairy farmers to create a new business model for their industry. Taylor “spent four years working on a master plan: to unify the bitterly divided industry into a single national champion.”[7] His analysis found “it cost New Zealand farmers around $US12 to produce 100 kilograms of milk product, making them the world’s most efficient producers.” From there he recommended the 10,600 dairy farmers form a multi-national dairy co-operative. Fonterra was launched in October 2001.[17] Two decades later, it was regarded as “one of the most successful strategic decisions in agri-business history” and is used as a business transformation model at Harvard Business School.[7] Taylor returned to Sydney and was made a partner in 1999.[11][12]

Around this time, Taylor developed a digital agribusiness called Farmshed.[7] He convinced his employer, McKinsey, to back the project along with Wesfarmers, Rural Press and, later, JB Were and NAB. Based in Surry Hills, Taylor was the MD. However, when Wesfarmers merged with IAMA, they began to see Farmshed as undercutting their own business. The online business failed “with a loss of several million dollars.”[7] The Wesfarmers MD, Richard Goyder, later said Farmshed was “years ahead of its time.”[7]

Taylor went on to become a Director at Port Jackson Partners, an Australian management consulting firm. During this tenure, Taylor was a member of the Victorian government taskforce to investigate the development of a coal seam gas industry in the state.[18] Reporting in November 2013, the taskforce recommended that the State of Victoria should promote the production of additional and largely on-shore gas supply.[18] He also served as the Director of Rabobank’s Executive Development Program for leading farmers in Australia and New Zealand, as well as their Farm Managers Program which focused on younger farmers.[19]

After leaving Port Jackson Partners, Taylor developed several businesses with family members and fellow investors, largely connected to irrigation and agriculture. Management of these businesses were relinquished on his taking his seat in parliament. Some of these continue, whole or partly owned by the holding company of Taylor’s family Gufee Pty Ltd, a family trust which is declared on Register of Members’ Interests.[8]

Eastern Australia Irrigation (EAI) was co-founded by Taylor and he was a director from 2007[20] to 2012.[21] In mid 2008 he was also a director and secretary of its parent company, Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA). Records show he never took equity or received a dividend from that corporation and, by the end of 2009 he had ended his relationship with the company.[20] In 2019, Taylor’s earlier dealings with the company were given media attention as EAA had sold water licences from two of its agricultural properties back to the Australian government in 2017 for $79 million— a profit to the company of $52 million. In 2018 EAA appears to have paid its Cayman Islands-registered holding company, Eastern Australia Irrigation, $14 million in interest at the extraordinarily high interest rate of around 20%. At the time, Taylor reiterated that he was not connected to the company at the time of the water licence transaction, hadn’t been since 2009[22] and had not received any financial benefit from the water purchase.[23]

Farm Partnerships Australia has been described as a progressive farm-leasing business venture[8] owned by Gufee. By 2015 it was managing 35 properties in Victoria, NSW and Queensland, with a total of 109,000 hectares of land under management. At this time, it’s known these properties produced 47,000 bales of cotton, 58,000 tonnes of sugarcane, 25,000ha of winter crops, 157,000 sheep and 15,000 cattle.[8]

Growth Farms is an agribusiness formed by Taylor with his oldest brother, Richard in 1999s,[24] holding a non-controlling stake through Gufee until it sold its interest in early 2020.[24] At first, the company focussed on leveraged-leaseholds of high-rainfall properties in the Southern Tablelands and Monaro. The approach caused serious financing issues as “the cost of it doubled market-wise.”[8] The company then shifted to consulting and by 2015 it was “acting in the purchase of more than $200 million of Australian farmland in the past three years.”[8] It enjoyed early expansion when it won Sir Michael Hintze as a client, managing his 12 properties across Australia.[8] The company manages the very large Queensland properties Clyde and Kia Ora as well as the Kerry Stokes-owned Cygnet Park on Kangaroo Island.[24] The group owns “Hyland Grange”, “Bellevue” and the old Taylor family property “Bobingah” all in the South East of NSW. One of the farms managed by the group is at Corrowong near Delegate.[25] Operations at this property came under the scrutiny of environmental agencies when managers used a herbicide that was later seen to be a threat to an endangered species of native grass.[26] The investigation by NSW Environment & Heritage concluded in April 2017, finding there was no case to answer. The Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment began its own investigation and Taylor met with officers from the Department of Environment.[27] This has been seen as “a potential breach of the ministerial code of conduct”, generating intense media scrutiny, particularly in The Guardian[28] and came to dominate Question Time in Parliament by late 2019.[25] Taylor has been unrepentant, saying, “If I’m not standing up for farmers in the federal parliament, then who is?”[29]

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 5, 2022 12:15 pm

Breaking:
The DPP is not appealing against the sentence passed on the King of Norway.
Plod is displeased.
Well, here’s the thing.
Soft sentencing is the logical outcome of running interference for Hunchback.
Suck it up.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 5, 2022 12:25 pm

She’s a Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Apparently we’re in a Plastic Crisis, whatever that is.

The plastic crisis has deep corporate roots: To protect our planet, they need to be exposed
by Alice Mah, The Conversation (Phys.org, 4 Aug)

This spring, I taught a new undergraduate course in environmental sociology. Most of my students took the course because they were curious to see what their desire to live more sustainably had to do with sociology.

By the third week—after a deep dive into the troubling connections between fossil capitalism (the dependence of capitalism on fossil fuels), waste colonialism (the unjust international trade and disposal of hazardous waste between countries) and environmental injustice—a few students said glumly that they had thought the course would be more optimistic.

During the fourth week, we explored the well-documented history of climate denial and deception among fossil fuel companies, as well as the related “deceit and denial” tactics of the tobacco, lead and chemical industries. “Do you think it’s really true?” one student asked me imploringly. “Do you think that businesses are really that unsustainable and will never change?”

I hesitated. I wanted my students to consider complex environmental problems from a critical sociological perspective, but I didn’t want to lead them down a pessimistic path. “Well,” I admitted, “I did just write a book about the plastics industry with the subtitle ‘how corporations are fueling the ecological crisis and what we can do about it.’”

My bolding. If you mated Karl Marx with Adam Bandt, and changed the sex of the sprog to female you might get this weird creature.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 5, 2022 12:33 pm

Re Queensssland shootings.
Three dead, one in hospital.
Breathless local (ie flown in from Brissy) reporter giving an update.
“It looks like a local man will be charged with three counts of mudder and one count of manslaughter.”
Err, wut?

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 5, 2022 12:36 pm

Dover.
I got everything refreshed as it happened.
Due to some insomnia I saw Tom’s toons posted in real time.
Samsung phone + Google browser.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 5, 2022 12:36 pm

This isnt a bad little article from 2019..

https://americanmind.org/salvo/americas-delusional-elite-is-done/

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 5, 2022 12:39 pm

Movin g on from the usual ‘whay are women shit” their ABCcess goes even harder..
“Why are WA women shitter than shit”?

With a massive and persisting gender pay gap, here’s why WA is the worst place in Australia to be a woman

Why does the ABC spends so much time running women down? it must be awful to wake up every morning and see the national broadcaster has singled you out as being pretty ordinary in every sphere…

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 5, 2022 12:59 pm

I am hoping that a private school education with some very privileged friends has not warped the the character of our grandson.

The best thing parents get by paying school fees is that their kids are in a classroom with lots of other kids whose parents value education.

rickw
rickw
August 5, 2022 1:07 pm

Lathe of the week!

Massive made in Los Angeles Axelson Lathe. They were so good the only way Monarch could compete was to buy them out and shut them down:

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/batemans-bay/power-tools/metal-lathe-metal-shaper/1299227897

Rabz
August 5, 2022 1:09 pm

curious to see what their desire to live more sustainably had to do with sociology

They would also seem to have a lot to do with Blair’s Law.

Rabz
August 5, 2022 1:14 pm

Angus Taylor

Part of the problem, not the solution. His record as a minster in the Goose Morristeen goat rodeo was appalling. We’re talking about the expedient husk that tried to sell the idea of building a gas fired power station on one of the largest coal deposits in the world (i.e. in the Hunter Valley). This was before his subsequent enthusiastic embrace of Year Net Zero.

No, thanks.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 5, 2022 1:22 pm

I taught a new undergraduate course in environmental sociology

In other words, she just made it up.

I did Sociology 101 about 40 years ago. It was about 80% made-up rubbish.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 1:24 pm

Rabzsays:
August 5, 2022 at 1:14 pm
Angus Taylor

I’m with Rabz on this one — a hollow man – codpiece and headpiece filled with straw – saw him the other night on the telly as I was walking out of the room and the sound of his voice really was rats’ feet over broken glass – then the following lines absolutely pertinent to the StupidF’ingLiberals – In our dry cellar/Shape without form, shade without colour,/Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 1:25 pm

#MeToo and Yep

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 5, 2022 1:25 pm

Confirming my estimates of her intelligence Linda “I shouldnt ask questions if the answers will be extremely unpalatable to me” Thorpe accuses the media of being racist for not making a big fuss when Aboriginal ladies are murdered.

Shes correct, but in the opposite way she thinks.

The Greens have confirmed there will be a Senate inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and children, with party senator Lidia Thorpe offering a damning assessment of the police and the media. ‘When a black woman is murdered, you don’t hear about it,’ she says. ‘When a white woman dies, or a white woman is murdered, it’s a front page. There’s rallies. There’s documentaries.’ Speaking directly to the gathered media, she says: ‘You all need to put a mirror up to yourselves and ask yourselves why you’re not reporting on black women who have been murdered and missing and children – why aren’t we reporting on these deaths?’

The filmclip is worth viewing for a masterclass in asking the wrong questions/accusing the wrong people.

To blame.
Media
Police
“Racist systems”
“Police dont look for black kids”

Ends with the Yank “black lives matter” and the raised fist.

https://youtu.be/XavZ5dx1mU4

Heres a start you fauxabrigonie.
Domestic and family violence
An Aboriginal woman is 45 times more likely to experience domestic violence than a white woman. Violence patterns are passed on from parents to their children.

https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/domestic-and-family-violence

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 1:26 pm

OOOps

It was about 80% made-up rubbish.

#MeToo and Yep

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 5, 2022 1:29 pm

An Aboriginal woman is 45 times more likely to experience domestic violence than a white woman. Violence patterns are passed on from parents to their children.

The writings by the early colonial ‘oppressors’ attested to that but hey! they were the colonisers what would they know right?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 5, 2022 1:32 pm
thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 5, 2022 1:38 pm

Tintarella di Lunasays:
August 5, 2022 at 1:29 pm
An Aboriginal woman is 45 times more likely to experience domestic violence than a white woman. Violence patterns are passed on from parents to their children.

The writings by the early colonial ‘oppressors’ attested to that but hey! they were the colonisers what would they know right?

Z2KA beat me to that punchline, Marcia Langton is quoted as saying it couldnt have been like that… based on????

Well shes Marcia langton, she wouldnt lie or make shit up to suit her agenda!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 5, 2022 1:43 pm

Well shes Marcia langton, she wouldnt lie or make shit up to suit her agenda!

The Marcia Langton that vouched for Bruce Pascoe’s sources?

P
P
August 5, 2022 1:45 pm

AP Calls Arizona Governor Republican Primary for Kari Lake

With ballots continuing to be counted in various counties around Arizona, specifically including the corrupt county of Maricopa, Republican candidate Kari Lake has extended her lead beyond the ability of Arizona election officials to remove it. The Associated Press calls the race for Kari Lake.

[…] Former Vice President Mike Pence, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie all campaigned for Robson in the days before the election. (read more)

Frank
Frank
August 5, 2022 1:54 pm

I did Sociology 101 about 40 years ago. It was about 80% made-up rubbish.

Homework for the class today is for you all to watch Home & Away. Same as yesterdays assignment.

  1. I keep pointing out that people always choose the better option. The same goes for renewables, if wind turbines and…

  2. India: Muslims attack police during special election in Uttar Pradesh and play the victim a minute later ?An incident of…

  3. No Winston, awake & reading that Prof Jay Bhattacharya will be appointed head of the National Institute of Health by…

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