Augusto Zimmerman’s Triggering Thoughts of Tyranny in WA about the WA proposed gun laws (in Quadrant) is frustrating. Firstly, his…
Open Thread – Weekend 13 Aug 2022
- Bumtree #1
- Open Thread – Mon 29 April 2024
- Open Thread – Weekend 27 April 2024
- Nuclear power and the foundational lie
- Open Thread – Anzac Day 2024
The Rainbow Serpent and climate change will just have to compete for favourable headlines.
Are you referring to Canberra?
Thanks, Johanna. I am a member of a union – the Red Union group, which was the only one to…
Some nice pix of a 4WD and trailer completely flooded by a rising tide at K’gari. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13360571/Aussie-campers-50-000-disaster-simple-mistake-left-group-friends-stranded-Kgari-hefty-bill.html That never used…
Trump has made a statement about the illegal raid:
All the material was declassified
He had offered it to the DOJ prior to the raid
The material was in a secure storage as demanded by the DOJ (which has charged him with obstruction because the storage was locked as per their demand; you couldn’t make this BS up)
The DOJ already had some of the material such as the clemency documents related to Roger Stone
The demorats are now so obvious in their corruption that the justice system has been destroyed.
Dr Faustus, to be clear;
The cap of 100 issues of 462 visa is to Mongolian passport holders only.
There will be possibly 20,000 to 30,000 x 462 visas issued by Australia this year.
Yes, her emails
Rushdie would, presumably, have had opportunity to specify his security requirements in the contract that governed his appearance at the festival.
We’ll no doubt learn more in due course.
I’m being cautious with assertions in thgye meantime because of the tendency of the press to misreport such incidents.
Yes, got that.
CERTIFIED: THE NEW YORK TIMES IS RUN BY MORAL IDIOTS
By now I expect everyone has heard of the attack on Salman Rushdie. Andy Ngo notes:
And yet here’s how the New York Times reports it:
“A Motive was unclear”
Who to believe…Trump or the FBI/DOJ?
Old Ozzie:
Let me rephrase that:
The FBI knows what documents President Trump has.
President Trump has already declassified those documents.
Has President Biden reclassified them?
Does he have that authority? It appears he does have that authority.
President Trump is now in possession of Top Secret Super Squirrel Alpha Level documents and he should not have them.
Game Over.
If the British Press is to be believed, Rushdie had let his guard down, and there was virtually no security.
Damn – That’s been the Problem all along – Thinking too hard really can make you tired, scientists say
If you’re feeling drained at the end of a demanding day at the office, it could be you’ve been thinking too much.
Researchers have found that too much use of the grey matter can lead to mental fatigue, making it harder to make decisions.
Scientists analysed the chemical composition of the brains of two groups of people over the course of an approximate workday. One group was given easy tasks, while the other was told to carry out more demanding versions of the same cognitive assignments. Signs of fatigue, such as reduced pupil dilation, were recorded only in the group performing the more complex tasks.
Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, researchers from Pitie-Salpetriere University Hospital in Paris found that high-demand cognitive work led to a build-up of glutamate — a chemical that nerve cells use to transmit signals to other cells — in the pre-frontal cortex area of the brain. Managing the excess makes other pre-frontal cortex activity, such as planning and decision-making, more difficult, leading subjects to favour low-effort, high-reward actions as cognitive fatigue sets in.
One of the study’s authors, Mathias Pessiglione, said previous theories suggested fatigue was an illusion concocted by the brain to make us stop what we are doing and turn to a more gratifying activity.
“But our findings show that cognitive work results in a true functional alteration — accumulation of noxious substances — so fatigue would indeed be a signal that makes us stop working, but for a different purpose: to preserve the integrity of brain functioning.”
Researchers say monitoring chemical changes in the pre-frontal cortex could have practical implications, such as helping detect severe mental fatigue in order to avoid burnout in the workplace.
Tough call.
Taking the word of the FBI or DOJ, what could possibly go wrong?
For Trump to have committed a crime there must be 2 elements: The Actus Reus, or the act of the crime; and the Mens Rea, or the mental intent to commit the crime.
In the first instance there was no crime because by definition any documents the POTUS possessed had declassified for his purposes since he was the chief de-classifier. But even if there was a criminal act there was no intent because the documents possessed by Trump had been selected and packed by the WH archivists, including the little turd who had complained.
Ah…thank you, Zulu.
Meant in the best possible way: If true, I hope he lives to regret that.
When I heard “stabbed in the neck” & “blood splattered stage”, I expected the worst.
Old Ozzie:
Only a very silly person would have any confidence in any number put out by government. That is unfortunately where we are at the moment.
The reason I like gold is that historically it has been the store of value. It fluctuates, yes. I don’t see that as an issue when holding it for 20 – 30 year stretches. And I like the 1 oz size, not big bars of metal – the 1 oz is just more fungible for crisis use.
The little-known Aussie behind one of the world’s top brands
Former travelling salesman Garry Ridge is the longest serving Australian chief of a listed US company, and it sells one of the world’s most recognisable products.
It’s a fitting precursor to lunch with WD-40’s Garry Ridge, the longest-serving Australian chief executive of a listed American company, whose tenure surpasses the likes of James Gorman at Morgan Stanley (12 years) and Andrew Liveris at The Dow Chemical Company (14 years).
For 25 years, until next month when he steps down as chief executive, 66-year-old Ridge has helmed a business that sells one of the most recognisable household items in the world: WD-40 (the name comes from the formula being the 40th attempt to perfect a water displacement product), an all-in-one lubricant, degreaser and anti-corrosive. The product is regarded by investor Warren Buffett as one of the top brands on the planet.
WD-40 even has its own fan club, which lists more than 2000 purposes for the product, from SpaceX rockets to removing pythons from a bus in Thailand.
From an unassuming, two-level brick headquarters in the outer suburbs of San Diego, Ridge has delivered a total shareholder return of 1369 per cent over the past two decades, more than twice that of the S&P 500. And he has done that all without firing a single employee; although his now wife, Maria, resigned from the company when the two became romantically involved.
Ridge might be surrounded by Americans and their culture, but he has not lost a gram of his Australian-ness. He grew up in Sydney’s inner west, worked for retailer Waltons and attended Sydney Tech College. He went on to work for Hawker Pacific, which owned the licence for WD-40 in Australia, and then joined WD-40 in 1987 as managing director for Australia. He transferred to the US in 1994 as director of international operations, and was appointed chief executive in 1997.
Home is never far away
His accent is still strong; he thinks this might be due to his listening habits.
“I listen to Australian breakfast radio every day. I drive home in the afternoon when it’s morning in Australia. I love the Australian culture. I love the Australian point of view. I love the way Australians reflect on things differently to the American culture.
“If I come up to you, as my friend in Australia, and I say, ‘Matt, will you do me a favour?’ Matt would say, ‘Yeah, what is it?’ But if I ask someone here, ‘Can you do me a favour?’ they say, ‘What is it?’, not, ‘Yeah’.”
Ridge takes another sip of the cool wine. He has a 1000-bottle home cellar, but, strangely, he loves a cheap Lindeman’s white.
The man in charge
One of the biggest costs for WD-40 – about $US3 million a year – is the maintenance and protection of the company’s trademarks. At the San Diego headquarters are floor-to-ceiling shelves full of spray cans. They are divided into three categories: the first is WD-40 cans since the company began, the second is all WD-40’s competing brands over the ages, and the third is all the counterfeit WD-40 cans seized from around the world.
Remarkably, when Ridge visited a factory in China where fakes were being made, he was told they had a letter approving the manufacture. Ridge asked to see the letter and what they produced before him was a decades-old forgery of his signature.
When an investment company can be better than a family trust
The flexibility of dividends can be built in by issuing, in addition to ordinary shares, special shares that have no rights other than to be able to receive dividends.
Discretionary family trusts have traditionally been the go-to investment vehicle of families building investment wealth. They are attractive because of the flexibility trustees have to distribute income to a range of beneficiaries.
Families can minimise their tax obligations by having the trustee distribute the income to family members on lower marginal tax rates.
Various governments and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) have tightened the way in which family trusts operate. Recent pronouncements from the ATO regarding how it interprets Section 100A of the Income Tax Assessment Act demonstrate that broadly it expects, when a distribution is declared to a beneficiary, there will effectively be a payment to that beneficiary.
There is increasing interest in using a personal investment company instead of a family trust. What are the pros and cons?
Companies are typically seen as less flexible than trusts, and subject to many rules of their own via the Corporations Act.
For example, there are rules around lending money to shareholders. Money lent to shareholders can be treated as taxable dividends or loans subject to relatively high interest and principal repayments. Providing benefits to employees can be seen as remuneration and fringe benefits. Company distributions, or dividends, are limited in their flexibility as to who can receive dividends by the shareholding structure of the company.
However, the flexibility of dividends can be built in when establishing the company by issuing, in addition to ordinary shares, special shares that have no rights other than to be able to receive dividends. These can be held by various family members in such a way that dividends can be declared at any time on any of the shares held, including (or excluding) the ordinary shares.
Dividends don’t have to be paid
One benefit of companies over family trusts is that if dividends are declared, they don’t have to be paid. They can sit in a loan account owing to that individual. Although it can be problematic for the company to make loans to the family, there is nothing restricting the family from making loans to the company.
Another advantage of investment companies for tax purposes is that the company doesn’t have to declare a dividend, compared with trusts that do have to distribute their income. Instead, it can simply retain its profits from investments. This is because companies are a taxed entity in their own right, whereas trusts are not taxed if all the income flows through them, so the beneficiaries pay the tax.
This ability to retain profits can assist with the building of wealth. When shareholders reach retirement, they can draw money tax-free from the built-up loan account, while franked dividends can be paid to shareholders to top up the loan accounts. Often the now-retired individual has minimal other income, so the franked dividends are highly tax-effective.
From a tax perspective, investment companies are slightly less attractive than family trusts as they do not receive a discounted tax rate on capital gains. This results in capital gains being taxed at the company tax rate, usually 30 per cent, whereas a trust could distribute gains to individual beneficiaries who would pay no more than 23.5 per cent if the asset had been held for at least 12 months.
However, investment income generally is taxed in the investment company at 30 per cent, whereas trust beneficiaries might pay up to 47 per cent tax on that investment income.
So investment companies can work well for a family if the company is established with a flexible share structure. The family can loan money to the company, perhaps as a lump sum and/or regular amounts. The company then invests the money and pays its own tax on income generated, usually at 30 per cent. Profits can then be accumulated or paid as dividends.
There is one big caveat to investment companies. It is best for the investment company to avoid “investing” in personal use assets such as holiday homes and cars as this can be interpreted as providing benefits to shareholders and/or fringe benefits to directors. This can certainly complicate matters when it comes to tax time.
The guy who faked the FISA court submission got his law licence back this week.
Says everything you need said.
Link to Marjorie Greene’s Articles of Impeachment against Merrick Garland.
Interesting, and from my observation, true.
And that’s why I’ll be riding this sucker to the bottom.
Erigeron is fine. Just remember to cut original plants to ground level once a year and pull out everything else. Yeah it’s weedy but good for filling in gaps.
The path to 43pc hinges on these three bets paying off
Beyond the ambitious statements and big numbers, this is where the decarbonisation rubber hits the road.
A decade from now, Australia’s economy will be in the midst of the most dramatic overhaul since at least the 1980s.
That’s if decisions made in coming months by the Albanese government, businesses and consumers successfully deliver a dramatic acceleration in decarbonisation.
With the Senate likely to back early next month a national target of cutting by 43 per cent greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the clock is already ticking.
The emissions target is an absolute one, meaning Australia has promised the world that it will reduce national carbon and other gasses that contribute to climate change by about 440 million tonnes between now and the end of the decade.
Last year, total annual emissions were 488 million tonnes, which is about 20 per cent fewer than what the economy produced in 2005, which is the baseline year for Australia’s 2030 target.
Labor estimates that the shift by households and businesses to more renewable energy – driven largely by state and territory incentives and policies – should automatically extend that reduction to 30 per cent.
To get the rest of the way to 43 per cent, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is relying on three broad policy fronts to deliver the remaining 13 per cent reduction and put the country on course for even more ambitious cuts by 2035 and net zero by 2050.
Safeguard mechanism
The first of those policies, and by far the biggest and most complex, will be to strip a significant portion of carbon out of the industrial sector. If it works, it will account for just over half of the 13 per cent cut Labor says its policy decisions will produce.
More than 200 “facilities” covering sectors like mining, oil and gas, and manufacturing, that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon per year are in the government’s sights.
Those facilities produced about 140 million tonnes of emissions, or 28 per cent of the national total, in 2020-21, a year in which the pandemic affected activity. They will be subject to a “safeguard mechanism” that Bowen has pledged to put in place by the middle of 2023.
The mechanism will gradually tighten in coming years by creating both incentives to decarbonise via the awarding of tradable carbon credits as well as penalties for sectors that do not reduce emissions or are unable to.
When the safeguard mechanism was introduced by the previous Coalition government in 2016, it covered 17 per cent.
The details of how this incredibly complex process will unfold are still to be determined by Bowen, but given Labor’s pledge to exempt trade exposed businesses, the process is expected to be politically fraught.
Adding to the level of difficulty is the fact that Labor has decided to be an active investor in this space via a $15 billion “National Reconstruction Fund”, which includes $3 billion for new energy industry technology to help industrial users transition.
Labor’s list of potential investment targets reads like the former Coalition’s “technology roadmap”, relying on falling prices for clean energy and the emergence of a hydrogen economy and export industry.
Rewiring the nation
The second broad policy front is electricity, where Labor has the challenge of encouraging the roll-out of more renewables without destabilising the grid or driving up prices.
In total, it will account for 5 percentage points of the 43 per cent total, by stripping out 180 million tonnes of emissions this decade. If he succeeds, Bowen says renewables will account for 82 per cent of electricity generation in 2030.
But Labor is constrained by the darkening politics of gas, which activists and Greens are demanding be removed from the grid entirely, even though the fuel provides baseload power with far lower emissions than coal, the current heavy-lifter of energy generation in Australia at around two-thirds of the total.
Under Labor’s Powering Australia plan, as it was called in the lead-up to the May election, the government will invest $20 billion in electricity transmission to link up wind, solar and hydro to the national electricity market.
Again, this is still just in the planning stage, but given the vast amount of transmission and the challenges of winning over landholders, it will be significant.
Transport
The final policy front is transport, where the Albanese government has promised to take baby steps towards a series of changes that will directly affect households.
These include removing tax disincentives on the take-up of electric vehicles, expanding charging infrastructure, and making EVs 75 per cent of the Commonwealth’s car fleet purchases by 2025.
In its pre-election modelling, transport is forecast to contribute just 1 percentage point to this decade’s 43 per cent reduction, equivalent to 4 million tonnes in 2030.
By early September, the Senate is likely to have enshrined for the first time a national target to cut greenhouse gas emissions 43 per cent by 2030 after the lower house passed Bowen’s climate bills last week.
While many have taken the bill as primarily symbolic, Barry Sterland, national lead energy transition at KPMG and a former top federal bureaucrat where he led the development of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2008-10, says the legislation represents the “hard-wiring” of emissions cuts into the economy.
Hard-wiring climate targets
“First, the legislation proposes accountability and transparency elements,” he says. “These will strengthen policy to increase the likelihood these targets will be met and even exceeded.”
Sterland says the requirement that the Minister for Climate Change provides an annual statement to parliament by the Climate Change Authority on progress towards the 43 per cent target is significant.
“These requirements mirror those now seen in the corporate world where markets are demanding enhanced reporting to investors and other stakeholders on concrete plans towards achieving net zero emissions,” he says.
Furthermore, the emissions legislation includes several measures that will insert the targets directly into other laws.
“That means they will touch many aspects of government programs and economic support, embedding climate action into the workings of the economy,” he says.
“To illustrate the point, these climate targets now form part of the ‘objects clause’ of several other Commonwealth Acts.”
“These few words can be powerful drivers because they bring the energy transition into the heart of decision-making across government and its interface with business.”
For example, this could force changes to national building and appliance standards, as well as infrastructure financing, planning and scientific research.
“Climate targets are an important part of the variables decision makers must take into account,” says Sterland.
The next step, he suggests, will be the interaction between the Commonwealth’s legislation and state and territory laws, with energy the first likely area where the federal “hard-wiring” flows into the other jurisdictions.
The pending senate vote next month will include last-minute wrangling to ensure the support of independents like David Pocock.
But once it is passed, Australia’s transition will have been set on a steep pathway to 43 per cent and beyond.
That was about how many guys Temujin started with.
Just saying.
You cannot buy a minted one ounce gold bar from the Perth Mint for at least the next two to three weeks.
“Out of Stock” they claim. The one ounce minted bar is far and away the most sought after unit for a few reasons, I have never heard of the Mint running out of them before.
Plenty of cast ingots and gold coins, but cast gold is subject to clipping and coins have a large premium price which you are unlikely to recover for years.
Conspiracy theories. . . . . . .
Thank you, very much, for that one.
Cats – I renounced collectivism after 9/11. It was not easy. Only took me about eight or nine years …
Could not tolerate collectivists making excuses for moozleyism, being an unrepentant atheist.
Not that it matters – they are coming for us all. You will not be able to keep your head down and avoid the coming conflagration, try though you might.
The most annoying aspect of the triumph of collectivism (apart from the blatant hypocrisy) is the staggering stupidity. Dalrymple’s quote about accepting the propaganda and the effect it has on the mind, is instructive.
To be born in Oz in the last sixty years is to have won life’s lottery.
We must resist this unrelenting idiocy with every fibre of our beings or betray the legacy of our valiant forebears (turning in their graves as they are).
This may be the first step to tyranny: Trump lawyer
Stop signing the visitors book “Ray Mickleberg..”
Having said that – there is beauty on this planet. 🙂
FrontPage Mag picked up on this yesterday.
C.S. Lewis’ Fantasy is Our Reality (11 Aug)
Orwell of course wasn’t a Christian, so the allegory may’ve gone over his head. It’s interesting though that we’ve had Voyage to Venus and That Hideous Strength both talked about on the Cat today. Long time since I’ve read the trilogy though.
He may flatter himself that this is the case. However, the opposite is true. He can’t keep away from these boards. Doesn’t matter how many times he faceplants here, he’ll be back. And he knows when he’s copped a pasting, because he pretends it never happened, even when it’s pointed out to him (which it inevitably and repeatedly will be). He’s aware of his boobery if he’s aware he needs to overlook it. And he has a LOT to overlook. Yet he returns, persistently, to make a fool out of himself. Not my idea of a good time, but hey. Takes all sorts.
Andy Ngo is a living treasure, earlier this year he was in Berlin covering the riots by Antifa and leftist groups. It was May Day in Berlin, a holy and very sacred day in the leftist calendar, and of course the protesters, showing their priorities, were screeching the usual leftist hatred toward Israel and many protesters were carrying Palestinian flags and shouting “Palestine will be free”, code for genocide. It’s funny how some things never change in Berlin, like something out of a Kafka novel ideology has metamorphosised, today they wear black attire emblazoned with Antifa logos and screech Jew hatred, eighty years ago they wore black attire emblazoned with swastikas and screeched Jew hatred. Ngo filmed the riots and in the ensuing violence and mayhem, the only positive thing in the footage is that the German police, unlike the UK police, unlike the Portland Oregon police and unlike our very own Victorian police, don’t sit back and idly watch the violence and mayhem, the Berlin police, heavily armed, move in and use force to control the leftist scum, in fact they use a lot of force. I found it sweet, very sweet, but anyway, watching the footage you see the leftist scum dressed in black, faces covered, stomping through the streets of Berlin just like their Nazi forebears, intimidating shoppers and diners, and yet the same leftist scum part ways to allow Uber drivers through. It was surreal, but clearly we now live in surreal times.
Orwell’s landmark novel “1984” was not an instruction manual. It was a stark warning about the horrors of an all-powerful utterly intrusive government surveillance state and the abuses it would visit on those unfortunate enough to exist under it.
Daily Mail.
Excellent news. Put it in the win box with Nick Sandmann’s win.
Unfortunately the poor Gibson’s Bakery family are still being shafted. Oberlin College got a stay this week on the ordered payout to them while yet another appeal goes through the system. Justice it seems does not come easily to the little people.
Old Ozzie:
https://www.bodd.io/technology/
I wonder if there’s a way for it to say “One of you will have to get off.”
Old Ozzie:
(No I’m not stalking you.) 🙂
OK, disfiguring and possibly defunctioning his arm. The liver will be OK -probably.
However he will be a walking demonstration of Islamic intolerance that won’t be able to be explained away by the Left.
Palestine could be free. Pity about the Palestinians. They are the luckiest people in the world, as evidenced by the fact they still exist, let alone are able to live in largely self-governing territories – let’s just say this is an atypical experience for a group of people who have started and lost three wars of annihilation against the same enemy. Most who start such wars are not allowed a do-over, for obvious reasons. Let alone a third bite at the cherry! But do they count themselves lucky? Nope. In fact, the only settlement they’d be willing to accept is one where all of their demands are accepted, which is never going to happen (again, for obvious reasons). They’re losers. I have no time for them. It isn’t surprising in the slightest that leftist morons champion them incessantly.
Stranded – on my own
In passing…
I’ve mentioned Kafka to a number of younger, educated & professional people in recent years and he doesn’t register with them.
The same applies to Solzhenitsyn.
When I was in my 20s I read both, and in that regard I wasn’t Robinson Crusoe.
No doubt there are a number of explanations for these lacunae in post-modern education.
The cops, in most European countries, don’t go in for minimum force/graduated response – they operate on the basis that the authority of the Government is to be restored as soon as possible…
For good or ill.
Test.
Salman Rushdie…meh. I don’t want him harmed or killed, but I’m not going to champion his cause. He’s a champagne socialist type who would full-throatedly support the state stripping away the rights and liberties of those who generally wish the state to leave them alone.
For example, he’s bigtime into gun control. Except when it comes to his private security, I suppose.
callisays:
August 13, 2022 at 5:23 pm
Old Ozzie:
Doc Faustus:
Pisspots, one and all.
XXXX Bitter pour moi. For I am a soffistikate.
How many Palestinians does it take to change a light globe?
None – it’s easier to sit in the dark and curse the Jews.
Just smash it up, Cats. 🙂
“If the British Press is to be believed, Rushdie had let his guard down, and there was virtually no security.”
Funny, this is what I’ve been thinking this afternoon. This also alludes to what Tom superbly wrote this morning, and particularly his last line “As he lies in that NYC ICU, it’s cold comfort to Rushdie that thousands of people could have told him his life was always in danger and that he should never venture into a festival of his enemies.” Quite so Tom.
A few years ago I’d read somewhere that Rushdie no longer had security. I suspect that a fatal combination of hubris and complacency had set in and he’d come to believe he was no longer at risk. Big big mistake. Rushdie might have gotten away with such complacency fifty years ago, at a time when there weren’t many M*slims living in the West, but not now, such complacency is dangerous. Curiously, Rushdie also remained a leftist, unusual among many M*slim apostates, but that’s probably because he’s a writer and surrounded by leftists and clearly Rushdie is also a frequenter of shallow and wanky salons and festivals where the general consensus is that Isl*m is a “religion of peace”…..LOL. But generally, most M*slim apostates instinctively know and aren’t afraid to speak up and say so, such as Yasmine M*hamed, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Hatun Tash, Apostate Prophet and others, that it is the Western progressive left that has actively nurtured, encouraged, aided and abetted militant Isl*m in the West.
I don’t think Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be giving up her security any time soon.
FBI Puzzled
This just in…
FBI claim Donald Trump wilfully and knowingly took from the White House items passed down from Abraham Lincoln including several pieces preventing Joe Biden from completing a jigsaw puzzle. Biden Is unlikely to see the complete picture of Toy Story’s Woody and the gang. One missing piece is Woodys boot which displays a name painted on the sole believed to be Woodys owner. The FBI will not rest until it recovers the classified jigsaw pieces to ensure POTUS sleeps soundly. Updates throughout the night.
Apparently not.
Bring on those dancing horses … 🙂
The Clinton trash removed Ws from keyboards after Billary vacated. Not that I have any love for the Bush traitors either.
Yes, there is.
Fine performance by an Aussie lass.
I was hoping to put up a vid of the last battle, seeing we’ve been talking about Joan of Arc. But all the ones I can find are low res and muddy. Ms Wasikowska would make a fine Joan.
Oh, yeah.
Probably my favourite early ’80s band, beginning with Rescue.
Who’s on the seventh floor …
Spare us the Cutter …
Epic anthem time.
Cohenite:
Yes, I accept your position which is the legal one, however the issue is that President Trump is being pursued to disqualify him from running for the Presidency again and the Democrats only need to deny him the means to throw his hat into the ring. This is about denying him the chance to qualify in time.
Oh come onsays:
August 13, 2022 at 7:11 pm
Salman Rushdie…meh. I don’t want him harmed or killed, but I’m not going to champion his cause. He’s a champagne socialist type who would full-throatedly support the state stripping away the rights and liberties of those who generally wish the state to leave them alone.
I saw a broadcast of a speech he made during his time in hiding when he was secretly brought to speak at some maximum security venue.
It rivalled Imran Khan’s 1992 world cup victory speech as the most megalomaniac self-absorbed performance ever by a member of the human species. Sure, allowance has to be made for the stress he was under but there wasn’t a syllable of thanks to anyone who was standing up for him or protecting him – just all me, me, me.
This attack on the demos by the political class is really started to bite in many countries eg Britain. That’ll teach ’em for supporting Brexit. As usual the royals show they’re worse than useless. Apropos discussions with Roger, awful as Saxe-Coburg Tampons are, I still prefer them to Neutral Bay-Fauxfacts set.
Old Ozzie:
There’s my Rubicon.
Imagine counterfeit WD40.
I have now cancelled all my contracts to buy Chines manufactures and gadgets.
I don’t normally go in for conspiracy theories, but is the aim of any Labor Government – State or Federal – to render the country ungovernable, if the Liberals are ever elected?
Bonus on Mia Wasikowska making Alice in Wonderland. Excellent behind the scenes vid, which for some reason I hadn’t seen before. The doing of scenes in green screen is very interesting, you can almost fill in the background with your mind. Aussie actors and actresses rock.
Finding Alice: Alice In Wonderland
Erigeron is fine. Just remember to cut original plants to ground level once a year and pull out everything else. Yeah it’s weedy but good for filling in gaps.
Is that “Baby’s Tears?” I love the latter. It is very very pretty in a garden of a country house – particularly spilling over a rock border.
Massachusetts really is fuckhead place- everyone they send to Congress is a ‘rat.
I’m thinking of running for Prime Minister. My slogan will be
‘No’
Or
‘No no no!’
Or for my longer speech…
‘No no no we are not doing that.’
How about counterfeit Tanqueray. Nothing is sacred.
Pedro the Loafer:
Interesting – ABC Bullion appears to be having the same difficulty, but not to the same extent.
Another Echo
Tries again Echo
Correct.
Or corriger.
Or korrekt.
Poor Mr Rushdie.
An eye for an ‘I’ ?
Ripper single. Not available in Australia for some reason, but it played for me when I switched VPN to Kiwiland. Go figure.
Dunno why, but that track immediately reminded me of this one:
The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn – The Pogues (1985)
Just watched Monty Python “The Meaning of Live” 2014 O2
As they were coming up in the Doctor Who Police Box lift they were singing –
Monty Python – Sit on My Face (Official Lyric Video)
Sit On My Face – Monty Python
Sit on my face and tell me that you love me
I’ll sit on your face and tell you I love you, too
I love to hear you oralize
When I’m between your thighs
You blow me away
Sit on my face and let my lips embrace you
I’ll sit on your face and then I’ll love you truly
Life can be fine if we both sixty-nine
If we sit on our faces in all sorts of places
And play, ’til we’re blown away
BoN
The Cutter worked fine on my iPhone.
Am In a Melbourne backyard with outdoor fire going and a bottle of red.
Like this?
Another ripper. For some reason I’ve always thought that was a track by Blondie.
Sad to be wrong, but lets me do this:
Blondie – Rapture
Amazing that Debbie Harry is now 77. Time flies, as someone said.
Back to 1985 – sometimes, you think there might just be a gun held at the cranium … 😕
Top 5 suggestions on what secret documents Trump had stashed at Mar-a-Lago? 🙂
5. Who really shot Seth Rich.
4. What Trump was really doing while the Jan 6 tourists got overly excited.
3. The complete set of used boarding passes for Epstein’s island.
2. Who Shot JFK.
1. Aliens!
It was, Squire – I had a copy of the album it was on.
Had a massive collection of vinyl back in the day which I sold off once the switcheroo to CDs had been completed. Have only three albums left.
English Settlement (2515*)
Give Daddy the knife, Cindy
Sparkle in the Rain
Gee, it might just be time to go and spend an inexcusable amount on a turntable, so as to flaunt my non existent superior hearing cred (or something) … 😕
*The album number, not the year it was released
Excellent!
Again I don’t know why, but this one comes into my brain. It’s a sort of anthem too. And they did the video in one take.
Mr Krinkle – Primus (1993)
As to The Cutter after that I was hitting probs on the Australian VPN connection, where YT says videos are “unavailable”. Congestion I think. Saturday night!
Memories, Rabz.
Just like fire would
I didn’t have that many, but when I finished uni I gave my collection and turntable to a flatmate, who was skint. One of the guys in our house in Kingsford was a serious music guy, with special cables and everything. I couldn’t compete. Anyway the other guy was very happy with the vinyl records and thereafter with a job earning actual munni I bought cassettes instead.
Here’s one I remember I had in vinyl. The album cover was awesome.
Long Lankin (2009 Remaster)
Different versions of “I can only give you everythang, baybee …”
The first
The second
“I can only give you my almighty lervin’ until the sun goes down, baybee …
Until the leaves of summer should turn a shade of brown …
Whenever li’l flowers and bluebirds call …
But baybee, you know that I …
Can only give you everythang … “
The secondhand record and book stores up Pitt and Castlereagh Sts were wonderful.
Spent many hours in them.
Get on up and dance to the muzak, peoples!
You know you want to … 🙂
Bottomless pits. Gave up on venturing into them when I (finally) realised how fruitless it was. The best reason for going in there was buying rare CDs.
Sen. Chuck Grassley Demands Answers from FBI Director Wray on Mar-a-Lago Raid
12 Aug 2022
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is demanding answers from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray regarding Monday’s raid of former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
On Thursday, the conservative titan and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent Wray a list of questions concerning the unprecedented raid in Palm Beach, Florida, among other topics, including Hunter Biden. The FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was reportedly about documents Trump may have taken with him when he left office last year.
Grassley began by asking Wray about his knowledge of the raid before it happened, what potential role he played in approving it, and the investigation more generally. He then delves into questions concerning the equal application of the law regarding government records, citing the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “mishandling of highly classified information.”
Grassley first asks if Wray was “aware of the pending raid of Mar-a-Lago when he sat before” the Judiciary Committee on August 4. Grassley notes in the document that Wray left the hearing early before finishing his second round of questioning, and news reports that followed indicated he traveled to the Adirondacks on his government plane.
Subsequent questions concerning the Mar-a-Lago raid are as follows:
. “When did you approve the raid? When did Attorney General Garland?”
. “What was the predication for the raid? Please provide the predicating records, including the search warrant and supporting affidavit.”
. “What is the scope of the investigation that predicated the raid? Is it limited to federal records and classification issues? Please explain.”
. “Did you discuss the search warrant with anyone at the White House before or after its execution?”
– “If so, what was discussed?”
– “Did any member of the White House staff or other executive employee, official, or agent, direct you in any way to pursue and execute the search warrant? If so, who?”
. “Did you discuss the search warrant with Attorney General Garland or any of his representatives or subordinates at the Department of Justice before or after its execution? If so, what was discussed?”
. “Has the FBI employed a team to determine which records fall within the scope of investigation and those that fall outside of it? If so, when was that team employed? If not, why not?”
Grassley noted that in October 2016 he penned a letter to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch regarding the past investigation of Hillary Clinton, asserting she and staffers received “kid-gloves treatment relating to her mishandling of highly classified information.”
He emphasized that 38 people committed “91 valid security violations” and that there were another 497 violations where the committee was unable to establish culpability. Some of the 38 individuals intentionally used Clinton’s unsecured homebrew server to send classified information in correspondence. Another point of contention from Grassley were letters from Attorney Beth Wilkinson, who represented former Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills and her deputy Heather Samuelson, from June 2016, which “were incorporated by reference into the immunity agreements” for her two clients:
Grassley asked Wray about those security violations:
Grassley’s final two questions on the Mar-a-Lago raid were as follows:
Grassley asked Wray to answer his questions by August 25.
Sacré bleu … 😕
I have Vinyl of Rock Follies
Loved the Raunchy Voice of Julie Covington in Rock Follies Blueberry Hill
Mr Kuepper is a legend.
Ed Kuepper – The Way I Made You Feel (1992)
Anyway “Sliante” to all you mob.
Mme Zulu is having the first full meal she has had in several weeks, and mixing herself the first G and T she’s had in the same time.
Cats will do me the courtesy of ignoring any incoherent transmissions from this call sign as the evening wears on.
It took me by surprise
I must say …
CDs hadn’t been invented yet.
That was a bummer.
Life’s a gamble
W.H.O. Calls for an End to Persecution of Monkeys amid Monkeypox Outbreak
Thanks, Bush – it is an Ozzie classic.
8:33pm, FFS
I don’t have many favourites:
This is one –
No Promises.
Ah, yes. The Radiators. Good stuff.
Radiators – Comin Home
This is a Countdown vid. Molly Meldrum is still with us, and said nice things upon ONJ’s passing this week. Bless him.
mUnty really is a bit of a Javert character isn’t he.
Old Ozzie:
One of the things I’ve noticed about authoritarian organisations is they always overreach. In fact it would have to be a ‘tell’. They must overreach because they have no other way of defining the limits to their power.
Mentioned earlier, the Democrat Rubicon was reached with the 2022 election. Their corruption could no longer be denied despite the overwhelming support of the Fourth Estate and the Swamp.
The FBI has now dragged the Justice Department into an untenable position. It has no place to go except to double down.
This is the dangerous time – the wounded tend to strike out without thinking of consequences.
Hopefully the collapse will happen without too much blood being spilled.
Time for some epic bombast.
Muzak to listen listen to as our world collapses around our ears …
As opposed to Miss Maggie Dodgers and her Hollyweird gal pals – the goil in the white top is an actress (in the tacky Riverdale) and the gorgeous brunette in the multi coloured top is a voice actress … 😕
The single with the same name as the band is one of mine.
Icehouse – Icehouse
I’m indebted to P, who found a soundtrack I was after – the extended track that Ivo Davies and friends did for the turn of the millennium. It was very good, as was that evening.
Motels
Bruce O’Newk:
I remember that phase. Different settings for different tape types.
Thank God CD’s arrived.
As an aside, I was having a brief chat to a Pharmacist mate and we discussed the 12″? Cds and the impossibility of putting a movie on a smaller disk.
Then DVDs happened.
I had a Marantz CD setup with a couple of Acoustic Research speakers – AR14’s? Dunno what happened to them.
Try again
Whose problem
Thanks Bruce. Didn’t know it was a Radiators song!
Bob of Newcastle
A song I’ve been after for years was a version done by the American bloke who sang about the the young woman who needed a hand while living on the streets.
Done in a slower pace, than the version that was a hit.
Damn I can’t remember the song or the singer.
Another reason I love America- I hope they sort themselves out
Saw Bob Hudson live, back in the day. His song “Girls in Our Town” was the anthem for a generation…
Regarding “The Newcastle Song” –
Didn’t Maureen Elknor (?) write a version from the young ladies perspective?
I always thought they were Aussies, but no I’m utterly mistaken. They’re from Berkeley, California.
There you go. Saw many of their singles on Countdown in the days when the ABC weren’t so useless.
Carolyn’s fingers
Carolyn’s fingers
🙂
I’ve always liked the twin overhead foxtails and uurrrrh.
‘S an anthem too.
And that’s from memory, I’m still listening to Rabz’s tracks.
Margaret RoadKnight?
girls in our town
Hunter St in Ncl centre still has that feel. Sort of seedy. I haven’t been there for a while, maybe a year, but despite the closing of the railway station and the Covid devastation it’s still the same. Unfortunately the iconic Frontline Hobbies store finally gave it away and moved to Broadmeadow. They’re still awesome though.
Bob Hudson wrote that song, and recorded it in his LP “The Newcastle Song.”
Maureen Elknor recorded the girl’s reply – all I remember was the lines
“The Hells Angel and I were married immediately – me dad and six brothers saw to it with expediency
Now he’s on the run, and I’m on the deserted wives pension…”
Rack off Normie, you and your mates
Maureen Elkner – “Rack Off Normie, You and Your Mates.”
She can do the high notes.
Respect.
Icehouse/Flowers…Rosebud foreshore
Radio Birdman…Rosebud foreshore
ACDC. Festival Hall and I was 12yo
Midnight Oil in a Dandenong Pub and Garrett’s sweat was spraying us.
So many more. Lost track.
We had it good
Eric Burdon at the infamous “Comb and Cutter” in Blacktown.
The Angels…..
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/dont_abandon_trump_because_you_have_a_desantis_in_your_back_pocket.html
Worth a read…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH1FbkLVJU4
Amateur strip nights at “Pinocchio’s” in Perth. Some of the young ladies went too far, and Perth cops put a stop to that act…
“Pinocchio’s” bouncers beat up one of the coppers on the beat one night, and the Commissioner of Police was supposed to have personally led the raid that closed the place down…
It is Saturday Night, Cats – this tune was recently posted at about 10:00am on a Tuesday morning, which bears absolutely no resemblance to when it should be played.
Which would be about now.
“I’d like to meet his tailor”, given mine have a habit of dropping dead or retiring. 😕
Dr B – You realise that Fenders are electric, don’t you.
I like the one electron theory, its fun. Brain expanding. Never seen anything that falsifies it either.
Sadly Fenders are an endangered species.
Fender lays off hundreds of employees (5 Aug)
Funny thing about Iva Davies – I watched a few Icehouse music videos a couple of years back. Mostly Man of Colours-era stuff, when Icehouse was trying to storm the US market. It’s pretty clear they were hoping to position Iva as a global sex symbol, akin to what Michael Hutchence became a year or two later. But…poor Iva wasn’t that. You can see it in the music videos. He just didn’t have the presence, the charisma, the look (or the looks). I asked my older sister, who was a teenager in the mid 80s, whether her or any of her mates had the hots for Iva Davies. Euw, good lord no!, I was told. Same question to some of my older colleagues elicited a similar response. Many liked Icehouse, but regarded Iva Davies as very unsexy. Arguably the unsexiest member of the Australian pub rock/glam rock frontmen royalty.
Just finished day 1 working for the CCP. Freaking hot here!
There’s good music still.
You just get curated away from it.
https://youtu.be/vvPyouvoUy4
Worth Watching – Monty Python – The Meaning Of Live (Full Length)
plus
Monty Python – The Naval Medley (Official Lyric Video)
with
“Censor” Apology for UKTV – Clip from “Monty Python – The Meaning of Live” documentary
Always reminds me of “An American Werewolf in London” which I saw at the flicks. Really good movie, although dated now.
Thing is Liz II would happily walk with Lon Chaney and drink a pina colada mix.
She’s that type of gal.
Sacré bleu – Miss Ellie flaunting some ample bottamage as is her want …
Hang on – no. We are not here to objectify scrumptious young women.
Look it up Cats, should you be so inclined, given she has the voice of an angel and is exquisite.
The IMMORTAL Warren Zevon – “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” We played this at the wake of a good friend of mine – a Vietnam veteran, wounded early in his tour, refused an offer to be sent home, wanted to stay and finish his tour with his mates, badly wounded later in his tour and then sent home.
Pfizer kid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CE0fMdXjYM
Actually…lady Cats. It’s that time again. Over to you. Choice between Iva Davies or Peter Garrett in their prime?
Some fool decided to have a ‘Welcome to Country” at the start of the ANZAC Day service one year – said veteran was one of two, who walked out in disgust….
Kenny Loggins – Danger Zone (Official Audio – Top Gun)
plus fond memories
The Seekers – I Am Australian: Special Farewell Performance (all 5 verses)
Ahem BoN… if its any consolation I thought the Motels were Canadian and was reminded of them by Echo and Bunnymen who I thought were Canadian but was mixing them up with the song Echo Beach by Martha and the Muffins who are Canadian…
echo beach
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
August 13, 2022 at 10:50 pm
We played this at the wake of a good friend of mine – a Vietnam veteran
Some fool decided to have a ‘Welcome to Country” at the start of the ANZAC Day service one year – said veteran was one of two, who walked out in disgust….
Something for your Vietnam Mate’s Memory
PTSD15 Special Recording “I Was Only 19” John Schumann
This is a very special recording of John Schumann and the Australian Army Band performing “I Was Only 19.” The video was first presented at the RSL PTSD15 Gala Dinner.
Van Life
Twat rhymes with what, not cat.
You
Have
Got
To
Be
Kidding.
Garret is a stick insect with delusions of Gaia. No, just no.
I hate Midnight Oil worse than dick leprosy.
Talk about mining that abstract concept of beauty, whatever it might be.
Miss Ellie wins, again. 🙂
DrBeauGansays:
August 13, 2022 at 11:01 pm
Monty Python – The Naval Medley (Official Lyric Video)
Twat rhymes with what, not cat.
Monty Python( The Pythons )
The Naval Medley
Isn’t it awfully nice to have a penis?
Isn’t it frightfully good to have a dong?
It’s swell to have a stiffy.
It’s divine to own a dick,
From the tiniest little tadger
To the world’s biggest prick.
So, three cheers for your Willy or John Thomas.
Hooray for your one-eyed trouser snake,
Your piece of pork, your wife’s best friend,
Your Percy, or your cock.
You can wrap it up in ribbons.
You can slip it in your sock,
But don’t take it out in public,
Or they will stick you in the dock,
And you won’t come back.
(Girls)
It’s fun to own your own vagina
It’s great to have your friendly thatch
Your minge, your twat, your kitty cat
Your nest, your nasty or your snatch
It’s great to have a monkey furrow
Your finger pie, your lunch box or your catch
Your camel toe, your bearded clam
Your bottom at the front
Find more lyrics at ? Mojim.com
Your monkey minge
Your muffin
Or your old Sir Berkely Hunt
Your honeypot
Your hairy friend
But never call it cunt
Or we won’t come back
(Boys)
Isn’t it awfully nice to have a bottom
Isn’t it frightfully good to have an ass
It’s swell to own a fushy
It’s divine to have a scut
From the skinniest little buttocks
To the world’s largest butt
Three cheers for your posterior or anus
Hooray for your lovely sit upon
Your fundament, your fanny, your cheeky little dear,
Your rump, your hauch, your hams,
Your stern, your fanny or your rear
But be careful how you handle it or you’ll be caught I fear
And you won’t come back
The king of sanctimonious rock
Very like this classic.
No one these days would understand this song. 😀
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
August 13, 2022 at 10:50 pm
We played this at the wake of a good friend of mine – a Vietnam veteran
Memories
Battle of Long Tan Documentary – Vietnam War – Narrated by Sam Worthington
This is the award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary, The Battle of Long Tan narrated by Sam Worthington, first broadcast on The History Channel on 16 August 2006.
I also produced the movie DANGER CLOSE:
Late afternoon August 18, 1966, South Vietnam — for three and a half hours, in the pouring rain, amid the mud and shattered trees of a rubber plantation called Long Tan, Major Harry Smith and his dispersed company of 108 young and mostly inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers are fighting for their lives, holding off an overwhelming enemy force of 2,500 battle-hardened Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers. With their ammunition running out, their casualties mounting, and the enemy massing for a final assault each man begins to search for his own answer — and the strength to triumph over an uncertain future with honor, decency, and courage.
The ensuing Battle of Long Tan becomes one of the most savage and decisive engagements in ANZAC history, earning both the United States and South Vietnamese Presidential Unit Citations for gallantry along with many individual awards. But sadly not before 18 Australians and more than 500 enemies are killed. Heroism, tragedy, and the sacrifice of battle, Long Tan is a grueling and dramatic exploration of war with all its horror, that will rightly take its place alongside war classics such as Gallipoli, Breaker Morant, Saving Private Ryan, Zulu & Blackhawk Down.
This documentary and our movie DANGER CLOSE starring Travis Fimmel is a tribute to the nobility and uncommon valor of these men — many of them conscripts – under fire. It honors their loyalty to their country and to each other, and it brings to light the heroism and unimaginable sacrifice of all military men and women both home and abroad.
Long Tan is the true story of ordinary boys who became extraordinary men.
Learn more – http://www.battleoflongtan.com
Bruce of Newcastlesays:
August 13, 2022 at 11:09 pm
Van Life
Very like this classic.
No one these days would understand this song. ?
Bruce,
How would you like to be called Sue as a Boy
The Big Problem With the Trump Warrant
The warrant used by the FBI to raid Donald Trump’s home was released on Friday.
In yet another laughable, hypocritical shift by the mainstream media, they demanded the former president release the warrant for two days, asserting that not doing so would signal his guilt. Trump did just that, giving it to Breitbart to publish, at which point wailing and gnashing of teeth commenced because it wasn’t redacted. You know, because it’s Trump’s job to do that for the government who could have just released it themselves.
In other words, everything is stupid because everything centers on getting the bad orange man. There are no rules that won’t be bent or broken to accomplish that end, and the FBI itself is no different in following that philosophy.
That leads me to the big problem with the government’s explanation for the warrant: It’s way too broad.
Andrew McCarthy wrote a piece that expands on that idea in more detail, and it’s worth the read. Here is the money shot that really exposes what’s going on with some added emphasis to make things pop.
Where things get really, shall we say, elastic is subsection (c). It permits the seizure of “any government and/or Presidential Records created” throughout the four years of Trump’s presidency.
Plainly, this has nothing to do with classified information. It is mainly designed to use the criminal law — the search warrant, an intrusive tactic for retrieving evidence of crimes — to enforce the Presidential Records Act, which is not a criminal statute.
Can DOJ get away with this? Perhaps. Section 2071 is very broad, targeting anyone who “removes” or “destroys” “any” government record. If you are wondering how this did not apply to Hillary Clinton’s removal of tens of thousands of government-related emails and willful destruction of tens of thousands of others, you are not alone. In any event, Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure permits the seizure not only of evidence of a crime but also of “items illegally possessed.” It seems clear from the context that this phrase is meant to apply to items derived from criminal activity. Literally, though, it is clearly broader than that.
Since Congress did not choose to attach criminal penalties to violations of the Presidential Records Act, what we see here amounts to the Justice Department fashioning a new crime for Donald Trump. This is not my idea of the even-handed enforcement of the law — no partisan discrimination — that Attorney General Merrick Garland insisted he pursues in his remarks on Thursday. But there will be plenty of time to discuss that.
The insinuation here isn’t hard to figure out. The government misused the Presidential Records Act, reinterpreting it as a criminal statute so that they could have a blank check to raid Trump’s home. That means the warrant allowed for the confiscation of absolutely anything related to Trump’s presidency, and the breadth of what was seized went far beyond just the excuse of needing to protect classified information (which the former president had the power to declassify).
So what were they really after? I offered some speculation on that shortly after the raid became public.
One of the locals, in the country town I grew up in, was conscripted, did his two years, including a year in the “Fun Factory” – Vietnam – came home, took up his old job, and never talked about his part in that war.
When the books began being written, he told his story – He’d been a cavalry trooper at Long Tan……
Saturday ‘Toon: Trump’s Stolen the Nuclear Codes!
The frenetic, frothing-at-the-mouth the left is engaging in is something to behold. Meatheads like Ron Reiner are willing to dive down into the darkest of rabbit holes to claim Trump has finally been caught with his finger in the nuclear cookie jar.
Trump’s finally going to jail!
No, he’s not.
I wasn’t a federal prosecutor so I don’t know, and can’t guess what the Justice Department has planned, but as a common trial lawyer, my reading of the warrant inventory list tells me that what the Feds have cooked up is damn thin. A president has the plenary power to classify or declassify anything he wants. Just because the left hates Trump with the heat of a thousand suns doesn’t reduce Trump’s chief of the executive branch and Commander in Chief status
Apparently, the Justice Department felt descending on Mar-a-Lago in the dark of early morning, unannounced, was the only way to prevent Trump from burning the evidence, or flushing it down the toilet (I guess). The problem with an “exigent circumstances” assertion (requiring a warrant and raid) is that Trump has had the claimed documents for 19 months. Just as damning (and leading to a perception of bad faith) is that the warrant was signed last Friday at 12:12 p.m. It wasn’t executed for an additional three days. The claim that Trump might be about to sell nuclear secrets or nuclear secrets were left out on a table for his golf buddies to look over is absurd.
Time for some pure pop – want want …
NEW – U.S. CDC appears to have deleted the statement that the “mRNA and the spike protein do not last long in the body” from their website.
Text removed:
Before / after web captures provided at link. CDC finally admitting that evidence for long term generation of spike protein in-vivo up to periods of months is now overwhelming.
The revelations just keep piling up that the entire past two years were one continuous set of lies and misinformation from the establishment. Bit by bit the edifice is crumbling.
Wish I’d said that.
Miss Maggie Dodgers, exemplifying the concept of Sassy 🙂
Old Ozzie, “Breaker Morant” was a very good court room drama, but it bore very little relationship to the truth.
“The belief that secret orders existed, forbidding the taking of prisoners, was one held only by the very green, and the very gullible.”
Two of those Prisoners were twelve year boys – one was shot after his father had been forced to dig both their graves…….
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
August 13, 2022 at 11:29 pm
Battle of Long Tan Documentary – Vietnam War – Narrated by Sam Worthington
One of the locals, in the country town I grew up in, was conscripted, did his two years, including a year in the “Fun Factory” – Vietnam – came home, took up his old job, and never talked about his part in that war.
When the books began being written, he told his story – He’d been a cavalry trooper at Long Tan……
Zulu,
the amazing thing of this documentary is listening to actual radio calls of the encounter
I was lucky, I won the 1st ballot for Vietnam, but had joined SUR CMF over a year before, so having just left Uni for my 1st Job in IT and met my future wife, decided to do the 6 years in CMF
Did Basic at Puckapunyal. and being in Officer Training Unit had AATV WOs train us in Jungle Warfare Training Centre Canungra and did 3 week Explosive Course at Singleton, having a Class C Licence got Army Heavy Vehicle Licence in Puckapunyal, when I moved to MUR
I had a number of Mates who went to Vietnam and all had different experiences, and basically did not want to talk about Vietnam
It Seems Like the Justice Department Forgot to Read This Key Memo Before Ransacking Mar-a-Lago
This is not the slam-dunk on Trump the Left thinks it is regarding the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department issued a search warrant on the former president’s home to complete a months-long treasure hunt for supposed classified material on the premises. The search warrant is soaked in absurdity, alleging Trump violated the Espionage Act and obstructed justice. We’ve seen this movie before, but now federal agents are knocking down doors of homes of former presidents of the opposing party to ensure they’re complying with the Presidential Records Act. It’s a script not even worthy of a Z-list production.
We’ve noted how the driving force behind this massive search could be traced back to the 15 boxes sent from Mar-a-Lago back to DC, where the National Archives just needed to get their hands on menus, guest books, and cocktail napkins. If this circus act couldn’t get even worse, the nuclear secrets leak that dropped Thursday further exposed this ransacking as a politically motivated hit. Yes, supposedly, Trump has classified documents containing nuclear secrets at his home. Right, and the magic bullet theory is credible regarding the JFK assassination. If there were atomic secrets, and the FBI was aware of their existence at Mar-a-Lago, why did they wait 18 months for a search warrant? We’re dealing with serial and systemic incompetence or political persecution.
To exacerbate the issue further, we have CBS News’ Catherine Herridge finding a presidential memo from the Trump White House issued on January 19, 2021, where he declassified all documents related to the FBI spy operation against his 2016 campaign; dubbed ‘Crossfire Hurricane.’
It was reported Friday that federal agents seized boxes of supposedly classified material. Were these documents among them? If they’re in there, this raid looks even worse since Trump declassified these documents, which do not paint the Obama DOJ in a positive light—remember Biden was part of this administration— and then FBI agents roll into Mar-a-Lago to strip the joint.
‘The FBI Raid On Melania’s Closet Was Justified,’ Says Merrick Garland Wearing Gorgeous New Evening Gown And Sun Hat
Old Ozzie & Zulu…..A cousin and a older sister married Vietnam vets. Both women never gave up on there husbands. All 4 were made of ‘tuff’ grit .
It’s Lonely Out Here
Oh it’s-a lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the campfire at night we’ll hear the wild dingoes call
Journalists love writing about politics because it casts them in the role of kingmaker. The Paywallian’s Victorian editor John Ferguson navel-gazes about the looming November state election:
It’s time for damaged Dan to face the pandemic music
The great polariser is losing ground. Dan Andrews is expected to shed votes and seats at the looming Victorian election, according to private party polling, becoming the latest political leader to pay the price of pandemic ¬incumbency.
Just as Scott Morrison lost it all, it was same with South Australian premier Steven Marshall ¬before him and it quite possibly will take down Dominic Perrottet in NSW on March 25 next year.
There is a broad consensus that Andrews’ best hope if an election were held today is a reduced ¬majority, the worst-case scenario, for Labor, being pushed deep into minority, surrounded by Greens and possibly some teals in the inner city.
The question in Victoria is the quantum of Labor losses and whether or not the most challenging political circumstances for a Melbourne-based premier since probably World War II – certainly since the 1992 Kennett election – can be navigated in the run-up to polling day on November 26.
There are potholes everywhere for Labor, regardless of the 55 seats it won in 2018 in an 88-seat chamber. Its best hopes of a small, anti-government swing hinge on the sclerotic nature of its Coalition opposition, which is in self-inflicted turmoil.
With just over 100 days to go until the election, strategists believe that in the most extreme scenario there are 10 to 14 Labor seats that could fall, the catch being that only maybe six to nine of these would be won by the Coalition, opening the way for debate about what a minority Labor government would look like and who Andrews would deal with.
The Victorian Premier’s next major challenge will be the Albanese government’s first budget on October 25, which will come just four weeks before polling, at a time when soaring inflation, rising interest rates and falling house prices gnaw at the ankles of millions of voters.
If the election goes badly for Labor, it will have significant implications for Albanese in key outer suburban seats – particularly in Melbourne’s west, north and northwest – where the ALP is large and in charge but its supremacy has been battered by the worst coronavirus infection rates in the country in 2020.These suburbs are the political equivalent of western Sydney in 1996 and Labor wants desperately to hold back a voter rebellion caused by the pandemic and frustration over a lack of services.
Clogged roads, particularly at peak hours to and from the city, too few public transport services, too few doctors, and an unreliable ambulance service have combined to drive people to dump old political allegiances. Labor’s best hope is that the stuttering Victorian opposition loses all its momentum due to the current own-goal integrity scandal sparked by a weird attempt to bolster the pay of Liberal leader Matthew Guy’s former chief of staff via a wealthy donor.
But even with this factor, strategists across the spectrum – Labor, Liberal, Greens, teals – are bracing for a wild, unpredictable ride on election day.
The entire Victorian election will be fought under the unofficial banner of the state having been one of the world’s most locked down jurisdictions, a debilitating chapter in the state’s history that has left even the most supportive Andrews backers still battling with the after-effects of public health incarceration.
The politics are deeply complex, potentially leading to another marked shift to the left in Victoria as inner city Labor and Liberal voters seek to park their votes with the Greens, and to a lesser extent teal candidates.
It is conceivable the Greens and teals will have as many as seven to 10 seats combined and will hold the balance of power in Victoria.
The Victorian election will be supercharged by the emotion of the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns, but the lockdown restrictions impacted different communities in different ways. Many liked the Andrews response, but as the election approaches, political polling points to a large, disgruntled rump ready to punish Labor, especially in the outer suburbs.
Dr Stephen Parnis may know why. He is a respected frontline medico who supported the Andrews (and national cabinet) ¬public health measures but wonders how the great Victorian malaise will resonate.
“Everyone is tired. The impact of the last few years is still playing out,’’ he says.
“I think people are trying to enjoy things we lost for a while. I think it’s better than it was in 21 and 20. But I’m not sure that they (people) are in a party mood.”
There is open talk in Labor circles of the Andrews government being plunged into minority government, losing up to 14 seats, but ¬no one is preparing for the embattled state Coalition to win 18 seats (based on the 2018 election result) and storm into power in its own right.
Regardless, the eight reformist, scandal-plagued and unapologetic years of Andrews rule have quite likely peaked. At the same time, Andrews, 50, stands as the most influential state leader since the Liberal premier Henry Bolte left the premiership in 1972 after 17 years.
After a recent, longwinded media conference over the response to the misuse of taxpayers’ money for campaigning, Andrews – energised – walked from the back of Parliament House with a greeting that was part hello, part unintended message. “We push on,” he said.
THEAUSTRALIAN.COM.AU08:33
Dan Andrews pushing ‘2020 rhetoric’ on COVID-19
Jeff Kennett, the last equally full-bore Victorian premier, who ruled from 1992 to 1999, is convinced that the backlash against Andrews will be significant, fuelled by the pandemic response, which was marred by failures in the rapidly built hotel quarantine system in 2020 and exacerbated by a lack of an effective vaccine rollout in 2021, the latter being a federal responsibility.
“People are just waiting to send a message to the government,” Kennett said.
“I think the reality is the Victorian community is getting ready. I think there are baseball bats to be wielded. It’s occurred here before in 1992.”
No one in the political system underestimates Andrews. Currently Australia’s longest-serving political leader, the Premier is as formidable and focused as he has ever been, determined to engineer a modest enough swing against him to deliver a functioning majority Labor government for a third term. Assuming victory, most expect him to then stand down by midterm after 14 years as Labor leader and 10 as premier.
Andrews is as polarising as Kennett ever was but the Labor leader copped the hardest political landscape of all.
Both he and Kennett have at times been unfairly vilified but both have revelled in the notoriety that comes with being agents of rollercoaster change.
The strategic challenges faced by Andrews are more similar to those that faced Labor’s Joan Kirner in 1992 than Kennett in 1999, with Kirner going to the polls after the recession had torn through Victoria and the boom and bust of the financial sector, some of it state-backed.
While there are some personality similarities between Andrews and Kennett – think D11 bulldozers – the differences are sharp.
Andrews has shown little to no interest in budget repair, which is arguably the single biggest issue facing Victoria, although debt-¬addled modern voters seem not to care greatly.
Andrews also exhibits rare political discipline and a relentless ability to stick to his message. He needs every advantage he has, including an unprecedented social media presence and a modern Labor machine that uses data with strategic precision to drive its decision making.
Regardless, the list of political challenges facing Andrews is higher than K2, most linked one way or another to the virus, starting with a crushing pandemic response, leading in part to a debt-laden state budget.
Then comes a long line of scandals and mini-scandals that have torn holes in the credibility of the police and legal systems, the overt misuse by Labor of taxpayers’ money for campaigning, vast overruns in major project spending, a health system buckling under the pressure of the pandemic, ambulances that may or may not turn up for the dead and dying, and a Labor Party being run federally.
THE Greens may well become the second story of the campaign. Andrews is under attack from the left, with the Greens seriously eyeing three more inner city Labor seats – Richmond near the MCG, neighbouring Northcote on the Yarra, and the well-heeled Albert Park near St Kilda.
THEAUSTRALIAN.COM.AU01:14
‘Weak’ Victorian Liberals need a ‘policy base’ to work on
If the Greens grab these seats, this would bring to six their representation in the 88-seat Legislative Assembly and a potential balance of power position if Labor dips into minority and has no one else to deal with.
It is a misnomer that conservatives are the Greens’ natural enemy.
For more than 20 years, Victorian Labor has been waging war against the Greens in the inner city and it has been the core reason that the Andrews government swung sharply to the left with its social reforms including euthanasia, drug harm minimisation, targeted spending in the gay communities and subtle decision making that has undermined mainstream traditions such as the Catholic Church.
This is the Greens’ agenda. The pandemic and changing demographics in the inner city may mean Labor can no longer hold back the Greens, in the same way that the teals have undermined the Liberal Party on climate. There are likely to be several teal candidates contesting seats at the election, most in Liberal electorates.
Greens Victorian leader Samantha Ratnam, an upper house MP, said the high tide in this year’s federal election could be a sign of a growing Greens representation.
“We’re hoping to build on the momentum of that Greenslide and increase our representation in the Victorian parliament so we can push the next government to go further and faster on climate change, housing affordability and integrity,” she said.
“We have good prospects of picking up seats like Richmond, Northcote, Albert Park; and even traditionally safe Liberal seats like Hawthorn, Caulfield and Brighton are in play for us at this election.”
Whenever things go pear-shaped for Andrews, he can take solace from the fact he has Her Majesty’s opposition to help him out.
Until a fortnight ago, both sides of politics believed the Coalition was quietly on a march.
But then Liberal leader Matthew Guy, a former Kennett staffer and two-time party leader, became embroiled in a scandal after it was revealed that his chief of staff requested a donor make more than $100,000 in payments to his private marketing business, in addition to his taxpayer-funded salary.
Senior Labor sources said until the Liberal own goal, the momentum had shifted Guy’s way and there were concerns his environment-friendly, integrity-heavy health and ambulance platform was working. “All that’s stopped in its tracks,” one Labor figure said.
Guy, 48, seized the leadership in a bloody coup last year over contemporary Michael O’Brien, a former staffer to Peter Costello when Costello was treasurer. He won the battle because of the internal view from the “go harder” faction that wanted O’Brien to smash Andrews over his draconian response to the virus.
Now Guy is being cannibalised from inside his own party. Adding to his troubles was the departure of Guy’s media director Lee Anderson, a capable hand who had clearly had enough of the chaos.
Liberal supporters often complain that Andrews “gets away with murder” and that Guy and his predecessors are/were treated much more harshly by the media than the Victorian Premier.
They may be partly right, although Andrews has been vilified, poked, prodded and lied about to the extent that only Kennett could understand.
Wyndham City Council in Melbourne’s outer west was one of the worst-hit coronavirus areas in Australia and is one of the many areas filled with disgruntled former rusted-on Labor voters. Its mayor, Peter Maynard, recently contracted the virus and declared: “It knocked the bejesus out of me.”
One of Maynard’s tasks in the run-up to the state election is to meet and greet candidates in surrounding state seats; all Maynard wants is a better deal for his area.
“As long as they show us the money, I am happy,’’ he jokes.
But with independents expected to push Labor in several outer suburban seats across Melbourne, there is also a serious side to the conversation, with the lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions having smashed multicultural areas, small businesses and factory workers.
They were once locked-in Labor voters but strategists also believe hit and miss infrastructure spending and general long-term neglect by ALP governments has driven voters to eye change in the outer suburbs.
“There are people who are doing it tough. It hasn’t been easy for anyone,” Maynard laments.
Which is why, three months out from polling day, the swing may be on.
Link.
Week In Pictures.
WIP.
All killer, no filler.
“Top Secret docs seized in Trump Home raid” – The Australian joins in the corrupt assault on Trump, reprinting something from The Wall Street Journal.
Don’t they realise that the whole sordid affair, the cumulative and open-ended pogrom is only making him more popular with his base while it totally shreds the credibility of all – media, Democrats, the justice system, and GOP leaders with names starting with Mc.
True The Vote, the people who made “2000 Mules” doco, are saying they have an even bigger story/revelation about to drop.
Ahahaha!
Sure beats video surveillance
Archimedes knew
Thanks Tom. So much goodness compared to last week’s fun desert.
I love the Live Long and Prosper one too. 😀
Seriously?
Michael Hayden (head of NSA 1999 – 2005) wants Trump to be Rosenberged, who dropped the ball on 9/11, champion?
Zulu from the music discussion last night.
Bob of Newcastle
Saw Bob Hudson live, back in the day. His song “Girls in Our Town” was the anthem for a generation…
Regarding “The Newcastle Song” –
Didn’t Maureen Elknor (?) write a version from the young ladies perspective?
The Maureen Elknor response, “Rack off, Normie” was also written by Bob Hudson for Maureen. Clever man.
Can Victoria Cats tell me why the Ocean Grove neck of the woods prices appear to be a step down from the the Mornington/Sorrento side of the bay?
Just looking at the real estate wrap up in the Sunday Terror & some pricing seemed odd.
Poor J.K. Rowling is being targeted by both trannies and jihadis now.
JK Rowling begs for ‘support’ as Salman Rushdie comments spark vile death threats (13 Aug)
Interesting similarity between the outlooks of those people. I hope Rick doesn’t ever meet Meer though, it might get tossed off a building.
ftb, possible it’s because the Sorrento etc is on a peninsula and has the bay beaches on one side and the ocean beaches on the other, plus it’s a prettier area than the west coast. It has also been developed longer and there’s a lot of hosing in locations that in a similar spot on the west coast you couldn’t build (regulations). Plus the west coast is great but for much of the year the winds come roaring in from the southern ocean.
I hate wind, it’s one of the reasons we moved here, it’s the least windy place in Australia as far as I can make out.
Re my comment on ‘The Great Malaise’, just saw this in the spectator, it’s a pommy piece but everything in it applies here. Throw in what he says plus two+ tears of madness.
“They’re disillusioned and it’s because they are better acquainted with today’s labour market than their critics. It’s not the Eighties anymore. You can’t graft your way to an ex-council house, uPVC windows, a Ford Escort and two weeks on the Costa Brava. You can’t go in at the bottom and work your way to the top. Men born in the late 1980s were at least twice as likely to begin their careers in low-paid jobs than those born in the 1970s. They have also climbed the ladder more slowly.”
https://spectator.com.au/2022/08/why-everyone-should-be-quiet-quitting/
sfw are you saying there’s less development on the western side ?
if so, that’s a plus.
Like the Hana coast of Maui.
From the Tom Dusevic column in the weekend Oz.
Headline.
Hit rich baby boomers, go easy on the younger workers
Because they’re the only two groups that could be possibly taxed.
What a retarded argument.
Down a few paragraphs regarding the income tax cuts.
Now the new tenants in Canberra hold the parcel worth $184 billion over eight years.
Why is this even being debated?
It’s nothing in the scheme of how much the feds tax grab is.
Give the punters want they want.
Tax all income less.
Tax some assets more.
A tax on land banking would primarily impact the BRW rich list.
One doctor standing up and expressing his views.
THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH PRACTIONER REGULATION AGENGY (AHPRA) ARE TAKEN OVER BY SATANISTS
ftb, different country, each years building and planning controls become more oppressive. There’s lots of development between Geelong and Anglesea but the sort of properties built are not in the same league as the Mornington Peninsula. I’m no expert on the areas, someone else here will probably know more. I don’t know why anyone would live in a such a windswept miserable cold area for much of the year.
The serpent’s gnostic Luciferian ‘elite’ oligarchy and global powers
Sfw’s observations are all spot on.
Why is Coogee so expensive compared to Maroubra? Cottesloe vs Scarborough? Tradition and demographic has a lot to do with it, as it was gentrified earlier.
Have a look at the surrounding suburbs. Mt Martha, Rosebud, etc.
Plus, its on the East on Melbourne. Western Sydney…Western Melbourne. Exactly the same stigma is attached.
Additionally, Ocean Grove is not the gem on the Surf Coast. You want to pay more, look more South West, towards Lorne. Ocean Grove is mixed up amongst the riff-raff and traffic of Geelong.
Be warned though. The Surf Coast contains some of wokest, most insular, most parochial retirees and hipsters going around. If you want your life dictated by local council, try there (not that we don’t all suffer that fate in Victoria).
ftb, the Mornington side is a relatively small area, beautiful rolling country, lots of wineries, small towns, lots of easily accessible beaches, both bayside and ocean. The west coast hasn’t.
Bern, Ocean Grove is the next town along from me. It’s now as big or bigger than regional cities like Colac and Warrnambool. Ocean Grove township (population: around 20,000 with that number ballooning each year via new housing developments) was meant for a population of a few hundred.
A major feature of the villages of the Bellarine Peninsula is the high number of absentee owners who live in Melbourne.
Ocean Grove has one of the peninsula’s lowest absentee ownership rates. Even though it is still popular for holidays among the Melbourne crowd, it now has a large middle class with middle class problems, like car theft.
Compared with the Mornington Peninsula, it is much less developed. And thousands of Ocean Grove residents commute 100 kms daily to Melbourne for work (1.5 hours plus each way), whereas Mornington and its villages are Melbourne’s outer suburbs and a much greater percentage commute to the city for work.
CDC (quietly) removes a massive claim on vaccine safety
and bolsters concerns about mRNA and cancer
Thanks for the feedback.
In the 80s I spent 2 weeks as an Instructor at 2Trg Grp, Ingleburn where my cadre sergeant had been at Long Tan. We had adjacent rooms in the Sgts Mess. Every night I heard the battle being refought.
This was his first posting as a newly promoted Sgt, while most of his remaining contemporaries were long standing WO1s and 2s.
Indolent says:
August 14, 2022 at 8:25 am
Talking to the sane, those who worship authority of any kind, will call conspiracy and ignore it.
Worth a readfrom Spiked
Article on WHO wanting to rename Monkeypox, at the end they suggest ‘Poopox’, sounds fair to me.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/wokepox-who-asking-publics-help-re-naming-monkeypox
Operation Mockingbird: MSM Caught Reading EXACT Same Script About FBI’s Trump Raid
Jab jab booster…………………………….whoops we have to cut your leg off!
Vaccine Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT), is defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “as a clinical syndrome characterized by all of the below described abnormal laboratory and radiologic abnormalities occurring in individuals 4 to 30 days after vaccination…”
https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/az-covid-19-vaccine-victim-receives-lump-payment-after-clotting-led-to-leg-amputation-7264dcc0
No no.
Operation Mockingbird isn’t real, Disney and CNN told us so.
The FBI, NSA and CIA can’t be blamed for 9/11 or false intelligence leading to the Iraq War.
COINTELPRO? MK ULTRA?
Ho ho they cannot be real. The government is there to protect you.
The head of the FBI would never blackmail anyone, the FBI was always held in high regard!
Big Picture, Review all DC Activity from June 3rd with New Eyes
August 13, 2022 – Sundance
As many people start to recognize, perhaps some for the first time, the scale of corrupt DC activity, specifically as it surfaces in the unprecedented August 8 raid of President Trump’s home, it is important to emphasize a point.
As noted by President Trump and numerous lawyers in/around his office, the U.S. Dept of Justice and FBI visited Mar-a-Lago on June 3, 2022, to review presidential documents kept in storage boxes there. After that visit the next contact with DOJ and FBI officials was the raid on August 8th.
With this timeline in mind, and knowing how the DC administrative deep state operates, all current evaluations must consider these dates carefully. Many people have puzzled over why the DOJ and FBI waited. Good question. However, the better question is…
…What was DC doing between June 3 and August 8?
SPERRY: FBI Agents Involved in Trump Raid are Under Criminal Investigation by Durham For Abusing Their Power in Trump-Russia Probe
Sperry dropped another bomb on Saturday.
According to Paul Sperry, the federal agents involved in the Mar-a-Lago raid are under investigation by Special Counsel John Durham.
“Developing: Sources say the FBI agents and officials who were involved in the raid on former President Trump’s home work in the same Counterintelligence Division of the FBI that investigated Trump in the Russiagate hoax and are actively under criminal investigation by Special Counsel John Durham for potentially abusing their power investigating Trump in the Russian fraud and therefore have a potential conflict of interest and should have been RECUSED from participating in this supposed “espionage” investigation at Mar-a-Lago” Sperry said in a social media post on Saturday.
Neil Oliver:
‘It’s hard to tell yourself you’ve been taken for a fool but open your eyes’
Transcript + video at CTH
UK’s Health Service Journal reports 300 000 on NHS cancer clinics waiting lists.
A leading oncologist blames the NHS for focusing exclusively on covid during lockdowns and closing the cancer clinics.
I assume John Durham calls into work one afternoon a week…
Poll: Majority Not Worried About ‘Personally’ Experiencing Monkeypox in the U.S.
From the Comments
If you follow one basic rule you won’t have to worry. Rule # 1 Never enter if the door is designed for Exit only!!!! Anyone who doesn’t follow rule #1 will get the POX!!
ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, STILL A TOTAL MYSTERY: NPR: Salman Rushdie hospitalized as police seek motive in stabbing.
For NPR substitute ABC Australia
GroundHog Day in the Modern World
Photos of FBI removing material from Trump’s Mir-A-Lago Home