Open Thread – Weekend 13 Aug 2022


Afternoon Sun, the Inner Harbor, Dieppe, Camille Pissarro, 1902

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OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 12:00 am

Midnight – Top of the Page – Time to go to bed

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Border Closure

Whoa! No going to bed until we learn the suggestions for dismembering the FBI.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 15, 2022 12:21 am

Looks like the Oz has broken about four stories according to the front page email.
Look out tomorrow.

Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:13 am
Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 4:14 am
will
will
August 15, 2022 5:49 am
Diogenes
Diogenes
August 15, 2022 6:02 am

Thanks Tom.

Moran is very dark, but accurate.

Anchor What
Anchor What
August 15, 2022 6:34 am

If you thought “2000 Mules” was pretty interesting but not enough to confirm that the 2020 election was gamed big time, hold onto your hats.
Next up comes “Selection Code” (due for release August 20th) which concentrates on revealing just what went on inside the voting machines … machines … machines… machines!
Gateway Pundit

calli
calli
August 15, 2022 6:43 am

Moran and the “Experts”. Perfect.

Not sure what Ramirez is on about. Does he imagine Cheney is “the one true Republican”? If so, he may as well call himself a progressive and be done with pretending.

Pat Cross – another excellent skewering.

johanna
johanna
August 15, 2022 6:46 am

TheirABC puts up a piece on the very important subject of the 75th anniversary of India’s independence – at promptly falls at the first hurdle:

Back in 1947, India’s gross domestic product was just 3 per cent of the world’s GDP — now it’s the world’s sixth largest economy.

Innumerate ignorance rools OK! That sentence tells us exactly nothing about the Indian economy, or how much it has changed in absolute or relative terms.

Needless to say, the article spends a significant amount of space on the importance of pushing for more rights and recognition for the QWERTY mob.

BTW, I have commented in the past about how Australian politicians (who moan constantly about how hard their life is) would not last five minutes in Indonesian politics.

The same applies to Indian politics. Our local snowflakes would be in tears and off on stress leave in no time.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
August 15, 2022 6:56 am

Herald Sun …

Baldwin ‘pulled trigger’: FBI report on Rust death
A bombshell FBI report has concluded that Alec Baldwin did pull the trigger that fired a live bullet at Halyna Hutchins, killing her, despite the actor’s denial.

Guns don’t kill people, actors kill people.

Zatara
Zatara
August 15, 2022 6:57 am

Taking political trolling to a new level of excellence the campaign of Liz Cheney’s opponent for the Wyoming Senate seat creates a ‘Cheney for Virginia‘ website.

Liz Cheney
VIRGINIA ROOTS. VIRGINIA VALUES.

Liz grew up right here in Northern Virginia and bases her family here. Liz is running because she understands the priorities of Northern Virginians, like funneling money to the military industrial complex, listening to big dollar DC lobbyists, and fighting for special interest groups.

Brilliant.

johanna
johanna
August 15, 2022 7:05 am

Anyone who gambles at casinos expecting that they won’t shave their already generous odds is a mug:

Playing card defects

The tribunal was told cards used in the game were “Angel” playing cards.

The judgement said the cards had previously been the subject of discussion in another court case where the manufacturer argued any anomalies were “within a contractually specified tolerance of up to 0.3mm”.

In Mr Grant’s case, the judgement said Star was aware of the anomaly associated with Angel cards and 96 of the cards used during the game were irregular.
Find more local news

Tell us your location and find more local ABC News and information

QCAT found the pair had not engaged in “edge-sorting” at Star on the Gold Coast in 2018.

The judgement said Star was aware of defects in the cards but continued to allow them to be used.

The casino knew that the cards were not 100% kosher but kept using them anyway. Or maybe because?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 15, 2022 7:08 am

Zatara’s link. Brilliant indeed:

FIGHTING FOR VIRGINIA
Liz has spent her time in Congress fighting the fights Northern Virginian Democrats truly care about, like impeaching President Donald Trump and investigating the Trump Administration and its allies. These are the issues that matter most to you, and Liz has been going toe-to-toe with any Republican who disagrees with her.

Cassie of Sydney
August 15, 2022 7:30 am

My oh my, she is such an attention whore. From The Oz…

Media Diary: Virginia Trioli’s gold medal apology to Kyle Chalmers

Have you ever been at an airport when you’ve seen someone famous, and your internal dialogue is as follows: ‘Do I approach them and say something cringe-worthy, or do I leave them alone?’ That exact same scenario was faced by ABC Radio Melbourne presenter Virginia Trioli a week or so ago when she spotted swimmer Kyle Chalmers in the Sydney airport lounge.

Luckily for the media professionals of Australia, Trioli went with option one, and she strode over to Chalmers to deliver an apology to the Olympic champion on behalf of “my fellow journalists” whose coverage of the superstar’s out-of-pool “love triangle” dramas at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games had “made me deeply ashamed”.

Exactly how many “fellow journalists” Trioli had consulted before offering her collective apology on their behalf remains unclear. But there are many other members of the press who would argue that journalists have an obligation to report on personal dynamics within a high-profile team – be it a sports squad, or a political party – because there is a fair degree of public interest in the human element of stories, regardless of whether the details are uplifting or somewhat messy.

In her ‘analysis’ piece for ABC Online on the weekend, Trioli described her almost out-of-body experience when she sighted Chalmers in the terminal – and came dangerously close to looking like the self-appointed moral compass of Australian journalism.

“When I saw Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold-medallist and champion swimmer Kyle Chalmers last weekend in the Sydney Airport lounge I should have had the same reaction I always do when in the presence of our version of a modern god: astonishment battling goofy admiration, all the while trying not to stare,” Trioli recalled. “But not this time. This time I was battling a rising sense of outrage – and then the strangest feeling of all: a keen desire to somehow make amends.

“Before I even realised what I was doing, I was on my feet in the crowded lounge and was walking across to Chalmers and his small group. I heard my voice come out small and halting: I introduced myself and said I was from the ABC, and even from behind his mask I saw Chalmers’s jaw stiffen. He stepped back a little.

“The words tumbled out of me: ‘I just want to apologise to you on behalf of every other journalist who felt as outraged as I did at your treatment by some of the media in Birmingham: it was just awful that you couldn’t enjoy your amazing achievements and I want you to know that not all of us would have done that to you.’

“Chalmers blinked, and then managed half a rueful smile, almost managing to hide his anxiety that he was being accosted by a raving lunatic. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘it was pretty shitty.’

“I may have blathered on a little more, but Chalmers quietly thanked me, and I returned to my seat. A few minutes later his group gathered their things and made their way to their gate. And no, I didn’t take a selfie of the moment.”

Trioli, who hosts Mornings on ABC Radio Melbourne, went on to bag those reporters who dared to pursue the “love triangle” story, deriding them for doing “the work of a gossip mag”.

Trioli also posted her column on Twitter on the weekend, with the declaration: “I apologised to Kyle Chalmers: a few other journalists should too.”

Perhaps if La Trioli ever runs into Cardinal George Pell, or Christian Porter, or Alan Tudge, or Andrew Laming, she could also apologise to each of them, just as a few other ABC journalists should too.

But I won’t hold my breath if such a situation was to ever occur.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 15, 2022 7:36 am

Scientitians on this august journal of record may be able to provide input into an apparent correlation between relative warmth and Sovereign Citizen-ness.

1. Quenthland nuffy shoots four people, killing three. His property is festooned with misinterpreted ‘case law’ signs declaring ‘trespassers’ are up for $10K, thus endorsing a judicial system he says otherwise doesn’t apply to him. To pass the time he’d starting rooting his widowed stepmother;

2. The anti-vax mandate protests in Darwin were co-opted and thrown off kilter by a collective of SovCit (part) indig anti-system-except-when-it-gives-me-money-and-I-want-more-while-travelling-in-my-conveyance halfwits. The more raucous of these have formed a splinter group because the rest of them weren’t booey enough, and they believe the Lidia Thorpes of this world are too moderate; and

3. Said splinter group is now running for cover while collectively hiding a five year old girl, taken by mummy (a founder of Splitter SovCits NT) during a supervised parental visit. Naturally, they are claiming the girl’s father is an elite and a peddler in the upper echelon of the local child trafficking ring.

Nice movement you’ve got there.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 15, 2022 7:40 am

V for vomitous Trioli – how very skanktimonious of her – who can ever forget the fuss on the flight where her $5,000 dress to be worn to the MidWanker Ball was peasant-handled – I’m afraid to say a female family member has picked up the Trioli fake-lisp

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 15, 2022 7:44 am

Cassie’s linked piece.

Imagine this sentence from the perspective of medieval peasantry, where from time to time retarded pig herders and the like had visions, and their bodies were taken over by mysterious unseen powers and/or deities. Picture the narrator describing the experience in a plague-ridden market square with adjacent shit-filled ditches:

Before I even realised what I was doing, I was on my feet in the crowded lounge and was walking across to Chalmers and his small group. I heard my voice come out small and halting

Joan of Arc-esque. Also, she has X-ray vision:

even from behind his mask I saw Chalmers’s jaw stiffen

Trust me, lady. That all that’s going to stiffen when blokes lay their eyes on your hideous visage.

johanna
johanna
August 15, 2022 7:54 am

Just a reminder of why I have never, never aspired to fame.

Being bailed up by Trioli is a good example.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 15, 2022 7:58 am

Scenario.
Old bag sees good looking rooster in lounge.
Thinks up reason to engage.
Engages.
Then tells everyone the pretend reason she engaged with good looking rooster.
The end.

johanna
johanna
August 15, 2022 8:04 am

BTW, when I lived next to Kings Cross in the 80s, seeing rock stars and actors having a meal or a drink in the local hostelries was not unusual.

I never once saw any of them being approached by other diners/drinkers. People looked, sure, but privacy was respected. The burly guys at the next table wearing Cold Chisel T shirts may have contributed.

Of course, no-one had mobile phones to take ‘selfies’ to be then transmitted as a status symbol.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 15, 2022 8:06 am

One for the Catictionary Tinta. Skanktimonious, 1. Media whore. Alt. spelling, Skanktamoanious, 2. Complaining about others who do what you do.

sfw
sfw
August 15, 2022 8:09 am

Sinatra maybe owed an apology.

“They keep chasing after us. We have to run all day long. They’re parasites who take everything and give nothing. And as for the broads who work for the press, they’re the hookers of the press. I might offer them a buck and a half, I’m not sure.”

calli
calli
August 15, 2022 8:15 am

Trioli is a Woman of a Certain Age. She has discovered that, bit by bit, she is becoming invisible.

Some of us relish our new found super power. Observing humanity unobserved is one advantage, but there are many others.

Narcissists struggle though.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 15, 2022 8:20 am

I used to get taken for a famous actor when my face was a bit thinner. The resemblance was fleeting but didn’t stop Australian actors giving me the nod wanting to approach. Ignoring them made me smile inside. A couple approached my wife in Nagasaki at the Thomas Glover Gardens to inquire. Some people might find it exciting, it filled me with dread. I appeared in a TV program once. Never watched it. Literally 5 minutes of fame. Where’s my 10 minutes I’m owed?

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
August 15, 2022 8:21 am

Struth, me and some others are now going to say, TOLD YOU SO!

Sometimes the most important changes happen with most people not noticing.

That’s because the media and newsmakers choose to ignore the change because it contradicts their previous statements and makes them look foolish.

That fear of public humiliation is the only rationale for the lack of promotion of the new public health guidance issued in regard to COVID-19.

The US based Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have quietly changed virtually everything they spent two years telling the world about COVID.

The real problem now is that most people will quickly forget how our society became an authoritarian ‘papers please’ state.

https://www.corybernardi.com.au/posts/they-got-it-wrong/

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
August 15, 2022 8:23 am

Trioli also posted her column on Twitter .’…and you know ..so many muscles, swoon.’

calli
calli
August 15, 2022 8:25 am

Big Nambas, with all due respect, the CDC’s soft shoe shuffle was noted here a day or two ago by commenters, including myself.

No need for an “I told you so”. 😀

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 8:26 am

Da civility.

Ex Ohio court mediator arrested, accused of sending poop in mail to Republicans!

From the Beanie.

https://youtu.be/0kFkAjzTtIU

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 8:31 am

Innumerate ignorance rools OK! That sentence tells us exactly nothing about the Indian economy, or how much it has changed in absolute or relative terms.

True, well spotted.

If they grow significantly with their low income and massive population, they won’t be using renewables!

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
August 15, 2022 8:31 am

Celerity lookalikes. I had a work colleague who looked like Ian Hewistson, you know fat chef, big moustache, wore braces for his pants, made fish and chips a thing big in the 90s. Anyway said colleague was continually approached for his autograph and he politely let people know they had made a mistake. He felt sorry for these people as they were automatically embarrassed in public. After a while he gave up and started signing autographs. When pestered even provided a recipe or two.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 15, 2022 8:32 am

Labor examining how to accept more Afghan migrants
Sam King
SAM KING

A year after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, immigration minister Andrew Giles said the government is examining ways to accept more humanitarian migrants.

“We’re exploring other visa pathways for people from Afghanistan and there are a number of other pathways in addition to those 31,500 places, which could be available as well,” he told ABC Radio National.

“This year 1100 permanent visas have been issued, and of course, we are working our way through an extraordinary demand for places.

“This is quite an overwhelming situation, but it’s vital that we (are) not be overwhelmed by our response to it.”

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 15, 2022 8:32 am

CCP having the very best time ‘worrying’ about the parlous state of US democracy:

Trump’s legal jeopardy could ‘misguide US midterm elections’ into partisan conflict rather than solving urgent economic problems

Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday that this is another proof of the catastrophe of US democracy. “We all know neither Democrats nor Republicans can effectively respond the US people’s demands over the economy and livelihoods, but some still believe that maybe they could at least focus the discussion on economic matters during the election. Now, Trump’s case will make the partisan struggle dominate the election, and the US is actually offering the voters only two choices – the incompetent and the guilty.”

And then happily speculating on the prospect of Civil War 2.0 – apparently to be sparked by Steven Crowder, no less.

A Golden Fortune gift for Emperor Xi’s third term.

Amurka is failing because weak partisan leadership. Don’t be like Amurka.

Indolent
Indolent
August 15, 2022 8:34 am
m0nty
August 15, 2022 8:36 am

Looking forward to Cats making even dumber arguments today than they did yesterday. Trump disbanded the FBI before he left office through the power of his mentation! Actually he crossed out the words TOP SECRET on all the nuclear documents with a Sharpie so barley cross fingers no backsies!!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 8:37 am

Thanks Tom,

I like Morten Morland as I am a fan of Salvor Dali and have a similar style painting Tempus Fugit by an Australian Artist

Roger
Roger
August 15, 2022 8:42 am

“We’re exploring other visa pathways for people from Afghanistan and there are a number of other pathways in addition to those 31,500 places, which could be available as well,” he told ABC Radio National.

They have 100 000 applications in their system & another 100 000 awaiting electronic registration.

flyingduk
flyingduk
August 15, 2022 8:44 am

From Natural News:

960 VIEWS August 14, 2022 – News Editors With 1 in 5 kids now obese, Pharma sets sights on $50B market for weight-loss drugs

we have seen this movie before – statins, oral hypoglycaemics, antihypertensives….
‘Big food’ make you fat and sick, and ‘Big pharma’ sells you pills for life.

johanna
johanna
August 15, 2022 8:45 am

calli says:
August 15, 2022 at 8:15 am

Trioli is a Woman of a Certain Age. She has discovered that, bit by bit, she is becoming invisible.

Le Carre, that brilliant observer of human nature, spotted it.

In The Honourable Schoolboy, he mentions that the widowed (and impoverished) Lady Westerby is, “snappish, like many old beauties.”

I am an old beauty, not 10/10, but a solid 8. Luckily, I never cared about it, never wore makeup, took it all for granted. I was very slow in understanding the advantages of it – very slow. Now that I am old, while I of course would like to look like that again, I am reconciled to the inevitable, and certainly don’t get snappish about it.

I do hope we don’t have to go through La Trioli’s menopause, frame by frame. At our expense.

But somehow, I sense that we will. 🙁

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 8:45 am

m0nty says:
August 15, 2022 at 8:36 am
Looking forward to Cats making even dumber arguments today than they did yesterday. Trump disbanded the FBI before he left office through the power of his mentation! Actually he crossed out the words TOP SECRET on all the nuclear documents with a Sharpie so barley cross fingers no backsies!!

You were taunted yesterday that you were too low IQ to even search for the declassification of the Crossfire Hurricane documents.

Just remember every time you rant about Trump you are throwing Hillary under the bus.

Now back to the nuclear documents, which could not be specified on the warrant (and the FBI refuse to release the supporting affidavit)?

Unhinged, repetitive and obedient.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 15, 2022 8:46 am

How many rakes today?

sfw
sfw
August 15, 2022 8:51 am
Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 15, 2022 8:52 am

Fair Shakesays:
August 15, 2022 at 6:56 am
Herald Sun …

Baldwin ‘pulled trigger’: FBI report on Rust death
A bombshell FBI report has concluded that Alec Baldwin did pull the trigger that fired a live bullet at Halyna Hutchins, killing her, despite the actor’s denial.

Guns don’t kill people, actors kill people.

What’s wrong with these people? As a primary school kid, before the very first time my mates and I were allowed to fire an air rifle, it was drummed into us NEVER to point any sort of firearm at anyone – doesn’t matter if it’s unloaded, nothing matters, just don’t, and if we ever did we’d never be allowed even to hold any sort of firearm again. As for pulling the trigger while it’s pointed at someone…
But Alec’s an expert on firearms. He said so many times.

Roger
Roger
August 15, 2022 8:53 am

The ABC reports that statisticians and actuaries in Australia, the UK & the US are all pondering the same phenomenon: excess deaths not attributable to covid.

Perhaps shutting down clinics & operating theatres during lockdowns wasn’t such a great idea?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 8:54 am

Polio or Monkeypox: Which Virus Will the Left Use to Save Drop Boxes in November?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) would love to find a new boogie man virus to keep us locked down in November, perhaps to avoid the behind-the-shed beating Democrats know is coming. The question is, which virus will it be?

We have two contenders for now, though I wouldn’t be shocked if the CDC and their comrades at the World Health Organization (WHO) can witch-brew up a few more in the next ten weeks.

Contender #1: Monkeypox
Contender #2: Polio
Contender #3: Dark-horse Viruses

Conjunctivitis: You can’t see the ballot if your eyes are covered in goop.

Prickly heat: If you have time to itch, you have time to b**** — but not to vote.

Rapunzel Syndrome: This malady causes people to eat their own hair. Ballots will be tossed out once you cough up a furball all over them.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome: This illness distorts everything you see. Objects appear to be larger or smaller than they really are. It’s hard to vote when your ballot is 10 feet tall.

We have roughly 10 weeks until the red wave comes to enema the commies out of office. Don’t be surprised if the Democrats unleash waves of killer zombie squirrels.

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 15, 2022 8:55 am

m0ntysays:
August 15, 2022 at 8:36 am

Hi m0nty.
I’m struggling to find your comment where you accede to repeated requests to identify the regulations on which you were basing your comments of 6.09pm last night.
I’m sure you’d never spout off a whole lot of dogmatic assertions without having good grounds for them, so please tell us where we can check those regulations and confirm that you weren’t making up a whole lot of shit.

Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 8:56 am

skanktimonious

Tinta, to use millenialspeak, I am so stealing that.

PS: In a previous life, I worked with Virginia Trioli. She used to be cute, but you wouldn’t touch her with a barge pole. She was a man killer. Her body was her weapon, just like a twenty dollar hooker.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 15, 2022 8:56 am

Sir Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ currently on Amazon best-seller list
Monday, 15 August 2022

Not bad for a March 2008 release!

Michael Smith News.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 15, 2022 8:57 am
Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 15, 2022 8:57 am

It is funny the consider that at some point, ‘thoughts and prayers’ was new. At some point a person formulated that phrase for the first time. Entirely original. At some point it was a new sentiment, whether sincere or part of some political waffle, but people heard it for the first time.

Not boilerplate. Not bromide.

People heard it and understood it.

Wow!

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 8:58 am

LOL

Unhinged

Imagine selling your soul for Hillary Clinton’s now dead political career.

POSTEVERYTHING

(Washington Post op ed blog)

Don’t compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. It belittles Hitler.

By Shalom Auslander

September 13, 2016 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
August 15, 2022 8:59 am

I am a fan of Salvor Dali and have a similar style painting
Do you mean Solver Dalí?

calli
calli
August 15, 2022 9:00 am

Roger, it isn’t so difficult to make the connection, but those in power will deliberately obfuscate and attempt to blind us with neatly crafted words and sexily presented figures.

It was obvious from the get-go that people were suffering and dying due to government edicts, trumpeted by “experts”.

That’s why Moran’s cartoon is so cutting.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 9:01 am

Dot, have a think for a moment as to why the US govt might not want to publish an itemised list of nuclear secrets. You idiot.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 9:05 am

Wally Dalísays:
August 15, 2022 at 8:59 am
I am a fan of Salvor Dali and have a similar style painting
Do you mean Solver Dalí?

Brain to Finger Slip – Salvador Dalí Spanish artist

shatterzzz
August 15, 2022 9:05 am

A year after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, immigration minister Andrew Giles said the government is examining ways to accept more humanitarian migrants.

Why would the TALIBAN be allowing anyone to leave .. shirley given tghat they preach & rule on the basis that their “way” is the only righteous and correct way then allowing folk to disagree and leave is contradictory?

Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 9:06 am

Calli, Bob Moran’s other cartoon was also a ripper, but, now that I’ve changed browsers for the 0400 download, I’m limited to 12 per day.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 15, 2022 9:06 am

FairShake, a small correction. Iain Hewitson made Fush’n’Chups.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 15, 2022 9:06 am

Miserable ghost shakes its chains and gibbers in the darkness.
Luckily the leftist newspaper it helped fund**in Australia is here to interpret its howling noises for posteriority.*

I will be voting yes to establish an Indigenous voice to parliament
Malcolm Turnbull
Despite my previous concerns, the voice as proposed by Anthony Albanese won’t be a third chamber, and it has sufficient public support

Bells one significant cat….
Langton and Calma’s recent report on voice design proposes that parliament will be obliged to refer to the voice legislation which overwhelmingly affects Indigenous Australians.

This could include amendments to the Native Title Act, for example. However, where there is legislation which has a significant or distinctive impact on Indigenous Australians, parliament would be expected to consult with the voice.
Langton and Calma recommend the voice should not be limited on the matters upon which it can offer advice.

“While government has an important role to proactively consider which issues need to be referred to the national voice, this should be informed by what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples view as significant,” they wrote in the final report.

The government would be obliged to explain with respect to every bill whether it was necessary to consult the voice and if so, whether the consultation took place and what form it took.

Any advice received would have to be tabled. The voice would have the right, on its own initiative, to provide advice on any matter which would have to be tabled in parliament.

* Like posterity but of a more feculent nature.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/16/guardian-australian-malcolm-turnbull-media-diversity
**“I was beginning to despair about the state of Australian journalism,” Turnbull writes in A Bigger Picture.

“I wasn’t especially concerned about the political slant of one outlet or another, but more about the fact that newsrooms were shrinking and editorial standards were dropping to the loopy standards of the twittersphere. Gina Rinehart was threatening to buy Fairfaxno doubt so that its newspapers could emulate her own ultra-rightwing views.

“In June 2012, I suggested to Alan Rusbridger, editor of the UK’s Guardian, that he should establish an Australian edition. For a modest cost, he could start a digital-only edition. That would provide a good base from which to build. Alan was interested. We exchanged some rough numbers and he concluded he’d need $20m of underwriting for three years – if it couldn’t get to break-even in that time, it never would.

“Given my political role, I could hardly participate myself, but I thought I knew someone who would. Graeme Wood had made hundreds of millions of dollars from an online travel booking business called Wotif. He was on the political left and had been generous in the past to the Greens. He’d also recently funded a progressive free online newspaper called the Global Mail. It wasn’t going to make it. So, I suggested to Graeme he drop the Global Mail and instead use his fortune to bankroll an Australian edition of the Guardian.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 15, 2022 9:07 am

Jacinda Ardern’s approval rating as New Zealand Prime Minister has slipped to its lowest level, a new political poll shows – with experts predicting she will have a tough time remaining in power.

Daily Mail

H B Bear
H B Bear
August 15, 2022 9:07 am

Teh Paywallian Media Diary on a Monday is usually an enjoyable insight into the world of that poor sod, the J’ismist, their fragile egos and petty foibles. This week details the ratings for Channel 10’s morning news – 44 people in one instance and zero in Perth. As ratings are now captured by electronic box and not reliant on the old paper diaries we can be fairly sure these figures are accurate. Channel 10 – so much fail.

Zipster
Zipster
August 15, 2022 9:10 am

Jacinda Ardern’s approval rating as New Zealand Prime Minister has slipped to its lowest level, a new political poll shows – with experts predicting she will have a tough time remaining in power.

Sheep want voting rights now!

Roger
Roger
August 15, 2022 9:10 am

That’s why Moran’s cartoon is so cutting.

Cutting…heh!

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 15, 2022 9:11 am

“Looking forward to Cats making even dumber arguments today than they did yesterday”

Relax, m0nty-fa, your record as Rakemeister is safe.

No matter how dumb the arguments we might (but probably won’t) make, we have absolute confidence that yours will be far, far, dumber.

Roger
Roger
August 15, 2022 9:11 am

Jacinda Ardern’s approval rating as New Zealand Prime Minister has slipped to its lowest level, a new political poll shows – with experts predicting she will have a tough time remaining in power.

Misogyny!

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 9:12 am

Dot, have a think for a moment as to why the US govt might not want to publish an itemised list of nuclear secrets. You idiot.

???

I’ll guess.

Because like with the Carter Page FISA documents, they’re lying.

They just need to say what the documents (if they exist at all) relate to, e.g., “thermonuclear device design”. They don’t need to outline how they work, which the Federation of Concerned American Scientists already did in the 1980s for example because, Andropov good, Reagan bad!

Look monty there’s a few hundred good pet leftists you can execute before Trump – while his years long trial and appeals go on.

flyingduk
flyingduk
August 15, 2022 9:13 am

I will be voting yes to establish an Indigenous voice to parliament –
Malcolm Turnbull

I wouldn’t mind one myself – given the refusal of both my state and federal MPs to meet with my to discuss their COVID mandates!

Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 9:14 am

This week details the ratings for Channel 10’s morning news – 44 people in one instance and zero in Perth.

Humphrey, the Ten Network is CBS’s offshore tax dodge. It doesn’t even have a program director. It is not a serious network, but it’s is useful to CBS’s New York accountants.

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 15, 2022 9:15 am

m0ntysays:
August 15, 2022 at 9:01 am

Hi m0nty, I’m sure you’re just catching up on your reading of past comments, and any second now you’ll identify the regulations on which you were basing your comments of 6.09pm last night, thus refuting the idea that those comments prove you to be a fat shiteating fuckhead.

calli
calli
August 15, 2022 9:15 am

Cutting…heh!

Chuckle. I’ve saved it to Favourites, for whenever the word “Experts” appears.

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 15, 2022 9:16 am

Tom

“In a previous life, I worked with Virginia Trioli. She used to be cute, but you wouldn’t touch her with a barge pole. She was a man killer. Her body was her weapon, just like a twenty dollar hooker.”

Like a woman where I first started work. My boss commented that she had round heels, and was researching a book on ceilings.

I got the hint. Nice looker though (for a blond).

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 15, 2022 9:16 am

Zulu.. this book on Bligh is worth a read:

Thanks Top Ender – I’ll bag a copy. Blame my parents, taking me to see Trevor Howard in “Mutiny on the Bounty” all those years ago…

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 9:17 am

My boss commented that she had round heels, and was researching a book on ceilings.

Much like Granville’s mother.

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
August 15, 2022 9:20 am

calli says:
August 15, 2022 at 8:25 am

Big Nambas, with all due respect, the CDC’s soft shoe shuffle was noted here a day or two ago by commenters, including myself.

No need for an “I told you so”. ?

Yes I have read the comments here, I was not saying the CDC change was ignored here. I was pointing to Bernardi’s excellent blog.
After not getting the jab and after two years of posting here and elsewhere on the evils of spike protein poison, you bet I’m going to shout “TOLD YOU SO”

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 15, 2022 9:20 am

Actually he crossed out the words TOP SECRET on all the nuclear documents with a Sharpie so barley cross fingers no backsies!!

It’s interesting that the commentariat is busily inventing bureaucratic processes that POTUS45 should have gone through to declassify documents in his control.

Personally I have no real idea about the business of security clearances; but I am old enough to remember the Great Treason of 2017 – where Trump revealed security details about Islamic terrorism to Russian Foreign Minister, Lavrov.

In all the media hooting, the one thing that was agreed (even by harsh critics) was that POTUS Trump, as Commander in Chief, had the constitutional right to declassify pretty much anything, in whatever way he saw fit.

It was widely agreed that Trump was reckless in paperwork and security – and widely grieved that this wasn’t illegal.

(As I recall the grey area was around the 1950’s handling of nuclear technology and a missing Roosevelt document. I could be wrong, but I certainly can’t be arsed to trawl the Interwebs.)

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 15, 2022 9:20 am

m0nty-fa

“Dot, have a think for a moment as to why the US govt might not want to publish an itemised list of nuclear secrets. You idiot.”

You would have been astonished by the amount of nuclear and strategic missile data published in the 1970-80s. Much of it disinformation.

You idiot.

Roger
Roger
August 15, 2022 9:22 am

Humphrey, the Ten Network is CBS’s offshore tax dodge. It doesn’t even have a program director. It is not a serious network…

You mean to say they were having a laugh when they appointed PvO political editor?

P
P
August 15, 2022 9:24 am

Today is the feast of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

On August 15, 1483, Pope Sixtus IV consecrated the Sistine Chapel to Our Lady of the Assumption. Today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, let’s take a closer look at this historic chapel.

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Vatican City, it is known for its magnificently frescoed ceilings, but it also serves an important function as the place where the cardinals meet to elect a new pope. Here are five things to know:

CNA Link

m0nty
August 15, 2022 9:25 am

Ah good, I see Dot is in the bargaining phase. Progress!

P
P
August 15, 2022 9:27 am

Today is the 77th Anniversary of VJ Day.

Sydney – Home of the British Pacific Fleet

m0nty
August 15, 2022 9:28 am

Ah I see, so today’s talking point is “actually it’s okay to give nuclear secrets to the Saudis or whoever, cos everyone knows them already”. Yep, another dumbarse line of bullshit.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 15, 2022 9:30 am

Thats not funny….

Jerry Sadowitz had his show cancelled at the Edinburgh fringe because its content was “extreme in its racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny,” promoters have said.

If hed just said “trump’ instead of tranny all would have been well.
On Sunday the Pleasance said: “Due to numerous complaints, we became immediately aware of content that was considered, among other things, extreme in its racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny. We will not associate with content which attacks people’s dignity, and the language used on stage was, in our view, completely unacceptable.

“A large number of people walked out of Jerry Sadowitz’s show as they felt uncomfortable and unsafe to remain in the venue. We have received an unprecedented number of complaints that could not be ignored and we had a duty to respond. The subsequent abuse directed to our teams is also equally unacceptable.”
….

In Canada, after he opened his show with the greeting “Hello moose-fuckers,” someone got on stage and knocked him unconscious. Before the punch, he told the audience: “I’ll tell you why I hate Canada – half of you speak French and the other half let them!”

Eddie Murphy smiles from the 80’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGQMpi-uOkI

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 9:31 am

No monty, it means if you are bloodthirsty, you need to buy hundreds of doses of potassium chloride, not a couple.

The affidavit won’t be willingly released, because it’s bullshit.

If Trump did anything wrong, the leakers have also breached the national security act. By the standards you demand, they need to be punished as well.

Claiming the leaks are precisely specific to what is legal is on par with CCP gaslighting.

You are a gullible stooge.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 15, 2022 9:33 am

Celerity lookalikes.

Had me pondering that one since it is followed up with a tale of someone corpulent.

Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 9:33 am

You mean to say they were having a laugh when they appointed PvO political editor?

Roger, Ten is chasing the milennial demographic, which is commercial suicide. To make money in TV, you have to be strong in the 25-54 demographic dominated by Seven and Nein.

The Ten Network is exactly where you’d park your tax dodge, confident it would never make money.

calli
calli
August 15, 2022 9:33 am

Off to Stitch n’ Bitch. Have fun with another day of verballing and jazz handing.

The Pat Cross cartoon explains what happened in a simple drawing. Many…many words won’t change or excuse it.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 9:34 am

Using Familiar Leaks, the New York Times Frames the Case Against President Trump 4.0

August 14, 2022 | sundance

State Dept use CNN. CIA/IC use Washington Post. DOJ/FBI use New York Times/Politico. These are the constants in an ever evolving, ever changing, yet always consistent narrative engineering roadmap.

That’s essentially the nub of the current DOJ/FBI effort to target/remove President Trump.

According to the narrative, President Trump isn’t allowed to have any records of his administration. So goes the origin of the targeting. All other presidents are permitted to have documents, but not Trump. Trump bad. All others, good.

…”the footage showed that, after one instance in which Justice Department officials were in contact with Mr. Trump’s team, boxes were moved in and out of the room.” Yeah, well, kind of hard to respond to whatever they wanted, without actually touching or moving the boxes; but ignore that… we need to make it suspicious or something.

NBC Legal Analyst Barb McQuade showcases the current DOJ plan as outlined by the Lawfare crew

Brilliant tactical move by DOJ on selecting statutes for the search. None of the crimes cited require the documents to be classified. Any claim by Trump that he declassified the documents is irrelevant. I’ll discuss at 7 am ET on
@MSNBC

To anyone concerned, I would simply say ‘relax‘. Be angry, but not despondent.

The effort is as much intended to wear YOUR psyche down as it is to attack Trump. Remember the Alinsky strategy: Ridicule, Isolate, Marginalize… This is the essential goal of political lawfare.

Yes, political lawfare is corrupt, horrible and infuriating. However, at the end of the day it is based on weak arguments and fear.

The problem they face against Trump is simple. In 2020 President Trump earned 75 million votes in the election. 75 million. How can they duplicate the election fraud to defeat 75 million voters, without the benefit of covid mail-in ballots?

That’s their problem. They cannot defeat him or us.

They must remove President Trump because he/we represent an existential threat.

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 9:34 am

Boambee

Do you think the FAS documentation on the W87 and W88 is actually disinformation?

I thought the quip was nuke bomb science wasn’t super hard, but the engineering to make it work had to be world class and extremely precise.

H B Bear
H B Bear
August 15, 2022 9:35 am

Don’t upset the trannies.

Hugh
Hugh
August 15, 2022 9:37 am

Timothy Neilson:
August 15, 2022 at 8:52 am

What’s wrong with these people? As a primary school kid, before the very first time my mates and I were allowed to fire an air rifle, it was drummed into us NEVER to point any sort of firearm at anyone – doesn’t matter if it’s unloaded, nothing matters, just don’t, and if we ever did we’d never be allowed even to hold any sort of firearm again. As for pulling the trigger while it’s pointed at someone…

Exactly right.
Firearm safety 101.
First thing you learn.
Common fucking sense if you are not a Hollyweird douche bag with your head up your arse.

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 9:37 am

Well, it’s been about a week and Trump hasn’t been charged with anything.

This is so highly unusual you can call it as a hit job with the intent only to smear, any charges are a “bonus”.

As cohenite keeps on saying, the warrant is such a blank cheque.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 15, 2022 9:37 am

Ah I see, so today’s talking point is “actually it’s okay to give nuclear secrets to the Saudis or whoever, cos everyone knows them already”. Yep, another dumbarse line of bullshit.

Said by no-one except the sugar trolls in montys bloodstream.

H B Bear
H B Bear
August 15, 2022 9:38 am

Gillon McPolo-Pony the latest person to be dudded by Channel 10. All those zeros were well, zero.

Roger
Roger
August 15, 2022 9:39 am

Roger, Ten is chasing the milennial demographic, which is commercial suicide.

And PvO is a TV execs idea of a millenial’s idea of a newsman with gravitas.

Chuckle.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 9:39 am

It is Official, Jill Biden’s Wardrobe Consultant is Kamala Harris’ Speechwriter

August 14, 2022 | sundance

There is no other reasonable explanation that makes sense. Jill Biden’s wardrobe consultant/clothier must also be Kamala Harris’ speechwriter.

H B Bear
H B Bear
August 15, 2022 9:40 am

I s’pose he got some FF points.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 15, 2022 9:40 am

I will be voting yes to establish an Indigenous voice to parliament
Malcolm Turnbull
Despite my previous concerns, the voice as proposed by Anthony Albanese won’t be a third chamber, and it has sufficient public support

Trumble is in an elite league of people who have an absolute flawless and immaculate record when it comes to reading the public, utterly unblemished by a single moment of reading it right.

His words have made me feel a little better about the world.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 15, 2022 9:41 am

Sub-Mong describes the opening salvos of WW3 while congratulating themselves on their strategic nous…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/14/putin-war-europe-ukraine-west
But Biden’s cautious determination to avoid head-on confrontation at all costs means that while Russia may not ultimately win, it is unlikely to definitively lose. The war resembles a simmering saucepan that never quite comes to the boil.

It might have been very different, had western politicians found the courage to actively take Ukraine’s side in February-March. The chaotic initial Russian drive for Kyiv left large troop convoys vulnerable to air attack. A convincing display of Pentagon-style “shock and awe”, just as Putin was anticipating quick, easy victory, could have stopped the entire invasion in its tracks.

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 15, 2022 9:46 am

m0ntysays:
August 15, 2022 at 9:25 am

m0nty, you need to speak to dover about the site.
All those times you’ve tried to post info about the regulations on which you were basing your comments of 6.09pm last night, it’s been eaten by the spaminator.
That’s very unfortunate, because someone who doesn’t know that you’ve always got good grounds for all your comments might think that you’re a fat dissembling imbecile who’s nothing but a fit object for jeering hooting ridicule.

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 15, 2022 9:47 am

“Ah I see, so today’s talking point is “actually it’s okay to give nuclear secrets to the Saudis or whoever, cos everyone knows them already”.

Apparently it was OK to give missile re-entry vehicle technology to the Chinese in the 1990s, cos everyone knew them already.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
August 15, 2022 9:47 am

Like the Pissarro.
If anyone has some old ones in the backroom that they don’t want, I am happy to take them off your hands.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 9:51 am

Australian Daily Wind Power Generation Data – Wednesday 10 August 2022

I’ll explain that anomaly you plainly see a little further down.

Wind generation was higher on this day than it was on the day before, and the average for this day of 4392MW gave wind generation a daily operational Capacity Factor of 44.6%, and that was fourteen percent higher than the year round average. Wind was in a rising phase heading towards its high for the day at the usual time of the evening Peak of maximum power consumption, and at that time, wind was delivering 17.5% of all the generated power from every source. That dip meant there was a deep low for the day, and that accentuated the difference between the low for the day and the high, and on this day, that gap was a very large 4628MW.

Okay, back to that dip you see on the upper graph for wind generation, and here I have added the time indicator at 1.35PM, and going back across the page to the left side vertical axis, you can see that just as the huge power loss started, the total from wind generation was 4122MW. Over the next 15 minutes, to that first step, wind generation lost 1836MW, and to the bottom of the dip, after 45 minutes, the total power loss from wind was 2636MW.

However, that’s only part of the loss. On the image at right, I have added the solar plants, the red colour. (not rooftop solar, just the large scale solar power plants) For some reason I cannot find anywhere, these two major renewable power sources failed. It was a not a failure in just the one area as wind plants in all the States were affected, and that was the same for the solar plants as well. You can see that failure time point here as well, same time, 13.35PM, and both renewables dropped 3600MW in that first 15 minutes and then 4700MW in 50 minutes, and it took another hour for them both to recover. The total duration of that power loss was just under two hours.

So, okay then, what happened as this pretty catastrophic loss of power, and while it may not seem all that much when you look at these bland graphs, that loss was almost 17% of all power being consumed in Australia at that time.

Well, as is always the case, the ‘first responder’ was the power generating source which can deliver its power at extremely short notice, and that is hydro power, and again, that proved to be the case again. See the image at right, well this is for all hydro power plants in that same coverage area where all the wind and solar plants failed. Again I have added the time indicator at the same time, 1.35PM, and the graph is larger in depth as I have only ticked the boxes of the power plants which ‘came to the rescue’ here. There were only three hydro power plants involved in this recovery, Tumut Three, Upper Tumut, and Murray One and Two, which are always listed at just Murray. All these three plants are part of the Snowy Hydro Electric Scheme in the Snowy Mountains on the border of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria. Tumut Three is a pumped hydro plant, Upper Tumut is two underground power stations also on the Tumut River, and the two Murray plants are further South on the Murray River. In all, there are 24 small hydro generators at these plants, and not all of them were needed at this time, just enough to cover the major loss at the time, and keep in mind here, that as the downslope of the loss was taking place, then the upslope of power delivery from these hydro Units was taking place at the same rate, wind and solar down, and hydro up.

However, look at what happened here when we had this failure of wind and solar power. Now, while that usual first responder was hydro, look at the graph at right, and this is for coal fired power in two States NSW and Queensland. Now, because The scale is different (because there is a huge amount of coal fired power compared to wind, solar and hydro) then that rise seems to look so much smaller. Also here, I have added the same time indicator at 1.35PM, and those 37 Units at all those coal fired plants in the two States, well all of them immediately ramped up just a little bit extra from each one and in the next ten minutes, they were delivering an extra 600MW into the grid to help with that recovery, as you can see from that small spike.

So, while hydro came to the immediate rescue, it seems that those ancient unreliable useless coal fired plants also assisted in the recovery of the failure of wind and solar. Sort of like the opposite to what you are being told, eh!

johanna
johanna
August 15, 2022 9:53 am

Booked a phone appointment with my GP today to find that all the doctors at the Grab n Go clinic now charge over the Medicare rebate.

Now, I wouldn’t mind that if it was for proper medical reasons.

But, the health dept pricks have also decreed that the arthritis medication I will need for the rest of my life can only be doled out in monthly doses, apparently because I and the rest of us old dodderers might sell our pain relief pills at the pub. So, 13 times a year we have to pay to get a script renewal, not to mention wasting the time of our GP and public money for the consultation. Times that by hundreds of thousands.

Money and common sense is no object when the health fascists are in charge.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 9:57 am

Tim N, I am not arguing from authority. But neither are any of you. Zatara in particular comes in all hot intimating that he’s a spook from way back so shut up, but he’s just running the same bullshit that the rest of you are.

That’s the thing about bullshit: it may be true, it may not, who among us random dweebs on the Internet really knows, but you don’t care about credibility or the truth so you run with it anyway because it temporarily bolsters your argument.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 10:01 am

The Crossfire Hurricane declassification memo is a good example from upthread. Trump hereby declared that all documents relating to the investigation were declassified with no redactions. And yet here we are, years later, and the documents remain stubbornly classified. How is that possible, if POTUS has divine magical powers to declassify through the power of his humongously smooth brain?

Trump’s lackeys can claim that actually they were declassified instantly in the very moment that the President had the thought that they should be, but that hasn’t been tested in court so anyone who claims that is just bullshitting.

And in any case the law that was cited in the warrant that Trump potentially broke does not rely on the documents being classified, so this discussion is all moot anyway.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 15, 2022 10:04 am

It is Official, Jill Biden’s Wardrobe Consultant is Kamala Harris’ Speechwriter

I remember after Biden raised his hand and swore to do words he didn’t understand at his swearing in, there was a photo of Jill walking somewhere in a cocktail dress and some newspaper MSM drone gushed like a smashed sewer pipe about how glamour and sophistication had returned to the White House.

After Melania, whom we are meant to believe did not dress well.

And, presumably, the previous candidate for glamour in the white house was…Michelle Obama.

I suppose for beta males Melania probably just seemed too much. They knew they had nothing to offer, nothing that would make them needed, so they hated her.

On the other hand, the scowling behemoth and the current wrinkly senior-abuser need an army of ready scribes to direct people’s attentions away from them manifold ugliness.

Roger
Roger
August 15, 2022 10:07 am

But Biden’s cautious determination to avoid head-on confrontation at all costs means that while Russia may not ultimately win, it is unlikely to definitively lose. The war resembles a simmering saucepan that never quite comes to the boil.

There’s a hard boiled, calculated truth to what he writes.

If you’re going to war, don’t go in half-arsed, because odds are you’ll make it a long drawn out affair that increases everyone’s suffering.

Whether Ukraine is worth the risk is another question.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 15, 2022 10:07 am

Trump’s lackeys can claim that actually they were declassified instantly in the very moment that the President had the thought that they should be, but that hasn’t been tested in court so anyone who claims that is just bullshitting.

By that argument the converse is true.
A deep pond of bullshitting.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 15, 2022 10:07 am

apparently because I and the rest of us old dodderers might sell our pain relief pills at the pub.

Twenty dollars each, so I’m told.

vr
vr
August 15, 2022 10:08 am

My boss commented that she had round heels, and was researching a book on ceilings.

What does this mean?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 10:11 am

johannasays:
August 15, 2022 at 9:53 am
Booked a phone appointment with my GP today to find that all the doctors at the Grab n Go clinic now charge over the Medicare rebate.

Now, I wouldn’t mind that if it was for proper medical reasons.

But, the health dept pricks have also decreed that the arthritis medication I will need for the rest of my life can only be doled out in monthly doses, apparently because I and the rest of us old dodderers might sell our pain relief pills at the pub. So, 13 times a year we have to pay to get a script renewal, not to mention wasting the time of our GP and public money for the consultation. Times that by hundreds of thousands.

johanna,

My Female GP clinic now charges $95 for Consult, which I am happy to pay out of pocket for an excellent GP – Script renewals I just ring reception and as reissue done over phone, cost $30 and faxed to Chemist Warehouse where I keep my scripts – same with extending existing Specialist referrals $30, all done by phone.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
August 15, 2022 10:11 am

Chris Mitchell in the Oz has a brilliant article about Covid experts etc.

The moderators must have actually read it as comments are getting through that previously would never have.

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 10:12 am

That’s the thing about bullshit: it may be true, it may not, who among us random dweebs on the Internet really knows, but you don’t care about credibility or the truth so you run with it anyway because it temporarily bolsters your argument.

That doesn’t cut it for an AFFIDAVIT the DOJ refuses to release, even in a redacted form.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 10:13 am

vrsays:
August 15, 2022 at 10:08 am
My boss commented that she had round heels, and was researching a book on ceilings.

What does this mean?

Heels Up Kamala Harris

m0nty
August 15, 2022 10:13 am

By that argument the converse is true.

Not really, because what Trump’s lickspittles are claiming is a departure from the status quo. No US government document has ever officially been declassified just because the President thinks it. There has always been a process.

Roger
Roger
August 15, 2022 10:14 am

What does this mean?

A woman of easy virtue, vr.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 15, 2022 10:17 am

My boss commented that she had round heels, and was researching a book on ceilings.

I took it as meaning her heels are not compressed from standing very much, and researching a book on ceilings because she spends so much of her time on her back.

I am quite confident I have the latter right*, not as sure about the former.

*Years ago I had a Jewish girlfriend who told me a whole lot of jokes about JAPs – Jewish American Princesses. The ceiling one really stuck in my mind.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
August 15, 2022 10:17 am

Chris Mitchell in the Oz has a brilliant article about Covid experts etc.

Appreciate if someone could copy/paste.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
August 15, 2022 10:18 am

Italic arse about tit

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 15, 2022 10:18 am

Oh, and she was not a JAP. She worked for a living. Robotics or Cybernetics Engineer or something.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 10:21 am

That doesn’t cut it for an AFFIDAVIT the DOJ refuses to release, even in a redacted form.

Republicans are calling for it to be released, but they know the DOJ wouldn’t want to do so because there would likely be too much sensitive national security information in it. Republicans don’t really want it to be released either because it would embarrass Trump, so they are relying on the DOJ to slow-walk it.

They are banging the table because they have nothing else, as lawyers are wont to do.

cohenite
August 15, 2022 10:23 am

thefrollickingmolesays:
August 15, 2022 at 9:06 am
Miserable ghost shakes its chains and gibbers in the darkness.
Luckily the leftist newspaper it helped fund**in Australia is here to interpret its howling noises for posteriority.*

I will be voting yes to establish an Indigenous voice to parliament
Malcolm Turnbull
Despite my previous concerns, the voice as proposed by Anthony Albanese won’t be a third chamber, and it has sufficient public support

Good. The voice is fucked if turdball is advocating for it.

MatrixTransform
MatrixTransform
August 15, 2022 10:24 am

who among us random dweebs on the Internet really knows, but you don’t care about credibility or the truth so you run with it anyway

That’s pretty retarded mUnty

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 15, 2022 10:24 am

Media groupthink obscures truths about Covid deathsChris Mitchell

6:40AM August 15, 2022
345 Comments

Trust the experts, journalists say – ignoring the fact that experts often disagree.

Polarised media have worked out which experts to quote to reinforce the political positioning of different news businesses.

The ABC and Guardian Australia often quote members of the OzSAGE group, that describes itself as “a multidisciplinary network of Australian experts from a broad range of sectors relevant to the wellbeing of the Australian population during and after the Covid-19 pandemic”. It advocates for stronger public health mandates, popular among leftwing journalists for whom resilience is not a virtue and no spending by governments is ever enough.

Why wouldn’t Australians, almost 10 million of whom have now had Covid and recovered quickly, not be sceptical of calls for increasing mask mandates or getting vaccine boosters? The messaging around both has been misleading.

Australians should have been told earlier that vaccination does not prevent infection. They need more exposure to the truth about the side effects of vaccines. This column reported heart disease side effects of mRNA vaccines last July, but this has not received the same level of publicity that the rare side effects of AstraZeneca did earlier last year, largely because AZ became a symbol for journalists and doctors campaigning against the former Coalition government.

Australians should have been told that mask-wearing may be wise in some places but that masks are not a barrier to viruses. Governments need to admit they got a lot wrong in the first two years of the pandemic when people were locked down – golf, fishing and swimming were deemed too dangerous and people were arrested for sitting in public parks.

Some journalists have recently been breathlessly reporting Australia now has the world’s highest Covid mortality rate. Of course Covid case numbers and deaths have risen in our winter.

About 12,600 have died with the virus. Yet our death rate per million people last week sat at 484 since early 2020, compared with more than 3000 in the US and over 2500 in much of Europe. Even New Zealand, lockdown capital of the world, has a higher death rate than Australia, at 489.

Nick Coatsworth, infectious diseases specialist, told ABC radio’s The World Today on Wednesday that our recent higher death rates were because we kept the virus out, with closed borders, for two years. “But unfortunately what that meant is our susceptible population, which is elderly Australians, were not exposed to the virus … so our death rates stayed down. When Omicron … moved through the community those individuals who were susceptible, sadly many of them lost their lives.”

Catherine Bennett, chair of epidemiology at Deakin University in Melbourne, said death rates needed to be understood in a wider context. The age standardised death rate in Australia had fallen in 2020 and 2021 compared with pre-pandemic years because lockdowns and closed borders kept influenza and seasonal colds to a minimum.

“Absolutely we need to understand if there are preventable deaths,” she said. “We need to make sure public health messaging ensures people understand the importance of early testing and treatment pathway options, like antivirals. But it is true that with infection, community wide the most vulnerable people sadly will be affected.

“Yet, compared with most other countries, we did save 20,000 lives in the first two years of the pandemic and extended life for some beyond what would have been expected. Some of what we are seeing now are some delayed deaths, and we need to examine death rates over a three or four-year window.”

Discussing whether people with comorbidities were dying of Covid or with Covid, Coatsworth said that for many people with a life-threatening illness, the eventual cause of death long before Covid came along was always infection. If not Covid, it would have been flu, norovirus or the common cold.

Reflecting on media calls for the return of health mandates, Coatsworth told this column: “I wonder whether the ABC, the Nine papers and the Guardian’s health reporters would have a story to tell without the medical experts behind them. The question becomes what is driving the medical groupthink of the influential medical group OzSAGE.”

OzSAGE members have the ear of many senior journalists, particularly ABC health editor Norman Swan. Many journalists have been calling for a return of mask mandates and big public spending on ventilation.

Said Coatsworth: “Some experts have led us down a path to disunity among medical professionals and uncertainty in the general community. The reason is the people who should be constructing the unified narrative, the chief health officers, have not been getting in front of some of these debates.

“Paul Kelly (federal CMO) tried to get in front of the narrative in January when he said we should not be looking at deaths but at excess deaths. In response to that, Norman Swan and the OzSAGE group absolutely pilloried him. Every time the CMOs try to get in front of the narrative these guys come out and misrepresent the data.

“First it was AstraZeneca which they criticised at a time we should have been making sure it was getting to older Australians. Then they moved to Omicron and instead of reassuring Australians it was a milder variant they moved on to the debate about schools when we should have been entirely focused on aged care, boosters and infection control in aged centres.

“We probably had higher death rates because we were not focused where we should have been.

“Now as Omicron is receding we should be gathering evidence on which interventions actually work – what is the evidence for masks in schools or spending $4.3bn on what these guys call the ‘ventilation revolution’. They have co-opted the left side of politics including the ABC and the Guardian to the idea of a health-economy divide. It’s a false dichotomy because it’s not just about money but about wellbeing, people’s mental health and their human rights.

“Most of the OzSAGE crew believe their interventions have a neutral effect. They are starting from an ideologically motivated position – disease control at any cost. Plus the idea that anyone with a dissenting view in the scientific community is tarnished as a neoliberal even though most would be centre left.”

Coatsworth and Bennett pointed to the negative effect of social media on public health advocacy. Coatsworth wrote last year: “Twitter is the graveyard of nuance, the assassin of good public policy and the enemy of consensus.’’ He was “troubled by the behaviour of some practitioners on social media during the pandemic”. He singled out the Burnet Institute – Burnet is an ABC favourite.

“The Burnet Institute is the perfect example of what we don’t want in a possible Australian version of the US Centres for Disease Control. Either there are sensible voices in that institute who are suppressed by the leadership or they are just subject to an incredible amount of group think. This is a problem because much of the public health firepower that has been going to support Victorian CHO Brett Sutton has come from Burnet.”

Coatsworth and Bennett believe society needs to be more honest about death and the cost of marginal increases in life expectancy.

“The OzSAGE insistence that all deaths are equal and a tragedy and that any other position is ageist is an immature position that very few practitioners share. Most of us realise quality of life is more important than longevity, whether one is talking about deaths from Covid or any other cause,” Coatsworth said.

The Beer whisperer
The Beer whisperer
August 15, 2022 10:24 am

We will not associate with content which attacks people’s dignity

There goes comedy.

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 10:25 am

Republicans are calling for it to be released, but they know the DOJ wouldn’t want to do so because there would likely be too much sensitive

Monty the other day you said the FBI couldn’t even review the seized documents themselves.

So how was the affidavit even written in the first place!?

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 15, 2022 10:28 am

Not really, because what Trump’s lickspittles are claiming is a departure from the status quo.

Well, the one thing we do know from the 2017 imbroglio is that there is no settled declassification process, or rule for a POTUS – thus no ‘status quo’.

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 15, 2022 10:29 am

m0ntysays:
August 15, 2022 at 9:57 am
Tim N, I am not arguing from authority.

Then what grounds did you have for those statements?
[Spoiler alert – zero.]
And yet you’re accusing other people of bullshit.
FMD.

And you even follow it up with…
m0ntysays:
August 15, 2022 at 10:13 am
[By that argument the converse is true.]
Not really, because what Trump’s lickspittles are claiming is a departure from the status quo. No US government document has ever officially been declassified just because the President thinks it. There has always been a process.

How do you know that (a) “there has always been a process” which would make Trump’s actions a “departure from the status quo”, and, in any case, (b) that Trump didn’t put something in writing?
Your whole premise is ridiculous, for all the reasons that have been explained on this thread, and more.

And for further idiocy…
m0ntysays:
August 15, 2022 at 10:01 am
The Crossfire Hurricane declassification memo is a good example from upthread. Trump hereby declared that all documents relating to the investigation were declassified with no redactions. And yet here we are, years later, and the documents remain stubbornly classified.

Hoe do you know? Has that been pronounced upon by a Court? The warrant was for every document from the whole of Trump’s Presidency, and it can hardly be inferred from that that any particular document was or wasn’t declassified. What are your grounds for that assertion?

m0nty, you need a very long spell at a bullshit detox/rehab clinic.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 10:30 am

So how was the affidavit even written in the first place!?

The DOJ and the FBI worked on this together, Dot. Use your brain.

Oh come on
Oh come on
August 15, 2022 10:30 am

How is m0nty’s schooling going? Not well I see.

Now, m0nts. Those regulations and processes regarding how documents are declassified that you mentioned yesterday. Who issues those regulations and processes?

And yet here we are, years later, and the documents remain stubbornly classified

Right, because of physical proximity (or lack thereof) of Trump or an executive branch employee/agent acting on his behalf to the documents Trump ordered declassified. Employees/agents of the executive branch with proximity to the documents simply didn’t follow their boss’s order before his time ran out and a new boss arrived who had no interest in enforcing the old boss’s declassification order. In fact, he very likely rescinded it. This information should help you answer the above question.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
August 15, 2022 10:31 am

Thanks ZK2A

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 15, 2022 10:32 am

m0ntysays:
August 15, 2022 at 10:21 am

Republicans are calling for it to be released, but they know the DOJ wouldn’t want to do so because there would likely be too much sensitive national security information in it.

You’re not very good at all this evidence, fact and logic stuff are you m0nty.

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 10:33 am

The DOJ and the FBI worked on this together, Dot. Use your brain.

No monty. Explain how. Not by waving a magic wand, as you are want to say.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 15, 2022 10:34 am

Maybe he could come over here and run the Libs?

The Liberal Party must become more conservative and assertive to win the next federal election, according to Brexit mastermind Nigel Farage.

The former UK politician turned TV host, who brings his speaking tour to Australia next month, believes Scott Morrison was defeated because the Liberals became too moderate and supportive of a big state.

In an interview with Daily Mail Australia, Mr Farage railed against ‘woke’ culture and warned conservative movements in western democracies must stand firm against attempts by the hard-left to ‘destroy everything our countries have ever stood for’.

Daily Mail

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 15, 2022 10:35 am

Johanna I was prescribed Mobic, chest pain straight away. Back on nurophen with magnesium di hydrate for my stomach lining. Dizzy spells straight away. Take nothing at all now for arthritis and feel better for it.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 15, 2022 10:36 am

Blog has montypox.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 15, 2022 10:37 am

By the way, happy VJ Day everyone!

m0nty
August 15, 2022 10:38 am

Then what grounds did you have for those statements?

Common sense, Tim N. In short supply around here, especially on this topic. It doesn’t take top-level security clearance to figure out most of this stuff. For instance, you can’t operate a national security information classification regime based on the whimsical daydreams of a king; some level of documentation and bureaucracy is required so that the system doesn’t collapse, which would constrain even a president.

How do you know that (a) “there has always been a process” which would make Trump’s actions a “departure from the status quo”, and, in any case, (b) that Trump didn’t put something in writing?

Give me evidence to the contrary, Tim N. GO!!!

Hoe do you know? Has that been pronounced upon by a Court? The warrant was for every document from the whole of Trump’s Presidency, and it can hardly be inferred from that that any particular document was or wasn’t declassified. What are your grounds for that assertion?

Here’s a link for you. It’s from the Washington Examiner, one of your approved news outlets. Key graf:

Trump said at the time he would “accept the redactions proposed for continued classification by the FBI” and ordered the rest of the documents to be declassified and made available by the Justice Department. That hasn’t happened.

Yeah, that hasn’t happened.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 10:40 am

If you want to see how you are tracked try –

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/108821201066287577

the Truth

Truth Social is America’s “Big Tent” social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology.

At the moment, Truth Social is available for U.S. users only, but rest assured, we are working hard to make it available in your country. When Truth Social becomes available for you, we’ll make an announcement. Stay tuned!

Access denied
You do not have access to truthsocial.com.

The site owner may have set restrictions that prevent you from accessing the site.

I am using VPN – quick change to Boston

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Oh great! It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged “attorney-client” material, and also “executive” privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken. By copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken. Thank you!

The point re tracking is fascinating the detail re IP addresses etc when using Australia – thankfully VPN was on

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
August 15, 2022 10:41 am

A good news story – a local High school banned mobile phones at the start of term 1 and much anecdotal evidence has been positive.
Improved behaviour and rising academic marks from many students.
Not a new idea I know but good to see the plan working.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 10:43 am

No monty. Explain how. Not by waving a magic wand, as you are want to say.

Top men (who?) from the DOJ would have written the warrant and the affidavit.

Are you really this dense, Dot?

Morsie
Morsie
August 15, 2022 10:45 am

From the Oz today, it appears that Morrison was minister for nearly everything.So why were we paying the other guys who we thought were the Minister?
Worse than bloody Whitlam

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 15, 2022 10:47 am

The o in m0nty is a zero not a capital o. Signifies IQ. We need to have a sweep for the number of rakes m0nty collects in one day. Prize being the missing arseless chaps. On second thought I would have to read the ramblings of the fat freak. So no, I don’t have the stomach for it.

Jorge
Jorge
August 15, 2022 10:48 am

Orwell on Solver Dali (from sfw’s link):

He grew up in the corrupt world of the nineteen-twenties, when sophistication was immensely widespread and every European capital swarmed with aristocrats and rentiers who had given up sport and politics and taken to patronising the arts. If you threw dead donkeys at people, they threw money back. A phobia for grasshoppers — which a few decades back would merely have provoked a snigger — was now an interesting ‘complex’ which could be profitably exploited. And when that particular world collapsed before the German army, America was waiting. You could even top it all up with religious conversion, moving at one hop and without a shadow of repentance from the fashionable salons of Paris to Abraham’s bosom.

Artists, reality TV stars and social media influencers take note.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
August 15, 2022 10:48 am

‘ventilation revolution’.

A good percentage of these units are not turned on because they blow cold air around the classroom or at a higher setting are noisy.
Another plan that’s shovelled our money into the pockets of importers and Chinese companies.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 10:50 am

Reliable wind and solar are not cheap

By David Wojick

You often hear that wind and solar power are cheaper than burning coal or natural gas, so we will save money by switching. But as the song says, it ain’t necessarily so. In fact it is almost never so. That wind and solar are cheaper is at best a half truth, more like an eighth truth.

Here is the reality you never hear of.

That wind and solar are cheaper is true in one way, but it is a small way. It is also a technical way, with the grand name of the “levelized cost of electricity” or LCOE. Now “levelized” is not a word you hear every day, to say the least. This might tip you off that something is going on.

In fact LCOE, as it is always called, is a simple idea. It is usually calculated (or estimated) for a single electric power generator. This might be a coal or gas fired power plant, or for a wind farm or solar array. You first take the total cost over the entire life of the generator. This includes construction, operation and retirement or disposal. You then divide this cost by all the juice it generates in that lifetime. The answer is the LCOE for that generator.

So LCOE is the cost of making the juice. What levelized means is that the ups and downs over time are not part of it. They are all mashed into a single number.

For the big, utility scale, generators the cost is usually in dollars and the juice in megawatt hours or MWh. An average house uses around one MWh a month. America as a whole uses around 4 billion MWh a year. That is a lot of juice.

Individual generator costs can vary from case to case, making LCOE something of a crude estimate. Below is a recent version of an international assessment, using the lowest numbers.

Note that there are two different kinds of gas fired generator. What is called a simple cycle is basically just a jet engine spinning a generator. These are usually pretty small. Then there is the “combined cycle” power plant where the hot jet exhaust makes steam that drives another generator. Most of our gas fired generation is combined cycle. Simple cycle is used when a boost of power is needed for a short time.

Likewise there are two types of wind generator, depending on where they are. Offshore wind towers are out in the ocean, which makes them expensive. Onshore wind is the familiar multi-tower wind complex on dry land. While Europe has a lot of offshore wind, America has almost none at this point. Several big projects are in the works. We are here just talking about onshore wind, which is relatively cheap.

Estimated average LCOE for various types of power plant in $/MWh.

Coal = $60

Simple cycle gas = $152

Combined cycle gas = $41

Solar = $36

Onshore wind = $29

You can see that solar and (onshore) wind are both cheaper than gas and coal. This is what is meant when people say wind and solar are cheaper. Their LCOE is lower.

However, when used in the grid to power America, wind and solar are far from cheaper. This is the fact that proponents of wind and solar like to ignore, or in many cases do not even know about.

In addition to the LCOE there is the high cost of making wind and solar reliable.

The basic fact is that coal and gas are reliable while wind and solar are not. What this means is that with coal and gas we can generate the electricity when we need it. We can rely on it. Wind and solar only generate when the wind blows strong and the sun shines bright. Since we cannot rely on wind and solar we have to have gas or coal generators standing by, ready to run when wind or solar don’t.

Having gas or coal fired power plants standing by is a big cost that is not included in LCOE. These generators could be supplying the power instead of the wind and solar, which would pay for them, but they are not. They are sitting there waiting to run, which still costs a lot of money. The big cost of these idle plants is part of the cost of wind and solar. It is the cost of reliability.

These idle gas and coal fired plants are not running just to make room for the power coming from the wind and solar generators. The cost of this deliberate idleness has a name in the industry. It is called the “capacity cost” because the amount of power a plant can produce is called its capacity. Since you are paying for the amount of generation needed to backup the wind and solar, that is the capacity cost of the backup.

Capacity cost is the reason that adding wind or solar generation (that must be used) drives up the price of electricity. This is why those States (and countries) with the most wind and solar tend to have very expensive electricity. The more wind and solar you have in the generation mix, the greater the capacity cost. Note that using batteries is not a realistic option, because the cost of backup batteries is far greater than the capacity cost.

In short, wind and solar are only cheaper if you ignore the cost of making them reliable. There is a lot of that going around. Don’t be fooled.

Tom
Tom
August 15, 2022 10:50 am

Media groupthink obscures truths about Covid deaths

Thanks for posting the Chris Mitchell column, ZK2A at 10.24am.

It took a former editor-in-chief of The Australian to pull the mainstream media’s head out of its arse.

The MSM is still behaving as if the internet hasn’t yet been invented and its readers can be treated like mushrooms — kept in the dark and fed on bullshit.

I learn more about the world every day at the Cat than I have for the past decade in the MSM, which has become wall-to-wall disinformation.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 15, 2022 10:53 am

On the devestation of covid.

Got good news today the chap with the terminal lung condition (elderly, basically working to be able to afford life prolonging medications, prognosis 2 years) who got covid a little while back has recovered.

WORST PLAGUE OF JUSTININAN EVER!

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 10:56 am

Top men (who?) from the DOJ would have written the warrant and the affidavit.

Are you really this dense, Dot?

Monty you reckon the same people don’t have Q clearances to examine the seized documents for illegality on behalf of Donald Trump.

None of this makes any sense.

Oh come on
Oh come on
August 15, 2022 10:56 am

Farage is a little behind the times at times. I know his speaking tours of Oz are great cash cows, but a remainer who claims to have underwent a Brexiteer conversion (like Theresa May) is about to become PM of his country. She’s also a not-especially-capable political opportunist (like Theresa May) who will almost certainly be brow-beaten by Brussels into making ridiculous concessions that diametrically oppose the UK’s interests (like Theresa May) unless there is someone there to put some steel in her backbone by threatening her leadership and/or her government’s grip on power, because she wouldn’t want to end up… like Theresa May.

Farage is that someone. No one else has anything close to his track record. He needs to focus 100% on this. It’s far more important than anything else he could do. What happens to the UK matters. Whether a nation like the UK can cut the cord from a hideous globalist monstrosity like the EU is a live question. This is where Farage needs to be. This is where his presence has maximal impact.

There are plenty of prominent voices making the argument against ‘wokeness’ and the threat of leftist extremists tearing down the West who are more persuasive, articulate and knowledgeable about these subjects than Farage. He should leave these matters to them.

Oh come on
Oh come on
August 15, 2022 10:57 am

Who issues the proceeses and procedures for declassifying executive branch documents, m0nty?

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
August 15, 2022 10:57 am

Excess deaths.
Was at the local hardware store yesterday and was chatting with a couple of friends about a recent funeral we all attended.
The young lass serving us piped in and asked if we thought there’d been a lot of deaths recently like she did.
People are noticing.

Oh come on
Oh come on
August 15, 2022 10:58 am

Processes, even.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 15, 2022 10:58 am

Teh webs inform me that after 45 years, Ian Chappell is retiring from crikkit commentary.

Of course, this will result in a deficit of people hearing stories about Ian Chappell.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 11:01 am

None of this makes any sense.

Probably time for you to think about something else, Dot. This stuff is clearly beyond you.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 11:01 am

‘I Have Never Seen Such Idiots!’

A Cypriot taxi driver says the West is sleepwalking into catastrophe

Good morning from the airport in Larnaca, Cyprus. I’m headed back to Vienna after a short trip here. I just had a rather vivid ride to the airport from Limassol in the care of a highly opinionated taxi driver. This man’s views are consonant with those of other Cypriots I’ve talked with this week. I know it’s a Tom Friedman cliche to quote the taxi driver, but as far as I can tell, Americans never hear from people like this — and it’s really important that we do so we are not blindsided by events.

The driver — I didn’t get his name, but for simplicity’s sake, I’ll call him “Kyriaco” — began by telling me that I don’t have to wear a mask in his taxi, but that he has to wear one, because it’s the law. “Idiots,” he said, referring to the government.

“What time is your flight?” he asked. In four hours, I said. I told him I was leaving extra-early because airports in Europe are terrible this summer. He said I wouldn’t have that kind of problem in Larnaca. In Europe, airports fired people during the pandemic, but in Cyprus, the government paid the salaries of airport staff, to keep them on.

We got to talking, as one does, about how things are going in Cyprus. He says the economy in Limassol is really suffering because of the Ukraine war. “We had a lot of Russian business here,” he said. “Now, all those five-star hotels are empty.”

Kyriaco was extremely anxious about the coming winter. He said it won’t be too bad in Cyprus, which doesn’t get very cold, but he said Europe is going to be walloped. “What do you think ordinary people are going to do?” he said. “They won’t be able to pay their power bills, and there might not be power at any price. How are they going to live? What if they lost their jobs because industries can’t get gas, and shut down? What happens to them then?!”

By now his voice was rising.

“I don’t understand the European Union idiots,” he said (if I had to drink a shot for every time he said the word “idiots,” I would be passed out drunk here in the terminal). “They are destroying our own economies to hurt Russia. Do you think they are hurting Russia? No! Only us, the common people. They don’t care. Why we do this? Why we destroy everything for ourselves?”

As we drove, he pointed to a smokestack on top of a hill. Dirty smoke rose from it. “You see that? They are burning dirty oil there for power. They are poisoning the environment. Because of the sanctions, the European Union gave us permission to burn any oil we can find to make electricity. Our government is getting the cheapest oil they can. It’s dirty. The EU gave permission not to use the scrubbers. It’s a war thing. So we are destroying our own environment to punish the Russians. Idiots! I have never seen such idiots!”

“Do you know who is benefiting most from this war?” Kyriaco asked me. “The Americans. You want to hurt Russia, and you don’t care what it does to us.”

I reminded him that European leaders are making these decisions too. Yes, he said, but they are doing what the Americans tell them to do. “You Americans are going to sell us natural gas at high prices this winter,” he grumbled.

I know, I know: he’s a taxi driver, not a credentialed Expert. But you will recall that credentialed Experts led the West into World War I. Credentialed Experts led America into the disaster of the Vietnam War. Credentialed Experts led us into the Iraq War. I have rather more confidence in the instincts of the Cypriot taxi driver than I do in Washington think tanks and the mandarins of Brussels.

“You see?” Kyriaco said. “Why do you take these risks? Why do these idiots risk world war? The US minister, why did she go to Taiwan?” He was talking about Nancy Pelosi. “Do the Americans really think that it is in their interest to provoke the Chinese?”
“I tell you something,” he said. “America used to be so powerful. But it is not so powerful today, not like it was. You have Russia, and China, and India. Not everybody does what America tells them to do. Do you ever think about that?”

Yes, I told him, I do.

“No, not you,” he said. “I mean your government. This Biden, my God. What an idiot!” He slapped the steering wheel. “Listen, my friend, the world is not what it used to be. A lot of people who used to love the Americans don’t do it anymore. People see that you start so many wars, and make life hard for a lot of people. Nobody believes you anymore.”

m0nty
August 15, 2022 11:05 am

Who issues the proceeses and procedures for declassifying executive branch documents, m0nty?

It’s a murky legal area, OCO, as evidenced by the events following the Crossfire Hurrricane declassification memo. It may get to court to be decided by the end of this.

But then again, as I said, this whole argument is a sideshow because the laws that Trump supposedly broke around national security secrets are not reliant on the documents being classified.

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 11:08 am

Monty

Feel free to explain how it works then.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 11:08 am

The Benefits of Australia’s response to Covid

Chaos erupts at Sydney Airport with 150m long queues stretching out the door as travellers fume at having to wait outside in the cold

– Massive queues formed outside Sydney domestic airport on Monday morning
– The security line was 150m long and stretched outside the doors of the terminal
– Sydney Airport tweeted that many security staff had called in sick

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
August 15, 2022 11:08 am

Of course, this will result in a deficit of people hearing stories about Ian Chappell.

I forgive all that for his beautiful put down of the Bandana Man.

“Peter, where is it? I can’t see it,” Chappell said as other panellists wondered aloud what he was referring to.

“The spotlight that you’re always searching for.”

Zyconoclast
Zyconoclast
August 15, 2022 11:08 am

Does this count towards extracaricular activities?

A former Boston public school official who recruited at-risk students into the Latin Kings gang and had the students distribute drugs on campus pleaded guilty to racketeering charges on Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said.

The former official, Shaun Harrison, 63, faces 218 months, or more than 18 years, in prison under the plea agreement, which was made in a case that targeted dozens of members of the Latin Kings. Mr. Harrison is currently serving a prison sentence for trying to kill one of the students, whom he shot in the back of the head at point-blank range.

Mr. Harrison was hired to serve as an academic dean at English High School in Boston in 2015, months before the shooting. He worked with families to help struggling students and ran an anger-management program for 10 boys at the school, using his position to recruit “a number of the at-risk students” into the gang, prosecutors said.

Mr. Harrison, known as “Rev” or “King Rev,” directed the students he recruited to sell marijuana and other drugs, which he provided, at the high school, prosecutors said.

Roger
Roger
August 15, 2022 11:12 am

Orwell on Solver Dali (from sfw’s link):

Picasso said much the same about the 1920s, during which his own work took a surrealist turn.

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 15, 2022 11:14 am

m0ntysays:
August 15, 2022 at 10:38 am
Then what grounds did you have for those statements?

Common sense, Tim N. In short supply around here, especially on this topic.

Rakemeister, let’s re-roll the tape.
m0ntysays:
August 14, 2022 at 6:09 pm

a) you have to tell the bureaucrats that the document is declassified, there is a process, you can’t just zap the bits of paper with your mind powers (you morons);

b) the bits of paper themselves have to be amended so that they are not marked as classified or top secret any more, so that people know what the status of the documents is.

As has been pointed out, (b) is nonsense. Anyone who has been involved in any environment where secrecy/confidentiality obligations exist can understand the sheer impracticality of trying to go round altering every electronic and paper copy of a written communication when the status of the communication changes. Unless you’ve got actual evidence that the US classification system actually purports to operate like that, you’re not exercising “common sense” but mental dwarfism.
As for (a), sometimes regulatory systems operate on the basis that a decision is not effective till written, or communicated, but sometimes they don’t – sometimes a decision is valid when taken and communications/written records are just practical/evidentiary considerations. Again, unless you’ve got actual evidence about US classification systems, you’re not appltying common sense, you’re just bullshitting.

How do you know that (a) “there has always been a process” which would make Trump’s actions a “departure from the status quo”, and, in any case, (b) that Trump didn’t put something in writing?]

Give me evidence to the contrary, Tim N. GO!!!

Poor old mentally defective shiteater. You made the assertion – it’s up to you to prove it, not up to me to prove a negative.

Here’s a link for you. It’s from the Washington Examiner, one of your approved news outlets. Key graf:

Trump said at the time he would “accept the redactions proposed for continued classification by the FBI” and ordered the rest of the documents to be declassified and made available by the Justice Department. That hasn’t happened.

Poor old mentally defective shiteater. That’s talking about documents in the possession of the Justice Department, not documents at Mar a Lago. Poor old halfwit.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 15, 2022 11:14 am

“Peter, where is it? I can’t see it,” Chappell said as other panellists wondered aloud what he was referring to.

“The spotlight that you’re always searching for.”

Yeah, that was a cracker. No comeback forthcoming from FitzSimons.

It almost made up for decades of ‘I remember when we used to….’ ‘Buckle-up pads were better’ and the relative merits of pitch doctoring during the ’73-74 subcontinent tour.

Dot
Dot
August 15, 2022 11:18 am

Chappell used to give incorrect coaching tips to the kids at home.

Useless prick.

He’d probably say Jonty Rhodes was a poor fielder because he didn’t catch the ball the same way Chappell was coached, along with Noah.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 11:24 am

As for (a), sometimes regulatory systems operate on the basis that a decision is not effective till written, or communicated, but sometimes they don’t – sometimes a decision is valid when taken and communications/written records are just practical/evidentiary considerations.

What a load of rubbish.

it’s up to you to prove it, not up to me to prove a negative.

You are the one asserting that things work differently to how the government sees it. You say the bureaucrats’ process is not needed and Trump can retrospectively wave his magic wand… argue that nonsense in court. You say Trump put something in writing… well, produce it.

That’s talking about documents in the possession of the Justice Department, not documents at Mar a Lago.

Trump does not own national security documents just because he nicked them. They are still the property of the government. In particular, he does not get to sell them to the highest bidder.

Winston Smith
August 15, 2022 11:30 am

SFW:
I don’t trust Betfair – I now use Ladbrokes.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 11:31 am

Politico legal expert Renato Mariotti lays it out.

Despite Trump’s insistence that if the government wanted the records back, “all they had to do was ask,” the government repeatedly asked for the records and Trump refused to give them back, giving them only “what he believed they were entitled to.” Although Trump may believe that highly classified defense secrets are his own personal property, or that he could keep Top Secret documents because he informally “declassified” them without following established procedures, it will be difficult to convince jurors that he had a legitimate reason to keep such sensitive national security information at his Florida resort.

While Trump repeatedly evaded criminal liability for acts he committed while in office, in part because the office he held provided him with potential defenses, he is no longer president. And unlike other outside-the-box acts he allegedly engaged in, like ordering that the special counsel who investigated him be fired (which his White House counsel disregarded), or inciting a mob to attack the Capitol, taking classified material and concealing it from the government is a crime that is regularly charged and straightforward to prove. Government employees are charged, convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for doing what Trump did.

m0nty
August 15, 2022 11:32 am

The next graf is also pertinent to today’s discussion:

Trump’s defense appears to be that he “had a standing order” declassifying every document he brought to his residence. While I suspect Trump could find aides willing to testify that this is true, I doubt he disclosed this to the government during their months of negotiations and it is unlikely a jury would find this story convincing. Even if they did, none of the criminal statutes cited by the DOJ in the search warrant require that the documents were classified. While DOJ typically brings those charges only where the material was classified, the underlying materials here are highly classified, including Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information, highly sensitive information that can only be viewed in secure government facilities.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 11:36 am
local oaf
August 15, 2022 11:36 am

Chappell retiring after 45 years, somehow it seems so much longer.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 11:39 am
Winston Smith
August 15, 2022 11:42 am

JC/Monty:

If every hefty American got treated at these drugs’ current prices, the annual market for incretins would be a trillion dollars. Insurers can’t afford that, of course, and access to the new drugs is highly restricted. But there’s plenty of room for prices to come down and still reward Novo and Lilly shareholders. The drugs will be widely used if studies can show they prevent diabetes, heart disease, and other costly ills.

The government caused this weight gain crisis with the Food Pyramid and the constant vilification of the meat/eggs/dairy diet.
Now looming on the horizon is a pharmaceutical ‘cure’ for this problem. One injection for the overweight amongst us. It will cost – as JC estimates – a Trillion dollars. Fair enough, I can see the savings that would accrue by eliminating or vastly reducing all the excess weight caused conditions that plague us since we started being inundated with government advice about what to eat.
So how long before it becomes compulsory for anyone with a BMI >35? or 30?
And what are the side effects?
And how much will it cost?

Nothing our Governments and Leaders are doing is tackling the problems our society faces, and everything they are doing is making them worse.
And every problem we face has its roots in government action or inaction.

Zipster
Zipster
August 15, 2022 11:46 am

Ready to protect #Taiwan -1/5 of total B-2 in Australia !
The image from Planet Labs which was shared on social media by The War Zone indicates that 4 B-2 bombers are currently deployed in Australia.

This is unprecedented since it’s one-fifth of the USAF’s total fleet of 20 B-2s.

The four B-2s in question belong to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, to support a Pacific Air Forces Bomber Task Force. The first two of them had arrived at Amberley on July 10, while the second batch of B-2s arrived on July 12.

While B-2s have been deployed to Australia before, this is the first deployment of the bombers as part of the Bomber Task Force (BTF). The deployment will last until the end of August.

This comes at a time when tensions have risen substantially in Indo-Pacific after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.

In this video Defense Updates analyzes how the US military has sent a message with a B-2 bomber that China cannot ignore ?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 11:55 am

Winston Smithsays:
August 15, 2022 at 11:42 am
JC/Monty:

If every hefty American got treated at these drugs’ current prices, the annual market for incretins would be a trillion dollars. Insurers can’t afford that, of course, and access to the new drugs is highly restricted. But there’s plenty of room for prices to come down and still reward Novo and Lilly shareholders. The drugs will be widely used if studies can show they prevent diabetes, heart disease, and other costly ills.

The government caused this weight gain crisis with the Food Pyramid and the constant vilification of the meat/eggs/dairy diet.

CBS says study shows that climate change is having an effect on childhood obesity

There’s nothing climate change can’t do. We’ve been warned about the waves of “climate refugees” who will surge into Europe once their own countries become too hot to grow food. Meanwhile, American kids are less fit than their parents, and what possible reason could there be other than climate change limiting their outdoor activity?

Today’s children are 30% less aerobically fit than their parents were at their age, a new study found.

The study points to climate change and rising temperatures adversely affecting childhood obesity, as children spend less time exercising outdoors. pic.twitter.com/26WehoLK9I

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) August 13, 2022

The study was published in the esteemed journal “Temperature.”

We actually have to give the host props for noting that maybe it’s technology that’s keeping kids inside and inactive. But that wouldn’t get published in “Temperature.”

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 15, 2022 11:57 am

Community unrest derails Kumanjayi Walker inquest
Amos Aikman
Northern Correspondent
@amosaikman
31 minutes ago August 15, 2022

Community unrest and a “state of high conflict” have derailed plans to hold the first few days of a coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu.

The Aboriginal teenager was fatally shot by Northern Territory policeman Zachary Rolfe in Yuendumu in November 2019 after stabbing the officer with a pair of scissors during an attempted arrest gone wrong. Constable Rolfe controversially was charged with murder but acquitted at a jury trial earlier this year.

The inquest into Walker’s death is due to begin on 5 September expected to run for up to three months. Coroner Elisabeth Armitage decided earlier this year that the first two days would take place in Yuendumu, in response to community requests.

But at a directions hearing in Darwin on Monday, she was told members of Walker’s family had since changed their minds. “The proposal was that the first few days of the inquest in Yuendumu be less formal so that Your Honour could just sit and listen to community members,” counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer told the court.

“Because that would not be formal evidence, community members would not be cross-examined, and it was felt that they could speak freely, and they could speak about how they felt.”

“Recently, counsel assisting has been informed by lawyers for (Walker’s family and the wider community) that their position concerning the commencement of the inquest has changed. They now do not wish for the inquest to start in Yuendumu because of … unrest and difficulties currently being experienced in the community.”

Ms Dwyer said the community was “in a state of high conflict”, and Walker’s family would not feel comfortable having outsiders, including journalists attend.

A lawyer for the NT Police Force said his client was aware of the problems, adding that an initial incident had sparked follow-up incidents and a period of heightened tension.

More to come.

Any of the bush lawyers on this blog help out? Since when was a coronial inquest about “feelings?”

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 15, 2022 12:02 pm

He’d probably say Jonty Rhodes was a poor fielder

By today’ standards, Rhodes would be average or less so. The median skill level accepted for all forms of cricket above D grade park level has skyrocketed.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 12:06 pm

SECURITY AND DOUBLE STANDARDS

Our moral betters have instructed us that to point out double standards of liberalism when it comes to Donald Trump is “whataboutism,” and therefore somehow illegitimate. Whatever. How dare anyone suggest that anything was amiss in the government’s treatment of Hillary Clinton’s private email server and willful destruction of documents and devices.

At least we can have some fun with this. My newest hero on Twitter is someone called Socialist Mop, who offers up this genius piece of work from way back in 2016:

Socialist Mop
@socialistmop

With the FBI’s raid of Trump’s private residence, I wanted to repost a video that I did back in 2016 showing James Comey of the FBI letting Hillary off the hook for mishandling classified info. Insane hypocrisy!

Check out “What Difference Does It Make?”

2dogs
2dogs
August 15, 2022 12:06 pm

I have to say, Monty is making a great argument against becoming a republic here.

The Aussie PM gets an automatic PV, but still has formal processes to go through to declassify. Not like the POTUS’s carte blanche at all.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 15, 2022 12:09 pm

dover0beachsays:
August 15, 2022 at 12:05 pm
Andy Ngô ????
@MrAndyNgo
· 3h
The first known case of human to dog #monkeypox transmission has been documented in medical journal, the Lancet. The dog caught it from its owners, a non-monogamous gay couple in Paris. The greyhound developed an anal ulceration & mucocutaneous lesions. https://thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01487-8/fulltext

Without comment.

Sunday ‘Toon: A Pox on Both Your Bathhouses! Media Denies the Obvious

The real “Don’t Say Gay” is the media bending over backward to deny the obvious. Monkeypox isn’t spreading like a prairie fire through the monogamous non-bathhouse crowd. It’s not infecting vast swaths of the population who don’t attend gay orgies. It is spreading like a San Francisco fog through the gay crowd who, apparently, think that having sex with 15 anonymous men isn’t risky. It turns out, it is. Monkeypox is principally and unrelentingly transmitted through sex and in the vast majority of the case (around 97 percent) gay men who can’t keep their penis in their pants. But just cover up with band-aids and you’ll be fine.

P
P
August 15, 2022 12:14 pm

Cannot put up the link.
Kari Lake is now speaking live on RSBN in Arizona.
Ron DeSantis is coming on next

  1. If a guy with an Indian accent calls to offer solar panels with government incentives and you suggest that you…

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