Candance Owens is getting worse. characterising Dresden as an attack on Christianity? Bizzare. https://twitter.com/emzanotti/status/1782806880886071301?t=R-0B9bUvgy2MNXP5EPDOQQ&s=19
Open Thread – Tues 16 Aug 2022
- Open Thread – Mon 22 April 2024
- Open Thread – Weekend 21 April 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 18 April 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 15 April 2024
- Projects impending
Renewable company ringing around to see if they can find anyone interested in “hosting” a transmission line from their proposed…
Thanks KevinM. At the risk of stretching blog friendship, can someone post the piece by Janet A in the Oz…
L Benson1
L Benson Didn’t work try this.
I don’t give two fucks about Afghanistan or Mogadishu. They’ve got one thing right. Lack of lawyers. What has happened over just the last 2 1/2 years tells me everything about the law. I would use language that I complain about other people using to describe lawyers.
Was the last Ministerial resignation during the Hawke government? Historically
the Poms have done this better in Westminster, at least up to Boris.
Yes, or systemic corruption in a department or a section thereof, for example, that undermined our laws, which a minister ought to have known about because he ought to have asked questions when pertinent information came across his desk.
But in this case, the relevant ministers retained oversight of their departments, not Morrison.
I can check but it will take time.
Do we know that or is it an assumption?
Can someone please explain to me why I should be so upset about Scott Morrison’s bizarre secret hijacking of some of his ministries? Yes, it is unprecedented yet I can’t see how it’s criminal, let alone unconstitutional.
Our constitution is fairly simple and we rely on constitutional conventions for significant parts of government – in the way both government and the Crown operates.
It looks like Morrison has kicked one of the legs out in favour of black letter legalism. And Hurley has gone along for the ride.
Sure this hasn’t shattered the foundations of Australia’s democracy: but it’s yet another ‘bloop’ as a bubble of political convenience emerges from the Canberra morass.
When Morrison’s frolic is ‘socialised’ it will certainly set the precedent for further constitutional excursions.
Be complacent at your peril. You can bet that smart young advisers are eagerly poring over opportunities to skate around convention and score rebound goals.
Quote fail.
Sorry to interrupt……………………………chirp chirp!
They are professional marketeers. Putting cricket flour into the junk food category first is a way to sneak it in and quietly normalize it. People buying junk foods at the supermarket probably aren’t reading the ingredients list too closely, and people eating puffs at parties definitely aren’t.
https://joannenova.com.au/2022/08/eat-crickets-and-stop-droughts/
feelthebern says:
August 16, 2022 at 10:19 am
Narrative on the passports is changing.
The surrogates are changing their messaging in line with it.
It is amazing to watch real time.
NEW: According to a DOJ official, the FBI is NOT in possession of former President Trump’s passports. Trump had accused the FBI of stealing his three passports during the search of his Mar-a-Lago home.
Then
Update: DOJ Says Passports Belonging to Trump Seized by FBI in Mar-a-Lago Raid Have Been Returned
The Justice Department on Monday evening said the three passports belonging to Trump seized by the FBI in last week’s raid of Mar-a-Lago have been returned.
“A Department of Justice official tells me passports belonging to former Pres. Trump are NOT in the possession of the FBI and have been returned.” NBC reported.
Alan Kohler’s brain wasn’t rotted by the climate religion. It was eaten by ideology.
As recently as 20 years ago, Kohler was a respected newspaper editor. But, like 90-99% of journalists, he is also a lefty and leftist ideology can, at any time, turn its adherents into jibbering idiots who believe, for example, in anti-scientific fantasies like “climate change”, driven by the cultural self-hatred of its rich, white, nominally well-educated adherents ashamed of their good fortune.
Small crack in the narrative from Dr Norman “near normal” Swan on their ABCCess this morning.
After denying there could ever possibly be any link between vaccines and cardiac problems in kids the narrative is shifting to “ok, there were, but not a lot of them”….
Lets do an inventory. Im sure Im missing dozens of steps in the unfolding crapfest.
1: This is a deadly plague.
2: Masks are no good
3: Masks are compulsory.
4: We must stay locked up at all costs till a vaccine arrives
5: Vaccine has arrived, you still stay locked down.
6: 75% and your released
7: 90% and your released
8: We will release after you have boosters
9: 2nd booster
10: we will still restrict your movements because of pressure on the health system.
11: No one will be forced to vaccinate
12: No jobs for the filthy unvacced
13: Unvacced to be treated like lepers
14: no one is safe as long as a single unvacced super carrier death machine remains unjabbed.
15: Vaccinations stop the spread
17: Vaccinations dont stop the spread
18 Vaccinations stop you getting the disease
19: vaccinations will stop you getting as sick
20: Vaccinations offer lifetime protection
21: vaccinations might last 3 months.
etc. etc.
But hey, it was all “science’ so the clever people said.
Meme;
seems a tad short, it should be in perpetuity, surely the generational dna trauma just accumulates
The orcs are white and the elves are black.*
Predictably, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Executive Producer Calls Critics Racists (15 Aug)
* I just made that up. On the other hand I’d be totally unsurprised to be correct.
Did this swearing-in of Morrison mean that Hunt wasn’t any longer the Health Minister or only that in the event of Hunt’s incapacitation
The former means that Hunt defrauded taxpayers. Getting paid as Health Minister but not being Health Minister.
Meme;
If Scummo was legit in the minister portfolio magic, why would he keep it secret?
Nothing to fear if it is legit. Declare it.
From Bourne1879’s link earlier, I would encourage you all to read this.
The Time of COVID. A Report by Phillip M. Altman
Basic report is 42 pages, well spaced, so beyond the endurance of most.
Technical but well referenced.
Plus there is this in the foreward:
The wind may be changing.
For those in Brisbane, there is this tomorrow night:
OldOzziesays:
August 16, 2022 at 10:57 am
feelthebern says:
August 16, 2022 at 10:19 am
Narrative on the passports is changing.
The surrogates are changing their messaging in line with it.
It is amazing to watch real time.
Trump Team Drops Email Proving FBI Wrongly Seized Passports After Media, DOJ Attempted to Mislead Public with Spin
“The warrant, which Attorney General Merrick Garland says he approved and was signed by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, did not state that they could take Trump’s passport,” the report noted. “Typically, the government needs a separate court order to seize someone’s passport, even temporarily.”
According to Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, a DOJ official said the former president’s passports were NOT in their possession, one of which presumably would have been a diplomatic passport.
“According to a DOJ official, the FBI is NOT in possession of former President Trump’s passports. Trump had accused the FBI of stealing his three passports during the search of his Mar-a-Lago home,” O’Donnell announced on Monday.
Shortly after Norah’s post, Taylor Budowich, the former president’s communications director, shared an email from Jay Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department’s national security division, confirming that three passports were seized in the raid and that they would be returned to the former president soon.
“We have learned that the filter agents seized three passports belonging to President Trump, two expired and one being his active diplomatic passport. We are returning them, and they will be ready for pick up at WFO at 2 PM today,” the email to Trump’s attorneys read.
Norah O’Donnell amended her initial statement in light of the new information.
We are also learning tonight that if any items not contained in the warrant were retrieved during the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, they will be returned.
After denying there could ever possibly be any link between vaccines and cardiac problems in kids the narrative is shifting to “ok, there were, but not a lot of them”….
Can you imagine how bad the real data must be for this to be conceded?
Townie being a Townie.
The link for tomorrow night:
Q&A PANEL: DOCTORS AGAINST MANDATES T
I see the grub cartoonists, rowe, brown, broehlman are pushing Trump and the nuke bullshit narrative.
I don’t know if this has been mentioned but Kash Patel has observed that another beneficial consequence of the Trump raid is that because it is now an ongoing investigation, what was taken is bound by confidentiality, which means any thing incriminating about biden, obama and the rest of the bastards cannot be publicised. Since Trump had Operation Crossfire details this means they cannot be used against biden and the demorats in the mid terms. You have to give it to the demorats, when it comes to politics they make the GOP and the conservatives look like convent virgins.
Probably because it was a fallback. This occurred in March 2020. Apparently, the press gallery have forgotten their state of mind around that time.
DB:
Let’s put aside this stuff about Ministerial Responsibility. Did this swearing-in of Morrison mean that Hunt wasn’t any longer the Health Minister or only that in the event of Hunt’s incapacitation, Morrison could lawfully execute the powers of the Health Minister?
If there was no power attached to doing it, then why did he do it? If Hunt had become incapacitated because of the coof, or for any other reason, then another person could have been sworn in in the usual way. From reports, with resources, did Morrison just take control away from Pitt, after he’d informed him, or did Pitt have to relinquish that power first, which is why ultimately he was told? And what if there was a disagreement, who would be have been in charge of a particular portfolio?
Albo doesn’t want to recall the two man ministry of Whitlam & Barnard.
He’s starting to sound like the US Demrats.
“Undermining our democracy”.
When will Morro’s home be raided?
They probably feared the usual way being shut off to them because of isolation rules, etc.
Hell is being locked in an Ikea store forever.
Without allen keys. Or meatballs.
Video shows Shanghai shoppers scramble to break out of Ikea store after snap lockdown announced (15 Aug)
Even the fact that Ikea has shops in China that are full of customers is enough to give me a headache.
Women in Scotland outraged as country’s first ever Period Poverty tsar is announced as a MAN
Dundee man and former personal trainer Jason Grant is the newly appointed period dignity officer for the Tay region but critics say the role should have gone to a woman
Holy Rainbow Serpents….I pulled into a servo to grab some fuel this morning and there must have been 6 flyers stuck up on windows and walls advertising a job . $30.98 a hour weekdays and loading for nights and weekends to work the servo terminal. The boss there said even paying that , no one has applied after 8 days .
We took the cat to the vet once and he swore that crickets cause weight loss in animals that eat them. There would be a certain perverse symmetry if this replicated in humans and Big Macs started turning people into exemplary physical specimens.
Hmmmm who to believe, Monty of the sugar trolls or the gruinaid over Trumps teams being provided details of the affidavit??
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/15/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-search-justice-department
The US Justice Department has asked a judge not to release the affidavit that gave the FBI probable cause to search Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, worsening distrust among top aides casting about for any insight into the intensifying criminal investigation surrounding the former president.
The affidavit should not be unsealed because that could reveal the scope of the investigation into Trump’s unauthorized retention of government secrets, the Justice Department argued, days after the Mar-a-Lago search warrant showed it referenced potential violations of three criminal statutes.
….
“The affidavit would serve as a roadmap to the government’s ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course,” the justice department said, adding that it did not oppose unsealing both a cover page and a sealing order that wouldn’t harm the criminal investigation.
…
In arguing against unsealing the affidavit, the justice department also said that the disclosure could harm its ability to gain cooperation from witnesses not only in the Mar-a-Lago investigation but also additional ones that would appear to touch on the former president.
“Disclosure of the government’s affidavit at this stage would also likely chill future cooperation by witnesses whose assistance may be sought as this investigation progresses, as well as in other high-profile investigations,” prosecutors added.
Thats it.
The die is cast.
Either Trump goes to jail and civil war starts bubbling away or he wins the next election and guts every agency involved.
Including the RINO party members.
oh god, they gave the $500m production to a woke woman…. the sooner we cancel universal suffrage the sooner we can get back to reality
the most corrupt regime in US history
Isn’t the point of all the Minister + 1 over multiple portfolios, National Cabinet and the phalanx of ever-changing “experts” that no one can be held accountable?
Goldfish have longer memories.
OldOzzie says:
August 16, 2022 at 11:28 am
That’s priceless. hahahaha
The report says “But taking to social media on Monday many women expressed their discomfort at the decision to appoint a man to a role which deals with an issue which exclusively affects biological women of reproductive age.
Despite this Mr Grant gushed of his new role as he claimed it affects men and boys too and people regardless of gender in a nod to inclusivity toward a minority of young trans men.
He told the Dundee Courier: “I’m absolutely buzzing about it. It’s definitely pioneering as Scotland is the first to do this. It’s about making people aware of the availability of period products for anyone of any gender, whenever they need it.
Mole – I was thinking that myself yesterday. As Roger Simon said a week ago they’re risking a civil war which they KNOW they must lose. But at the same time they’re so scared of Trump that they’re doing stuff that makes his election inevitable. But if they arrest him or steal the election to keep him out they will kick off the same war that they fear.
Thucydides trap stuff. It’s like watching a timer counting down and knowing that when it hits 0.00 the bomb goes off.
Sco Mo was trying to emulate Russ Hinze who was appointed , ‘Minister for Everything’ during Queenslands golden years. I miss those glory days.
DB:
They probably feared the usual way being shut off to them because of isolation rules, etc.
It the proverbial really was about to hit the fan then a swearing in over Zoom may have become an acceptable process for a new ministerial appointment. Or an exemption made to travel across a border, which in the case of WA, authorised many different categories of people, most notably and expected, members of parliament, defence force personnel, public servants etc. But that does not answer why the need to make it secret?
The entire nation had been already primed to the nth degree about the risks the country was facing and the highly charged environment of managing government especially in March-June 2020. So the public more than likely would have understood the reasoning. So the secrecy provisions do not make any sense. It is in no way comparable with a top secret decision made during war that would remain confidential until decades later, if ever revealed.
Lindsey Graham too. Dems don’t do half measures.
The photo of the judge on her wiki says all you need to know, also who appointed her.
Challenging an election is a crime now?
Jesus.
The only way forward is to sack 90% of Federal employees and the same where possible in Red states.
News Corps seems to be in self-harm mode at the moment.
Rupert is in his dotage, so the satraps on the edge of empire are going their own way as the old fella’s grip loosens, hence the Oz comments police amongst other sad developments.
In the States, KRM’s proximity means a stronger residual influence.
Why are no Democrats prosecuted by Garland’s DOJ?
OPINION:
On Wednesday, Aug. 10, Merrick Garland, the United States attorney general, confidently strutted to the national podium and asserted, “No person is above the law in this country. I can’t say it any more clearly than that.” He then went further: “There is nothing … which prevents us from investigating anyone — anyone — who’s criminally responsible …”
As principled as that all sounds, one can’t help but ask Mr. Garland why, if no one is above the law in this county, so many of the attorney general’s own political party have not been held “criminally responsible” for their past and present actions.
For example, what about Eric Holder, the AG’s own professional and political predecessor? When he refused to comply with a subpoena involving illegal arms trafficking and instead chose to go to Disney World on the same day the House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt of Congress, was he “above the law?” Was he held “criminally responsible” for his behavior? Why was his house not raided? What prevented an FBI invasion of his privacy and a search of his wife’s closet and wardrobe? Why was his fence not breached and his door not broken?
Or what about Lois Lerner when she used the IRS to target political opponents with heightened scrutiny and harassment? Or how about her successor, John Koskinen, who proceeded to destroy evidence subject to a subpoena? Were they above the law?
And then there’s Hillary Clinton, who ignored 17 different Freedom of Information Act requests as her staff proceeded to use BleachBit and hammers to remove evidence from their server and their phones. Was her mansion in Chappaqua raided? Was her safe broken into? Was her unauthorized use of classified information prosecuted? Was she above the law?
Or what about Peter Strzok, a lead FBI investigator who literally wrote “we’ll stop” former President Donald Trump from becoming president? Was he investigated for his apparent collusion with Mrs. Clinton and her campaign to subvert America’s democratic process? Was his residence raided? Was his safe cracked? Was Mr. Strzok above the law?
And what about Hunter Biden? Pictures on his laptop show him using cocaine and engaging in prostitution, not to mention proof of money laundering with nefarious foreign powers. Is he above the law?
Then there’s “the Big Guy,” whom Hunter says aided and abetted him in all the above. Should his residence be raided? Should his files be confiscated? Is he above the law?
Oh, and what about the poster child of this conundrum, former President Bill Clinton? You know, the guy who perjured himself when he said, “I did not have sex with that woman.” Was he above the law?
And what about Gavin Newsom, who, as mayor of San Francisco, flaunted California’s Proposition 8 and personally officiated gay marriages when they were still illegal in his state and across the country? Was he above the law?
On and on it goes. The duplicity is nearly endless.
It’s just a coincidence that Tucker Carlson was on holidays when the Biden junta’s enforcers at the FBI raided the Florida home of its greatest political adversary Donald Trump. Wasn’t it? Well, he’s back. Tucker Carlson Tonight.
I get the feeling that falsely accusing Giuliani will epically backfire.
Sure, let’s have all of the evidence in court and anything disallowed, can be leaked.
Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act diminishes prospects for human progress
The Biden beeline for ‘degrowth’
“Hope is contagious,” optimists are fond of reminding. So is doubt, unfortunately. The Democratic Party’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, supposedly packed with smart policy remedies for an ailing nation, is the work of doubters bent on extinguishing the material progress that has made America exceptional. It serves the aims of the “degrowth” movement, which is to reduce the imprint of human progress upon the globe.
By rejiggering tax policy to subsidize solar and wind while punishing natural gas, oil and coal, the new bill allocates $375 billion over a decade to spark a rapid shift to renewables. Ominously, the move threatens to leave the nation with a dangerous energy deficiency and global-warming mitigation measurable in mere thousandths of a degree.
The Inflation Reduction Act fits hand-in-glove with both the Democrats’ compulsion to ride herd over freedom-loving Americans and the environmental movement’s preference for nature over human beings. It sets the nation on a perilous course toward energy poverty and subsistence existence.
Intentionally or not, Mr. Biden is moving in tandem with his party’s embrace of the view that modernity has reached its zenith and, sadly, must now make a beeline for degrowth. It is both anti-American and anti-human.
Tucker is sounding more and more like a chipmunk. He’s talking about the history of ink for some reason. Low energy, sad.
I wish I had as much faith in the US “justice system” Dot.
Ad hom #2 out of three comments.
Certainly in a bad mood.
Tuesdayitis?
You can tell how much leftards fear Tucker Carlson by the frenzy he provokes in the trolls, including those on the other side of the world who can’t vote in American elections. LOL.
Good to see Tucker has a nice tan, anyway. Or maybe he’s using the Trump brand burnt sienna goop.
In the Scotland story:
Mr Grant gushed of his new role as he claimed it affects men and boys too and people regardless of gender in a nod to inclusivity toward a minority of young trans men.
He told the Dundee Courier: “I’m absolutely buzzing about it. It’s definitely pioneering as Scotland is the first to do this. It’s about making people aware of the availability of period products for anyone of any gender, whenever they need it.
He also likes broccoli…
BLM – Biden’s Laptop Matters.
#Hoax #Trump #Raid #Biden #HunterBiden #HunterBidenLaptop
Tucker Carlson: No honest person could believe this
Fox News host Tucker Carlson shreds the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’ #FoxNews #tucker
Rear Window
Car lobby on EV collision course
It’s action stations inside the country’s embattled car lobby as most of its members prepare for a comprehensive shellacking on Friday at Mike Cannon-Brookes? National EV Summit in Canberra.
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen is scheduled to open the clean energy love-in along with Industry Minister Ed Husic.
Despite already pledging to scrap the fringe benefits tax on electric vehicles used for business, industry players are hoping for more support in Labor’s electric vehicle strategy.
The timing of the summit, which was co-organised with the quiet help of Cannon-Brookes’ private equity arm Boundless, couldn’t be better. After all, it’s only a week since a Sydney Morning Herald scoop lifted the lid on how a campaign rolled out by the motoring industry’s peak body, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, is lobbying for its weak, voluntary scheme to be mandated by government, a scheme that will slow the roll-out of green cars and electric vehicles in Australia.
It wasn’t exactly news to the FCAI’s 39 members, which include Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW and newbie outfits such as Tesla and Polestar. After all, it was disgruntled members within the lobby group who leaked the chamber’s confidential CO2 Research Overview, presumably upset over its toothless stance regarding fuel-efficiency standards and overall emissions reductions targets.
Volkswagen boss Paul Sansom publicly warned in late 2021 that without more aggressive and mandated emissions standards, Australia will continue to be a “dumping ground” for older, less efficient engines and automotive tech.
The FCAI’s research released in early July only further frustrated members who argue the chamber’s voluntary emissions reductions standard (which it wants the government to adopt as a mandatory scheme) is restraining the era of electric cars in Australia.
There is also growing disquiet within the FCAI’s ranks over the dominance Toyota has in shaping the chamber’s policy objectives. Toyota internationally has form opposing mandates in Europe and the US, and criticised India’s target for 100 per cent electric vehicles sales by 2030.
The FCAI’s membership levies are partially based on market share, and the Japanese conglomerate is the chamber’s highest paying member, given it makes a quarter of all cars sold nationally. No wonder managing director Matthew Callachor is chairman of FCAI’s 11-member board.
In Australia, the FCAI’s latest emissions reduction proposals remain wedded to hybrid vehicles, forecasting they will account for about 60 per cent of cars on the road nationally by 2030.
That’s the sort of forward thinking that has left Australia without a car manufacturing industry, given Toyota’s 2017 decision to shut down its Altona Camry factory shortly after accepting millions in government handouts. But that won’t stop them asking Canberra for more.
The disclosure regarding Morrison’s assumption of extensive powers via appointment of a dual role in a number of portfolios is out of left field. But it illustrates the panic that gripped the government when the Wuhan virus took off. Instead of noting available dissenting medical opinion from overseas experts (eg Barrington Declaration) the government – & Morrison in particular- chose, of all things, computer modelling from Peter Dougherty’s organisation to predict a mortality rate that did not eventuate. Because of the impact of that decision, even without other flaws, I regard Morrison as a dud.
Even so, the disclosure of the portfolios assumption, which must have been leaked by the public service, smacks of a witch hunt. Nowhere near as bad as what is happening to Trump, but the hatred of the Left knows no bounds.
Not covered in the warrant you say? That would be theft wouldn’t it?
Additionally, since passports are technically U.S. govt property that sounds like a violation of ’18 U.S. Code § 2071 – Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally’. Coincidentally, that’s one of the weak excuses they used in the warrant to raid him.
Book ’em Dano.
WHOA… WTF?! FBI informant in Whitmer kidnapping trial drops bombshell about the FBI requesting police allow armed protesters in the Capitol
The so-called ‘hits’ just keep on a-comin’ for our friends in the FBI.
Again, not great timing for the FBI, with the whole raiding Trump’s house thing …
Not great at all.
I wonder when they will realize their city is named after an obviously racist colonialist imperialist Tory?
Hobart City Council passes vote to remove statue of former Tasmanian premier William Crowther in Australian first (Sky News, 16 Aug)
So in keeping with their ideology they should demolish their own council chambers and salt the earth under them. I would vote for that.
Possibly. Still struggling to have any sympathy.
Why the Fed might be at ‘neutral’ already on monetary policy
The peak in the federal funds rate during the current cycle will be lower than otherwise because the combination of quantitative easing and the strong dollar are equivalent to at least a 1 percentage point increase.
Most Fed watchers seem to spend more time criticising the US Federal Reserve than watching it. It’s easy to do. Anyone can play the game and attacking the Fed is like shooting at sitting ducks: officials at the central bank can’t respond directly given their public role.
Recently, Fed chairman Jay Powell has been skewered by his critics for saying the federal funds rate was now at “neutral” at his July 27 news conference just after the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee had voted unanimously to raise its benchmark federal funds rate range by 0.75 of a percentage point to 2.25 per cent to 2.50 per cent
His suggestion that the Fed is on the borderline of restrictive territory and therefore closer to being done tightening was well received by both bond and stock investors, but not by the Fed’s critics.
Former Federal Reserve Bank of New York president William Dudley said last Wednesday that, given the level of uncertainty, “I’d be a bit more sceptical” in saying policymakers had reached neutral.
Two days later, former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers was more critical. He accused Powell of engaging in “wishful thinking” similar to the Fed’s delusion last year that inflation would be transitory. He accused Powell of saying things “that, to be blunt, were analytically indefensible”. He added, “There is no conceivable way that a 2.5 per cent interest rate, in an economy inflating like this, is anywhere near neutral.”
In fact, there is a conceivable way that Powell might be right after all. The Fed’s critics are ignoring that the central bank has been more hawkish in words and deeds than the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan. Both of their official interest rates are still at or near zero.
As a result, the value of the $US has soared 10 per cent this year. In my opinion, that is equivalent to at least a half-percentage-point rise in the federal funds rate. Furthermore, the Fed has just started its quantitative tightening programme to unwind its massive asset purchases to support markets and the economy in recent years.
During June through to August, the Fed will reduce its balance sheet by running off maturing securities, which will drop its holdings of Treasury securities by $US30 billion ($42.7 billion) a month and its holdings of government agency debt and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) by $US17.5 billion a month. So that’s a decline of $US142.5 billion over those first three months of QT.
Starting in September, the run-off will be set at $US60 billion for Treasury holdings and $US35 billion for agency debt and MBS. That’s $US95 billion a month, or $US1.14 trillion through to August 2023. There’s no amount set or termination date specified for QT.
In my opinion, QT is equivalent to at least a 0.50 percentage-point increase in the federal funds rate too. Furthermore, in the December 2021 minutes of the FOMC, released on January 5, investors learned “some participants” on the committee favoured getting out of the mortgage financing business entirely.
That would happen by swapping the Fed’s MBS for Treasuries in addition to letting them run off as they matured under QT. This would have further increased the supply of MBS for the market to absorb adding upward pressure on mortgage rates relative to Treasuries.
No wonder that the 30-year mortgage rate jumped from 3.30 per cent at the start of this year to a high of 6 per cent on July 15, and 5.46 per cent currently.
I conclude that the peak in the federal funds rate during the current monetary tightening cycle will be lower than otherwise because the combination of QT and the strong dollar are equivalent to at least a 1 percentage point increase in the federal funds rate.
In addition, the extraordinary jump in both short-term and long-term interest rates in the fixed income markets has already accomplished much of the tightening for the Fed.
In my opinion, the markets have already discounted a peak federal funds rate of 3 to 3.25 per cent, which is where it soon will be assuming that the Fed raises the rate by 0.75 of a percentage point again at the end of September as widely expected.
By the way, on October 1, 2020, Dudley, when he was at the Fed, justified a second round of quantitative easing amounting to $US500 billion of securities purchases saying that it was equivalent to a 0.50 of a percentage point to 0.75 of a percentage point cut in the federal funds rate.
The Fed undoubtedly has some estimates from its in-house models on the equivalent rate rises represented by the strong dollar and QT. If so, they should share that information with the public.
The writer is president of Yardeni Research and author of Fed Watching for Fun & Profit.
Financial Times
Link – Why the Fed might be at ‘neutral’ already on monetary policy
“Even so, the disclosure of the portfolios assumption, which must have been leaked by the public service, smacks of a witch hunt. Nowhere near as bad as what is happening to Trump, but the hatred of the Left knows no bounds.”
I’m inclined to agree however it begs the question, what did Morrison and the Liberals, in almost nine years of government, do about the politicisation of the public service? NOTHING.
Remember when the Attorney-General’s department sent a letter to Tony Abbott, a former PM no less, the day before he was due to address CPAC in August 2019, the letter requested that Abbott register as an agent of foreign influence? That one still makes me laugh however think about it, it isn’t funny. And so what did Morrison and his supine and utterly useless government do? NOTHING. In fact, the AG at the time, one Christian Porter, loudly proclaimed that the government would not amend the new transparency laws despite a former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott being targeted.
Has any such letter been sent to former Labor PM Paul Keating? I doubt it.
You reap what you sow, or in the case of the stupid fucking Liberals, you reap the whirlwind when you do fuck all.
“Remember when the Attorney-General’s department sent a letter to Tony Abbott, a former PM no less, the day before he was due to address CPAC in August 2019, the letter requested that Abbott register as an agent of foreign influence? “
I forgot to add…that outrageous incident was prompted by Labor’s Mark Dreyfus.
Tucker Carlson: No honest person could believe this
Fox News host Tucker Carlson shreds the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’ #FoxNews #tucker
the lets go brandon clan/administration are the most corrupt criminals and fascists that rival putin’s mafia state
Horseface is on the nose. Backgrounding is starting.
New Zealand MP alleges Jacinda Ardern’s Chief of Staff failed to act when several MPs complained about bullying (16 Aug)
“Jacinda Ardern’s office has been rocked by bullying allegations after a Labour MP alleged the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff failed to take the complaints seriously.
Labour MP for Hamilton West Dr Gaurav Sharma took to Facebook on Monday detailing several incidents of the alleged bullying, alongside screenshots from MPs complaining about the behaviour.
Dr Sharma claimed he had told Ms Ardern’s Chief of Staff that then-chief whip Kieran McAnulty’s bullying behaviour was so rife one MP spent “almost thee hours in tears talking about how they were being treated”, while another asked how to fake a COVID-19 diagnosis so they could miss work.”
Backgrounding is a fun sport. Could it be because her poll numbers are lower than mite dung? Nah, that’s unthinkable!
European ‘Hunger Stones’ Blow Up Key Climate Narrative
Almost two-thirds of Europe is having what used to be known as a brutal summer, before climate hysterics rebranded the weather, and the latest panic is the re-emergence of grim Hunger Stones from ancient riverbeds gone dry.
The heat wave combined with the drought currently tormenting the continent truly is miserable. High temperatures are overwhelming Europeans, crops are shriveling, and rivers are drying up. The diminished waterways are crippling crop irrigation, supply chains, and even the capacity to cool nuclear power plants. But the drying riverbeds have also yielded something else: proof that such things have happened before there were tailpipes or cow burps to blame.
The Hunger Stones of Europe are sub-aquatic cousins of high water markers. During historically severe droughts, local chroniclers would chisel marks and messages into large stones that were only seen roughly once a generation. Some of the low-water markings also included laments of the human tragedy that accompanies drought, notably starvation.
Dutch journalist Olaf Koens tweeted images of the ominous boulders newly re-emerged from the depths of Europe’s busy waterways:
If your Dutch is rusty, the internet says he wrote:
Horrible. Due to the drought in European rivers, Hunger Stones are surfacing. Macabre warnings from our 15th century ancestors about famine.
‘When you see me, cry’
At least Koens had the sense not to write, “Due to climate change…” Because unless his 15th-century ancestors had scuba gear and a weird sense of humor, those bodacious boulders were high and dry centuries before global cooling global warming man-made climate change was ever thought of.
A group of Czech researchers relied on Hunger Stones for some of the data that went into their 2013 report, Droughts in the Czech Lands, 1090–2012 AD. They described the stones and listed the previous drought years they commemorate:
A tree-ring study printed in Science Advances, a journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, confirmed that “megadroughts” used to be more common before the evil Industrial Revolution kicked off all of that cursed First World tech:
In addition, megadroughts reconstructed over north-central Europe in the 11th and mid-15th centuries reinforce other evidence from North America and Asia that droughts were more severe, extensive, and prolonged over Northern Hemisphere land areas before the 20th century, with an inadequate understanding of their causes.
What I am saying is that this drought may not be because of anything we did; at most, we’ve had only a fraction of a fraction of an infinitesimally small effect on the climate. Droughts have happened before and they’ll happen again. Meanwhile, if all the do-gooders who run the global deciding apparatus truly want the best for humanity, then this is not the time to shut down reliable, cost-effective energy generation, or ban farmers from using the fertilizer that actually works, or force the bloody destruction of hundreds of thousands of livestock. Famine and want are already looming over too many vulnerable people; why in the name of God would you make it worse?
Cassie says;
You reap what you sow, or in the case of the stupid fucking Liberals, you reap the whirlwind when you do fuck all.
+1000
RECLAIMING A POSITIVE VISION OF LIBERTY
by George McKenna
8 . 15 . 22
Meme; love the Fauci rat coming out of it’s hole.
https://substack.com/redirect/84b58de3-9f43-4c66-89e4-7aa66d271fca?r=ho9bj
Is Merrick Garland serious about Donald Trump?
Former president is entitled to the same presumption of innocence as any other American
Commenting about the FBI executing a search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, which he approved, Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department and of our democracy. … All Americans are entitled to the even-handed application of the law, to due process, and to the presumption of innocence.”
None of this applies to the way the Department of Justice, the FBI and most of the media have treated Mr. Trump.
From the Steele dossier, Russian “collusion,” the labeling of Mr. Trump as a Russian “asset,” the Mueller Report and the refusal by the Biden administration to enforce our immigration laws, the Justice Department in this administration has done just the opposite when it comes to equal application of the law and due process.
Whatever one thinks of Mr. Trump’s character, he is entitled to the same presumption of innocence as any other American. Mr. Trump always suffers from a presumption of guilt. He is forced to continually prove he is innocent of charges, often made by “sources” who leak information to anti-Trump media, or must explain himself to hostile Democrats (and a few hostile Republicans).
The specter of armed federal agents outside Mr. Trump’s Florida home is not an image I suspect many of us are comfortable with. Even those who do not like Mr. Trump and hope he does not run for president in 2024 should be alarmed at how this focus on him is contributing to what has been a long slide in the trust Americans place in our institutions.
In 1973, when the Gallup organization began polling on the subject, 42% of respondents had a “great deal/quite a lot” of confidence in Congress. This year that number is just 7%.
In 1991, 73% of the public had a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in the presidency. This year only 23% feel that way.
Confidence in the criminal justice system has reached a new low with just 14% coming down on the side of great deal/quite a lot. Is it any wonder with stories of “woke” prosecutors freeing criminals with low or no bail only to see many of them commit new crimes?
In what should be a warning to the media — a warning that has been apparent for many years — confidence in the trustworthiness of newspapers has declined from a high of 51% in 1979 to a record low of 16% today. Confidence in TV news reflects a similar drop — from 46% in 1993 to the current 11%. Perhaps some introspection by the media as to the “root causes” might be beneficial to the profession and the public.
Gallup has recorded similar declines in confidence levels for other institutions, including the church (no wonder with all the scandals and some TV evangelists still living the lifestyles of potentates as opposed to that of the one they claim to follow). It may surprise many that the police, which has been under heavy assault from various liberal groups, continue to enjoy major support. Gallup found 45% have a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in the police, down only from 52% in 1993.
No foreign power could hope to undermine the pillars of our democracy better than we are doing ourselves. Serious attention to rebuilding these and other institutions, which can lead to restoring confidence in them, is urgently required.
who is going to do anything about it? nobody, criminals are in charge of the entire government
Feds Oppose Unsealing Affidavit Used To Obtain Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant, To Protect Ongoing Investigation and “National Security”
Yeah, like get it laughed out of existence while Trump’s lawyers work on his federal ‘Deprivation of Civil Rights’ case against you. You remember that little jewel? The one you used to pile on to Mark Chauvin?
criminals never cede power voluntarily
In theory this is where Parliament and the Courts step in. We shall see.
it’s a purge
Not as allegorical as it sounds. What if the people running the Biden junta aren’t giving criminals a pass just for ideological reasons, but because they are fellow criminals looking after their criminal brothers and sisters?
atarasays:
August 16, 2022 at 12:59 pm
Feds Oppose Unsealing Affidavit Used To Obtain Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant, To Protect Ongoing Investigation and “National Security”
“Disclosure at this juncture of the affidavit supporting probable cause would, by contrast, cause significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation.”
Yeah, like get it laughed out of existence while Trump’s lawyers work on his federal ‘Deprivation of Civil Rights’ case against you. You remember that little jewel? The one you used to pile on to Mark Chauvin?
From the Comments
– There must be a lot they want to hide.
– If Garland is so concerned with the investigation, why is he leaking to NYT and WAPO?
– One could theorize that he considers the NYT and WAPO to be fellow employees of the DNC and also of the FBI, so there is no problem giving them anything classified if it serves the interests of the DNC.
Shocking Footage of Yacht Fire | Why So Many Fires? | Ep114 SuperYacht News
Some surrogates need to think hard before regurgitating “the message”.
To give things back to someone, you had to have them in the first place.
I recall that during the early stages of 2020 it was mainly Struth who, much to the displeasure of many, was decrying the likes of Morrison and Hunt as being ideologically in league with Andrews et al.
Trump Accused of Lying Over FBI-Seized Passports, Then He Dropped the Receipts
As RedState reported on Monday, Donald Trump accused the FBI of taking his passports during the unprecedented raid of his Florida residence. According to the former president, three passports were taken during the search, which apparently went far beyond just recovering supposedly classified documents that threatened “national security.”
Predictably, after Trump made the claim, the press quickly jumped into the fray to call him a liar. Norah O’Donnell of CBS News claimed via a source that the FBI was “not in possession of former President Trump’s passports.”
When I saw that report from O’Donnell, I put out my own post questioning the phrasing. “Not in possession of” is very specific wording that could have simply meant the FBI had passed them on to another agency. Why not just say “we didn’t take the passports” if they didn’t take the passports?
Incredibly (or perhaps not so), instead of admitting their mistake, members of the press rushed out to somehow make the revelation about…Trump’s supposed dishonesty.
So let me get this straight. The FBI did indeed seize Trump’s passports, which seems incredibly improper given what was legally allowed to be taken by the warrant, and that’s somehow his fault? A passport is not something you just accidentally grab, thinking it’s a presidential record. It’s the kind of thing that an agent purposely took and knew exactly what they were taking. Yet, the big gotcha here is that Trump was wrong about the expiration date on one of the passports. It’s absurd.
The big story here is that the FBI took the passports in the first place. It is not that Trump shared an email that ended up embarrassing the bureau’s leadership, who were apparently content to keep lying about the matter via leaks until the former president exposed them. Now, the mainstream media wants to pretend like the seizure was just an honest mistake that shouldn’t be held against the FBI. Yeah, that’s not how any of this works.
The press and the DOJ working together to push a false narrative isn’t surprising, but that doesn’t make it any less improper and corrupt. There need to be answers provided for how the FBI ended up with Trump’s passports when they obviously weren’t part of what was sought and allowed to be taken in the warrant. O’Donnell and the rest of the press who ran with that lie that the FBI didn’t have the passports also need to answer for why they swallowed a statement from the DOJ without even bothering to get any corroborating details.
With every passing day, the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago looks worse and worse. We are living under a regime that prides itself in operating like a banana republic. The dishonesty of those always out to get the orange man knows no bounds.
Jacinda Ardern’s office has been rocked by bullying allegations
The left are against bullying, except when they do it.
Against kiddy fiddling but mutilation of kids for “gendering” is ok.
So Trumps passports are at the Washington office of the FBI.
He just has to show up at reception and he can claim them.
According to the FBI & their surrogates, this means the FBI does not have them.
Keep in mind, if you were questioned by the FBI & used their kind of word-play like they have regarding the Trump passports they could charge you with obstruction of justice (depending on your politics).
Just how rooted is Australia??
All Australia total taxation revenue returned to growth, reaching $593.2b in 2020-21 (up 7.5%), while taxation revenue as a percentage of GDP was 28.7%.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/12/dc-has-never-gotten-this-much-in-taxes-dems-say-its-still-not-enough/
“Washington has almost never been so awash in taxes. Since 1960, federal tax revenues have remained generally close to the average level of 17.4% of the economy. Yet after jumping last year, revenues this year are scheduled to surge again to 19.6% of the economy — the second-highest level since World War II.”
We pay nearly 10% more as a portion of GDP for the turds administering us.
1/3 more as a portion of GDP than the USA.
Not seeing 1/3 more competence anywhere.
FBI Is Terrified After Mar-a-Lago Raid Backfires, Now Obsessively Combing Through Social Media Profiles for ‘Signs of Agitation’
As Americans are rightfully frustrated with the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago, the Biden administration is warning federal and local law enforcement about the possibility of “domestic terrorism.”
The Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and Customs and Border Protection also issued warnings using very similar language, Just the News reported.
“Last night, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice issued a Joint Intelligence Bulletin, accessible via the Homeland Security Information Network, providing information on the potential for domestic violent extremists to carry out attacks on federal, state and local law enforcement and government personnel or facilities,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus wrote in a memo to employees this weekend.
He said the warnings were necessary “in light of an increase in threats and acts of violence, including armed encounters, against law enforcement, judiciary and government personnel, in reaction to the FBI’s recent execution of a court authorized search warrant in Palm Beach, Florida.”
There have been legitimate attempts at violence against the FBI since the raid, and this is completely unacceptable.
While warning about potential attacks is one thing, monitoring conservatives on social media is another. Given the federal government’s history of villainizing conservatives, it is hard to trust these agencies to determine what constitutes “domestic terrorism.”
After all, these are the same people who classified parents as “domestic terrorists” for wanting to have a say in their children’s education. This precedent certainly casts doubt on the federal government’s ability to determine what is or is not a threat from conservative influencers on social media.
In addition to the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, Magnus said some Americans have been pushed towards violence because of their anger about the crisis at the southern border. Even in his description of this problem, he showed how out of touch he is.
You see, the southern border crisis is not as bad as it looks. Americans’ concerns are simply “false perceptions.”
Sure, U.S. Border Patrol said it processed over 222,000 this May, an all-time monthly high according to CBS News. But Magnus believes if he just lies about, he can minimize the concerns of a large swath of Americans.
By belittling the legitimate concerns Americans hold, the federal government is not helping tamp down domestic violence threats. In fact, it is simply adding more fuel to the fire.
it’s a purge
The parallels to 1930s germany are startling. Guess what comes next…
FBI Had November Midterms on Its Mind While Planning Mar-a-Lago Raid: Ex-Federal Prosecutor
A former federal prosecutor with knowledge of the Department of Justice’s inner workings said the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida was likely conducted on Aug. 8 for a specific reason.
On Tuesday, Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor turned CNN senior legal analyst, said the DOJ is required to hold off from conducting “politically sensitive moves” within 90 days of any major election.
The Aug. 8 raid just so happened to be conducted 91 days prior to this year’s midterm elections on Nov. 8.
“Today is just about 90 days out exactly from the midterms, I think maybe 91 or 92 days out. That policy, that may be a reason why they did it today because they want to stay clear of that if they’re interpreting that as a 90 day rule,” Honig, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told CNN.
Earlier reports indicated the DOJ was already weighing such considerations.
Here’s a hint Magnus, it isn’t the state or local plod that the people are pissed at. It’s YOU.
Comrade Xi must be walking round with a hard on a rat couldn’t gnaw.
US is busy being driven insane by a geriatric and his enablers.
Oz is busy bending the knee as its fairly obvious China can kneecap our economy overnight with a few changes to preferred imports.
The EU is busy stamping on its own nuts shouting “take this you bastard” at Putin….
Hed be sleeping the sleep of a contented chap.
Wake Up! 2022 Is More Important Than 2020, and I Don’t Just Mean the Elections
Two years on, things are getting even dicier. There aren’t any lefty riots taking place at the moment, but my Spidey sense tells me something way more sinister is afoot.
Democrats have spent the last six years pretending Trump is an existential threat to our Republic, but my radar screen is picking up different “blips.” Now that the Donkeys are in full control, I’ve been getting more than just a whiff of the bolshie nonsense wafting through our nation. Remember, the left accuses Trump of whatever dirty pool they’re shooting. When they say Trump is trying to end Democracy, I immediately assume they are up to some nefarious, Republic-gutting monkeyshines.
The Democrats just giddily voted to hire and arm 87,000 IRS agents. They have amassed roughly 5 million rounds of ammo. Why would pencil-pushing accountants need guns and bullets? We’re likely to find out the hard way. I hope I’m wrong, but anyway you slice it, the Democrats are building up some serious street muscle.
Meanwhile, Trump has threatened/hinted he will run for the White House again.
The left just can’t have that. Merrick Garland sent his FBI to raid the home of one of the two patriots most likely to run as the Republican candidate in 2024. I don’t have a crystal ball but I’m guessing he did it for at least one of two reasons: 1) eventually arrest Trump to try to keep him from running, winning, and purging the federal government of the toilet people in the deep state, or 2) retrieve info about Russia-gate and Hillary’s involvement in it. Either way, it’s unprecedented and unacceptable — and I believe it’s just the tip of the Democrats’ apparatchik iceberg.
We saw this coming. Let’s remember how the Department of Justice (DOJ) went after Trump cronies like Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and General Flynn. Manafort just released a book claiming he was threatened with prison if he didn’t lie and help the DOJ entrap Trump. Flynn was accused of lying to the FBI after an FBI agent claimed he didn’t lie at all. The DOJ has been gunning for Trump’s troops since he came down the escalator and announced he was running for the Republican slot in the 2016 election.
Since that election, the DOJ has decided that standing up for your kids at a school board meeting makes you a domestic terrorist. Wearing a “Don’t tread on me” Gadsden flag baseball cap makes you a “militia violent extremist.” You better trash that “seditious” Betsy Ross flag coozie before your liberal sister-in-law and her man-bunned pansexual partner report you to 1-800-EXTREME. And don’t forget that the DOJ also artificially inflated stats on domestic white violent extremism.
Trump: America ‘is in a Very Dangerous Position’ and the ‘Temperature has to be Brought Down’
A leader who actually gives a damn about their country. A very rare bird these days.
because the temperature has to be brought down in the country
Tomorrows headlines today
Orange man bad threatens to kill entire country, reduce everyone to room temperature
The price of defeat: The US fled Afghanistan exactly a year ago, but the real consequences are yet to come
A year ago, the US suffered its most dramatic military defeat of the 21st century, so far
The Americans were preparing to pull their troops out of Afghanistan for months, but the operation still turned out to be a disaster. Footage of young Afghans clinging to Lockheed C-5 Galaxy cargo planes at Kabul Airport went viral all over the world. And although it seems these images have vanished from mainstream discourse, the consequences of those events are yet to come.
Fleeing on camera
The Cold War was full of symbols. One of the most striking of these was footage of US military personnel pushing helicopters off the landing deck of the destroyer USS Kirk in the Mekong Gulf in 1975. The helicopters had been operated by pilots taking part in the US military mission in South Vietnam who were removing diplomatic staff from a besieged Saigon, along with their families. They no longer planned to return to the burning capital, so the expensive aircraft were sunk in the South China Sea.
While the helicopters on the deck of the Kirk were a striking, albeit isolated, case of such an incident being caught on camera, the multi-day flight of thousands of people fearing the Islamist dictatorship of the Taliban, who were rapidly taking control of Kabul, was shown on all social networks. The situation was exacerbated by a terrorist attack in the now almost forgotten style of the aughts.
On August 26, an explosion was heard in an airport terminal building packed with refugees. Approximately 170 civilians and 13 American servicemen were killed. At the same time, the world was innundated by videos of groups of grim men in turbans sitting at tables in the government offices of the presidential palace. Kalashnikov assault rifles from all over the world, as well as American M4s and Swiss SGs, could also be seen in the frame.
According to available data, including an analysis by auditors from the public organization Open the Books, the US military left up to 650,000 weapons to the rapidly advancing Taliban forces. This includes 350,000 modern M4 assault rifles and obsolete M16s, 65,000 machine guns, 25,000 submachine guns, and 2,500 mortar launchers. According to the organization’s estimates, the Americans left up to 22,000 Humvees and 110 UH-60 Black Hawk combat helicopters. Even if these figures are an exaggeration (as seems to be the case), it is logical to assume that withdrawing all of America’s remaining troops within just a week after pumping the entire region with weapons for 20 years would result in precisely this outcome. Army General Austin Miller, a special forces soldier who was in charge of the troops in Afghanistan, demonstratively handed over his command before the start of the troop withdrawal and now works as an adviser in a private company.
How about you stop talking for a month or two, Flame Guy.
As per normal, they avoid the “elephants in the room” .. compulsory jabbing and plod behavior thru-out the lockdowns ….. why should people care? ..
still nothing unusual for a gummint enquiry wiv lotza “our” money to spend looking for the esoteric excuses ove rsevera, drawn-out, months .. LOL!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-16/civic-crisis-community-life-collapse-sparks-volunteering-inquiry/101334760
The last Tsar: How Russia commemorates the brutal communist murder of Emperor Nikolai II’s family
Over 103 years ago, Bolsheviks shattered a royal line that had lasted for over three centuries
Long and interesting read on the History up to today
The procession begins at 2:30am Ural time. It is headed by church leaders, followed by a long column of Orthodox Christians, who hail not only from Russia, but also from Western Europe, Latin America, and Asia. In less than four hours, the first pilgrims appear at the final point of the route – the monastery at Ganina Yama. Orthodox Christians in comfortable sneakers carrying bottles of water cheerfully sing “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us!” The former mine is now enclosed by a gallery filled with portraits of the royal passion-bearers and their faithful servants.
RT spoke with people born in the Urals who say that they participated in the procession as children, and now help their elderly parents walk along this long route.
ove rsevera, .. over several ..
spotted the problem as I pressed .. duuuuuuh!
Records Suggest A Backbench Bureaucrat’s Partisan Grievance Spurred The FBI’s Nakedly Political Raid On Trump
The purpose of the grand jury investigation and raid on Mar-a-Lago was to get Donald Trump, not documents.
Last week’s raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home represented the culmination of a criminal investigation pushed by a partisan bureaucrat who called January 6, 2021, the “absolute worst” day of his life. And while since last Monday, the country has focused on the FBI’s raid of Trump’s personal residence, seeing that as the crossing of the Rubicon, the die was cast this spring when the DOJ went to the grand jury about Trump’s presidential records.
Reporting by the New York Times and Washington Post — some from months ago — when pieced together and considered in tandem with past practices related to presidential and other governmental records, reveals this reality. The relevant reporting started no later than February of this year, when the Washington Post broke the news that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) confirmed in a statement, issued by the then-archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero, that in January of 2022 NARA had retrieved from Mar-a-Lago 15 boxes of presidential records, which according to sources included items such as mementos, gifts, and letters. NARA added that Trump representatives were “continuing to search” for additional records.
Months later, in interviewing the then-recently retired Ferriero, the Washington Post detailed the origins of the retrieval of the 15 boxes. At the conclusion of Trump’s presidency, the Post reported, Ferriero “was told by the White House Office of Records Management about a group of boxes in the White House residence that should go to the Archives.”
“As we were moving materials from the White House just before the inauguration, those boxes hadn’t shown up yet,” Ferriero said. The retired archivist then explained how he remembered “watching the Trumps leave the White House and getting off in the helicopter that day, and someone carrying a white banker box, and saying to myself, ‘What the hell’s in that box?’” According to Ferriero, “that began a whole process of trying to determine whether any records had not been turned over to the Archives.”
OldOzzie – thanks for all the links today – very interesting reading I wouldn’t have found otherwise!
In Its Rage, China Just Offered A Sneak Peek Of Its Plans For Striking Taiwan
China’s response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan gives a glimpse of what future conflicts could look like.
Last week, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) declared an end to its live-fire military exercises. An enraged Beijing kicked off the drills in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan during her recent trip to Asia. The exercises presented a rare window for the outside world to examine the PLA’s strength, offered clues to how Beijing plans to take over Taiwan militarily, and served as a reminder that Beijing has consistently matched its rhetoric with actions.
China’s Fighting Power Has Dramatically Improved
All branches of the PLA, from the army, navy, and air force, to logistical units, participated in the week-long drills. They encircled Taiwan, which effectively imposed a blockade on the island. The PLA showed off its fighting power by deploying fighter jets and bombers in the sky and destroyers, submarines, and aircraft carriers in the ocean.
Many defense experts were shocked at how much progress the Chinese military had made since the last Taiwan strait crisis in 1995-1996 when China staged military exercises after then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited Taiwan.
According to Oriana Skylar Mastro, a China expert at Stanford University, China’s military exercises in the ’90s felt like child’s play because the PLA “barely had what could be considered an air force and a navy. Its pilots could not fly over water, at night, or in rough weather. In 1999 less than 2 percent of its fighters were the fourth generation, just 4 percent of its attack submarines were classed as modern (nuclear powered, for example), and none of its surface ships was.”
The PLA’s recent drills demonstrate that China’s investment in modernizing its military during the last two decades has paid off. The PLA has transformed from a backwater fighting force into a modern and cohesive one. Has the PLA advanced enough to be comparable to America’s in quality and quantity?
While Mastro seems to think so, many other China watchers disagree.
Based on these recent drills, a realistic assessment of the PLA is that it has made significant progress and has narrowed the gap between itself and the U.S. military in many areas. Engaging the PLA in a war will be a very challenging endeavor. The U.S. military cannot afford to be complacent, and continuing to invest in our military’s fighting power should be a priority for any U.S. administration.
China Is Testing a New Strategy
China’s military drills have demonstrated its resolve and ability to invade Taiwan, but these exercises also suggest that Beijing is testing new strategies on Taiwan. Rather than an outright invasion, Beijing may first impose a blockade on Taiwan to starve the island’s economy while cutting off the island’s contact with the outside world and preventing economic and military aid from arriving from Taiwan’s allies.
It helps to disguise any preparations for a real military campaign” because “China needs an element of surprise to be able to take Taiwan before America has time to mobilize adequate forces in the region to defend the island.”
The challenge facing Taiwan and the U.S. is how to distinguish China’s routine exercise from a surprise attack because remaining vigilant all the time is mentally and physically exhausting and financially costly.
Actions — And Inactions — Speak Louder Than Words
As China conducted live-fire drills near Taiwan, the Biden administration announced it would delay a routine U.S. missile test to avoid escalating tensions with China after Pelosi’s visit.
Why was the Biden administration concerned about placating Beijing when Beijing was the one who antagonized the escalation? Why didn’t the Biden administration respond to China’s sanctions on Pelosi and her family by imposing sanctions on PLA generals and their families?
Inaction is the last thing that will deter the PLA from invading Taiwan. If China perceives a consistent gap between the U.S. government’s actions and rhetoric on Taiwan, its military may grow more aggressive. Regardless of the outcome, a Chinese invasion of Taiwan will incur an enormous cost for all parties involved.
Democrats’ TERM Act Would Pack The Supreme Court With Politicians In Black Robes
The TERM Act would transform the Supreme Court from an institution of law to a panel of politicians.
Another long and fascinating dissertation
Jim Jordan, republican claims 14 FBI officers have come to him with “intel” on DoJ/FBI attacks…
Popcorn?
Just walked up to David Jones at lunch to buy a frock and on the way back I ran into Brendan Nelson.
He’s a nice man, a very nice man.
We chatted whilst walking and I asked him his thoughts on the Liberal Party, the electoral results and Peter Dutton.
Re. Peter Dutton, he said that Dutton is doing okay, it’s early days. I said yes, and I said that unlike your good self and Tony Abbott, he doesn’t have anyone undermining and plotting against him. He smiled and said “indeed”. We didn’t need to mention his name.
Cassie of Sydney:
…and that, Cassie, is disturbing on several levels.
“The last Tsar: How Russia commemorates the brutal communist murder of Emperor Nikolai II’s family
Over 103 years ago, Bolsheviks shattered a royal line that had lasted for over three centuries”
It was worse than that. That terrible night the Bolsheviks murdered five innocent children, butchering them with bayonets. The four girls suffered unimaginable brutality, as their dresses and corsets had been sewn with jewels so as to hide them from the Bolsheviks. The jewels deflected the bullets so the murderers clubbed them to death, one of those murderers probably being Imre Nagy.
M0nty-fa
“How long after he drops the kids off at school will m0nty-fa arrive here?
Bloody hell, could you be any more pathetic.”
After sympathy trolling last week about having “a life”, you have been here most of the day, most days. The question was reasonable, and your reaction answers it.
He smiled and said “indeed”. We didn’t need to mention his name.
Somewhere in the outer darkness a ghost whines a little louder and gibbers to itself…
Leftwingers triggered? How unsurprising.
Crossie:
There is only one condition under which I would buy the book – and that would be to dump it in the piss trough at the local pub – front cover up.
Cassie – re Brendan Nelson. I confess I didn’t have a lot of confidence in him during his short term as Lib head honcho. But a few years ago I heard him speak on the legacy of our Anzacs & other returned servicemen. It was one of the most moving speeches I have ever heard. Absolutely memorable. This is a very decent and honourable man. I have often wondered why he stepped down from the head position at the Canberra War Memorial. Political machinations from those who do not hold the military in high esteem?
“How about you stop talking for a month or two, Flame Guy.”
How about you go and revive your moribund blog, Fat Boy?
Mole consulting shall read the tea leaves for the idiots asking this question..
Federal government inquiry into ‘civic crisis’ amid fall in volunteering indicates ‘collapse in community life’
The federal government says Australia is in the grip of a “civic crisis” linked to loneliness and unprecedented pressure on the charity sector. *
An inquiry is underway to see what can be done to reverse what it is calling the “collapse in community life”, with public hearings being held in capital cities through August and September.**
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh said such dramatic language was warranted.
“Australia today is facing a civic crisis,” Mr Leigh said.
“We’ve seen a collapse in the number of people volunteering and a decline in the share of people who are donating to charities.***
“Compared with the mid-1980s, Australians have half as many close friends, and know half as many of their neighbours.****
The hearings will focus on what can be done to foster a sense of community after a gruelling few years of COVID pandemic restrictions, as well as rebuilding volunteer numbers and boosting donations to charities.*****
Recent ABC coverage highlighted the significant impact of plummeting volunteer numbers in regional communities.
The coverage resulted in public feedback about excessive ‘red tape’ making volunteering more difficult. Others pointed to mounting financial stress reducing people’s willingness to donate time or money.
Mr Leigh said the stakes were high.
“The Productivity Commission showed us that in the decade to 2020 the share of Australians who were volunteer firefighters declined, which meant that when those awful summer bushfires hit we were ill-prepared,” he said.
“We just didn’t have enough volunteer firefighters to meet the needs of the community.******
“I’m not stupid — I get that this is a huge challenge to be taking on — but the benefits are so big, why wouldn’t we give it a go?”*******
* Step 1, deserving and undeserving poor, rich OAPs turning up at food banks “because they are entitled” is a nice example. Why would people volunteer if they see it being abused or rorted?
** Great, “capital cities” as usual.
*** 1/3 of Australia’s GDP is eaten by government, just where is the provision of services for this need?
**** A predictable side effect of importing a nation of tribes?
***** You bloody did that, not some nebulous “covid restriction” sent from space. The government, state and federal, at all levels with uniparty support smashed and atomized “community”.
****** Again, you did that, removing thousands of members based on their being unwilling to submit to a illegal medical directive. You also (come on down Dan o de dead) chucked government employees/unions over the top of many volunteer groups (CFA) to shore up your little feifdoms.
******* Because you are miserable failures. Crayon eating dickheads who screw everything they touch. 40+ years on the planet and you havent worked out governments main power is to destroy things.
Trump is like the Tolkien’s Witch-King.
He speaks with Mordor breath, poisoning all who hear it.
ZK2A:
Shame on you, ZK2A – ‘days of the Week’ is a White mans social construct – Aboriginal Culture (PBUI) only recognises Sat. and Sun. and the hypothetical days in between.
Morro being painted as “destroyer of democracy”, when in fact it was all the state premiers and their henchmen who robbed us of our liberty and beat/fined people for non-compliance with their stupid lockdowns and dangerous vaccines.
“How about you stop talking for a month or two, Flame Guy.”
He was Sinc’s Troll Albatross, and now he’s Dover’s. But shooting is preferable to not shooting.
If you don’t shoot, the Albatross remains around your neck ad nauseum.
An extremely good write up over at CLs (in the sidebar).
Well worth 5 minutes to go through.
He also hits on one of my little bugbears.
The Alaric at the gate wasn’t them. He was Jacinta, Boris, Justin and Joe. The three savants who napkin-sketched AUKUS were less interested in fanciful nuclear submarines than they were in saving face two weeks after being routed by the Taliban. When Vladimir Putin began his ‘special military operation’ in February they saw a way out of Dodge. They and their guilty ilk turned the attention of their populations away from their own criminality and towards the Russian bogeyman.
Vlads a turd, but it gave Biden something he could wave his withered schlong at while yelling ” Im smart“
I briefly met Brendan Nelson at a function for the charity my rugby club supports. A few years later my father and I went to the ‘Last Post’ ceremony at the War Memorial to commemorate the 100th anniversary of my great-grandfather’s brother’s death in Belgium in WW1. I spoke to one of the public servants at the AWM to see if my great-great uncle’s name could be mentioned in the ceremony but that was all too hard for him and I got a flat “no”.
Dad and I were in our suits and ties with a wreath waiting for the ceremony when Brendan Nelson walked up. He recognised me and asked what I was doing. I replied that we were here to honour our relative on the 100th anniversary of his death, and Brendan asked what was his name. I told him and he wrote down his name and battalion. The MC at the Last Post ceremony then mentioned my great-great uncle in the introduction to the ceremony.
A big thumbs up from me as to the character of the man.
Ahaha! Could be.
Elbow says Morrison’s secret ministries were “an attack on our system of government.”
The man doth protest too much, methinks.
Ah yes. Joins the inevitable calls for bipartisanship. Strange, I don’t recall those a couple of years ago.
My son (AKA The New Broom), has another take on Nelson.
You can always gauge the character of someone when the plumbing backs up. Weekend. Big party. Guests about to arrive and the loos are overflowing.
Not a word of frustration or anger, just good humour and gratitude that a plumber was available to fix it.
And I was wrong about Mike Baird too. Apparently he is a decent person also. But that’s another story.
Albo personifies politics as showbiz for ugly people.
Elbow is attacking Tories.
That’s his life’s work.
Apologies if this has already been posted.
If not, dover please don’t ban me for posting something from the Conversation.
https://theconversation.com/the-covid-lab-leak-theory-is-dead-heres-how-we-know-the-virus-came-from-a-wuhan-market-188163
The good news is that I can disregard whatever the author “Edward C Holmes” says about anything in the future.
Re the supposed decline in volunteering & the supposed lack of civic responsibility:
I think I have mentioned before that our RFS captain with decades of service resigned last year because of the vaccine mandate for all volunteers. He is an honourable man & although he himself was vaccinated he would not serve when his unvaccinated mates were barred.
BTW in the 2018 fires the visiting bureaucratic paid RFS officers were strictly 9-5. They would not permit our blokes to backburn NPWS forest adjacent to farms & houses. There was a lot of resentment from the volunteers.
I am disappointed how many Australians are drawn to the so called (paid) public service . So many volunteer organisations like the RFS and the SES have been debased by the public service administration of what was once a fine community service.
This Liberal party needs to be made defunct.
Colluding with state Labor to put us through years of tyranny.
Silent about the thuggish behaviour of Vicpol and Andrews.
Utterly oblivious that their chosen leader swore himself in to five portfolios.
What were these clowns doing?
They sure as fuck were not safeguarding our Westminster system or representing voters.
Vote for anyone but these utter wankers or the green lunatics.
ftb – he must have been the clown I heard on the ALPBC the other day. Another useful idiot. The Academy is full of them.
The irony of the Liars complaining about the loss of civil society. It hurts.
“Elbow is attacking Tories.”
Elbow likes “fighting Tories and “smashing Tories”.
A total undermining of the cabinet system and destruction of proper lines of responsibility.
We have been subject to two years of dictatorship.
With state idiots hiding behind the public service and Morrison grabbing control of everything that should have been debated in Federal parliament, and establishing this abominable national cabinet.
The bastards have gone against everything our system stands for.
Mike’s name has been drawn into the courtroom drama about the defrauding of NAB by two women, Helen Mary Rosamond and Rosemary Rogers.
Among the largest of the allegedly fraudulent invoices issued was one for $2.2 million.
It was purportedly for ‘Project Eagle’ – the codename for the onboarding of former NSW premier Mike Baird as an NAB executive in 2017 – but instead was to cover a substantial amount for a home Rogers had purchased in Williamstown in Melbourne’s west. (Daily Mail via MSN news)
Begs the question – why would $2.2 million be deemed appropriate for the “onboarding” of Mike?
The whole defrauding scandal raises the tantalising issue of a Big Four Bank being so easily taken to the cleaners by two (alleged) scam artists. It seemed so easy for them – has fraud also been committed on a bigger scale by bigger players?
And it’s glorious that Eric Weinstein is giving it to Australia’s own Peter Doherty on twitter.
The Doherty institute needs to be thoroughly audited.
Holmes is into this up to his armpits. He’s as far from a disinterested observer as it’s possible to be. He originally was of the opinion that it was man made, then was “got at” and changed his tune. He’s been fully establishment ever since.
Those involved in GoF are still playing hard defense since if Trump gets in and investigations start, it could get life threatening for some of them.
It seemed so easy for them – has fraud also been committed on a bigger scale by bigger players?
Yes.
But it’s not fraud when banks do it.
Albanese typifies everything I despise about the Labor Party.
Always tip the doorman.
Government Expenditure crowds out charitable giving and volunteering.
I’m confused (as usual).
Are you suggesting that Baird got a cut of the 2.2million fraudulent “spotter’s fee”?
Given the state of the New Zealand government under PM Jacinda Ardern and the arsehat in government here in future we may be able to discern the outcomes for government based on the dentition of its Leader
Old School Conservativesays:
August 16, 2022 at 4:34 pm
And I was wrong about Mike Baird too. Apparently he is a decent person also. But that’s another story.
Mike’s name has been drawn into the courtroom drama about the defrauding of NAB by two women, Helen Mary Rosamond and Rosemary Rogers.
Lavish lunches ‘key to planning NAB fraud’
Rosemary Rogers, the former chief of staff to NAB chief executives Andrew Thorburn and Cameron Clyne, and Helen Rosamond, the owner of events company Human Group, met for lavish lunches in Sydney every few weeks to plan their alleged fraud of the big four bank, the Crown alleges.
Ms Rosamond is facing 92 charges of corruptly giving benefits to Rogers or her family, and 32 counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception, arising out of alleged falsified and inflated invoices issued to NAB over four years between 2013 and 2017 to the tune of about $15 million.
The trial, which is expected to take four months, began on Monday at Sydney’s Downing Centre.
Ms Rosamond has pleaded not guilty. Mr Thorburn and Mr Clyne are not accused of wrongdoing. Rogers will give evidence later in the trial.
Crown prosecutor Katrina Mackenzie detailed how Rogers would fly to Sydney from Melbourne to meet Mr Rosamond every few weeks and that the women, who in text messages between 2016 and 2018 referred to each other as “besties” and “sister from another mother”, would talk daily.
Rogers pleaded guilty in 2019 to charges of being an agent corruptly receiving a benefit. In January last year, she was sentenced to a combined eight years in jail, despite having helped authorities with their inquiries.
“They were meeting for lunch every few weeks … during the period of 2013 and 2018, and you’ll hear from Ms Rogers, these lunches were integral to the offending,” Ms Mackenzie said.
“Rogers could tell the accused what she wanted, they could work out what invoices they could add to, and they would work out whether they needed to create new invoices or they could just add to existing invoices.”
Allegations laid out
Ms Mackenzie stepped through the details of the accusations against Ms Rosamond to the 14-person jury. She detailed how Rogers received gifts, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in prepaid MasterCards, lavish family trips, flights, accommodation, home renovations and even payments related to boats, made by the Human Group.
The Crown alleges this was done by Ms Rosamond to curry favour with Rogers, and that Human Group’s contract was never properly audited, the allegedly fraudulent invoices never had any supporting documentation, and its contract was extended with NAB without tender.
Ms Mackenzie went through text messages that the Crown said was evidence that Ms Rosamond knew what she was doing was fraudulent.
This included an exchange over a Chaparral boat, worth about $145,000. Rogers traded in a Bayliner boat, leaving $115,000 left to pay.
“I will call Scott in the morning and say we’re going ahead with it and that you will be in touch. They think you’re my accountant ha,” Rogers texted to Ms Rosamond.
The court also heard Ms Rosamond organised and gave Rogers a weekend at Crown Towers in Melbourne for six people, after initially booking into the Hilton and moving “because the rooms were too small”, Ms Mackenzie said.
The wide-scale fraud came undone in December 2017 after a whistleblower informed NAB executives and the bank’s chairman of the scheme in which Rogers had received gifts from Ms Rosamond.
Ms Rosamond’s defence is yet to outline its case. The trial continues.
Link – Lavish lunches ‘key to planning NAB fraud’
Vote for anyone but these utter wankers or the green lunatics.
Though why not the green loon, accelerate Arky, accelerate and embrace the suck.
Perfesser Andrew Leigh: “I’m not stupid”.
Oh yes, you bloody well are. You’re a labore politician for starters.
Talk about clueless. You gift the plebs with two and half years of obscene fascist idiocy, destroy social cohesion over a period of decades creating an atomised society of tribes (we’re now a nation in name only), engineer an entirely avoidable economic disaster and now seek to divide us even further – yet you have the gall to wonder why there’s an alleged “civic crisis” and “collapse in community life”, while claiming you aren’t stupid.
Just f*ck off and die, you smarmy infuriating contemptible grinning imbecile.
Merrick Garland Goes Solo in Mar-a-Lago Search
Did Biden know about the Trump raid? If not, that’s truly disturbing.
More than a week after the morning FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Florida home, the White House continues to insist Joe Biden knew nothing about it.
Many find this hard to swallow. Not least Mr. Trump. On his website Truth Social he wrote, “Biden knew all about this, just like he knew all about Hunter’s ‘deals.’ ” Nevertheless, the White House insists that no one in the West Wing knew that Attorney General Merrick Garland and the FBI would be willing to break with more than two centuries of precedent without so much as a heads up to chief of staff Ron Klain.
There is, however, an argument for it. Because presidential ignorance here (or at least the pretense of it) serves a useful political game. And it isn’t finished playing out.
When the media began asking questions last Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “You know, the president and the White House learned about this FBI search from public reports. We learned, just like the American public did yesterday, and we did not have advance notice of this activity.” Ms. Jean-Pierre went on to say the president “has been very clear” that the Justice Department “conducts investigations independently.”
And the capper: “I’m just not going to comment on any reaction to what happened yesterday. We are going to refer any incoming to the Department of Justice.” She repeated that several times in response to different questions about the raid.
Notwithstanding Mr. Garland’s presser Thursday, the Justice Department hasn’t been forthcoming with key details because the Mar-a-Lago search is part of a continuing criminal investigation. Which means the American people get no answers from anyone.
Whatever this is, it isn’t the way the Framers thought about making democratic government accountable to the people. Contrary to what Mr. Biden seems to believe, the authors of the Constitution never envisioned anyone in the government being independent—except from the other branches.
Certainly we hope the raid fulfilled the objective criminal and statutory requirements—and wasn’t instigated for partisan reasons by the White House. We can all imagine what would happen if a president abused his power by badgering his attorney general to harass political enemies and go easy on political friends. Mr. Trump was himself often accused of this when he was president. A politicized Justice Department isn’t what anyone wants.
But the flip side is this: Do Americans really want an unelected attorney general making the unprecedented decision to send 30 FBI agents to the home of a former president and possible presidential candidate without at least running it by his boss, the sitting president?
Given how extraordinary the move was, wouldn’t a president want to have it run past him first?
Especially when it comes, as this does, against the backdrop of the FBI and Justice Department having lost the trust of millions of Americans by their actions of the past few years. FBI agents were caught making highly unflattering remarks about Mr. Trump and his supporters while pursuing a case against him based on a fake dossier fed them by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Not to mention one FBI official admitted to doctoring an email submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court to help make the case that Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was a Russian agent.
It’s true that in the years since our founding, many barnacles have grown on the original understanding of constitutional independence. Independent counsels, inspectors general and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are a few of the more recent contributions. But the record of these unelected overseers is dubious. In some cases they might have improved accountability. But in others they have eroded it.
Take the FISA court. The Carter Page warrant shows that it effectively insulates officials who deploy the most formidable powers of the federal government from the consequences of what should be an extraordinary decision: spying on a fellow American. Without a judge to give them cover, FBI agents and Justice officials would be far more responsible for their actions.
In some ways this is another expression of the growing administrative state. Today there exist dozens of agencies not really under the president’s control, making executive decisions that affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of ordinary Americans. When they are interpreting a question about which Congress was either ambiguous or silent, they effectively make law.
The cry is thus that unelected bureaucrats are exercising unchecked power against Americans. But that’s only half the story. The dirty secret is that many of the elective officeholders whose authority is being usurped don’t complain because it also means they can get what they want done without assuming any of the political cost. It’s the same with pols who wink at activist courts usurping their lawmaking functions because they agree with the outcome and are spared any of the political heat.
Maybe what President Biden says is true: He and everyone else in the White House had no idea the FBI was executing a search at Mar-a-Lago until they saw it on television with every other American.
If so, that’s even more disturbing.
The question was pretty simple. Did Baird get a cut?
I’m happy to revise my opinion based on the truth, not a bathtub full of legalese squid ink.
That’s the idea, for two reasons.
First is that they want anyone who needs assistance to look to Daddy. Which is the government.
Second charitable giving and volunteering are practices traditional to Christianity. Which they despise.
Heavens no calli.
I am staying that someone, somewhere in NAB thought that $2.2. was a legitimate expenditure when trying to get a former Premier into the business.
Then the bank would recoup that cost by profiting from Mike’s PS and government contacts in the years to come.
Boston Children’s Hospital: Children Know They Are Trans ‘the Minute They Were Born’
A harrowing video from the Boston Children’s Hospital claims that children can know that they are transgender “from the minute they were born, practically.”
The video was made by Dr. Jeremi Carswell, the Director of the Gender Multispeciality Service at the Boston Children’s Hospital.
The Boston Children’s Hospital is associated with Harvard University and was the first to establish a clinic that specifically focused on “transgender health” in a pediatric setting.
In the video, Carswell makes the startling claim that “A child will often know that they are transgender from the moment that they have any ability to express themselves.” She continues and doubles down, remarking, “They knew from the minute they were born, practically.”
Breitbart News previously revealed that Carswell has received thousands of dollars in compensation for consulting on behalf of Endo Pharmaceuticals, a company that makes a drug that is used off-label as a puberty blocker for children who are considered to be transgender.
An academic paper, authored in part by Carswell, had to be corrected after it was incorrectly asserted that the researchers had no conflict of interest.
Carswell is just one of many doctors to have received significant compensation from the companies that manufacture puberty blockers.
Carswell’s consultation regarded the drug Supprelin LA, which is used as a puberty blocker. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently warned that Supprelin LA can cause swelling of the brain and loss of vision.
In the video, Carswell cites a number of different behaviors that supposedly provide evidence that a child is transgender and may be suitable to undergo permanent, life-altering surgery or medical intervention, including playing with “opposite gender toys,” refusing to get a haircut, or trying on a sibling’s clothing.
Breitbart News previously reported that the Boston Children’s Hospital advertised “gender-affirming” hysterectomies for adolescents in a video.
Vicki
“I am disappointed how many Australians are drawn to the so called (paid) public service . So many volunteer organisations like the RFS and the SES have been debased by the public service administration of what was once a fine community service.”
Add in volunteer Marine Rescue.
does the biden cartel have any ideology beyond self enrichment
stealth eugenics
Story on Eddie Holmes extremely close research relationship with the Chinks.
Just think about this.
We live in a world where puberty blockers are considered a legitimate medication.
Less than 20 years ago it was accepted that wanting to change your physical sex was a form of mental illness.
What sounds more likely.
a: Chemical and surgical mutilation to make ones body match the external appearance otf the opposite sex is a normal medical procedure.
B: The desire to surgically /chemically mutilate your body to match the external appearance of the opposite sex is a mental illness.
New research: #MeToo movement hurt female productivity
CV data shows that fewer women academics are collaborating with men
Using CV data to track collaborations between economists over six years around #MeToo (2015-2020), researcher Marina Gertsberg discovered that junior female academics started 0.7 fewer projects per year than before. 60% of this decline can be attributed to a decrease in collaborations with new male co-authors, which broadly correlates with a reduction in growth of the co-author network.
Gertsberg attributes this fall to men unwilling to collaborate with women due to fears of accusations of sexual harassment. In fact, several surveys have found that men believe they are more vulnerable to false allegations of sexual harassment in a post-MeToo landscape, and are perhaps managing this perceived risk by reducing their exposure to women.
#MeToo’s original goal was to improve workplace conditions for women by holding men accountable for sexual misconduct.
This new research is significant because it highlights that the #MeToo movement had negative effects on women too. Junior researchers depend on collaboration with colleagues to build their reputation and qualify for tenure. But a reduction in interactions and professional collaborations “will exacerbate inequality between the career opportunities of men and women,” the paper concludes.
The MeToo movement intended to improve the workplace for women, but it may have had the unintended consequence of stalling their careers.
APPARENTLY THEY COULDN’T SEE THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEMANDING WE BELIEVE ALL WOMEN:
Because you know what? I’m a woman, and I wouldn’t trust half of the hysterics claiming they’ve been abused within three meters of me, let alone in the same meeting room. Once we got to #metoo accusations that boiled down to “he oppressed me with his male gaze” sane men were going to shut the door on any woman, to avoid getting put over the barrel. Only idiots, hysterics and Marxists (BIRM) couldn’t see that coming.
Thanks Barry
That is for people called Daryl. Not Lieboral scions.
Amakudari
Sometimes one might wonder who actually won WW2.
The Hill to Die On
This country was founded as a middle finger to tyranny and it’s about time we got back to those roots.
Growing up in our house, Election Night was like the Super Bowl. We would stay up late into the night watching the returns. The 2020 election was no different. That night, I watched Donald Trump take state after state with ease. Then I watched as votes started to fluctuate, barely trickled in, and then, with only a handful of states to go, I watched as counting was halted altogether. A sinking feeling crept over me as I witnessed things I had never seen in my life.
The media, the Left, and RINOs like to say that these “feelings” about Trump stem from a cult-like devotion to him. It couldn’t possibly be that for years, prior to the election, we observed an unprecedented witch hunt against him. Neither could it be that I, like many others, watched as states halted their counts under the flimsiest of circumstances. It certainly looked odd. Almost two years on, Americans still question—with evidence—whether or not the 2020 election was rigged.
And now, with last week’s raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, I felt that sinking feeling again. They are expecting us to believe that a raid that was authorized by a judge who had previously represented Jeffrey Epstein’s staff isn’t fishy? At what point does objecting to such “coincidences” stop being labeled conspiracy-thinking and start being recognized as a true representation of corruption?
What we have seen over the last year and a half, with hundreds of Americans locked up for a faux “insurrection,” sends a clear message of intimidation from the Justice Department, the FBI, and this administration. They are showing the American people what happens when they don’t conform.
This goes far beyond Trump. He is simply the one being used to bring their contempt for us and the things we want politically into the light. The ocean of corruption in our government has been building like a massive tidal wave for decades and many are just now seeing it.
Between now and November, be prepared for the Left to pull out all the stops. These are desperate times for those in power because they are realizing the stronghold they once held over the American people is weakening. Trust in the media is the lowest it’s ever been. The scourge of inflation, coupled with the obvious corruption of our governing elites, leaves us with the perfect storm where people cannot help but be energized.
This country was founded as a middle finger to tyranny and it’s about time we got back to those roots. As Americans we have to stop waiting for someone else to fix our problems. We have to be courageous enough to be our own saviors.
Seems you don’t end up in Wuhan or Ukraine by accident.
When he resigned in 2020 the SMH outlined that year’s payment to Mike from NAB:
Former New South Wales premier Mike Baird has pocketed more than $1.9 million from the National Australia Bank, accounting for just under 10 per cent of the total payments made to executives by the bank in financial year 2020.
Figures released in NAB’s annual report on Wednesday show Mr Baird was paid $677,791 in cash plus benefits and a cessation payment of $1.1 million or 26 weeks’ pay.
Not a cut of the $2.2m but a hefty package all the same.
Boston Children’s Hospital: Children Know They Are Trans ‘the Minute They Were Born’
A harrowing video from the Boston Children’s Hospital claims that children can know that they are transgender “from the minute they were born, practically.”
The video was made by Dr. Jeremi Carswell, the Director of the Gender Multispeciality Service at the Boston Children’s Hospital.
The skank is a looker.
The Fifth Law
Welcome back to the Scuttlebutt. – Pull up a chair and have a beer, let’s talk.
Anyway, Lehman’s Fifth Law of Politics (there are laws of politics, warfare, tool use, and life.) states: “Never create a political weapon that you don’t want to hand to your enemy to use against you. You will not be in power forever no matter what, and they will do unto you as you have done unto them, only they’ll have had the time to perfect it.”
Now the DNC just really have a problem understanding this, they keep making the same mistake. Killing the 2/3 majority for judges, killing the “home senator rule” for judges, playing with the House and Senate Parliamentary practice rules, calling things “funding bills” so they can use the reconciliation process…the list goes on and on, and every time they change the rules to benefit themselves, by the time they do it, they get one maybe two shots in, then they lose control of the body in question, and the RNC grab that stick and beat them soundly with it. I suspect this will be another one of those times.
Look, I’m not a particular fan of President Trump, I thought he batted about 450 during his time in office. (As a reference, RR batted 900, JFK 500, Carter and Biden barely made 050.)
Of course, part of that was that EVERY SINGLE BUREAUCRAT in the federal government was trying to sabotage his ass. On the other hand, every bureaucrat in the government right now is trying to prop up President Biden, and he’s still a total trainwreck, so there’s that.
I would really rather that he not run again. Not because I don’t want to see him in office, but because if he runs, he will be such a contentious figure as to further the divide, and push us ever closer to that oxymoron: a Civil War.
I am also under no delusion that there are no skeletons in his closet. With the laws that we have on the books today, we are nearly at full Lavrenti Beria (the head of the NKVD, forerunner to the KGB) mode here; he’s the guy that said: “Show me the man, and I’ll find you the crime.” There are so many laws when it comes to taxes, real estate law, employment law, etc… (and oh, wait, Trump was a businessman, specializing in real estate, before he was an entertainer, before he was president… So, yeah, I’m sure you can find a place that he crossed a line.) Hell, there’s enough contradictory law in real-estate development that in some states, to follow one law, you have to break another.
All of that said, the very idea of raiding the house of a former President should have gotten whoever suggested it, sent to McMurdo Station for a five-year tour, after a look that said “Have you lost your ever-loving MIND???” The fact that they went through with it, and did so while Trump and family were not even in residence, (thus you can’t make a case that “we need to do a raid right now because he’s going to destroy the evidence.”) shows the extremely political nature of both the AG who lost his shot at a Supreme Court seat because of Trump and a Judge who is both a political hack and a former employee of Mr. Epstein. https://nypost.com/2022/08/09/judge-who-approved-fbi-raid-on-mar-a-lago-once-linked-to-jeffrey-epstein/
We have had questionable Presidents before, (Taft, Grant, Jackson, Harding, Nixon, Reagan, (Iran Contra) Clinton, and one of my favorite whipping boys El B.J.) we have had presidents who came into office absolutely HATING their predecessors. (Nixon jumps immediately to mind) and yet, there was this unwritten rule that you don’t sic the Fearless Band of Idiots, (FBI) or the Infernal Reichstag Stormtroopers (IRS) on a past president, and you don’t sic them on a potential opposition candidate either.
But see, the real problems here are twofold:
you just gave half the country a Casus Belli. Yes, I am serious. There are a lot of folks out there right now that are wondering “well if they can pull this sort of shit on Trump, what can they do to little old me?” And a lot of folks thinking “this was indeed a put-up job, boxes of stuff were removed, with no accounting and inventoried chain of evidence apparent. That’s enough to make anything that’s presented later questionable from an evidence perspective, and thus “fruits of the poisonous tree” comes into play. The DOJ needs to get out in front of this RIGHT NOW, and senior heads need to roll if they want to preserve any shade of legitimacy.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Biden has a lot of possible culpability with Hunter’s laptop. There’s evidence of bribery, tax evasion, (“The big guy needs to get his cut”), and potentially: Espionage for things sold to and given to China, Ukraine, and Russia. This could blow up before the 2024 election, or after. (As well as the lesser included charge of acting as an agent of a foreign government without registering as such.)
But see, the real problems here are twofold:
you just gave half the country a Casus Belli. Yes, I am serious. There are a lot of folks out there right now that are wondering “well if they can pull this sort of shit on Trump, what can they do to little old me?” And a lot of folks thinking “this was indeed a put-up job, boxes of stuff were removed, with no accounting and inventoried chain of evidence apparent. That’s enough to make anything that’s presented later questionable from an evidence perspective, and thus “fruits of the poisonous tree” comes into play. The DOJ needs to get out in front of this RIGHT NOW, and senior heads need to roll if they want to preserve any shade of legitimacy.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Biden has a lot of possible culpability with Hunter’s laptop. There’s evidence of bribery, tax evasion, (“The big guy needs to get his cut”), and potentially: Espionage for things sold to and given to China, Ukraine, and Russia. This could blow up before the 2024 election, or after. (As well as the lesser included charge of acting as an agent of a foreign government without registering as such.)
Honestly, I don’t see any way this goes well unless sometime in the next 48 hours the Attorney General comes out with “this was done without my awareness or approval, all material has been returned to the president, and the director of the FBI, Judge Reinhart, the OIC, and SAIC have been fired, and we are conducting an investigation into who else was involved with this decision, more pink slips to come.” I don’t believe that’s going to happen, because I am quite sure that AG Garland is in this up to his slimy neck. This is often used rhetoric at this point, but sadly, it’s accurate. This is Banana Republic-type shit.
Haha, this one will piss Albo off.
Jordan Peterson declares Anthony Albanese’s ‘delusional’ climate change targets will ‘devastate’ Australia (Sky, 16 Aug)
Power mad? Ouch! Utterly preposterous? Ouch, ouch. Inexcusable? Oh the pain.
If the Libs had any balls they’d ask Albo and his ministers about this endlessly in Question Time.
It’d be great trolling.
Brendan Nelson was always too good a man for the filth that is politics — the repulsive Ghost who Talks too much undermined him totally — I recall when he was Minister for Education in the Howard Government and our unique little school for some of the most severely disabled children was going to close because of funding. Brendan Nelson came to the rescue and it stayed open because of the funding he put in place — the eventual closure was precipitated by the red-shoe-wearing, lazy, duplicitous, skinned-rabbit-armed creature from the Liberal Swamp and finally killed off completely by Julia Gillard (the grate Edjakayshun Minister)
Everything the left touches, turns to shit
‘I Don’t Care What These Blue-Haired Freaks Say!’: Mark Robinson Goes Scorched Earth On Woke Left
An even More Brilliant Article
Green No Deal
Welcome back to the Scuttlebutt. No, the title isn’t a misprint or editorial mistake.
Let’s talk about the “green” movement today.
So, that big front-end loader pictured above is a piece of mining equipment. It’s used to dig up the raw ore in open pit mines and take it to a dump truck which then takes it to the refinery/smelter (sometimes on-site, sometimes on the other end of the country. It depends on how big the mine is.)
The dump truck called a “Mining Machine” gets .3 MPG. The rig above burns 900-1000 gal of diesel in a 12-hour shift, figure the Mining Machine at maybe 20% of that, after all, it’s not running all the time, so that’s another 200 gal.
Then there’s the energy required to remove what mining engineers call “overburden.” That’s the shit that is in the way and must be removed to get to the ore. Industry-standard calculations for this are 3-20 tons (depending on where you are mining) of overburden for every ton of ore.
Let’s be charitable here and assume ONLY 3 tons. That means you’re burning the amount of fuel it takes to dig up 4 tons of stuff for every ton of ore, and every ton of ore gives you about .5% of the stuff needed to make one car battery for a Tesla. Industry figures show that for the lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and copper together to make ONE Tesla battery, you’re moving and refining 45 tons of ore. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/mines-minerals-and-green-energy-reality-check This doesn’t count the overburden.
Oh, and by the way, NO ONE has come up with an electric version of these machines, the tech isn’t there. If it was, the energy to build one would be beyond belief. In short, it’s a reasonable assumption that your Tesla battery cost about 100 barrels of oil to make. (this is probably lowballed)
The rest is superb – Read and Enjoy
Thanks OSC. The Wiki page is interesting also. That 2.2 million (or thereabouts) gets a workout there too.
Gosh that’s a lot of money, more than anyone in a normal type of job can ever aspire to – in one year.
Small beer compared to the CEO of CSL, but there it is.
best speech in living memory
And it’s glorious that Eric Weinstein is giving it to Australia’s own Peter Doherty on twitter.
The Doherty institute needs to be thoroughly audited.
The covid Lab leak theory dead
Relying on cluster cases around the Wuhan wet market supplied from the Chinese data.
They also couldn’t find precursor viral fragments at the Wuhan Lab, also supplied by the Chinese.
Dear Professors,
I have a pyramid for sale.
Shipping can be arranged.
If this is confirmed, this is all a storm in a teacup.
“This” being Labor’s attempt to demonise Morrison as a Trumpian figure (as ludicrous as that is) trashing our democracy.
Quigley, castigated as a person with a very loose association with the facts by a judge moves to reverse the onus of proof.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-16/wa-anti-discrimination-laws-to-be-overhauled/101339080
Under the current laws, the definition of sexual and racial harassment requires the victim to be disadvantaged by the conduct, or to reasonably believe it will cause disadvantage.
The long-criticised “disadvantage test” currently means workplace sexual harassment complainants have to prove they were harassed, and that challenging that behaviour disadvantaged them in their employment.
The review recommends that “it ought not be incumbent on the harassed person to navigate complex legal arguments to satisfy the disadvantage requirement”.
….
Mr Quigley outlined several reforms which are expected to be included in the new Equal Opportunity Act:
Removing the outdated “disadvantage test” for sexual harassment complaints
Strengthening equal opportunity protections for LGBTIQA+ staff and students in religious schools
Providing anti-discrimination protections to those who are trans, gender-diverse or non-binary
Extending the prohibition against sexual and racial harassment to members of parliament and staff
Protecting family and domestic violence victims from discrimination
Introducing anti-vilification laws
Strengthening victimisation provisions
They absolutely hate Christianity and the family.
Despise it.
And reversing the onus of proof ensures crackpots and weirdoes can engage in never ending lawfare against anyone they dislike.
If WA had an opposition Quigleys position would be untenable.
Palmer defamation trial judge says WA Attorney-General’s evidence ‘all over the shop’
One of the nation’s top silks has given an extraordinary dressing down to Western Australia’s first law officer over what he described as “outright silly” evidence presented to the court during Clive Palmer’s defamation case against Mark McGowan.
“We live in a world where puberty blockers are considered a legitimate medication.”
We live in a world where the mutilation of children, through both surgery and medication, is considered a legitimate action, all to satisfy perverts, queer theorists and autogynephiles who, if they can’t sexually destroy children, will happily medically destroy children.
Prior to 21 May 2022, Katherine Deves was excoriated, smeared, ridiculed, denounced, condemned and had her character assassinated, even spineless Liberal wets joined in the denunciations and condemnations, all because Deves spoke the truth about puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and the surgical mutilation of children.
Deves has since been vindicated. I await apologies from Matt Green Kean, Karma Sharma, Rent Zimmerboy and others Liberal scum to Deves but who am I kidding, she’ll be waiting in vain. The good news is though that, apart from one, all are currently jobless. And the one remaining will be jobless after March 2023.
Will the ghost of Bob Hawke be present at Albo’s job summit? Will delegates be provided with a ouija board?
Indeed, Roger. I don’t like Morrison for a second but this looked like a stitch up from the beginning.
My thoughts also.
He’ll certainly be haunting Elbow.
Big shoes (in Elbow’s estimation, at least) to fill.
But with technical full employment, and Labor flagging re-starting the immigration ponzi, isn’t it redundant?
In any case, as long as Elbow comes out of it waxing lyrical its purpose will have been served. Meanwhile, Australian workers can look forward to another decade of depressed wages and declining living standards.
Dear Santa, all i want for Christmas is…
https://spectator.org/does-donald-trump-have-jeffrey-epstein-client-list/
Why didn’t ScuMo appoint himself leader of the Opposition while he was at it?
You’ve got to hand it to the woman, first class gibberish without peer.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/08/kamala-harris-space-oddity.php
It’s early days but Elbow is already disappearing in the job. He’s a naturally inconsequential figure.
The ScoMo exposè commentary by Elbow is ridiculous for a governing PM. You’re in power mate, look like it.
That night, I watched Donald Trump take state after state with ease. Then I watched as votes started to fluctuate, barely trickled in, and then, with only a handful of states to go, I watched as counting was halted altogether. A sinking feeling crept over me as I witnessed things I had never seen in my life.
Yes I was the same way- Trump was winning as you would expect.
Jordan Peterson, for whom I have the highest regard, reads his recent article in The Telegraph.
Link failed to appear in previous comment.
““This” being Labor’s attempt to demonise Morrison as a Trumpian figure (as ludicrous as that is) trashing our democracy.”
Yep.
What does that even mean? I got the last word, which is “space” but the rest was sort of random syllables assembled together.
I liked her equity speech last week:
Yep for equity we really do have to pay attention to equity.
Scientist: Wuhan Lab Researched Lethal Nipah Virus; China Tech Firms Share Algorithms with Regime
China in Focus – NTD
00:51 Scientist: Wuhan Lab Researched Lethal Nipah Virus
04:09 U.S. Lawmakers Visit Taiwan 12 Days After Pelosi
07:33 China: Economic Recovery Slows, Difficulties Ahead
08:45 #Heatwave Grips Part of Southern China
09:23 Shanghai: IKEA Shoppers Flee Sudden Lockdown
10:42 China Tech Firms Share Algorithms with Regime
Can’t help himself.
He fights Tories.
Including imaginary ones like SloMo.
It’s early days but Elbow is already disappearing in the job. He’s a naturally inconsequential figure.
The ScoMo exposè commentary by Elbow is ridiculous for a governing PM. You’re in power mate, look like it.
Just another slimy campus marxist who’s never had a real job. Politics really does attract the worst of the worst.
biden is a moth eaten sock puppet and kamala is a spent condom
kamala is a spent condom
screwed her way to the top as they say
That’s the way politicians are supposed to speak in public. Trump doesn’t, so they declare him uncouth.
Kamala has enormous amounts of couth.
She also produces these vapid platitudes very very gravely. With strange handwaving. It’s wonderfully hilarious.
Yep. And a few of us subscribers who hang out on Catallaxy are hanging in at the Oz specifically to uptick and add our own views to the often very good comments from the centre right that appear after every Sheriden TDS brain-dump. As far more comments from the right get axed by editors, it is imporant to redress the balance where we can.
If we all go away then there is no sense of opposition to the drivel we pay for and are scornful about.
Might as well just watch more Netflix.