Open Thread – Tue 30 Aug 2022


Boulevard de Clichy, Paul Signac, 1886

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The Beer whisperer
The Beer whisperer
August 30, 2022 12:27 am

Foist!

Biden loses Baghdad green zone. A special kind of idiot.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
August 30, 2022 12:34 am

Second!
Caol Ila

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
August 30, 2022 1:08 am

From the ol Fred- all my own werk, damned if I’m going to let all my typing fade away without the chance for someone to tee off on my conceits

Youngest is in PEAC course, primary extension and challenge. Kids are picked on academic ability and thinking skills, although year after year the chosen are 9/10 girls, so methinks there’s a thumb on the scales.
So far, they have-
-built a diorama of a city of the future
-made lego robot police
-written free-verse poems about ancient Chinese maths
-presented a quiz show starring their favourite Greek superheroes
-acted a play with the minor characters from fairy tales
…and a few other low-energy fingerpainting activities. I’ve stopped myself from asking her about it, because all and sundry can read my bafflement at the pointless pettiness of what they “work on”. I had discourse with the course co-ordinator early on after she sent a ditzy “thanks for letting us have your children, we’re going to make their dreams a reality and teach them how to change the world for the better!!!” cover letter out. I have banned myself from contact her again.
I mean, jeeezus crist. I did PEAC last century and it was matchsticks and baking soda and tidy girls from the fancy town schools, but I know now that it was chemistry, engineering, maths, and work work work, crunching concepts and equations and taking measurements.
The latest bit of tat to come through was a consent form for publishing names and photos on their amazing social media platforms to show the interwebs the amazing workings and learnings of our wonderful talented kiddies- not even from PEAC but from a third party provider who was running a dumbarse “tournament” in a city up the way. The tournament involved making costumes from recycled materials, and some sort of five minute play about what Mr MacGregor did with Peter’s dad when he got caught.
I flat out said no- (wifey has probably fished it out of the bin and signed it, conformity with the crowd is essential for Kiddo’s mental health)- names and faces on Facebook has got nothing to do with educating kids, it’s simply free advertising for the company on the smartfone pixel-go-round of the mummies. I’m very wary that the soft-serve Disney+ curriculum and affirmation of the crowd is replacing the self-respect that a kid gets by ploughing through difficult work, difficult times, difficult classmates.
At a glance, the whole PEAC program could now be mistaken for a scheme to take the brainy girls out of school and water down their diet to the point where they really really wanna just be Tik Tok ditzes.

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 1:12 am

Apparently there was a big media turnout for Ben Cook yesterday
#cookVsCrook on twitter

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 1:49 am

I was thinking about paper goods shortages, no doubt there are problems.
Supermarkets all seem to have rearranged their shelves to hide the decline, no longer are there dedicated paper goods aisles with tp, tissues and paper towel, paper towel is somewhere else, tissues are sometimes next to tp, or on the other side or round the corner, never do you see all brands in all sizes at the same time, it’s feast or famine and not a single company feels the need to offer half price or even 40% off ‘specials’. Haven’t seen those since the end of 2021.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 30, 2022 2:30 am

Wally, a local school’s Gifted and Talented unit started up a Blitz Chess tournament, with prizes for the top three in each year level.

The kids have to play every other student in their year three times. They took to it like fish to water.

Petros
Petros
August 30, 2022 3:37 am

The doctors in Qld have a funding page set up for those who wish to contribute it appears. Was it true that AHPRA had forbid doctors from saying anything other than positive things about the vaccines? Would it have made a difference to their patients if they knew that?

Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 4:12 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
August 30, 2022 4:21 am

Shane Gillis was at Mar a Lago a few months ago as a guest of another billionaire.
He says Trump controls the play list that gets piped around the joint & he’s regularly hitting repeat or skipping tracks depending on mood.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 30, 2022 5:09 am

The Federalist.
Long column.

https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/29/redacted-mar-a-lago-affidavit-confirms-bidens-doj-fished-for-a-crime-to-pin-on-trump/

The affidavit then summarized the background of the NARA referral, explaining that “on February 9, 2022, the Special Agent in Charge of NARA’s Office of Inspector General sent a referral via email to the DOJ.” The referral explained that the NARA’s White House Liaison Division director had reviewed 15 boxes NARA had retrieved from Mar-a-Lago including “newspapers, magazines, printed news articles, photos, miscellaneous print-outs, notes, presidential correspondence, personal and post-presidential records, and ‘a lot of classified records.’” “Of most significant,” the search warrant affidavit explained, was that “highly classified records were unfoldered, intermixed with other records, and otherwise unproperly [sic] identified.”

How did this get out of the lab?
The lab being the FBI leadership thought bubble.

bespoke
bespoke
August 30, 2022 5:30 am

I’m very wary that the soft-serve Disney+ curriculum and affirmation of the crowd is replacing the self-respect that a kid gets by ploughing through difficult work, difficult times, difficult classmates

Toxic maternalism, Wally.

min
min
August 30, 2022 5:58 am

Awake early from pain related to gall bladder . This problem has only occurred since three vaccinations. Anyway update as I have been off air for awhile . Just celebrated ? The first anniversary since the new man in my life walked through my door during lockdown . Our story reads like a Hallmark rom com and is the basis for book I am writing as few in the genre of oldies’ romances and the difficulties that arise . For example instant magic when we first touched hands, but he is a grieving widower , Methodist background I am only the second woman he has slept with after 50 year plus marriage. Just as well I had trained in sex therapy in my professional life , let you Cat guys think about the problems in that area. Well he is like a little boy in the Lolly shop with his stolen money box so we have cognitive dissonance causing problems . Hot sex followed by self downing as I am misbehaving , unfaithful to my dead wife whom he nursed for at least 5 years with Alzheimer’s until he had to put her into care where she died 16 months ago., so early days in grieving . We live in the same retirement apartments and over the 12 months have been away on short trips although latest a 10 day Captain’s Choice. when we have wonderful , happy times we get on really well, lots of laughing unfortunately got Covid on day back . He has spent the last 19 days in isolation not even being able to see each other for first 7 days.
This btw is the first time we had not been together we meet each day even for just a talk. So there he is in his dungeon surrounded by the memorial to his wife and avoids touching me . This is not just Covid, we have had periods like this over the 12 months when he pulls away . How I interpret this is he is avoiding temptation by keeping physical distance from me , no touching a brief kiss to avoid .cognitive dissonance. So Cats typical thinking I am the cause .not his belief system do I explain or just wait it out again and write another chapter of the book Happenstance.
How we met , Grand daughter and I-bought a house off market in first day of lockdown. I had not seen it and son suggested to find a surveyor who were allowed to work to do measurements of land and we could sneak in when they were there. Talking with staff here found out that a surveyor had bought an apartment here so ring and see if he could do the job. Well not that job and we have been together ever since . Granddaughter, a doctor laughingly told me that I am the only successful matchmaking she has achieved this year.
He has introduced me to all his friends who have told me I am the best thing that had happened to him .

bespoke
bespoke
August 30, 2022 6:08 am

May have to learn to live his past memorys, min. Helen rote a touching story years ago about how she honoured her husbands dead wife.

Mater
August 30, 2022 6:21 am

Dr Faustus says:
August 29, 2022 at 10:56 pm

I probably should also have noted that, on exactly the same basis, since the early vaccine trials, I have also been critical of those who believed the statistically impossible dream that Covid vaccines would deliver Herd Immunity.

Statistics not necessary.
The fact that it doesn’t give immunity seems to make all calculations redundant.

I’ll be generous and pretend it actually does something to negate the symptoms. It’s then like calculating how many boxes of Codral it takes to achieve herd immunity from the common cold.

Petros
Petros
August 30, 2022 6:38 am

That’s beautiful, min. Let him have his times to grieve and remember her. He’ll keep coming back for more. Maybe meet in public sometimes just for non-intimate catch ups. Forgive his seemingly distant nature when he is in that state. Not sure you were inviting comment from us so I apologise for the unsolicited advice if you weren’t.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 6:40 am

At age seven you can have an operation to “become” a girl, but you can’t buy whipped cream until you are 21.

It’s now illegal for anyone under 21 to buy whipped cream canisters in New York, officials say it’s to stop teens from inhaling nitrous oxide (28 Aug, via Surber)

Maybe they’re afraid whipped cream will cause global warming.

min
min
August 30, 2022 6:44 am

bespoke trained in grief counselling as well so able to sit and listen to his pain . He spent a fortune on her tomb which he visits every Saturday . He he has taken me there when the marble angel arrived from Italy . I stood there and spoke to her saying that I would look after her beloved until it was time for him to join her .

min
min
August 30, 2022 6:52 am

Thank you Petros yes I was asking advice from male point of view. Of course we meet in public, often dine out , go out with his friends have met his family that are another 4 chapters in the book , I get along really well with his daughter but sons have huge personal problems which have been problematic as well .

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 7:05 am

Remember when that darn Abbott tried to introduce a paltry $7 co-payment for GP visits, and you campaigned so hard against it, ABC?
Now it’s $60 to $80 as GPs wind back bulk billing.
Patients charged expensive out-of-pocket fees as doctors stop bulk billing

H B Bear
H B Bear
August 30, 2022 7:18 am

Shane Gillis was at Mar a Lago a few months ago as a guest of another billionaire.
He says Trump controls the play list that gets piped around the joint & he’s regularly hitting repeat or skipping tracks depending on mood.

Sounds like every party I’ve ever been at.

H B Bear
H B Bear
August 30, 2022 7:19 am

I’m cool with that until the Supertramp starts.

Indolent
Indolent
August 30, 2022 7:24 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
August 30, 2022 7:26 am

Trump has a wing at Mar a Lago that is like a compound within the Mar a Lago compound.
He only comes out to the dining room or the other facilities a few times a week.
Seems like an awful place.

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 7:31 am

At least Trump isn’t playing Meat Loaf’s greatest hits over and over, or even worse, the Rocky Horror Picture Show album.

Indolent
Indolent
August 30, 2022 7:33 am

And we bicker about their intentions re Covid. Occam’s Razer is quoted quite a bit here. I would suggest that it clearly shows that every single thing happening is planned and deliberate. And that would include the war in Ukraine.

A Global Food Crisis is Coming :: By Britt Gillette

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 7:34 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
August 30, 2022 7:37 am

Twitter tells me there was some music awards show overnight.
The pictures of the event really appear to be end of empire kind of stuff.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
August 30, 2022 7:37 am

A good laugh to start the day from rosie’s link to the Cook Foods scandal: “Let’s slug it out Dan”

custard
custard
August 30, 2022 7:38 am

https://bioclandestine.substack.com/p/trump-2022

Trump calls for 2020 election to be reversed or new election immediately.

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 7:40 am

The Guardian critising Andrews over the rail trail.
They’ve actually published an article by liberal Matthew Bach.
Oh and it’s about high density housing around each railway station for a radius of 1.6km.
Property developers, immigration ponzies.
Melbourne’s suburban rail loop relies on trickle-down economic logic that would make Thatcher proud

Petros
Petros
August 30, 2022 7:44 am

OK cool min. A lot of people don’t want to hear about someone’s former partner, even if they are deceased. Sad really. He probably wants to talk about her a lot and have you involved in those reminiscences. Many people are threatened by that. They feel that they can never measure up to the former love. Be chill with that aspect of the relationship and you will have a wonderful relationship IMHO. The sons will be in his ear, unfortunately. There are gold-diggers about. Do your best to allay any such fears. It may work, but probably not. I’ll shut up now.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
August 30, 2022 7:46 am

the self-respect that a kid gets by ploughing through difficult work, difficult times, difficult classmates

Definitely.
My 9 yo grandson’s rugby team lost their grand final on Sunday.
I think that dealing with the loss has the potential for more positives in his emotional development than a win on the day.

Eyrie
Eyrie
August 30, 2022 7:46 am

Dr Faustussays:
August 29, 2022 at 10:56 pm
Looking back, I see I’ve spent the day laying sword to Trusted Bloggers promising death to Covid jabbees on the basis of shite statistics.

You made comments about an article without having read it properly. Another scroll by from now on.

Cassie of Sydney
August 30, 2022 7:46 am

“Remember when that darn Abbott tried to introduce a paltry $7 co-payment for GP visits, and you campaigned so hard against it, ABC?”

Yep, and I remember how quickly Abbott and Hockey caved and capitulated to the leftist mobs, just like they did with Section 18C. I often wonder what would have ensued if they’d stood firm.

It was a harbinger of the Liberal years in office, all the way up to 21 May 2022. Wasted years.

132andBush
132andBush
August 30, 2022 7:47 am

Trump calls for 2020 election to be reversed or new election immediately.

Trump still has every ability to frig this up for the GOP.
Raid or no raid.

Bear Necessities
Bear Necessities
August 30, 2022 7:49 am

Definitely.
My 9 yo grandson’s rugby team lost their grand final on Sunday.
I think that dealing with the loss has the potential for more positives in his emotional development than a win on the day.

We took my son to the Australian Track and Field Championships this year. He hadn’t put the work in but we decided to let him go due to it being an experience he might not get again. He came nearly last in his event and he was disappointed. Out of this he realised he had to pull his finger out to become competitive against the best. His times have improved accordingly.

Failure can be a reward in some circumstances.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
August 30, 2022 7:50 am

Min, thanks for your tale, it was quite touching. I can read the butterflies in the stomach, and the swings between elation and restraint that you and your boo must be going through.
If he’s not 100% touchy feely all the time, I’d say first that mental load can blind the most ardent lover to the comforts of their partner- and also, you could dangle sex on a stick in front of any bloke over the age of about forty and still be left wondering. It’s a hormone-blood pressure thing.
Is he naturally affectionate? Does he hold hands, or sit with an arm around you or hand on leg? In our happy fam I joke that me, our eldest and my dog are the cuddlers, but the wifey, youngest and her mutt are the career sheepdogs- needing praise but wholly uncomfortable with close contact.
If that close contact posture changes over time, then yep, he’s probably working through a few loads of mental process. If he still sits with you and skin contact, even if only a finger, then that’s where the real glue of the bond hangs on, and it’s an even more important sign than fiddling with bra straps.

Eyrie
Eyrie
August 30, 2022 7:51 am

Surprise, surprise, the SLS (aka Senate Launch System – never let politicians design rockets) failed to launch last night. Fortunately just a scrub so the pork will continue to flow. Good comment over at http://www.transterrestrial.com

One of the many stupid things about the SLS design is that it uses hydrogen from sea level to orbit. Shuttle was down for weeks once with a pesky hydrogen leak.
I like to think of it as the prototype for a Hydrogen powered economy that California has legally mandated starting in 2035.

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 7:53 am

I see Clive Palmer was a fly in the ointment in the upper house, “Clive Palmer kills off GP co-payment’s Senate chances”.
What a champion.
Perhaps Abbott has his hands tied.
the ABC actually published a timeline, took ten months before they abandoned the policy

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 30, 2022 7:57 am

Min that so nice and sad at the same time. He may think if he lets her memory go, he’ll lose his own memories of the last fifty years. When my young son died I had nightmares every night. I knew I was dreaming. In the the dream he asked me to come with him till one night I sat up and told him to go away. No more nightmares. It was worse than the nightmares. Took another 15 years for all the beautiful memories to return. 28 years in a couple of weeks. I don’t want the pain to go away, if anything, it makes joy of my family even better. You’ve already decided the effort is worth it. Time will tell but its the only thing we’re short of. The lolly shop analogy made me smile. Take care.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 8:00 am

Indolentsays:
August 30, 2022 at 7:24 am
Think we got it wrong?
Here’s a handy checklist for how you can put us on the right path.

Steve Kirsch responding to the criticism.

Excellent Find – Expands well

Steve Kirsch’s newsletter

Think we got it wrong?

Here’s a handy checklist for how you can put us on the right path.

Executive Summary

I received an email today from a former Stanford doctor who wrote:

“Steve, I respect you and all you have accomplished. I looked carefully at the articles you sent and I saw nothing. I’m not going to engage with you on this any further. As I said before, I hope that you will find an alternative use for your time, talent and treasure–the world needs it.”

I’m happy to find an alternative use for my time if someone would spend a few minutes explaining to me and my colleagues how we got it wrong. But so far, there have been no takers. They won’t engage.

I’d even be willing to pay someone for their time to convince us. But they all quickly give up when I ask them to explain all the anomalies that we’ve observed such as the list below.

So I wanted to make it clear how we got stuck on the wrong path and what a Good Samaritan can do to help set us back up on the right path.

Any takers?

How to convince us we’re wrong: a handy checklist

Here is a checklist of things that bother me and my fellow “misinformation spreaders”:

23 Items Follow

Real scientists use all the available evidence to determine which hypothesis is the correct one. There is only one truth here and we shouldn’t be ignoring the abundance of evidence in front of us.

There was a great article about this written by Norman Doidge entitled “Medicine’s Fundamentalists” which talks about the “all-available-evidence approach.” It should be read by every doctor in America. This is how science works.

When we look at all the available evidence, a very consistent story emerges for us: the vaccines are a disaster.

Here’s a small sample of the evidence we consider in forming our position. All these sources are consistent with each other in showing the vaccines should be stopped. How can that happen if the vaccines are safe?

These 32 examples are examples of what I mean by all the available evidence. All of these 32 sources would be ignored by the mainstream medical community. That’s not how science is supposed to work.

Science encourages us to use all pieces of evidence.

If you have the right hypothesis, all that evidence should be consistent with your hypothesis.

We find it impressive that all 32 sources are consistent with the “the vaccines are too unsafe to use” hypothesis.

Summary

So-called “misinformation spreaders” such as myself and my friends are all data-driven.

The way you can convince us we are wrong is to show us that your hypothesis better explains the data than our hypothesis including all 32 datapoints.

Appeals to authority will not work.

To date, nobody from the mainstream medical community or press wants to engage us in a discussion of the data fit.

The world should find that very troubling.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
August 30, 2022 8:01 am

My 9 yo grandson’s rugby team lost their grand final on Sunday.
Had a funny couple of days after yr5 netball grittily won their qualifying final, forfeited the match because of unfilled team sheet, offered a tech loss and re-entry into playoffs, and our cadre of mums launched into a multi-front war on the other team’s skulduggery (I’d put my foot in in with a badly judged joke to their RBF scorer who held the team sheets while I was timekeeping- I don’t get to netty much) which culminated in a Sunday afternoon gin-n-bitching session where they drafted a letter to the association, but backed off thankfully.
1- don’t attribute to malice that which can be explained as incompetence
2- don’t be like the Sydney-Hobart or Olympic mens hockey, and witter away your honour with petty appeals and protests
3- the girls get the better tale to tell, by far, and heaps more game time prep on their way forward, surely that’s what it’s all about?

Perfidious Albino
Perfidious Albino
August 30, 2022 8:03 am

Min – does he know about the book?!

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 30, 2022 8:04 am

apparently Andrews scheduled a press conference at the same time as Ian Cook but the media chose Cook, round one to Ian.

I bet the Andrews Media and Research Battalion were astonished – having scoured Fakebook and Twatter it was obvious that Dan is popular with near unanimous support. And the battalion expected this since they put up more than half of fakes and the twats.

Perfidious Albino
Perfidious Albino
August 30, 2022 8:05 am

Indolent – Well of course someone called Gillette is going to reference Occams Razor…

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 8:10 am

rosiesays:
August 30, 2022 at 7:34 am
It’s everywhere
Industrial disputes in New Zealand could lead to toilet paper shortage

Time, to quote Walli Dali (any relation to Salvador?) above, as it is the same in my Family

Time to get the Career Sheepdog to stock up – Not being MCP, as not allowed to Woolies/Coles/Aldi shop as I am regarded as indiscriminate and buy on impulse – so not allowed out on my own shopping

In our happy fam I joke that me, our eldest and my dog are the cuddlers, but the wifey, youngest and her mutt are the career sheepdogs- needing praise but wholly uncomfortable with close contact.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 30, 2022 8:10 am

Statistics not necessary.
The fact that it doesn’t give immunity seems to make all calculations redundant.

Quite true now, after the fact.

However the trick was to use maths and statistics to inform the decision – before embarking on a failed strategy.

And that was done here by the Cat Collective in 2020, out of R numbers and the early vaccine trial results.
Sadly, nowhere else it seems.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 8:10 am

Shane Gillis was at Mar a Lago a few months ago as a guest of another billionaire.
He says Trump controls the play list that gets piped around the joint & he’s regularly hitting repeat or skipping tracks depending on mood.

Kerry Packer used to do this when he owned Nine in the days before video cassettes. Suddenly of an evening normal programming would be interrupted and they’d start playing a movie.

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 8:18 am

I have a long term solution. Ban e-scooters from ‘shared’ pedestrian cyclists pathways.
I presume government purpose in providing them is to encourage exercise.
Julia was knocked down by an e-scooter and her medical bill was $15,000. So who’s financially liable?

Cassie of Sydney
August 30, 2022 8:19 am

“I see Clive Palmer was a fly in the ointment in the upper house, “Clive Palmer kills off GP co-payment’s Senate chances”.
What a champion.”

Indeed. Yet just over a hundred days ago one or two here were claiming how Clown Palmer was the saviour for disaffected conservatives. Fortunately, many here have better and longer memories. We remember Clown Palmer’s involvement in the anti-Abbott train, in fact he was one of the drivers, so much so that he was an ABC fave.

Tom
Tom
August 30, 2022 8:20 am

He spent a fortune on her tomb which he visits every Saturday . He he has taken me there when the marble angel arrived from Italy . I stood there and spoke to her saying that I would look after her beloved until it was time for him to join her .

Min, good luck with the book, but, in truth, you don’t need luck as you have fantastic material to work with — such a great story. Let me know via Dover if you need any help with structure and editing.

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 8:22 am

What happened to Rudd’s Murdoch Royal Commission?
Surely that was the first thing on Labor’s agenda post election.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 8:22 am

The AFR View

Will the summit be a political stitch-up cloaked in talk of consensus?

In an open global economy, continuing to handicap wealth-producing enterprises with outdated workplace rules and restrictions beggars belief.

US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkish warning that he will lift interest rates high enough for long enough to defeat inflation should be the reality check that frames discussion at the Jobs and Skills Summit on Thursday and Friday.

The prospect of a hard-landing slowdown in the US that pitches the global economy into recession would threaten hopes for a soft landing in Australia that would preserve the half-century-low sub-4 per cent jobless rate.

Even by the official soft-landing forecasts, Australia’s economic growth will slow to less than 2 per cent next year. This should focus the summit discussion on an incentive-sharpening reform agenda that would drive jobs, investment, productivity and wages. Instead, it’s looking like a preordained political stitch-up and union power grab cloaked in the language of consensus.

The sector-wide “pattern bargaining” deal struck between the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia and the Australian Council of Trades Unions means there will be no united business front at the summit pushing back against the union agenda.

Labor is talking up the COSBOA-ACTU deal as a needed consensus between unions and business. But as far as can be discerned, the ACTU’s technical concessions on the operation of the enterprise bargaining “better off overall test” (BOOT) is relatively minor and a small price for gaining a potential beachhead into Australia’s 2.4 million small businesses.

Anthony Albanese has talked about reviving productivity to drive nominal wages growth that isn’t just eaten away by price inflation. But he has not backed that talk with any genuine policy substance, such as simply calling for the restoration of Paul Keating’s enterprise bargaining system, designed to deliver win-win agreements in higher-paying, higher-performance workplaces.

Before the summit has even started, Mr Albanese told the National Press Club on Monday that he is not waiting for everyone to agree on everything, and has promised to legislate to rubber stamp the pattern bargaining deal that unions seek to boost their institutionalised power. While Mr Albanese comes from the party’s Whitlamite social activist wing, he seems set to endorse the ACTU’s sector-wide bargaining demand – not included in Labor’s election mandate – as political insurance against being undermined, like Kevin Rudd, by the “faceless” union bosses.

But why is the peak body for small business getting into bed with the ACTU and enrolling in the industrial relations club? ACTU Secretary Sally McManus and COSBOA Chief Executive Alexi Boyd suggest that opting into union-negotiated, industry-wide agreements will give small business a more flexible alternative to inflexible industrial awards full of “wage theft”-style complexities.

Highly prescriptive awards are the lynchpin of Australia’s rigid workplace framework, which grants union’s enormous institutional power via the monopoly legal right to represent workers in award and bargaining negotiations. Providing small business with relief from onerous awards should be a good thing, though it’s hard to see why it needs ACTU approval to do so, or how it squares with imposing workplace arrangements struck by those without any skin in the actual business.

As Wesfarmers managing director Rob Scott said last week: “We need to work with our team to find new ways of working more efficiently. And that flexibility that we require can really only be unlocked through enterprise agreements that are company-specific.”

The COSBOA-ACTU deal is a reminder that the origins of Australia’s industrial relation system include a preference by smaller businesses to regulate away undercutting by new entrants – in other words, competition. Now, assistant Treasurer and economist Andrew Leigh argues that a lack of new business formation and waning market dynamism – or competition – lies behind Australia’s productivity slowdown. Extending union influence into small businesses and imposing one-size-fits-all wage bargains on disparate businesses can only make this worse.

It still has to play out, but this jobs summit appears headed towards dragging Australia’s outdated industrial relations system back to its early 20th-century class-conflict origins, rather than using the pandemic to recast a modern workplace framework based on co-operation, mutual benefit and teamwork to help grow a bigger pie for all to share.

As global uncertainty hangs over how the inflation fight ends, is the first such government-endorsed summit for 40 years really going to do nothing to fix Australia’s great industrial relations act of economic self-harm?

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 8:26 am
rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 8:34 am
thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 30, 2022 8:37 am

ABCcess “news”

Or agitprop as its better known.

“Hmm, what shall we report on today? I know lets give a fundament clean to a pair of green loons…again”…

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-30/emily-townsend-alex-hillman-quit-their-jobs-over-climate-change/101320660

duncanm
duncanm
August 30, 2022 8:38 am

Petrossays:
August 30, 2022 at 3:37 am
The doctors in Qld have a funding page set up for those who wish to contribute it appears. Was it true that AHPRA had forbid doctors from saying anything other than positive things about the vaccines? Would it have made a difference to their patients if they knew that?

Petros. Yes. It is true.

See https://www.ahpra.gov.au/News/2021-03-09-vaccination-statement.aspx

‘The codes of conduct for each of the registered health professions explain the public health obligations of registered health practitioners, including participating in efforts to promote the health of the community and meeting obligations on disease prevention,’ Mr Simmonds said.

‘There is no place for anti-vaccination messages in professional health practice, and any promotion of anti-vaccination claims including on social media, and advertising may be subject to regulatory action.’

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 30, 2022 8:38 am

Just the facts m’amn!

In the summer of 2019/20, ash from millions of burned hectares and billions of cremated animals darkened the skies over Sydney, settling on heads and shoulders and seeping into sealed offices.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
August 30, 2022 8:38 am

100% true. Extensively covered on Senator Gerard Rennicks web page in his news section.

Combined with poor media coverage and lack of questioning the “experts”and this resulted in only one narrative being able to be heard.

“Was it true that AHPRA had forbid doctors from saying anything other than positive things about the vaccines?”

Eyrie
Eyrie
August 30, 2022 8:39 am

Nice little take from Eugyppius this morning:

the economic saboteur collective known as the Green Party

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 8:41 am

Not really; masks on domestic flights might be scrapped and covid isolation period reduced from seven to five days.
Huge changes to two hated remaining COVID rules could be announced this week

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 30, 2022 8:46 am

Is this what a “Voice” will look like?

‘Tear up and rewrite Burrup compact’, says traditional owner
Paul Garvey
Senior Reporter
8:58PM August 29, 2022
22 Comments

The agreement that formalised industry access to the culturally sensitive Burrup Peninsula should be torn up and rewritten in light of revelations about the unheeded concerns of the region’s key Indigenous group, a senior traditional owner says.

Raelene Cooper, a former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, the group established as part of the Burrup and Maitland Industrial Estates Agreement that extinguished nat­ive title claims over the area more than 20 years ago, is now one of the heads of Save Our Songlines, a breakaway Indigenous activist group that has been campaigning against several new and expanded industrial developments in the Burrup area.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek last week decided against granting an application from Save Our Songlines for a temporary freeze on construction works at Perdaman’s proposed $4.5bn urea plant, after MAC did not support the application.

Burrup proponents Woodside Energy and Perdaman have repeatedly highlighted their support for MAC initiatives and consultation work with the group over development plans in the region, but a letter obtained by The Australian last week showed that MAC and its circle of elders had repeatedly objected to any plan to relocate rock art and sacred sites within the proposed footprint of the Perdaman plant.

The letter described how the elders had eventually opted to support a plan to relocate the affected works only after being told there was no alternative. It also detailed what it said was the uneven playing field in negoti­ations between Aboriginal corporations and major projects backed by a supportive state government.

Ms Cooper said the letter was clear evidence that MAC was unable to take substantive action and stop proposals it did not support, and called for the existing BMIEA to be “burned”.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 8:47 am

ABCcess “news”

Have they reported this story yet?

Slowest Start to Hurricane Season in 30 Years (None) Prompts NOAA to Slightly Brighten Forecast (29 Aug, via Climate Depot)

The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season is off to its slowest start in 30 years, forcing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to slightly decrease its predicted likelihood of an above-normal season.

Halfway through the hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through November 30, there have been no hurricanes and only three named storms, none of which have met the official definition of a “tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 74 mph (64 knots) or higher.”

In its initial prediction, published in May, NOAA declared:

A 65% chance of an above-normal season,
A 25% chance of a near-normal season, and
A 10% chance of a below-normal season.

Funny how they are so imprecise in their prediction and still get it wrong, especially when they can predict 100% chance of the planet burning up by 2100.

Goanna
Goanna
August 30, 2022 8:48 am

“Was it true that AHPRA had forbid doctors from saying anything other than positive things about the vaccines?”

Many doctors were ‘blooded’ in 2020/21.
Wilful blindness followed.

They are now owned by the state.

min
min
August 30, 2022 8:51 am

Perfidious Albino, yes and has read a few chapters. I am also including a psychological perspective as I have discovered that even now the medical and psychiatric professions do not explain or diagnose problems well enough or even bother to check .Unbelievable what was ignored. He had no grief counselling ,and had no idea of what he was going through so I have written about grief process . Also writing about Dementia as family doctor of years did not diagnose wife and he was unaware of early symptoms and battled on without help.This is not uncommon as I speak with others in same boat and the situation is similar for instance the early forgetting explained as just old age . The same with other mental health illnesses ,professionals do not explain because of privacy issues and families are left managing serious problems in the dark and do not check on Dr Google . So I am trying to give out information to readers in an interesting way . Friends who have read some like my style and can’t wait for more.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 30, 2022 8:52 am

rosiesays:

August 30, 2022 at 7:53 am

I see Clive Palmer was a fly in the ointment in the upper house, “Clive Palmer kills off GP co-payment’s Senate chances”.
What a champion

So how is this Abbott’s fault?

flyingduk
flyingduk
August 30, 2022 8:52 am

Was it true that AHPRA had forbid doctors from saying anything other than positive things about the vaccines?

100% true…I and every health professional under AHPRA was sent that letter.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 8:53 am

WATCH: White House Grilled on Why Unvaccinated Migrants Can Hop the Border, But Unjabbed Tennis Star Can’t Participate in US Open

Jean-Pierre also claimed that the issues of the border and normal travelers are “two different things.”

Doocy, unsatisfied with the response, did not relent.

“Somebody unvaccinated comes over on a plane, you say that’s not okay. Somebody walks into Texas or Arizona unvaccinated, they’re allowed to stay?” Doocy pressed.

“That’s not how it works. … It’s not like someone walks over,” Jean-Pierre began.

“That’s exactly what is happening!” Doocy replied. “Thousands of people are walking in a day. Some of them turn themselves over. Some of them are caught. Tens of thousands a week are not. That is what is happening.”

Djokovic was the 2022 Wimbledon champion and will not be allowed to participate in the US Open due to his refusal to get vaccinated.

rosie
rosie
August 30, 2022 8:58 am

Apparently the ABC has been completely silent on the subject of #CookVsCrook

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 30, 2022 9:01 am

rosiesays:

August 30, 2022 at 8:58 am

Apparently the ABC has been completely silent on the subject of #CookVsCrook

That’s unusual.
I mean, only three months ago they seemed to be in thrall to “brave independents speaking truth to power”.
Has something changed?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 9:02 am

Many doctors were ‘blooded’ in 2020/21.
Wilful blindness followed.
They are now owned by the state.

Who likes to make examples of the dissenters.

Prominent anti-vax doctor has license permanently revoked (Israeli National News, 28 Aug)

Just like Peter Ridd and anyone else who exposes the fascists’ propaganda.

Roger
Roger
August 30, 2022 9:06 am
Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 30, 2022 9:06 am

Petrossays:
August 30, 2022 at 3:37 am
Was it true that AHPRA had forbid doctors from saying anything other than positive things about the vaccines?

The public statement was a bit more guarded but I’m sure anyone could read between the lines.

https://downloads.hpca.nsw.gov.au/s3fs-public/ahpra_position-statement_covid-19-vaccination-position-statement.pdf

m0nty
m0nty
August 30, 2022 9:09 am

Trump calls for 2020 election to be reversed or new election immediately.

LOL, what a crybaby loser.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
August 30, 2022 9:11 am

Thank you min for sharing your experiences.
I’m sure there are many Cats of a certain age who can identify with the issues you raised.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 30, 2022 9:12 am

My take on kids playing and losing is fraught with danger especially team sports. Kids need to be taught skills as they grow. Winning and losing is so overrated. Getting the basics right is far harder than given credit for. We touched on that recently about the NRL. Saw the same thing again in the weekend, poor ball handling, flat footed, standing to close to team-mates. Crash or crash through is not a recipe for success. The list is endless. I think league must have been formed by guys who didn’t have the basic skills to succeed at Rugby. I really only know about Martial Arts even though I played other sports for fun. Kumite in Karate and Randori in Judo is where you practise the basics to beat an opponent. It is not winning or losing but finding out what works for you and what doesn’t. A young guy I trained with, small and not very strong copped a flogging all the time. Now if anyone was going quit it was him. 3 years later national champion and off to the Olympics. Even now I go through the basics, maintaining form dynamically is still the easiest thing to get wrong. I’ve trained kids for a long time, they all know who is better than themselves. I used to put my belt round different kids and they invariably performed much better which displayed to the other kids it was in their heads not their abilities. This bullshit of everyone getting a prize has destroyed effort. Not for me or the majority here apart from munty.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 9:13 am

Hi Monty! You do realize don’t you that he’s trolling the FBI. Same as he did with his press release last week.

m0nty
m0nty
August 30, 2022 9:14 am

Oh yeah Bruce, eleven dimensional chess, sure sure.

H B Bear
H B Bear
August 30, 2022 9:17 am

mUnty not dealing with his big emotions very well.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 30, 2022 9:18 am

The public statement was a bit more guarded but I’m sure anyone could read between the lines.

Ha ha, yes.
I had difficulty reading it on my phone, but I bet it was loaded with “iron fist, velvet glove” references.
I guess that this is the end result of creating a system where a doctor’s income is largely dependent on government.

Shy Ted
Shy Ted
August 30, 2022 9:18 am

Adelaide-based academic Julia Miller was visiting her son in Melbourne in April when her holiday took a turn for the worse. “This e-scooter crashed into me, and I ended up on the ground.”

Why does the Adelaide academic look like a bag lady? (Other than they all do).
My guess was social work – close enough – “My current research is in phraseology and lexicography”
As she fell she was heard to utter “ouch, alack, alas, ay, woe is me, aw, phooey, rats, sheesh, shucks
bah, boo, faugh, fie, ho hum, humph, pish, pooh, pshaw, tsk, tut, yuck”.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 9:18 am

Here’s the context for you Monty:

Tucker Carlson Tears Into the FBI for Rigging the 2020 Election (25 Aug)

In perhaps the most shocking admission since the 2020 election concluded, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the FBI pressured the social media giant to censor the Hunter Biden story, calling it “misinformation” just prior to the election. That was revealed during an interview with Joe Rogan, confirming what was once condemned as a conspiracy theory by the mainstream media.

That’s why he is tweaking their noses today. The FBI has seriously overstepped and he’s not one to let them off without a bit of bear baiting fun.

Crossie
Crossie
August 30, 2022 9:20 am

Rosie, TheirABC will never mention the CookVCrook as by doing so they will be giving the challenger a platform and highlighting his plight. Their job is to protect the Crook.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
August 30, 2022 9:20 am

m0nty says:
August 30, 2022 at 9:09 am
Trump calls for 2020 election to be reversed or new election immediately.
LOL, what a crybaby loser.

Reagan had early stage alzheimers at the end of his presidency yet his final address to the people was a clear and eloquent.
Michael Smith has it on his site.
Biden is patently unfit for office and the VP is a blithering idiot. Well done Dems.
Something has to happen before the place descends into a proper madhouse.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 30, 2022 9:21 am

Perhaps Abbott has his hands tied.

I think it is easy to forget that a Prime Minister is not like a President, and cannot pursue their own agenda merely by dint of their own power.

Reality is that we get the PM that reflects the members in the government. This is not always to say they are completely in step. KRudd was never that popular in his party, but he was chosen as the figurehead and if he could be kept contented by the trifling expedient of letting him squander billions of Australian taxpayers dollars on vanity projects and pose for photo ops. We saw how quickly he was dropped when his popularity began to subside, and Labor did absolutely nothing to arrest his decline. Then they hit us with someone who did not need to be coddled. A viper they have been nursing in their own bosom, the vile Julia Gillard. For her they did try to forestall her demise, weaving a narrative of domesticity with the First Hairdresser or arranging a special summit at a football club out in Mt Druitt (or somewhere) where she would meet the plebs, but she could not even bring that off, recoiling from the great unwashed with their grimy hands and polluting accents – all the more offensive to her faux-patrician airs for those twanging voices being the same as hers.

So Labor tried to bring Rudd back. Didn’t work. We had already seen behind the curtain and knew what this ‘Wizard of Aus’ was and could not go back to not knowing.

Thing is that the PM reflected the wishes of the government (and the Faceless Men in Labor’s case, but they operated most of their the members like animatronic puppets).

The difference between a craven PM and one that is hopelessly shackled by their party would be invisible to the outside – in both cases they would make an abandoned policy look like a deliberate and considered decision. It would not do to say they had got it wrong when they had previously nailed their colours to the mast saying it was right. (This is the laziest, and therefore most prolific ‘proof’ of a politician’s failure – changing their mind. Which is a shame really as evolving knowledge and circumstances would allow only the best calibrated policies to stand. Instead politicians will stick doggedly to something that is not working, passing their dim-witted intransigence as conviction. I wonder how Covid might have been managed differently if our leaders allowed themselves to revisit, alter course, or even reverse earlier settings?) Instead you say that it will be revisited in more propitious times, or that although the principle is robust enough, implementation will need to be reviewed and tweaked in order to avoid undesired side-effects.

Abbott was chosen by his party to lead them as opposition leader because he was able to say the right things, things that resonated with Australians. The party loved this because he had them sailing straight onto the government benches. Friend and foe (within the party) were at one on this. Once in government, and after a certain period where Abbott was able to deliver on ‘stopping the boats’ and on Gillard’s CO2 tax (the one and only form of putting a ‘proice on cahbin’ she had explicitly ruled out), but then the sloppy wet nature of those people in the government asserted itself. They voted Abbott out. They voted Trumble in. They kept Trumble’s position and numbers safe and among them there was none ready to take him on. It took years of pompous strutting, portentous announcement, but unremitting undercutting of Australia while looking for a glorious legacy before they decided to dump him. But Trumble made sure to postpone events long enough to make sure Morro was a contender and Dutton could be sidelined. Morrison, who was the face of ‘turning back the boats’, harking back to glory days. The Libs in Parliament knew what they were voting for even if we didn’t. And Morro indeed turned out to be their creature, not ours.

If there is any hope for the Libs it is the fact the Teals have excised a large chunk of rotting flesh, and this may hamper the spreading poisonous infection. Reduced to a group with less of a green and more of a blue tinge, they might rebuild into a party actually right of centre.

Maybe.

m0nty
m0nty
August 30, 2022 9:21 am

As I said the other day, all Trump wanted was to throw some meaningless bullshit and for the media to turn it into an October surprise. It worked in 2016, but it didn’t work in 2020. Too bad, so sad, suck it up loser.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 9:21 am

I suspect Zuck will be left off the FBI Christmas card list this year.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 9:22 am

Live Link – https://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/the-covid-inquiry-2-0/

THE COVID INQUIRY 2.0

COVID, NATIONAL

The COVID Inquiry 2.0 is a cross-party, non-parliamentary inquiry held on the 17th August 2022. The COVID Inquiry 2.0 followed COVID Under Question to interrogate breaches of the doctor-patient relationship and the regulatory capture of Australia’s health and drug regulators.

Witnesses from a range of backgrounds presented personal and scholarly evidence that was shocking and revealing. The day of questioning from 8am to 7:30pm was livestreamed and recordings of all witnesses are available below.

Please note: Captions on videos are machine generated. They contain a number of errors. The audio of the videos or transcripts linked under each video should be relied on as the accurate statement of what was said.

Welcome Video and Introduction

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 30, 2022 9:24 am

Remember, its not a centrally directed conspiracy.
Merely a repeating pattern of random events all taking place the same way at the same time.

Irish farmers say they will be forced to cull cows to meet climate targets
Government plan to cut agriculture emissions by 25% by 2030 will drive many farms into bankruptcy, say critics

Instead of cutting emissions, Ireland has continued increasing them and the biggest contributor is agriculture. Ireland’s 135,000 farms produce 37.5% of national emissions, the highest proportion in the European Union, and most of that comes from methane associated with belching by ruminant animals.

Under a new government plan, agriculture must reduce emissions by 25% by 2030. Other sectors face even higher targets – transport must reduce emissions by 50%, commercial and public buildings by 40% – but the loudest protests have come from farmers.

Cutting emissions by a quarter will drive many farms into bankruptcy and could force the culling of hundreds of thousands of cows, they say. “The mood is hugely frustrated,” said Pat McCormack, head of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association. “It’s very hard to quantify but there will be increased costs and reduced output.”

Farmers and their allies have accused the coalition government, which includes the Green party, of scapegoating rural Ireland and leaving farmers little option but to cull herds. So far there have been no Dutch-style protests.

Until recently, the government had encouraged dairy farmers to expand to exploit the end of EU milk quotas. Farmers invested in new equipment and the dairy herd grew by almost half in the past decade. Irish butter, cheese and other produce – 90% is exported – filled supermarket shelves around the world.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 30, 2022 9:31 am

Presumably Chris Dawson has turned up to court with a toothbrush?

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
August 30, 2022 9:31 am

m0nty says:
August 30, 2022 at 9:21 am
As I said the other day, all Trump wanted was to throw some meaningless bullshit and for the media to turn it into an October surprise. It worked in 2016, but it didn’t work in 2020. Too bad, so sad, suck it up loser.

You’re not a serious person Monty.
Tell us how well the Dem presidency is going without referring to Trump as an excuse for lack of analysis.

JC
JC
August 30, 2022 9:38 am

Dover

Can you make a new rule please. Anyone over 80 talking about having sex etc is lifetime banned.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 30, 2022 9:41 am

Our story reads like a Hallmark rom com and is the basis for book I am writing as few in the genre of oldies’ romances and the difficulties that arise .

One question occurs to me min.
He sounds like a very private and conservative chap.
Is it possible that he is uncomfortable with the idea that his innermost thoughts might appear in print (albeit with probably low circulation) but is too polite to discourage your writing career?
Just a thought.

JC
JC
August 30, 2022 9:42 am

Fester

There’s nothing new in the story as we know the FBI intervened with Bunter because we knew FBI invented the Russian disinformation story. You’re like a kid who thinks s/he has a new toy that was at the bottom of the pile.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 30, 2022 9:43 am

From the medicare stats released this week, tele health looks like being baked into what the punters want.
It’s too early to tell yet, but the less face to face appointments there are the data is pointing less referrals to other businesses…I mean services.

Franx
Franx
August 30, 2022 9:43 am

Many in Australia will be approving of Djokovic not playing in the US. Imagine having to countenance that we were mistaken about the imperatives of being vaccinated-so-called. Mind, it did not in the least bother us that the judges who declared Djokovic a pariah were themselves not subject to vaccination. The clever country.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 30, 2022 9:44 am

Presumably Chris Dawson has turned up to court with a toothbrush?

Watch your fingers on the door…

Roger
Roger
August 30, 2022 9:44 am

Reduced to a group with less of a green and more of a blue tinge, they might rebuild into a party actually right of centre.

Maybe.

Probably not.

The blue-tinged crowd just lost bigly at the NSW AGM, where Matt Kean cemented his power. The Victorian Libs become more electorally impotent with each lurch to the left. Out of power in SA, annihilated in WA and in QLD, despite Palaszczuk’s unpopularity, nobody knows who the LNP leader is or what he stands for other than enjoying the safe Gold Coast seat he parachuted into from Nth QLD. Meanwhile, in Tasmania, they hold power but govern like Labor on account of being in charge of a mendicant state. Even John Howard, broad church enthusiast that he is, concedes that there are now too many in the Liberal Party who don’t share the basic principles it was meant to uphold.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 9:45 am

FBI special agent who opened Trump investigation reportedly escorted out of Bureau</strong>

“Mr. Thibault was seen exiting the bureau’s elevator last Friday escorted by two or three “headquarters-looking types.’”

Former Washington Field Office Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Thibault was reportedly escorted out of the Bureau on Friday, amid whistleblower allegations that he showed political bias in his handling of politically sensitive investigations.

The Washington Times reported eyewitness accounts that “Mr. Thibault was seen exiting the bureau’s elevator last Friday escorted by two or three ‘headquarters-looking types.’” The article appears to have been updated and now states that Thibault “abruptly resigned” but that he was “forced to leave his post” and cites two unnamed former FBI officials.

Just the News was unable to independently confirm the Times report.

Whistleblowers alleged that Thibault concealed the partisan nature of evidence from FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland to secure their approval to open an investigation into former President Donald Trump. That investigation culminated in the FBI’s raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month.

The public release of the affidavit that accompanied the search warrant revealed the warrant application relied heavily on information from news articles, including a CBS Miami piece titled “Moving Trucks Spotted At Mar-a-Lago” and a Breitbart News article in which former Trump adviser Kash Patel discussed the classified status of documents the bureau previously removed from the estate on behalf of the National Archives.

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley confirmed to Just the News prior to the raid that Thibault had been removed from his post and reassigned to an unspecified position.

The FBI declined to comment on the matter.

min
min
August 30, 2022 9:47 am

Thanks Cats appreciate your comments now here is the next issue I am tackling . I live in a luxury retirement apartment built by well known luxury apartment Builder now with third owner . There have been leaks and mould problem since early days I had a bucket needing ceiling leak for first Four years , came again last October and told would be fixed when cladding done 10 years ago 20 apartments with leaks also water tanking on balconies . We have A non compliant cladding . They sent us letters in July asking us to let them know of at end of week how we were going to pay for works of 6 million among 84 apartments . Shocked everyone we have some here with early dementia since Feds want oldies to stay at home with care , those with partners in care , etc so anxiety , confusion and handled badly by Owners Crrporation Committee and Chairman A complex report left for all to read in a room I discovered Noone on OCC had read it but had voted on it to spend the money. Some have been told if we don’t do it we will burn like Grenfell not true as polystyrene cladding and we have sprinkler system Anyway they need 75% of votes to go Ahead so are using fear tactics and disinformation to do it . This is elder abuse which I reported to owner weeks ago no reply as yet . My surveyor friend has been involved as he works in the area of strata titles and entitlements and I am organising meetings to guage effects etc. Some of us hired a lawyer who advised us to sue Builder OCC will not listen and make pejorative remarks , Chair Gaslighted us at special meeting . Where to now I have approached elder abuse agencies who agree with my observations and diagnosis and waiting for their lawyers opinion apart from Bill for cladding Repair of leaks and mould damage not estimated ane we will be liable .
Well i guess I can always do telephone work which pays $5 a minute I believe.

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 30, 2022 9:56 am

GreyRangasays:
August 30, 2022 at 9:12 am
My take on kids playing and losing is fraught with danger especially team sports. Kids need to be taught skills as they grow. Winning and losing is so overrated. Getting the basics right is far harder than given credit for.

Depends what you’re aiming to achieve.
Kids need to learn that life does include success and failure and that some things are judged by objective standards and not by what will protect the kid’s feeeelz. And sport is a “safe” [yes, I hate the overused concept] way to do it. If the kid believes that the u15 house match is important and fails in it and then realises that the sun rises the next day, that’s a real step forward as a person. I reckon I “learned” more from my sporting failures than I did from a lot of formal learning experiences.

PS you’re deprecating the current level of skill in rugby league – do you think past players were brought up in less of a “win/lose” environment?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 30, 2022 9:59 am

Mate in NZ has an acquaintance who has brought a precision engineering company for peanuts. He heard about the company in strife before the Parasites were brought in. He offered the creditors 10% now or nothing if the Parasites took over. The engineers have a fortune in dies which realistically are being brought for scrap value. He’s going to keep operating with the previous owner running the place except the finances. It has older machinery but high quality which is well maintained. He is coming to Australia to get business as labour rates are much cheaper in NZ. As much as the Government in NZ is useless they don’t have the the stupid regulations by federal, state and local bodies that we do. Nor the biggest impediment to work, Unioised bastardry assisted by government.

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 30, 2022 9:59 am

Sancho Panzersays:
August 30, 2022 at 9:18 am

Quite so.

Strangely the public statement didn’t urge doctors not to oversell the benefits of the vaxx, nor did it remind them to be careful to ensure that the risks of the vaxx were fully explained. Those must have been in another communication which I’ve been unable to find.

Roger
Roger
August 30, 2022 10:06 am

As much as the Government in NZ is useless they don’t have the the stupid regulations by federal, state and local bodies that we do.

The Index of Economic Freedom rates NZ 4th; we’re 12th and were sliding down the list already before Labor got in federally.

Pogria
Pogria
August 30, 2022 10:09 am

Min,
happy to see you back. Your story is a wonderful read, I wish the best to both of you and hope your friend can overcome his emotional hurdles.

Grey Ranga,
I can’t begin to imagine what it was like for you with your loss. However, what you wrote about how you were able to deal with it gives me a way of hopefully being able to cast away my own night time demons.

Thank you for sharing.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 30, 2022 10:10 am

JCsays:

August 30, 2022 at 9:38 am

Dover

Can you make a new rule please. Anyone over 80 talking about having sex etc is lifetime banned.

To avoid the risk of upsetting someone, can we make it 81?
I think we need a sliding scale.
No sex talk of any kind >81.
No talk of handies >70.
And no discussion of cunning linguist or foccacio >60.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 30, 2022 10:13 am

Consumer confidence in Australia’s energy system suffers steepest-ever plunge

With one of the country’s biggest energy retailers set to unveil price increases for many of its customers on Thursday, Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) has found an unprecedented plunge in faith in the system.

According to the industry body, barely one in three respondents to the survey believed the system was working in their long-term interests, compared with 44 per cent in July.

The survey, which was conducted in August as a one-off to gauge the effects of the crisis, also showed that the percentage of people who felt they were getting value for money with their electricity fell from 62 per cent to 53 per cent over the same period.

Oddly, the survey doesn’t show an “unprecedented change” in positive sentiment but does show that less than a third of respondents have a negative view of the electricity market.

Even more oddly, over 50% of respondents think they are “getting value for money” for their electricity and services – while less than 15% think they are being shafted.

Not sure what’s going on here.
But, Govern Me Harder, Daddy, I suppose…

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 30, 2022 10:19 am

Probably not.

Indeed, ’tis a small hope.

And the Libs do have their own version of faceless men who steer the party.

Funny thing is what we need is a rank opportunist who has the cunning to see that rather than try to compete in the crowded field on the left, there is a land of opportunity on the right. Pitch your tent there and people (well, votes) would flock to you.

I would not mind how cynical a person is who would deliver us reliable cheap energy, lower taxes, and a steady culling of all those busybody organisations that feast themselves on my money to tell me how bad I am and I must do as they say to become barely acceptable.

rickw
rickw
August 30, 2022 10:20 am

Some have been told if we don’t do it we will burn like Grenfell not true as polystyrene cladding and we have sprinkler system

How many stories is the building? There’s plenty of buildings with the original cladding being left on if they are only a few floors. In addition, where was the cladding made? If it is the original and proper Alucobond then it’s fire retardant properties are just fine.

flyingduk
flyingduk
August 30, 2022 10:21 am

Many doctors were ‘blooded’ in 2020/21.
Wilful blindness followed.
They are now owned by the state.

Not quite … the doctors are owned by the state which is owned by big pharma.

flyingduk
flyingduk
August 30, 2022 10:22 am

Biden is patently unfit for office and the VP is a blithering idiot. Well done Dems.
Something has to happen before the place descends into a proper madhouse.

Its the other way round …. the place has to collapse before something happens… cancers, if not cut out, just keep growing until they kill the host

m0nty
m0nty
August 30, 2022 10:26 am

Wasn’t expecting the Cat to turn into Penthouse Forum.

flyingduk
flyingduk
August 30, 2022 10:31 am

Oregon wind farm sees blades, bolts fly off as failures mount: report

Though industry groups insist that wind farms are very safe and major malfunctions are rare, wind farms are growing older and components are aging.

‘safe and effective’ it seems

Zatara
Zatara
August 30, 2022 10:32 am

Whistleblowers alleged that Thibault concealed the partisan nature of evidence from FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland to secure their approval to open an investigation into former President Donald Trump.

Sure they did. Brave whistleblowers came forward to narc out evil Thibault because honor and integrity and stuff. It’s totally coincidental that their claims also cover Wray’s and Merrick’s arses. Yeah, totally believable.

The FBI declined to comment on the matter.

Other than releasing the whistleblower claim in the first place that is.

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
August 30, 2022 10:44 am

FMD, The leader of the free world?

https://youtu.be/NWZ8kyg3ajQ

Probably one of Monty’s mates.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 30, 2022 10:44 am

Judge delivers series of damning findings
David Murray
DAVID MURRAY

Chris Dawson has remained still and silent as the judge delivered a series of damning findings about his claims about his wife Lyn’s disappearance.

Justice Harrison has found Mr Dawson lied about speaking to Lyn on the phone after January 8, 1982.

The judge is now going through reported sightings of Lyn after her disappearance.

Roger
Roger
August 30, 2022 10:46 am

And the Libs do have their own version of faceless men who steer the party.

Steer and sometimes sabotage.

In the run up to the last QLD election campaign, the faceless men of the LNP decided it was just the right time to leak poor internal party polling and unflattering reports on the performance of the parliamentary leader. This led to her effectively having to campaign on two fronts – against Palaszczuk & her own party organisation.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 10:46 am

Toddler and tiara: Meghan Markle STILL throwing tantrums about royal family

Lest anyone remain in doubt, Meghan Markle’s latest interview makes one thing clear: This woman has nothing to say.

She has nothing to offer, no original thoughts or guiding philosophy, no earthly reason to be taking so much money from, and so much space in, the mainstream media she so clearly reviles.

You know, just as she reviles the British royal family, even as she clings to her title and accepts money from her father-in-law, the future king, who reportedly subsidized her and Harry’s $14.5 million mansion, purchased for their privacy.

Still, yet again, the Greta Garbo of Northern California sits for another major profile, this time for New York magazine. Forget the People’s Princess — now we’re saddled with the Petulant Princess, one whose preferred crown is perpetual victimhood. For the past three years she’s had a global platform, yet all she does with it is complain that she’s been censored, silenced, shut out. Meghan Markle has been a public downer longer than she was a working duchess. It’s long past time for a new talking point.

I must concede her lone accomplishment here: Just when you think Meghan Markle can’t get any more delusional, she outdoes herself. Her self-regard runs in direct opposition to her waning relevance. She clearly has no real friends left — or even decent publicists — because anyone with an iota of common sense would say,

“You know, Meghan, it’s probably best not to compare yourself to Nelson Mandela.”

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 30, 2022 10:49 am

Timothy today I cannot see objective standards in anything. Teaching anyone how to do something is not the same as telling them what to do. Being beaten by a better team is a learning experience, showing up expecting to win when your skills are not up to par is not. There is always someone better. The players of yesterday saw it as a game not a job. The reward being selected for state or national team. I doubt you would pay a builder to build a mansion and he delivers a beach shack or go to a fine dining restaurant for them to serve up Maccas. Learning the basics well are doing them the same as failing to prepare is preparing for failure.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 30, 2022 10:51 am

Good on Biden going to Philadelphia.
Hopefully his motorcade goes down Kensington Avenue.

rickw
rickw
August 30, 2022 10:57 am

New Yorkers say farewell to The Science.

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

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 10:57 am

And the Libs do have their own version of faceless men who steer the party.

In the Labor Party they’re called faceless men.
In the Liberal Party they’re called miserable ghosts.
With loans.

flyingduk
flyingduk
August 30, 2022 11:03 am

Chris Dawson has remained still and silent as the judge delivered a series of damning findings about his claims about his wife Lyn’s disappearance. Justice Harrison has found Mr Dawson lied about speaking to Lyn on the phone after January 8, 1982.
The judge is now going through reported sightings of Lyn after her disappearance.

You still have to think the lack of a body and the passage of time MUST make a conviction a tough prospect?

Lysander
Lysander
August 30, 2022 11:04 am

Yikes!

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/government/taxation-revenue-australia/latest-release

Since 2011 we have gone from All Total Australian Taxes worth $389Bn to 2021 where it is now nearly $600Bn!!!

MatrixTransform
August 30, 2022 11:07 am

Walked up the Osteo to get my fortnightly torture.

After that I wandered up the IGA and saw a Polis Bearcat type truck going the opposite direction
Was marked ‘Rescue’
Fuck Me, I said as it passed, that aint for rescue

anyway, it turned up my street and I though shit … one post criticising Dan Andrews and look what happens.

As I type this our little court is blocked by storm troopers pistols drawn, ladders over fences.
Machine guns and all

I had to get escorted into my own home.

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
August 30, 2022 11:08 am

Jab jab booster…………………………die……………………..

The high excess mortality in 2021 was almost entirely due to an increase in deaths in the age groups between 15 and 79 and started to accumulate only from April 2021 onwards. … Something must have happened in April 2021 that led to a sudden and sustained increase in mortality in the age groups below 80 years, although no such effects on mortality had been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic so far.”

What happened in April 2021 was the beginning of mass vaccination across Germany. …

https://wentworthreport.com/2022/08/29/exhaustive-study-of-german-mortality-data-finds-excess-deaths-tightly-correlated-with-mass-vacci

min
min
August 30, 2022 11:12 am

Rick w we are 3 plus stories classed as moderate risk . What was not considered was the in ability of some residents to walk down stairs or dementaia people confused They have to sit in roomand wait rescue. We hope VCat will re solve issue . Many building who have gadis cladding removed have had major costly uilding faults found when cladding removed. Our cladding is like a Rocco,i box with 2 coast of paint and has been lassed as non compliant,

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 11:14 am

You understand electricity MT.
Therefore you are a danger to the State.
Knowing stuff these days is dangerous.
(Only being slightly facetious.)

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
August 30, 2022 11:14 am

Jab jab booster……………………………………get sick………………….get $140,000

The United Kingdom has rolled out a financial compensation program for individuals and families who have been harmed by the COVID-19 vaccine, despite repeated claims by U.S. corporate media entities denying any negative health impacts of the vaccines created by their largest advertisers.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/08/26/uk-to-pay-covid-19-vaccine-victims/

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 30, 2022 11:15 am

Pogria I still have never had any of the supposed 5 stages of grief. The absolute waste of a childs life and him not being in his siblings lives is still distressing. He was the oldest. We didn’t protect the youger ones from danger in particular. Although it was hard watching them run across the top of the macrocarpa hedge with the the dry sticks ready to skewer them if they fell, nor them climbing out the bedroom window of the second story onto the roof of the extension. Daughter was a climber, rock outcrop at the beach at the end of the street was almost sheer. She’d climb about 20 odd metres, 9 years old. Son at 3 wanted to go up to the tree house I built, ok if you can, knowing he couldn’t but he still appreciates being allowed to and mentions it occasionally. Of all the many condolence cards we got 10 % had lost children although we only knew about 2of them. Its a lot more common than we think. Just knowing that others know how you feel is helpful. The circumstances are different but the result is the same. We are not alone.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
August 30, 2022 11:15 am

Cutting emissions by a quarter will drive many farms into bankruptcy and could force the culling of hundreds of thousands of cows, they say

I’d like to see the farmers keep producing meat and dairy until the last possible moment, then herd those thousands of cows into Dublin and slaughter them on the steps of parliament.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
August 30, 2022 11:17 am

Reagan had early stage alzheimers at the end of his presidency yet his final address to the people was clear and eloquent.

It appeared he spoke with only a couple of glances at notes in his hands. i assume no teleprompter.
Impressive.

lotocoti
lotocoti
August 30, 2022 11:21 am

Toddler and tiara: Meghan Markle STILL throwing tantrums about royal family.

In a lock-up somewhere, a couple of Chelsea Pensioners are readying
the Fiat Uno for Ginge’n’Cringe’s next visit.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 30, 2022 11:21 am

Who knows if half the footage is real or from somewhere else, but Baghdad looks to be even shittier than usual today.
God bless the Washington War Machine.

MatrixTransform
August 30, 2022 11:22 am

You understand electricity MT

we have a working arrangement to avoid conflict

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
August 30, 2022 11:24 am

Daily Mail found to have defamed Erin Molan:

Erin Molan has had a massive win after a Federal Court found an online newspaper defamed her by alleging she was racist in an online article.

The journalist and commentator last year sued the Daily Mail for defamation, saying an article and two tweets by the news site falsely portrayed her as racist because of her pronunciation of Polynesian names.

Justice Robert Bromwich on Tuesday found five imputations put forward by Ms Molan were not found to be proven to be substantially true by the publisher regarding the online article.

However, he was not satisfied that imputations put forward by the two tweets were conveyed.

In his judgment, Justice Bromwich found both sides had both a “measure of success and a measure of failure”.

Daily Mail Australia must pay the Sky News host $150,000 plus interest in damages, including aggravated damages for the online article only.

Justice Bromwich said the sum was “substantial” for “closely interrelated and unwarranted online slurs, sufficient for any ordinary person to be well and truly satisfied that they were untrue and should never have been published”.

“I consider this sufficiently meets the sting of the article as reflected in the imputations,” he said.

“Dailymail.com needs to substantially improve the care that it takes, or face further and greater awards of damages. Freedom of expression must be balanced with responsibility and basic professionalism which was sadly lacking in this case.”

The Mail’s story was based on Molan saying “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” on the show in May 2020.

During the trial, the publisher argued the imputations carried were true – and Molan had demonstrated a “pattern” of racist comments in her time at 2GB’s Continuous Call Team program.

Acting on behalf of the Daily Mail, Bruce McClintock SC told the court in September 2021 that Molan’s attempts at accents were forms of “ugly racial stereotypes”.

However, Molan told the court it was a lighthearted jab at legendary commentator Ray Warren, who had been overheard sounding out players’ names with his son and fellow commentator Chris.

She claimed Daily Mail had “distorted and misrepresented” what she said in the 14-second segment “so as defame her in the way of six imputations, each of which relied on the June 5 online article”.

Justice Bromwich found the online article was “not, in my view, one that was ‘tinged with, or even pregnant with, insinuation or suggestion’ going much beyond what was overtly stated, or such as to implicitly ‘invite the reader to adopt a suspicious approach’.”

“The June 5 online article was blunter and more directly critical. It stated what Ms Molan was said to have done, as had also been stated the previous day in the June 4 article, and reported on the reaction to that reported behaviour,” he said.

“The ordinary reasonable person, even with the propensity to loose thinking, would not, in my view, make the substantial leap of equating the use of the phrases ‘complicit in racism’ and ‘complicit to racism’ about what she was said to have done.”

She will receive $150k in damages. Picture: Justin Lloyd
She will receive $150k in damages. Picture: Justin Lloyd
Justice Bromwich said the bulk of the article addressed what Molan was said to have done and why commentators thought it was unacceptable.

“Such a reader would understand that she was being severely criticised … but there was no real implication of more than what was being overtly said,” he said.

Justice Bromwich is allowing Molan to be heard on an injunction to take down the Daily Mail article, which was the basis of the defamation case, if it had not already been removed.

He said the Daily Mail should “sensibly and promptly” take down the article if it had not already done so.

Justice Bromwich said it would be advisable for the online publication to promptly follow through with the action after his verdict.

LAUREN FERRI REPORTER

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 30, 2022 11:25 am

I opened up a YouTube page to watch…something (OK, a video about a Cambrian beastie called Balhuticaris) and, at the top of the suggestions pane on the right is an ad for a test:

GAY TEST
Good luck passing this 6 question test if you are not gay.

Leaving aside the disturbing fact that the algorithm thought this was worth putting up for me to see, I am a little flummoxed by what it is meant to mean. It cannot be a serious test if it is only six questions, although the surveying in Australia has been pretty dodgy: What is it they say? 10% of Australians are gay. Even the CDC (which we now know will happily leap on a cause, rip its bodice off, and make violent statistical love to it until it can’t walk straight) says only 2-3%.

But the phrasing “good luck proving you aren’t gay” would seem to assume the desired outcome would be to not show up as gay, and they are advertising something stupid. But without any other clue as to an end product why would anyone feel like taking the silly test?

We live in disturbing times.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 30, 2022 11:25 am

You still have to think the lack of a body and the passage of time MUST make a conviction a tough prospect?

Judges – much like every other public servant – have a deep-seated terror of being smacked down by the people on the next rung up, if for no other reason that they may a) get, or enhance an already poor reputation (in their circles, not by the public), and b) said smackings will diminish their chances of sitting in higher courts, appeals benches and the like.

These remarks by Izzoner will be extraordinarily lengthy. This is because any appeal on conviction or sentence will rest on a premise that the judge either failed to take into account, or did not give proper weight to X, Y and Z. Said remarks will be designed to negate those assertions in an appeal before it gets off the ground.

Cases relying on circumstantial rather then physical evidence can be quite compelling, but often rely on an Occam’s Razor type of arrangement, or a process of elimination. Either way, it’s tough to get over the requisite ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard of proof.

I know very little about this one other than reading the odd bit in the papers, which probably means I know less than nothing about it. However, there’s a ‘oh but he’s a nasty person’ vibe about the whole thing, much like another high-profile case a few years ago which turned out to be horseshit.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 30, 2022 11:27 am

In Gypsy’s Warning news:

Jobs summit must endorse sector-wide pay claims to lift wages, unions say

Unions must be allowed to strike pay deals covering multiple workplaces to help increase wages, the head of the labour movement has demanded ahead of next week’s jobs summit.

Unions have nominated sector-wide pay deals as their top priority for the summit, setting them on a collision course with business.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary, Sally McManus, said changes to bargaining were “urgent” to counter the crisis of real-wage cuts.

Tough shit for those employees in marginal SME businesses who experience 100% real-wage cuts.

Team Albo hasn’t actually done anything substantive in its first 100 days – other than start to pile up a forest of unintended consequences for Australia.

MatrixTransform
August 30, 2022 11:31 am

OK, a video about a Cambrian beastie called Balhuticaris

fossils are pretty gay

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 11:31 am

then herd those thousands of cows into Dublin and slaughter them on the steps of parliament

No need to do anything that drastic.
Just report to the government that your cows now identify as almonds.
It works for humans, why not cows?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 30, 2022 11:35 am

Unions must be allowed to strike pay deals covering multiple workplaces to help increase wages, the head of the labour movement has demanded ahead of next week’s jobs summit.

No consideration as to whether it is possible to pay more for wages – say, increasing productivity.

I truly feel that the union movement has been the most destructive force for employment in this country, both in terms of jobs lost when consumptive businesses stumble and collapse, and give up the ghost, and also in terms of all the jobs that have been created in a less militant and extortionate environment.

Franx
Franx
August 30, 2022 11:37 am

min, maybe ask that the OC management company check, precisely, which codes apply to your building – codes can vary a lot – and also whether the builder had applied for and received exemptions.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 30, 2022 11:37 am

fossils are pretty gay

You take that back, you beastly man!

*Blood floods into face, hands in balled in tight fists, stamps foot*

*Tears start*

rickw
rickw
August 30, 2022 11:38 am

then herd those thousands of cows into Dublin and slaughter them on the steps of parliament.

How about they just slaughter the government representatives that come to do the slaughtering? Only needs to happen once or twice.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 30, 2022 11:39 am

Judge says Lyn Dawson is dead
Claire Harvey
CLAIRE HARVEY

Justice Ian Harrison says Lyn Dawson is dead.

The judge said he was satisfied: “Lynette Dawson is dead, that she died on or about 8 January 1982 and she did not voluntarily abandon her home.”

The judge said he rejected all the alleged sightings of Lyn Dawson as either fabrications or insufficient to persuade him she had really been spotted.

m0nty
m0nty
August 30, 2022 11:40 am

I see Ukraine has launched a counter-offensive in Kherson. Things going well for Putin, evidently.

Mater
August 30, 2022 11:41 am

After that I wandered up the IGA and saw a Polis Bearcat type truck going the opposite direction

During the lockdown, I was pulled over by the BearCat (and its ‘low visibility’ occupants) driving outside my allotted ‘5 km from home’ zone.

They really are wankers. SAS wannabes. They drive around in an armoured vehicle (with subdued police markings), and then think long hair and wearing jeans and a flannelette shirt disguises them. Tip guys, the assault boots are another give away!

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
August 30, 2022 11:44 am

Old Ozzie link above is a must read to all and must be shared widely.

The Covid 2 Inquiry is the second one by Malcolm Roberts along with Senator Gerard Rennick, Craig Kelly and George Christiansen. I think Antic also involved. You might not like their politics but these guys are the most informed about Vax related issues.

If you go to Roberts web page News section you will see the inquiry on 22 August. Basically it shows a list of speakers and you can either listen to it or read the transcript (click under video clip). I found it easier to read the transcript but if traveling might listen. Watching gets you the visuals they show.

I think I have pretty much read them all or if I didn’t it is because familiar with them the speaker.

I recommend starting with Dr Phillip Altman. He has initial talk and then a conclusion at the end of the 12 hour Inquiry.

Brook Jackson is the Pfizer whistleblower. One of the other speakers is her lawyer.

Peter Party a psychiatrist and one of the ones fighting Qld Govt on mandates.

Mary Jane Steven a nurse who quit.

Pierre Kory is well known Dr from US

Senator Rennick’s talk is very technical and a difficult read. However he knows what the Vax does. If you see him questioning TGA he knows the right questions to ask. Naturally for this labelled anti Vax.

Dr Chris Neil, a Melbourne cardiologist (ex) , is the head of the Australian Medical Proffesionals.

Julian Gillespie and Peter Fam are the lawyers who have written a very comprehensive legal opinion on the legal position for practitioners. Can see it on Roberts web page 22 August. That opinion and a very detailed report
by Dr Altman has been sent to all Medical Associations and MP’s in the country. Read the report if you have not.

I highly recommend the speakers under section Conditioning and Ethics.

Spread far and wide. Also mention Senator Rennicks web page news area where he shows how our Dr’s and Nurses silenced.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 11:47 am

Who knows if half the footage is real or from somewhere else, but Baghdad looks to be even shittier than usual today.

So does Tripoli.

God bless the Washington War Machine.

Ditto. Thanks to Hills and the Big O.
Amb. Stevens was an early sacrifice.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 30, 2022 11:50 am

fossils are pretty gay

Excellent Dad joke segue.

Q: What do you call a blind dinosaur?
A: Idontthinkitsaurus.

m0nty
m0nty
August 30, 2022 11:51 am

Another Cat talking point demolished.

Despite what critics may say, student loan debtors who stand to benefit most from the relief plan announced last week aren’t exactly latte-sipping elites.

Reality check: First, nearly 90% of those benefiting from the policy earn less than $75,000, according to the White House. Second, a significant percentage of student loan debtors didn’t get a four-year degree. That means they also don’t get the income boost of a bachelor’s degree.“Many Americans understandably, but mistakenly, assume that the vast majority of student loan debtors have 4-year degrees, when in fact about half do not,” said Aaron Sojourner, a labor economist at the Upjohn Institute.

Details: Sojourner looked at data for those who borrowed money and started college in 2011. He found that after six years, a majority didn’t have a bachelor’s:34% hadn’t attained a degree; 11% graduated from a two-year program; and 10% received a professional certificate, like from a trade school.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 30, 2022 11:53 am

The UK’s biggest warship has broken down off the south coast shortly after setting sail on what had been billed as a “landmark mission” to the United States.

Wonder what the problem is?

Seamen leak, probably.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 30, 2022 11:55 am

They really are wankers. SAS wannabes.

In some circles those people are known as ‘the Colonels’.

Because they promise UFC, and deliver KFC.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 30, 2022 12:03 pm

Health news.

FDA warns of risk of monkeypox infection from fecal transplant treatments (29 Aug)

Every wisecrack or joke I can think of would get me a term in Long Bay, so I will demur from further comment.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 12:06 pm
Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 30, 2022 12:15 pm

This was always going to happen. Always.

Drag the matter out. Adjourn, adjourn, adjourn – and then when there’s a perception that people will be looking the other way, forget it ever happened (the Hun);

Police have dropped a charge against a Ballarat mum accused of breaching public health orders during Victoria’s Covid lockdown.

Zoe Buhler, 30, was accused of using social media to organise a protest against state government lockdown rules between August 31 and September 2 in 2020. Her arrest while pregnant and wearing pyjamas was captured on video.

In Ballarat Magistrates Court on Tuesday, police withdrew a single charge of incitement to contravene public health directions.

This is what she said outside court:

“I think the strong message I have is that I definitely have no regrets,” she said.

And:

She added the following for Premier Daniel Andrews: “I hope one day you’ll have your day in court”.

And this cracker, directed squarely at VicJack Inc:

“Get the bad guys, not the innocent guys”.

WHAP.

rickw
rickw
August 30, 2022 12:16 pm

Danger Dan on Chris Bowen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgKHGV_V198

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 30, 2022 12:19 pm

Can Facebook pyjama lady sue anyone over it?

KD?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 12:20 pm

Russia Confounds the West by Recapturing Its Oil Riches

Moscow is raking in more revenue than ever with the help of new buyers, new traders and the world’s seemingly insatiable demand for crude

Oil storage tanks at the RN-Tuapsinsky refinery in 2020 operated by Rosneft Oil Co., in Tuapse, Russia.

Russia pumps almost as much oil into the global market as it did before its invasion of Ukraine. With oil prices up, Moscow is also making more money.

Demand from some of the world’s largest economies has given Russian President Vladimir Putin the upper hand in the energy battle that shadows the war in Ukraine, and has confounded the West’s bid to cripple Russia’s economy with sanctions.

Sales are booming in Russia’s export market, the world’s largest in crude and refined fuels. And new trade arrangements have given Mr. Putin cover to use natural-gas exports as an economic weapon against Ukraine’s European allies. Before the war, Russia supplied Europe with 40% of its gas. It has since throttled flows through the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany and other conduits, driving prices higher and putting pressure on European households and businesses.

Oil revenue more than makes up the difference. “Russia is swimming in cash,” said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute of International Finance. Moscow earned $97 billion from oil and gas sales through July this year, about $74 billion of that from oil, she said.

The country exported 7.4 million barrels of crude and products such as diesel and gasoline each day in July, according to the International Energy Agency, down only about 600,000 barrels a day since the start of the year.

The Flow of Russian Oil

Although many European countries and the U.S. have reduced their imports of Russian oil, countries in Asia and the Middle East are buying more, which has helped Russia maintain its oil export levels.

Russian shipments of crude oil and products

Even with the dip in oil exports, Russia has earned $20 billion in average monthly sales this year compared with a $14.6 billion monthly average in 2021, when economies were recovering from the pandemic crash. Shipments were rising again in August, data from ship-tracking firm Vortexa show.

Russia’s oil-market resilience has drawn a mixed reaction in Washington, which is juggling two conflicting goals: Tamping down inflation with increased global oil supplies, and keeping economic pressure on Mr. Putin.

Oil prices, which spiked past $130 a barrel in the first weeks of the war, have settled around $100 in recent weeks. While still higher than a year ago, the retreat has brought down gas-station prices in the U.S. and Europe.

Russian energy sales have flourished by finding new buyers, new means of payment, new traders and new ways of financing exports, according to oil traders, former Russian industry executives and shipping officials.

“There came a realization that the world needs oil, and nobody’s brave enough to embargo 7.5 million barrels a day of Russian oil and oil products,” said Sergey Vakulenko, an analyst and former Russian energy executive.

After buyers in the U.S., the European Union and their Pacific allies cut back their Russian oil imports, much of it went to nations in Asia that have declined to take sides in the conflict.

An unexpected market has been the Middle East. Exports of Russian fuel oil, a lightly refined version of crude, now go to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, often stopping in Egypt en route.

The Russian oil is either burned in Saudi power stations or exported from Fujairah, a U.A.E. port and hot spot for blending Russian and Iranian oils to conceal their provenance. This is oil that before the war was shipped to U.S. refiners.

The Russian imports, purchased at a discount, free state giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. to export its crude at market prices. “The Saudis are happy to take their oil and sell it rather than burning it,” said Carole Nakhle, chief executive at consulting firm Crystol Energy.

The arrangement adds supply to the global oil market, helping put a lid on prices. “This is a win-win situation for the Russians and even, I would say, for the Europeans and the U.S.,” Ms. Nakhle said.

It also strengthens Russian ties with the Middle East, where Mr. Putin is capitalizing on friction between the Saudis and the Biden administration. Riyadh, joined with Moscow in a cartel known as OPEC+, has resisted U.S. pressure to pump more crude. That has propped up prices, helping Russia during the months when its oil traded at a significant discount.

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said last week OPEC could cut oil production, rebuffing U.S. pressure to open the spigots and instead sticking by Moscow.

– Loose labeling
– Shadow war

Proceeding with the EU’s proposed restrictions would reveal the continent’s willingness to absorb economic pain on behalf of Ukraine. Many believe Moscow would respond by cutting Europe’s natural-gas supply, which of late has flowed at around 20% of capacity on the Nord Stream pipeline, to zero.

“Vladimir Putin has put mutually assured destruction on the table,” said Helima Croft, head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 30, 2022 12:23 pm

m0ntysays:
August 30, 2022 at 9:14 am
Oh yeah Bruce, eleven dimensional chess, sure sure.

Low energy,sad.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 30, 2022 12:27 pm

FDA warns of risk of monkeypox infection from fecal transplant treatments

Well, good work Bruce.
Thanks.
There’s another thing I didn’t want to know existed…

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 30, 2022 12:28 pm

KD?

That would be a civil matter, and there’d be plenty of better-qualified people around to comment with some form of authority on it TE.

However, and aside to reputational damage and so on there’s a ‘malicious prosecution’ thing floating around the books somewhere, but that relies on whoever authorised the initial prosecution going ahead despite knowing that the standard – that there was a reasonable prospect of a properly instructed jury returning a finding of guilt – wasn’t in the brief.

Whether it could be taken further in a civil forum would rely on a pile of things, all reliant on obscure legalese and barristers’ fees.

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 30, 2022 12:29 pm

m0nty-fa

throw some meaningless bullshit and for the media to turn it into an October surprise

You mean the technique that the DemonRats and the MSM (BIRM) had used previously? How Dare Trump use their own technique against the DemonRats! How Dare He!

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 30, 2022 12:33 pm

A guilty verdict in the Dawson case is a high hurdle, that is true.
But unless ‘Izzoner is following the batting order of a normal criminal trial (prosecution first, defence last), his judgement so far isn’t looking good for Dawson.
It could end in a Coroner’s Court type finding … whilst there is a level of circumstantial evidence, and he is the lad most likely, it doesn’t meet the ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ standard.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 12:33 pm

Ukraine War Is Depleting U.S. Ammunition Stockpiles, Sparking Pentagon Concern

The level of one type of combat rounds in storage is ‘uncomfortably low,’ says a defense official

WASHINGTON—The war in Ukraine has depleted American stocks of some types of ammunition and the Pentagon has been slow to replenish its arsenal, sparking concerns among U.S. officials that American military readiness could be jeopardized by the shortage.

The U.S. has during the past six months supplied Ukraine with 16 U.S. rocket launchers, known as Himars, thousands of guns, drones, missiles and other equipment. Much of that, including ammunition, has come directly from U.S. inventory, depleting stockpiles intended for unexpected threats, defense officials say.

One of the most lethal weapons the Pentagon has sent are howitzers that fire high-explosive 155mm ammunition weighing about 100 pounds each and able to accurately hit targets dozens of miles away. As of Aug. 24, the U.S. military said it had provided Ukraine with up to 806,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition. The U.S. military has declined to say how many rounds it had at the start of the year.

In recent weeks, the level of 155mm combat rounds in U.S. military storage have become “uncomfortably low,” one defense official said. The levels aren’t yet critical because the U.S. isn’t engaged in any major military conflict, the official added. “It is not at the level we would like to go into combat,” the defense official said.

The U.S. military used a howitzer as recently as last week to strike at Iranian-backed groups in Syria, and the depletion of 155mm ammunition is increasingly concerning for a military that seeks to plan for any scenario.

The Army said the military is now conducting “an ammunitions industrial base deep dive” to determine how to support Ukraine while protecting “our own supply needs.” The Army said it also asked Capitol Hill for $500 million a year in upgrade efforts for the Army’s ammunition plants. Meanwhile, the service is relying on existing contracts to increase production of ammunition, but it hasn’t signed new contracts to account for the higher amounts it will need to replenish its stocks, according to Army officials.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley has been conducting monthly reviews of the U.S. arsenal to determine whether the readiness levels are still appropriate given the needs for the ammunition in Ukraine, according to U.S. military officials. The U.S. last week provided Ukraine with a different size howitzer ammunition, 105mm, a reflection, in part, of the concern about its stocks of 155mm ammunition, the officials said.

The looming ammunition shortage isn’t for lack of funds, according to those familiar with the issue. The U.S. announced this week that it was setting aside nearly $3 billion for long-term aid intended to help Ukraine, bringing the total spent on weaponry for the country to $14 billion, and the Biden administration’s Pentagon budget request for next year is $773 billion.

“This was knowable. It was foreseeable. It was forewarned, including from industry leaders to the Pentagon. And it was easily fixable,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington.

What is needed, she said, is for the government to spend money to fix the problem.

“There are some problems you can buy your way out of,” she said. “This is one of them.”

The Pentagon’s buying process generally starts with the military determining its requirements, which are then reviewed and then bids solicited from the private sector. But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, industry officials have complained that the Pentagon hasn’t always communicated those requirements, which often change, creating delays, and leaving defense contractors unable to prepare for more production.

Dormant supply lines often can’t be switched on overnight, and surging production of active lines can take time. Companies are already producing 155mm ammunition, but not at the capacity yet that the Pentagon will need to replenish its stocks

In the U.S., it takes 13 to 18 months from the time orders are placed for munitions to be manufactured, according to an industry official. Replenishing stockpiles of more sophisticated weaponry such as missiles and drones can take much longer.

Even a yearlong delay is a problem precisely because ammunition shortages can pop up quickly given the rate they can be drawn down in a conflict.

“Nations assume the risk that war is not going to take place, and have the assumption they can react when they need to,” said Brad Martin, director of the Institute for Supply Chain Security at the Rand Corp. “It simply might not be true that you can ramp up” production quickly, he added.

Defense and congressional officials familiar with the issue attribute the looming shortage to a number of factors. The Pentagon’s bureaucracy has been slow to provide new contracts to replenish its stocks and has been reluctant to share its long-term needs with industry.

They also attribute part of the problem to the lack of coordination between part of the Pentagon that works to quickly supply Ukraine with weapons and the bureaucracy responsible for buying equipment. “The contracting process is much slower than the drawdown, and there is just not a lot you can do about that,” one congressional staffer said.

Speaking on an earnings call July 19, Jim Taiclet, chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp., said the Pentagon has yet to put the contracts in place or coordinate with industry to buy more supplies, a process that often takes two to three years.

The Defense Department needs to “shift gears” if it wants industry to prepare for more orders, he said.

“And I can tell you the clutch isn’t engaged yet.”

Timothy Neilson
Timothy Neilson
August 30, 2022 12:36 pm

m0ntysays:
August 30, 2022 at 11:51 am
Another Cat talking point demolished.

What do you mean?

Which Cats have ever said that the student debtors don’t include vast numbers of dropouts, gender studies graduates, all-purpose no-hopers, “activists” and other unemployables?

bespoke
bespoke
August 30, 2022 12:40 pm

minsays:
August 30, 2022 at 6:44 am

Cheers and good luck. My wife is involved with a group that specialises in supporting families who lost loved ones due to murder. I only play a small part a shoulder to cry on and some times driver and security when needed.
She does this inspite of her own personal challenges but with prospect of any phone call day and night of someone seeking assistance it does take toll.

MatrixTransform
August 30, 2022 12:42 pm

Another Cat talking point demolished

go on, have another go at Economics 101

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 12:42 pm

Zali Steggall in your shopping cart & kitchen.

From the Comments

– If it’s not meat, don’t call it effing meat.
– If Zali stopped talking out of her backside CO2 emissions would drop significantly more.
– Cattle eat grass so when l eat a steak I’m eating plant based meat.
Problem solved.
– The only thing the planet needs saving from is idiots like this.
– This woman is a moron.

Converting plant into pretend meat is an industrial process that uses energy, water and a range of chemical processes, none of this is carbon free.

Cows on the other hand eat grass that gets all it’s carbon from the air and ground, cows are carbon neutral as whatever carbon they contain goes back into producing the next cow and herbivores have existed for almost 500 million years and the earth has had a decreasing CO2 level.

I guess skiing down a hill doesn’t convey intelligence or wisdom.

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 30, 2022 12:47 pm

m0nty-fa

Reality check: First, nearly 90% of those benefiting from the policy earn less than $75,000, according to the White House.

A completely unbiased source. ROFLMAO.

a significant percentage of student loan debtors didn’t get a four-year degree

Lured in by academic claptrap, failed, stuck with the bill. So why should someone else pay that bill?

Sojourner looked at data for those who borrowed money and started college in 2011. He found that after six years, a majority didn’t have a bachelor’s:34% hadn’t attained a degree; 11% graduated from a two-year program; and 10% received a professional certificate, like from a trade school.

They made poor choices, see above. It’s called personal responsibility.

Old bloke
Old bloke
August 30, 2022 12:49 pm

The UK’s biggest warship has broken down off the south coast shortly after setting sail on what had been billed as a “landmark mission” to the United States.

They didn’t get very far before it broke down, sailing from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight where it’s now anchored would be like sailing from Fremantle to Rottnest Island.

It would have been much more embarrassing if it broke down mid-Atlantic.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 12:50 pm

FACING THE TRUTH ABOUT LOCKDOWNS

In my opinion, the responses of governments to the covid epidemic represent the worst failure of public policy since, at least, the Vietnam War.

In fact, the covid responses were probably more destructive than Vietnam. You would likely have to go back to the perverse reactions of the Hoover/Roosevelt administrations to the Great Depression to find their equal.

The centerpiece of governments’ efforts to “fight” the covid virus was lockdowns of businesses, schools, churches, and social life generally. No one ever doubted that these lockdowns entailed terrible costs, and it pretty quickly became clear that they conferred few if any benefits. But many governments around the world, including our own with the collaboration of tech magnates, ruthlessly suppressed debate over their advisability.

That is finally changing, as more and more observers are willing to say what pretty much everyone knows: the shutdown emperors weren’t wearing any clothes. See, for example, former British Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption in the hyper-establishment London Times: “Little by little the truth of lockdown is being admitted: it was a disaster.” The whole thing is worth reading. Here are some excerpts:

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
August 30, 2022 12:54 pm

Can you make a new rule please. Anyone over 80 talking about having sex etc is lifetime banned.

To avoid the risk of upsetting someone, can we make it 81?

Make it 97 for men and 25 for women.

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Knuckle Dragger says: August 30, 2022 at 12:15 pm

Police have dropped a charge against a Ballarat mum accused of breaching public health orders during Victoria’s Covid lockdown.

Zoe Buhler, 30, was accused of using social media to organise a protest against state government lockdown rules between August 31 and September 2 in 2020. Her arrest while pregnant and wearing pyjamas was captured on video.

In Ballarat Magistrates Court on Tuesday, police withdrew a single charge of incitement to contravene public health directions.

Thus it is a matter of public record that VicPlod makes shit up as they go along.

Source: VicPlod – the words came from their own mouth in Ballarat Courthouse.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
August 30, 2022 12:58 pm

Three Signs We’re in a Banana Republic

Satirist Sol Luckman defines “banana republic” in his irreverent glossary, The Angel’s Dictionary, as a “lawless society where the monkeys rule.”

Looking around the United States today, it’s hard to say we don’t fit his meaning. Nearly 80% of Americans believe we live under a two-tiered system of justice. Likewise, in Gallup’s recent survey of Americans’ confidence in U.S. institutions, it notes, “This year’s poll marks new lows in confidence for all three branches of the federal government — the Supreme Court (25%), the presidency (23%) and Congress.” Of sixteen institutions tested, confidence in the U.S. Congress sits at the very bottom with a scant 7%! Even though there is now “record-low confidence across all institutions,” confidence in the Office of the Presidency suffered the largest year-over-year drop in 2022 — cratering 15%! In other words, not only do Americans believe the country is lawless, they’re also convinced that it is being run by a barrel of monkeys! Clearly, Americans “get” that we’re living in a “banana republic” today.

Just consider these three telltale signs:

(1) Manipulation of language and mandatory leftist religion:
2) Selective prosecution and political persecution:
(3) Forced citizen compliance and increased government dependence:

Obedience + financial dependence = enslavement to the State.

So, remember this: when the feds give you a banana republic, make banana daiquiris. Never miss an opportunity to point out how corrupt, vindictive, and illegitimate Washington, D.C.’s monkey class has become.

Republicans, Democrats — I say a Monkeypox on both their houses! I think Lord Fauci and his medical mandators might even have a vaccine for that!

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Make it 97 for men and 25 for women.

Crikey, some people don’t know when they’re well off!
In this day & enlightened age, the Cat’s sex stories are regular male/female “hot sex” yarns.
Be grateful.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 30, 2022 1:02 pm

Improbable’ that Dawson wanted to hire a hitman
David Murray
DAVID MURRAY

Former Dawson family babysitter JC’s allegation that Chris contemplated getting a hitman to kill Lyn was “one of the most contentious issues in the proceedings”, the judge said.

JC said she was in her school uniform when Dawson drove her across the Harbour Bridge to an unidentified hotel in 1981.

He went inside, contemplating getting a hitman to kill Lyn, but said he changed his mind because innocent people would be hurt.

Mr Dawson challenged the evidence, saying JC had given different versions over time.

Justice Harrison said it “seemed improbable in the extreme” that Mr Dawson or anyone else would tell his “young, impressionable and in one view somewhat reluctant lover” that he was contemplating having his wife murdered.

“I’m not satisfied that Mr Dawson ever said to (JC) that he contemplated hiring a hitman to kill Lynette Dawson,” the judge said.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 30, 2022 1:02 pm

Monty attacks straw man…

Who would imaging doing a degree in lesbian basket weaving wouldnt lead to a high wage job…

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

OldOzzie says: August 30, 2022 at 8:22 am

The AFR View
Will the summit be a political stitch-up cloaked in talk of consensus?

The sector-wide “pattern bargaining” deal struck between the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia and the Australian Council of Trades Unions means there will be no united business front at the summit pushing back against the union agenda.

Labor is talking up the COSBOA-ACTU deal as a needed consensus between unions and business. But as far as can be discerned, the ACTU’s technical concessions on the operation of the enterprise bargaining “better off overall test” (BOOT) is relatively minor and a small price for gaining a potential beachhead into Australia’s 2.4 million small businesses.

Anybody else in small business & never heard of this “Small Business Council” that just made a binding deal with unions on your behalf?

This “Council of Small Business” that just let unions have a beachhead in Australia’s small businesses is totally unknown to 120% of small businesses I speak to.
A clue to the reason they are so union friendly & aloof to actual small businesses may be in the membership:
Members include Mastercard, the NBN Co, & others.

johanna
johanna
August 30, 2022 1:05 pm

The Vicco cops have finally released Vicco Pregnant Pyjama Mum, that obvious terrorist:

A Ballarat woman who was charged with inciting others to breach a state lockdown has had her case thrown out of court.
Key points:

Zoe Buhler was arrested in 2020 and charged with incitement to breach a public health order
The mother-of-three created an an anti-lockdown protest event on social media
Ms Buhler says she has “no regrets” and is considering further legal action

Zoe Buhler was arrested in her Ballarat home in September 2020 while pregnant.

The mother-of-three livestreamed her arrest, showing police handcuffing her in a video that later went viral and sparked concerns from the Australian Human Rights Commission.

The arrest came after she created a protest event on social media, citing concerns about the impacts of lockdowns during the pandemic.

In the Ballarat Magistrates Court this morning, police prosecution applied to have the charge struck out, which was approved by Magistrate Mark Stratmann.

In a statement, Victoria Police said they withdrew the single charge following an assessment of the case, determining it was “not in the public interest to continue with the prosecution”.

The process is the punishment.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 30, 2022 1:09 pm

He went inside, contemplating getting a hitman to kill Lyn, but said he changed his mind because innocent people would be hurt.

Er.

Other people getting hurt sort of goes against the concept of ‘hitman’.

Not many ads in the paper from people looking for a ‘hit and miss man’.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
August 30, 2022 1:09 pm

The sector-wide “pattern bargaining” deal struck between the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia and the Australian Council of Trades Unions means there will be no united business front at the summit pushing back against the union agenda


The sector-wide “pattern bargaining” deal struck between the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia and the Australian Council of Trades Unions means there will be a lovely new barrier to new small businesses starting..

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Three things the Vicstasi did not expect with the Zoe Bueler raid:
1/. The people inside the house to be livestreaming the event.
2/. That the entire world (i.e. people in almost every country on the planet) would be viewing the livestream.
3/. That Zoe would fight the case, instead of accept a summary penalty.

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