Open Thread – Weekend 17 Sept 2022
2,075 responses to “Open Thread – Weekend 17 Sept 2022”
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First one!
We are staying around a kilometre from the Bosnian border. It’s a little village with a big new hotel.
But “village” is a misnomer. The houses are bombed out and very few people still live here. The hotel is a mixture of private investment and UN funds. This place was on the front of the 91-95 war. Just looking around, it’s still devastating. Little farmlets and houses, boarded up, roofs stoved in, docks and other weeds growing all around.
War is hideous. It has no honour only misery and horror. And it leaves long shadows.
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The Afghanistan idiocy being a prime example.
The most hideous thing about it was the sheer pointless waste of twenty years of priceless blood and treasure.
The end result – the idiots the West went to war with emerging triumphant with gazillions worth of hardware and the former’s toxic beliefs even more firmly embedded in their enemy’s homelands.
Masters of War, indeed.
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An electric car parked on a street in Manly, on Sydney’s northern beaches, was spotted being charged by a lengthy trail of power cord
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From the old fred.
callisays:
September 16, 2022 at 11:39 pm
A quick travelogue before the thread ticks over to the weekend.
The lakes are unique and lovely
See.
I furken toldya.
No cascadin’ water, duzzen matter.
Of all the places in the wide world we have visited, Plitvice Lakes are up there.
The crystal clarity of the water and the almost primeval rock formations are something to behold. -
Lauren’s great isn’t she?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9sbZAtST58
Deadpan parody of progressive influencers. -
On protest songs and war.
The enigma wrapped in a mystery.
I know the best version is Buffy’s. But the visuals in this one are…compelling.
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In the interest of balance, Jan and Dean wrote this parody:
“The Universal Coward”
He’s young, he’s old, he’s inbetween and he’s so very much confused
He’ll scrounge around and protest all day long
He joins the pickets at Berkeley, and he burns up his draft card
And he’s twisted into thinkin’ fightin’ is all wrong
(Universal coward)He’s a pacifist, an extremist, a communist or just a yank
A demostrator, an agitator, just a knave
A conscientious objector, a fanatic or a defector
And he doesn’t know he’s diggin’ his own his grave
(Universal coward)Aww, he just can’t get it through his thick skull
Why the mighty U.S.A
Has got to be the watchdog of the world
Else that greedy U.S.S.R. will bury us from afar
And he’ll never see the missiles bein’ hurled
(Universal coward)He’s the universal coward, and he runs from anything
From a giant, from a human, from an elf
He runs from Uncle Sam, he runs from Vietnam
But most of all he’s runnin’ from himself
(Universal coward)Make up your own minds.
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Daniel Andrews tightens screws with new ‘nanny-state’ rules in Victoria
Walkers and riders face heavy new fines for not using government-sanctioned trails in Victoria, while swimmers could be barred from using some waterways without a necessary permit.
The planned new Andrews government regulations, affecting more than 50 city and regional parks, have been criticised as “nanny state” measures.
They also allow for the wider imposition of fines for rock climbers and other adventurists who fail to adhere to strict controls over the way they pursue their sport.
The draft regulations include fines for anyone who fills a chainsaw with oil and petrol on a soft surface such as grass and dirt and a ban on “intrusive” scientific studies and visitor surveys in parks.
The controversial moves are outlined in the government’s proposed Metropolitan and Regional Parks Regulations, which also lay the framework for the wider use of permits, user-pays systems and restrictions to access, which are already among the toughest in the world in parks in parts of the state.
When enacted, they will affect some of Victoria’s best-known parks, stretching from near the NSW border in the east, across Melbourne and politically sensitive regional centres including Ballarat, Bendigo and Shepparton.
The regulations state that land managers may set aside tracks for walking or riding and that “a person must not, in a park, leave a track set aside for walking or riding…’’
The penalty for walking off the track is $924, $1840 for filling a chainsaw in the wrong place, $1472 for conducting “any intrusive research” such as a scientific study and $1840 for breaching rules where public land is set aside to ban sport or recreational activity.
The reforms follow an unprecedented campaign by the government in its parks to gut rock climbing in Australia’s two key destinations – the Grampians and Mt Arapiles in western Victoria – where participation has dived in the past three years, including after the pandemic lockdowns ended.
Under the government’s timeline, the regulations, after being reviewed during the consultation process, are due to come into force by the end of this month or next month, in the lead-up to the November 26 election.
Australian Climbing Association Victorian president Mike Tomkins said the decision to include Macedon Regional Park, just outside Melbourne, in the regulatory list could affect some of the best rock climbing close to the city.
The proposed regulations read that a person must not rock climb, abseil, hang glide or paraglide in any park unless with the use of a special permit or if an area is set aside by the government for the pursuit.
“Everything is leading to the point of more and more control,” Mr Tomkins said.
A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the reforms would be pursued only to preserve parks or heritage.
“The regulations do not restrict any activities that are currently allowed and will only be used to restrict an activity if it is necessary to protect the environment, cultural heritage and safety,” she said.
“(The department) is considering the submissions and will develop recommendations for the minister in coming weeks.”
Opposition environment spokesman James Newbury said the government was failing to find the balance between protecting parks and intruding on liberties.
“Instead, Labor takes a nanny-state approach and has repeatedly taken extreme measures which lock land away from the community,” he said.
“Conservation relies on the community being involved and invested in the future of our unique lands.”
The new regulations, if enacted in full, have been framed for a wide number of parks in Victoria that aren’t currently covered by such laws. It includes for the first time special set aside provisions in the parks that enable certain activities to be banned or restricted.
The clampdown comes after the government has overhauled rock climbing in Victoria under the guise of protecting cultural heritage, which includes separate heavy penalties for wrongdoing under the relevant legislations.
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The Rand Corp’s report on US/Ukraine as a strategy to make Germany weak has been summarised here:
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Looks like the ‘under 12 hours’ fruitcake had boiled dry.
The only changes in Sweden are the approval of the bivalent variants of the vaxes.‘The first vaccines, approved on September 1st, are the Comirnaty Original/Omicron BA.1 and Spikevax bivalent Original/Omicron BA.1. These are booster vaccines which will be available for those aged 12 and above who have completed one course of the vaccine against Covid-19. The third vaccine, approved on September 12th, is an adapted version of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech), designed to target the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 in addition to the original strain of SARS-CoV-2. These are the two variants which have dominated Covid-19 infections in Sweden this summer.’when will the new covid 19 vaccines be available in Sweden
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Remember their names, peoples, because no obnoxious screechy inner city collectivist hypocrite will.
I remember Bob Chappell.
The state said his life was worth less than an armed robbery because they declared a woman was guilty.
Does that mean women are incompetent at everything, including being evil – save for the banality of being evil?
Come at me sis.
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The Kyiv Security Compact was formally presented to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who endorsed it, published it on the website of the Ukrainian presidency, and supports its adoption
The document specifies for “the US, UK, Canada, Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, Turkey, and Nordic, Baltic, and Central European countries” to make “legally and politically binding” agreements” that ally them with “Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia.”
The document was drafted by a long list of Washington’s bought-and-paid-for European puppets, co-chaired by former Danish Prime Minister and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia,
https://www.unz.com/proberts/is-reality-over-the-kremlins-head/
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As for the malignant trolling of my comments, I’ll note that 99.9% of the anti vaxx tripe that gets posted here goes through to the keeper and only rarely do I bother to query some of the most outlandish nonsense.
Like when you took a hatchet to Robert Malone’s character, motivations and warnings using an Atlantic article when he was trying to warn people the “he would probably recommend their use only for those at highest risk from COVID-19. Everyone else should be wary, he told me, and those under 18 should be excluded entirely.”
Yeah, that was outlandish nonsense:
Based on passive surveillance reporting in the US, the risk of myocarditis after receiving mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines was increased across multiple age and sex strata and was highest after the second vaccination dose in adolescent males and young men. This risk should be considered in the context of the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination.
Long-term outcome data are not yet available for COVID-19 vaccine–associated myocarditis cases. The CDC has started active follow-up surveillance in adolescents and young adults to assess the health and functional status and cardiac outcomes at 3 to 6 months in probable and confirmed cases of myocarditis reported to VAERS after COVID-19 vaccination.
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Imagine in the early 1930’s, having a distinguishing sign on your business to ensure others knew your compliance to the state.
Signs of the times?
Trump Voters Put Biden Signs In Their Yards So That The FBI Will Pass Over Them (12 Sep)
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An international study of major weather and extreme events has found no evidence of a “climate emergency” in the record to date.
The study by Italian scientists provides a long-term analysis of heat, drought, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and ecosystem productivity and finds no clear positive trend of extreme events.
The authors do not say that no action should be taken on climate change but argue the issue should be placed in a bigger context.
“Fearing a climate emergency without this being supported by data, means altering the framework of priorities with negative ¬effects that could prove deleterious to our ability to face the challenges of the future, squandering natural and human resources in an economically difficult context,” the report, published in European Physical Journal Plus, said.
The paper – “A critical assessment of extreme events trends in times of global warming” – found the most robust global changes in climate extremes are found in yearly values of heatwaves, but it said global trends in heatwave -intensity were “not significant”.
Daily rainfall intensity and ¬extreme precipitation frequency were stationary.
Tropical cyclones show a “substantial temporal invariance”, as do tornadoes.
The impact of warming on surface and wind speed remained unclear.The team, led by Gianluca Alimonti from the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics and the University of Milan, extended the analysis to include natural disasters, floods, drought, ecosystem productivity and yields of the four main crops (maize, rice, soybean and wheat).
“None of these response indicators show a clear positive trend of extreme events,” the report said.
The authors said it was important to underline the difference ¬between statistical evidence of ¬excess of events, with given characteristic, and probabilistic calculation of anthropogenic attribution of extreme events. The statistical evidence is based on historical observations and tries to highlight differences between these and recent observations or possible trends as a function of time. “The anthropogenic versus natural attribution of the origin of a phenomenon is based on probabilistic models and makes reliance on simulations that hardly reproduce the macro and microphysical variables involved in it,” the ¬researchers said.
“In conclusion, on the basis of observational data, the climate crisis that, according to many sources, we are experiencing today, is not evident yet.”
On floods, the report said: ¬“Although evidence of an increase in total annual precipitation is ¬observed on a global level, corresponding evidence for increases in flooding remains elusive and a long list of studies shows little or no evidence of increased flood magnitudes, with some studies finding more evidence of decreases than increases.”
The paper said there was “no evidence that the areas affected by the different types of drought are increasing”.
In conclusion, the findings do not mean we should do nothing about climate change. “We should work to minimise our impact on the planet and to minimise air and water pollution,” the authors said.
“Whether or not we manage to drastically curtail our carbon dioxide emissions in the coming decades, we need to reduce our vulnerability to extreme weather and climate events.
“How the climate of the twenty-first century will play out is a topic of deep uncertainty. We need to increase our resiliency to whatever the future climate will present us.” -
Somehow, in NSW, I have to put up with Dan Andrews!
From NewsCorp.
But he has a long way to go to convince his counterparts, such as Daniel Andrews, who have raised concerns about the pressure it would heap onto hospitals and healthcare workers.
So I hate Victorians a little bit now. Your inability to excise this cancer is now affecting me.
Please all go and take 20 Pfizer shots right now. It’s double plus good science juice, don’t argue with science, you bigots.
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Oh I remember Malone, it was FTB who linked the very unflattering article about him which I relinked to another thread with an unflattering comment of my own about Malone’s motives iirc and you accused me of having it ‘bookmarked’ and posting it multiple times.
Not only that you didn’t bother to read it or the attached letter in support by his wife before slamming it having wrongly assumed the wifely diatribe was negative, rather that in support of ‘Iwasrobbed’ Malone.
Your pathetic pointless malice is only a reflection on you.
It may surprise but I have zero interest in the opinions of either Malone or any other ‘trusted bloggers’ or yours, for that matter. -
‘The first vaccines, approved on September 1st, are the Comirnaty Original/Omicron BA.1 and Spikevax bivalent Original/Omicron BA.1……….designed to target the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 in addition to the original strain of SARS-CoV-2.
Ask yourself why they were so desperate to get that original wuhan spike into you, and they still are – despite that variant being long dead. We dont keep giving the same flushot year after year, so why this?
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A tale of 50 illegals. Two days ago, a politician who does have some spine and conviction, Governor DeSantis, sent a small number of men and women, about 50 illegals, by aeroplane to a very nice and tony enclave island known as Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, an island inhabited by some of the wealthiest people in the US, including an ex-president. The reaction? Well, youda thinka that the progressive voting hypocritical scum who reside in Martha’s Vineyard would be very happy to accommodate impoverished and desperate men and women, many of whom had trekked hundred of miles to cross the border. Remember, this is the same hypocritical scum who shouted, screamed and wailed about President Trump’s border wall, who shouted, screamed and hurled labels such as “fascist” at Trump because of his administration’s strict immigration policies so youda thinka that these Martha’s Vineyard residents would be more than happy to put up desperate people in their neighbourhoods, you know, to set an example to those hideous MAGA voters and to share the pain, because after all, isn’t “sharing” what progressive Marxism is all about, or should be all about?
Well, the well heeled scum of Martha’s Vineyard weren’t too happy about these 50 or so illegals arriving on their doorstep, in fact they were livid, and they did what progressives do so well, they wailed, they shouted, they yelled, they cried, they lectured and then they tried to smear DeSantis by saying he was “trafficking” human beings. You gotta laugh at the chutzpah of progressive hypocrisy, they truly have no shame, suddenly they’re worried about human trafficking, yet these same people have said nothing about the human trafficking of illegals across the southern border, all because it suits their progressive politics, because it enables them to engage in cheap and adolescent virtue signalling, because they think these illegals will vote Democrat, and finally, because they have long known they don’t have to bear any personal consequences from having porous borders and waking up, stepping out of their mansions and having to avoid stepping on human beings sleeping in their streets.
Well, in news just in, the Massachusetts’ authorities have moved the 50 or so illegals to a military base on Cape Cod, which is on the mainland. Didn’t take long did it? Tis amazing what happens when you upset progressives. Seriously though, you couldn’t make this shit up. The illegals been been taken off the streets of Martha’s Vineyard, and life can resume as normal for the island’s hypocritical inhabitants, they can continue with their cheap virtue signalling and their endless, endless hypocrisy. They won’t have to worry about leaving Zabar’s deli after buying some bagels and a knish or two whilst sipping on their almond latte and then having to worry about stepping on some illegal migrant camping on the street. Quelle horreur! We’ve all long known that those who spruik notions such as open borders and sanctuary towns and cities are hypocrites of the first order but well done to Governor DeSantis because he’s truly exposed the progressive scum for what they are.
Memo to Liz Truss and her new government, after the Queen’s funeral, you should put up the illegals streaming over the channel in the wealthy, very progressive and now Labour voting suburbs of London. Might win you back a few votes in the red wall, those same voters that Boris trashed.
The moral of the tale of Martha’s Vineyard and 50 illegals? Well of course, it’s the never ending stench of progressive hypocrisy but whilst we all know that, it’s still bloody delicious. And Governor DeSantis, he’s truly….Top Gov.
In my mind I’m going to Martha’s Vineyard, but not 50 illegals, they’re not welcome.
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FFS_Scotland was already taken.
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A lawyer was working in his office one day when Satan appeared. “I can make it so you win every case in your career and make huge piles of money. In exchange you will give me your soul, your wife’s soul, your children’s souls, your parent’s souls, your grandparent’s souls and the souls of all your friends!” The lawyer thought it over for a moment and then asked, “What’s the catch?”
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is facing declining trust in the force’s performance and questions about the organization’s integrity. That’s according to internal polling reviewed by Global News that suggests the Mounties face an increasingly skeptical public concerned not only with their job performance but with the national police force’s honesty, integrity and transparency.
Baffling! Hopefully we don’t see the same here – checks calendar, when is my date for trial courtesy of our own AFP?
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September 17th, 1944. Commencement of Operation Market Garden – the Allied attempt to capture the bridges over the Rhine, and drive into the Ruhr, with the aim of finishing World War Two, in Europe, by the end of 1944. A poor plan, but one which came closer to sucess then is usually given credit for.
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I was shocked by how and how many people just accepted “Pfizer Arm” as a thing.
Because they really, really care about our health. Rigging and curtailing the trials, putting an untested drug on the market (with total indemnity, of course) and then advocating for mandates was all for our own good. The resulting multi-billions in their bank accounts while our lives and livelihoods were wrecked was all the reward of virtue.
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Heart attack symptoms as more younger women are experiencing medical emergency
Heart attacks are becoming increasingly more common in women under 50 and medical experts can’t figure out why.
Yes, a real mystery.
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Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE: Convicted wife killer Chris Dawson files appeal against his guilty verdict – after lawyer revealed death threats in jail and his mental health fears
Chris Dawson’s legal team have filed papers to appeal his murder conviction
Legal move at NSW Court of Criminal Appeal precedes sentencing in November
His lawyer Greg Walsh said he’d received serious death threats from inmates
Lyn Dawson’s family want to find where Dawson left her remains in 1982
Detectives believe she may have been buried on the NSW Central Coast -
Fester, you drivelling imbecile , it’s a joke. You linked to the Bee. FMD, you’re an idiot … and you wanted the science monopoly at the Car. The fuck!
Bruce of Newcastle says:
September 17, 2022 at 7:39 am
Imagine in the early 1930’s, having a distinguishing sign on your business to ensure others knew your compliance to the state.
Signs of the times?Trump Voters Put Biden Signs In Their Yards So That The FBI Will Pass Over Them (12 Sep)
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Reporting in from Martha’s Vineyard, and I note Cassie’s wise comments above.
No sign of any illegals, but yes they have all been spirited away.
Makes me think that flying them in here was a cunning move to get the progressives to do just what they have done – move them off the well-heeled ones’ doorsteps, thus showing what hypocrites they are. Mrs TE commented on our bus rides around MV today that there were “no derros”, and indeed there weren’t.
The island of Martha’s Vineyard in fact is four little towns, all with very expensive shops designed to sell to well-off tourists. Everything food-wise was about 30-40% more expensive than the mainland. It actually cost us $68US each just for the ferry ride over. Parking in Hyannis – the little town where you board the ferry – had parking for tourists’ cars available at extortionate rates. No illegal immigrant could possibly afford to get a job on MV as they couldn’t find anywhere to live anyway. So it was inevitable they’d be taken to the mainland.
DeSantis and Co have made a good move. It’s all over the front pages here. Listening to Americans’ comments it’s notable that none – that we heard anyway – support the present shambolic disaster of what’s happening on their southern border.
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This really gives me the creeps. I saw something just yesterday about him releasing them in Florida. What will it take to deliver us from this psychopath?
Bill Gates’ Colombian Mosquito Factory Breeding 30 Million Bacteria-Infected Mosquitos Per Week
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Twitter has been great overnight.
John Hayward
@Doc_0
1. Sending 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard is like the Holocaust2. HAHAHA, you just gave us a chance to show how compassionate we are
3. We demand emergency assistance
4. Get these damn migrants off our island
5. Call out the National Guard!
ALL IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS
125 National Guard were authorised to “handle” 50 punters.
I saw no footage of them there but the fact the governor approved them can’t be undone. -
More twitter gold.
Sean Davis
@seanmdavCartels bringing illegals over the border: not human trafficking.
Biden secretly dumping illegals in red states: not human trafficking.
DeSantis flying 50 illegals to Martha’s Vineyard: chattel slavery.
Martha’s Vineyard elites deporting the illegals: not human trafficking.
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From the feminist lady pages. Ontario High School Teacher Seen Wearing Massive Prosthetic Bust to Class. I can’t tell anymore if it is real or if someone is trolling.
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There was a competition between a team of blondes and a team of brunettes to see who could catch the most fish ice fishing. Once the contest started, it was clear that the brunettes were going to win… they kept pulling out fish after fish. Soon, the blondes got worried and sent over one of their team to see what the brunettes were doing differently. A few minutes later, the blonde comes running back. “A hole! You need to put a hole in the ice!”
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‘Picnic’, ‘women’ among list of words now deemed too offensive
We are living at a bewildering time, as yesterday’s euphemisms and woke terminology become tomorrow’s taboos. If you think language policing is largely practised by US arts students, think again.
By ROSEMARY NEILL
From Review
September 17, 2022
11 minute read
51Picnic. Women. Young. Old. Smartphone. Addict. All these words have something in common: they belong to a growing list of seemingly innocuous terms that have been deemed by universities, government departments and professional associations to be offensive or problematic.
In our era of performative kindness, representation and inclusion – not to mention sensitivity readers and open letters aimed at cancelling writers and thinkers deemed to have crossed a line – we are seeing a laudable rejection of racist, homophobic and sexist slurs turn into something more troubling: a regime of language policing that makes George Orwell’s Newspeak sound reasonable.
In June 2021, the Prevention, Advocacy & Resource Centre (PARC) at America’s Brandeis University released an “Oppressive Language List” which included the words and expressions “killing it” and “trigger warning” – because of their purported “connections to guns” – as well as “picnic”, “people of colour”, “crazy”, “addict” and “homeless person”.
PARC raised claims – which have been disputed – that “picnic” has historical associations with lynchings, and suggested replacing it with “outdoor eating’’. The university said the list’s “neutral” recommendations were not a requirement for students and staff, yet PARC went on to expand its glossary of oppressive terms in August 2021.
Among the new additions was the expression “whipped into shape” which, according to PARC, could evoke “imagery of enslavement and torture’’. PARC also urged students to replace “addict” with “person with a substance abuse disorder” – such terminology is being increasingly used in the health field – and recommended that “homeless person’’ be abandoned in favour of “person who is experiencing housing insecurity’’.
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Dozens of modest properties and homes are available for rent on AirBnb on Martha’s Vineyard, DailyMail.com can reveal, despite the island’s main homelessness expert claiming there was no affordable housing in which to place migrants.
Private rooms and small guest stays are on offer for $180 a night, which could have been used as a stop gap for the migrants to be housed.
Lisa Belcastro, homelessness director of the island, yesterday claimed that the affluent area has a ‘housing crisis’.
Speaking after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent two planeloads of migrants to the pretty coastal town, Belcastro claimed that the island cannot support the addition of 50 more people.
Belcastro, who herself lives in a lavish four bed and four bath $3.6million property in a secluded part of the island, is one of the liberal officials who declared it a ‘humanitarian emergency’ – reacting as they would to a hurricane.
Her claims were backed by Gov. Charlie Baker, who said that Martha’s Vineyard, with a population of 15,000, is ‘not equipped to provide sustainable accommodation’ to the migrants.
Earlier today he announced plans to ferry the illegal immigrants across to the mainland to military Joint Base in Cape Cod – 32 miles away.
“…homelessness director of the island”?????
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This article is from 2014, under Obama. Where were the screams then?
Thousands of Illegal Immigrants Bused Across U.S. into Cities
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‘It was an unmitigated disaster’: COVID lockdown and remote learning has set back kids by ‘up to several GRADES’ and cratered social skills in younger students, education expert says
My two school age Grandees in Danistan reacted different to “home ” schooling .. Master L, very bright, luvs school took to it like a duck takes to water and has gone back into the classroom seamlessly .. tho being a “people” person suffered from missed group/sports interaction ….
Miss G, average student at the best of times treated “home” as a holiday when not watched .. looking like she’ll have to repeat as she improved very little during “lockdown(s)”.. more of a “loner” wasn’t bothered by being secluded ….. -
FYI.
I just knocked back a $160k/y job offer due to a contract clause which basically said “You ‘may’ be required to obtain covid19 vaccinate or other vaccination as requested by the company”.
Of course I took issue with this, even though this company does not have any current (nor had any) vaccine mandates. HR were saying ‘legally’ they couldn’t take it out. So that was that.
Anyone else seen this kind of clause in new employment contracts?
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Far out news – look out you krauts.
Our old friend Nostradamus has foretold more upheaval to come.
“”Quatrain 10/22 then allegedly reads: “Because they disapproved of his divorce, A man who later they considered unworthy. The people will force out the King of the islands. A man will replace who never expected to be king.””
The royal family and Germany go way back
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Business on board with voice as corporate branding exercise Janet AlbrechtsenFollow @jkalbrechtsen
12:00AM September 17, 2022
24 CommentsFollowing the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Anthony Albanese says he will focus on cementing his promised Indigenous voice in the Constitution ahead of pushing for a republic. That makes sense. After all, many Australians may feel the same way as Tim Shipman.
When the Queen died, The Sunday Times journalist remarked that while he harboured a “bit of a republican spirit in my teenage years”, he “was cured of that by two things: prolonged exposure to elected politicians and Elizabeth II. I feel a bit like I felt when my favourite grandmother died.”
theaustralian.com.au04:24
Voice to parliament likely to take place in second half of 2023
UNSW Professor of Constitutional Law George Williams says it is still likely the Voice to parliament referendum… will take place in the second half of next year. “I’d say the second half of next year because to run this well, I think, will take 12 months,” he told MoreEchoing the Prime Minister, a couple of business leaders have said they want the country, and their staff, to focus on an Indigenous voice too. CSL’s Brian McNamee said there was a “greater need” to enshrine an Indigenous voice in the Constitution. Lendlease’s global chief executive Tony Lombardo agreed, saying the building giant was encouraging staff to think about the constitutional changes required for an Indigenous voice. Lendlease was “right behind” the Uluru Statement from the Heart, he said this week.
Sweeping statements of support for the voice sum up a large chunk of corporate Australia today, especially chief executives who sit atop other people’s money.
It beggars belief that so few of them, if any, have thought deeply about this change, pondering its scope, its power, its constitutional and governance implications and how it will address disadvantage.
If they have considered these critical details, it would assist this national debate if they shared them publicly.
Is there a single faddish issue (defined as any issue that consists of feel-good statements ideally used to attract sympathetic media mentions) that corporate bosses do not embrace these days as a branding exercise?
Any self-respecting business leader ought to know the devil is in the detail. When facing a corporate restructure, a takeover or a merger, chief executives use teams of qualified experts to advise them on the finer details of what it means for them and for shareholders.
But on the voice, so many chief executives resort to vibey slogans. They sound frightfully hip in social justice land, where nothing real is measured, only one’s image. No doubt some have a genuine personal attachment to Indigenous matters. But none of them appears to have undertaken scrupulous analysis to determine what is right and what is wrong about this proposal.
They could start by offering a forensic analysis of how Albanese’s proposed amendment to the Constitution to establish the voice will affect our parliamentary democracy. We are not drafting a mission statement; this is a proposed alteration to the rule book that determines how and by whom we are governed. Now that we have the text of the proposal, in the form of the Albanese Amendment, we can better understand the risks this amendment creates for effective government and for parliamentary supremacy.
Unless one is a reckless risk-taker with our Constitution, diligent and expert legal analysis of the impact of the Albanese Amendment is surely the precondition for all public advocates for the Yes team. Indeed, how does a corporate leader meet their fiduciary obligations to shareholders by advocating for the Albanese Amendment without knowing precisely what the practical impacts will be on our system of government and on their companies?
So, yes, let’s now focus on the detailed implications of the Albanese Amendment to our founding document. To that end, here are 10 questions for members of the Yes team who have hitherto limited themselves to expressing a vibe, an emotion and a slogan.
In truth, the Prime Minister should have sought answers to these questions before unveiling the Albanese Amendment. To have announced it without first getting careful legal advice on the issues below would be remarkably negligent.
After all, the Solicitor-General was able to act quickly to advise on the constitutional and legal implications of Scott Morrison assuming five secret ministries.
The Albanese Amendment, by contrast, is a permanent change that demands extensive and expert legal advice. Where is the Solicitor-General’s careful advice on this?
Separate to the Prime Minister’s responsibilities, chief executives of companies the size of CSL and Lendlease should be getting their own advice on these matters. Given they owe that level of diligence, as a bare minimum, to their shareholders, chief executives should feel free to copy and paste the below questions for internal consideration to satisfy shareholders that this suggested reform has been analysed diligently by management.
In answering each of these questions, please don’t rely on hopes and wishes: instead, demand cold hard legal reasons for each conclusion.
Questions
1. Can you guarantee that the High Court of Australia won’t have the final say on the key features of the voice, including its budget, staffing, processes, timing and the breadth of what constitutes “matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”?
2. If you do guarantee to voters that parliament’s power is supreme, and that neither the current High Court, nor any future High Court, will get involved in litigation concerning the voice, on what basis is that guarantee made?
3. How can you presume to know what a High Court will decide given that the court’s composition changes over time, and will change over the next few years with the retirement of two justices?
4. Can you guarantee that the voice, and therefore the court’s intervention, will be limited to matters solely relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? If not, what matters that relate to non-Indigenous Australians will the voice be entitled to make representations about?
5. If you are unable to determine in advance of High Court rulings the matters before parliament and executive government that the voice can choose to involve itself in, do you agree that the voice potentially will be able to frustrate urgent laws and decisions that may need to be made by parliament and executive, respectively?
6. Can you guarantee that the High Court will not involve itself in what is proper consideration by parliament or executive government of representations by the voice? What will be the consequence of failure to consult the voice properly in relation to a proposed act of parliament or an act or omission of executive government? Is the relevant proposed act or action invalid?
7. Can you guarantee that the body called the voice, enshrined in the Constitution, will not be controlled, from time to time, by factions that represent more radical Indigenous activists whose interests may differ markedly from other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?
8. What definition of Aboriginality will determine eligibility to vote for or to sit on this body? Can you guarantee that parliament, not the High Court, will in all cases ultimately determine who is eligible to vote for or sit on the body called the voice?
9. Remembering that both the Yes case and the No case were equally funded during the republic referendum, will the Prime Minister guarantee that equal funding will be given to both the Yes case and the No case to ensure that the debate about altering our founding document will be fair? Or will the Prime Minister repeat his actions when proposing to recognise local government in the Constitution in 2013, where he offered the No side 1/20th ($500,000) of what the Yes camp was promised ($10m)?
10. What is it, specifically, about the voice that will make a difference in addressing the tragic levels of Indigenous disadvantage, given that decades of consulting with Indigenous leaders and communities has failed to ensure that Indigenous children complete school at the same rate as non-Indigenous children, that getting a job is a mainstream Indigenous ambition along with providing a safe home for Indigenous men, women and children?
A charitable observer must assume that detailed legal advice on all these critical questions already exists and that it will be made public very soon so voters can properly analyse this proposed constitutional change. Not seeking legal advice would be irresponsible. Suppressing it would be unthinkable. Either path is dangerous for the Albanese government. It would destroy the legitimacy of the referendum by asking Australians to recklessly gamble with the future governance of the country.
Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist -
Certificate awarded to Struth, me and a few others on this blog;
https://substack.com/redirect/85ad9aa8-1091-4821-a295-6d33f108d116?r=ho9bj
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The welcome sign on the road to Martha’s Vineyard is the best self-own of all. Not even the Bee could do better.
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Cannon’s second order appointed Judge Raymond J. Dearie to serve as special master and established his responsibilities and other logistical duties. Trump proffered Dearie, a semi-retired senior judge for the Eastern District of New York, as one of two recommended candidates. Dearie’s recommendation raised some eyebrows given that Dearie, who had served for seven years on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or “FISA” court, had signed the fourth faulty Carter Page surveillance order that allowed federal intelligence agencies to spy on Trump’s administration and campaign.
While the DOJ objected to the other candidate proposed by Trump, the government agreed that Dearie would be acceptable. In accepting the special master assignment, Dearie, a Reagan appointee, signed a declaration attesting that he had no known conflicts of interest.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/16/trump-scores-two-huge-victories-in-fight-for-special-master/
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September 17th, 1944. Commencement of Operation Market Garden – the Allied attempt to capture the bridges over the Rhine, and drive into the Ruhr, with the aim of finishing World War Two, in Europe, by the end of 1944. A poor plan, but one which came closer to sucess then is usually given credit for.
Their resistance at the Rhine shows the nazi leadership *still* hadn’t admitted the war was lost – if they had, they would have stiffened their forces on the Eastern front so as to ensure it was the allies, not the soviets, who occupied Germany.
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A charitable observer must assume that detailed legal advice on all these critical questions already exists and that it will be made public very soon so voters can properly analyse this proposed constitutional change. Not seeking legal advice would be irresponsible. Suppressing it would be unthinkable. Either path is dangerous for the Albanese government. It would destroy the legitimacy of the referendum by asking Australians to recklessly gamble with the future governance of the country.
Janet Albrechtsen
ColumnistHow can anyone vote on a change to the Australian Constitution when the wording of that change has not been written down to be read and considered. Will such wording be put forward to vote upon? If so when? And if there is no wording then how can this ‘change’ be voted on.
It’s like signing a blank cheque and just handing it over………………………
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Matersays:
September 17, 2022 at 7:56 am
Victorians deserve Dan Andrews.Not the hundreds of thousands who I matched with in the CBD streets. They most certainly do not. That restored my faith, somewhat.
Yep. You deserve a lot better. But the Hunchback will get back in, most likely in a landslide.
The average victorian loves being told what to do and think.
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Big_Nambassays:
September 17, 2022 at 9:17 am
Certificate awarded to Struth, me and a few others on this blog;https://substack.com/redirect/85ad9aa8-1091-4821-a295-6d33f108d116?r=ho9bj
I already have one.
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On Trusted Bloggers.
Covid Injections Are Dangerous, What You Can Do If You’ve Had One or Two
The Exposé reporting it’s current poster boy:
Dr. Shoemaker: In the British study, non-vaccinated children continue to die at a low, modest, hardly noticeable rate, 10 to 14-year-olds. For the 10 to 14-year-olds that got the shot, their death rate went from 52 times more to 82 times more to now over 100 times more – that’s 10,000% more likely to die if you’re a 10 to 14-year-old if you’re given the shot than if you don’t.
Let’s go to the data (Table 6):
For England, in the 17 month period to 31 May 2022:
• Deaths of unvaccinated 10 to 14 yo’s with Covid recorded = 9;
• Deaths of vaccinated 10 to 14 yo’s with Covid recorded = 1 (one).
Out of an age group population of ~3.4 million.
Now this tells us about the vanishingly small risk that Covid poses to the young – and (considered along with zero herd immunity) questions why anyone would even consider jabbing that age group with a vaccine that has such significant and serious side effects.
But it also highlights the absolute, dishonest shite spread by trusted bloggers.
Anyone seriously stating “10,000% more likely to die if you’re a 10 to 14-year-old if you’re given the shot than if you don’t” on the basis of a near invisible data set, is either deliberately misinforming, or statistically hopeless.
In the case of The Exposé misinformation is stock in trade as it grifts for its next ‘cup of coffee’.
Form your own judgement about Dr Shoemaker.
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1. Can you guarantee that the High Court of Australia won’t have the final say on the key features of the voice, including its budget, staffing, processes, timing and the breadth of what constitutes “matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”?
Given that the HC, regularly, overturns/reverses decisions already taken at ministerial level regarding immigration/boat folk I would expect HC powers/involvement should have been front and centre sorted before anything else was considered ……!
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Rogersays:
September 17, 2022 at 9:28 am
I like your optimism.You can tell how well it’s going by the fact that Elbow & Burney thought getting Shaq to lecture Australians on racism in a series of videos was a good idea.
Does anyone know what the modern definition of ‘racist’ is?
I’m thinking by the way it seems to be used is ‘anyone one who disagrees with anything the left says’.
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Can someone show me what I linked to regarding Malone?
And when?No, because you didn’t. Not on this Cat anyway.
She’s probably referring to Dr Faustus:
You did link to an Atlantic article in the days prior, but one that merely highlighted Biden’s ineptness.
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I expect references to the Voice referendum will become fewer and fewer over time. Particularly towards the next election. I may be wrong but remember The Golden Rule.
I don’t expect we’ll see Shaq’s little clips, which is a pity really as I’m sure they would have made a positive contribution to the debate. Cough.
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Their resistance at the Rhine shows the nazi leadership *still* hadn’t admitted the war was lost – if they had, they would have stiffened their forces on the Eastern front so as to ensure it was the allies, not the soviets, who occupied Germany.
Methinx the failure of Market Garden had more to do with dropping paratroops & equipment miles from their objective(s) and failing to take into account (or missed) there was a, battle-hardened, Panzer regiment resting up & refitting in the target area ……..
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Garrison’s effort today is hilarious.
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What was m0nty saying yesterday about Martha’s Vineyard wealthy “progressives” accommodating the illegal immigrants?
https://twitter.com/ArtValley818_/status/1570809025054535684?cxt=HHwWiMDTxYuf0cwrAAAA
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The average victorian loves being told what to do and think.
More pragmatic than that.
TaliDan has expanded the government into nearly all the social and economic functions of the state.
People owe their positions or pay to the state. A thirty six billion payroll buys lots of influence and loyalty.
The regulatory police apparatus keeps business in check for fear of a visit from the inspectors.
Big business has done the devil’s deal with the regime to win contracts and keep sweet with Dan’s union mafia.
He keeps legislating absurdly punitive regulations on all manner of usual human activities or interactions.
What this petty tyrant perpetrated on the populace should have been no surprise. Only when he sought to have citizens indefinitely detained by the say of a committee, without recourse to a court, did the legal community raise mild concerns and Dan blinked.
The main hope is that the progressive potentate tires of the job and the underlings take over. There’s usually very little to back up one man personality regimes and the successors always fail. -
Sancho Panzer says:
September 16, 2022 at 3:49 pmJohanna.
I just bought a modem from my new internet supplier.
I think it was $150.
It is my property.
If I change providers I can nominate that I am providing my own modem.
It sounds like you have been subjected to a typical Telstra gouge.Nah. I paid $144 for my dongle (ugh!) which I now own and can use on any machine with any provider.
The’ve certainly come down in price – I remember paying $400 for the first one more than 20 years ago.
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Thanks Dr F for wading through the swill that is the Daily Exposé
Indeed, I’m not a medical expert so my fall back in regard to trust is the willingness to call out rubbish even when they themselves are sceptical of the vax. Plus enyone that needs to be seen as some resistance fighter is also a flag.
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A man went into a local tavern and took a seat at the bar next to a women patron. He turned to her and said “This is a special day, I’m celebrating”. “What a coincidence” said the woman “I’m celebrating, too”. She clinked glasses with him and asked “What are you celebrating?” “I’m a chicken farmer” he replied. “For years all my hens were infertile, but today they’re finally fertile”. “What a coincidence, the woman said. “My husband and I have been trying to have a child. Today, my gynaecologist told me I’m pregnant!” How did your chickens become fertile?” she asked. “I switched cocks” he replied. “What a coincidence” she said.
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There’s always one (the Hun):
A male was tackled to the ground by police after appearing to rush at the Queen’s coffin.
The shocking incident unfolded around 10pm local time at Westminster Hall hours after the Queen’s children held a vigil in the monarch’s honour.
Police arrested the man which left onlookers stunned.
Evidently the bloke was making a grab for the Royal Standard.
No word yet as to whether his limbs have been cut off and sent to Cornwall, Wales, York and East Anglia as a warning.
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He keeps legislating absurdly punitive regulations on all manner of usual human activities or interactions.
Not to mention the continual assaults on private property. The recent one where the State can mandate that people are allowed to camp or caravan by the river, when the river can only be accessed through farmland, and the landowner has no say whatsoever, is outrageous.
Imagine if you have valuable livestock, and anybody can drive through your property and camp. Gates could be left open, animals could be harassed or worse by dogs and yahoos, rubbish left around – too bad. Then there are the biosecurity issues.
It says a lot about the weak condition of democracy in Vicco that this didn’t cause a massive political brawl.
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True Rabz.
Victoria need a citizens freedom audit to review all laws and regulations to remove coercive powers and fines.
All senior public positions should be declared vacant.
Local government should have strictly limited operational parameters. All political involvement in council elections should be banned. -
Had to deal with them again – just taken up their new 5G offer, which is $10 a month cheaper than my current plan. They’ve sent me a new modem, which I didn’t think was needed. Be interesting to see if it’s the same modem when removed from the box.
Seems to be a thing with some providers .. new modems .. my mob sends me a “newie” at least once, sometimes twice, a year never bothered swapping the original over as it still worx .. have 6 unopened boxes in the cupboard … LOL!
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Johanna, you may find this article of some interest:
Admirers of Agatha Christie have much to be thankful for this month. On September 6, we got a new biography to dig into—Lucy Worsley’s Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman—and now, on top of that, we have a tribute to the incomparable Miss Marple.
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The jab has been said to have led to a peace of mind as well as a ticket to ride, and in some cases, possibly very many cases (I can only hope not because people I love have been jabbed), caused harm; and if Chomsky had his way, the jab would allow you to eat. Essentially, though, the jab has been a violation if not upon all then upon many. So now that the pendulum has been let swing, we would prefer to not reflect on the jab. But the jab has become a metaphor which in extension is that of the dogs of war having been let slip. From this perspective, to maintain the rightness of the jab is to avoid insight into what might be true. I suppose if we drew up something like a T bar noting the jab on one side and the concomitant violations and social atrocities and evils on the other, we might get a clearer picture. We might notice, for instance, that the mutilation of children and the denial of biological humanity had its correlates in the jabbing of children and of workers denied bodily autonomy. And so on. The people who knew and feared all this were those that pushed prams and carried children on shoulders as they marched. Hence it seems to me that the underlying struggle about the jab is valid for it is also about the big picture, a perspective of which becomes clearer with the lens of honesty.
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bespokesays:
September 17, 2022 at 10:02 am
Thanks Dr F for wading through the swill that is the Daily Exposé
Indeed, I’m not a medical expert so my fall back in regard to trust is the willingness to call out rubbish even when they themselves are sceptical of the vax.
Without downplaying his sterling fact-checking efforts, the stuff Dr F called out this morning didn’t require specialist medical knowledge.
Just a keen eye for statistical pea ‘n thimble tricks. -
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MatrixTransformsays:
September 17, 2022 at 10:17 am
Don’t be concerned about me.
If I was youse, I’d be more worried about how long it will take before the interior designer starts telling you that British Paints Arctic Snow is sooo last year, and you need to re-paint the whole place in Dulux Lexicon (half strength). -
Three engineers and three accountants were travelling by train to a conference.
At the station, the three accountants each buy tickets and watch as the three engineers buy only a single ticket.
“How are you three going to travel on only one ticket?” one of the accountants asks. “Watch and you will see” answers one of the engineers.
They all board the train. The three accountants take their respective seats, but the three engineers all cram into a restroom and close the door behind them.
Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says “Ticket please”.
The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on.
The accountants saw this and agreed it was a very clever idea. So after the conference, they decide to copy the engineers and purchase a single ticket on the return journey to save money.
When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket there. To their amazement, the engineers buy no tickets at all.
One of the accountants asks “How are you going to travel without any ticket?” “Watch and you will see” one of the engineers replies.
When they board the train, the three accountants cram into one restroom and the three engineers cram into another one nearby. The train departs.
Shortly after it has departed, one of the engineers leaves his place and walks over to the restroom where the accountants are hiding. He knocks on the door and says “Ticket please”.
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Baron of the Taiga
@baronichitas
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11h
Horrific…
RIP(btw this is part of the reason I have disdain towards the practice of employing women in combat)
Quote TweetKevork Almassian????
@KevorkAlmassian
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12h
The Aliyev regime forces raped this Armenian woman, semi beheaded her, stabbed her, gouged her eyes out and replaced them with stones, cut out her fingers out and shoved them in her mouth.Indeed, outside of the most extreme necessity, women in combat should be avoided. I haven’t watched much of Oz MSM, has there been much interest in events involving Armenia/ Azerbaijan?
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Nearly two thirds of Australians are credulous numpties.
A third of Aussies fear losing their homes to climate change (Phys.org)
Six in 10 Australians (62%) expect climate change will have a severe effect in their area over the next 10 years and globally across 34 countries more than 71%, including a majority in every single country, expect the same, a new study conducted by Ipsos for the World Economic Forum finds.
More than one-third globally (35%), and 29% in Australia expect to be displaced from their home as a result of climate change in the next 25 years.
We have to live next to these people. Sheesh.
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That’s really unfair, 2dogs. Although, its the end of summer and most of the extreme wealthy have now gone back to their regular homes – meaning a large percentage of the summer cottages, on the island, are now empty and could be used to house 50 “undocumented”, you can’t expect these people to make such sacrifices.
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Just finished some fully unlicensed plumbing.
Toilet cistern in the West Wing leaking.
Replaced all the seals in the cistern.
Done.
But gave the tap a crack to shut it off.
It then leaked.
Replaced washer and seal.
Leaked through the spindle.
Fuck it.
New tap, new hose, the lot.
20 minute job turns into 3 hours running backwards and forwards to Big Hardware. -
The Vineyard thing is the funniest thing that’s happened for a while. Even though I think DeSantis is really smart, I can’t imagine he would have thought of doing something as poisonously funny like that. It had to come from Mar a Lago. It has Tumpster’s paw prints all over it.
Why?Back in the late 80s Trump bought a rent controlled building on Central Park South to renovate and sell on. Later on, it was called , Trump Parc. There was a problem though. Even though he bought out a large number of tenants there were a few hold outs. Rent controlled meant dirt cheap rent. So, in order to get the remaining fuckers out, he began “leasing” apartments rent free to hookers and druggies. The hold out left quickly and took the money.
(It ended up being a horrible conversion too. We went there to scope out an apartment to buy, but it was awful.)
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Not to mention the continual assaults on private property. The recent one where the State can mandate that people are allowed to camp or caravan by the river, when the river can only be accessed through farmland, and the landowner has no say whatsoever, is outrageous.
Whereas in many areas the farmer isn’t allowed to take water from the river for the livestock to drink.
And what about firewood? In some woke areas farmers are forbidden to collect fallen timber for firewood. Is the government going to enforce that against campers? -
Can’t wait for Dom Perrotet to kidnap 50 Sri Lankan refugees from Cabramatta and airdrop them on Rottnest Island to own the lefties.
Geez! MONTY, if yer gonna try and crack a “funny” get it right .. FFS!
dum parrot-head would “borrow” 50 SE Asians from Cabramatta and airdrop ’em onto Scotland Island ..the chances of finding Sri Lankans in Cabramatta are about the same as sighting plod on foot patrol in Fairfield .. LOL!
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