For the benefit of those of us, who scored a “conceded pass” in English Literature, I think the second is…
Open Thread – Tues 27 Sept 2022
I agree, Lerhmann should take it to the high court. He has been decided as guilty simply because the judge…
Famous English novels succinctly described: He’s Rich, She’s Feisty. No One Dives into a Lake. He gets rich, she dies.…
Roger May 10, 2024 12:23 pm Speaking in Canberra ahead of Friday’s decision, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese argued the government…
Like all the others here Wivenhoe, so sorry to hear of your situation. It’s cruel to still be engaging in…
Guess Who Threatened to Take the Russian Nord Stream Pipelines Offline Before They Were Sabotaged This Week?
From the Comments
– 100% trying to start a major war prior to November.
– Exactly. Have Russia attack the United States before November to throw off the mid-term elections as a way to cheat and win.
– “Shelter in place” to vote scheme just went nuclear!
– Joey wouldn’t even blink to let the United States get hit with a nuclear bomb if it would help him win.
– Democrats would be happy to rule over the ashes.
From the paywalled Herald Bung:
That Nordstream thing is a head-scratcher. Eco-terrorists or military, Ukraine or Russia, who can tell?
Scientific types, feel free to tell me I should have paid attention in Fifth Form physics, but might the pipeline explosions have resulted from something like this:
Both pipelines were closed at the source and, obviously, at their destinations. Both were full of gas under pressure, which would have stopped the pipelines being squashed by the weight of 110 metres of water above.
So picture something happening at either end. The Eurowogs let a bit of gas out, or the Russians fiddle a bit, pressure drops and the resulting crush sees sudden, immense pressure that generates heat and, well, bang!
I read some time ago that what we imagine happens in a submarine at crush depth is entirely wrong. It’s not cold water that kills everyone, it’s the sudden heat of compression as the air instantly hits temperatures of hundreds of degrees.
The fact that explosions were hours apart suggests, at least to me, a gradual pressure drop.
“…feel free to tell me I should have paid attention in Fifth Form physics…”
To burn (low explosive, same same) you need:
fuel – tick.
oxidiser – cross.
source of ignition – tick (maybe).
1 and a half out three ain’t bad…
I very much doubt that, barring a catastrophic failure due to the engineering / pipeline construction itself (unlikely since it occurred in multiple locations) that anything other than a sophisticated military was involved. My money is on Putin, his obviously not dealing with a full deck these days and is increasingly displaying nihilistic tendencies.
Thanks, Kneel. I never regretted nicking off to smoke cigarettes with MLC girls in the back room of Angie’s Kew Junction milkbar, but skipping physics has left me sadly ignorant.
So bear with me when I ask why an explosive gas needs an oxidiser? Isn’t it its own oxidiser?
Here’s an interesting question – whilst the US is looking increasingly dodgy, what are the chances of a Gleiwitz Incident?
BROADSWORD CALLING DANNY BOY. BROADSWORD CALLING DANNY BOY: Mark Felton visits the castle from Where Eagles Dare in his latest video: 5 Mins 39 Secs
A more realistic and nuanced, less stereotyped analysis of the political reality within which Giorgia Meloni and the Brothers of Italy operate can be found in this article by Thomas Fazi, published in the EU-based online journal “UnHerd”, entitled Giorgia Meloni is no radical: Italian voters know she won’t change anything. Bottom line: if there is Fascism going on here, it is based in Brussels with the EU leadership, not in Rome with Meloni and the Brothers of Italy.
Meloni’s pro-establishment approach to economic policy isn’t just due to a lack of imagination on her behalf, though she’s always held rather mainstream views on the matter. It’s first and foremost due to the fact that she’s fully aware that Italy, by virtue of its adherence to the single currency, is no longer a sovereign country, and that therefore she needs the support of the EU establishment to stay in power. She has, in effect, learned the lesson of the 2018 “populist” Five Star-Lega government, when the European authorities resorted to a wide array of tools — including financial and political pressure — to crush any attempts to deviate from the status quo.
During a recent talk at Princeton University, EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, spelt out this concept. When asked if she was concerned about the upcoming election in Italy, she replied: “If things go in ‘a difficult direction’, we have tools [to deal with the situation]”. In doing so, she revealed just how the EU’s ruling elites view member states: not as sovereign countries but as protectorates.
Meloni understands this. A good number of Italians, however, also understand this, and share the financial market’s assessment: Italian democracy has become so constrained it no longer matters who wins the elections. For far away from the screeching headlines, the most striking aspect of the election was, in fact, the poor turnout — 64%, the lowest in Italy’s history. This means a third of Italians sat them out; they have given up on democracy. This number is only bound to grow — a devastating indictment of the manner in which the EU has hollowed out Italian democracy.
Source;
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/defamation-of-giorgia-meloni-refuted?utm_source=post-email-title&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
Jesus Christ Lysander!!! WTF are you trying to do? I’m nervous enough about this as it is with global economic downturns in full flight, more widespread disputes between governments and their people, assorted border disputes flaring in addition to the war in Ukraine, Russian escalation, Chinese malevolence……and now this. And you tell me that everything will be ok ‘cos Biden. FMD. Shame on you.
/sarc
If the US is accused, why not the Brits?
The Brits have been needling the Bear since the 1800’s.
Replying to old bloke at 12:40, in 2019 Zelensky flagged a referendum and autonomous status for the contested eastern regions in accord with the Ukrainian constitution. Somewhat different to what the Russians are offering, which, while it may have popular support, still amounts to an illegal annexation.
That being said, I think the reality on the ground will dictate that the Ukrainians are going to have to live with the loss of these regions.
My money would be on the Ukrainians. They have the most to gain out of it, and there would be plenty of disquiet about the Russians recently shifting their attack onto civilian infrastructure. Maybe not the government itself but a splinter group.
22 Lawmakers Demand Merrick Garland Explain Alleged FBI SWAT Raid on Catholic Pro-Life Activist Mark Houck
As many as 22 lawmakers have called upon Attorney General Merrick Garland to provide an explanation as to why the FBI allegedly sent 25-30 fully-armed agents to arrest Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck as his “screaming” children watched in horror.
Released Tuesday, the open letter spearheaded by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said that the FBI should have an “extraordinary reason” for arresting Houck the way they allegedly did. The letter said:
There is much to learn about the extent of the FBI’s operations in this case, apparently since state-level charges were apparently dismissed by local authorities in Philadelphia. Surely, the FBI must have an extraordinary reason for showing up at the home of an American family, allegedly with roughly 25 heavily armed federal agents, and arresting a father in front of his seven children.
“At the moment, it appears to be an extraordinary overreach for political ends,” the letter added.
The letter demanded that Merrick Garland respond by September 30.
Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas told Fox News that the raid against Houck is further indicative of how politicized the FBI and the Department of Justice have become under President Joe Biden.
The Baltic is fairly shallow at an average depth of 50m so a couple of small boats with experienced divers and a suitable explosive charge plus timer could potentially do the job.
Just noticed Old Ozzie made the same connection on Jo Novas site…
Bullshit. If they were caught they would lose everything. The downside would be huge for almost no gain. With the pipeline literally dead in the water what extra gains are they going to make now with further weakening of Western Europe. You’re such an idiot. Unbelievable.
No, thats from the military industrial complex playbook – lose/use a shit ton of hardware, replace same…. rinse and repeat….
Whereas you’ve only been doing it since 8:00 a.m., you girly-man landlubber.
….
And Dover, please don’t tell me to take this to the Duelling Thread.
It is not subjective argument.
It is demonstrable fact.
A couple of alternative much less likely theories-
-Hack the pump/pressurisation station electronics in Russia, reset the PRV’s and pressure the pipes to burst pressure.
-Insert a pigot at the pump/pressurisation station loaded with explosives and a timer.
Why?
NS1 goes through the Ukraine and Ukraine collects a motza in royalties. This is why the us has been against NS2 since day 1. (State department position paper on Nordstream 2 actually gives this as a reason – you can google it)
NS2 bypasses Ukraine so Vlad could easily destroy NS1 and use NS2 to break the sanctions and indeed pressure Europe to stop supporting the Ukraine.
Now with NS2 gone Vlad has no choice to keep NS1, and either he/Europewill be forced to are pay the Ukraine the royalties that are keeping the Ukranian govt functioning.
That’s a dueling incident, sanchez.
China trying to stir trouble?
m0nty says:
September 28, 2022 at 1:14 pm
My money would be on the Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian navy is mostly remnants from the former Soviet days and has suffered ongoing neglect. They do have a couple of more modern ships (Corvette style) but very few and none capable of managing this task. In any event, most are held at their home port by Russian naval forces in the Black Sea. Ukraine does undertake some military diving but this incident with the pipeline is in an entirely different category. The likelihood that Ukraine was involved is vanishingly small.
Exactomundo. All for show.
well thats alright then…
I thought both Nord Steam 1 and Nord Stream 2 showed sudden loss of pressure.
Russia had already turned 1 off, why would she then blow it up?
Seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Moon of Alabama reckons it was the Poles.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/the-war-on-germany-just-entered-its-hot-phase.html#more
I reckon he may be correct but also maybe the Baltic States + UK had a hand in it. The UK certainly has the means and capability and Liz Truss is a warmongering loon.
Poles + UK + Baltics. None have any love for Germans or Russians and this screws over both.
Funny how nobody is claiming responsibility and I haven’t heard any denials from the interested parties.
A YouTuber with 1.4 million followers attempted to tow a 1930 Ford Model A truck with his brand new 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, but it ended in “a complete and total disaster.” “If a truck towing 3,500 pounds can’t even go 100 miles — that is ridiculously stupid,” Tyler “Hoovie” Hoover says in his video. “This truck can’t do normal truck things. You would be stopping every hour to recharge, which would take about 45 minutes a pop, and that is absolutely not practical.”
“This is my new 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck,” YouTuber Tyler “Hoovie” Hoover said in a video in which he tests the electric truck’s towing capabilities, which resulted in “a complete and total disaster.”
“I had this thing charged to just over 200 miles when I started my day, so ample margin for error when it comes to range and towing and also considering the fact that the trailer was going up empty two times,” Hoover added.
After attaching the empty aluminum trailer to his truck and “pulling out my neighborhood,” which was just about a quarter of a mile away, the EV had already lost three miles of range. By the time Hoover got to his location 32 miles away, the vehicle had lost a staggering 68 miles of range.
Once he loaded up the Model A truck and drove it back to his neighborhood, Hoover “got the driving range low warning,” and saw that he only had 50 miles of range left, despite charging the EV for 200 miles at the start of his 64-mile round trip.
“Are you kidding me? That’s almost 90 miles of range in 30 miles. Are you serious? That’s nuts. What a joke,” Hoover reacted.
“So, yeah, that was abysmally bad, and if the future is electric, there has to be some kind of solution for this,” he said. “I have no idea why EVs tow so bad. My guess would be it doesn’t have a normal transmission where there’s gears and a car’s in a lower rev range.”
“If a truck towing 3,500 pounds can’t even go 100 miles — that is ridiculously stupid,”
Just finished reading a fascinating book at Gutenberg – Twenty Five Years in the Secret Service.
It is the reminiscences of a chap who styled himself as Major Henri Le Caron, but who was in fact an Englishman with a more prosaic name. He successfully infiltrated the American branches of the Irish revolutionary movements from the early 1860s till about 1888 as a spy on behalf of the British government.
I have never had the energy or inclination to try to understand the complexities of the Irish independence movement. What this book does is to provide perspectives that are very relevant to modern politics.
For example, the Irish end was immensely dependent on the flow of funds from the Americans. Without that, it seems likely that it would have fizzled out, or at least become irrelevant. There were around 10 million Americans of Irish descent at that time, and they were fed carefully curated versions of events to encourage them to contribute to the ‘liberation’ of the Old Country. Huge sums of money were funnelled to supporters in Ireland and other parts of the UK.
Now, here’s a shocker. Big chunks of that money were siphoned off by the grandees of the movement for personal use.
An interesting sidelight was where one of their best strategic thinkers convinced them that they needed to broaden their cross-party appeal. Oh, and did I mention (do I need to) that they were Democrats?
Anyway, the thinking was that if all of your supporters were in one party, you had no leverage with the other. So, steps were taken to insert supporters into the Republican Party. Worth considering in view of current events.
Finally, as I keep saying to the end-of-the-worlders here who claim that US politics has fallen into some sort of unprecedented decline – no, it hasn’t. It’s always been like this, as reading this book demonstrates.
Gonzalo Lira –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6IIwltTM4Q
He successfully infiltrated the American branches of the Irish revolutionary movements from the early 1860s till about 1888 as a spy on behalf of the British government.
If you haven’t heard of it, look up Catalpa rescue. A nice little bit of Western Australian history. Irish revolutionaries, Boston Irish, Yankee whalers.
Take good care of your Fenians, or the Yankees will steal them away
It is possible the Irish prisoners were becoming an embarrassment for the Brits and they turned a blind eye, but it’s a great story.
Lysander:
Check out fake arm guy on the left. That is not a natural position for a hand to relax into.
Tyler “Hoovie” Hoover
You watch Hoovie and Car Wizard?!
Cool!
I reckon it was the dastardly Irish.
With all forms of energy to Europe disappearing, they would be forced to buy Irish peat at greatly inflated prices. Devious buggers these Irish.
McClown is bringing in body cams to be worn on plod withlive facial recognition software and nobody bats an eyelid.
Diogenes:
I’ll take “Biden is a vile arsehole” for $500, thanks Diogenes.
Similar story with the ANC, johanna. Public suckered into taking sides.
So, the cashless debit card is gone – Labor and the Greens, you own that one…
Let’s sort it out with cutlasses on a pitching quarter-deck you lily-livered landlubber!
And gay pooftah-pansie.
Yeah, he’s ready for a fight.
Oh shush JC. You don’t know anything, we’re all just speculating.
If it came out that Ukraine did blow up the lines, how can anyone blame them given that Russia is blowing up their power stations? I know the lines are not in their territory, but they have a lot of moral authority right now as their young men are dying to protect Western interests.
Russia certainly doesn’t have a leg to stand on if they want to arc up about it. They could use it as casus belli for an official war if they want, but nobody would believe that they didn’t want to declare war regardless, given that they already started the invasion.
Lots of good history on Gutenberg and similar sites. Some I’ve come across:
The French in Algiers by Ernest Alby and Clemens Lamping (1837-1846)
Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to Various Parts of Asia (1763)
The former is from a time just after the Napoleonic Wars when the France was starting to exert herself in North Africa, and things were very iffy. The latter is especially interesting since John Bell was an ambassador for Peter the Great to China then Persia. Vladimir Putin is of course an admirer of Tsar Peter. You get an interesting feel for just how big the country is, and how important the rivers were.
I also read Schiller’s history of the 30 Years War from Gutenberg, again that’s still somewhat relevant to Europe these days.
Just saw an ad telling me that the NSW government is banning more plastic products.
Part of it showed the environmentalist campfire ghost story of a turtle tucking into a plastic bag.
I remember when the story of turtles choking on plastic bags came out it turned out that it was Chinese whispers from a report claiming there was a problem of nylon fishing nets being cut away and dropped into the ocean and…acting like a net, pinioning their flippers and whatnot. This eventually became turtles and shopping bags.
Never knew if it really happened, and even in the ad they show the turtle snapping at a bag but nothing to show it does not spit it back out when it realises it is not food. It doesn’t try to swallow the whole thing and then decide.
Presumably we will now protect turtles from getting plastic straws stuck up their noses.
Liberal governments in Australia are indistinguishable from environmental groups – which have a pretty shabby history for telling the truth. The NSW government already acts like the legislative arm of PETA in its dealings with farmers.
The property tax debacle unfolding in Canberra
During a huge property price boom fuelled by low interest rates and constrained land release, the ACT government has become addicted to collecting stamp duty to fund its ever-increasing spending.
John Kehoe – Economics editor
Amid the furore over Queensland’s double taxation of interstate investment property owners, a property tax debacle is unfolding in Canberra.
A decade ago, the ACT Labor government pledged to phase out stamp duty and gradually phase in a broad-based land tax on property owners over 20 years.
In theory, it was the gold standard of tax reform, even if it was going to take longer than ideal to make it politically feasible.
Most economists approved shifting from a bad tax on property transactions to a less economically damaging annual tax on the value of unimproved land.
Commendably as part of the package, the ACT in 2016 eliminated stamp duty on insurance policies worth about $50 million a year.
Conveyance duty on commercial properties worth $1.5 million or less was
abolished in 2018, while concessions for first home buyers were increased.
But halfway through the 20-year journey, the ACT is raising significantly more nominal revenue from conveyancing duty on residential and commercial property transactions.
The $433 million collected in 2021-22 is approaching double the $253 million in the pre-COVID 2018-19 year.
A difficult path
As a share of the ACT’s own-source tax revenue, total conveyance duty and insurance duty revenue has only declined from 26 per cent in 2012-13 to about 18 per cent in 2021-22.
But that decline overstates the transition because the ACT is relying more on other inefficient revenue such as inflated land sales and higher land taxes on investors.
Stamp duty is not on a path to ever being abolished.
During a huge property price boom fuelled by low interest rates and constrained land release, the Labor-Greens ACT government has become addicted to collecting stamp duty to fund its ever-increasing spending.
At the same time, property tax bills on landowners (imposed via rates on principal places of residence and an additional land tax on investors) have significantly escalated.
Annual rates now cost many homeowners more than $4000 year, and are closer to $10,000 for investment properties paying the extra land tax.
Rates now account for about $674 million or 30 per cent of the ACT’s own-source revenue, up from 17 per cent in 2012-13.
Land tax on investment properties delivered a further $158 million or 6.6 per cent of own-source revenue in 2021-22, about double the nominal $70 million in 2012-13.
This is not the vision the government sold ACT voters when the promising reform was outlined in 2011, when Jon Stanhope was chief minister and Katy Gallagher was treasurer and later chief minister. Gallagher is now federal finance minister.
The now Chief Minister Andrew Barr and his Greens colleagues in the ACT Labor-Greens government have botched the reform.
Independent economist Stephen Anthony says the original property tax reform proposal was “brilliant”.
“But politicians backslid and forgot that their intent was revenue neutrality, not to pull in a big new stack of revenue.
“The greedier they get, the more people detest a reform and the harder it becomes to implement.”
The ACT experience is a cautionary learning tale for other states.
Former ACT senior Treasury official, Khalid Ahmed, who was the public servant heading the territory’s tax review taskforce, says the ACT reform is “stuck”.
“After 10 years at the halfway mark, we should be on a path to abolishing it,” Ahmed says.
‘Bracket creep’ through the roof
“But doing reform requires budget discipline and policy coherence to make sure the reform stays on track.”
Despite revenue windfalls, the ACT’s operating budget has been in an annual deficit of about 5 per cent of annual budget expenditure for the seven years before COVID-19 and is forecast to remain in large deficits.
Ahmed says that under the original recommended reform model that was accepted in-principle by the government, the ACT should have cut stamp duty rates and adjusted price thresholds to raise about $120 million a year by now, about one-quarter of the 2021-22 collections.
The problem is that stamp duty “bracket creep” has gone through the roof.
The modest reductions in stamp duty rates and adjustment in thresholds have failed to keep pace with house prices.
Stamp duty payable on the Canberra median house price has increased by almost $16,000 in a decade, when stamp duty was meant to be phased down.
Stamp duty on the median house price ($553,069 according to CoreLogic) in 2012 was $20,970. Today, stamp duty on the median house price ($1.03 million) is $36,927.
This year’s budget only transfers $10 million worth of stamp duty to rates, a trajectory that means stamp duty cannot ever be abolished.
Worse, the ACT government has contributed to the housing affordability crisis by limiting the supply of new homes.
Creating its own problems
The government is the monopoly controller of land supply, under a 99-year leasehold system.
Restricting dwelling supply has artificially propped up government revenue by pushing up the price of land that the ACT sells to developers, while also inflating stamp duties and land taxes on homes.
The number of new dwelling sites released has averaged 3430 annually over the four years to 2020-21, 1000 homes fewer a year than the preceding nine years.
Despite fewer sites being released, land sale profits have jumped to an annual average of $265 million, versus $151 million.
Government profit margins from land sales have surged to 72 per cent over the past four years, versus 46 per cent over the preceding nine years.
The government goals of raising revenue and housing affordability are in conflict.
Stanhope is frustrated that his Labor successors have made ownership of detached housing unaffordable for lower income earners, as the government favours the release of inner-city apartment sites under a Labor-Greens urbanisation policy.
“The ACT government has a total monopoly over the supply of land for housing and it simply hasn’t met demand,” Stanhope says.
“How does a regional city of 450,000 people where the government owns all the land have the highest rents in Australia and the second-highest median house price?
“The consequences are quite dramatic for people in the bottom two income quintiles who have knowingly and deliberately been kept out of the detached housing market.”
Unintended results
The lack of supply of new detached homes has delivered windfall gains to homeowners who are typically wealthier.
The capital gains have also helped investors, contrary to the aim of boosting homeownership.
Under the reform model, an additional land tax on investment properties was supposed to be abolished and brought into line with rates on primary places of residence.
But under an agreement with the Greens, the land tax surcharge on investors in rental properties has increased to try to push out investors and increase homeownership.
But the strong capital price growth has overridden this.
“In a supply-constrained market, if you increase the land tax, it will be passed on to renters and that’s exactly what has happened in the ACT,” Ahmed says.
“Unless you limit capital growth in property prices, investors will happily hold the properties.”
The government says the percentage share of own-source tax revenue from stamp duty is forecast to fall to 10 per cent in 2025-26.
Based on experience, the ACT will be raising and spending a lot more than that.
Ahmed says: “There are some good lessons to be learned from this. But I hope it doesn’t put other states off tax reform.”
Just looking at the photos of the methane escaping from the damaged Nordstream pipeline – I’d hope that F16 doesn’t get any closer – the exhaust just may ignite a subnuclear level fuel air explosion.
Current reading but is this one: Fire’s Maiden by D.L. Campanile. A sixth the way in and good so far.
dover0beachat 11:11 – I think just let them evolve on the OT. If they warrant it after an hour or two open a new thread by all means. Just my 2c. Thanks dover.
As Neil Oliver observed – its not about going green, its about going without…
I believe civilian aircraft have been told to divert the millions of cubic metres of gas going up…
Hopefully surgical masks.
I’m sure the turtles are already fed up with them (pardon the pun).
Can we have a separate thread for Ozzie to post his 10,000 word article dumps every two minutes.
Sancho Panzer at 11:28 – when it comes to boats it pays to be a size queen. The Spirit of Tasmania is a little less than you want for some trips.
It is also important to work out disembarking options before setting off.
If you haven’t heard of it, look up Catalpa rescue.
… and its aftermath back in NYC.
The local Irish were so tickled by the Catalpa’s success (ignoring that the captain and his liberated passengers feuded all the way home, especially over grog) that they took up a collection with the intention of building a submarine, taking it across the Atlantic and sinking the British fleet.
Seriously.
As it happened a former Christian Brother novice living in Newark, John Philip Holland, had just such a design and was delighted to supervise construction at a shipyard on West 14th Street. It was duly launched and became a curio bobbing up and down in NY Harbour. One of the newspapers (The World?) caricatured Holland in his strange vessel with the Staten Island Ferry bearing down and the caption, ‘What, me worry?’ — a line later pinched by Mad magazine.
The Irish, as is their want, fell to feuding and Holland’s sub, christened the Feinian Ram, wascaught up in the ruckus, never getting to sink a dreadnought.
Where the Catalpa really wrote future history was in the submarine’s patents, which detailed the first practical submarine with its innovative trim tanks and hydroplanes. Holland entered a partnership with a bunch of railway lawyers who then set up the Electric Boat Co and, predictably, cheated him out of his interest.
Every sub since has been built according to Holland’s principles and Electric Boat, the foundation stone of General Dynamics, is still in the biz.
The Fenian Ram can be seen here, although it’s now in a museum, having been removed from the Newark park where it sat for years, to protect it from NJ high school kids who would paint it bright yellow at the end of every school year.
Those interested in learning more about the NYC Fenians and their antics should consult Devoy’s Post Bag, which has 40 years of letters to and from the bloke who fathered the Catalpa Raid and the Fenian Ram.
I blame Greta Funburglar.
Fatboy- if you took a breather from today’s donut binge and let your brain stem some very basic thinking you’d realise Ukraine would be the last to sabotage the pipes you unthinking oaf. It’s not about weakening Russia. In an energy short Europe, it’s about weakening the euros more. That’s not good for the Ukes you massive idiot.
That’s what Richo and Hawkey thought. No need to go as far as the Greek Islands though.
I’d bet a few worried eyes are being cast on the Trans Alaskan Pipeline.
Only carrying oil, but would make a hell of a mess…
Further to last, lots more pics and schematics of the Ram here:
My son and by default I watch Hoovie, Car Wizard and a couple of others.
They’ve done very well for themselves.
I particularly like that slow talking guy from somewhere up north mid west that restarts and drives abandoned in the field cars.
That looks more like He was photoshopped to obscure the bald guy behind him. You can see the top of his head and his left ear. There is almost no gap between them.
Back in Twin Falls at the end of the high sierra trail ride. 16 days was probably too much, but three episodes of trucking the horses and us to new locations gave some relief from the saddle.
It was bloody cold but good gear coped with that. The scenery was more than I could have possibly anticipated.
The true thrill was the four days we spent tracking the Oregon Trail to the Columbia River. A world populated by ghosts. Nez Perce country conjured the same sense of culture forever gone.
Most surprising was the very un-American lack of constraint when discusing Biden. The disgust and fear expressed by people on the ride and various hosts was visceral.
I would recommend the ride, but it is perhaps more suited to folks a little younger than me. I have bits that hurt.
I intend to actively accept the organiser’s recovery recommendations. Bed, bar stools and Wyoming ribs.
Can’t wait.
The chances of the mid terms being held are going down…
The stupid fucking ACT town council is constrained because eventually everyone will just piss off to NSW and commute. Canberra will be even more full of APS drones with no idea of the reality facing ordinary Australians.
Aussie @ 63.90
High 50s could be optimistic at this rate as there doesn’t appear to be a floor.
Thank God I have US investments with some income as travelling there is becoming really expensive.
I’m keeping my long US trades until Friday or Monday and that’s it.
If it came out that Ukraine did blow up the lines, how can anyone blame them given that Russia is blowing up their power stations? I know the lines are not in their territory, but they have a lot of moral authority right now as their young men are dying to protect Western interests.
Isn’t this from a bloke who performs over the Israelis defending themselves ..?
m0ntysays:
September 28, 2022 at 2:19 pm
Can we have a separate thread for Ozzie to post his 10,000 word article dumps every two minutes.
The Article is Paywalled – for Cats without Subs
PS get an Apple Magic Mouse – can scroll past you postings at speed!
Lol Bear. But the scenery just wouldn’t be the same although it would only be during the day as they aren’t keeping the lights on at night these days. 🙂
Well, I know that now.
Even real men get the burleys.
I have even got land sickness (Mal de Debarquement Syndrome) a couple of times after a week or so out.
It will, being fare is up for debate though.
So, the cashless debit card is gone – Labor and the Greens, you own that one…
What gets me about this is if the card is/was intrusive/immoral or whatever why has the gummint set up an offshoot in CentreLink to deal with the fall-out? .. seems you do away wiv some-at Labor didn’t like then start over again using a different name .. FFS!
Fantasy Footballers. Have another Krispy Kreme.
Mentioned UpThread, but neatly encapsulated in one post
REALITY BITES WIND
It is an article of faith among many governments that we are in the midst of a transition from fossil fuel energy to “renewable” wind and solar. (Notably absent from this consensus are China, India and Russia.) In fact, no such transition is underway; wind and solar account for only a derisory portion of the world’s energy consumption, despite countless billions in subsidies. Nor will any such transition happen at any time in the future.
One of the fundamental problems with wind and solar is that they are ridiculously low-intensity. As a result, it requires a vast quantity of raw materials to produce a modest, and unreliable, amount of energy. Did you know that a single wind turbine requires 8,000 pounds or more of copper? Like me, you probably have no concept of what it takes to produce that quantity of copper, or of the vast amounts of fossil fuels that are needed to create just this one component of a wind turbine. Wind and solar installations are parasitic: they cannot be produced without using enormous quantities of fossil fuels.
This thread is one of the best explanations I have seen of the absurdity of wind turbines, as it relates to a single raw material: copper.
Please read the whole thing,
and bear in mind that copper is just one of a number of minerals that wind turbines and their mythical “batteries” require in enormous quantities. Cobalt and lithium are among the others.
We all know that Putin was very likely planning on using energy this winter to break NATO’s resolve. By offering energy and everything that comes with that, he was going to ‘blackmail’ them into abandoning the U.S. as their saviour.
With Nstream gone, I think everyone loses. Except the U.S.
Sheer speculation but… follow the money.
Sea sickness is a bitch. The section from Augusta to Albany was no fun heading into a bit of swell. We took a few days off after that. Getting a couple of tonnes of water in the anchor chain locker didn’t help. Following seas are your friend.
Burn baby burn…
New York lawmakers announced new legislation on Monday that would require the FDNY to hire more women and minority firefighters, the latest push to diversify an agency that has been repeatedly sued for discriminating against non-white applicants.
The legislation would require the FDNY to develop and implement a plan by March 1st to ensure firefighters “reflect that of the city’s population as a whole.” Currently, more than three-quarters of firefighters are white men, and less than 1% are women.
The only time I motion sickness was in bobcat. Horrid things.
Something to remember is the Baltic is full of wrecks from the wars and those munitions are causing a few problems especially with the rivers exposing the vessels.
Not that this would cause the explosions, but worthwhile taking into account.
Court: Prison must exempt Muslim inmate from strip search by transgender guards
A Wisconsin prisoner who was strip searched by a transgender male guard says the search unlawfully violated his Muslim faith, and a federal court has ruled it shouldn’t happen again.
Like every other ‘reform’ scheme implemented about tax, it ends up with everyone paying both the old tax (supposed to be abolished) and the new one.
Stamp duty – has anyone in our supposedly intelligent media operatives ever asked the question about the name?
While one side of the gubbmint mouth is telling oldsters to downsize, the other side is adding tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of relocating.
Never stand between a Premier and a bucket of money.
I’m not sure the premise is false, Dr. Faustus. The premise is clearly that participating in the election will be viewed as treasonous by Kiev, whether or not the penalty is 5 or 15 years is neither here nor there. Further, Big Serge saying 15 years and Podolyak above saying ‘at least 5 years’ is not contradictory and therefore, the ‘apparently lying’ assertion is a calumny even with the apparently. Big Serge may be referring to the max. penalty, while Podolyak could be referring to the minimum.
Just because it’s the sort of daring-do the Special Boat Squadron gets up to,
doesn’t mean Liz Truss was up for a bit of Churchillian buckle swashing.
Dammit.
Keep forgetting the Froggies became a Service when they ditched the frog.
Back in Twin Falls at the end of the high sierra trail ride. 16 days was probably too much, but three episodes of trucking the horses and us to new locations gave some relief from the saddle.
Wow, Bons. I have always wanted to do such a trail ride in the USA. Despite having been to the country several times, we pursued our usual road trips and just didn’t get around to booking such a venture.
In any case, despite having riden constantly throughout my childhood and into my late teens, I have done little riding in recent years, and maybe “pushing it” now.
Here you go:
The chances of the mid terms being held are going down…
Interesting scenario .. create enuf problems via Ukraine to put USA on a higher DEFCON footing, declare a state-of-emergency and cancel elections ..! .. all for the nation’s safety, of course ..!
Worry is .. I wouldn’t put it past the demon-rats to be thinking along these lines ……
Lysander:
To be able to identify the thugs, you need to be able to identify the not-thugs. This is 1984 style surveillance.
What is this for? It sure as shit isn’t to protect the public.
Back in Twin Falls at the end of the high sierra trail ride. 16 days was probably too much, but three episodes of trucking the horses and us to new locations gave some relief from the saddle.
Awesome .. 10/10 .. as a County Durham “country” hick who’s never been on a horse I’m thoroughly impressed!.. I’ve gone thru life believing if an animal, any animal, has bigger teef than me stay away from it .. LOL!
One day a man called the church office and said “Can I speak to the head hog at the trough?” The secretary thought she heard what he said, but said “I’m sorry, who?
The caller repeated “Can I speak to the head hog at the trough?” She said “Well, if you mean the preacher, then you may refer to him as ‘Father,’ or ‘Brother,’ but I prefer that you not refer to him as the ‘head hog at the trough’!”
To this, the man replied “Well, I was planning on giving $100,000 in my will to the church building fund…” To this, the secretary quickly responded “Hang on, I think the big fat pig just walked in!”
Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
– Charles Dickens
There’s no scenario under which US elections can be canceled or postponed unless the constitutional republic no longer exists. They can’t be called off even in an emergency.
Now, if there’s a coup that would be a different story.
Cheating? Sure.
Agree Winston,
funnily enough, one section of the Mcclown love media, 6PR, were railing against auto face recognition software and cams on plod bods.
I don’t really buy the “fiddling at the ends caused a big bang” theory. But an explosion does not need a flame. An explosion needs a difference of pressure.
Good find DB! Worth a read, Cats.
If you think the US and some allies (I tend to this) is behind the Nord Stream incident and you were of the opinion that the US is prepared to fight to the last Ukrainian, we can now add that it is prepared to fight to the pauperization of the last European.
But it’s alright.
Jumpin Jack Flash is a gas.
If the pipe explosions were sabotage, as distinct from some weird Black Swan environmental incident, I think we can say with certainty that there are many nations capable of carrying this out.
However, a quick review suggests it is highly unlikely that the Russians blew up their own pipe in some bizarre false-flag operation; the Chinese – highly improbable and also, why?; the Germans – nonsense except out of misguided absurd spite; the French – they have form in this area but very unlikely in this instance; the British – definitely possible but can’t see them acting on their own initiative and doubtful acted alone; Ukraine are an obvious suspect but there are numerous reasons why they shouldn’t have been involved.
Given the relative shallowness of the water where the explosions occurred, it is conceivable that almost any military force could have been involved but it does seem preposterous most would insert themselves into the European gas supply issue with such a provocative act. The area is very near to a Danish island in a disputed zone but would the Danes be so aggressive? Ditto the Swedes or the Fins? Poland? To cloud things a bit more, there have been reports of unidentified drones in the area since last Monday.
An accident? Naval training with depth charges etc. Seems utterly implausible given that the pipes are in well known locations.
At the point of the explosions, the sea is approx 80-90 metres deep so it might be possible that a couple of frogmen, or (more likely) some remote underwater device was involved. It would also take an explosive charge with a reasonable amount of ‘oomph’ as the pipes are concrete coated steel and each section weighs about 24 tonnes. It is also reported that the pipe was destroyed in at least two places which would indicate a deliberate act that will be more time consuming to repair, and at least part of it is now filled with seawater.
It could have been a non-government organisation but that would require access to more specialised equipment – this is not like blowing up a bridge. In any case, what nation, or organisation, has sufficient bravado to carry out such an act that is so grossly provocative and sends a gigantic ‘up yours’, specifically to Russia, but also displays contempt for other countries in Europe?
(I understand the pipe wasn’t in use at the time.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-wm_-cp2Ak
Speedy
you didn’t mention the US (by omission or purposefully).
But I’d like to think that option improbable. However, the thought of Europe caving into Satan himself for a bowl of soup (“energy”) come winter, would have some US heads worried. Possibly “Ukrainian” in that could be seen as justified in responding to Russian “belligerence” (but not great for Europeans still) with the backing of US… hence the term “Ukrainian” rather than Ukrainian.
So, I still think it improbable but its the only probable option I can come up with.
American Blacks and the Wawa mob in Philadelphia
“What shall be done with the four million slaves if they are emancipated? [snip] Our answer is, do nothing with them; mind your business, and let them mind theirs. Your doing with them is their greatest misfortune. They have been undone by your doings, and all they now ask, and really have need of at your hands, is just to let them alone. They suffer by every interference, and succeed best by being let alone.” – Frederick Douglass (1862).
Since the dawn of the Democrat party, Democrats have proven themselves incapable of leaving Blacks alone. During the years of open racism, they enslaved Blacks and then subjected them to Jim Crow. Since Jim Crow, they’ve done something more pernicious: They’ve destroyed many Blacks’ identity as equal citizens in America. The result is feral behavior such as that most recently seen at the Wawa in Philadelphia. This is not about race; it’s about culture and how the Democrats have destroyed it.
If you want a detailed timeline of the Democrat party’s depredation against Blacks in America—not just attacks on personal and economic liberty, but also on the cultural core of Black Americans—I highly recommend Bob Parks’ The Democrat Race Lie, which has a long list of Democrat and Republican policies regarding American Blacks. What’s remarkably clear about the Democrats is that they refuse to heed Frederick Douglass’s impassioned plea to leave Blacks alone.
Outside of the small cadre of Obama-like people, we have a genuinely tragic societal collapse amongst the Black community: The numbers vary, but it appears that over 64% of Black children are raised without a father, a root cause of poverty. Children without fathers are also three times more likely to end up in jail.
If you are honest with yourself, you assume Blacks are involved whenever you read about a “smash and grab” at a store or that a “fight broke out” in a restaurant or airport.
Again, this is not a racial failure; it’s a cultural failure that occurred because Democrats have used every societal institution available to them (so here’s your real systemic racism) to deprive Blacks of a culture that leads to stability, safety, and economic success.
Gonzalo needs a haircut. He’d be smoking at least two packets of cigarettes a day so he can afford a visit to the barber’s shop.
Shatterzzz:
https://www.defconlevel.com/european-command-news.php
Europe is at DEFCON2 – second highest level, nearly everyone else is at DEFCON3.
(*Be careful using the term ‘scenario’. Some here like to confabulate it with ‘prediction’ and you’ll never hear the end of it.)
And the reason I find it less probable to believe an NGO or business blew it up… can you imagine the logistics that would have to go into getting or having a large enough craft and crew out there with divers and/or diving machinery. Sure it wouldn’t have to be state of the art, but still imagine briefing the crew about their mission (you’d likely have to have some crew knowing some things and other crew not knowing those things but knowing their own separate things). From a mapping team to a diving team to a ballistics team – not including sailors (help I’m drowning, throw me a buoy!).
Given the magnitude of this event, and the secrecy required, you’d hardly have a group of Ukrainian farmers/volunteers/citizens or even soldiers understanding every aspect of what type of “mission” they were on…
That’s why I’m backing that it was sabotage by a foreign government. The foot soldiers who did it are merely window dressing.
This! Don’t get suckered into it, it’s a dead end.
Lysandersays:
September 28, 2022 at 3:23 pm
@FWarweg points out an important sequence of US, UK and Ukrainian operations that appear to have prepared the sabotage of Nordstream 2. I’ve checked the underlying events and will amplify slightly.
Good find DB! Worth a read, Cats.
Stephen McIntyre
@ClimateAudit
Thread
@FWarweg
points out an important sequence of US, UK and Ukrainian operations that appear to have prepared the sabotage of Nordstream 2. I’ve checked the underlying events and will amplify slightly.
four weeks ago, in August 2022, the UK trained Ukrainian specialists in the use of underwater drones
https://archive.ph/GGTZT https://royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2022/august/26/20220826-royal-navy-divers-train-ukrainians-to-hunt-for-mines-with-underwater-drones
training of Ukrainians in use of advanced underwater drones is shown in video here
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WwBSjsPZIA8
The UK trainer observes that drones “know where it is in relation to the surface”. I.e. it’s capable of exactly locating the Nordstream pipelines that US drones had mapped.
the video showing the training of Ukrainian specialists in underwater drones during August 2022 that was posted up on Youtube by US Military Central was watermarked “US Military Central”
So the US was in possession of precision location data of Nordstream pipelines; Ukraine specialists had been trained by UK and US in the use of underwater drones which could be precisely controlled remotely; UK gave six advanced drones to Ukraine.
Means, motive, opportunity
OldOzzie,
You mentioned your formula for cleaning papers the other day. It involved 2l of chlorine and some other smaller amounts of chemicals that you put into an 8l sprayer.
Do you dilute with water to make up the 8l or just use it neat?
Preventing Russia selling gas weakens Russia.
That should be pavers.
Harlequin Declinesays:
September 28, 2022 at 3:46 pm
OldOzzie,
You mentioned your formula for cleaning papers the other day. It involved 2l of chlorine and some other smaller amounts of chemicals that you put into an 8l sprayer.
Do you dilute with water to make up the 8l or just use it neat?
Yes – 2l Liquid Chlorine, 200ml Hy Chlor Pool Green Blaster Algecide, 1 Tablespoon Washing Soda in 8l Sprayer then fill rest with water
Not the prison sentence.
This bit:
Doesn’t sit nicely with pro-Ukraine voters abstaining for fear of imprisonment for treason.
It is a security emergency. Suspend all elections in Europe and the US, now!
You know it makes sense.
<strong>The Fed’s war on inflation could cost the US economy 1M jobs
Fed will need to ‘destroy’ at least 1M jobs to crush inflation, analysis shows
In plain English, an unemployment rate that high could mean at least 1 million job losses, according to calculations from RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas. If the unemployment rate hits 4.6%, that would mean that at least 1.7 million Americans lose their jobs.
“To reduce inflation to acceptable levels, it will be necessary to destroy between 1.7 million and 5.3 million jobs, in our estimation,” Brusuelas wrote in the analysis. “The policy implications are stark.”
The Fed’s projections, known as the dot plot, show that a handful of the 16 Fed officials believe the most aggressive tightening in decades will actually force unemployment even higher, with the jobless rate eventually hitting 5%.
And removing the only other pipeline Germany could use without going through Ukraine removes any temptation for Germany to backslide as it’s economy implodes.
They are already shifting the sale of gas to China, India, etc. I’ve seen suggestions that RUS won’t be too peeved by this, certainly a section won’t, because this will only solidify the turning south and east that is already going on in RUS via BRICS/ SCO/ and the like. The big loser re this incident are the Europeans and the EU.
If you think the US and some allies (I tend to this) is behind the Nord Stream incident and you were of the opinion that the US is prepared to fight to the last Ukrainian, we can now add that it is prepared to fight to the pauperization of the last European.
I can’t see this line of thought being problematic with the demon-rats .. they’re busy trying to pauperize the USA at the moment so adding Europe to the agenda won’t hurt ..
Not just transponders, but would have been with all their EW systems on.
So if it was not USS Kearsage itself, its position meant they would have seen who it was. A hostile actor would have seen them nearby and aborted the mission. So whoever did it, did it with the US’s blessing.
Yep, fully agree. A pipeline in the Baltic sea goes kaboom and the US calls off the mid-terms because it’s so, so serious.
shatterzzzsays:
September 28, 2022 at 2:39 pm
If it came out that Ukraine did blow up the lines, how can anyone blame them given that Russia is blowing up their power stations? I know the lines are not in their territory, but they have a lot of moral authority right now as their young men are dying to protect Western interests.
Isn’t this from a bloke who performs over the Israelis defending themselves ..?
Indeed it is. His obsession stretches beyond seeing hooked noses and the word “Protocols” whenever he hears the words “bankers” or “financiers”, into basic matters such as the right to self-defence (but only for selected groups, others are OK).
Selling? What do you mean by selling? They’re “selling” the crap at massive discounts to the market price. On the way back, their imports are priced at massive premiums to comparable stuff before the invasion.
When Russia cut back gas deliveries the price spike was such they were getting twice as much revenue for half as much gas.
Russia’s Gazprom Doubled Oil & Gas Revenue This Year (Despite Volume Dropping In Half) (13 Sep)
Which gets us to the news today:
Oil Surges After Russia Proposes 1 Million Barrel OPEC+ Output Cut (28 Sep)
It’s not the amount delivered it’s the total revenue that’s the thing. This will continue while the US doesn’t produce the extra volume needed, which it won’t under Biden’s green kiddies.
Hey Monty, given your position on Steve Bannon’s build the wall fundraiser, what do you think of this:
https://nitter.net/shoe0nhead/status/1574530055505690624
“Preventing Russia selling gas weakens Russia.”
Preventing Russia selling gas will mean many Germans will freeze to death. Donald Trump did warn Germany and for his efforts, people sneered, sniggered and laughed.
No one is laughing now.
How would you ever show that to the satisfaction of the SBU? If you had already witnessed officials being murdered within these oblasts, had memories of events over the last 8 years through these areas where member of Right Sector, Azov, SBU, and the like have beaten, murdered, or disappeared people with pro-Russian sympathies, would you risk it by willingly participating if you had pro-UKR sympathies given the above?
Moreover, abstaining was only one part of Big Serge’s argument. Another was that many with pro-UKR sympathies fled during the early stages of the war in Kherson and Zaporozhye, while in Lugansk and Donetsk, eight years of fighting would have winnowed out most if not all of the pro-UKR population.
Look at the useless Krautfucks giggling at him in the UN. Get a load of the puffed up weasels.
H B Bearsays:
September 28, 2022 at 2:51 pm
Sea sickness is a bitch. The section from Augusta to Albany was no fun heading into a bit of swell. We took a few days off after that. Getting a couple of tonnes of water in the anchor chain locker didn’t help. Following seas are your friend.
In his memoirs, Vice Admiral Collins recorded an incident during a crossing of the Bight on one of our two 8 inch gun cruisers (around 10,000 tons displacement) in the 1930s. Steaming into a heavy swell, the bow would dip into each wave, then rise clear before repeating the move. Until it dipped into one swell, and did not start to rise.
The Watch Officer promptly ordered “All stop, Full astern”. The ship backed out, the bow rose clear of the swell, and those on the bridge murmured prayers of thanks to a quick-thinking Watch Officer, and wondered would she have simply kept going under that wave without his orders.
Thanks OldOzzie.
Sanctions will do that. But look, this continually gets raised, but has the volume of their sales increased, and can they still make a profit at 30-40% less market value?
How about some real estate porn to add some cheer.
Aspen Mansion Sells for $69 Million in One of the Area’s Priciest-Ever Deals
I haven’t been there in decades. We had a conference there once and Aspen is gorgeous. The house is worth every single cent and possibly a bargain.
I wonder if Cronkite is doing the conveyance?
Further to “preventing”…..
The war in Ukraine was preventable.
German dependency on Russian gas was preventable.
Lysander – I agree there is a vanishingly small likelihood of it being some rogue NGO. Never say never, but it is so far off the charts as to be the equal last option with an accident.
I didn’t mention the USA deliberately – I thought I would leave that question open although I alluded to it in the final part of my post. It is disturbing however that the USA/UK and Ukraine have been revealed as consorting on the use of underwater drones in recent weeks whilst (unidentified) flying drones have been noted in the area recently. This was reported by the Norwegian authorities (who are always skittish about such things).
I hope that the USA, UK and Ukraine weren’t involved as Putin will go off his nut. Things are unstable enough but it could lead to a general mobilisation of the Russian military forces. Worse, if the Russian people come to believe that the Motherland is actually under attack, then all bets are off. As Peter Smith noted in his post a few days ago, not all Russians are in favour of Putin but all Russians are in favour of Russia. You can take those words to the bank.
There seems little doubt the pipeline was sabotaged and I can only hope that whomever was responsible have taken sufficient care to be able to demonstrate ‘plausible deniability’. Otherwise, as I said earlier today, this is probably the most dangerously provocative act since WWII, whomever was responsible.
You’re all way off. Waaaay off.
Clearly, the pipes were destroyed as part of the master plan to depopulate the world, in conjunction with the deliberate withholding of food worldwide and the famines, so that the elites can further enrich themselves by constructing cockroach farms to feed the remainder.
Who will be slaves. In the tunnels.
In Episode #2, I will explain why said mega-rich elites wouldn’t simply buy increasing proportions of the massive existing food production industries, and actually encourage population growth to create an even bigger market for the industries they monopolised.
I may need some time for that one. Stay tuned though.
Oh and weak Russia and a weakened Putin is dangerous, very dangerous.
Nordstream 1 and 2- I’m guessing US affiliated contractors. May not even be military associated.
Who benefits? US LNG suppliers. Giga $$$’s in gap filling LNG sales. Loading risk (underwater accessible assets)onto risk (Russia sourced energy). Sends a message to both Russia and Germany. ” We can fk with your asset anytime we like”.
War in the Grey Zone.
Tip: do not kick the sleeping bear in the nuts.
The Greens have gone into damage control after a former staffer for Lidia Thorpe revealed details about a meeting in which the Senator allegedly hurled a tirade of verbal abuse at an Indigenous elder.
Ms Thorpe is alleged to have unleashed a furious rant at First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria co-chairs Marcus Stewart and Aunty Geraldine Atkinson at a committee room meeting in Parliament House on June 22, 2021.
It’s claimed Ms Atkinson, who is aged in her 70s, was so shaken by Senator Thorpe’s behaviour she sought assistance from the parliamentary nurse after the meeting.
Daily Mail
Extremely. I agree.
The next tier of Russian thugs below and around Putin are cuthroats , without the intellect of Putin. Ruthless and stone cold killers. Putin won’t be deposed by a popular people’s uprising. It will be a coup with a very nasty replacement.
Sure Dover.
Lets figure it out.
Let’s assume their average sale was based on an average of 100 buck oil. It’s trading $US77.50, but lets take the more optimistic 100 bucks. Also assume they’re selling at 35% discount. It means they’re taking in 65 bucks a barrel in equivalent US dollars. They have to import goods because we know Russia has basically two exports which are energy and hookers, but lets leave the hookers aside. The gouging on the imports likely makes the value of the oil resemble something like 42 bucks a barrel. They aren’t raking it in and they’re on a war footing with 20% of the economy devoted to the military. They’re fucked too.
Just caught a clip on Fox where their weather man said hurricane Ian is shaping as the biggest event in modern history.
Hurricane Andrew in 92 reset the global insurance & reinsurance market.
Not sure if the world could handle another event like that at the moment.
Here’s a prediction.
Georgia will get FEMA funds before Florida.
And Biden will be all over Georgia for the photo ops, less so Florida.
Aunty Geraldine Atkinson is whiter than I!
Aboriginal Elder??? – You have to be Kidding – It is all a Con
Lidia Thorpe – the face of the “Voice..”
There used to be a sort of an arb, but it hasn’t been around for years as I think every fucker in the world is in on it and taken away the loosely described “arbitrage”. It was called, or I called it hurricane bingo. In the hurricane season (now is peak season) you’d look at the weather map to see if the Gulf was going to get hit. However you had to guess and if the weather was bad enough to take out the oil platforms, in which case the services companies would have work to do and their stocks would rise. It was a nice little earner that lasted a few years. I stopped around 2010 or so.
That’s a mere technicality – it’s all how you identify..
(Kimberlys Aborigines would say her mother “bin eatum white bread..”)
Fun fact, FEMA is still cutting cheques for NY damage attributed to hurricane Sandy.
Getting accredited for FEMA work is a path to many, many holiday homes.
The media should show Australia much more of Thorpe. She’s got a lot to offer in educating us about “first nations” and Da Voice.
Despised Porsche driver Richard Pusey has been warned about being in contempt of court after he likened a magistrate to a “dishwasher” who was “washing the dishes”.
Pusey, 44, fronted Sunshine Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday where he is contesting four charges for allegedly uploading graphic images of the April 2020 crash in a Google review of a Porsche dealership and in a complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.
Beaming in via video link from Melbourne Remand Centre, the self-represented Pusey, who previously stated his pronouns were they/them, initially refused to leave his cell to attend the hearing after complaining about being on his “period”.
After a short delay, Pusey was brought into the virtual courtroom where he told Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz she was being treated like a “marionette” by police and he did not consent to attending.
“You are merely a dishwasher, no offence, washing the dishes,” Pusey said.
“You are very close to being in contempt of court,” Ms Mykytowycz replied.
During the bizarre court appearance the former mortgage broker, who has been on remand since February after twice being denied bail, said he had been attending art classes while in custody and was “somewhat of a Picasso”.
He also flagged he wanted to withdraw his not guilty plea but did not intend to plead guilty.
But Ms Mykytowycz said the hearing would proceed on the basis of a not guilty plea and would be adjourned to next month as the prosecutor was too unwell to attend.
Herald-Sun
Managing Expectations, Hurricane Ian 11pm Update – Now it is Time to Hunker Down
30 Comments
Been following this link over at the theconservativehouse
incoherent rambler says:
September 28, 2022 at 4:25 pm
Tip: do not kick the sleeping bear in the nuts.
You could also take that one to the bank.
Cassie of Sydney says:
September 28, 2022 at 4:23 pm
…….a weakened Putin is dangerous, very dangerous.
Indeed. The last thing we want to see is a general mobilisation of the Russian military. No matter what any of us may think of Putin, or the justification for the conflict in Ukraine, if Putin believes Russia’s sovereignty is under attack, then the risk of a wider conflict increases exponentially. Just one small spark……
That was my impression too. You mention the gulls – they are huuuuge and there are signs up everywhere warning about feeding them.
I did say the roasts are excellent as far as food goes. And also that it’s budget driven. Most of the quality meat is exported (sound familiar?) and I heard a whisper that Tesco is importing fresh chicken meat from…China.
Something is really wrong here.
Ruthm…I bought some Whitby jet. A pendant set in silver. Very noice and thanks for the tip.
Geraldine Atkinson nee Bamblett bio
A pal who used to be in the oil business reckons it was the US and the Brits. They want the continental fuckheads stay on course and not bend to the Russians as they sounded like they were wilting. Who knows, but it sounds funny as.
But what’s the volume, and what’s the margin?
Calli – you mentioned Edinburgh. I discovered the Malt Whisky Centre on the Royal Mile – GOD lives in the Malt Whisky Centre on the Royal Mile – but, apparently, what was quite a pleasant tourist spot has been overrun with druggies and beggars.
Also on birds – they have re-introduced red kites to the moors and the population is growing. Saw a couple. Looming over the horizon I also saw a couple of slowly turning blades…I hope they don’t venture anywhere near the mills of doom.
The moors are home to a huge number of rabbits, stoats, weasels, mice…and grouse. It’s hunting season now and the land owner can make a small fortune selling places in a shoot. The birds are collected by the mutts and sent off to the butcher for processing into game pie.
Apparently the shooters don’t want to get their delicate hands mucky plucking, gutting and dressing the birds themselves.
As they say in these strange lands – there’s nowt so queer as folk.
WTF does “culturally appropriate and safe” mean?
From memory it took about 48 hours for us to see the footage from the Deepwater Horizon well head.
That was over a decade ago & over a km down.
Meaning getting to the damage of NS2 shouldn’t be too hard, surely?
https://stratcommand.blog.gov.uk/2021/04/26/getting-to-grips-with-grey-zone-conflict/
Er…I know weathermen get excited about these things, but…biggest event in modern history???
Bombardier opening a service centre in Melbourne.
Yep, the most important tax issue to complain about is personal income tax rates.
@sarc.
biggest event in modern history???
Exactly.
That said, he had red swirly graphics.
Meaning getting to the damage of NS2 shouldn’t be too hard, surely?
I wouldn’t believe any footage shown on this. All we will see is what fits the prevailing narrative. It will all be propaganda.
See “The Capture”.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8201186/
I read some time ago, they made US$60 billion selling energy. Dunno if it’s true. For oil, I also read their cost base if 40 bucks but again I dunno if it’s true. I believe the pump fairly expensive shit.
If the average is 40 bucks they’re making 25 bucks at 100 buck oil after the discount.
Rungis Market F&V section has been totally destroyed.
[14 hours ago]
Somebody take the hyperbowl away from him, quick!
The instructive thing about this is no one gives a shit about Germany or the other Euro economies screwed by this action, and they are so beholden to the US that they will likely eat this shit sandwich and not say a word. If the US/ NATO is prepared to close off negotiations between Germany and Russia re gas even though it is clearly in Germany’s national interest to resume the flow by some force majeure, you really can’t pretend any longer that ‘agency’ mattered that much to begin with.
We are delighted to announce Penfolds Re-corking Clinics will visit Sydney between 24 – 26 November 2022, hosted at the iconic Kimpton Margot Hotel.
A unique offering in the world of wine, Re-corking Clinics are a complimentary service, providing the ultimate ‘health check’ for your Penfolds red wines, aged 15 years and older under cork.
Registrations are now open via the link below and will close on 7 October if not booked out before – please ensure you book ahead to avoid disappointment, as places are limited.
Video When to Re-Cork
DIGITAL ULLAGE
MEASURE
PRINTED USE:
1. Print this page as A4, ensuring that the image
size is set to 100% 4- 5.5cm 4–5.5cm
5.5–7cm
7–8.5cm
8.5–10cm
2. Place your Penfolds wine in front of the bottle
silhouette, so that the top and sides of your
bottle is aligned with the top and sides of the
silhouette on the page 5.5 -7cm
3. Use the coloured measures to determine if your
Penfolds wine is in need of re-corking.
Interesting 1998 Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon has better Corks than Bin 407 19993/94/96/98/00, and Bin 128 1996/98/00, however they are all perfect on Ullage Chart above 4-5.5 cm, so no re-corking
But perfect drinking on all, using Nuance Original Wine Finer, Black – Aerator, notwithstanding cork breaking on 407
An elderly patient needs a heart transplant and discusses his options with his doctor. The doctor says “We have three possible donors. One is a young, healthy athlete. The second is a middle-aged businessman who never drank or smoked, and the third is an attorney who just died after practising law for 30 years”. “I’ll take the lawyer’s heart” says the patient. “Why?” asks the doctor. The patient replies “It’s never been used”.
probably this Zulu, if you missed it yesterday
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
Calli .. if your spending any time in Geordieland (Newcastle/Gateshead/County Durham) on your way up .. 3 worthwhile things to see …. Durham Cathedral, Beamish Living History Museum (info site at end) and, of course a tour of the holiest “fitba” ground in Christendom, St. James Park … LOL!
If you visit Beamish, depending on which route you take you might go thru the tiny (pit long gone) village of Kibblesworth my sister lives there .. rest of the family around Gateshead …..
Beamish Museum .. https://www.beamish.org.uk/
Them electric fire trucks aint going to drive themselves!
Billions of investment in progress. It would certainly pay to secure your market with kind of investment risk;
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/lng-project-tracker-contracting-surge-accelerates-next-cycle-of-export-projects-70992920
The assumption that Russia is a reliable energy supplier to W. Europe is dead in Germany.
They’d already begun diversifying after the Crimean annexation in recognition of this new geopolitical reality, but they didn’t move fast enough.
Spooks did it , Ed?
Canada To End Vaccine Mandates
From Martin Armstrong –
“Canada is finally ending the absurd COVID vaccine mandates. No, Trudeau did not come to his senses. The truth of the matter is that the majority of people dying from COVID are the triple and quadruple vaccinated. In fact, they account for 90% of COVID-related deaths in the past three months.
There is true mass psychosis surrounding the vaccination. It does not prevent transmission or infection. Despite that being a known fact, politicians are eager to promote the vaccine, along with the media that continues to push boosters on every platform available. People are bringing their babies and elderly loved ones to get the latest vaccine with lines out the door. What happens now when the mask falls and people realize the truth? There are people crying online that it is “too soon” to remove the vaccine requirement. It is cognitive dissonance. They cannot allow their brains to process that they were lied to for years. The vaccine only weakened people’s immune systems and made them more susceptible to COVID.
IT WAS NEVER SAFE AND EFFECTIVE.
I congratulate the Canadian Truck Convoy and all others who risked their liberty and lives to protest this false narrative. The silent majority has won, but at what cost? Countless lives were destroyed over this mandate. People lost their livelihoods and homes. Some who I personally know were forced to flee Canada as they were not willing to risk their health. Businesses were ruined. Families were separated as the demonized unvaccinated could not even enter Canada. Lives were completely uprooted due to this vaccine mandate imposed by the Trudeau Administration.
And now they want to pretend everything is ok and sweep it all under the rug. No. We should remember what Trudeau and the globalists did to the people. The unvaccinated were gas lighted and banished from society for years. The people were threatened in every way possible until they agreed to submit to the government’s order. We now see how much control the government has over the people. Public confidence will never be the same.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/canada/canada-to-end-vaccine-mandates/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
Beaming in via video link from Melbourne Remand Centre, the self-represented Pusey, who previously stated his pronouns were they/them, initially refused to leave his cell to attend the hearing after complaining about being on his “period”.
Should have chained himself to the bunk and blamed his mental condition on “climate change” she’d have, probably given him bail pending dropping the charges .. LOL!
I’m struggling to put this story into my mental model:
1) A 10,000 t cruiser would take quite some time to appreciably slow, let alone reverse course by going astern
2) Where did the buoyancy of the bow suddenly go to, and why did it come back after going astern?
should have mentioned Nuremberg then!
Palaszczuk to close all coal power stations by 2035 – announced today.
Of course, political announcements and realities are two different things.
But at that rate those interconnectors soon won’t have any excess power to send south.
There were protests just the other day about restoring the gas flow from Russia in Germany just this weekend. The Russians were reliable to the extent that they even maintained the flow and paid the Ukes the transit fees post-Feb 24 as FTB kept reminding us. All this stuff about diversifying is simply about weening off RUS energy so that they could be dealt with without endangering the Euro economies.
Do we know what is the actual Western European oil and gas production as a % of their needs. What are proven untapped reserves and what are speculative unproven reserves?
Much as Dick Pussy is his own worse enemy, being clapped into gaol for 7 months now without trial, for uploading some photos, plus at least another month because of an “unwell prosecutor” strikes me as typical Vicplod bastardry.
Maybe he should become a climate activist, in this country they seem to get away with anything.
It’s naked national self-interest.
Putin – and whoever comes after him – cannnot be trusted.
Dr F. could probably provide an insight into that.
I find all this boat talk triggering.
He’s right, but you still can’t say it.
So pleasurechook is going to close more power stations. Is the slag really that stupid? What garbage our pollimuppets are. Steaming trash.
To be replaced by a “super-grid” fed by solar, wind, conventional hydro and pumped hydro, “green hydro” and large scale batteries.
Cost is estimated ay $62bn, says a government that can’t bring any infratsructure project in on budget.
Pleasurechook is also an example of political office only being open to the connected.
Expensive with a suitable Aboriginal Industry ticket clip in place.
It doesn’t matter what happens in November, the GOP will be unable to achieve anything without getting rid of McConnell.
It is a NSW situation. Unrepresentative pollies pursuing agendas never exposed to Party members or the electorate.
And, just like NSW, there is nothing that can be done to unseat McConnell.
Consesvatives around the world need to hire Canadian Conservatives to advise on how to elbow aside the apparatchiks and return parties to the membership.
In Australia, there is no mechanism that can break the hold of the cronies over the Libs and LNP. A new party is required.
Baby holocaust, climate scam, power system destruction, blackfella power and land tax. None of these impositions were proposed to,
or are supported by the people.
What is amazing is how easily intellectual amoral clowns like Photios and Textor destroyed party democracy and imposed hard left crony power.
I well recall when my Branch was destroyed in one meeting by McGrath. The Chairman and the front row were all planted Turnbullites. There was no discussion. Power was simply transferred to Head Office. Most of us resigned, but of course that is what they wanted.
dover0beach says:
September 28, 2022 at 5:08 pm
The instructive thing about this is no one gives a shit about Germany or the other Euro economies screwed by this action…..
Yes, remarkable isn’t it. I was thinking earlier today that if it was the US (with co-operation from others not directly impacted) it was a giant F/U to Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy. When working, the gas comes ashore in Germany but that isn’t the end of its journey. This act has now screwed those countries.
The pipe could take several months to fix, clean, flush and that’s before there is any hope of negotiated resumption of supply. So, even if everybody kissed and made up tomorrow, this winter will be bitter for citizens and business.
I was reading elsewhere that the steel pipe has a wall of 4.1 cm which is coated with steel-reinforced concrete that is another 11cm thick. So, about 15cm thick wall on the pipes – this was no accident.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are suggesting that Russia is responsible for the destruction of the pipes to destabilise Europe. (FMD) And British sources have said they believed it may not be possible to determine what occurred, with certainty. (yeah, you hope.)
The Danish energy agency said two major leaks on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline north-east of the island of Bornholm, and a third in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in Swedish waters south-east of the island. “This is not a small crack. It’s a really big hole,” the energy agency said.
I’d probably share those concerns.
But that’s an entirely different point.
Big Serge tells us:
“Ukraine says it’s treason to vote at all…”. That’s seemingly not true at all.
Why would you not judge Big Serge’s opinions on that basis?
Yes, the mid terms don’t have to be canceled, just held in an atmosphere of growing crisis. Poke the bear, prod him, goad him, mix up open and more discreet provocation and he’ll win it for you. Unless he’s smart enough to recognise your game and holds off.
Here
They import 95% of their oil needs. I think this excludes the UK.
Look under Oil imports dependency. FMD
How much oil from Russia 75%. Obviously not now.
What a total fucking.
How about gas?
They’re completely fucked. Perhaps the Euro is a better short.
Let them fucking bake or freeze. get a load of this:
And the huge problem is like here.
It won’t wake them up.