Open Thread – Weekend 1 Oct 2022


View of Constantinople, Ivan Aivazoski, 1870

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

2K Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Rossini
Rossini
October 1, 2022 1:15 am

Morning all

Jannie
Jannie
October 1, 2022 1:58 am

always been second fiddle

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
October 1, 2022 2:04 am

a first 3rd on cor anglais

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
October 1, 2022 2:36 am

The Premier has come to the rescue of investors by canning this unpopular tax proposed by the nasty, money-grubbing Treasurer (who also happens to be her chief intra-party rival).

From the old thread ah Roger thank you – it’s politicking at it’s finest, clearly the hair-bleach hasn’t penetrated too deeply then when it comes to self-preservation-

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
October 1, 2022 2:47 am

“Delta A says:
September 30, 2022 at 7:11 pm” Thank you Delta A for your kind comment, coming from the byword for resilient it is much appreciated – Just catching up looks like I’ve had too much rest

Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:12 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:13 am
Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 4:15 am
bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 4:40 am

YouTube May Have Yanked New Italian PM’s Viral Speech, but This One’s Just as Good

In February 2022, Meloni kicked off her CPAC speech with a discussion of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which had just begun. She said she came to CPAC because it was important to stand together with another nation — the United States — in support of freedom

min
min
October 1, 2022 5:07 am

I watched Meloni ‘s CPAC speech last week and the left are scared . Socialist Mussolini had ideas of grandeur wanting to bring back the Roman Empire just like another historical figure in Italian history , Cola di Rienzo . Meloni is no fascist just has conservative values .

feelthebern
feelthebern
October 1, 2022 5:14 am

Remember fake black woman Rachel Dolezal?
Turns out she’s earning a few bucks on onlyfans.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/rachel-dolezal-onlyfans-leak-1234601139/

feelthebern
feelthebern
October 1, 2022 5:22 am

The Oz running a story about Bob Hawke & his China connections is interesting.
I wonder how deep are they going to go?
Keep in mind, all this was known from the get go but the media didn’t report it.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 5:52 am

“Independent MP and physician Dr Monique Ryan also blasted the change and said it would have “significant impacts” on workforces already suffering from absenteeism.”
Good start to the weekend.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 6:16 am

Only in Adelaide, thanks ABC.
every day a new kind of nuttiness

feelthebern
feelthebern
October 1, 2022 6:22 am

Test.

feelthebern
feelthebern
October 1, 2022 6:23 am

Weird.
Trying to post about the NY paramedic who got stabbed to death but getting the system error when I do.

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 6:29 am

Remember fake black woman Rachel Dolezal?
Turns out she’s earning a few bucks on onlyfans.

That got me thinking about how those young SJW’s will end up.
Will they eventually have a normal productive life or forever seek attention.

calli
calli
October 1, 2022 6:29 am

Rockdoctor, if you’re lurking…

Visited Jedburgh today. Apart from a magnificent ruined abbey, it’s the place where a gentleman farmer named Hutton turned geology on its head.

sfw
sfw
October 1, 2022 6:35 am

Rosie, it could be worse, Neil Wilson really wanted to be a fish.

https://www.thefullquid.com/2013/09/03/fish-man/

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 6:37 am

Meloni is no fascist just has conservative values .

Agree.
She’ll ramp up the Reffos to keep rents high and drive down Wages to keep Italians poor.
Italians will wake up to her and her Fake Party and she’ll sink without trace at the next election.

Cassie of Sydney
October 1, 2022 6:37 am

“Weird.
Trying to post about the NY paramedic who got stabbed to death but getting the system error when I do.”

Bern, sometimes that happens when I try and post a piece from a media outlet. It’s a system thing.

Cassie of Sydney
October 1, 2022 6:39 am

““Independent MP and physician Dr Monique Ryan also blasted the change and said it would have “significant impacts” on workforces already suffering from absenteeism.”
Good start to the weekend.”

I wonder if some voters in Kooyong are experiencing buyer’s remorse?

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 6:40 am

Meloni latest:

Giorgia Meloni ?? ?
@GiorgiaMeloni
·
Follow
Dear @ZelenskyyUa, you know that you can count on our loyal support for the cause of freedom of Ukrainian people. Stay strong and keep your faith steadfast!

She’s a dud.

feelthebern
feelthebern
October 1, 2022 6:42 am

Any Cats part of the Urbit universe?

Anchor What
Anchor What
October 1, 2022 6:46 am

Jacinda Astern got some recognition from Gateway Pundit yesterday for her essentially global marxist demeanour. Jo Nova has an extended piece about her today. Her address to the UN was perhaps a job application.
That figures, not the first former PM female to fail upwards over there. But timing is everything, with the UN’s reputation in tatters, Russia wielding the former USSR veto while waging war.
Time it was defunded.

duncanm
duncanm
October 1, 2022 6:53 am

Tom.. this morning’s Bob Moran.

https://t.co/EJA4468Li7

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 6:55 am

Dreyfus gives Turtlehead Bowen a shake for the least impressive member of the Liars Cabinet. Not forgetting Plibbers. Truly the dregs of R-G-R.

calli
calli
October 1, 2022 6:55 am

A tremendous low pressure system hit this part of the UK today, and I was in the middle of it. Vindolanda, a Roman site near Hardrian’s Wall.

The rain was horizontal and freezing. Trees were down over roads. The wind nearly blew me off my feet. But then I imagined Roman soldiers, posted from Spain and Portugal, having to man the garrison in far worse…so I soldiered on. Right up to the café for hot soup. 🙂

The Wall itself is a wonderful remnant, which I walked along for a few metres until rain and cold sent me scuttling for the bus. The locals, of course, plundered its stone for houses and walls. One of the endearing features is a section of ancient history ending in a stone shed or barn. And then it goes on.

The other excitement, for me at least, was travelling along straight sections of road knowing it was the original “Dere Street”, the great road from the Borders to Londinium.

calli
calli
October 1, 2022 6:59 am

Bother.

Hadrian’s

But the going was hard.

feelthebern
feelthebern
October 1, 2022 6:59 am

This substack mentions how the CIA blew up a pipeline in Siberia in 1982.

https://mattbivens.substack.com/p/farewell-to-sanity?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=586718&post_id=75584912&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email

The author clearly thinks the US were behind NS1&2.
Who knows.
Posting it purely re the Siberian attack in 82.

Anchor What
Anchor What
October 1, 2022 7:01 am

Thanks Calli! And Tom.
Winds of change also blowing for Liz Truss, who some said wouldn’t last long in the cold light of UK realities.
“ Some of Ms Truss’ own party have backed calls for a rethink on her and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget.”
What’s in a name?
One of Tom’s cartoons above has her backing the economy off a cliff.

Anchor What
Anchor What
October 1, 2022 7:03 am

Can Head case be banished to the Duelling Thread along with Monty?
Both are of negative value.

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 7:04 am

feelthebern at 5:22 – no doubt the law of defamation and the dead helps. But your point is well made. No doubt it didn’t take much for tame j’ismists to look the other way.

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 7:07 am

UN’s reputation in tatters, Russia wielding the former USSR veto while waging war.
Time it was defunded.

The pressure two move away from the original mandate is relentless in all organisations including the smallest sporting clubs.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 1, 2022 7:11 am

That got me thinking about how those young SJW’s will end up.
Will they eventually have a normal productive life or forever seek attention.

There’s going to be a lot of very unhappy women in twenty years time, when they realize they’ve been lied to.

Green Concerns Cited: Third of French Women Do Not Want Children Ever (30 Sep)

A poll has found that around a third of French women of childbearing age say they do not want to ever have children, citing various reasons including fears of climate change.

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 7:11 am

And that is how you end up in your dressing gown by the pool of your harbourside mansion as a retired politician. Basically a traitor.

calli
calli
October 1, 2022 7:13 am

Quick correction…the road was Dere Street until it hit York, then became Ermine Street.

Next year I hope to see bits of Watling Street that ran from Chester through to London. The old roads are truly fascinating.

custard
custard
October 1, 2022 7:15 am

Putin: The West denies moral standards, religion, family. Do we really want Russia to have “parent number one, two, three” instead of “mom and dad” and that perversions that lead to degradation and extinction are imposed on children in schools, supposedly there are some genders, except for women and men? For us, this is unacceptable.

custard
custard
October 1, 2022 7:16 am

Putin: we have many like-minded people all over the world, and we see their support. A liberation movement against unipolar hegemony is developing all over the world. Today we are fighting to make dictatorship and despotism forever a thing of the past. A policy built on the exclusivity of someone and the suppression of other cultures and peoples is criminal. We must turn this shameful page. The collapse of Western hegemony that has begun is irreversible. It won’t be like before.

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 7:18 am
Anchor What
Anchor What
October 1, 2022 7:22 am

“The ABC will spend almost $50m in funding on its move to Parramatta, but staff are speaking out, saying management is taking an “dictator-like” approach to the move.“
Have all those deserved jibes about inner-city elites, sandal-wearing yoga practitioners and bicycle riders had some effect on management?
Staff devastated!

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 1, 2022 7:24 am

Hahaha!

Police rescue passengers from powerless electric ferry! (30 Sep)

Passengers on Wellington’s new electric ferry were rescued by a police boat after the ferry lost power.

A police spokesperson confirmed to the Herald the Ika Rere had run out of battery in the harbour and all passengers on board were transferred to the police boat.

Be nice if some Kiwi pollies were on it at the time. That’d be perfection.

132andBush
132andBush
October 1, 2022 7:24 am

Quick season update.

It’s wet.
150+mm since August 5 and not stopping any time soon, in fact if the forecast totals hold, large portions of NSW will be under water next week.
A big year for disease, stripe rust being the most troublesome in the wheat crops. All spraying from now on being done by air. We got on top of it but only just.

An issue has manifested with seed quality in one of the canola varieties. The first paddock we put in has finished flowering and it’s now evident that up to 20% of plants are sterile (ie, producing short spindly pods with no seed), standing out plainly as they are a very purplish colour. I think it’s going to come down to significant contamination with F2 gen seed. It’s a TT hybrid so the affected plants may have no tolerance to Triazine and its been sprayed with Atrazine. We’re waiting to find out.
Significant loss of yield though given the 400ha paddock looks to be a 3t/ha crop @ $750/t.

Contract harvesting wise my Walgett client is already cut off by flood water, so that’s not promising and the last photo sent from the Horsham job just showed a river running out of the paddocks!

Oh, a neighbour up here is looking for a chaser bin driver if anyone is interested.

Latest Ag weather update for Australia

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 7:25 am

Yes custard Vlad the shirtless will save Christendom.
Any day now.

duncanm
duncanm
October 1, 2022 7:25 am

There’s going to be a lot of very unhappy women in twenty years time,

cats, there’s going to be a lot of cats in twenty years’ time.

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 7:25 am

Winds of change also blowing for Liz Truss, who some said wouldn’t last long in the cold light of UK realities.

Fake News.
The Tories miniBudget cut Taxes and extended the freeze on Electricity Prices for 2 years.
Do you ever post anything other than Labour Party spin?
[Ans. No]

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 7:30 am

. It’s a TT hybrid so the affected plants may have no tolerance to Triazine and its been sprayed with Atrazine. We’re waiting to find out.

This “plant” has some Industrial application, right?
It’s not for human consumption, is it?

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 7:32 am

The Epoch Times is a Falun Gong publication, in other words CIA news.
How much do you get paid per post?

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 7:34 am

Groogs spies another rich seam of wrongology to join the list.

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 7:35 am

Oh, a neighbour up here is looking for a chaser bin driver if anyone is interested

$46 an hr plus a case of Woodstock cans.

Mater
October 1, 2022 7:35 am

This “plant” has some Industrial application, right?
It’s not for human consumption, is it?

Of course it’s for human consumption.
It was merely genetically engineered to withstand Gypsum.

Mater
October 1, 2022 7:38 am

It’s wet.
150+mm since August 5 and not stopping any time soon, in fact if the forecast totals hold, large portions of NSW will be under water next week.

BTW, Bushie, you can blame Arky for seeding the clouds. Those chemtrails don’t happen all by themselves.

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 7:44 am

BTW, Bushie, you can blame Arky for seeding the clouds. Those chemtrails don’t happen all by themselves.

Haven’t really got much to say, have you?

2dogs
2dogs
October 1, 2022 7:46 am

4Chan has performed its investigation and concluded that the NordStream attacks were made by a Boeing P-8 Poseidon dropping Raytheon Mk 54 torpedoes using HAAWWC.

custard
custard
October 1, 2022 7:46 am

Putin’s speech on annexation: What he actually said

During his 37-minute long speech, Putin spoke about the break up of the Soviet Union, Western “colonial policy”, nuclear weapons, and his view of Western morals.

The quotes below have been translated into English from Russian.

Defending ‘our land’

“We will defend our land with all the powers and means at our disposal.”

“In 1991, at Belovezh Forest, without asking the will of common citizens, representatives of the then-party elites decided to destroy the USSR, and people suddenly found themselves cut off from their motherland. This tore apart and dismembered our nation, becoming a national catastrophe …

“I admit that they did not fully understand what they were doing, and what consequences this would inevitably lead to in the end. But this is no longer important. There is no Soviet Union, the past cannot be brought back. And Russia today does not need it any more. We are not striving for this.

“The battlefield to which fate and history have called us is the battlefield for our people, for great historical Russia, for future generations, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”

A Message to Kyiv

“I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me so that they remember this. People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia are becoming our citizens. Forever.

“We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately end hostilities, end the war that they unleashed back in 2014 and return to the negotiating table.

“We are ready for this … But we will not discuss the choice of the people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. That has been made. Russia will not betray them.”

Nord Stream gas leak

“Sanctions were not enough for the Anglo-Saxons: they moved on to sabotage. It is hard to believe but it is a fact that they organised the blasts on the Nord Stream international gas pipelines, which run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea … It is clear to everyone who benefits from this.”

Western imperialism

“The West … began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, and then followed the slave trade, the genocide of Indian [Indigenous] tribes in America, the plunder of India, of Africa, the wars of England and France against China …

“What they did was hooking entire nations on drugs, deliberately exterminating entire ethnic groups. For the sake of land and resources, they hunted people like animals. This is contrary to the very nature of man, truth, freedom and justice.”

‘Nuclear precedent’

“The United States is the only country in the world that has twice used nuclear weapons, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and setting a precedent.”

“Even today, they actually occupy Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries, and at the same time cynically call them allies of equal standing.

Western morals

“Now they have moved on entirely, to a radical denial of moral norms, religion, and family …

“The dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western countries themselves. This is a challenge to all. This is a complete denial of humanity, the overthrow of faith and traditional values. Indeed, the suppression of freedom itself has taken on the features of a religion: outright Satanism.”

Do we really want, here, in our country, in Russia, instead of ‘mum’ and ‘dad’, to have ‘parent number one’, ‘parent number two’, ‘number three’? Have they gone completely insane? Do we really want … it drilled into children in our schools … that there are supposedly genders besides women and men, and [children to be] offered the chance to undergo sex change operations? … We have a different future, our own future.”

###

t.me/georgenews
t.me/anonymouscharity

Mater
October 1, 2022 7:47 am

Haven’t really got much to say, have you?

No, I don’t dare.
Arky is holding my family hostage.

132andBush
132andBush
October 1, 2022 7:47 am

BTW, Bushie, you can blame Arky for seeding the clouds. Those chemtrails don’t happen all by themselves.

It’s certainly the vibe around here.

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 7:47 am

Straight from the horse’s mouth

Sure.
They speak Russian, are Russian, and they’re tired of being bombed since 2014.

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 7:47 am

$46 an hr plus a case of Woodstock cans.

Keep the cash.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 7:50 am

A case of Woodstock cans per hour?
Must be thirsty work.

132andBush
132andBush
October 1, 2022 7:52 am

This “plant” has some Industrial application, right?
It’s not for human consumption, is it?

Only humans, Ed.
Random word generators need not worry.
Besides which it hasn’t had its insecticide yet.

Mater
October 1, 2022 7:52 am

It’s certainly the vibe around here.

I’d give you an uptick, but to unleash such a powerful tool of misinformation might have dire consequences.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 7:53 am
Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 7:56 am

“Sanctions were not enough for the Anglo-Saxons…”

It’s those damned Anglo-Saxons again.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 7:56 am

Killing Christians in the Ukraine certainly sends all the right messages.

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 7:56 am

Pick up driving is very demanding.

lotocoti
lotocoti
October 1, 2022 7:59 am

Staff devastated!

When their Toowong site was shut down and ABC News moved to Mount Coot-tha,
there was a lot of foot stamping and breath holding until management laid on
a regular bus service.
Expecting The Workers to make their own way to somewhere
not serviced by public transport, or bike paths, was practically a human rights violation.
Or something.

Johnny Rotten
October 1, 2022 8:00 am

The manager of a large office noticed a new employee one day and told him to come into his office.

“What is your name?” was the first thing the manager asked the new guy. “John” the new guy replied.

The manager scowled “Look… I don’t know what kind of a namby-pamby place you worked before, but I don’t call anyone by their first name. It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority. I refer to my employees by their last name only. Smith, Jones, Baker… that’s all. I am to be referred to only as Mr. Robertson. Now that we got that straight, what is your last name?”

The new guy sighed “Darling. My name is John Darling”. “Okay John, the next thing I want to tell you is… “

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2022 8:01 am

H B Bear says:
October 1, 2022 at 6:55 am
Dreyfus gives Turtlehead Bowen a shake for the least impressive member of the Liars Cabinet. Not forgetting Plibbers. Truly the dregs of R-G-R.

No.

Jim Chalmers is in fact, very, very dumb.

Imagine if that idiot becomes PM.

Would you risk your life for that low IQ troll?

I would seriously consider self harm over being conscripted to fight for that imbecile.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2022 8:04 am

How China spies ‘signed up Bob Hawke’

exclusive
Ben Packham
FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT
@bennpackham
10:00PM September 30, 2022
82 Comments

Bob Hawke was unwittingly used by the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence arm, becoming involved with a spy agency front that used foreign elites to help rehabilitate the country’s image after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, a new book reveals.

China analyst Alex Joske reveals details of the former prime minister’s extensive business dealings in China, which were ­enabled by key Ministry of State Security officials. His book, Spies and lies: How China’s greatest covert ­operations fooled the world, recounts Hawke’s return to China in 1993 hosted by CCP think tank the China Institute of Strategy and Management.

The former prime minister ­became the institute’s first foreign adviser and was appointed chairman of its commercial arm, just four years after he shed tears for the victims of the Tiananmen massacre and opened the door to 42,000 Chinese asylum-seekers. “Hawke almost certainly didn’t recognise that his well-connected friends at CISM were in fact deeply involved with the intelligence community,” Joske writes. “China’s post-Tiananmen embrace of world leaders such as Hawke was a professional influence operation.”

One of the institute’s senior advisers was undercover official Yu Enguang – real name Yu Fang – who was in charge of MSS ­efforts to manipulate foreign elites, Joske writes. Another, Qin Chuan, was chairman of MSS front China International Culture Publishing Company, which was used to provide cover for operations in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Institute general secretary Qin Chaoying was also closely tied to the party’s intelligence ­apparatus, Joske writes, and was later appointed to MSS Social ­Investigation Bureau’s China ­Reform Forum front group.

“By befriending Hawke, CISM had now added an operational side to its history of intelligence analysis,” the book says.

It describes Hawke as one of the institute’s many targets.

Through its business arm, the Hawke-chaired Lanmo Strategic Investment Advisory, the institute sought to commercialise its elite connections.

“The company’s aim was to market Hawke and (CISM secretary-general) Qin’s door-opening abilities to foreign companies hoping to make deals in China and assist Chinese companies going abroad,” Joske writes.

Hawke also signed up as an adviser to entrepreneur Jiang Xiaosong’s Bo’ao Forum initiative, lending his influence to what is now “among the most important channels for CCP elite influence”.

Hawke travelled to China more than 100 times on business trips after retiring from politics. He gave only scant details during his life of his commercial interests in the country, and the source of his personal wealth was largely a mystery.

Joske, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and risk adviser at McGrathNicol, says Hawke believed he was influencing China through his high-level contacts, but he placed Australian diplomats in Beijing in a difficult position.

“(They were) obliged to welcome the former leader to Beijing and help set up meetings when asked but concerned by the company he kept,” he writes.

The institute acted as a “cut out” for the party’s leaders in ­inviting Hawke back to China, Joske writes.

He says it is “doubtful Hawke fully understood his Chinese partner’s agenda”, believing they were “just doing business”.

“Chinese intelligence officers like Yu Enguang would never have attempted to recruit Hawke as an agent. There simply wasn’t any point.

“Instead, Hawke’s value was that he sold China to the rest of the world, reframed Australia’s image of the nation after the Tiananmen massacre, and gifted his reputation to influence vehicles like the Bo’ao Forum.

“He was personally taking part in the story of China’s incredible economic rise with his consultancy. Through the fruits of his ‘marvellous’ return to China, he helped craft an image of a modernising and liberalising China.”

Those 20 Million dollar waterside mansions didn’t just buy themselves, eh, comrade?

Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 8:04 am

Jim Chalmers is in fact, very, very dumb.

Pshaw…

I’ll have you know that he’s a Doctor of Paul Keating!

132andBush
132andBush
October 1, 2022 8:05 am

$46 an hr plus a case of Woodstock cans.

You idiot.

Come on over, it’ll be fun.
If you’re a decent operator those $/hr will be no problem.
And we’ll all just pretend to ignore the Woodstock 🙂

Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 8:06 am

How China spies ‘signed up Bob Hawke’

Unfaithful to his wife, unfaithful to his nation.

Turd of a man.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
October 1, 2022 8:08 am

150+mm since August 5

Ditto.
Unloading grain bags Thursday, Friday.
Now that’s fun in the mud.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 8:11 am

If ABC Sydney is moving west to Parramatta, does that mean the Melbourne offices will move from Southbank to Footscray or perhaps William’s Landing?

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2022 8:12 am

Do we really want, here, in our country, in Russia, instead of ‘mum’ and ‘dad’, to have ‘parent number one’, ‘parent number two’, ‘number three’? Have they gone completely insane? Do we really want … it drilled into children in our schools … that there are supposedly genders besides women and men, and [children to be] offered the chance to undergo sex change operations? … We have a different future, our own future.”

Putin is completely full of shit.

The elite in Russia engage in this weirdo stuff, they just need cannon fodder to breed.

“We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately end hostilities, end the war that they unleashed back in 2014 and return to the negotiating table.

This is an obvious lie. The war started because Putin started meddling in elections and began covert operations in 2008 – 2010. Anyone buying his BS needs to be struck with a clue staff.

“In 1991, at Belovezh Forest, without asking the will of common citizens, representatives of the then-party elites decided to destroy the USSR, and people suddenly found themselves cut off from their motherland. This tore apart and dismembered our nation, becoming a national catastrophe …

This freak actually is defending the USSR. He’s full of it; he doesn’t want to defend the Russian Federation at all.

“What they did was hooking entire nations on drugs, deliberately exterminating entire ethnic groups. For the sake of land and resources, they hunted people like animals. This is contrary to the very nature of man, truth, freedom and justice.”

What an extraordinary liar.

What drugs come from the west? Does this dumb idiot think real life is a cheesy action film? What ethnic groups have Anglo Saxons actually exterminated? You can’t think of any? Me neither. Putin of course desires neither land nor resources.

Dugin, Putin’s statement on Ukraine ought not to exist , 98% supported referendums and the lunatic fake KGB asset Bishop with jihadist rhetoric.

What a rouges gallery of grifters, bullshitters and murderers.

No one who supports freedom supports Putin.

Johnny Rotten
October 1, 2022 8:13 am

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

– Confucius

Mater
October 1, 2022 8:14 am

I would seriously consider self harm over being conscripted to fight for that imbecile.

Not all that long ago, you’d have struggled to find a person more patriotically inclined than myself. I naïvely believed in our system, and the principles for which it supposedly stood.

However, after what has been done to us over the last three years, I’m at a lose as to why anyone would do anything remotely hazardous for this country, more specifically, the subverted system under which it’s now run.

Most, including myself, were intravenously raped with some untried concoction so that the politicians could open up the country (from their own tyrannical dictates), whilst saving face. Duty done.

Miltonf
Miltonf
October 1, 2022 8:15 am

I remember when Liddle filth was the workas friend from the actu. Lived in Sandringham with a Merc in the driveway iirc. Yes Roger a total turd and it blows my mind that people liked him. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed but he never fooled me.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 8:18 am

Confucius say man who run before bus get tired, man who run behind bus get exhausted.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2022 8:18 am

I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed but he never fooled me.

I’m only too pleased to say I despised him – all that fake Okker bullshit.

Miltonf
Miltonf
October 1, 2022 8:22 am

Totally. I knew he was rotten but even more than I realised. As for punching Hayden in the stomach, Hayden should have pressed charges against the turd. Certainly more proof that politics attracts grifters psychopaths and narcissists

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 8:23 am

The Age on Andrews, paywalled.
The MSM in Victoria all seem to be waging war against the Andrews government.
another 20 million tipped off the bridge

min
min
October 1, 2022 8:27 am

Ed Case well named , It appears you are not a traveller in Italy as opposed to a tourist . Italy has been devastated by the influx of economic refugee arrivals for years . Italians are very warm hearted and generous but refugees are poorly educated, with few skills . They end up poorly paid workers for the Mafia , prostitutes, and put pressure on housing, jobs etc. Italy had one of the highest youth unemployment in high 20% . Meloni wants to stop the influx of these many arriving at Lampedusa.
And Chinese buying out Italian businesses . Don’t think there are many of the well known Italian companies not owned by them . Read how the pandemic got started up in the Bergamo area.

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2022 8:28 am

Ed Case says:
October 1, 2022 at 7:32 am
The Epoch Times is a Falun Gong publication, in other words CIA news.
How much do you get paid per post?

Who to support?

The CCP or a meditation group with some mild spiritual messages sympatico with Christianity and Buddhism?

Oh yes of course Ed, the CCP are the good guys.

You’re just so damned tiresome.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2022 8:28 am

COFFEE: IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO?

Study: Drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day for longer life, better heart health.

Off to brew 1st Cup of Best tasting coffee pod brand

Daley St came out top of the pods with a CHOICE Expert Rating of 75%. There were a full five percentage points between first place and the tightly contested second place – where four pods tied with a score of 70%.

1st place: Daley St Medium Dark Roast
CHOICE Expert Rating: 75%
Price: 40c per pod

Taste test notes: “Good nuttiness, some fruitiness”, “Well-rounded mouthfeel”, “Great flavour and aromatics”, “Aftertaste a little bitter”

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 8:31 am

I have standards and refuse to work with bipolar G&T drinkers.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 8:32 am

Miltonf

He lived in Royal Ave Sandringham.

I went to the house a few times as a gal I went out with was pals with Bob’s daughter from Firbank days.
She had a party there once .

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2022 8:32 am

Russia has succeeded in stopping Ukraine, amongst other neutral countries, from from joining NATO.

Putin’s invasion was a peace orientated humanitarian mission of diplomacy.

I’m glad it all worked out so well and Russia has friends other than lunatic despots or the vicious CCP.

Miltonf
Miltonf
October 1, 2022 8:33 am

Calli love reading about your impressions of Scotland.

Miltonf
Miltonf
October 1, 2022 8:34 am

Aviemore used to be a really fun spot

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2022 8:36 am

rosiesays:
October 1, 2022 at 8:23 am
The Age on Andrews, paywalled.

Bridge to nowhere: Government loses big in punt on untried technology

The Victorian government wasted at least $20m on a joint venture, run by the chief executive of the state’s rail authority, selling bridge safety monitors that did not work as they should.

The Victorian government wasted at least $20 million on a commercial joint venture, run by the chief executive of the state’s rail authority, selling bridge safety monitors that did not work as they should have.

Senior employees at the government-backed enterprise Eloque told The Age the company continued to install sensors on bridges across the state with the approval of rail authority VicTrack and the Department of Transport despite engineers and technology experts warning their bosses the devices could not accurately monitor bridges for structural problems.

The idea was supposed to revolutionise infrastructure management globally and become a lucrative moneymaker for the state, with sensors that constantly monitored bridges for signs of corrosion, strain, damage or imminent collapse.

The Victorian government committed a total of $82.5 million to the project, that aimed to commercialise FiBridge sensor technology touted as being “to bridges, as the ECG is to the heart”. By the time Eloque shut down in August, the Victorian government had spent at least $20 million of taxpayers’ money.

The Age can also reveal the Queensland government rejected a proposal to buy Eloque’s technology after it commissioned an independent review that found it was unviable. The review, obtained by The Age, raises questions about the adequacy of due diligence conducted by the Andrews government before it poured taxpayers’ money into the technology.

“We were deploying on bridges, funded by the Victorian state government, knowing that we would probably have to go back at the government’s expense and replace it,” said a former senior manager.

Transport officials have begun removing the sensors from 30 bridges around the state and laid off the last of its 46 employees – just 15 months after the Victorian government announced it was investing in the joint venture with US printing giant Xerox.

The Age interviewed seven senior Eloque employees who were closely involved with its engineering, design, operational and commercial operations. The former employees spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters that remain commercially sensitive to Xerox and because they feared career repercussions.

Campbell Rose, chief executive and driving force behind the joint-venture’s ambitious business plans, was also the chief executive of the state rail authority VicTrack, which was Eloque’s only paying customer. A former chief executive of the Western Bulldogs AFL club, Rose was in charge of both VicTrack and Eloque for a period of about 10 months.

Rose’s former colleagues say he “disappeared off the face of the earth” in March, with no announcement or explanation from VicTrack about why he had stopped going to work, and the rail authority confirmed last week he was on “extended leave”. Rose declined to comment when contacted by The Age.

In February 2021, Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan directed VicTrack to proceed with the joint venture, and approved the appointment of Rose as dual chief executive with “appropriate financial and commercial governance arrangements” in place to avoid conflicts of interest.

VicTrack obtained legal advice from law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth about managing potential conflicts of interest with a “management strategy” that meant Rose and others with dual duties to the agency and Eloque would not receive board papers or other information about their commercial agreements.

VicTrack promoted Chris Olds to the new role of “deputy chief executive” to manage the day-to-day running of the agency while Rose focused on Eloque. But Rose remained Olds’ boss and the “accountable officer” reporting to the minister.

A VicTrack spokesman said the “employment arrangement was an interim one to enable the start-up of Eloque whilst the recruitment of a new CEO for Eloque was undertaken”. There is no suggestion Rose acted contrary to the management strategy that was in place. He was paid only one salary, from VicTrack.

Eloque’s sudden collapse contrasts with the grand hopes on display when Allan – who is now also deputy premier – and Treasurer Tim Pallas announced the partnership with Xerox in May 2021.

They said Victoria would invest up to $50 million installing its technology on state bridges and setting up the commercial company to “rapidly expand” around the world.

As it turned out, the state lost less than half that: $7 million in capital for its 37.5 per cent shareholding, $9.85 million for bridge installations and $2.3 million on its early trials. It poured in another $1.12 million on September 2 to cover wind-down costs. Xerox invested $7 million of funding and $8 million worth of intellectual property.

As well as being chief executive of Eloque and VicTrack, Rose was a director of the Australian trading entity, Eloque Pty Ltd, and was named in internal documents as “vice president and secretary” of the US parent company, Eloque LLC. He was also appointed secretary of the company the Department of Transport set up to manage its 37.5 per cent shareholding in Eloque.

VicTrack briefed Allan on the executive arrangement in early 2021, in a document that explained Rose would be Eloque’s “inaugural and interim chief executive” while retaining “the substantive role of VicTrack CE (chief executive)“.

The recommendation to Allan to support this arrangement came from VicTrack’s head of government relations, James O’Brien. He joined VicTrack in April 2020 after a stint as Allan’s chief of staff, replacing Diana Tremigliozzi, who then took his role in Allan’s office.

Victoria’s public service code of conduct says public officials should “avoid any real or apparent conflicts of interest”, which it says may involve outside “professional interests” or “closely associated” commercial ventures.

It began with a problem…

Eloque grew out of VicTrack’s attempts to decide how best to spend limited funds maintaining billions of dollars worth of ageing bridge infrastructure. Seventy per cent of Australia’s bridges are more than 50 years old and manual inspections are expensive and time-consuming.

In 2017 VicTrack obtained a $500,000 grant from the Department of Premier and Cabinet to run a trial with Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) to see if its miniature optic fibres could measure the structural condition of four bridges.

VicTrack deemed the trial a success and commissioned the consultancy firm McKinsey & Company to examine the potential to commercialise the technology. McKinsey found that within a decade, FiBridge could be installed on 14,000 bridges and be earning annual revenue of $422 million and profits of $167 million.

The McKinsey report said “the technology works … as proven by extensive piloting done on five bridges in Victoria in 2019”.

Leaked VicTrack board papers show that in June 2020, Allan and Pallas successfully pitched the joint venture investment to the state government’s COVID “crisis cabinet”, which included Premier Daniel Andrews and his most senior ministers, securing the $32.5 million government commitment it needed to get off the ground.

In November that year, the government doubled down and accepted VicTrack’s “budget bid” for $50 million to further support the project by installing Eloque’s technology on “priority transport assets”, the board minutes show.

Those documents reveal for the first time that the government was willing to spend up to $82.5 million on Eloque – significantly more than the $50 million announced when the state launched the project in 2021.

The connections

Leaked company documents show Eloque’s management predicted astonishing growth: in nine years, they claimed FiBridge could be installed on 17,000 assets across the world, earning it revenue of $1 billion – a windfall for its investors, Xerox and the Victorian government.

When Rose went on a whirlwind tour of the US and Europe in late 2021 to woo new customers, he gave them an even brighter picture of Eloque’s outlook. Briefing documents prepared for government agencies, obtained by The Age, claimed the technology was “currently rolling out” on 100 at-risk bridges in Victoria and would be on 300 bridges over the next 18 months. At the time, FiBridge was installed on fewer than 13 Victorian bridges.

Eloque insiders said that soon after the company was established, experienced structural and product engineers, technology experts and other professionals working at its Docklands office and at PARC in California started to warn that, despite promising early testing, the technology was not ready to be sold.

Optic fibre used in the sensors snapped, came unstuck from bridges or was picked out by birds and vermin, former employees said.

Even when the sensors worked, there was no confidence the data collected was accurate. Insiders said the company never developed an analytics system that could use that data to reliably diagnose a bridge’s structural health and nobody at Eloque was building the “artificial intelligence” and machine learning capability it talked about publicly.

In late 2021, an experienced structural engineer resigned from Eloque after claiming that management refused to listen to his grave concerns that the technology was giving inaccurate readings, according to four former employees with direct knowledge of the event. The engineer declined to comment when contacted.

A number of those involved in Eloque believe the core technology held genuine potential and may have become a valuable tool to save money and even lives. But an aggressive commercial strategy took priority over ensuring its product was ready.

One senior employee said designers and engineers working at Eloque’s offices in Docklands and California made it “very clear” to executives that the technology needed at least two more years of research and development before it could be widely deployed.

Three employees who were in meetings where the matters were discussed said they believed Eloque management pushed ahead with installations despite objections from technical staff because of the imperative to keep cash flowing in from VicTrack.

“I heard in more than one meeting: if we don’t implement ‘X’ amount of bridges, we’re out of business. That was constant,” said one.

Failed examination

Staff concerns about the technology were confirmed in a damning independent report prepared on behalf of Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads in mid-2021, when it considered becoming Eloque’s first customer outside Victoria.

The technical due diligence assessment by the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB), a leading independent expert body, found FiBridge was “in its infancy” and that Eloque could not demonstrate “the viability of the technology”.

Two experienced ARRB structural engineers reviewed Eloque’s technical background documents, the findings of its pilot program, and conducted interviews with its executive project team and other staff before finalising their report on October 14.

The confidential report, obtained by The Age, says Eloque did not have enough “verification and validation” to be confident its sensor data was accurate, and found no evidence it had a system that automatically tuned such data into observations of structural health.

The extent of the “limitations and challenges” on display demanded “significant efforts from Eloque to demonstrate that FiBridge is a viable bridge monitoring system”, the report says. It recommended Queensland revisit FiBridge in “a couple of years” when the product was “fully developed”.

All seven former employees said it was widely known at Eloque by late 2021 that the first sensors installed in Victoria did not work as expected.

But on February 22 this year, Xerox published a press release that stunned employees.

Rather than slow down installations, Xerox trumpeted that Eloque would “triple the number of bridges” in Australia using its technology, from 12 to 36, by the middle of the year. The release claimed Eloque was “already seeing success with the installations in Australia” and was now talking to possible customers in the US and Europe.

The targets were never hit.

Eloque quickly unravelled following Rose’s absence from late March, according to company insiders, who said Eloque and VicTrack never announced or explained his absence to staff.

Collapse

Just before his departure, Rose took a group of senior employees to lunch at the RACV Club on Bourke Street, Melbourne, and told them VicTrack had ordered him to cease contact with current and former staff.

About the same time, Department of Transport officials co-ordinating Eloque’s sensor installations suddenly changed their attitude towards the company, according to four sources familiar with discussions, and by April the rollout was halted until they could be satisfied the devices worked as expected.

With funding cut off, a sudden round of redundancies in June stripped Eloque back to a skeleton staff. In late August the remaining employees on both sides of the Pacific were told the company was shutting down.

The Andrews government first confirmed to Melbourne radio station 3AW on August 25 that it had pulled the pin on Eloque. But the government and Xerox have never explained why its venture failed so spectacularly, just 16 months after they claimed it had a functioning technology that would “rapidly expand” around the world.

A spokeswoman for Xerox said it decided with VicTrack to shut Eloque when it realised developing it into a commercial product “would require more efforts than initially expected”.

Ministers Allan and Pallas did not respond to questions. A VicTrack spokeswoman said the FiBridge idea went through “through extensive research and testing” which showed potential to improve how it managed its bridges.

But despite its “promising earlier development… it became clear that the level of resourcing required to further develop the technology to a workable state” could not be supported, the spokeswoman said.

The deputy premier and the treasurer declined to answer questions about Eloque, including what independent due diligence the government did on the viability of its technology and its business model before committing up to $82.5 million of state funds to the project, of which $20 million has been lost.

A government spokesman said: “All appropriate due diligence processes were followed”.

Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 8:37 am

Italians are very warm hearted and generous but refugees are poorly educated, with few skills . They end up poorly paid workers for the Mafia , prostitutes, and put pressure on housing, jobs etc.

ABC RN currently informing their listeners as to Meloni’s political views.

Their go to, impartial expert is an academic who wrote her thesis on Italian neo-fascism.

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 8:40 am

Study: Drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day for longer life, better heart health.

Heart Disease is totally caused by Sugar consumption, so either coffee drinkers eat less sugar or coffee ameliorates the damage from sugar.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2022 8:41 am

Joe Biden and the Sovietization of America

What does it mean that he’s demonized half the country?

Written by: Roger Kimball

I write with the clangorous strains of Joe Biden’s speech at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall still ringing in my ears. By the time you read this, the attendant tinnitus will doubtless have abated. The effects of the speech, however, will be echoing throughout the land for many months if not longer.

The commentator Ben Shapiro was, I believe, correct in judging Biden’s brief speech “the most demagogic, outrageous and divisive speech… ever seen from an American president.” In sum, “Joe Biden essentially declared all those who oppose him and his agenda enemies of the republic. Truly shameful.”

But what has been true of Joe Biden from before his administration began continues to be true. It is not he who was the architect of his performance, from the imperial stage set, of which Albert Speer would have been proud, to his hectoring attack on “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans [who] represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.”

“An extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.” Hold that thought. It has become a leitmotif for Biden. A week earlier, at a speech in Maryland, he explained that the problem was “not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the… semi-fascism” of the MAGA agenda.

Joe Biden is not the architect of this policy. He is merely the mouthpiece, the mannikin, representing it. As I and many others have observed, this has been true since the beginning of his most incongruous basement campaign. Biden’s greatest asset, for the forces standing behind him, is his pliability. He will say whatever he is told to say and espouse whatever doctrines his handlers put before him. Democrats spent two or three years vocally defending rioters and issuing hysterical calls to “defund the police.” But that was before they occupied the White House. Now Biden reads from a new script and tells us he finds it “sickening” that concerned citizens are criticizing the FBI.

The Founders were deeply suspicious of political parties because they foresaw the possibility of the government mutating into a state party representing not the people but themselves. That’s where we are now. How long before other “features” of the Soviet system install themselves in this country?

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 8:42 am

Dr Groogs will see you now.

Oh fuck …

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2022 8:43 am

Ed Casesays:
October 1, 2022 at 8:40 am
Study: Drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day for longer life, better heart health.

Heart Disease is totally caused by Sugar consumption

Originally Coffee, Milk & 2 Sugars

Black Coffee no sugars since mid 1970

Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 8:45 am

The Age on Andrews, paywalled.
The MSM in Victoria all seem to be waging war against the Andrews government.

No, no, you misunderstand the Australian media and especially The Age, where I used to work.

Most Australian journalists vote for the Greens — not the ALP — so what you’re seeing in the runup to the November state election reflects that power struggle. The Age‘s criticism of the Andrews regime is actually a pitch for Greens candidates and the Greens-voting public service — not to mention Premier Xi and the CCP’s Belt and Road program for the subversion of states like Victoria (and most of Africa).

The Age is all in for communist ideology and communist control of Australia whatever it takes — though realistically for the time being, that means riding on the ALP as one of its fleas.

It’s nearly 30 years since The Age was an actual newspaper.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 8:48 am

Dr Groogs will see you now.

Oh fuck …

Lol

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 8:50 am

It’s nearly 30 years since The Age was an actual newspaper.

Word. Young Warwick could hardly have trashed it more than the staff.

Boambee John
Boambee John
October 1, 2022 8:50 am

callisays:
October 1, 2022 at 6:29 am
Rockdoctor, if you’re lurking…

Visited Jedburgh today. Apart from a magnificent ruined abbey, it’s the place where a gentleman farmer named Hutton turned geology on its head.

We visited there in the mid-a1980s. Speaking of heads, my wife kept hers down after a waitress told us that one of the historical highlights in Jedburgh was the hanging of a dozen members of her clan one morning. Notorious border reivers, apparently.

Mater
October 1, 2022 8:51 am

The Victorian government wasted at least $20m on a joint venture, run by the chief executive of the state’s rail authority, selling bridge safety monitors that did not work as they should.

That’s nothing.
Victoria’s REFCL program (based on “unprecedented application” of the technology) was approved on an original costing of $151 million.
We are now north of $1 billion, due to “significant technical causes”.

They love to experiment with our money. Overseas observers must love us. They save a fortune of R&D costs. “Just watch Australia fuck it up, and learn from their mistakes”.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
October 1, 2022 8:52 am

Old Ozzie, that coffee story puts me in a quandary, because my cardiac specialist says restrict its intake to 1 p.d.
Tastebuds agree with the story though.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 1, 2022 8:53 am

Has anyone told Tickler he is talking to himself on the dead fred?

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
October 1, 2022 8:54 am

Calli, keep the news coming about your trip.
Memories of a very enjoyable family journey to many of the places you mention are rekindled.

mc
mc
October 1, 2022 8:54 am

The Victorian government wasted at least $20m

“Nous Group” … nuff said

Tom
Tom
October 1, 2022 8:56 am

Word. Young Warwick could hardly have trashed it more than the staff.

Humphrey, The Age is now a workers collective (like the ABC), where staff have veto over executive appointments and managers aren’t allowed to manage. It is being run on revolutionary communist principles.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2022 8:56 am

Bob Hawke will not be kindly remembered by history.

The hero of the working man turned out to be a narcissistic dick waver who embedded the CCP into this country’s infrastructure, and who founded the dynasty of Labor leaders in thrall to Beijing.

His corpse should be dug up and eaten by bears in the middle of a packed MCG.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 8:56 am

Old Ozzie-

Black Coffee no sugars since mid 1970

Yea. I dunno how anyone can drink either coffee or tea with sugar. The thought of it makes me gag. It only takes a few weeks to train your, but I guess some can’t do it.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2022 8:56 am

one of the historical highlights in Jedburgh was the hanging of a dozen members of her clan one morning.

“I have oft heard of Jedburgh Law

Where in the morn, they hang and draw

And sit in judgement, after.”

Indolent
Indolent
October 1, 2022 8:57 am

“The dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western countries themselves. This is a challenge to all. This is a complete denial of humanity, the overthrow of faith and traditional values. Indeed, the suppression of freedom itself has taken on the features of a religion: outright Satanism.”

100% correct. We are feeling it on our own skins right now.

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 8:57 am

This is an experimental vaccine, it should never have been released.
As with all vaccines, there are complications.
Myocarditis is never mild.

When heart cells die, they are never replaced.
Long term consequences care unpredictable
https://www.tpdrsl.org/images/video/11th%20June%202021%20Dr%20Roger%20Hodkinson.mp4

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2022 8:58 am

Has anyone told Tickler he is talking to himself on the dead fred?

I was going to.

But then I didn’t.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 8:58 am

Yes Tom, the Guardian and the Age from the left.
I mean, really, the Guardian.
The Herald Sun, not so much.

Johnny Rotten
October 1, 2022 8:58 am

West’s Desperate Play for War – Blowing Up The Pipelines

From Martin Armstrong –

“The sabotage of the Nord Stream Pipelines was most likely accomplished with US intelligence. Not only is the Biden Administration intent on ending fossil fuels, but this was a strategic maneuver on how to wage war. Just as adversaries would counterfeit each other’s currencies in a desperate measure to undermine their economy to strip them of the ability to fund the war, blowing up these pipelines was a deliberate blow to inflict a death blow to the Russian economy they believe they have Putin on the ropes. Ending Russia’s #1 income, energy, they believe will undermine Putin and lead to a domestic revolution. The problem for the Russian people is that the West will NEVER accept Russia as an equal member. They indeed want to kill the bear completely.

Naturally, there are those claiming Russia blew up the pipelines. Just before this sabotage, Putin said to lift the sanctions and he will return the gas flow as reported on September 7th, 2022. There was NO POSSIBLE WAY that Putin sabotages those pipelines for that was his bargaining chip. That is now gone. He cannot now say lift the sanctions and I will turn on the gas. This was done by the climate zealots who have control of most Western governments. To even blame Russia is in reality proof that they know that this was a strategic play by the West most likely carried out with US intelligence.

The Minsk Agreement brokered by Germany and France was to allow the Donbas to vote on their separation from Ukraine. The West has totally renigged on all of that and this is intentional for the objective here is this Great Reset and the end of fossil fuels. Khruschev grew up there in the Donbas and was in charge of Kiev rebuilding it after World War II before he rose to the leadership of Russia. His successor was Brezhnev who was also born there in the Donbas. This has been occupied by the Russian people since the days of the Tsars. The border of Ukraine was NEVER Ukraine as a nation state. It was Drawn solely by Khruschev for administrative purposes. The Donbas and Crimea were always predominantly Russian

The West simply refuses to recognize that the people in that region are Russian and would naturally vote to join Russia for they are hated by the Ukrainians. In 2014, it was the West that installed a “temporary” government in Ukraine which was UNELECTED and they immediately upon orders from the USA, launched a civil war and attacked the Donbas.

This is so unnecessary and I cannot imagine any world leader before Biden would have DELIBERATELY set the stage for war with Russia. The problem is, Biden is not mentally competent. The climate zealots are running the White House. All they care about is destroying the world’s capacity to produce and utilize fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, our computer has NEVER been wrong on these major trends. It is the ONLY unbiased means of seeing the future for it is not based upon any human opinion for that is all any analyst has at his disposal right now. There is no question that these climate change zealots are out of control. They will kill more people than Marx could ever have imagined. World War III is materializing if we like it or not. We so desperately need a political revolution and vote these people out of their offices to overthrow all of these climate zealots controlling world leaders from behind the teleprompters to even hope to reduce the amplitude of what is on the horizon.

I have met and advised many world leaders. NEVER in my 40-year career have I EVER witnessed such an absurd group of world leaders who are just hurling the world into a major global war all over fossil fuels. There are no peacemakers. Like Biden, all they are doing is reading the word written by someone else. Biden is incompetent and will lead the world into disaster and the real sad part about it, he is clueless as to the risks he is putting the entire population of the world in over fossil fuels.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/geopolitical/wests-desperate-play-for-war-blowing-up-the-pipelines/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 9:03 am

Tom, presumably Cuddly and Nein have extracted whatever value they can from the reminder of the Fauxfacts corpse and are waiting till the liquidation cost can be absorbed.

Makka
Makka
October 1, 2022 9:03 am

Putin’s invasion was a peace orientated humanitarian mission of diplomacy.

You are quite comfortable then with the western backed puppet Ukraine regime murdering and brutalizing of millions of ethnic Russians within Ukraine’s own borders.

You shouldn’t underestimate the patriotism of Russians for their country. And it’s foolish to want Putin gone. His successor(s) won’t be nearly as predictable to deal with.

Grow up dotty. The “west” was great once. But no more.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 9:04 am

KD

China was a different place until Xi came along. It’s not fair, I think , to compare this China with the old forgetting the size of the economy. It was a relatively more decent place. And China actually respected us as we were the first western nation to recognise them.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 1, 2022 9:06 am

It’s just ticked over midnight in the UK.
I wonder if the curtain is coming down on the Daily Exposé.
The 30th was the last opportunity to save it.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2022 9:06 am

ALP dilemma: what to do with jailed terrorists

exclusive
Cameron Stewart
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
@camstewarttheoz
10:00PM September 30, 2022
43 Comments

A record 21 convicted terrorists are due for release in the next five years as pressure grows on the ­Albanese government to decide whether it will keep the power to extend jail terms for some.

The government faces a ­dilemma over what it describes as “exceptional powers” to keep convicted terrorists in jail after serving their sentence if they are still deemed a danger to society.

A review of the law is expected to be completed within months at a time when some of the country’s most notorious terrorists are due for release. The debate has pitted intelligence and law-enforcement agencies against human rights advocates, forcing the government to choose between public safety and individual rights.

Australia’s best-known terrorist, Nacer Benbrika, has already had his 15-year jail term extended by three years under the 2016 laws known as continuing detention orders.

The laws, brought in at the height of Islamic State-inspired terror attacks in Australia, are controversial because they are the only post-sentence detention scheme for terrorists in the Western world. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus would not say if the government would retain the CDO powers introduced by its Coalition predecessor.

“The Australian government assesses terrorist offenders on a case-by-case basis to determine the risk they pose to the community at the end of their sentence,” Mr Dreyfus said.

“If there is an unacceptable risk to the community, the government acts to manage that risk.”

Mr Dreyfus said the government would respond to the review by the Independent National ­Security Legislation Monitor, Grant Donaldson, once it had been completed.

ASIO, the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Home Affairs have strongly warned against repealing CDOs, saying that the threat to public safety could be too great if a radicalised prisoner is released.

ASIO specifically mentions the case of Usman Khan, a two-time terrorist who was shot dead after killing two people on London Bridge in 2019 just one year after serving eight years for another terror offence. “The experiences of our United Kingdom partners demonstrate that released terrorist offenders can be a serious threat to the community,” ASIO told Mr Donaldson.

Groups such as the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Islamic Council of Victoria and legal experts say the laws are grossly unfair, saying it is impossible to accurately assess what threat a convicted terrorist might still pose upon release.

Greg Barns, national criminal justice spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said: “The idea that a court can assess where someone is along the radicalisation scale is, I think, fairly ­problematic. I mean how do we know? Where is the line to say it’s okay to hold that belief but not that belief?”

Mr Donaldson has said he hopes to complete his review by the end of year. In an interview with The Weekend Australian Magazine, he described the detention laws as highly unusual.

“It is a very unusual thing and in my view a very new phenomenon that people can be kept in detention after they have served their sentence,” he said.

“That is not something that has traditionally happened in the law and in this country it wasn’t really until the dangerous sexual offender legislation in Queensland (in 2003) that these sorts of regimes existed at all.’

In Australia, no-one has been convicted of terrorism offences twice, although convicted terrorists Khalid Sharrouf, Amer Haddara and Ezzit Raad each spent time in jail before leaving Australia to join Islamic State.

Convicted terrorists due for release in the next five years are: Faheem Lodhi, sentenced in 2006 for plotting to bomb the electricity grid and defence facilities in Sydney; Robert Cerantonio, one of the “tinnie terrorists”; and Wissam Fattal, Saney Aweys and Nayef El-Sayed, jailed for plotting a mass murder attack on Holsworthy army base in 2009.

I have oft heard of Jedburgh Law..

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2022 9:07 am

You are quite comfortable then with the western backed puppet Ukraine regime murdering and brutalizing of millions of ethnic Russians within Ukraine’s own borders.

That never happened.

Russia inserted special forces into areas it wanted and has waged a covert war ever since with fake leaders and fake elections.

You need to grow up, not me.

“The west!”

Irrelevant.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 9:08 am

Was Hitler justified in taking takeover Sudetenland in 38 then? Okay.

struth
struth
October 1, 2022 9:08 am

JC.
Be careful. …giving away information like that and you could dox yourself.
And you know how you and Sancho of the slip lane fear that.
Like school girls, yez are.

I’d like to continue the trucks versus train thing….but ol’ choo choo jabbed himself to death rather than face an un unionized work place.
Dover, if arguing points which require pointing out the mental breakdown of all denialists….that is obviously not feuding….as I have nothing against anyone in particular. …I just use certain fuckwits as examples as they arise. So making points regarding the obvious mental and conviction ….and moral deficiencies in others as a way to point out how these affect our nation and everyone in it must be done on this thread.
For example. ..notafan.
Completely disgusting behavior which has consequences for all that needs pointing out
There is no “feud” there.

Crossie
Crossie
October 1, 2022 9:09 am

The CPAC is opening with a smoking ceremony. Sorry, but no go. They have just smoked their legitimacy.

Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 9:10 am

100% correct. We are feeling it on our own skins right now.

Putin is a whited sepulchre.

Yet another narcissistic adulterer who ditched his wife to take up with his girlfriend and who has shamelessly stolen from the Russian people since his time as a city official in St. Petersburg.

At least Hawke never tried to conceal his true nature with a cloak of Christian piety.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2022 9:10 am

Serious question.

What’s the market share Optus has at present?

I ask because in the NT you’re held to Telstra, because they’re the only ones with the infrastructure and range to cover the vast distances involved. Nobody, and I mean nobody has anything else.

On a related note, I saw the Optus CEO moaning for a number of reasons. One of those reasons was apparently that she didn’t get any notice of the ‘event’ because she doesn’t turn her phone on before 8.30 a.m.

If the CEO of a company the size of Optus only has her phone on during business hours, then perhaps her salary should be cut by 66%. Surely it’s a 24 hour gig, if only for the shareholders’ comfort.

I will guarantee she picked that little chestnut out of a management seminar, nestled in between the butcher’s paper, whiteboard markers and different coloured hats.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 9:13 am

Stuthid

Take your gripes to the duel thread. Your stupid shit doesn’t belong here, you bozo.

Top Ender
Top Ender
October 1, 2022 9:15 am

Rosslyn Chapel is worth a visit up near Hadrian’s Wall.

Used in that very silly movie The Da Vinci Code, and usually has too many tourists there, but very interesting architecture.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 9:15 am

He probably was JC.
Dictators gotta dictate.

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 9:15 am

Crossiesays:

October 1, 2022 at 9:09 am

The CPAC is opening with a smoking ceremony. Sorry, but no go. They have just smoked their legitimacy.

Really!

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2022 9:16 am

So making points regarding the obvious mental and conviction ….and moral deficiencies in others as a way to point out how these affect our nation and everyone in it must be done on this thread.

Worked up the courage to go interstate yet? How’s Big Corporate treating you?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2022 9:16 am

Yes, yes, I know.

Duelling thread.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 9:19 am

Interesting, just back from the Baker’s Delight delivery round, Stuphid tells Dover who’s boss.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 9:19 am

Yes Calli, great reading.
I’m going to book my trip at the end of this week.
Throwing caution to the wind, again.
I’m just going to pack an extra warm jumper.

Indolent
Indolent
October 1, 2022 9:20 am

Bill Gates says political polarization ‘may bring it all to an end’ and could even lead to a civil war

Yes, we can’t possibly have people making their own decisions and going their own way.

Crossie
Crossie
October 1, 2022 9:20 am

Bespoke, I turned on ADH who are live-streaming it and there they were painted and chanting.

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2022 9:21 am

Australia’s best-known terrorist, Nacer Benbrika, has already had his 15-year jail term extended by three years under the 2016 laws known as continuing detention orders.

How about we just have longer gaol terms?* I am not comfortable at all with CDOs and the like.

Benbrika? I thought Hicks or Monis were more infamous…?

*Arguably, CP.

Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 9:22 am

“It is a very unusual thing and in my view a very new phenomenon that people can be kept in detention after they have served their sentence,” he said.

Let’s look at it from another angle.

Given the nature of the criminal acts they plotted, their sentences were manifestly inadequate, both in regard to the satisfaction of justice and the protection of the community.

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 9:22 am

Was Hitler justified in taking takeover Sudetenland in 38 then?

Yep.
It had been known as Germany for a thousand years until the Versailles “Peace” Conference of 1919.

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 9:22 am

Hasn’t Bill Gates been convicted by the Indian Bar Association and thrown into prison?

rosie
rosie
October 1, 2022 9:23 am

Benbricka continues to be far more influential.

Ed Case
Ed Case
October 1, 2022 9:24 am

Given the nature of the criminal acts they plotted, their sentences were manifestly inadequate, both in regard to the satisfaction of justice and the protection of the community.

They were low IQ fools duped into fake plots by undercover Spooks.
The FBI are masters at it, but our Spooks wrote the book.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2022 9:24 am

It had been known as Germany for a thousand years until the Versailles “Peace” Conference of 1919.

I. Thought. This. Had. Been. Covered.

Germany began its existence in 1871, you magnificent poltroon. in 919 it was a mishmash of principalities and duchies calling itself the Holy Roman Empire.

Indolent
Indolent
October 1, 2022 9:24 am
Boambee John
Boambee John
October 1, 2022 9:30 am

Ed Casesays:
October 1, 2022 at 9:22 am
Was Hitler justified in taking takeover Sudetenland in 38 then?

Yep.
It had been known as Germany for a thousand years until the Versailles “Peace” Conference of 1919.

Germany was a bunch of separate states until unified under Prussia in 1871.

Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 9:32 am

I saw the Optus CEO moaning for a number of reasons. One of those reasons was apparently that she didn’t get any notice of the ‘event’ because she doesn’t turn her phone on before 8.30 a.m.

As bad as that is, what’s even worse is that it shouldn’t have made a crucial difference.

They should have had a plan nutted out to the last detail about how such an event would be handled – who would oversee contacting the banks, the customers, and finally the media.

That plan should have been actioned as soon as the breach was discovered. The CEO could have handled the media when she turned up to work.

Boambee John
Boambee John
October 1, 2022 9:32 am

KD

Snap.

Indolent
Indolent
October 1, 2022 9:33 am

Apparently “democracy” now means doing what you’re told.

Joe Biden Warns that Democracy Is Threatened by Italy’s Election of Giorgia Meloni

Pogria
Pogria
October 1, 2022 9:33 am
Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 9:33 am

It had been known as Germany for a thousand years until the Versailles “Peace” Conference of 1919.

This will come as news to the Germans.

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 9:37 am

Cheers, Crossie.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 9:38 am

That’s interesting, Head. That’s because every single European country would have an ethnic border dispute. Case in point. A side of my mother’s family hailed from Nice or around that area and there was a political cleansing around 1860s or so. That whole southern region of France belonged to the Genoan Republic.

cohenite
October 1, 2022 9:38 am

In Australia, no-one has been convicted of terrorism offences twice, although convicted terrorists Khalid Sharrouf, Amer Haddara and Ezzit Raad each spent time in jail before leaving Australia to join Islamic State.

That sounds like a double conviction to me.

Makka
Makka
October 1, 2022 9:43 am

That never happened.

Sure. CNN says Ukraine is blameless, innocent. Fking juvenile.

Was Hitler justified in taking takeover Sudetenland in 38 then? Okay.

Lol, the Hitler comparison.Pretty lame. The Allies hoovered up as many Nazi’s as they could post-war. Nazi industrialists were quickly and sympathetically supported from genocide manufacturing to vee dubs and soap etc. All is forgotten and forgiven apparently for the dollars and grift. Much the same as when the US fell over themselves supporting the Bolsheviks after and while they were murdering their millions of victims. So you can stfu about western moralistic bs when it comes to Realpolitik and a dollar. Btw- the 3 million German ethnic people of Sudentenland and then Austria welcomed the Nazis with open arms. Hardly an invasion, more a homecoming. Back then. That’s an observation of that period so don’t twist it into Hitlerite support. It’s not.

The “west” has no business at all getting involved in old dead Soviet satellite/Russia internal business. Mainly because our current western leaders are greedy, power mad , corrupt and perverse fucking morons and all they will achieve for us all is a disaster (s) of so called “unintended consequences” – like a wayward nuke and economic disaster. So, I’ll not be joining the “west” cheer squad.

shatterzzz
October 1, 2022 9:44 am

At least Hawke never tried to conceal his true nature with a cloak of Christian piety.

Hawke, apparently, didn’t need to .. from what I’m reading the media and the “pardy” ran a full cover-up job for him ……

struth
struth
October 1, 2022 9:46 am

Pointing out the moral and mental deficiencies of some denialists is not feuding.
It’s a very important subject that must be discussed.
That they be offended is not feuding.
You no longer have an open thread.

Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 9:47 am

Apparently “democracy” now means doing what you’re told.

Joe Biden Warns that Democracy Is Threatened by Italy’s Election of Giorgia Meloni

Joe Biden is about as popular as a beef steak at a poojah in the US atm.

That’s why his rhetoric concerning his enemies, even those abroad, is being inflated to absurd levels.

His balloon bursts come November.

2dogs
2dogs
October 1, 2022 9:48 am

Germany began its existence in 1871, you magnificent poltroon. in 919 it was a mishmash of principalities and duchies calling itself the Holy Roman Empire.

The unifications of 1871 are what ultimately gave rise to both Nazism and Fascism.

cohenite
October 1, 2022 9:49 am

bespokesays:
October 1, 2022 at 5:55 am
‘A beautiful thing!’ WATCH Greg Gutfeld’s response to Joy Behar RAGING at him for mocking the ‘church’ of climate change (video)

Gutfeld and Watters are the best thing on cable right now.

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 9:49 am

Hi Charlie

You have been missed.

P
P
October 1, 2022 9:49 am

BIDEN TO PUTIN: “America is fully prepared with our NATO allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory, every single inch. Mr. Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Every inch.”
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1575921900982718465

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 9:50 am

Lol, the Hitler comparison.Pretty lame.

Really, you think it’s lame? Actually, you find it hard to find a better comparison in roughlu the same region.

The Allies hoovered up as many Nazi’s as they could post-war. Nazi industrialists were quickly and sympathetically supported from genocide manufacturing to vee dubs and soap etc. All is forgotten and forgiven apparently for the dollars and grift.

And what does have to do with the comparison I raised. It’s a whole different ballgame.

Much the same as when the US fell over themselves supporting the Bolsheviks after and while they were murdering their millions of victims.

And that’s relevant because?

So you can stfu about western moralistic bs when it comes to Realpolitik and a dollar. Btw- the 3 million German ethnic people of Sudentenland and then Austria welcomed the Nazis with open arms. Hardly an invasion, more a homecoming. Back then. That’s an observation of that period so don’t twist it into Hitlerite support. It’s not.

The “west”

Oh, I should stfu about this because the West has acted duplicitously at times.

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 9:51 am

Gutfeld yes but Watters is a creep.

Perfidious Albino
Perfidious Albino
October 1, 2022 9:51 am

There appears to be a significant intersection of champagne socialist grifter interests at the western bulldogs AFL club.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
October 1, 2022 9:53 am

On the coffee thing. I have 1 very strong coffee at 6am to kick start the brain. No sugar. If I have any more even later in the day I get heart palpitations.

Makka
Makka
October 1, 2022 9:54 am

Apologies, I left out incompetent;

Mainly because our current western leaders are incompetent , greedy, power mad , corrupt and perverse fucking morons and all they will achieve for us all is a disaster (s) of so called “unintended consequences” – like a wayward nuke and economic disaster.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 9:55 am

I’m sorry our leadership doesn’t measure up to your exacting standards, Makka. 🙂

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2022 9:55 am

6 to 36 months, till you-know-what.

Apparently.

The internet is forever.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 1, 2022 9:58 am

So making points regarding the obvious mental and conviction ….and moral deficiencies in others as a way to point out how these affect our nation and everyone in it must be done on this thread.

Must be?
For someone who doesn’t own shares in Flash-Cat Inc, you’re getting a bit mouthy, don’t you think?

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 10:01 am

Around 2007ish or so, Volkswagen bought Porsche. It’s now about to IPO’ed or has been. The sale is very close. What is the point of all this?

bespoke
bespoke
October 1, 2022 10:04 am
Crossie
Crossie
October 1, 2022 10:04 am

I went back to ADH’s live-streaming of CPAC and after making the opening speech Jacinta Price joined Warren Mundine and prof Dillon on a panel. It was explained that the opening act was just a performance of Aboriginal dance. Performing a dance – good, welcome to country – not good.

Makka
Makka
October 1, 2022 10:04 am

Really, you think it’s lame?

It’s absurdly lame. It’s ludicrous to equate a near century old regime that was enacting a policy of industrial genocide through conquest with modern Russia. Get a grip. You sound like Biden.

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 10:05 am

Struth is very disappointed in you lot.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2022 10:06 am

Bloody hell.

Skah’s running a piece on the Hurricane Ian cleanup.

Reporterette speaking to an elderly, pastel colour-clad gent on a boat. Sparkling azure water. Clear blue sky.

The bloke says he’d never seen anything like it, except for when he was in Vietnam in 68-69.

Roger
Roger
October 1, 2022 10:07 am

Hawke, apparently, didn’t need to .. from what I’m reading the media and the “pardy” ran a full cover-up job for him ……

Neither does Putin, which only makes his cooption of the Russian church more cynical.

flyingduk
flyingduk
October 1, 2022 10:07 am

Yea. I dunno how anyone can drink either coffee or tea with sugar. The thought of it makes me gag. It only takes a few weeks to train your, but I guess some can’t do it.

I tried to give up sugar in coffee for years, to no avail, until I went down the ‘carbs are killers’ rabbit hole. Then, like a smoker who finally, really, genuinely wants to give up, I simply stopped doing it and have not missed it.

JC
JC
October 1, 2022 10:08 am

It’s absurdly lame. It’s ludicrous to equate a near century old regime that was enacting a policy of industrial genocide through conquest with modern Russia. Get a grip. You sound like Biden.

Correct me, but Germany wasn’t “genociding” in 38.

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2022 10:08 am

Reporterette speaking to an elderly, pastel colour-clad gent on a boat. Sparkling azure water. Clear blue sky.

Probably a retired Jewish dentist from Noo Yawk. Two tone Rolex sub?

1 2 3 10
  1. Most of my words seem to have disappeared. If those “public education” campaigns ever stop, FTA TV would disappear within…

  2. profligate spending of taxpayer funds on ‘public education’ campaigns (see the covidiocy),If those “public education” campaigns ever stopped, FTA TV…

2K
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x