Open Thread – Weekend 10 Dec 2022


The Pont de Arts and the Institut de France, August Renoir, 1867


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Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 12:55 pm
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 12, 2022 12:55 pm

establish. please excuse additional fingers. I have six fingers on each hand sometimees. 🙂

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
December 12, 2022 12:58 pm

From Courier Mail :
Covid vaccine mandate revoked for Queensland police
Queensland police will no longer be made to get the Covid vaccine after the direction was revoked this morning”

Only 9 months after SA Police dropped their mandate.

What is strange is that the police mandate case ended in June and result still unknown. Should have been a fairly straightforward decision since the judge had said was not going to comment on efficacy of the vaccine. I find the length of time to issue the judgement odd to say the least.

No comments allowed on the article.

Cassie of Sydney
December 12, 2022 1:09 pm

“It was question as to whether Paul Murray’s very public atheism coloured his commentary on the Pell matter. I think that’s a valid question, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked it. Why did people of various persuausions regard Pell as guilty when the evidence presented was so weak?”

It was the ideological zeitgeist…..

Pell, male, Catholic, Christian, conservative = guilty

In 2022 we now have Lehrmann = male, white, once worked for a Liberal minister = guilty

As for Paul Murray, he’s a fair-weather moron, a man singularly lacking in any substance. He goes with whatever way the wind is blowing, be it with Pell, vaccination and lockdowns.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 12, 2022 1:14 pm

Because they desperately wanted him to be guilty.

A lot of that going around.

EXCLUSIVE: Scott Morrison did ‘everything he could’ to force former MP to resign (Sky News, 12 Dec)

Former Liberal MP Dr Andrew Laming says the up-skirting incident being proved false was the “last thing” Scott Morrison wanted because it would call into question the former prime minister’s “judgement”. … “To prevent me doing anything for the party, to do everything he could to get me to resign, from committee chairs, to not do further inquiries.”

ABC journalist Louise Milligan still has not apologised for defamatory tweets about Dr Laming regarding the incident. “The last thing he (Scott Morrison) wanted was Louise Milligan apologising.”

Typical of ScoMo. And someone is eventually going to get past the amazing protection Milligan has and will take her to the financial cleaners. We can hope so anyway.

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 1:20 pm

Globalist bug plans hidden in government livestock agenda
Malcolm Roberts
Meat and Livestock Australia is meant to fight for cattle producers in Australia, making sure there’s plenty of cheap red meat available for Australians and the world.

Instead, they are “aligning” themselves with the “sustainable development” goals of the United Nations. This is the same United Nations whose goals will result in less cattle, less meat and more bugs being eaten.

You have to ask why the industry body for livestock isn’t standing against organisations that want to see livestock reduced.

rosie
rosie
December 12, 2022 1:23 pm

That is completely wrong about porn by the way Monty, I don’t normally see it with the people I follow but I looked at a #Trump tag and the thread was riddled with very explicit porn.

Robert Sewell
December 12, 2022 1:24 pm

sfw:

I reckon he wants more than he can really afford.

Or the whole story is just bullshit.

Bar Beach Swimmer
December 12, 2022 1:25 pm

there’s certainly a debate to be had about how our philosophical presuppositions influence our thinking, because they clearly do

Quine’s web of belief shows the way we construct a belief system with the stronger, central beliefs at the core of the web. Those central beliefs are harder to discard because they hold up everything else.

For example, the atheist may say, if God does not exist then that those who would follow after God are wasting their time and resources. Now, they may also accept that to do so is harmless to others, may even help others through the social support agencies of most religions, or may be like having a weird type of pass time or hobby. But nothing to be really concerned about – just, “poor, misguided fools.”

But when some of the exponents of a religion have betrayed the trust of others, especially children, the belief system itself comes into question: how could you be a believer in that; follow that?

The few miscreants, with help from the already biased opinion of others, damage the standing of everyone, even the real saintliness of some. The media, especially if the case is really high profile, further push that line. And, finally, no matter that the person has been found innocent. They’re still guilty underneath.

How can someone, who is sincere in their own belief, whatever that is, throw over their core position? It would be admitting that everything they’ve ever thought was wrong. And people don’t like to be wrong. When they’re shown to be wrong they tend to get angry.

One person I know, when Cardinal Pell was before the HC, was rushing home to see him confirmed as guilty. When I said that the evidence was contrived and suspect, and was surprised when, for example, I quickly pointed out that the complainant had got the wine wrong in his testimony and the layout of the priest’s room, she said she hadn’t heard any of that. Surprisingly (not) she never said anything to me when the Cardinal was exonerated.

An ABC watcher, through and through. Itself, in the midst of its own web of belief.

https://sci-tech-philosophy.blogspot.com/p/web-of-beliefs.html

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 12, 2022 1:29 pm

Novated leases and electric cars (EVs)

The Australian Federal Government passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (Electric Car Discount) Bill 2022 in December 2022. The changes are back-dated to 1 July 2022.

Essentially this means EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) under $84,916 financed through a novated lease will pay ZERO fringe benefits tax.

This represents a massive and unprecedented saving for people like you. In fact, PHEVs and EVs will generally be cheaper to novated lease, even compared with paying cash up front. (This is possible because marginal tax rates are generally a lot higher than interest rates.)

If you’ve been sitting on the fence regarding buying an EV or plug-in hybrid, and uncertain about whether to proceed because of the significantly elevated purchase price of these vehicles, the goalposts just moved – a long way.

Essentially the new legislation means the cost of ownership, in terms of the impact to your take-home pay, of an EV like a Hyundai Kona Electric or Tesla Model 3 (ie, EVs costing $60-something thousand dollars) is now about the same as the cost of owning a $35k Toyota Corolla – provided you own them under a novated lease.

EVs eligible for this FBT exemption include the Tesla Model 3, BYD Atto 3 (incl. the extended range version), MG ZS EV, Nissan Leaf (incl. e+), Hyundai Kona Electric, MINI Cooper EV, and Polestar 2.

Remember, the FBT concession is available on new and used EVs and PHEVs that were first delivered after 1 July 2022. This means: If you start a novated lease on a used EV from a dealer or private seller, and that vehicle was first delivered prior to 1 July 2022, the vehicle will be ineligible for the FBT concession.

Robert Sewell
December 12, 2022 1:31 pm

Calli:

Robin Hood Men in Tights,

The Marty Feldman scene where he falls out of the tree, picks himself up “I can see! I can see!” then walks into the base of the tree, “Oh no. No I can’t.” is the funniest line and the best executed 30 seconds in cinematic history.
Far better than “Infamy, Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 12, 2022 1:34 pm

“In Danger Of Failing Due To Financing”, Green Energy Costs
Germany’s Krupp Mannesmann Steel Mill “In Danger Of Failing Due To Financing”, Green Energy Costs

By P Gosselin on 11. December 2022

Major German steel plant threatened with closure due to green energies transition…

German site pleiteticker.de here reports on one of the latest victim’s of the green energy’s debacle in Germany as the fourth-largest steel producer is now seriously threatened with closure.

Much of Germany’s industrial bas been hard hit by the skyrocketing energy prices that have resulted from the country’s move to green energies, like sun and wind, and away from nuclear power and fossil fuels.

“3100 jobs are now in acute danger, reports opleiteticker.de. “The planned conversion to climate-neutral steel production at Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) in Duisburg is in danger of failing due to financing, according to IG Metall. IG Metall is Germany’s powerful industrial and engineering trade union, representing more than 2 million workers nationwide.

“That would be the end of Germany’s second-largest steel mill,” the IG Metall reported Thursday in Frankfurt am Main.

Pleiteticker calls the recent development “a brewing tragedy”.

HKM aims to replace its two blast furnaces in the years 2025 to 2045 so that they will gradually use more and more climate-neutral hydrogen. However, the cost-effectiveness is proving questionable.

“But this project is now bringing the historic plant to the brink of extinction,” writes pleiteticker.de. “The site has a shortfall of a good two billion euros,” and it “will no longer be competitive after 2030, according to IG Metall and the Works Council.”

If the plant were to be shuttered, production would likely be moved offshore to a location where energy is cheaper and environmental regulations lax.

It would also mean another major blow to Germany as a place for industry. Thanks to the climate madness.

Frank
Frank
December 12, 2022 1:37 pm

Yoel Roth: “let’s open up a minors section on Grindr so the kids can join in”.*

Fatman: “wait, there’s room for nuance there”.

*mentored

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 12, 2022 1:38 pm

Former Synergy chief engineer fears for summer power supplies in Perth and southern WA

On a warmish evening across Perth and southern Western Australia at the end of last month, Andy Wearmouth was fretting while just about everybody else was blissfully ignorant.

That evening, the body that runs WA’s biggest and most important electricity system called on a few diesel-fuelled generators to fire up and feed some power into the grid.

Mr Wearmouth, who until 2017 was the chief engineer of state-owned power provider Synergy, said the implications of “dispatching” such back-up diesel plants were clear.

“That says you’re pretty much at the end,” Mr Wearmouth said.

“There wasn’t a lot [of generating capacity] left.

“The situation is not pretty. And we haven’t really gone into the hottest part of summer.”

Will the lights stay on over summer?

Amid forecasts of a hotter-than-average summer across WA’s south, fears are growing about the health of the state’s main power system and whether the lights will stay on over the coming months.

Mr Wearmouth acknowledged recent pressure on the system was being heightened by a series of outages that have hit some major, largely gas-fired plants.

But the 62-year-old said the signs were obvious that the grid was under stress amid the rapid decline of coal-fired power in the face of rising renewable energy output.

“I’m actually concerned,” he said.

“This is probably the most fragile I’ve seen the power system since probably the late 90s.

“The issue is that power systems are amazingly robust things, but they will only take so much.

“And there seems to be a real confluence of things happening at the moment.”

In June, the state announced it would close its two remaining coal-fired plants by 2029, leaving just one privately owned coal generator.

The decision came amid a deepening crisis in the coal hub of Collie, south of Perth, where one miner is in receivership and the other is struggling to stay afloat.

132andBush
132andBush
December 12, 2022 2:01 pm

There’s quite the zephyr blowing across the Wimmera/Mallee of Victoria today.

Robert Sewell
December 12, 2022 2:08 pm

Walli Dali:

The polite middle ground would be to place the cash so deep on the server’s side of the counter that they cannot avoid touching it- as soon as they do, a bright “There you go, keep the change!” and you’re away.

Drinkies the other night – as usual I had a cloth bag full of coins, plonk it on the bar and “Help yourself if you need it”.
“Oooh! The tills are a bit low, can I have some of that?”
$94 later, “The tills are full, now boss!”
Smiles all round.
Plenty where that came from.

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Drinkies the other night – as usual I had a cloth bag full of coins, plonk it on the bar and “Help yourself if you need it”.
“Oooh! The tills are a bit low, can I have some of that?”
$94 later, “The tills are full, now boss!”
Smiles all round.
Plenty where that came from.

A more & more common scene in towns where there are no branch banking services whatsoever

Mooka
Mooka
December 12, 2022 2:11 pm

My 18 year old daughter has just missed out on another job because she is unvaccinated.
God I hate these pricks.
She copped two years of shit at school as well as having to stand outside shops like a fucking leper while her friends went inside.
If I see any of the fuckwits behind this whole covid bullshit they are going to cop an earful from me.

alwaysright
alwaysright
December 12, 2022 2:14 pm

May the Schwartz be with you.

Robert Sewell
December 12, 2022 2:16 pm

Mater:

You evil clown. You can’t even recognise what lurks within your own consciousness.

“Insight” is not a word in the Montidicktionary.

m0nty
m0nty
December 12, 2022 2:16 pm

That is completely wrong about porn by the way Monty, I don’t normally see it with the people I follow but I looked at a #Trump tag and the thread was riddled with very explicit porn.

That would be spam, which is an overlapping problem. They have solved it for normal timelines but not quite for reply threads, it seems.

Lysander
Lysander
December 12, 2022 2:17 pm

Absolutely ridiculous that WA could have power shortages…

McClown guaranteed there’d be no power disruptions due to closure of Collie plant. That, and the NW Coast that has gazillions of tonnes of LNG….

… obviously not…

I wonder, and perhaps a Cat can help explain, are all of these people who are now plugging their Teslas into the power cord at home (via coal/LNG) causing a larger demand that the grid can’t provide?

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Card is okay when it is quiet. When the place is busy card quickly becomes a nightmare, slows things down no end.

Having had some really really bad experiences with what can go wrong with card/merchant terminals, I’ll always be somewhat wary of them.

m0nty
m0nty
December 12, 2022 2:19 pm

Zippy: “I search for gay porn all day”

Also Zippy: “hey why can’t I expose myself to random women”

Having a normal one.

Lysander
Lysander
December 12, 2022 2:20 pm

Thanks to CL for posting on his blog:

The Higgins saga was always about more than what happened, or didn’t happen, on a couch in a federal minister’s office in Parliament House on March 23, 2019. Potentially, this story is about how, in part, a federal election was won by Labor. Most definitely, it is also about a shocking breakdown in the relationship between the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, and the Australian Federal Police, which is responsible for policing services in the ACT. The two issues may not be unrelated.

The DPP’s call for an inquiry into the AFP may backfire. His letter to ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan complaining about the AFP was sent only after the trial was aborted, and Drumgold failed to secure a conviction. Drumgold’s letter was revealed by The Guardian, released under FOI laws, only after this newspaper exposed that senior AFP police did not believe Lehrmann should have been prosecuted.

There must be an inquiry into every aspect of this saga, including the DPP’s conduct and his claims against the AFP. An inquiry must also explore the conduct of ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates. And politics must not contaminate this inquiry. Too much is at stake. The questions that need answering go to the proper administration of justice in the ACT. Indeed, because an inquiry may traverse the role of members of the ACT government, the inquiry must be entirely independent from the ACT government.

This newspaper revealed the contents of an AFP executive briefing and diary notes that set out two reasons why a charge of sexual assault should not be laid against Lehrmann.

First, senior police believed there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Lehrmann. Second, AFP officers wrote that they “believe that Ms Higgins is at risk of self-harm should this matter progress to prosecution”.

Given these revelations instigated the airing of the DPP’s claims against the AFP, here are some questions that demand answers. The inquiry will want to ask Detective Superintendent Scott Moller, who oversaw the investigation into the alleged rape, what he meant when he recorded in a diary note, as revealed in this newspaper, that there was “too much political interference” in this saga. The inquiry will want to ask Moller what “political interference” means. What form did it take? How did it impede the investigation? Was there political interference to prosecute Lehrmann?

When the AFP received a call about an alleged sexual assault at Parliament House in 2019, there was a Liberal government in power federally, and an ACT Labor government. What followed speaks for itself. The Higgins claim was transformed into explosive ammunition for the federal Labor opposition, with its close links to the ACT Labor government, to prosecute the Morrison government.

There is no doubt the Higgins imbroglio played a significant role, especially in seats won by the so-called teal candidates, in convincing voters Scott Morrison had a problem with women. It’s true Morrison made his own errors, but the Higgins allegation – entirely untested then, and still unproven – was a factor. Australians are entitled to know if and how that vicious political maelstrom affected the AFP’s investigation of an alleged sexual assault.

The inquiry needs to explore why Moller’s name is on the summons to charge Lehrmann. The Australian understands it is most unusual for a police officer of Moller’s rank to sign a summons.

There are at least three levels of officers below Moller who, in normal cases, become the “informant” by signing the summons. There is a team of constables and senior constables, then a sergeant, as team leader, above them, and Detective Inspector Marcus Boorman above that sergeant. Yet none of them put their names to the charge sheet. Why not? Was it because they all believed there was insufficient evidence to charge Lehrmann? The inquiry will want to ask how often has Detective Superintendent Moller signed a charge sheet in his current senior role in the past? Has he ever done so? If not, why did he do so on this occasion? Was Moller pressured to charge Lehrmann? Moller’s own diary notes and executive briefings record his belief there was insufficient evidence. Did he, as the leader above these three levels of police, sign the summons to avoid his junior officers having to do something that they, and he, did not agree with?

Another question: why did the DPP not call Moller as a witness? It is normal practice for the informant to be called as a witness. After all, Moller provided a five-page police statement dated April 8, 2022 setting out his involvement in this investigation. Did the DPP fear Moller would reveal in court that he did not believe there was sufficient evidence and that senior AFP officers were concerned there was “too much political inference”?

Another question for the DPP to answer: what matters did the DPP address in his 12-page formal written response to the AFP dated June 21, 2021 when he indicated he had decided to prosecute Lehrmann contrary to the AFP’s belief there was insufficient evidence and AFP concerns about Higgins’s mental health? Did the DPP address the latter issue in that formal response? Did he suggest putting support in place for Higgins? If he did not address Higgins’s mental health, why not? Recall that during his press conference announcing he would not proceed with a second trial against Lehrmann, Drumgold gave as his reason that “the safety of a complainant in a sexual assault matter must be paramount”.

We also need answers from the DPP and the AFP concerning Drumgold’s claims that police handling this matter had direct contact with Lehrmann’s defence team during the trial.

Is the DPP suggesting there is something wrong with police responsible for an investigation speaking with the defence and prosecution lawyers? Is it not standard, and indeed important, practice that both sides have access to the police during an investigation and a trial?

In Deacon v ACT, ACT Supreme Court justice Terence Higgins held that it would be impeding the course of justice for a lawyer to instruct potential witnesses not to speak to the other side. Doesn’t that apply here?

Co-operation between the DPP’s office and the AFP is critical. If that relationship has broken down, it necessarily affects the administration of justice in the ACT. Is it the case the DPP did not have much contact with the AFP during the trial? If so, is that because the relationship between the DPP and the AFP had broken down?

Is the DPP, by inference from his claims about police conduct during the trial, suggesting Lehrmann’s defence team acted improperly? If so, Drumgold needs to lay out his allegations clearly, and in full. Lehrmann’s team, led by Steven Whybrow, is entitled to know what, if any, the allegations are, and to answer them, rather than be smeared by innuendo.

Another question for the DPP: was the release of the letter from the DPP to the AFP revealed by The Guardian last week a breach of legal professional privilege? The Australian has been contacted by senior lawyers in the ACT concerned that this is the case. It appears to also be in breach of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yet another question. When Drumgold was asked to respond to The Australian’s revelations that senior police did not believe there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Lehrmann, the DPP expressed concerns about the police handling of material that included Higgins’s private psychological counselling notes. The DPP complained that counselling notes were “unlawfully given” to Lehrmann’s previous lawyer. Is it true this same material was also sent to the DPP? Did the DPP access this material?

There are many other questions an inquiry must seek answers to. Perhaps we don’t need to wait for an inquiry. Mr Drumgold, over to you

.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 12, 2022 2:23 pm

Urban bugmen dissolve England as a nation state.
No votes needed.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/11/home-office-staff-call-for-unpalatable-small-boats-deal-to-be-scrapped

Home Office staff are rebelling against the government’s attempts to tackle small boats crossing the Channel, demanding its recent deal with the French be scrapped because it is “doomed to fail”.

A day after France announced it was increasing the number of rescue vessels in the Channel, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) has written to the home secretary, Suella Braverman, saying the only solution to the crisis is creating a safe passage visa that allows refugees a secure route to the UK.

What can be done when the people in charge of carrying out the policies seek to disable them at every turn?

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 2:24 pm

The ABC employed fake health experts to inflict fear – Senate Estimates 29.11.22
Senator Gerard Rennick
Some misinformation is more equal than others.

Bill Bowtell was paraded around by the ABC as a health expert early in the pandemic. It turns out he was a former Keating staffer and who had no medical qualifications whatsoever. He was awarded an honorary title adjunct professor which gave him an air of expertise but in reality it meant nothing.
He was employed by the notorious Kirby Institute which has a reputation for make dire predictions about viruses. Another of their acolytes, Raina McIntyre made a fool of herself in 2009 when she predicted 20,000 deaths from swine flu.

When Norman Swan blamed Covid for the deaths of Kimberley Kitching and Shane Warne there was little uproar from the establishment media.
Why would there be. Covid has been blamed on sorts of deaths. Kitching and Warne didn’t even have Covid when they died.

Heck, even the TGA have admitted that the PCR tests can’t even distinguish between live and dead virus but it’s still the gold standard for testing Covid. A false positive doesn’t stop the authorities from assigning Covid as the cause of death.

You’d think the ABC would uphold editorial standards and do more than make Norman Swan apologize. But hey, this is our ABC, responsible for some of the worst Covid fear mongering.

Of course had the foot been on the other shoe, and someone suggest the vaccine was responsible for their deaths there would have been outrage from the media.

It’s just another example of how bureaucrats and the media are not held to account.

sfw
sfw
December 12, 2022 2:25 pm

I like this Zephyr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fcRa5Z6LmU

We’ve got roaring gales and heavy rain intermixed with sunny breaks in NE Vic.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 12, 2022 2:26 pm

m0ntysays:
December 12, 2022 at 9:11 am
My point, rosie, is that Musk labelling Roth as a rock spider is not supported by any evidence, particularly not the quote from Rory’s PhD thesis where he is speculating about how to prevent rock spiders from preying on kids.

Yoel Roth’s Past Tweets Go From Bad to Worse

The more we learn about Roth, the worse things look. A collection of his past tweets have been dredged up, and they are disturbing, to say the least. Remember, this was the guy in charge of regulating speech on the nation’s most politically important social media site.

Here are a few examples with a touch of commentary added.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but it’s pretty clear why Twitter had such a grotesque culture under Roth’s leadership, and I’m obviously not talking about the existence of differing political opinions and rhetoric. This guy seems to be absolutely obsessed with pornography, and his multiple mentions of children and sex are concerning at best. Maybe he was just playing through hypotheticals for academic reasons, but I don’t think that’s something most people ponder.

Are there no standards in the corporate world anymore? Was no one who vetted and hired him given pause by his history? Call me old-fashioned, but if I’m looking for someone to provide mature, effective leadership at a major company, people who publicly brag about their porn addictions and write dissertations on Grindr are gonna be disqualified.

Does emotional intelligence not even factor in anymore?

It’s surreal to look at the things society brushes aside these days compared to what is considered “controversial.” Public proclamations about looking for porn on Craigslist? No one bats an eye. Mentions that you believe in traditional marriage or are against transitioned children, though, and the wailing and gnashing of teeth commence.

Zyconoclast
Zyconoclast
December 12, 2022 2:27 pm
rosie
rosie
December 12, 2022 2:27 pm

Well obviously Monty but my point that people are unwillingly exposed to porn on twitter stands, does it not?

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
December 12, 2022 2:30 pm

Following on from the Courier Mail article about Qld police mandates.

I checked and they have now cancelled their requirement for police recruits to be triple jabbed.

Any business still mandating vaccines should be ashamed of themselves and boycotted. Woolies cancelled theirs a few weeks ago after some publicity by Rowan Dean on Sky who interviewed one of their staff. Anybody know what Coles doing now ?

Mookasays:
December 12, 2022 at 2:11 pm
My 18 year old daughter has just missed out on another job because she is unvaccinated.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 2:36 pm

Expensive Picasso artwork on sale again. Money must be short.

This Hunter Biden painting is selling for the price of a house.

The most expensive artwork at the first son’s new SoHo show is priced at $225,000 — and already has two interested buyers, The Post has learned.

NY Post.

Johnny Rotten
December 12, 2022 2:37 pm

A blonde redneck guy finds a lamp. He rubs it and a Genie emerges. The Genie tells him he will be granted three wishes. The Guy thinks for a moment and says “First, give me a bottomless mug of beer”. A mug of beer appears in his hand. He sips it once, then again and the mug is magically refilled. The Guy is thrilled and continues to drink. The mug never empties. Then the Genie says “And what about your other two wishes?” The guy thinks for a moment and says “Give me two more just like this one!”

All this feminist bullshit about men having all the power… power comes from the socket, not the plug…!

An Aussie, a little man, was sitting at a bar in Sydney when this huge, burly American guy walks in. As he passes the Aussie, he hits him on the neck knocking him to the floor. The big, burly Yank says “That’s a karate chop from Korea”. Well, the Aussie gets back on his barstool and resumes drinking his beer. The burly Yank then gets up to go to the bathroom and, as he walks by the Aussie, he hits him on the other side of the neck and knocks him to the floor. “That’s a judo chop from Japan” he says. The Aussie decides he’s had enough and leaves. A half hour later he comes back and sees the burly Yank bastard sitting at the bar. He walks up behind him and smacks him on the head, knocking him out. The Aussie says to the bartender “When he wakes up mate, tell him that was a fuckin’ crowbar from Bunnings”.

m0nty
m0nty
December 12, 2022 2:38 pm

Well obviously Monty but my point that people are unwillingly exposed to porn on twitter stands, does it not?

I remain unconvinced that (a) it was so terrible before Musk got there and (b) it improved after Musk bought it and fired most of the content moderation staff. Jack Dorsey basically called Musk a liar on point (a), and there is no logic behind anyone pushing point (b).

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 2:39 pm

Oh of course

The White House has said that measures have been put in place to prevent any ethical concerns over potential buyers who might want to buy the work to curry favor with President Biden.

Johnny Rotten
December 12, 2022 2:40 pm

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

– Herbie Hancock

flyingduk
flyingduk
December 12, 2022 2:41 pm

There’s quite the zephyr blowing across the Wimmera/Mallee of Victoria today.

And I am pleased to say I got the remaining 4mm I wanted to clock up 700mm for the year (normal is 480).

My neighbours say it hasnt been like this since the 70s

flyingduk
flyingduk
December 12, 2022 2:44 pm

My 18 year old daughter has just missed out on another job because she is unvaccinated. God I hate these pricks.

A small price to pay for good health and fertility?

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 12, 2022 2:51 pm

In the best of hands. The Hun:

Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government will mandate climate risk disclosure reporting for the country’s largest companies from next year as he warns a lack of transparency on sustainability measures has put a ‘handbrake’ on the investments needed to move the economy away from fossil fuels.
In a speech on Monday, Dr Chalmers will say he has already written to the regulators asking them to increase efforts to combat greenwashing.
‘The major contributor to high and rising energy prices right now is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Dr Chalmers will tell an Australian Sustainable Finance Institute forum.
“But that’s been exacerbated in no small part by a proceeding decade of energy policy chaos and lack of investment certainty at home.”
Sustainable financing has become a major part of global investing, and the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, the Norwegian government’s pension fund, plansa vote against companies that do not set net zero emissions targets.

Lysander
Lysander
December 12, 2022 2:54 pm

I’ll believe it when I see it:

US scientists achieve ‘holy grail’ net gain nuclear fusion reaction: report

If true, we won’t have to pay taxes to the climate gods anymore.

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 2:54 pm
Lysander
Lysander
December 12, 2022 2:55 pm

Hahaha Musk’s tweet:

Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone.

As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people. Not awesome imo.

cohenite
December 12, 2022 2:55 pm

Zipstersays:
December 12, 2022 at 11:56 am
typical example of concealed child abuse on twitter.

current trending keyword is “triceratops” you scroll down triceratops related posts then you get to this one:

https://twitter.com/PlushYeen/status/1601006651837845504

WTF?!?

That is the filth dickless is defending.

Robert Sewell
December 12, 2022 2:56 pm

The Frolicking Moll:

This. Its not the institutions which are corrupt in themselves (though that will happen if perverts are removed) its that people will gravitate to whatever gives them access to what they want.

Looking back at some of the NCCH staff and members of the board, there were several very dodgy characters who I would now classify as paedophiles.
But Pillars of the Community, yes.

RuthM
RuthM
December 12, 2022 2:56 pm

On Steve Smith’s whinge about Warner’s bid for a leadership role in the Australian team, I think Smith has a point. After all, Smith was captain at the time and bears responsibility for the actions which brought the team into disrepute. As Smith now seems to be back as acting captain, does it not follow that Warner should not suffer either from any notions of sportsmanship, ethics, rules of the game?

And yes, I think both should have been banished and it annoys me immensely to see them on the field for Australia!

cohenite
December 12, 2022 2:59 pm

Zipstersays:
December 12, 2022 at 11:56 am
typical example of concealed child abuse on twitter.

And here’s the irony: I get suspended on twatter if I call a leftie scumbag an idiot.

alwaysright
alwaysright
December 12, 2022 3:02 pm

Climageddon.

Why am I frickin freezing my arse off?

min
min
December 12, 2022 3:04 pm

Rescued by a fellow Cat again , Carpe Jugulum visited my place yesterday to offer my friends and me his expertise on building matters . Posted earlier that Our retirement Village apartments have non compliant cladding and years of neglect in maintenance and upkeep , resulting in ongoing water leaks and black mould . Rectification costs so far heaped onto owners eg $60,000 that I have to cough up by Xmas , plus costs for rectification of water damage etc. Unknown at this stage but likely to be a lot more than original cost. Carpe was able to point out how we collect relevant information needed if we do class action . His eagle eye came up with more problems from original building and is hunting down the phoenix Builder , one of Danistans luxury apartment builders. Fun and Games ahead but time consuming.

Bar Beach Swimmer
December 12, 2022 3:11 pm

Dr Chalmers

From wiki:

He went on to complete a PhD in political science at the Australian National University, writing his doctoral thesis on the prime ministership of Paul Keating,[2][3] titled “Brawler statesman: Paul Keating and prime ministerial leadership in Australia”.[6]

Robert Sewell
December 12, 2022 3:14 pm

Roger:
I’ll just pull one sentence out of your post:

Seems “ethics” for our cricketers is telling other people what they should be doing.

Alter it a bit:

Seems “ethics” for some is telling other people what they should be doing.

Yes. Pretty damn correct.

Mater
December 12, 2022 3:16 pm

Rescued by a fellow Cat again , Carpe Jugulum visited my place yesterday to offer my friends and me his expertise on building matters .

Well done, Carpe.
That’s the way it’s done.

Lysander
Lysander
December 12, 2022 3:17 pm

Like Keating the Musical, I’m sure this Gough Musical that comes out next year will, yet again, immortalise and deify failure:

https://www.watoday.com.au/culture/musicals/what-s-the-song-and-dance-about-the-dismissal-20221212-p5c5l9.html

Regardless of what you think of Whitlam, Kerr, conspiracy theories about the Queen or the CIA, the Australian public made their choice on him pretty clearly… The Libs won an additional 30 seats in 1975 (or 91/127 HoR seats in total).

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 3:18 pm
thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 12, 2022 3:23 pm

minsays:
December 12, 2022 at 3:04 pm

Quite a few years back but dad had to go through a similar process when his house started to crack up not long after building.

Turned out all the houses in the area(new released) were the same, some to the point water pipes were bursting as well as gas lines.
One place cacked up so you could see into the loungeroom from the street.
Council originally claimed no interest.
Banks uninterested.
Government uninterested.
Builders uninterested.

Then dad happened upon an engineers report from the council which showed they had approved normal footings for houses despite classifying the area as needing heavy footings.
They still stonewalled so dad gathered the affected people together and all refinanced with a major bank.
Then all stopped/ threatened to stop paying and walk away from the loans.
Once the bank was involved the council got absolutely steamrolled (as did the developers) and in most cases brought back/demolished the worst of the places or paid the loans out as way of settling.

If possible find the old council stuff, might be a hidden gem there if its similar.

(the council even went so far as stating burst water and gas pipes werent a hazard)

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 12, 2022 3:24 pm

Rabz I imagine you will have this ditty on your south coast travels. Just beautiful

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 3:26 pm
calli
calli
December 12, 2022 3:37 pm

Well done, Carpe.
That’s the way it’s done.

Bravo! Carpe san is one of the Good Guys.

Vicki
Vicki
December 12, 2022 3:39 pm

Re: the 18 year old daughter missing out on a job because unvaccinated –

What is truly staggering is that people are still so ignorant of what is happening re vaccines and mandates. And it isn’t just that there is increasing evidence of adverse reactions that should have seen the discontinuation of jabs long ago, it is the fact that government itself is actually slowly retreating on the vaccines and the accompanying protocol.

No doubt many of you are seeing friends and acquaintances suffering thrombosis in varying forms, and other complaints that are either weird or out of left field. I caught up with a friend by phone recently, and when asked how things were, she replied, “Everyone is dying”. While I thought that was a bit extreme, since only two people she knew had recently died (although one was a 30 year old with no previous symptoms) her own husband had suffered a minor stroke recently and I guess she is a bit apprehensive.

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 3:40 pm
JC
JC
December 12, 2022 3:40 pm

And here’s the irony: I get suspended on twatter if I call a leftie scumbag an idiot.

I wasn’t suspended because I only resorted to mocking. I must have been shadow banned though – not that I give a rats -but I only mention this because highlight the old ways vs the new. I have received relatively numerous number of requests to follow. I can’t recall receiving even 1 over the past 7 years. It’s like a lid has been opened.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 12, 2022 3:44 pm

Absolutely ridiculous that WA could have power shortages…

When we consulting in there in the 90s they we’re running off take-or-pay gas contracts entered into alongside Alcoa to get the North West Shelf and DNNGP off the ground. The idea that diesel would be used across the SWIS was unthinkable. It was relegated to the outback as a last resort.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 3:44 pm

whoops.

but I only mention this to highlight

Speedbox
December 12, 2022 3:45 pm

Robert Sewell says:
December 12, 2022 at 2:08 pm
Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity says:
December 12, 2022 at 2:11 pm

Many years ago I owned a vending machine business. Had lots of machines and in those days it was all cash via coins (before note/card readers). At the end of each day I would have a few of those bank issued cloth bags full of coins that I would lug home and had to count out the coins into those small bank issued plastic bags.

In those days the bank used to weigh my bags of coins and compare that weight with bags of their own. But I was always bemused because the scales weren’t electronic – it looked like somebody had brought their mother’s kitchen scales to work.

Vicki
Vicki
December 12, 2022 3:46 pm

Re Jim Chalmers and his PhD on Keating:

I listened to a lecture by Andrew Leigh (another Labor PhD) last week at The Sydney Institute. A bit of a boring lecture on the evils of “marking up” by corporations that have dominant market share. My husband innocently asked why, if you have a “widget” better than others, you can’t charge more for it!

However, Leigh is a a more introverted policy wonk than Chalmers and is not surprised that Chalmers became Treasurer and Leigh has, I believe, been sidelined.

I asked him why, if Labor claims to be the defender of the vulnerable, they are not taking steps to stere the banks from closing regional and suburban branches are leaving the elderly and digital averse without viable options. He agreed that he had been shocked by the increasing closures, but could offer no solution.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 12, 2022 3:47 pm

He went on to complete a PhD in political science at the Australian National University, writing his doctoral thesis on the prime ministership of Paul Keating,

Eeeeeeew. Mavis’s sloppy seconds.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 3:47 pm

MatrixTransform says:
December 12, 2022 at 9:50 am

endless nudging into normalise it

bespoke nails it.
youse wonder what mUnty does in this forum … it is this

watch him push to the scandalous brink
then nek minnit, get busy with the old Hegel Maneuver

under the Almond Tree … mUnty, Hegel … and JC
because mUnter will need somebody to negotiate with the Devil

Magic Marvin seems very happy today (as always). The good old Southlander must be doing some great group therapy.

Bar Beach Swimmer
December 12, 2022 3:50 pm

Cohenite, if you’re around…

(With apologies to William Hughes Mearns)

“Yesterday*down near the lake,
No restaurant confirmed my date,
Today, again, I did not dine,
No tasty morsel, can I find.

(Not actually, yesterday)

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 3:50 pm
Boambee John
Boambee John
December 12, 2022 3:50 pm

m0ntysays:
December 12, 2022 at 2:16 pm
That is completely wrong about porn by the way Monty, I don’t normally see it with the people I follow but I looked at a #Trump tag and the thread was riddled with very explicit porn.

That would be spam, which is an overlapping problem. They have solved it for normal timelines but not quite for reply threads, it seems.

Suuuuure it was. Suuuure they have.

You idiot.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 12, 2022 3:51 pm

Andrew Leigh

Wasn’t he the egg head who did not know about custody services and non-beneficial ownership and started railing about the banks controlling the ASX200 like an 18yo Albo?

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 3:52 pm

In those days the bank used to weigh my bags of coins and compare that weight with bags of their own. But I was always bemused because the scales weren’t electronic – it looked like somebody had brought their mother’s kitchen scales to work.

Speedbox, I can see the possible reason. In those those days, fitting out every branch with a new gizmo would have cost a few bickies. Then imagine the maintenance cost because it’s always a good idea to provision when humans and fairly delicate machines interact. Sometimes near enough is just good enough, if you know what I mean.

Robert Sewell
December 12, 2022 3:55 pm

John H:

Why did people of various persuausions regard Pell as guilty when the evidence presented was so weak?

Because they desperately wanted him to be guilty.

And yet to me, it was obvious the whole charade was bullshit. There was no ‘evidence’ – it was all hearsay, fantasising, and innuendo.

Speedbox
December 12, 2022 3:59 pm

JC says:
December 12, 2022 at 3:52 pm

Oh yes, sure you’re correct. As we all know, banks don’t throw their money about and, as there weren’t many like me, they aren’t going to buy some fancy gizmo on the ‘off chance’ that somebody comes into a branch with lots of pre-counted coins in coin bags.

cohenite
December 12, 2022 4:00 pm

(With apologies to William Hughes Mearns)

“Yesterday*down near the lake,
No restaurant confirmed my date,
Today, again, I did not dine,
No tasty morsel, can I find.

(Not actually, yesterday)

Yeah, Trinity only open from Wednesday to Sunday. They can’t get staff.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 12, 2022 4:00 pm

Balance scales were fine. In must cases the bags would have gone out to pubs or something for change anyway. Nobody really cared either. The only time anyone really got excited was when we lost a bundle of $20s behind a filing cabinet returning a bag of notes to the Perth RBA. They got the cops in after a couple of days.

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 4:01 pm
Boambee John
Boambee John
December 12, 2022 4:02 pm

m0ntysays:
December 12, 2022 at 2:38 pm
Well obviously Monty but my point that people are unwillingly exposed to porn on twitter stands, does it not?

I remain unconvinced that

Of course you “remain unconvinced”.

Old Lefty
Old Lefty
December 12, 2022 4:03 pm

The ABC mourns the political demise of Queen Skank Patten

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-12/fiona-patten-concedes-defeat-in-vic-election/101760620

By a lovely irony, it was at the hands of the DLP. All is forgiven, Adem Somyurek.

Never fear, though. Chairman Dan will have her back on the Victorian taxpayers’ teat before you know it.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 4:03 pm

I’m sure someone mentioned it, Fauci is in deep trouble and Musk is going after him.

Someone sent me this related to the Fauci discussion.

‘A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.’ ? Edward R. Murrow

Applies here too, in spades.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 12, 2022 4:04 pm

Like most graduates I was a hopeless teller. I don’t think I balanced once at the of the day.

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 12, 2022 4:05 pm

West Australian Cats and Kittehs, I received a notification that pubs, clubs and restaurants will require digital id as a condition of entry. From the end of January onwards. Is this correct?

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 12, 2022 4:07 pm

From what I read here, it looks that way

Frank
Frank
December 12, 2022 4:08 pm

Today’s words are paedo and adjacent. Monty, take a bow, you went there.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 12, 2022 4:09 pm

Old Leftysays:
December 12, 2022 at 4:03 pm
The ABC mourns the political demise of Queen Skank Patten

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-12/fiona-patten-concedes-defeat-in-vic-election/101760620

By a lovely irony, it was at the hands of the DLP. All is forgiven, Adem Somyurek.

Wasn’t m0nty=fa gloating about Patten supposedly beating Somyurek at the time of the election? Sad, m0nty=fa, maybe next time.

TrevorG
TrevorG
December 12, 2022 4:09 pm

Speedbox says:
December 12, 2022 at 3:59 pm

Oh yes, sure you’re correct. As we all know, banks don’t throw their money about and, as there weren’t many like me, they aren’t going to buy some fancy gizmo on the ‘off chance’ that somebody comes into a branch with lots of pre-counted coins in coin bags.

In my local branch at Carnegie they won’t take coins, you have to put them through the coin counting machine and present the printout.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 4:10 pm

H B Bear says:
December 12, 2022 at 4:04 pm

Like most graduates I was a hopeless teller. I don’t think I balanced once at the of the day.

Lawyers are absolutely terrible with money, so no surprise at all, Bear.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 12, 2022 4:12 pm

I wasn’t even legally trained at that point. No excuses. Just sloppy.

John H.
John H.
December 12, 2022 4:12 pm

Zipstersays:
December 12, 2022 at 4:01 pm
Welcome to the End of Democracy
Joel Kotkin

Didn’t know it had started.

Lysander
Lysander
December 12, 2022 4:13 pm

By a lovely irony, it was at the hands of the DLP. All is forgiven, Adem Somyurek.

Lovely news.

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
December 12, 2022 4:15 pm

One trait can explain why the people who hate Pell are so often the same people who hate capitalism, Believe All Women, think it Always Was Always Will Be, and welcome climageddon-
misanthropy.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
December 12, 2022 4:15 pm

Black Ballsays:
December 12, 2022 at 4:07 pm

Jan 13, 2022, 12:53 pm EST

Zyconoclast
Zyconoclast
December 12, 2022 4:16 pm

My 18 year old daughter has just missed out on another job because she is unvaccinated…

Victoriastan?

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 4:16 pm

H B Bear says:
December 12, 2022 at 4:12 pm

I wasn’t even legally trained at that point. No excuses. Just sloppy.

Yea, but you were heading that way. 🙂

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 4:17 pm

Welcome to the End of Democracy
Joel Kotkin

excellent article, its quite long, I can post it for people that don’t want to register

Robert Sewell
December 12, 2022 4:18 pm

Bar Beach Swimmer:

Yes, the increasing cost of power is affecting everyone to a greater or lesser degree, depending on your bank balance. But the push to remove natural gas appliances – which will affect everyone in the same way (and 4x drive ICEs) – is not something that those luvvies on the Climate Change bandwagon will like.
Reduced allowance to fly, to purchase what you want, when you want, that will affect the higher spenders. Yer no longer special, mate. Maybe the Great Reset is in the beginning of itself being reset by us all being equally screwed.

Something I’ve been at pains to try and get through to some – today Cock O’The Walk, tomorrow a feather duster.
The Upper Middle Class have some surprises coming their way if the planetary survival policies they want imposed on the wukkas and peasants come to fruition, because those policies will apply to them as well.
Have a look at the worth of a million dollars in buying power over the last century.

Speedbox
December 12, 2022 4:19 pm

Black Ball – something wrong. The date on the article says Jan 13, 2022. So, if true, the ID thing has been operating for almost a year.

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 4:20 pm

One trait can explain why the people who hate Pell are so often the same people who hate capitalism, Believe All Women, think it Always Was Always Will Be, and welcome climageddon-
misanthropy.

wokeism doesn’t tolerate any form of religious competition

calli
calli
December 12, 2022 4:20 pm

We could have a count-off, Bear. Much, much harder to count the plastic notes. The old paper ones could be flicked with a crack and a flourish.

And a weaponised coin roll. You have to be able to roll the coins and then drop the roll from 6” without it breaking.

😀

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 12, 2022 4:23 pm

Ah yes thank you Trickler and Speedbox. So has this requirement been implemented?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 12, 2022 4:25 pm

Rescued by a fellow Cat again , Carpe Jugulum visited my place yesterday to offer my friends and me his expertise on building matters .

Not all heroes wear capes.

Or wear their underpants on the outside.

(or does he?)

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 12, 2022 4:27 pm

Oh god, I agree with Leunig…

comment image

calli
calli
December 12, 2022 4:28 pm

Not all heroes wear capes.

Fully Goth. With manicure issues.

Robert Sewell
December 12, 2022 4:28 pm

https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/2022/12/11/women-in-pants/
Well, that’s Adam Piggott scrubbed from my ‘go to’ list.
And up yours too, Adam.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 4:32 pm

The Upper Middle Class have some surprises coming their way if the planetary survival policies they want imposed on the wukkas and peasants come to fruition, because those policies will apply to them as well.
Have a look at the worth of a million dollars in buying power over the last century.

FMD The turtlhead is a fucking moron.

“Upper Middle Class” the folks he envies, because he was a male nurse, don’t posses cash as their main asset. They own stuff like stocks and real estate. Have a look what both have done over the period. And why does this nursing intellectual assume that the upper income earners are all subscribing to the leftwing?

How does it go again to paraphrase what was posted under Winstron Sith?

Hey, let’s shoot a thousand folks in the back of the head as a lesson to others.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 4:34 pm

Martha, where’s that damned Iodine?

Speedbox
December 12, 2022 4:36 pm

TrevorG says:
December 12, 2022 at 4:09 pm
In my local branch at Carnegie they won’t take coins, you have to put them through the coin counting machine and present the printout.

Those large commercial coin counters weren’t available for customer use back then. I’m talking from around the early 1990s to early 2000s (in Adelaide). I have a vague recollection they were a few becoming available in selected locations in the 2000s but none were convenient to me.

As an aside, I never bought a coin counter for my own use (small versions were available) because they were expensive. My opinion was that because it didn’t produce any income, it was a waste of money. So, I counted by hand each night even though it took up to a couple of hours – but I did become very fast at counting coins. 🙂

Speedbox
December 12, 2022 4:40 pm

Black Ball says:
December 12, 2022 at 4:23 pm

No idea. I now live in Brisbane. WA Cats?

calli
calli
December 12, 2022 4:40 pm

It would have been a good idea for Adam to comment on Cassie’s thread at Cassie’s thread. I’m sure she would have welcomed his thoughts on the subject. I certainly would.

My own position is that office Christmas parties are no place to argue politics, no matter how much you are baited by the perverse smart alecks.

Which probably means I am a “loser” too, but at least one who avoids indigestion.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
December 12, 2022 4:41 pm

Black Ballsays:
December 12, 2022 at 4:23 pm
Ah yes thank you Trickler and Speedbox. So has this requirement been implemented?

No.

Zyconoclast
Zyconoclast
December 12, 2022 4:42 pm

Well, that’s Adam Piggott scrubbed from my ‘go to’ list.
And up yours too, Adam.

He makes some good points.

bespoke
bespoke
December 12, 2022 4:42 pm

Roberto
Adam said he wants a Christian caliphate. That was enough for me to right him off as a nutter.

Pogria
Pogria
December 12, 2022 4:43 pm

We’ve got roaring gales and heavy rain intermixed with sunny breaks in NE Vic.

sfw, some of that wind hit my place at 4 this morning. Still going, but not so strong now. Brought down a large branch from a one of my rotten conifers right across the driveway. Break out the chainsaw tomorrow.

mole, your dad is legend material.

Robert Sewell,

good move re, pigface.

Carpe, great work. And min, good luck.

mem
mem
December 12, 2022 4:50 pm

Zipster

Welcome to the End of Democracy
Joel Kotkin

excellent article, its quite long, I can post it for people that don’t want to register

I tried the link but it didn’t work. Can you post? I am currently reading his book, “The Coming of Neo Feudalism -A Warning to the Global Middleclass” published 2020 so would find his summary article particularly interesting.

Makka
Makka
December 12, 2022 4:52 pm

You are a one-man censorship board, spending your days investigating the darker parts of Twitter and looking at kiddie pron so you can report it. Lucky for us that you are here to discover all that questionable content! You are a hero, really.

I see mOron has received his daily propaganda from his lot at Freakshow and Deviant Inc. Today, like many days, it’s running interference and releasing squirrels diverting attention from his lot on the left and their obsession with getting at our kids.

Clearly, the leftards are most distressed with Elon’s truth bombs. mOron has been frantically waving his arms about here since the Enlightenment began. Nowhere to hide now mOron?

Vicki
Vicki
December 12, 2022 4:56 pm

I’m sure someone mentioned it, Fauci is in deep trouble and Musk is going after him.

Musk going after Fauci? Oh please! What a Christmas present that would be!

Stupid dreamer that I am, I want to believe that the One will come who will challenge those, like the WEF & their ilk, who are so contemptuous of us mere mortals that they are determined to reduce us to serfs subject to their plans for this planet.

alwaysright
alwaysright
December 12, 2022 4:56 pm

Did someone mention Iodine?

? “Oh, your red scarf matches your eyes …”

alwaysright
alwaysright
December 12, 2022 4:59 pm

should be 𝄞

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 5:03 pm

alwaysright says:
December 12, 2022 at 4:56 pm

Did someone mention Iodine?

Why yes. Winstron Sith spazzed out recently, scaring himself shitless worried that rural Queersland was a hot target in a nuclear attack and apparently he claimed he was after an Iodine prescription from a medico to combat radiation poisoning. All perfectly normal.

Lysander
Lysander
December 12, 2022 5:03 pm

After my 18 month FOI war with Nilligan and their ABC* I try not to comment or think about the Pell case anymore. It made me drink too much.

*the “right to know” coalition

calli
calli
December 12, 2022 5:05 pm

I like Adam’s blog. He’s a young-ish (well, much younger than me, anyway) grappling with a lot of tough issues. He isn’t the first Christian who might think Christians should be in charge politically. Plenty of them.

Problem is that Christians are just as sinful as everyone else, and just as liable to fall into temptation. In fact, the avalanche of temptation directed at us is unrelenting, particularly leaders and their families, hence that line in the Lord’s Prayer.

Our laws and many customs are based on the Judeo-Christian teaching. It should be preserved and protected because it is the best. It has proven value.
You might not like it, but it’s the pick of the bunch.

Johnny Rotten
December 12, 2022 5:05 pm

This 7 Second Video reveals EVERYTHING —

https://twitter.com/i/status/1598245104762126336

However, they were all better looking with the masks on……………….lol

TrevorG
TrevorG
December 12, 2022 5:06 pm

Just back on my pins after a long convalescence, so have plenty of time to read and lurk.

3 things I learned during this episode:
1: have a GP who knows his limitations but has a good idea about the problem and has a very detailed Rolodex with the appropriate specialists.
2: The specialist IS a good one and has a list of the best surgeons.
3: Don’t skimp on selecting the surgeon on price, having money in the bank when you are six feet under is no good to you.

Having the bestest top private cover can still leave you out of pocket by many thousands, all worth it!

All the best to you in the same situation.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 5:10 pm

I like Adam’s blog. He’s a young-ish (well, much younger than me, anyway) grappling with a lot of tough issues. He isn’t the first Christian who might think Christians should be in charge politically. Plenty of them.

In that blog piece, he mentions nothing about Christianity. I find it ironic that he’s ragging on about immigrants when he himself is an emigrant, holed up somewhere in Europe.

calli
calli
December 12, 2022 5:16 pm

No, JC, not in that piece. To understand, you have to look at his blog in its entirety.

I don’t see Vietnamese or even Afghanis as invaders. How can they be, if they have been allowed in lawfully? Another case can be made about ones who arrive by boat or overstayers. Their politics are another thing altogether.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
December 12, 2022 5:17 pm

For those who watch Club Grubbery today they did a previous of interviews they are having this week :

This evening will be a Qantas staff member.

Tuesday lawyer Jason Gillespie on their High Court case about Vax for kids. Thanks to his last appearance on Grubbery two donors have come through to help them with the find raising which had a target of $600,000.

Wednesday will be Senators Antic and Rennick.

Thursday will be a Qld cop.

Courier Mail has an article about PM’s Covid plan which mentions :.
Other key measures within the national plan include the vaccine program being extended through to December 2023.

Anybody seen the full national plan ?

bespoke
bespoke
December 12, 2022 5:17 pm

You might not like it, but it’s the pick of the bunch.

I do but I have zero tolerance for race supremacy, Calli.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 5:18 pm

Anyone hear about this?

The Grid Is Under Attack From Snipers, Hackers and Hurricanes

We don’t yet know who attacked an electricity substation in North Carolina, blacking out 45,000 customers, or why they did it. Whatever their motivation, they shot a few holes in the very idea of the grid.

Our electricity grids are founded on two basic principles. First, networks provide resiliency because if one part hits trouble, other parts can pick up the slack — up to a point. Second, grids reduce and socialize costs: The remote village gets reliable light at a reasonable price because it is supplied by the same grid serving many thousands of customers grouped densely in cities and suburbs.

This weekend’s attack didn’t lead to blackouts on that scale but demonstrated the vulnerability all too well. Based on reports so far, suspected intentional rifle fire against several substations caused damage to equipment that is “beyond repair in some areas,” according to Duke Energy Corp., the regional utility operator.

In any case, more than 35,000 customers were still without power on Tuesday morning. Some face days of outages in the middle of winter — and seemingly all because of some well-aimed shots at the kind of (often unmanned) facility that dots the US. The attack recalled one in 2013, when a sniper attacked a California substation. There will now be renewed calls for making such facilities secure: better cameras and sensors to detect saboteurs and a hardening of equipment, or replacing chain fences with solid walls, for example. Maybe we will see renewed calls for keeping spare, emergency transformers stockpiled in order to shorten replacement schedules.

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 5:19 pm

LONG full article

Welcome to the end of democracy – Joel Kotkin
We bemoan autocracies in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Russia and China but largely ignore the more subtle authoritarian trend in the West. Don’t expect a crudely effective dictatorship out of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: we may remain, as we are now, nominally democratic, but be ruled by a technocratic class empowered by greater powers of surveillance than those enjoyed by even the nosiest of dictatorships.

The new autocracy rises from a relentless economic concentration which has engendered a new and fabulously wealthy elite. Five years ago, around four hundred billionaires owned as much as half of the world’s assets. Today, only one hundred billionaires own that share, and Oxfam reduces that number to a mere twenty-six. In avowedly socialist China, the top one percent of the population holds about one-third of the country’s wealth, up from 20 percent two decades ago. Since 1978, China’s Gini coefficient, which measures inequality of wealth distribution, has tripled.

An OECD report issued before the Covid pandemic finds that almost everywhere, the non-rich share of national wealth has declined. These trends can be seen even in social democracies like Sweden and Germany. In the United States, as the conservative economist John Michaelson put it succinctly in 2018, the economic legacy of the last decade is “excessive corporate consolidation, a massive transfer of wealth to the top 1 percent from the middle class.”

This process has developed both in the tangible and digital economies. In Great Britain, where land prices have risen dramatically over the past decade, less than one percent of the population owns half of all the land. On the European continent overall, farmland has fallen increasingly into the hands of a small cadre of corporate owners and the mega-wealthy. In America, the largest farmland holder is Bill Gates, with over 200,000 acres, while Ted Turner and John Malone preside over lordly estates of over two million acres each — larger than several American states.

As property has concentrated, small-holders have come under increased pressure. Australia historically has enjoyed high rates of homeownership, but the rate among twenty-five to thirty-four year-olds dropped from more than 60 percent in 1981 to only 45 percent in 2016. The proportion of owner-occupied housing in once-egalitarian Australia has dropped by 10 percent in the last twenty-five years. Morgan Stanley predicts that the US will soon become primarily a “rentership society” where Wall Street firms seek to turn homes, furniture and other necessities into rental products.

The digital economy is similarly dominated by a small group of giant firms. These overlords together exercise control of up to 90 percent of critical markets such as basic computer operating systems, social media, online search advertising and book sales. No longer satisfied with controlling the pipelines, the tech oligarchy increasing buys up old news outlets and “curates” the news to its tastes. It increasingly dominates mainstream entertainment too: the pending sale of MGM to Amazon is just the most recent example of its conquest and consolidation of the means of communication.

Like the barbarian princes who shaped the Middle Ages, the new oligarchs have been able to seize their fiefdoms with little resistance from weak central governments. The pandemic accelerated this process; its lockdowns and restraints on mobility proved a bonanza for tech companies like Google, whose profits doubled during the period. In this highly regulated environment, the tech-rich have simply gotten richer: seven of the ten richest Americans come from the tech sector. Apple, by some calculations, is now worth more than the entire oil and gas industry. The already obscenely rich have become richer still. Jeff Bezos alone saw his net worth jump by an estimated $34.6 billion in the first two months of the pandemic, while his company has enjoyed continued revenue and profit growth.

As executive compensation reached the stratosphere in Big Tech and finance, small businesses face what the Harvard Business Review calls “an existential threat.” Experts now warn that one third of small businesses, which comprise the majority of US companies and employ nearly half of all workers, could ultimately shut down for good. Hundreds of thousands have already disappeared, including nearly half of all black-owned businesses. Particularly damaged have been the small merchants along Main Street and those working for them, such as restaurant and hospitality workers.

The old middle class struggles to compete with online platforms. Amazon is able to coerce small businesses to give up their data. As big-box stores have done for decades, Amazon uses its bargaining power to minimize supply-chain issues by leasing its own ships and using its considerable leverage to secure items that smaller companies cannot get. Property is seeing a similar consolidation. As middle-class prosperity falters in Britain, cash-rich Lloyd’s Bank seeks to gobble up the emerging market in distressed properties, apartments and even single-family homes. Meanwhile, the grand houses of central London are restored to Victorian opulence by absentee Russian, Chinese and Arab investors.

Climate-change policies could nurture the new autocracy for a generation. As tech oligarchs and the financial establishment implement the Davos notion of a Great Reset, they will force a quick end to fossil fuels. There are huge opportunities for massive investment by super-rich companies and speculators in the “green economy,” all made possible with tax breaks, loans and guaranteed sales to governmental units.

This promises to create a new crop of mega-billionaires like Elon Musk, today the world’s richest man. In the era of super-subsidies, a wannabe electric-vehicle maker like Rivian, which has negligible sales and consistent losses, can be valued higher than General Motors, which sells almost seven million cars and has $122 billion in revenues each year. In Green Capitalism, the British Marxist James Heartfield labels this “austerity socialism”: reaping governmental edicts as opposed to actually producing real goods. Nice work if you can get it.

For the middle and working classes, however, the Great Reset may prove somewhat less promising — if not disastrous. For most people, notes Eric Heymann, a senior economist at Deutsche Bank Research, the rapid “green” transition will mean “a noticeable loss of welfare and jobs.” The conscious policy of degrowth as a means of forcibly reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require getting most people out of their cars, and forcing them to travel far less and to live in tiny apartments. Enforcement will be necessarily intrusive as well. Planners in the UK and elsewhere are pushing for family “carbon budgets.” Add surveillance technology and we end up with something akin to China’s “social credit” system, in which your right to free movement is subject to government approval.

The young are particularly threatened by these changes — younger people already face much harder prospects than any postwar generation. Few expect things to improve: across the higher-income countries, roughly two-thirds of people surveyed by Pew Research see a poorer future for the next generation. According to researchers at the Equality of Opportunity Project, about 90 percent of those born in 1940 grew up to earn higher incomes than their parents. The same is true for only 50 percent of those born in the 1980s. A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis warns that millennials are in danger of becoming a “lost generation” in terms of wealth accumulation. To make matters worse, over half of all young people, in a survey of ten countries, think the world is doomed by climate change.

As housing and other costs skyrocket, class lines are hardening. Inheritance as a share of GDP in France has grown roughly threefold since 1950, with some upper-income French millennials inheriting more money than many workers make in a lifetime. The growing importance of inherited assets is even more pronounced in Germany, Britain and the United States. In the US, a country with a national mythology that looks askance at inherited wealth, the children of property-owning parents are far better situated to own a house eventually (often with parental help) and enter what is now known as “the funnel of privilege.” In America, millennials are three times as likely as boomers to count on inheritance for their retirement. Among the youngest cohort, aged eighteen to twenty-two, over 60 percent expect that inheritance will be their primary source of income as they age.

How will the downwardly mobile react to the prospect of permanent rental serfdom and, ultimately, total dependence on the state? A recent Edelman survey reveals that increasing numbers no longer trust institutions or believe hard work pays off. In a world dominated by a few institutions, today’s precariat of gig and short-contract workers, and those who have dropped out of the workforce entirely, could become an economically less useful version of Marx’s proletariat: a permanent underclass requiring aggressive, quasi-military policing.

Meanwhile, large tech firms and financial giants — even those skeptical about climate change zealotry — see the prospect of record profits and valuations in “disruption.” The pandemic accelerated the white-collar shift to remote work, and the broader demand for automated solutions skyrocketed. A future less reliant on human labor elevates the tech oligarchs to the highest perch on what Lenin called “the commanding heights” of the economy.

In a digitalized economy, it’s good to control the critical niches. The oligarchs do this brilliantly. They have seized dominant shares of key markets from search (Google) to social media (Facebook) to book sales (Amazon). Google and Apple together provide over 95 percent of operating software for mobile devices, while Microsoft still accounts for over 80 percent of the software that runs personal computers around the world.

I have covered Silicon Valley for forty-five years. Today, it is less the hypercompetitive, free-spirited place I knew, and more like the early twentieth-century trusts. Mike Malone, who has chronicled Silicon Valley as deeply as anyone, sees it losing much of its ethos. The new masters of tech, he suggests, have shifted from “blue-collar kids to the children of privilege,” and moved away from the production ethos that once made the Valley so inspiring and egalitarian. An intensely competitive industry has become enamored with the allure of “the sure thing” backed by massive capital and sometimes by government. Competition is no longer a spur to creativity: competitors are simply bought out.

Wealth cannot rule on its own. Autocracy needs a proselytizing class who can justify the rulers and salve the distressed souls of the lower orders. In medieval times, the Catholic Church served this role, essentially justifying the feudal order as the expression of divine will. Today’s version, a sort of clerisy or intelligentsia, is mostly not religious and consists of people from the upper bureaucracy, academia, and the culture and media industries.

The pandemic has been a boon to this class too. The emergency allowed governments to grant them unprecedented executive and administrative powers not just in centralized France but even in usually semi-sensible Great Britain and Australia. For some, the lockdowns served as a “test run” for necessary measures to realize their preferred climate-change policies. In the new schema, the real class enemy is not the excesses of the ultra-rich, or even wasteful spending by government: it’s the consumption patterns of the masses. We see this in the response of progressive media and even politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes to complaints about the rising costs of food, rent and energy. The clerisy sees even the essentials as ephemeral, and supply-chain problems as the consequence of too much consumption by the masses.

As in the Middle Ages, when church and crown competed for moral and political authority, the bureaucratic and unelected sources of power are not always in agreement. But to a large extent, they embrace very similar ideologies, particularly when it comes to imposing control over information about the pandemic or climate change. The early-twentieth-century Italian sociologist Robert Michels noted that complex issues — climate, for instance — reinforce what he called the “iron law of oligarchy”: the more dependent on expertise a society becomes, the greater the need for elite-driven solutions that bypass popular input — and the greater the force the elite will apply to attain its goals.

H.G. Wells dreamed of a “new republic” run by a virtuous few. Our digital elites are anointing themselves, and being anointed by their fellow elites in business and media. Well-educated managers of major companies and the credentialed clerisy are naturally drawn to the idea of a society ruled by professional experts with “enlightened” values — that is, by people much like themselves.

To confront what they see as an existential crisis, much of the media supports the creation of a global technocracy. “Democracy is the planet’s biggest enemy,” asserted an article in Foreign Policy, an establishmentarian journal, in 2019. This hostility to democracy as an obstacle to top-down “progress” is dovetailing with another source of anti-democratic distrust. People around the world, particularly the young, no longer embrace the basic notion of self-government. A majority of young Americans now favor large-scale government intervention in the economy; about a third call themselves socialists.

The leaders of woke capitalism have signed onto a pledge to defund fossil fuels in the great quest for Net Zero. This is not, as the wacko right and the wacko left might think, a conscious conspiracy. Instead, it is propelled by tech firms’ natural desire for profits derived from replacing the carbon-spewing analog world wherever possible, and the irresistible lure for investors and corporations of a huge, subsidized and government-financed market.

Most tech and finance executives are not ideologues. Nor are they, despite appearances, sociopaths. Yet they feel justified in censoring and even demonetizing not just Donald Trump or the New York Post or Bari Weiss, but also the credentialed experts whose views diverge from the accepted line for staffers at Google, Facebook and Twitter, organizations where woke instruction is increasingly imposed. (These companies’ location in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Puget Sound region, two of the most lopsidedly progressive areas in the country, is also a factor.) Many firms espouse woke ideas, says Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council, because they are “afraid of their own employees.”

In practice this often means eliminating conservative opinions — and not just views from the crazy fringe, according to former employees. Academic experts such as Judith Curry and Roger Pielke, with somewhat contrarian takes on climate, are routinely ignored, attacked and marginalized. Skeptics like the long-time environmentalist Mike Shellenberger, the Obama advisor Steven Koonin and the “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg are largely consigned to the social-media memory hole for detailing the environmentalists’ record of exaggeration, hyperbolic projections and immiserating policies.

We are increasingly ruled by a perfect marriage of class convenience, with more power for the clerisy and ever-greater economic opportunities for the oligarchy — all with the added benefit of encouraging them to feel good about themselves. Even as they push austerity on the masses, they live like medieval lords, indulging in lavish weddings and building estates reminiscent of the Habsburgs’. Jeff Bezos just spent $100 million on a Hawaiian retreat. Bill Gates’s daughter just enjoyed a $2 million wedding. John Kerry, President Biden’s chief climate scold and beneficiary of an heiress’s fortune, travels on a private jet that use thirty times the energy of the average American vehicle.

That’s fine. The anointed purchase “environmental offsets”: a green version of indulgences. This may make them feel better about their vast wealth and excesses, just as it did for the murderous and corrupt aristocrats of old. Still, many are also making preparations against a potential peasant’s revolt — just in case. This includes using private security, building bunkers and looking for remote boltholes in the US or abroad, notably in out of the way and strictly controlled New Zealand.

What is the end game for the oligarchs and their clerical allies? Upward mobility for the masses is out of the question. The technology journalist Gregory Ferenstein has interviewed 147 digital company founders. His conclusion: “An increasingly greater share of economic wealth will be generated by a smaller slice of very talented or original people. Everyone else will come to subsist on some combination of part-time entrepreneurial ‘gig work’ and government aid.” In Silicon Valley’s estimation, the mass of people can look forward to life as subsidized consumers of Facebook’s metaverse or Google’s dream of “immersive computing.”

What will the rest of us do? There is clearly some disenchantment with the emerging order. Global trust in institutions, most notably the media and Big Tech, has fallen to a low ebb, and economic and geopolitical insecurity are on the rise. We are trying to impose a green economy that we don’t have the technology or even the electricity to power. This will force some countries to return to coal — China has stepped up its use of coal-powered stations — and others to leave part of their populations to shiver.

As blue-collar and many white-collar jobs are eliminated by automation, the oligarchs and their allies in the clerisy want to impose a Universal Basic Income, to keep the peasants from suffering too much and possibly rebelling. We have already seen pushback from the right and left in both Europe and America. Many people do not want to accept a life of subsidized dependency, made bearable by the digital equivalent of Rome’s bread and circuses.

The time could be shorter than we think. The tech oligarchs are creating something similar to what Aldous Huxley called in Brave New World Revisited a “scientific caste system.” There is “no good reason,” Huxley wrote in 1958, that “a thoroughly scientific dictatorship should ever be overthrown.” It will condition its subjects from the womb so that they “grow up to love their servitude” and “never dream of revolution.” It will maintain a strict social order and provide enough diversion through drugs, sex and videos to keep their artificially narrowed minds occupied and sated.

The fusion of government with large oligopolistic companies, and the technologically-enhanced collection of private information, allow the new autocracies to monitor our lives in ways that Mao, Stalin or Hitler would have envied. A rising tide of money and administrative power defines the rising autocracy. If we as citizens, whatever our political orientation, are not vigilant, our democracy will become an increasingly hollow vessel.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 5:20 pm

I don’t see Vietnamese or even Afghanis as invaders. How can they be, if they have been allowed in lawfully? Another case can be made about ones who arrive by boat or overstayers. Their politics are another thing altogether.

I find effortless hypocrisy very entertaining. He likely wrote that somewhere in Europe. last time he mentioned he was on the Alps in Northern Italy I think.

dopey
dopey
December 12, 2022 5:20 pm

The ‘festive season’ getting a good run in the media. Christmas hanging in there though.

Mater
December 12, 2022 5:21 pm

Anyone hear about this?

Yes, and they will be powerless to stop someone intent on doing this.

Johnny Rotten
December 12, 2022 5:25 pm

China & the Cycles

From Armstrong Economics –

“The Tiananmen Square protests culminated on June 4th, 1989 (1989.424). While the COVID Protests have been rising in China and the lockdowns have been deployed more so for the control of civil unrest which may start to come to a head by October 2023, the Pi Target was October 27th, 2020 and the day before, the 26th, was when US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reneged on all previous agreements with China since Nixon. He issued a statement regarding Taiwan and launched a new Cold War with China. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on the precise target of the 27th made it clear that the Biden Administration violated all previous agreements including the one-China principle. The whole Biden statements and Pelosi’s trip suddenly supporting Taiwan appears to have been to actually instigate a war. It now appears with rising civil unrest, governments typically need an external diversion and that may now become Taiwan.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/china/china-the-cycles/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 5:27 pm

Mater says:
December 12, 2022 at 5:21 pm

Anyone hear about this?

Yes, and they will be powerless to stop someone intent on doing this.

It’s either of these three.

1. Lunatic green leftists
2. Dickheads with guns looking to cause mischief.
3. State actor sending a signal.

If you had to bet, which one would it be?

calli
calli
December 12, 2022 5:29 pm

FESTIVUS

😀

sfw
sfw
December 12, 2022 5:31 pm

Adam is a snowboarder, that says it all, no need to take him seriously.

Frank
Frank
December 12, 2022 5:35 pm

How do you know when covid is officially dead? When the government stops doing free PCR tests is a good indicator. From The Australian.

Health Minister Mark Butler has handed down the federal government’s Covid health management plan for 2023, flagging that Australians will soon require a referral to obtain a Medicare-funded PCR test.

Watch the rate of infection plummet.

Lysander
Lysander
December 12, 2022 5:35 pm

Calli
I think a bit fault in society has been the thinking that the (Christian) Church is full of Saints who are spotless.

I’ve always thought of going to Church as like going to a Doctor. If you were to meet a real saint in person (I have) they’d tell you immediately that they “were no good.”

A friend told me (not sure if true but it reflects a saintly attitude) that someone said to St Francis: “Do you know that you are very arrogant?” And he responded “Yes, and much worse things than that.”

Frank
Frank
December 12, 2022 5:36 pm

FESTIVUS

Seems like there should be an ointment to take care of that.

flyingduk
flyingduk
December 12, 2022 5:43 pm

How does it go again to paraphrase what was posted under Winstron Sith?
Hey, let’s shoot a thousand folks in the back of the head as a lesson to others.

Dont forget Admiral Lord Byng:

Mais dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de tems en tems un Amiral pour encourager les autres.

Lysander
Lysander
December 12, 2022 5:46 pm

How many days since Labor said the Libs would privatise Medicare?

Whoops…

Staying on health, we reported earlier that the federal government had decided to wind back Medicare funding for mental health treatment as part of its national management plan for COVID-19 in 2023.

Suicide Prevention Australia chief executive Nieves Murray has described this decision, which will halve the number of sessions that can be subsidised by Medicare, as “baffling and very concerning”.

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 5:48 pm

The whole Biden statements and Pelosi’s trip suddenly supporting Taiwan appears to have been to actually instigate a war. It now appears with rising civil unrest, governments typically need an external diversion and that may now become Taiwan

Armstrong must be reading the cat

Ed Case
Ed Case
December 12, 2022 5:48 pm

Yeah, but Byng was hyng for losing a few ships by making poor decisions, a worthy outcome.
Sergius Witte, Russian Railways Exec., was jailed for a train disaster simply because, he was, y’know, the Boss.
Winstron Sith, he’s a straight up Troll.

Mater
December 12, 2022 5:51 pm

1. Lunatic green leftists

Probably not. They like their modern appliances too much, and their ‘renewables’ use the same infrastructure.

2. Dickheads with guns looking to cause mischief.

Most likely, but don’t interpret this as ‘right-wing gun nuts causing mischief’. It’s a personal beef, or one of those dicks who just wants to see the world burn, but not necessarily politically orientated.

3. State actor sending a signal.

Only as a prelude to invasion, to cause confusion and disruption. Otherwise, the risk of your bunny being nabbed, spilling his guts, and causing an international incident. Doubt this one, at this particular juncture.

That’s my best guess, but it could be any number of things. The infrastructure is very vulnerable to such action.

Perfidious Albino
Perfidious Albino
December 12, 2022 5:51 pm

A switched on VIC opposition would refer Dan gifting a government job to Patten to IBAC and FOI any relevant communication with her. Was it a quid pro quo for supporting his pandemic legislation, she would have known it was a risk to her ongoing political career. What about Meddick and Barton, will they be gifted jobs also?

Ed Case
Ed Case
December 12, 2022 5:53 pm

If you had to bet, which one would it be?

3. State actor sending a signal, 99% 0f the time, the other 1%, 99% of the time a State Actor too, the other 1% unexplainable.

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 5:55 pm

Suicide Prevention Australia chief executive Nieves Murray has described this decision, which will halve the number of sessions that can be subsidised by Medicare, as “baffling and very concerning”.

huh? nothing baffling about it, there’s just too many people and eugenics is back big time baby!

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 12, 2022 5:56 pm

Shorter Groogs – spooks. Or flamers.

Makka
Makka
December 12, 2022 5:57 pm

KSA not happy with the US it seems. Maybe the departure of the 5th Fleet’s carrier is causing some angst , as well as Iran’s progress towards nukes.

“”If Iran gets an operational nuclear weapon, all bets are off,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said in an on-stage interview at the World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi when asked about such a scenario.”

So, up pops Xi..

https://thecradle.co/Article/Analysis/19283

Nuclear co-operation?

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 12, 2022 6:14 pm

FESTIVUS

Mmmyes, the aluminium pole will be hoisted soon, because tinsel is distracting.
Then Feats of Strength after the Festivus meatloaf

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 12, 2022 6:18 pm

Ed Casesays:
December 12, 2022 at 5:48 pm
Yeah, but Byng was hyng for losing a few ships by making poor decisions, a worthy outcome.

Byng was shot, not hanged, on the quarter deck of his own flagship.

Your Google-fu is failing you more and more often.

Zipster
Zipster
December 12, 2022 6:19 pm
Ed Case
Ed Case
December 12, 2022 6:26 pm

Was it a quid pro quo for supporting his pandemic legislation, she would have known it was a risk to her ongoing political career.
Straight out bribe.
With the Preference Whisperer calling the shots in Australia’s Upper Houses, Patten was only ever getting 1 Term.
Labor probably paid her election expenses both times too.

Johnny Rotten
December 12, 2022 6:29 pm

There were three guys named Jackson who were all in the clothing business. Due to lack of real estate options in their city, they all set up shop next door to each other. In order to convince customers to come to their store rather than one of the other Jacksons, they all put up signs to attract customers. The one on the left puts up a sign that says “JACKSON’S CLOTHING STORE. BEST PRICES!” Not to be outdone, the one on the right puts up a sign that says “Jackson’s clothing store. Best quality!” The one in the middle thinks about it for a while and eventually puts up a sign of his own. “JACKSON’S CLOTHING STORE. MAIN ENTRANCE!”

Two brothers enlisting in the Army were getting their physicals. During the inspection, the doctor was surprised to discover that both of them possessed incredibly long, oversized penises. “How do you account for this?” he asked the brothers. “It’s hereditary, sir” the older one replied. “I see” said the doctor, writing in his file. “Your father’s the reason for your elongated penises?” “No sir, our mother”. “Your mother? You idiot, women do not have penises!” “I know, sir” replied the recruit “but she only had one arm, and when it came to getting us out of the bathtub, she had to manage as best she could!”

An Italian, a Frenchman and an Aussie were talking about screams of passion. The Italian said “Last night I massaged my wife all over her body with the finest extra virgin olive oil, then we made passionate love and I made her scream, nonstop for five minutes”. The Frenchman said: “Last night I massaged my wife all over her body with special aphrodisiac oil from Provence and then we made passionate love. I made her scream for fifteen minutes straight”. The Aussie said “That’s nothing! Last night I massaged my wife, ya know, all over her body with a special butter. I caressed her entire body with the butter, and then made love and I made her scream for two long hours”. The Italian and Frenchman, are astonished, and asked “Two full hours? Wow! that’s unbelievable. How did you do it to make her scream for two hours?” The Aussie replied “I wiped my hands on the curtains”.

A man went to the police station wishing to speak with the burglar who had broken into his house the night before. “You’ll get your chance in court” said the Desk Sergeant. “No, no no!” said the man. “I want to know how he got into the house without waking my wife. I’ve been trying to do that for years!”

Ed Case
Ed Case
December 12, 2022 6:30 pm

– spooks. Or flamers.
Usually both.
Remember that Ivanov guy who caused a ruckus in Bob Hawke’s first few months?

Johnny Rotten
December 12, 2022 6:30 pm

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

– Jimi Hendrix

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 12, 2022 6:33 pm

Liz there is an interesting hypothesis floating around that prior to language there was music. “The Singing Neandertals” by Steve Mithen is a prominent example of that and the idea goes back many centuries.

Interesting theory. Certainly human children prior to learning speech do often ‘babble’ a lot, and it can be quite musical. My eldest son, who has mild autism, did this a lot, up and down a scale, and then suddenly his speech arrived more or less on time developmentally. Current our little grandson aged three who has speech difficulties has never done any babbling at all. Something’s wrong, I kept thinking and so it was.

Speech and language are evolutionary wonders, but so is everything really. Birdsong, for instance.

Dot
Dot
December 12, 2022 6:33 pm

Suicide Prevention Australia

Here’s a suggestion. Don’t lock people up for no good reason for months on end and destroy their businesses.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
December 12, 2022 6:36 pm

Weaponised Trust
It’s a ‘must watch to the end.

Bill Whittle is a good bloke and puts up a lot of good stuff.

Dot
Dot
December 12, 2022 6:40 pm

Bill Whittle is probably one of the best conservative commentators.

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

“Feminism Exists Because Men Allow It”: What TikTok ‘Karen’ Meltdowns Show about Society

Women rant on TikTok, or collapse in mental meltdown, or get captured on bystander video going full-Karen, or brag about sexual exploits. And then they bemoan the fact they can’t find a good man. Bill Whittle says the frequency of these former aberrations highlights the toll of feminism. He says the crisis is getting worse.

Makka
Makka
December 12, 2022 6:42 pm

This is a selection of historical tweets from one mOron’s lot who was instrumental in getting Trump banned from Twitter and who ran cover for Biden in the mid-terms. What a creep;

https://twitter.com/LeftismForU/status/1601718301625024512

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 12, 2022 6:45 pm

Bill Whittle is superb.

Dot
Dot
December 12, 2022 6:45 pm

Yoel Roth defends Grace Tame’s abuser

calli
calli
December 12, 2022 6:49 pm

Very, very good, Dot.

Makka
Makka
December 12, 2022 7:05 pm

Bloomberg UK
@BloombergUK

Official
As sub-zero temperatures and low wind send power prices surging, the UK is readying coal-fired power plants as a contingency measure

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
December 12, 2022 7:26 pm

I don’t see Bill Whittle as particularly conservative. He’s just sane and rational and fairly intelligent, and he thinks about things. Anybody who is sane and looks at the world and thinks about it is going to come to the same conclusions, pretty much.

rosie
rosie
December 12, 2022 7:32 pm
Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
December 12, 2022 7:36 pm

Makka says:
December 12, 2022 at 6:42 pm

This is a selection of historical tweets from one mOron’s lot

Went to the link, that is very disturbing stuff

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
December 12, 2022 7:36 pm

Tell me again why we are destroying Australia…………………….

China and India clearly didn’t get the memo that reckons coal-fired power is dead. Both are determined to drag their people out of agrarian poverty and both know precisely how to do it: cheap and reliable coal-fired power.

Building new plants at a rate that incenses the climate cult intelligentsia, both countries have no interest in the sackcloth and ashes approach to energy currently in vogue across the West.

Energy security is first and foremost, as it should be. Robert Bryce explains why China and India so infuriate those who would keep them poor, forever.

https://stopthesethings.com/2022/12/12/mission-critical-coal-fired-power-central-to-china-indias-growing-economic-fortunes/

Makka
Makka
December 12, 2022 7:40 pm

Went to the link, that is very disturbing stuff

I see now that it’s being deleted , probably because it’s so offensive it doesn’t get past Elon’s sniff test. Kid grooming and other deviant chatter.

mOron’s lot are just vile disgusting P’s OS.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 12, 2022 7:40 pm

Makkasays:
December 12, 2022 at 6:42 pm
This is a selection of historical tweets from one mOron’s lot who was instrumental in getting Trump banned from Twitter and who ran cover for Biden in the mid-terms. What a creep;

https://twitter.com/LeftismForU/status/1601718301625024512

Didn’t m0nty=fa dismiss anything about Roth as exaggerated? I wonder will he look at this thread?

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Didn’t m0nty=fa dismiss anything about Roth as exaggerated? I wonder will he look at this thread?

Monty will declare you’re a double-bigot for picking on a gay jewish guy.

Makka
Makka
December 12, 2022 7:43 pm

Ok, it’s back.

But, mUttley’s lot are still vile P’s OS.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 12, 2022 7:44 pm

Labor is subsidising electric vehicles, but there’s no plan for charging stations – Senate 25.11.22
Senator Gerard Rennick

Hilariously Bowen’s subsidy has just evaporated, like magic:

Lithium-Ion Battery Prices Rise For First Time (12 Dec)

Lithium, a mineral used in batteries to power electric vehicles, smartphones, laptops, and all sorts of gadgets, has surged to a record high this year as the world pushes forward with a ‘green’ future. But in the process of decarbonizing the global economy, battery prices, for the first time since BloombergNEF began tracking the market in 2010, have risen on an annual basis.

After a decade of deflation, the volume-weighted average price of lithium-ion battery packs across all industries increased to $151 per kilowatt-hour in 2022, a 7% increase from last year. BloombergNEF forecasts prices could continue rising next year.

Haha, who’d a thunk that making batteries out of a metal half the price of silver might cause prices to increase? And that mines might be needed, which the greens dislike, so slow down the development of. Btw don’t miss Tim Blair’s take on electric utes that was posted upthread.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 12, 2022 7:44 pm

Big_Nambas

Building new plants at a rate that incenses the climate cult intelligentsia,

Far from being incensed, some have stated that it’s China and India’s turn to “catch up” with the west. They probably think that criticising them would be racist, neo-colonialist and a multitude of other sins against “progressivism”.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 12, 2022 7:47 pm

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupiditysays:
December 12, 2022 at 7:42 pm
Didn’t m0nty=fa dismiss anything about Roth as exaggerated? I wonder will he look at this thread?

Monty will declare you’re a double-bigot for picking on a gay jewish guy.

Of course, how could I forget. He’s a hypocritical prick. Sorry, not a prick, they are useful. So are arseholes. Hmmm.

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
December 12, 2022 7:49 pm

Ed Case says:
December 12, 2022 at 6:26 pm
______________________

With the Preference Whisperer calling the shots in Australia’s Upper Houses, Patten was only ever getting 1 Term.

You do know she had been in the Vic-ghanistan parliament (LC) since 2014.

O_o

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 7:53 pm

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity says:
December 12, 2022 at 7:42 pm
Didn’t m0nty=fa dismiss anything about Roth as exaggerated? I wonder will he look at this thread?
Monty will declare you’re a double-bigot for picking on a gay jewish guy.

Look at Labor Royalty joining in a pile on.
Dover, seriously just get rid of the redneck. He’s negative equity.

miltonf
miltonf
December 12, 2022 7:53 pm

The Canbra Hooker gone, Meddick gone- greta news.

Shy Ted
Shy Ted
December 12, 2022 7:55 pm

This is the website of Suicide Prevention Australia who are celebrating 30 years of bureaucracy. Adjusted for whole of population the rate sits at 2500 a year +/- 10% and hasn’t moved except for the last 2 years when numbers have gone up (over 3000pa they sat) which is outside the normal variation.
Success? Failure? They haven’t reduced the numbers and I’m not going to knock the diligent and well-meaning organisations who actually provide the follow up services but they haven’t reduced the numbers. In true bureaucratic fashion this year they get $4,000,000 for more research (because 30 years isn’t enough). Naturally they support you know what.
They want a National Suicide Prevention Act. I like the sentence on social determinants –

They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, their age, and the factors that influence daily life. Examples include childhood abuse, addiction, bereavement, financial crisis, insecure housing, education, social isolation and more.

The last, cough, 3, cough, years, cough. About which they’ve said nothing.

Roger
Roger
December 12, 2022 7:56 pm

No surprise really given months of poor polling, but Ardern’s Labour Party has lost the bellwether seat of Hamilton West in a by-election by a significant 16 points.

With a recession looming she’s promised to focus on the economy and jettison unpopular policies.

Too little too late, I suspect. Is the LNP paying attention? Don’t be silly!

Roger
Roger
December 12, 2022 7:57 pm

This is the website of Suicide Prevention Australia who are celebrating 30 years of bureaucracy. Adjusted for whole of population the rate sits at 2500 a year +/- 10% and hasn’t moved except for the last 2 years when numbers have gone up (over 3000pa they sat) which is outside the normal variation.

Hello.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
December 12, 2022 7:57 pm

The poor weather hasn’t hurt our harvesting as the rotor gear box shat itself on Sunday morning just before the showers came.
Today was a no harvest day with showers and with another cold front tomorrow it’s looking the same.
A new $10,000 box was located and will be fitted tomorrow hopefully. They’re big and heavy so we drove the header to the dealership. The workshops have gantry systems to make a far easier task out of the change over.
Three headers bogged in the area over the weekend. Excavators were needed to dig tracks so they could be backed out.

JC
JC
December 12, 2022 8:08 pm

Can I make a suggestion? I know Cronkite has given it 5 / 5 stars but he’s always a late comer.

Buy Stan and watch Yellowstone. Not only is the storyline great, it’s just the most unapologetically redpilled show on TV. It’s also the most watched streaming series in the US. Great storyline and unreal scenery.
The US is truly beautiful.

John H.
John H.
December 12, 2022 8:11 pm

Adjusted for whole of population the rate sits at 2500 a year +/- 10% and hasn’t moved except for the last 2 years when numbers have gone up (over 3000pa they sat) which is outside the normal variation.

Where is the immediate increase? See below from the website.
There is a much bigger issue lurking here. Suicide rates have been increasing for the last decade. Anxiety and depression rates have been increasing and\or are stable.
Antidepressant prescribing has gone through the roof.
Access to psychological services has been hugely improved and subsidised.

Why are these interventions failing?

From that website:
3144 Australians died by suicide in 2021, which represents an age-standardised suicide death rate of 12.0 per 100,000 people.
The number of suicides has increased slightly, with 5 more deaths in 2021 (compared with 3139 deaths in 2020). However, taking into account Australia’s changing population the rate of suicide has decreased slightly from the 12.1 age-standardised suicide death rate reported for 2020.

m0nty
m0nty
December 12, 2022 8:13 pm

This is a selection of historical tweets from one mOron’s lot who was instrumental in getting Trump banned from Twitter and who ran cover for Biden in the mid-terms. What a creep;

https://twitter.com/LeftismForU/status/1601718301625024512

He seemed like a perfectly normal young man with a healthy sense of self-deprecating humour, who happened to be gay.

You lot turn into screeching harridans at a moment’s notice, don’t you. Your frightbat routine isn’t fooling anyone. You are trying to pretend that just because he is gay means he is a closet rock spider. Homophobic rubbish.

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
December 12, 2022 8:14 pm

Shy Ted-
The “naturally they support you-know-what” had me thinking first abortion, then euthanasia, then puberty blockers for minors… got to admit Voice wasn’t on my radar at all!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 12, 2022 8:24 pm

Indigenous activists warn contractors to avoid Perdaman urea project

exclusive
By Paul Garvey
Senior Reporter
6:41PM December 12, 2022
No Comments

A group of traditional custodians opposed to a $US4.2bn ($6.2b) urea project on Western Australia’s northwest coast will warn potential replacements for collapsed contractor Clough that they face legal risks if they step in.

Save Our Songlines, a group of Aboriginal activists who have been campaigning against Perdaman Chemicals’ plans for a new plant on WA’s rock art-rich Burrup Peninsula, has written an open letter of warning to potential construction contractors and investors about the project.

Clough was set to partner with Italian firm Saipem in the design and construction of the Perdaman plant, but the company collapsed into administration last week.

The Save Our Songlines letter, signed by Indigenous women Raelene Cooper and Josie Alec, warns that the group continues to object to the plant’s construction.

“Undertaking the construction of the project at its planned location presents significant cultural, financial and reputational risks of which potential contracting parties and investors should be aware,” the letter reads.

The current construction plans for the urea plant will impact on several pieces of rock art at the site, with Save Our Songlines arguing that it should instead be shifted to the nearby Maitland Industrial Estate. They also say the project should be built to use renewable energy, rather than gas.

“The construction of the project on Murujuga will have a significant and permanent impact on our cultural heritage, and the World Heritage values of the area,” the letter says.

Save Our Songlines is a breakaway group from Murujuga Aboriginal Corp, the body that was formed to represent the traditional owner groups from the area. Ms Cooper and Ms Alec argue that MAC is too close to the major companies working in the area and has not been able to have a sufficient say over the level of industrial activity in the area.

In the letter, the pair compared the project to Rio Tinto’s destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters, noting that the Perdaman project had been granted approvals under state and federal laws that proved inadequate at protecting that site.

They say the Perdaman project does not have the free, prior and informed consent of traditional owners and custodians.

“We believe the project is proceeding in breach of our human rights under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights and Interests of Indigenous Peoples, and have written to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in relation to the project,” they wrote.

The group has engaged the Environmental Defenders Office to provide legal advice.

Save Our Songlines has already convinced federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to launch a review of Perdaman’s plans and the broader wave of industrial developments in the area under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act. That review received more than 750 submissions, with the government-appointed investigator now preparing a report on the plans.

Perdaman founder Vikas Rambal on Monday said his company had all relevant approvals for the project and had engaged with traditional owners for the past four years. Last week, Mr Rambal said the collapse of Clough would delay the go-ahead for the project by two or three months, but said it was not a crippling blow.

“We are not giving up, but we are very realistic that we need a couple of months to resolve alternative solutions for the contractor,” Mr Rambal said.

The Perdaman project is expected to produce more than two million tonnes a year of urea, a fertiliser widely used for food production. In 2018, Perdaman secured a deal that would supply it with gas from Woodside Energy for 20 years.

The massive project is expected to create up to 2000 jobs.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 12, 2022 8:27 pm

You are trying to pretend that just because he is gay means he is a closet rock spider. Homophobic rubbish.

Monty being gay pedo curious again?

1st frothing over Bidens hog, now its frothing for a chap who informs himself extremely well on kids and grinder.

Is there something you want to share?

Roger
Roger
December 12, 2022 8:30 pm

Reports a California lab has achieved a fusion “breakthrough”.

Early days, but I’m hoping against hope it’s true, if only because it could make windmills and solar panels economically redundant and see some bad people lose a lot of money.

Ed Case
Ed Case
December 12, 2022 8:33 pm

You do know she had been in the Vic-ghanistan parliament (LC) since 2014.

O_o
Good_oh, G0_ogles

Indolent
Indolent
December 12, 2022 8:33 pm
  1. Is that the line being pushed by the DNC/MSM talking points? Very inventive, but hardly credible.

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