Open Thread – New Year’s Weekend 2023


The Dreamer, Casper Friedrich, 1840


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Oh come on
Oh come on
January 4, 2023 2:08 am

Every morning he wakes up, goes about his prison routine…another day, just like the one before. He drags his useless carcass through the hours. No hope, no reprieve, just existence. Lights out. Rinse and repeat

What did he do to be there? If it’s something especially heinous, I really don’t give a shit what he does with his useless carcass or whether or not he has hope or reprieve or whatever. And if he’s going to be a prick about it and start trying to whack other inmates or guards, then chuck him in solitary and drop the key in a bucket of wet cement, soon to set, where the key will stay trapped in hard concrete, much like him – only to be cracked open and freed when it’s confirmed his useless carcass is lifeless. I couldn’t care less.

Still don’t trust the State with CP.

Oh come on
Oh come on
January 4, 2023 2:09 am

Oh, and if death is the preferable option to the life I described above, then that’s a side benefit.

Oh come on
Oh come on
January 4, 2023 2:22 am

Giving people what is their due is at the heart of justice.

My point is that some people’s crimes are so appalling that you cannot give those people what they’re due. Remember that bloke who murdered his daughter by throwing her off the Westgate Bridge? He doesn’t deserve to die. He deserves much more than that. He deserves to feel what his daughter felt as she was being pulled out of the car by her father and tossed over the side of the bridge and falling to her death. He deserves to experience what his son went through whilst that was going through, and is likely going through right now. I have no idea what kind of bust-up he had with the mother of his children, but his children were innocent. The system can never give that person what he deserves, even if it descends to outright barbarity. Killing him won’t give him his due.

What society needs is to be protected from the likes of him forever. There are dangers in allowing the State to kill him, and there is an alternative way of ensuring that he never again poses a danger to society.

Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:12 am
Tom
Tom
January 4, 2023 4:13 am
sfw
sfw
January 4, 2023 6:24 am

Saw this via instapundit.

Dear Santa:

When I was a child, my father cheated on my Mom and didn’t love my family.

Later, my parents divorced.

Soon after, my mother died in a car accident.

My brother and I could only live in my grandma’s old house.

Grandma’s sister was an alcoholic.

The whole family lived on my grandma’s savings.

Grandma recently died.

My Uncle Andy is barely keeping himself out of jail from day to day.

My brother left home and won’t talk to us any more.

Dad, now 73, had to go out to work to support the family and eventually he is going to want me to do the same thing.

Yours sincerely,
Prince William

rosie
rosie
January 4, 2023 6:27 am

Heard this song before, at Al Jazeera.
China blasts ‘unacceptable’ COVID curbs on travellers

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 6:41 am

Odd, rosie. Up until thirty seconds ago you couldn’t get into China without vaxx ppt, Covid test and quarantine.

Now they’re whining about mandatory testing for their own travellers.

Suck it up tinpot authoritarians.

rosie
rosie
January 4, 2023 6:46 am
rosie
rosie
January 4, 2023 6:49 am

Yes Calli, the implication was they still weren’t issuing visas to inbound travellers though why anyone would want to go there.
Are the chest beating and threats of repercussions to please their domestic audience and will they once again cut off lobster imports?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 4, 2023 6:52 am

Don’t forget the Pooh Bear Xi was taking anal swabs for at least some of the time in an effort to belittle travellers from other countries.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 4, 2023 6:54 am

I will only fly Quantarse as an airline of last resort.

will
will
January 4, 2023 6:56 am
Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 7:00 am

Johnny’s teacher is giving a lesson on nutrition, and she decides to ask her students what they had for breakfast. To add a spelling component, she asks the students to also spell their answers.

Susan puts up her hand and says she had an egg “E-G-G” “Very good” says the teacher.

Peter says he had toast “T-O-A-S-T?” “Excellent”.

Johnny has his hand up and the teacher reluctantly calls on him. “I had bugger all” he says ” B-U-G-G-E-R-A-L-L”. The teacher is mortified and scolds Johnny for his rude answer.

Later when the lesson turns to Geography, she asks the students some rudimentary questions.

Susan correctly identifies the capital of Australia. Peter is able to tell her which ocean is off Australia’s west coast.

When it’s Johnny’s turn, the teacher remembers his rude answer from the nutrition lesson and decides to give him a very difficult question.

Johnny, she asks “Where is the Pakistani Border?” Johnny ponders the question and finally says “The Pakistani boarder is in bed with my mother. That’s why I got b#gger all for breakfast”.

shatterzzz
January 4, 2023 7:01 am

Who’d a thunk it! .. I’m just an ABC visit/call away from ‘celebrity” status .. LOL!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-04/to-age-well-geriatrician-recommends-diet-exercise-and-fun/101741996

Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 7:01 am

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.

– Margaret Thatcher

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 4, 2023 7:03 am

Tall people are destroying the planet.

NYT Attacks ‘Heightism,’ Calls to Mate with Short People to Save Earth (2 Jan)

Being short is “better” for the planet and future, according to a recent New York Times piece that describes short people as “inherent conservationists” who save resources by consuming less and are “best suited for long-term survival.” The essay’s author, who boasts of her “tiny” children who “eat like gerbils” and thus help “save money and food,” also calls for mating with a short partner as “an effective way to help the planet” because it can decrease the “needs of subsequent generations.”

Gerbils, it seems, will inherit the Earth.

Louis Litt
January 4, 2023 7:03 am

Goanna, Calli, Dr beauglen
Re hemp discussion.
My father always talked of the extensive use of hemp.
Rope was the use he talked about most – indistructible.
But done breathe it in when you burn it because you go “silly”.
Like eating poppy seeds in poppy seed cake, eat too much and you go “silly”.
Apart from this medicinal stuff, what else is it useful for and why is it not being used.
Goanna, as I understand Virginia north of Adelaide grows the best hemp. Cool, “wet” winter and dry summer.
How much water does a hemp plant need.
Looking forward to the contribution.

Mater
January 4, 2023 7:05 am

I will only fly Quantarse as an airline of last resort.

I haven’t forgiven them for that little same sex marriage stunt, whereby they called “ on staff members and the public to show their support by wearing a specially-designed black ring” making it easy to identify the nah sayers and ‘problem children’ within the ranks.

Talk about politicising the workplace…and applying inappropriate pressure.

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 7:07 am

Are the chest beating and threats of repercussions to please their domestic audience

Possibly. My thinking is that it’s a signal to those outside on the payroll.

rosie
rosie
January 4, 2023 7:07 am

No guarantee that short people will have short children.
Not unless you stunt their growth with poor nutrition.

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 7:08 am

Oh, and we’ll know who they are by the rhetoric and the speed of compliance.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
January 4, 2023 7:10 am

ABC news.
Data from the ACT (the only territory to record reinfections) show that only 20% of new covid cases are people who were previously infected.
ACT health spokesman says infections are providing significant protection against new strains. This is supported by studies from Portugal.
The immune system is back baby!

shatterzzz
January 4, 2023 7:11 am

for someone the media reported as “seriously” injured and too ill to be interviewed by plod she has made a “miracle” recovery … walking to the plod car unaided .. FFS!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11594817/Brisbane-Broncos-player-Payne-Haas-mother-Uiatu-Joan-Taufua-custody-following-car-crash.html

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
January 4, 2023 7:12 am

Sounds about right to me
In a tweet, author and columnist Peter FitzSimons alerted his followers to one of Jones’ listings, a “bookshelf filled with books – for as low as $200, INCLUDING my book on Kokoda”.

The entire bookshelf’s contents are devalued simply by the inclusion of Bandana Man’s novelised history – Kokoda — I have a copy only because I had the misfortune of winning it in a competition, I used to use it as a doorstop but it smelled probably because it’s full of shit, it’s now in the garage next to the dynamic lifter.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 4, 2023 7:13 am

Mater was that a specially designed ‘Back Ring’.

bespoke
bespoke
January 4, 2023 7:14 am

Miltonfsays:
January 3, 2023 at 10:57 pm
Dot I couldn’t give a f*ck what the meja think.about older fathers or older mothers. I couldn’t give a f*ck what some dead beat germalist thinks about anything. All I know is I want the legacy meja to hurry up and die.

Me too. At the beginning I thought bloggers would replace the MSN with netwrk of citizen journalist but it remains dependent whatever the media feeds it.

will
will
January 4, 2023 7:15 am
GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 4, 2023 7:16 am

Tinta that was the prize for coming first, second prize is two books etc.

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 7:18 am

Louis, here’s a link on hemp for fabric.

The plant can also be used for building materials and in some cases as a substitute for plastic. It is immensely versatile and has fewer pests and diseases than, say, cotton. The processing is similar to linen and less environmentally degrading than bamboo.

That’s just the fibres. Then there’s the leaves and flowers – what’s interesting is that it’s wind pollinated but provides a stack of pollen for bees and therefore honey production. Theoretically you can have several industries side by side using the same crop.

But, reeeeeeee! Marijuana!

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 4, 2023 7:31 am

How much water does a hemp plant need.

Depends.
There is a lot of different types.
But it’s called weed for a reason.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 4, 2023 7:31 am

Dilbert is a cartoon right? Why does it remind me of people I’ve known all the time. When my wife changed jobs in government they did 4 specific things a year. At that rate if no more were added it would take 150 years to catch up. When she was put in charge they were doing 40 in three months. The APS spend all their time redoing yesterday’s work because of minor legislative changes. A feature not a bug.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 4, 2023 7:37 am

In the US hemp got outlawed as it was competition to cotton. Demonrats would have lost power in the South.

will
will
January 4, 2023 7:37 am

Johnny Rottensays:
January 4, 2023 at 7:01 am
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.

– Margaret Thatcher

they got around that by just printing more and more

Note how the Australia has a 25% increase since January 2020 (whilst at the same time production is suppressed by lockdowns and supply chain disruptions) and the USA (first graph) has a <30% increase over the same period.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 4, 2023 7:37 am

That was in the late 1800’s.

Indolent
Indolent
January 4, 2023 7:40 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
January 4, 2023 7:41 am

Twitter thread from a former lobbyist for Coke on how they gamed the system.
Like the twitter files, it’s nothing that wasn’t already known but still good to have an insider confirm.

https://twitter.com/calleymeans/status/1609929026889711617?s=43&t=Zty4MCVZmKbyrrRdGlEWyA

Goanna
Goanna
January 4, 2023 7:41 am

Louis.

How much water does a hemp plant need.
Looking forward to the contribution.

In the seventies the Victorian Department of Agriculture studied the viability of an hemp industry here in Victoria.

The conclusion was that hemp needed more water than was viable.

will
will
January 4, 2023 7:42 am

USA click on the “5Y”

Australia click on the “Australia Money Supply M2”

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 7:42 am

I can see how it would outcompete cotton. On water useage, you’d probably need similar, but I don’t know. One of the big plusses is pest management.

bespoke
bespoke
January 4, 2023 7:43 am

Mil going back home for last time.
Hands me a six pack of Woodstock cans.
What for I say.
Just for being you.
That’ll change
Both chuckle.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 4, 2023 7:45 am

Kevin McCarthy loses the second round of voting.
The 19 GOP from the first round who voted against him held firm for the second round.
This is how it’s meant to work.
Withhold your vote until you get the one or two things either your base or donors are demanding.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 4, 2023 7:46 am

Jimmy Dore is over the moon at the moment.

Indolent
Indolent
January 4, 2023 7:47 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
January 4, 2023 7:47 am

Ice Cube is over the moon at the moment.

Gabor
Gabor
January 4, 2023 7:47 am

Hemp production in Europe was strongly ‘discouraged’ when synthetics appeared on the market after WWII.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 4, 2023 7:48 am

Withhold your vote until you get at least something.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
January 4, 2023 7:48 am

The ACT covid data also highlights that injecting children and young people is not only pointless but counter productive to their health.
Science!

Indolent
Indolent
January 4, 2023 7:49 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
January 4, 2023 7:51 am

McCarthy will be the speaker.
And he’s a vindictive chap.

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 7:53 am

Try telling young mums that, Gez. Especially when they’re advised by nice family doctors that the vaxx is good for creating herd immunity.

Just shows a raft of degrees and a lifetime in the field isn’t a guarantee of either caution or smartz. And if I make a comment, I’m met with a wall of credentialism.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 4, 2023 7:58 am

In other words, doctors could have their medical licenses revoked for telling the truth.

Maybe more than just license suspended too.

German Doctor Jailed For Issuing Thousands of Coronavirus Mask Exemption Certificates (3 Jan)

A German doctor was sentenced late Monday to two years and nine months in prison for illegally issuing more than 4,000 people with exemptions from wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic. … During the trial the defendant had argued that wearing masks was harmful to people´s health.

So she acted on the truth and gets nearly three years in the slammer. Truly telling the truth is now a revolutionary act.

Eyrie
Eyrie
January 4, 2023 7:59 am

Hemp might be good for lots of things but it is biodegradable.
Years ago, glider control cables (multistrand steel) had a hemp core. When the core biodegraded the swages on the ends could no longer hold the load hence they were replaced and banned in that use.

Indolent
Indolent
January 4, 2023 8:19 am
Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 4, 2023 8:21 am

The MIL trying to poison you again bespoke.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 4, 2023 8:23 am

Bill FTB, 12.36 overnight:

Greatly appreciated, and makes sense. Ideally in an hour or so I will have it sorted, or at least the problem identified.

Fortunately I have sufficient folding pineapples on hand for an incentive, if needed. We’ll see.

bespoke
bespoke
January 4, 2023 8:25 am

The MIL trying to poison you again bespoke.

If it was 4X I’d be certain of it, KD.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
January 4, 2023 8:28 am

We all went to school with people who later became doctors.
I didn’t detect omnipotence in any of them.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 4, 2023 8:33 am

Overseas links seem a bit slow today – locally speed test DOWNLOAD Mbps 268.16
UPLOAD Mbps 21.85

Cassie of Sydney
January 4, 2023 8:39 am

“What society needs is to be protected from the likes of him forever. There are dangers in allowing the State to kill him, and there is an alternative way of ensuring that he never again poses a danger to society.”

I wish. Look, I have my own reservations about “capital punishment”, primarily because the legal system can and does [stuff] things up. But we got rid of the death penalty and were assured that it would be replaced with harsh sentences…as in “life means life”. However, we’ve seen sentencing whittled away to the point now that society has no faith in the justice system. A “life sentence” has now been devalued, it only means ten years, or fifteen years or maximum twenty years and then the criminal is eligible for parole, and then society is vulnerable to these killers and perverts. Unapologetic murderers are walking the streets. Here’s a case from NSW, Reginald Arthurell, who now goes by the name of “Renata Arthurell” (of course) is a triple murderer, note he isn’t someone who murdered once or twice, he murdered THREE TIMES over a period of thirty years. Reginald Arthurell was released from prison in January 2022, despite warnings, despite consternation from victim’s families. Anyway, shortly after he was released, he was then rearrested over the alleged sexual touching of a younger man. The thing is, Reginald Arthurell should never ever have been released. He should die in prison.

We now have a situation where not only are victims stripped of any rights, society at large is denied protection. This was clear last week with the murder of the young mother in QLD. A halfway house was installed in a suburban street for young juvenile offenders, no consultation with local residents, the residents were oblivious to the house and its inhabitants. Some of those juveniles are dangerous, but their rights were more important than the rights of the residents. Great isn’t it? Was there any protection accorded to the residents? Nup, nada, none, zilch and now a young mother, a contributor to society, lies dead, her husband injured and their children, who witnessed the attack, now traumatised for life and motherless.

As Pogria said last night, and which I agree with, I’m not interested in “rehabilitation”, we need to learn about “punishment” again. There’s nothing wrong with punishment. And whilst I’m happy not to have capital punishment, we must have proper punishment for these criminals. And in the case of Reginald Arthurell, he should never ever have been allowed to walk the streets again.

Cassie of Sydney
January 4, 2023 8:41 am

Test.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 4, 2023 8:42 am

Somethings wrong with the inter webs today.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 4, 2023 8:47 am

In other words, doctors could have their medical licenses revoked for telling the truth.

FACTCHECK – TRUE

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 4, 2023 8:55 am

Belt – single belt for all. Okay.

Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 9:02 am

Here’s a case from NSW, Reginald Arthurell, who now goes by the name of “Renata Arthurell” (of course) is a triple murderer, note he isn’t someone who murdered once or twice, he murdered THREE TIMES over a period of thirty years.

I believe sortition for Parliament, approval voting for the executive appointed and in turn also for the judiciary appointed and assented to along with recall elections for all of those positions, along with term limits is the best possible strategy to curb terrible decision making like this.

The reason being CP is a poor tool to correct bad decisions by judges (or is it!?).

Classical republican principles are virtuous and the most utilitarian.

We already have problems like no Amendment V, weak protections against illegal searches and double jeopardy as well as majority jury verdicts. Then we have to acknowledge how virtually all judicial appointments are political patronage.

Throwing in CP or new legislative rules on sentencing on top of that may well be very, very bad.

We have fundamental problems (being a lack of protection against the accused and uncertainty of convictions) that need to be addressed in the current system (preferably a new government model though) before you can most assuredly legislate for better sentencing outcomes.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 4, 2023 9:03 am

Knuckle Draggersays:

January 4, 2023 at 8:55 am

Belt – single belt for all. Okay.

I expect you to refuse Chinese made replacements.

JC
JC
January 4, 2023 9:05 am

Cassie

Nice piece. I don’t have time but I’ll post a little more about it later.

I was one of the biggest proponents for capital punishment until a few years ago. What happened to change my mind somewhat?

Pell! Pell was one example of the sheer corruption of the justice system. Some people pushing for cap punishment in the past few days used child rape as an example of a heinous crime. Sure thing. Pell was accused of child rape and therefore could have been a contender for execution.

In the US we’ve seen the complete corruption of the justice system’s institutions with people being held in federal prison on treason charges over J6.

I used to believe in the system but not anymore and I don’t trust the system any longer.

I’d ignore some of the loudest clowns pushing for cap punishment here at the Cat when one of these imbeciles was suggesting Duarte did a fine job of allowing the police to summarily execute dealers and drug users. 40,000 lost their lives. Imagine Vic Pol with that kind of power?

I talk about it more later.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 4, 2023 9:05 am

And the prize for Dunce of the Year goes to …

JANET ALBRECHTSEN

Any decent review of 2022 has a category for Dunce of the Year. Last year there were rich pickings, including, of course, in the individual division, Scott Morrison.

While the single-handed dopes have had plenty of attention, it’s time to recognise the hands down, length of the straight winner in the collective division.

Australian big business, we salute you. For eye-watering gullibility and downright stupidity in 2022, Australia’s biggest corporates cannot be beaten.

Their two strongest performances came at the Jobs and Skills Summit/multi-employer bargaining event and during the more recent energy crisis price-capping fixture.

However, they are not yet done proving themselves dunce winners, with remarkable feats of negligence and adolescent emotionalism set to be central to their agenda later this year when it comes to the Indigenous voice.

Before turning to some of the deeper reasons for this infestation of idiocy at Australia’s biggest businesses, it is worth revisiting their performance on multi-employer bargaining and energy price regulation.

In fairness it should be acknowledged that they were played by the Albanese government: before the May election campaign Jim Chalmers specifically disclaimed any interest in multi-employer bargaining in any fields other than certain limited lower-wage sectors such as aged care.

Similarly, imposing permanent price regulation of gas, after the end of what was promised to be an interim fixing of prices to deal with a short-term issue, was an act of bad faith by the government. It snuck permanent price fixing into a mandatory code of conduct at the last minute when it thought nobody was looking.

So yes, in each case big business was blindsided by the Albanese government’s bait-and-switch exercise.

The naivety however, and the reason big business has won this award for distinguished service to gullibility, lies in the fact these con tricks, these government shell games, were entirely predictable. The surprise is that big business was at all surprised.

The legendary hardheads of Australian business, the likes of Don Argus, Hugh Morgan, David Murray, Leigh Clifford and Chris Corrigan, would have seen these deceptions coming a mile off. Modern business leaders not only fail to understand the nature of this government – who owns it, who runs it and whose interests it serves – but, for at least a decade now, they have taken their collective eyes off the economic realities while beguiled by various social causes.

The demise of the wise business leader was settled once boards became obsessed by abbreviations such as ESG, and allowed their strings to be pulled by HR departments that told them their first priority was to make themselves attractive to millennial recruits and by IR departments that cared only about the demands of activist industry fund leaders. No wonder companies are regularly outplayed by unions and other groups who hate big business.

That today the abbreviation IR means investor relations, not industrial relations, tells you all you need to know about the modern boards of our biggest companies. They know all about sustainability reporting and little about industrial relations, let alone tax or accounting.

In part this is because, over a long period, business, especially big business, has become embarrassed about itself, and indeed about capitalism.

The rising suspicion is that there are plenty of board members who would struggle to know who Adam Smith was, let alone have read his work or even summaries of it.

The likely reaction you would get to suggesting to a modern director that the invisible hand could have a benevolent effect on society is a grimace.

Stakeholders have replaced shareholders in the affections of many corporations. You don’t have to be Milton Friedman to think the pendulum has swung way too far.

Perhaps it is only appropriate that corporations are infected with identity crises. These days that seems compulsory.

However, it does mean that those running big corporations have failed to understand the importance of the chasm between the major political philosophies of today’s political parties.

Those philosophies do drive very different policy positions.

At the risk of oversimplification, which I acknowledge is a risk here, centre-right parties tend to preference individual liberties over collective rights, markets over central control and command, and flexibility over prescriptive regulation. A centre-left party such as the ALP should, by contrast, be expected to preference multi-employer bargaining over individual enterprise bargaining and price regulation over market pricing.

Moreover, as we have seen countless times in areas from union rights to superannuation disclosure to litigation funding, the ALP unashamedly abides by the first principle that you should dance with the one who brung ya.

By refusing to make political donations or take part in political debates, corporate bosses thought they could swan around at the Jobs and Skills Summit and join negotiations about energy price regulation and secure great outcomes as neutral players.

They were deluding themselves. This bunch of rubes and naifs now has no friends in politics and must accept whatever gruel is dished out to it.

A constitutionally entrenched Indigenous voice is the latest upcoming test for the big corporates.

Not a single corporate has admitted to doing the appropriate due diligence, or getting legal advice before signing on, holus bolus, to the public campaign for the voice. Like lovesick teenagers they have been seduced by the vibe of it.

If, this year, our big companies devote the sort of money – from shareholder coffers – needed to get the voice across the national referendum line at a grassroots level, they can expect a backlash from the many Australians who feel they are being forced into accepting a two-tier Australia permanently divided by race.

These same grandstanding chief executives and board members can’t say they were not warned.

All the signs are there of yet another bait-and-switch trick from Labor and Yes activists that will damage the interests of shareholders.

The nation’s corporate bigwigs – men and women who ask for legal advice before they decide to switch coffee brands at head office – seem to believe the voice confers no special rights on anyone and does not create a constitutionally entrenched right of consultation.

A first-year law student could tell them the High Court can, and very likely will, give the voice de facto privileges over many areas of their businesses.

It is impossible to feel sorry for the dunces who run some of Australia’s biggest companies.

They have systematically abandoned their friends along with founding principles in pursuit of popularity. They deserve to reap what they sow.

The problem is that shareholders end up paying the price for this growing corporate folly. Maybe 2023 will be the year when shareholders finally tire of boards and management using company funds to advance personal political agendas.

Oz

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 4, 2023 9:11 am

Vale Ken Block

DC SHOES: KEN BLOCK’S GYMKHANA FIVE: ULTIMATE URBAN PLAYGROUND; SAN FRANCISCO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuDN2bCIyus&t=79s

Gabor
Gabor
January 4, 2023 9:12 am

Knuckle Dragger says:
January 4, 2023 at 8:55 am

Belt – single belt for all. Okay.

I had the warning light come on, and after diag, it turned out, cooling fluid was low, none in the overflow reservoir, but the engine temp was still OK.

Pogria
Pogria
January 4, 2023 9:14 am

Awesome Cartoon.

The caption that goes with it;
That cartoon is spot-on. It reminds me of so many of the enlightened liberals I have met over the years, who wax poetic about their sensitivty to the less fortunate, but carefully turn a blind eye to their complicity in that misfortune.

Crossie
Crossie
January 4, 2023 9:17 am

If Died Suddenly is not due to vaccines then why aren’t statistics being released to show these things always happened but nobody cared before?

Cassie of Sydney
January 4, 2023 9:22 am

Janet A has nailed it again in the Oz.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 4, 2023 9:24 am

Pogriasays:
January 4, 2023 at 9:14 am
Awesome Cartoon.

The caption that goes with it;

That cartoon is spot-on. It reminds me of so many of the enlightened liberals I have met over the years, who wax poetic about their sensitivity to the less fortunate, but carefully turn a blind eye to their complicity in that misfortune.

Pogria,

definitely could be describing – Partner-swapping, Palamory pills & playing games: Inside Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX party house

A group of financial renegades dropped speed, blithely swapped in and out of relationships with one another, and watched their boss play video games while pitching for a billion-dollar investment.

And they all lived together at Albany, Bahamas, home to the swanky $40 million digs used by cryptocurrency giant FTX — the $15 billion company that went recently belly up amid allegations of fraud and mismanagement — according to accounts of staffers who lived and worked there.

Led by disgraced CEO and co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old Californian known as SBF, the group pulled all-nighters while high on amphetamines at their retreat — which boasted six bedrooms, two elevators, manicured grounds, a golf course and a boat basin packed with super yachts.

It was alleged on the Twitter feed of @AutismCapital that SBF used a drug called EMSAM in patch form. It is a methamphetamine derivative used on-label to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and is known to increase energy. According to Coindesk, “Bankman-Fried was … possibly suffering side effects of EMSAM (which include compulsive gambling).”

His former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, served as CEO of Alameda Research, a trading firm co-founded by SBF. Alameda reportedly lost billions of dollars through risky trades, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, allegedly led to customer funds being improperly transferred from FTX to Alameda.

Ellison, a huge Harry Potter fan, scoffed at those who didn’t take drugs in a 2021 tweet: “Nothing like regular amphetamine use to to make you appreciate how dumb a lot of normal, non-medicated experience is.”

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 9:28 am

Awesome Cartoon.

Yes, it is.

An example of being able to hold two completely positions in your brain and still be able to function. And not just function, but lecture others loudly and bitterly about their own failures.

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 4, 2023 9:29 am

Somethings wrong with the inter webs today.

If GPS is off too, then the invasion is about to start.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 4, 2023 9:32 am

A revelation!

My eyes have been opened, the lids peeled back as reluctantly and painfully as if it were fingernails instead!

Inflation is caused by greed of businesses.

You see, the economy begins to stall. Government, ever benevolent, ever solicitous, tips in a truckload of money.

Then the cold-blooded reptilian businesses seize the opportunity to up their prices scoop up as much of this money as possible.

The swine!

Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 9:32 am

Look,

Basically you had a SIMP keep on giving sweetheart loans to his non committed gf and there are very few women who are traders IRL. She kept on losing money and he funded co-dependent gambling until it all went tits up.

Gentlemen, don’t SIMP.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 4, 2023 9:33 am

I was one of the biggest proponents for capital punishment until a few years ago. What happened to change my mind somewhat?

Pell!

Absolutely.
The capital punishment option is taken off the table by whimsical politics and the breakdown of the separation between government and the judicial system.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
January 4, 2023 9:33 am

Oh come on says:
January 4, 2023 at 2:22 am
Giving people what is their due is at the heart of justice.
My point is that some people’s crimes are so appalling that you cannot give those people what they’re due. Remember that bloke who murdered his daughter by throwing her off the Westgate Bridge? He doesn’t deserve to die. He deserves much more than that. He deserves to feel what his daughter felt as she was being pulled out of the car by her father and tossed over the side of the bridge and falling to her death

Well said.
Gilbert and Sullivan had a light-hearted solution: Let the Punishment fit the crime.

Indolent
Indolent
January 4, 2023 9:34 am
calli
calli
January 4, 2023 9:35 am

I’ve always been against CP, even when the unthinkable happened to my family. It all got a little too close last night, so I decided not to pursue the argument.

Trust the Government
Trust the System
Trust the MSM
Trust the Experts
Trust the Science
Trust the Judiciary
Trust the Police

No more. I will “trust” them so far and no more. Entrusting them with the power of life and death…to a degree we already do. I don’t want to give them any more “trust” than I need to.

Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 9:36 am

Science is ONLY Possible with Constant Inquiry

From Armstrong Economics –

https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-announces-new-twitter-science-policy-blasts-dr-anthony-fauci-cannot-be-regarded-as-a-scientist

“Everybody seems to be up in arms over Musk turning Twitter into a real social media platform. When Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum ban Twitter, you know Musk is doing a great job. Bringing an end to all the propaganda from disease to Putin is such a breath of fresh air. Pray for Elon Musk. You can bet they are trying to come up with a disease or a fancy way they can claim he committed suicide.

When I was researching at the Firestone Library at Princeton University, I back friends with a professor there. One day he said to me that I reminded him of Einstein. Was shocked. I said that’s not possible. He said to me that Einstein always attributed his achievements to being curious. He said I had that same curiosity but in economics. I began to understand that ALL scientific inquiry DEMAND curiosity. If we are never curious, we will never discover anything no matter what the field.

No matter what field, you MUST always challenge the status quo. If we do not do that, besides the fact this becomes belief and not science, we will NEVER advance as a society. No matter what the field, without that freedom to inquire, society will collapse just as Communism did. If people are herded into pens like cattle and told they cannot challenge the accepted norm, they are killing humanity. This is why the government has been behind the curtain instructing social media to censor individuals and ideas all for them to desperately retain control. But they feel the world is slipping away. This is why they are fighting so hard to try to stop this trend for they know in the end – this is the decline and fall of western forms of republican governments.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/understanding-cycles/science-is-only-possible-with-constant-inquiry/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

Cassie of Sydney
January 4, 2023 9:37 am

“Pell! Pell was one example of the sheer corruption of the justice system. Some people pushing for cap punishment in the past few days used child rape as an example of a heinous crime. Sure thing. Pell was accused of child rape and therefore could have been a contender for execution.”

Agree 100% JC, and with Pell and now with Lehmann, both deemed guilty until proven innocent, the left wouldn’t even have waited for a trial, they would have taken them out and executed them already.

Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 9:39 am

callisays:
January 4, 2023 at 9:35 am

By all means Trust. But then Verify.

Ronnie Rayguns said something like that once.

Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 9:40 am

Science is ONLY Possible with Constant Inquiry

1. Why does Armstrong not understand basic macroeconomics?
2. Why has he not corrected his potted history of European currencies?
3. When did he meet Paul Keating?
4. Instead of fear mongering, why won’t he amend his underestimation of US military capabilities?

Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 9:44 am

Dotsays:
January 4, 2023 at 9:40 am

Send him an email then.

Roger
Roger
January 4, 2023 9:45 am

I was one of the biggest proponents for capital punishment until a few years ago. What happened to change my mind somewhat? Pell!

OK, but abusus non tollit usum.

Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 9:46 am

???

Maybe don’t post his P.R. trash, he’s totally unrepentant!

Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 9:47 am

One night a blonde nun was praying in her room when God appeared before her. “My daughter, you have pleased me greatly. Your heart is full of love for your fellow creatures and your actions and prayers are always for the benefit of others. I have come to you, not only to thank and commend you, but to grant you anything you wish” said God.

“Dear Heavenly Father, I am perfectly happy. I am a bride of Christ. I am doing what I love. I lack for nothing material since the Church supports me. I am content in all ways” said the nun.

There must be something you would have of me” said God. “Well, there is one thing” she said. “Just name it…” said God.

“It’s those blonde jokes. They are so demeaning to blondes everywhere, not just to me. I would like for blonde jokes to stop”.

“Consider it done” said God. “Blonde jokes shall be stricken from the minds of humans everywhere. But surely there is something that I could do just for YOU?”

There is one thing. But it’s really small, and not worth your time” said the nun.

“Name it. Please” said God. “It’s the M&M’s” said the nun “They’re so hard to peel”.

Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 9:49 am

I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.

-Elon Musk

Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 9:49 am

An unrepentant, convicted fraudster who can predict the future.

What a time to be alive.

Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 9:51 am

Dotsays:
January 4, 2023 at 9:46 am
???

Maybe don’t post his P.R. trash, he’s totally unrepentant!

Maybe you don’t read it then.

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
January 4, 2023 9:51 am

I know some here hate Cory, but this seems to fit with recent comments on this blog.

Naturally the gatekeepers of public ‘news’ won’t share the unpleasant truth of what these types of shows are really about.

In fact they go to great lengths to counter the claims that adults exposing young children to inappropriate sexualised content is ‘grooming’.

I can only wonder if similar activities pushed without the protection of the rainbow diversity banner would receive the same reception?

In any event, its increasingly obvious that the media push an agenda rather than publish news.

They ignore the inconvenient and peddle the propaganda that suits the leftist narrative.

Consider for a moment the number of fake news moments and cover ups we’ve seen recently. Here are just a few.

Russia Collusion misinformation
Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax
Hunter Biden laptop coverup
COVID vaccines are safe and effective.
COVID wasn’t created in a lab
Black Lives Matter

There are literally dozens more and they were all pushed on a co-ordinated global scale, seemingly with the intent to undermine Western civilisation.

Given the preponderance of the subtle and overt propaganda pushed by legacy media, it’s hard to draw any other conclusion than they are deliberately working against us.

MatrixTransform
January 4, 2023 9:54 am

single belt for all. Okay

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them; In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 9:55 am

No, I will continue to read it and correct his errors until you are disabused of the notion that crook is the kind of person who should give advice, let alone his ill informed advice with his non existent forecast model.

Roger
Roger
January 4, 2023 9:56 am

I know some here hate Cory, but this seems to fit with recent comments on this blog.

I suspect he comes here for his talking points.

Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 9:59 am

I know some here hate Cory, but this seems to fit with recent comments on this blog.

Along with Mick Trimble he effed over every member of the “Australian Conservative Party”.

You should have known something was up when they claimed to be grassroots but had their campaign launch at one of the most exclusive mansions on the harbour.

We tried to warn you, but loosing arrows at libertarians is sport here.

Cory “Sans Couer” Bernardi.

Whether or not you think the rogering was intentional or not is an exercise left up to the reader.

Zipster
January 4, 2023 10:01 am

Johnny Rottensays:
January 4, 2023 at 9:51 am
Maybe you don’t read it then.

actively pushing some active scammer is a bit suspicious…

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 4, 2023 10:06 am

Gilbert and Sullivan had a light-hearted solution: Let the Punishment fit the crime.

A similar one was depicted in Robert Heinlein’s parallel universe novel Job: A Comedy of Justice.

One scene – described in passing – was a bloke who’d driven drunk into someone and broken their leg. He was staked down by the police, a car was run over one leg, and a carefully timed delay was then passed before the ambulance crew could take him away – all matching what he’d done to the victim.

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 4, 2023 10:16 am

We’re public guardians bold, yet wary
And of ourselves we take good care
To risk our precious lives we’re chary
When anger looms, we’re never there
But when we meet a helpless woman
Or little boys that do no harm
We run them in, we run them in
We run them in, we run them in
We show them we’re the bold gendarmes
We run them in, we run them in
We run them in, we run them in
We show them we’re the bold gendarmes.

P
P
January 4, 2023 10:21 am

After Three Failed Attempts to Elect a Speaker, The House of Representatives Adjourns Until Noon Tomorrow
January 3, 2023 | Sundance

“They’re just not into you Kevin”…

This has happened before, just not in the modern political era. The holdouts want Jim Jordan to accept the Speaker position.

Don’t get defrosted, worried or overly attached the any outcome. This is simply the way our system was designed.

areff
areff
January 4, 2023 10:25 am

Wouldn’t it be nice if, instead of standing up, the SCG crowd simply ignored the welcome to country.

Mind you, I’d stand up for that strapping blonde behind the proud WTC fee-taker.

rosie
rosie
January 4, 2023 10:25 am

The Asko man came early
Then as quickly went
And for his goodly service
I didn’t pay a cent.
Woot!

areff
areff
January 4, 2023 10:26 am

She can sing too and has nice teeth

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 4, 2023 10:26 am

OK, but abusus non tollit usum

Sure.
But it’s a long, complicated journey back to the necessary level of trust.

JC
JC
January 4, 2023 10:28 am

OK, but abusus non tollit usum.

Roger, this highlighted a complete breakdown of the justice system in Victoria.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 4, 2023 10:29 am
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 4, 2023 10:32 am

single belt for all. Okay

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them; In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

Someone who has experienced the joy of listening to valves meeting pistons after a snapped belt.

Roger
Roger
January 4, 2023 10:35 am

Roger, this highlighted a complete breakdown of the justice system in Victoria.

No argument there.

Things are very rotten in that state.

But you still need a justice system, however imperfect.

The misuse of a thing in one instance does not preclude its proper use in other instances.

MatrixTransform
January 4, 2023 10:35 am

Somethings wrong with the inter webs today

Dear Customer,

You may have noticed that there has been technical issues in relation to some SIMs on the network over the past hour or two.

We have initiated a high priority ticket with the Major Incident Management team which have commenced investigations into a national fault impacting services across 3G & 4G networks.

At this stage we believe the disruption is limited to customers using particular APN configurations.

We will continue to work with towards a resolution at the earliest and will share critical updates with you until resolved.

Our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused due to this issue.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 4, 2023 10:37 am

Here’s a case from NSW, Reginald Arthurell, who now goes by the name of “Renata Arthurell” (of course) is a triple murderer, note he isn’t someone who murdered once or twice, he murdered THREE TIMES over a period of thirty years.

Ill keep harping on it till you all watch it..

The self serving but great little monolouge from Ghosts Of The Civil Dead

Go to 1 hr, 21 minutes and 20 seconds.
The old lag talking is the young lag shown being naughty/released..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6DpQU5rXDU

“Convicted murderer kills again screams the headlines, and i remember this advertisement for home security alarms and police demand more powers, . They bred me to create fear and i just did what i was supposed to do. People are scared, they are scared of each other because of people like me, thats the way they want it ‘cos then it always stays the same, they keep control that way…. “One man released, so they can imprison the rest of the world

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 4, 2023 10:41 am

And thanks to whoever it was who posted that Somme clip above. The book the info is taken from look very interesting and has been ordered.
I had no idea there had been a successful French offensive around the start of the Somme, but the chance to move from positional/trench warfare to war of maneuver was squandered.

Joffre you fat stupid bastard!

bespoke
bespoke
January 4, 2023 10:51 am

The misuse of a thing in one instance does not preclude its proper use in other instances.

Start with constructive and realistic salutations.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 4, 2023 10:52 am

After Three Failed Attempts to Elect a Speaker, The House of Representatives Adjourns Until Noon Tomorrow

Very popcornworthy since it doesn’t look like the holdouts will ever vote for Mr Squishy.
Who is very entitled.

‘I’ve Earned This Job’: McCarthy Unleashes on GOP Holdouts in Tense Meeting ahead of Speakership Vote (3 Jan)

Nope son, you betrayed the base and now it’s time for payback.

Jorge
Jorge
January 4, 2023 10:54 am

Joffre you fat stupid bastard

Indeed !

And, no, wearing a sparkly gold coat while seated with the Collingwood cheer squad does not make up for it.

Bastardo!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 4, 2023 11:00 am

Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dies
Seth Borenstein and Jake BleibergAP
January 4, 2023 6:32AM
Topics
World News

Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA’s Apollo program, has died aged 90.

NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs confirmed Cunningham’s death to The Associated Press but did not immediately provide further details.

Cunningham’s wife, Dot Cunningham, said in a statement he died on Tuesday but did not say where or provide a cause of death.

Cunningham was one of three astronauts aboard the 1968 Apollo 7 mission, an 11-day spaceflight that beamed live television broadcasts as they orbited earth, paving the way for the moon landing less than a year later.

Cunningham, then a civilian, crewed the mission with Navy Captain Walter M. Schirra and Donn F. Eisele, an Air Force major.

Cunningham was the lunar module pilot on the space flight, which launched from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida, on October 11 and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda.

NASA said Cunningham, Eisele and Schirra flew a near-perfect mission.

Their spacecraft performed so well the agency sent the next crew, Apollo 8, to orbit the moon as a prelude to the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969.

areff
areff
January 4, 2023 11:06 am

JC notes “a complete breakdown of the justice system in Victoria.”

Coincidentally, Rob Hulls, the man more than other responsible for the sad state of the Victorian bench, which he populated with Labor hacks and ‘root-cause’ progressives, writes in today’s Age of having his home invaded and car stolen by disaffected youths.

https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/my-family-home-was-invaded-while-we-were-asleep-i-d-like-to-meet-the-criminals-and-ask-why-20221229-p5c9c3.html

There is some justice in Victoria, albeit only of the poetic kind.

rosie
rosie
January 4, 2023 11:06 am

On Twitter, Biden has announced a 15% tax on public companies.
Clear as mud how it works.
list of increased burden here.

John H.
John H.
January 4, 2023 11:10 am

Crossiesays:
January 4, 2023 at 9:17 am
If Died Suddenly is not due to vaccines then why aren’t statistics being released to show these things always happened but nobody cared before?

Sudden death has been documented for decades. The problem now is elevation of the rate.

rosie
rosie
January 4, 2023 11:10 am

Watched that death row progam on Netflix? a while back.
Amazing how often the US legal system gets it wrong.
The unibomber is in life time solitary.
Seems sufficient to me.
I’m always amazed at Americans jubilantly celebrating executions.
Perhaps shades of the French Revolution.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 4, 2023 11:13 am

Gingin bushfires: Teen charged over lighting scrub fires
Tim DorninAAP
Wed, 4 January 2023 7:07AM

An 18-year-old man lit a string of bushfires north of Perth and then returned to help fight them, Western Australian police allege.

The teen has been charged with three counts of wilfully lighting a fire likely to injure or cause damage.

He is accused of throwing lit matches into scrub along Beermullah Road at Gingin on November 29 and 30.

Police allege the man then notified the local bushfire brigade and assisted in fighting the fires with his own ute fitted with a water tank.

He is expected to appear before Joondalup Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Anybody care to suggest a suitable punishment in this case?

rosie
rosie
January 4, 2023 11:14 am

Sudden death has been documented for decades. The problem now is elevation of the rate.

What is needed is a proper analysis of causes instead of leaping to conclusions based on personal prejudices.
For under 60s in Australia the ‘excess deaths’ are nothing like that for those over 60s.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 4, 2023 11:17 am

rosiesays:

January 4, 2023 at 10:25 am

The Asko man came early
Then as quickly went
And for his goodly service
I didn’t pay a cent.
Woot!

Was he Svedish?

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 11:25 am

Did he have Mighty Thews and was he called Sven?

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 11:26 am

Where would we be without personal prejudices?

Why…Dover would have no blog, and *horror* none of would have any opinions!

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 4, 2023 11:28 am

Areff at 11:06.
The headline from the Rob Hulls home invasion article:-

My family home was invaded while we were asleep. I’d like to meet the criminals and ask why.

Why?
Because they can, Rob.
Because there are no consequences.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 4, 2023 11:29 am

I was one of the biggest proponents for capital punishment until a few years ago. What happened to change my mind somewhat?…. Pell! Pell was one example of the sheer corruption of the justice system

Yep, I started out that way too, and there *certainly* are people so evil the world needs to be rid of them. The problem is, the state cant be trusted to decide who is in that category. Previously I would have conceded this was due to the occasional error, now I worry also about deliberate state malfeasance. Exhibit A: the AFP fitting me up for charges at the Canberra protests – they destroyed evidence of my innocence and manufactured evidence of my guilt. Had I not taken my own film of events, I could have been in jail for 5-10 years.

Everything is broken now, nothing can be trusted, its the 4th turning.

Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 11:30 am

It was Thor.

His girlfriend this morning was also thor, as was their boyfriend.

John H.
John H.
January 4, 2023 11:31 am

rosiesays:
January 4, 2023 at 11:14 am
Sudden death has been documented for decades. The problem now is elevation of the rate.

What is needed is a proper analysis of causes instead of leaping to conclusions based on personal prejudices.
For under 60s in Australia the ‘excess deaths’ are nothing like that for those over 60s.

Rosie that is being investigated. That idea that the issue is being ignored is rubbish.

Roger
Roger
January 4, 2023 11:33 am

My family home was invaded while we were asleep. I’d like to meet the criminals and ask why.

Because they wanted to steal your car and go for a joy ride, doofus.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 4, 2023 11:33 am

By all means Trust. But then Verify. (Reagan)

‘Trust but verify – except for the trust bit’ (Duk).

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Rob Hulls … writes in today’s Age of having his home invaded and car stolen

Where do we send the carton? (of scotch)

m0nty
m0nty
January 4, 2023 11:38 am

Republicans in the House looking like total clowns, LOL.

Pogria
Pogria
January 4, 2023 11:41 am

Stupid effing #%$#@!! Hulls.

Four young men had tried to break into my neighbour’s house but were unable to get over his front gate. He had CCTV installed, which captured the event. They then came to our house, found a spare key in a tin under a bush that was there for the children, came in the front door, grabbed our car keys and stole my car.

If they had gone upstairs and raped his daughter, bashed his wife, killed his dog and made him watch the whole thing, would he then want to have a casual sit down with them and ask them why the poor little petals did what they did?

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 4, 2023 11:42 am

Wow, what a horrible person…
RTWT.
Damaged the bloke, damaged women whove really been assaulted and damaged the grooming gangs cases all in one hit.

When 18-year-old Jordan Trengove agreed to go on a night out with Eleanor Williams in 2019 he had no idea that accepting her invitation would not just land him in jail but make him the enemy of a global anti-grooming movement with its own line of merchandise.
,,,
Weeks passed and one day Trengove was asleep in bed when police arrived to arrest him on suspicion of raping, drugging and assaulting Williams. He protested his innocence and cooperated with police, handing over his phone and submitting to an intimate body check so that officers could look for signs of the violent struggle Williams had described. “There was no bruising, no markings,” says Trengove now. But the damage was done. The next day someone painted the word “rapist” on his house and smashed in the windows.

Before he knew it, he was in court being remanded in custody, charged with three counts of rape. Williams had produced “evidence” that Trengove had admitted to the rapes, goading her on Snapchat, calling her “a dirty slag who was well up for a shag that night”. It took police all too long to realise that this Snapchat account had been created using the wifi at the Barrow home of Williams’s mother.

Trengove spent his 19th birthday in prison, serving 10 weeks on remand before police realised the evidence against him didn’t stack up. The girl Trengove actually had sex with on 9 March gave police a selfie she had taken in the back of the police van, while suspicion grew that far from being a particularly unlucky victim of multiple rapes, Eleanor Williams was in fact a fantasist making one false allegation after the other with the help of social media.

Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 11:43 am

A woman was sitting in the waiting room for her first appointment with a new dentist. She noticed his diploma on the wall, which bore his full name. Suddenly, She remembered a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name had been in her high school class some 30-odd years ago. Could he be the same guy that she had a secret crush on, way back then?

Upon seeing him, however, she quickly discarded any such thought. This balding, grey-haired man with the deeply lined face was way too old to have been her classmate. After he examined her teeth, she asked him if he had attended Morley high school.

“Yes. Yes, I did. Go the blue, white and red!” he gleamed with pride.

“When did you graduate?” she asked.

“In 1975” He answered “Why do you ask?”

“You were in my class!” she exclaimed.

He looked at me closely. Then, that ugly, old, bald, wrinkled faced, fat-ar*ed, grey-haired, decrepit son-of-a-bi*ch asked “Oh Really? What did you teach?”

Johnny Rotten
January 4, 2023 11:44 am

The point of living and of being an optimist is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.

– Peter Ustinov

John H.
John H.
January 4, 2023 11:46 am

Johnny Rottensays:
January 4, 2023 at 11:44 am
The point of living and of being an optimist is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.

– Peter Ustinov

Surely such optimism argued stupidity; there must be a certain lack of gray matter in a man who could go around in permanent contentment with life, and even expect something new and good from it.

Knut Hamsun

Roger
Roger
January 4, 2023 11:46 am

Where would we be without personal prejudices?

The very least contributors here can do is cherry pick some data and load it up with a few logical fallacies.

Speaking of which…where’s monty?

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 4, 2023 11:48 am

Coincidentally, Rob Hulls, the man more than other responsible for the sad state of the Victorian bench, which he populated with Labor hacks and ‘root-cause’ progressives, writes in today’s Age of having his home invaded and car stolen by disaffected youths.

Glorious. Things like this keep me going.

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 11:48 am

Duk it’s:

Verify

then…

Trust.

But only a little bit.

m0nty
m0nty
January 4, 2023 11:49 am

Hakeem Jeffries beats Kevin McCarthy in House speaker vote… four times in a row. Hahahahahajajajajaja!

Roger
Roger
January 4, 2023 11:49 am

Speak of the devil!

Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 11:52 am

How does an 18 year old “groom” another person the same age or presumably older?

She committed multiple serious justice offences, she could be in prison for decades.

I hope she gets the book thrown at her, but she won’t.

This outlines some stats, which are horrific.

https://nswcourts.com.au/articles/false-accusations-are-a-crime-in-new-south-wales/

Consistent with global trends, only a fraction of child abuse claims made in Australia are substantiated. Out of 355,935 child abuse notifications made to the AIHW made in In 2015 to 16, only 60989 were authenticated, while a high number could not be proven.

Yikes.

According to the Judicial Commission of NSW, 50 percent of those who pleaded guilty or were found guilty of making a false accusation between January 2018 to September 2019 were sentenced to full time imprisonment; with the remainder receiving intensive correction orders, community correction orders and section 9 good behaviour bonds.

I wonder what judges and magistrates could do to arrest this plague of calumny?

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 4, 2023 11:53 am

Maddie mcMadiie has a letter in the gruinaid.

Its monginomics and as cack handed a proposal as ever was fingerpainted in poo on the walls of Bedlam.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/03/an-alternative-to-government-borrowing-just-print-more-money
Anne McElvoy is right (‘It’s the economy, stupid’ says the US campaign slogan. Starmer would do well to learn it, 26 December); Labour has to move beyond “simply redistributive ideas, to those that move the needle on growth”, but she fails to confront one essential component to achieve this. Taxation and borrowing from the private sector remain central to any government economic policy. So far, “borrow to invest” has conditioned even leftwing thinkers to accept the unequal distribution of wealth.

But there is an alternative that will also aid redistribution: print and regulate. The opposition to the government printing money is that it would cause inflation by increasing demand on resources. But this is only true if private finance is allowed the same capacity to invest. If the latter’s investment capability is restricted by the same amount as increased public spending, then demand for resources would remain unchanged and inflationary forces contained.

Assume a starting point with the nation having 10 units of national resources balanced by 10 units of financial wealth, comprising one public and nine private. The conventional theory goes like this: if the government wishes to invest an extra financial unit, it must borrow it from the private if demand for resources does not exceed 10 units: two public and eight private. However, what seemed to have escaped governments, opposition and economists alike, is the government need not borrow the additional financial unit it aims to spend. The government can instruct the Bank of England to create the additional unit of financial wealth and reduce the private sector’s ability to invest by one financial unit. Not only would this not add to the burden of the nation’s debt to private finance, but it will simultaneously redistribute wealth away from the private to the public sector. A win-win.
Fawzi Ibrahim
Author, Capitalism Versus Planet Earth: An Irreconcilable Conflict

Do it, do IT, DOOOOO ITTTTT!!!

calli
calli
January 4, 2023 11:53 am

Naughty corner Roger.

Now.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 4, 2023 11:53 am
Dot
Dot
January 4, 2023 11:53 am

This is interesting:

https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi356

Qualifying for and determining the quantum of compensation
Compensation levels for wrongful conviction in Australia and overseas are generally not as generous as those for normal tortious claims such as negligence, or even for claims such as false imprisonment (Percy 2007; Taylor 2003). False imprisonment cases are quite uncommon, so it is difficult to arrive at a clear tariff for the tort, but the following cases give an idea of the level of damages ordered:

A protestor in Queensland who was refused entry into a sitting of Parliament and wrongfully removed and imprisoned by police for a matter of hours was awarded $20,000 plus interest. The judge found that the plaintiff had suffered little or no shame, indignity and mental suffering but nevertheless had had his rights violated (Coleman v Watson [2007] QSC 343, BC200709939).
A NSW man who was wrongfully arrested and imprisoned by police for 56 days pursuant to an ultra vires order of a magistrate (for failing to pay costs of an earlier unsuccessful prosecution) was awarded $75,000 plus interest (Spautz v Butterworth (1996) 41 NSWLR 1).
A NSW man attended a police station for an interview and was arrested, charged and detained for three hours in relation to a number of separate matters. It later transpired there were no reasonable grounds for the arrest. The man was awarded $25,000 plus interest (Zaravinos v NSW (2005) 214 ALR 234).
Where ex gratia compensation payments are made in Australian jurisdictions, they would seem to encompass both pecuniary and non-pecuniary loss to the person (that is, loss that is easily quantifiable, such as loss of income) and loss that is not readily calculable (such as pain and suffering or the loss of the expectations of life).

Taylor (2003: 232) estimates compensation in the United Kingdom to be on average, including both pecuniary and non-pecuniary loss, 13,000-14,000 for each year the person has been imprisoned. Taylor cites the case of a soldier wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 25 years who was awarded 350,000, which translates to about 14,000 a year.

Ex gratia compensation payments in Australia have been described as ‘somewhat arbitrary’ and generally ‘very modest’, making it difficult to establish any formal or informal tariff of damages payable (Percy 2007). The broad discretion in awarding and lack of transparency surrounding these payments makes it difficult to determine what types of situations will result in an ex gratia payment at all, regardless of its size.

In the Chamberlain case, Lindy Chamberlain received an ex gratia payment of $1.3m, as well as $396,000 for legal costs and $19,000 for the family car which had been effectively destroyed as a result of forensic investigations. She was imprisoned for approximately four years before her sentence was remitted and an inquiry convened into the matter (Victorian Bar 2005; see also Re Conviction of Chamberlain (1988) 93 FLR 239).

Percy (2007) discusses a number of other awards. In 1979, Tim Anderson, Ross Dunn and Paul Alister were convicted in New South Wales of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison. After serving seven years imprisonment, they were unconditionally pardoned and were each awarded a $100,000 ex gratia payment. In 1980, Douglas Rendell was convicted of murdering his wife in New South Wales and after serving eight years in jail, was awarded a $100,000 ex gratia payment. In 2003, a WA man, John Button, was cleared of a 1962 murder and awarded a $400,000 ex gratia payment. Lastly, in 2006, a Perth man, Andrew Mallard (Mallard v R [2005] HCA 68, BC200509688), was cleared of a murder for which he served 12 years of imprisonment. Mallard’s application for an ex gratia payment is still under review, but he has already been granted an interim ex gratia payment of $200,000.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 4, 2023 11:54 am

My family home was invaded while we were asleep. I’d like to meet the criminals and ask why.

Many people, perhaps most, would have entirely different reasons for wanting to meet their nocturnal visitors.

Personally speaking, “why?” would be fairly low on my list.

m0nty
m0nty
January 4, 2023 11:57 am

Donald Trump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr
We all want House leadership to be as conservative as possible, but I’m not okay with throwing House Leadership to Dems & Never Trumpers. Being fine with Hakeem Jeffries becoming Speaker simply out of spite for McCarthy isn’t what any Republican voted for in November.
Disaster.

Junior then links to this tweet:

Jake Sherman @JakeSherman
MORE NEWS —
In a private mtg yesterday, GAETZ, BOEBERT, PERRY told McCarthy they wanted their OWN legal entity in House to wage lawsuits.
The group also told McCarthy that they don’t mind if the speaker vote goes to plurality and @RepJeffries is elected bc they’ll fight him.

Things going well, then.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 4, 2023 12:02 pm

Monty being shocked that a political party is doing internal politics in the open.

How unseemly.
Far better if the public never knows of disputes or positions within a group and is instead served up a pre determined stage managed farce.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 4, 2023 12:02 pm

Rosie that is being investigated. That idea that the issue is being ignored is rubbish.

Australia’s recent ‘excess mortality’ has been in the 13-18% range (depends on how you calc baseline) whereas even a 1-2% jump would be unusual and 5% extra-ordinary. Even a 10% increase equates to an extra 17,000 deaths per year – or 2 full 737s spudding in every week, yet the MSM is silent, as is the opposition. Where is the outcry? where is the AMA or AHPRA screaming for answers?

It aint being investigated, its being ignored.

m0nty
m0nty
January 4, 2023 12:06 pm

Monty being shocked that a political party is doing internal politics in the open.

It’s difficult to see how this ends well for the GOP. The factions are too far apart.

The American system is built on veto power, and it appears the Gaetz group is going to veto McCarthy even if that means electing Jeffries as speaker. That would be disastrous for Republican control of House committees.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 4, 2023 12:08 pm

Monty now shocked to see people will stick to principles over power.

How unseemly.

m0nty
m0nty
January 4, 2023 12:10 pm

LOL, Gaetz is not sticking to any principles. He wants his own governmental star chamber to preen in front of the cameras during Hunter Biden witch hunts.

rickw
rickw
January 4, 2023 12:10 pm

My family home was invaded while we were asleep. I’d like to meet the criminals and ask why.

This actually happened to me once.

I woke up with my wife’s hand over my mouth with her whispering in my ear that someone was in the apartment.

Full of adrenalin I grabbed him in the kitchen and hauled him out the door with extreme prejudice. Resisted the strong temptation to launch him down the stairs.

Career criminal at the tail end of a very shit career which included armed robberies and multiple assaults with a weapon.

John H.
John H.
January 4, 2023 12:11 pm

flyingduksays:
January 4, 2023 at 12:02 pm
Rosie that is being investigated. That idea that the issue is being ignored is rubbish.

Australia’s recent ‘excess mortality’ has been in the 13-18% range (depends on how you calc baseline) whereas even a 1-2% jump would be unusual and 5% extra-ordinary. Even a 10% increase equates to an extra 17,000 deaths per year – or 2 full 737s spudding in every week, yet the MSM is silent, as is the opposition. Where is the outcry? where is the AMA or AHPRA screaming for answers?

It aint being investigated, its being ignored.

https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/why-are-more-people-dying-in-australia-many-questi

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/excess-deaths-in-2022-incredibly-high-at-13-per-cent/news-story/2a33dfeeb7476765da4e237c59f59bf7

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/09/two-thirds-of-15400-extra-australian-deaths-in-2022-caused-by-covid-study-finds

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 4, 2023 12:11 pm

In Safe as Houses news:

The value of Australia’s home loan market is around $2.1 trillion. About 35 per cent, or $735bn, of that total were fixed rate mortgages, as of early October, according to the Reserve Bank. And around 65 per cent, or $478bn of these fixed rate loans were due to expire by the end of 2023.
[…]
Fixed rate mortgages in Australia have historically been only about 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the total.
That was until the RBA lent $188bn of three-year fixed-rate loans to banks at rates of between 0.1 and 0.25 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic and said it was “not expecting to increase the cash rate” from a record low of 0.1 per cent for “at least three years”.
[oz, paywalled]

Safe hands.

Roger
Roger
January 4, 2023 12:12 pm

Naughty corner Roger.

Now.

Yes Miss.

But can I just say…

…yet the MSM is silent, as is the opposition. Where is the outcry? where is the AMA or AHPRA screaming for answers?

ABC RN has actually been covering this.

Don’t seem to have got much traction though. Can’t think why…

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 4, 2023 12:12 pm

Mallard received a sizeable payout, moved to the US and died when run over as a pedestrian. I expect he would say that incarceration alone is a substantial punishment.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 4, 2023 12:13 pm

Rudd already chirping away via the AFR.
Past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour.

rickw
rickw
January 4, 2023 12:15 pm

It aint being investigated, its being ignored.

Indeed, a massive f’ck up with almost the entirety of Government and The Bureaucracy implicated. Most likely of a scale and severity that demands capital punishment for criminal negligence and human rights violations.

Roger
Roger
January 4, 2023 12:17 pm

Yells from naughty corner…

What dover just said! (at 12.10pm)

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 4, 2023 12:17 pm

ABC RN has actually been covering this.
Don’t seem to have got much traction though. Can’t think why…

Kochie doesn’t do mea culpas. Or Latin more generally.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 4, 2023 12:25 pm

I think this is the comedy version of how Andrew “unfeasibly small cranium” Tate operates.

Fairly dark comedy here.
I like the facial expression during the “implications” line.

https://youtu.be/-yUafzOXHPE

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 4, 2023 12:32 pm

LOL, Gaetz is not sticking to any principles. He wants his own governmental star chamber to preen in front of the cameras during Hunter Biden witch hunts.

Be fun if he gets the DoJ to disgorge the 400 pages of Hunter stuff they’ve fessed about holding.
Publicizing those might just be a little more entertaining that Trump’s tax returns, which the MSM seems to no longer be interested in.

Justice Department is concealing 400 pages of ‘sensitive documents’ laying bare payoffs and gifts to Hunter and Jim Biden from China, Russia and Ukraine – after acknowledging the records exist – lawyer claims in suit (2 Jan)

As to McCarthy, well he reaped what he sowed. It’s fun to watch. Pity they couldn’t do McConnell too.

bespoke
bespoke
January 4, 2023 12:32 pm

dover0beachsays:
January 4, 2023 at 12:10 pm

9/10.

I was tempted to take points off for taking so long. But I’m feeling charitable today.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 4, 2023 12:33 pm

^ years of political pressure and court cases and they finally got trumps tax returns released… which so far appear to have shown SFA.

1243 days since Epsteins death and all they have done is lock away his assistant and put her little black book of information under lock and key.
Not a skerrick has leaked about the client list.

And a media which is curiously incurious about uncovering what could be the biggest scandal in modern history, capable of “punching up” to the degree it could see governments and venerable institutions fall.

Vicki
Vicki
January 4, 2023 12:34 pm

Australia’s recent ‘excess mortality’ has been in the 13-18% range (depends on how you calc baseline) whereas even a 1-2% jump would be unusual and 5% extra-ordinary. Even a 10% increase equates to an extra 17,000 deaths per year – or 2 full 737s spudding in every week, yet the MSM is silent, as is the opposition. Where is the outcry? where is the AMA or AHPRA screaming for answers?
It aint being investigated, its being ignored.

Whilst it is attracting some attention in areas of the media, the overwhelming assumption seems to be that excess mortality can be attributed to either Covid itself, or medical issues that were not addressed during the lockdowns.

Now, this may be true to some extent, but the degree of excess mortality figures is just too great around the world to attribute to these causes. Furthermore, it has been noted that the figures climb after vaccination programs begin – particularly the booster programs.

Eyrie
Eyrie
January 4, 2023 12:34 pm

Resisted the strong temptation to launch him down the stairs.
Pity he didn’t resist and stumble and lose his footing.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 4, 2023 12:35 pm

The Democrats do appear to have opened a Nancy’s Chest.

JC
JC
January 4, 2023 12:35 pm

m0nty says:
January 4, 2023 at 12:10 pm
LOL, Gaetz is not sticking to any principles. He wants his own governmental star chamber to preen in front of the cameras during Hunter Biden witch hunts.

Payback is a real bitch, hey?

Eyrie
Eyrie
January 4, 2023 12:35 pm

Sign in NASA control room – “In God We Trust – all others bring data”

1 14 15 16 17 18 24
  1. BoN @ 08:42am It has been revealed the issue is affecting border control e-gates meaning airports are having to check…

  2. but a few days ago in Poland, outside the gates of Auschwitz no less, keffiyeh wearing pro-Palestine protesters, waving Pallie…

  3. I suspect that close scrutiny would disclose a significant proportion of recently naturalised “decision makers” involved.

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