Open Thread – Weekend 14 Jan 2023


Girl at a Sewing Machine, Edward Hopper, 1921


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Mater
January 14, 2023 12:01 am

1st

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
January 14, 2023 12:49 am

Podium

JC
JC
January 14, 2023 12:51 am

Thank God for the new thread. The old one was being polluted with massive pubbling and outbacking.

mizaris
mizaris
January 14, 2023 12:59 am

Over…top 10 – woot woot

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 1:10 am

Catching up:
Makka:

I lived in Riyadh for a couple of years. 52c outside my front door. IMO the Pilbara is worse with the high humidity over the summer.

Six months. Unfond memories of open skips emptied when they filled and in the heat, they stank.
Poor bloody cats living on the scraps, many with cancers. Dirty unwashed Arabs spitting in the streets. The Souks. Cammed up grasshoppers. Mutawa – Religious Police lording it over the poor bastards trying to make a quid.
Gay Westerner nurses making a fortune selling their arses.
Shithole. I couldn’t get out of the place quick enough.

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 1:10 am

Salvatore:

This triggers a response I meant to write to Robert Sewell (& deepest apologies I forget who else) re a recent discussion on tractors vs horses for farming.

Probably along the lines of the money and resources Germany put into rearming and prosecuting WW2 would have solved their food and resource issues. Mechanisation of the farms alone would have doubled production.
But that assumes the war was about resources, which it wasn’t. It was about ideologies.

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 1:11 am

Chris:

The hardest part is climbing over the mounds of cheap Indonesian chili sauce, chocolate-coated dishwasher tablets and Fake Banana-flavoured Jatz to reach the real food and the checkouts.

Banana flavoured Jatz?
Be still, my beating heart!
From where can I purchase these delectable provisions?

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 1:15 am

I understand NASA has put out a contract to determine the gender of White Dwarf Stars.

Did this really happen?
(That I or anybody would even entertain the possibility this might not be a mickey-take, illustrates how far we’ve fallen)

No, I’m just taking the piss…

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 1:23 am

From Daniel Greenfield and Sultan Knish – General Milley and Treason.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 14, 2023 3:17 am

Top ten. That’s a first for a while.

And no scrolling necessary – yet.

Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:00 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:12 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 4:13 am
132andBush
132andBush
January 14, 2023 4:22 am

Thanks Tom.

Garrison right on the money.

bespoke
bespoke
January 14, 2023 4:31 am

1st

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 14, 2023 5:08 am

Either I’m too stupid to appreciate David Rowe’s colossal genius, or he is a talentless moron.

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 14, 2023 5:59 am

Test

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 14, 2023 6:06 am

James Campbell has a piece in the Daily Telegraph. Ten questions surrounding Teh Voice. Number 10 being:

10. WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER THE REFERENDUM?

If the Yes case wins, the government will move quickly to introduce the implementing legislation, which will be debated like any other bill.

At present, it looks as though this is where the detail people are demanding will emerge.

A defeat would be “a constitutional and moral disaster,” Prof Craven says.

“Australians will have, for whatever reason, rejected their Indigenous brothers and sisters. It will just be a catastrophe I reckon,” he says.

“If it fails, certainly I don’t think it will happen again in my lifetime.

“But I am certain Indigenous people will have another shot at it in the future,” Mr Button says.

“It’s people’s right to vote and people’s right to have opinions if it should or shouldn’t win, and I desperately hope it wins.”

What is clear is that if it fails, no government is likely to try this again any time soon.

So there you have it. Referendum gets defeated, as others here have said, will be a Bill introduced where Labor have a majority.
A catastrophe looms however, what catastrophe that befalls black fellas remains unexplored.
It’s all about the feelz ladies and gentlemen, nothing more.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 14, 2023 6:10 am

Look I hate to break it to you BB but Rowe is a talentless moron. Wasn’t so painful was it?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 14, 2023 6:20 am

BB I get the impression you see very little of the $60k per person spent on Aboriginals. None of the few I know see a cent. Someone is getting a lot and I suspect they’re not Aboriginals.

will
will
January 14, 2023 6:26 am
GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 14, 2023 6:28 am

I used to live in a govvie (welfare housing) street in Canberra. The only ones on welfare were the grifters. 2 families (not Aboriginals who were to busy supporting themselves) out of 14 working and rorting the system. Where does all the money go?

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
January 14, 2023 6:48 am

Gerard Henderson’s article in the Oz about the Pell Royal Commission:
Media pile-on fuelled by flawed commissionGERARD HENDERSON

JANUARY 14, 2023

It was a morning in mid-July when I last had an in-person conversation with Cardinal George Pell. We both addressed a conference of Catholic priests in suburban Sydney. His topic was The Church and its future – mine, The Pell case and the media.

I spoke about the huge media pile-on against Pell which was led initially by the ABC and the (then) Fairfax Limited newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. They were later joined by Channel 9, The Guardian Australia, Channel 10 and The New Daily – and more besides.

Not every media outlet was unremittingly hostile to Pell – but most were. This commenced when Pell was appointed archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, continued when he took up a similar role in Sydney in 2001 and ramped up when Pell became the Vatican’s Prefect of Secretariat for the Economy (effectively the Holy See’s treasurer).

The royal commission was established to report on the responses of all Australian institutions into child sexual abuse. It turned out, however, that its focus was on Christian institutions – in particular the Catholic and Anglican churches. For example, in Tasmania, McClellan and his fellow commissioners conducted two case studies.

The royal commission examined the Hutchins School (which has a connection with the Anglican Church) and the Church of England Boys’ Society. In recent years, the Tasmanian government has established commissions of inquiry into government schools, a hospital and a youth detention centre – which were places of historical child sexual abuse. All of which were overlooked by the royal commission.

Paul Collins, the former Catholic priest and one-time ABC presenter, was no ally of Pell. However, in December 2017 he wrote in Pearls & Irritations that “the royal commission focused unduly on Catholicism”.

The royal commission devoted most of its attention to the Catholic Church – and Pell was in the witness box a total of around 35 hours. On occasions, he was treated with evident hostility.

It would have been difficult for Pell to receive a fair trial (which later eventuated) in view of the media pile-on in evidence since 1996. But this became all but impossible due to the media coverage of the royal commission

In the event, in June 2017 Victoria Police charged Pell with 26 historical child abuse charges ranging from the mid-1970s in Ballarat to the mid-1990s in Melbourne.

Graham Ashton, then Victoria Police’s chief commissioner, referred on radio to Pell’s “victims” even before he had been charged, much less convicted.

Ashton simply accepted the allegations against Pell run by journalist Louise Milligan on the ABC TV program 7.30 on July 27, 2016.

This came as no surprise since Victoria Police had set up a task force investigating Pell even before any complaint had been made against him.

In time, none of the charges prevailed. But Ashton went on the media again to say that Victoria Police had done a good job. It was like a coach of one of the rugby codes claiming victory after a 26 to zero points loss.

Only five out of the 26 charges made it to trial. A jury in the first trial could not reach a verdict. The second jury convicted Pell of all five charges – despite the fact that one of the charges had never been investigated by Victoria Police.

The Victorian Court of Appeal upheld the jury verdict by a two-to-one majority. But the dissent by Justice Mark Weinberg was devastating in content.

Cardinal George Pell gives evidence to the Royal Comission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016. Picture: AAP.
Cardinal George Pell gives evidence to the Royal Comission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016. Picture: AAP.
In time, the High Court of Australia – in a unanimous decision – quashed all charges and Pell was released, having served 405 days in a maximum-security prison. The hearings demonstrated that the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions could not demonstrate how the alleged offences could have taken place.

It soon became clear that some journalists who led the media pile-on against Pell did not accept the High Court decision. This is evident in the comments of Milligan (ABC), Lucie Morris-Marr (The New Daily) and Melissa Davey (The Guardian Australia). David Marr (then writing for The Guardian) did accept the decision while remaining a Pell critic.

However, the media pile-on against Pell continued. He could no longer be plausibly depicted as a pedophile. But Pell’s critics now focused on the royal commission’s findings that Pell had been remiss in handling child sexual abuse when he was a priest, a bishop and an archbishop in Ballarat, Melbourne and Sydney respectively. They relied on the royal commission’s report.

THEAUSTRALIAN.COM.AU05:12
Cardinal Pell set a ‘different tone’
UP NEXT

In Chapter nine of my book Cardinal Pell, the Media Pile-On & Collective Guilt (Connor Court, 2021), I document that the royal commission’s report with respect to Pell contains errors and a number of serious inconsistencies. Moreover, it did not produce any oral or documentary evidence in making its hostile findings against Pell. Instead, the royal commission found that Pell’s evidence was, variously, “inconceivable”, “implausible”, “not tenable”, “unlikely” and so on. These were opinions only, unsupported by evidence.

No one has challenged any of my criticisms of the royal commission’s findings with respect to Pell. Likewise, none of the Pell antagonists criticised by me have identified any errors in my book.

Pell’s critics prefer to ignore or downplay the High Court’s unanimous decision and run with the royal commission’s findings – concerning which Pell had no right of appeal or even an opportunity to respond in the body of the report. Royal commissions are not courts of law.

In my speech in Sydney, I made the point that, despite spending a year in jail, Pell needed a unanimous High Court judgment to minimise the campaign against him and totally discredit the falsehood that he was a pedophile.

When we met at lunch, I said to Pell that I hoped he was not upset at my comment. He replied that he had thought about this himself. Pell added that, without time in effective solitary confinement, he would never have written his three-volume Prison Journal (Ignatius Press).

It’s a fine piece of writing which contains a strong spiritual message about how to prevail against injustice without surrendering hope.

Gerard Henderson is executive director of the Sydney Institute.

GERARD HENDERSON COLUMNIST

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 6:48 am

Grey Ranga:

Where does all the money go?

It goes to the Big Men of any of the cultures.
I’d be in favour of DNA based I.D. if I was sure the government would police it, but you know damn well they wouldn’t.
The amount of welfare and tax fraud out there is – I suspect – in the scores of billions of dollars annually.
Probably why it won’t be brought in, there’s too many wealthy people on it.

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 14, 2023 6:49 am

No I don’t see any GreyRanga. Employed. But just say I go to the local Aboriginal health organisation, which I will need to do for a referral to an optometrist, I will pay for the glasses.
That’s no biggie.
But you asked ‘where does all the money go?’
Again, use the local org here as an example. The doctors that come here to see patients cost money. None are Aboriginal. Transport to Bendigo or Melbourne cost money. Unless you work in the org and indeed are Aboriginal, you see money then as your salary. Because a lot of staff aren’t black.
That’s the best way I can describe at this early hour without coffee lol.

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 14, 2023 6:52 am

Campbell:

1. WHAT WILL ITS POWERS BE?
The Voice’s proponents are adamant its powers will be limited to offering advice to parliament and government about matters impacting Indigenous Australians.

“It will be an advisory body that will be able to express a view,” Professor Greg Craven, a member of the government’s Constitutional Expert Group says.

As for fears it will be able to make laws, forget it.

“It won’t be able to amend them, can’t stop them (and) can’t make them,” he says.

“If I can compare it with something that already exists,” says Selwyn Button, a member of the government’s Referendum Engagement Group, “its powers will be not be dissimilar to a parliamentary committee that gives advice to government, the difference being this committee will be there forevermore.”

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 14, 2023 6:53 am

2. WHY PUT IT IN THE CONSTITUTION? WHY NOT JUST MAKE A LAW?
For advocates, this permanence is one of the most important reasons the Voice should be entrenched.

It goes back to history, says MUA official and signatory of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Thomas Mayo.

“We have had established representative bodies many times in the past, either created by ourselves or by government, but, especially with changes of government, these representative bodies have been silenced or fundamentally changed,” he says.

“By constitutional enshrinement, the Australian people are saying to all future parliaments that the principle of listening to Indigenous people is something we want to last.”

Constitutional entrenchment also has a symbolic power that legislation lacks.

“By putting it in the constitution you give it extraordinary gravity and dignity, and it can’t just be abolished by an act of Parliament,” says Professor Craven.

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 14, 2023 6:55 am

3. HOW WILL IT BE CHOSEN?
This is really unclear. The position of the Referendum Engagement offers principles, which the government appears to endorse, that it should be chosen by Indigenous people “based on the wishes of local communities and representative of them, as well as being empowering, community-led, inclusive, respectful, culturally informed and gender balanced, and inclusive of youth. (chortle)

But so far there is no concrete detail.

When he is asked about this, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese points to the 272-page Voice Co-design Process report by academics Marcia Langton and Tom Calma.

This is problematic for two reasons.

Firstly, the report canvasses different ways members could be picked, from selection from local and regional voices, to representative assemblies from state or territories, or some kind of hybrid arrangement.

Secondly, as Prof Craven says: “The PM makes reference to Calma-Langton but doesn’t commit to it. We don’t really need detail, we need the architecture.”

Mr Mayo disagrees. “Calma and Langton lays this out,” he says.

“The government will do more consultation with communities. The referendum is not about the model, it’s about the principle.”

The model will be a matter for parliament to deal with later, he says.

“It is not something that we should be squabbling about. There will be many different views about the model. But the fact is the referendum is only about the principle.”

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 14, 2023 6:56 am

4. IS THE FINAL REFERENDUM QUESTION SETTLED?
The PM has made it clear — as recently as last week — the question put at the referendum is up for negotiation.

But most observers think it will be pretty close to the proposal he unveiled in his speech at the Garma Festival last July.

“They’re going to try and keep it as simple as possible,” Mr Button says.

“I think the thing we do need to start doing now is having consultation out in the community about it so the public understands the benefits.”

Professor Craven is sceptical: “On the surface there is an openness — time will tell”.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
January 14, 2023 6:58 am

Janet Albrechtsen on the Britney the Knickerless payout:

It’s time to go through Labor’s Christmas trash
JANET ALBRECHTSEN
JANUARY 14, 2023

Few government spin doctor techniques are as venerable as sneaking out bad news late on the Friday night of a holiday long weekend. It’s called taking out the trash. When governments have something especially smelly and dishonourable to hide, they use the Christmas variation of this trick. Confess to something just before Christmas, hoping the voters will be so diverted by last-minute shopping and cooking that the bad news will go unnoticed.

Of course, if the government can get past Christmas without any ruckus, the long January snooze of cricket and the beach means they are home free until February. And by then who cares?

The Albanese government was surely working that theory to its maximum extent when it raced to settle Brittany Higgins’ civil claim over alleged workplace mistreatment just before Christmas. With obscene haste and thumbing their noses at any suggestion they appropriately investigate and test Higgins’ claims, the government reached a confidential settlement of these vigorously contested claims just in time for the Christmas hibernation.

The process followed by the government, and in particular the Department of Finance, to settle this claim was so outrageously out of line with what taxpayers were entitled to expect that this matter should not go away in 2023. While the government will undoubtedly continue to use every trick in the book to shut this down, every crossbencher, especially those elected on integrity platforms, should race to join the Coalition in pursuing this at Senate estimates, with the Australian National Audit Office – and, ultimately, at the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

One wonders what Mr Integrity, Glyn Davis, makes of this process and this payment. In 202l, the professor, who is now secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, delivered the The Jim Carlton Annual Integrity Lecture, focusing on the public service’s need to provide frank and fearless advice to ensure integrity and accountability of government. Before that, Davis was a member of the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service – called Our Public Service Our Future – commissioned by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

In other words, genuine integrity was meant to be a core KPI for this government.

That flies in the face of what public servants did with the Higgins claim. And the best way to understand the secretive, unaccountable, unprofessional and ­apparently profligate use of taxpayer money in settling claims of workplace misconduct in parliament is to contrast it with the way other claimants on the public purse are treated.

Our injured or disabled military veterans, in particular, must look at the way the Higgins claim was finalised with disbelief at the comparative injustice of it all.

A quick recap of the Higgins’ workplace claim is necessary. Higgins claims that following the night she alleges Bruce Lehrmann raped her, she was mistreated at work by then ministers Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown, and subsequently by minister Michaelia Cash. These claims were, and are, hotly disputed by each of the ministers and Brown. Key elements of Higgins’ claims about her treatment, and about what (if anything) Higgins told the three women about the alleged rape were contested under oath by each of Reynolds, Brown and Cash at Lehrmann’s criminal trial.

Higgins never had to file a formal Statement of Claim or detailed particulars. Rather, the Department of Finance rushed to settle her claim voluntarily and in an enormous pre-Christmas hurry. Despite the fact that, as a result of the criminal trial, it was highly public that there was a massive dispute about the facts, the government not only did not seek witness statements or any formal evidence from Reynolds, Cash or Brown but positively avoided doing so.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus used his powers to muzzle Reynolds in particular, and to demand she not attend the mediation. Dreyfus appears to have done everything in his power to ensure these claims were never appropriately tested.

Perhaps that was no surprise given that he, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had conflicted themselves by making public statements in support of Higgins.

Finally, as if to confirm to voters that it was ashamed of the disgraceful way it had flouted the requirement of the Legal Services Directions to act “in accordance with legal principle and practice”, the government agreed to keep the settlement confidential.

At a time when Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins and the government are demanding private sector entities avoid confidential settlement of workplace bullying and other claims using their own money, the government hushes up how much taxpayer money it paid to a woman whose heavily disputed allegations contributed in no small way to its election win. This confidentiality is another apparently clear breach of the Legal ­Services Directions, but by this stage who’s counting?

And, by the way, a quick hark back to the case of Rachelle Miller reminds us that this is not the first time the Department of ­Finance has made a very substantial payment in hotly contested circumstances.

Surely, as a starting point, the ANAO will be investigating how many of these payments have been made so the public can understand what is going on here. In the meantime, while the Department of Finance appears adept at showering money on those complaining about the conduct of former Liberal ministers, are other complainants treated as generously? Well, in a word – no.
Our injured and disabled military veterans are probably the most obvious category of deserving claimants who are entitled to feel outraged at the comparative injustice of their treatment. Former soldier, now senator, Jacqui Lambie, is the best known of those veterans who must ­compare their personal experience of seeking compensation to the Higgins experience and weep, but there are many people in her category.

The Department of Finance may be the fairy godmother, but veterans are stuck with the Department of Veteran Affairs.

In Lambie’s autobiography, Rebel with a Cause: You can’t keep a bloody Lambie down, she tells her own harrowing story of seeking compensation for the ­significant physical and mental ­injuries she suffered as a result of her service.

Lambie writes that “leaving the army was the start of an almost decade-long legal and medical fight” for compensation. No quick and generous payout with no questions asked, for Lambie. On the contrary, she says, “unbeknown to me, the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service … started spying on me with a local private investigator”. Lambie reached the point where she contemplated suicide.

She wrote: “There is a saying in the veterans’ community that the method the DVA uses against veterans is conveyed in three simple words: delay, deny, die. Well, I had had a gutful of the first two, so now I only had the third left.”

Lambie was, and is, no outlier. A 2019 Productivity Commission report – A Better Way to Support Veterans – describes numerous submissions to it concerning poor experiences of veterans with the DVA, including one veteran who wrote “nothing in the DVA process … is easy and the treatment of veterans at times applying for a claim is nothing short of contempt for their service of their country”.

The problems continue. In ­August 2022, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide produced its interim report which said (among many other critical findings) “the Australian government has known for years that the system requires fundamental reform”.

Adding insult to injury, veterans who are permanently impaired or die as a result of their service in the armed forces are paid paltry compensation sums.

No doubt Parliament House, and ministers’ offices, can be a stressful place to work. But can it really compare with the risks and dangers, pain and suffering that our military face? Afghanistan or Canberra – which deserves the solicitude of taxpayers more?

Even judged on its own as a stand-alone matter, taxpayers are entitled to a thoroughgoing investigation into, and explanation of, the settlement of the Higgins claim. Given the role of the Higgins scandal in bringing down the Morrison government, some are wondering whether this was a political payment by the department and the Albanese government.

That is not the end of the matter. This scandalous lottery of different compensation sys­tems with vastly different standards of proof and payment needs root and branch reform. Canberra will no doubt always look after its own first, but does it have to be so unashamedly greedy and ­unjust about it?

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 14, 2023 6:58 am

There’s 5 more points in the article but I must away to Bendigo, bowls starts early today because of unprecedented heat. (Sarc)

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 14, 2023 7:11 am

Thanks BB. The cost of the health clinic costs pretty much the same no matter what colour we are. I wonder how much is paid by Medicare and State Health. These costs don’t come out of the Aboriginal budget.

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 7:24 am

Guess how much power these panels are generating from the clear blue sky?
Nothing.
Not a single electron is flowing.
They’re covered in snow.
Millions of dollars worth of “Power too cheap to measure” panels because – who would have guessed it? It snows in wintertime.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 7:25 am

Either I’m too stupid to appreciate David Rowe’s colossal genius, or he is a talentless moron.

Correct, both times.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 14, 2023 7:27 am

Excellent point made by Albrechtsen in comparing crook and/or injured veterans to that chubby fibber Higgins.

Appreciate the posting, Tinta.

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 7:27 am

Australians will have, for whatever reason, rejected their Indigenous brothers and sisters.

Hyperbole and hysteria.

They will have rejected the referendum’s proposed constitutional changes. They have not rejected people.

What is it with these nightie tearers? Do they think if they tantrum enough they’ll get their way?

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 7:28 am

Oh. And nice artwork Dover.

Very appropriate – Finishing a project this weekend too. 😀

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 14, 2023 7:29 am

Melbourne councils are overwhelmingly backing Australia Day this year, ignoring the Albanese government’s call allowing them to scrap citizenship ceremonies on January 26.

Of the 31 councils in metropolitan Melbourne, 28 have chosen to mark the national day b swearing in new Australians, ignoring trendy inner-north areas of Darebin, Merri-bek and Yarra, which scrapped January 26 events as a protest over the treatment of Indigenous Australians.

The resistance by councils in the nation’s most progressive city to dumping Australia Day comes as some Indigenous activists push back against a long-running focus on changing the date.

Maybe they have been hearing polls like the recent one which said 80% of people surveyed want councils scrapped…

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 14, 2023 7:32 am

Good news, BB, you aren’t stupid. Rowe’s cartoon is merely malicious, ill-informed and ill-informing.

Clinging to his own idiotic idio-tropes he keeps with the Trump being crowned like a ruler (seriously, depicting him as a ‘born-to-rule’ type), with the Twitter-bird in the crown (we can now see it is remarkable what he managed to do when we know Twitter was actively working to bring him down).

He shows Trump wrapped in reams of ‘classified’ material, which is also concealing – which overlooks the fact that taking a copy of a classified document does not remove the master copy which is kept filed, or that when a classified document is declassified copies created before then do not magically have the ‘Classified’ marking evaporate off. As President Trump could declassify documents. As VP Biden did not have that power.

By contrast he shows Biden as calm, collected, and compos mentis, with just a bit of classified material stuck in the heel of his shoe – minuscule and accidental, as opposed to Trump’s copious and deliberate.

He is also overlooking the fact that Trump had been actively engaging with Archives, returning whatever documents upon request (so they must have had a good idea of what was there) and stored documents with security that satisfied NARA – even adding new locks to satisfy their standards. The documents seized with such theatrical display included menus and magazines, and for all the leaks and hints about launch codes and nuclear secrets, it would appear the FBI have found nothing Trump should not have had – a very deafening silence confirms this. Biden’s materials, on the other hand were stored without security and they will not tell us what they were which, if their nature could defuse the story, they would have.

Rowe is immune to fact, but thrives in a medium of leaks, rumour, and gossip deliberately calculated to lead people away from truth. The swamp could use him as a barometer to tell them when to rain more sewage onto the world.

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 7:33 am

In defence of shorter people:

Shortness is not utterly without good points: We can curl up and sleep on a Greyhound or in Coach Class. We have unwritten permission to approach other women’s men in the supermarket and ask them to reach something on a high shelf.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 14, 2023 7:34 am

Ha!

Ed is precisely the mushroom Rowe’s excrement is meant for.

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 7:36 am

This confidentiality is another apparently clear breach of the Legal ­Services Directions, but by this stage who’s counting?

It’s our money. At least tell us how much we were stung for.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 7:38 am

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus used his powers to muzzle Reynolds in particular, and to demand she not attend the mediation.

Yeah, because Reynolds has an ax to grind.
To wit, she was forced to make a groveling public apology to Higgins and pay $80 grand to a charity of Higgins’ choice, to avoid Court Proceedings.

With Reynolds Costs now being guaranteed by the Government, there is Moral Hazard involved, since she has no financial liability against scuppering the Mediation.

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 7:40 am

Calli:

What is it with these nightie tearers? Do they think if they tantrum enough they’ll get their way?

It’s worked well so far.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 7:43 am

It’s our money. At least tell us how much we were stung for.

Let’s see, since Arithmetic is clearly not your strong suit.

25 million people in Australia.
Let’s say Higgins was awarded $1,000,000.
Cost to Calli McHolierThanThou: 4 cents.
Cost to the above if Higgins had to do a Lindy Chamberlain and take successive Governments on over a 30 year period: more than 4 cents.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
January 14, 2023 7:47 am

Appreciate the posting, Tinta.

I have a 5-letter name (not Kevin) and I like to help- when I can, I do.

rosie
rosie
January 14, 2023 7:48 am
Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
January 14, 2023 7:49 am

…she was forced to make a groveling public apology to Higgins and pay $80 grand to a charity of Higgins’ choice, to avoid Court Proceedings.

That would have been forced by that twat ScumMo – the defamation did not exist as it was said in private however, the publishing of that comment defamed the moon-faced grifter.

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 7:53 am

Quite so. And the ABC, apparently, costs me 4cents a day (disputed).

But at least I have an idea of how much it costs me.

rosie
rosie
January 14, 2023 7:55 am

And still some morons plump for ‘in my my mind he’s guilty’.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 7:56 am

That would have been forced by that twat ScumMo – the defamation did not exist as it was said in private however,

You’re a Lawyer now?

Crossie
Crossie
January 14, 2023 7:59 am

I’ve just had a look at the list of public figures attending the WEF meeting. It seems we are not sending anybody. Good.

WEF

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 8:02 am

And still some morons plump for ‘in my my mind he’s guilty’.
Someone raped her.
Lehrmann changed his story 3 times, declined to give Evidence, hid in a Mental Hospital for 9 months, had all his Legal Costs Pro Bono, including several Applications to the High Court to have Proceedings stayed permanently.

Then, when the DPP declined to go ahead with a second Trial, he bleated that he was denied a chance to clear his name?

Gimme a break.

Mater
January 14, 2023 8:02 am

Let’s see, since Arithmetic is clearly not your strong suit.

25 million people in Australia.

Let’s look at your arithmetic.
Are there 25 million net tax payers in Australia?

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 8:04 am

Rosie was talking about Pell.

Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 8:05 am

WASHINGTON, DC — After multiple caches of highly classified government documents were found in different locations belonging to President Joe Biden, the United States Department of Justice acted swiftly to indict former President Donald Trump for the alleged crime.

“This is a serious violation of federal regulations,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press briefing announcing the indictment. “We will take all measures available to the Justice Department to hold Donald Trump accountable for President Biden being found in possession of these documents.”

“No one is above the law.”

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 8:06 am

Let’s look at your arithmetic.
Are there 25 million net tax payers in Australia?

Look out!
Colonel Arburthnot McPettifogger QC [Ret’d] is on the Case!

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 8:08 am

Those flaming ad hom strawmen sure took their time. Twelve hours too late.

Although…it’s still Friday 13 somewhere in the world.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 8:09 am

Rosie was talking about Pell.
She was?
Okay.
The conversation had been about Higgins, no one is saying Pell was Guilty?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 14, 2023 8:10 am

Ed.

HMAS Sydney. Your thoughts on the matter, please.

Crossie
Crossie
January 14, 2023 8:14 am

Tom, you had me there for a moment, I had to click on the link to make sure it was the Babylon Bee. With the US media, and our own, you can never take anything for granted.

rosie
rosie
January 14, 2023 8:15 am

Obviously the morons I was referring to were different ones, not you Ed.
These were in the Twitter thread responding to the very clear explanation as to why there was insufficient evidence, indeed very strong exculpatory evidence, that what was said to have occured could not have occured, ie it was not possible to find a verdict of guilty.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 8:21 am

I’m finding the twitter files from overnight enjoyable.
Taibbi destroys Adam Schiff.
Schiff just didn’t think these requests to twitter would ever see the light of day.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 8:22 am

HMAS Sydney. Your thoughts on the matter, please.

80+ year CoverUp by the RAN and successive Governments.

You’re not disputing that, are you?

Because if you are, then you don’t have much respect for the 645 crew that perished with the ship?

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 8:29 am

Dot, here’s a policy platform for the Lib Dems.
If the state or a regulator charges or makes a claim against an individual or business but then withdraws them, the respondents should be able to go through a discovery process & the state should pick up the tab.

shatterzzz
January 14, 2023 8:35 am

Anyone know what this is? .. bought it at an op-shop for a $1 thinking it was either a new fangled can opener or pizza cutter .. it ain’t! .. all plastic thingy ..! no brand or markings to explain anything! that top wheel part retracts up & down .. only moveable piece …. rest is just heavy plastic body ..
https://ibb.co/GFjhRBj

Mater
January 14, 2023 8:35 am

Look out!
Colonel Arburthnot McPettifogger QC [Ret’d] is on the Case!

Sharp come back, Ed.
Now, about your arithmetic…

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 8:38 am

One suggestion for the Bust of Zelenskyy to be placed permanently in the U.S. Capitol:
@ ZeroHedge

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 14, 2023 8:41 am

‘80+ year CoverUp’

You should write a book. Y’know, get some cash for your brilliance.

wivenhoe
wivenhoe
January 14, 2023 8:41 am

Anyone know what this is? .. bought it at an op-shop for a $1 thinking it was either a new fangled can opener or pizza cutter .. it ain’t! .. all plastic thingy ..! no brand or markings to explain anything! that top wheel part retracts up & down .. only moveable piece …. rest is just heavy plastic body ..
https://ibb.co/GFjhRBj

I think one or more of the ladies will have your answer for you.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 8:43 am

You’ve gone very quiet, Knuckle Dragger.

Conferring with your handlers as to how to respond to my reply, by any chance?

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 14, 2023 8:44 am

I’d be in favour of DNA based I.D. if I was sure the government would police it, but you know damn well they wouldn’t.

Id be in favour of the total elimination of government ‘welfare’ and a return to the old days of ‘private charity’.

Back then, the salvos, or the church or your neighbours, or whoever it was, had a first hand view of who you were, what your circumstances were, and whether you deserved their help. They had an incentive to get you off charity and back into society.

Nowadays, welfare is just business and the recipients are farmed, with much of the proceeds being skimmed off to the government and the various grievance groups involved.

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 8:45 am

It’s a rotary cutter. Never tried it on pizza.

Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 8:45 am

80+ year CoverUp by the RAN and successive Governments.

Thanks, Googleory. Laughed out loud.

But you left out the best bit: HMAS Sydney was sunk by Japanese spooks.

Gabor
Gabor
January 14, 2023 8:48 am

rotary cutter for cutting fabric

Gabor
Gabor
January 14, 2023 8:48 am

snap

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 14, 2023 8:49 am

You are correct Ed. My handlers are hard to rouse at present.

ASIO are typically difficult to contact on weekends. They’re onto you though.

Mark my words.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 14, 2023 8:49 am

Frow Lew Rockwell on the (coming here soon too) push to ban gas stoves in the USA to save the planet:

A more recent study by The the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health concluded that as much as 12.7% of childhood asthma can be attributed to gas stove use

Bullshit! … the explosion in immune mediated inflammatory conditions of children* (and now adults) has directly paralleled the rise in immune stimulating vaxxines and foods since the 1980s. Its a near perfect correlation.

Experts are, of course, baffled.

* asthma, diabetes, eczema, sinusitis, food allergy, obesity, ADHD, autism.

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 8:52 am

Here ya go. It’s a bloke demonstrating how to use it. I could have linked to a female doing cute patchwork, natch.

Cassie of Sydney
January 14, 2023 8:54 am

“Janet Albrechtsen on the Britney the Knickerless payout:”

Janet A is again superb, it’s why I still subscribe to the Oz, because of her, Mitchell, Kenny, Merritt and a few others. As for this payout, why on earth is anyone surprised? Britney da Knickerless was given a job, she did that job superbly because, and I’ll say it again and again and again, Scumbag Morrison and the Liberals were worse than useless, they were so utterly craven and supine, they couldn’t fight their way out of a guinea pig cage, and now Britney’s been remunerated by the taxpayer, very nicely too. And don’t worry, it’s a winning formula that will be replicated again in the future, of course, only a formula that’ll be be used against Liberal and National politicians. But then again, the Liberals and Nationals will have only themselves to blame because you reap what you sow. Cowardice and capitulation will get you nowhere. In 1940, Scumbag would have waved the Germans through London.

I despise Sleazy the word Slusher but I loathe Morrison more, because Morrison dumped on his own. He is not missed.

Miltonf
Miltonf
January 14, 2023 8:57 am

Same with the put up job on parrot twerp. Zero sympathy.

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 8:58 am

only a formula that’ll be be used against Liberal and National politicians

I would also add

against taxpayers

That’s what precipitated the Reeeee! up thread.

The moment people twig that it’s their money being used against them – all of them – things might change.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 8:59 am

Speaking of ScoMo, Rex Patrick wrote a column at Michael West which has the Americans expecting 170bill for the subs deal.
Column is not perfect, but ScoMo will live a comfortable life because he saddled taxpayers with this bill.

lotocoti
lotocoti
January 14, 2023 9:01 am

Kill the link the Producer screamed.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 14, 2023 9:03 am

2. WHY PUT IT IN THE CONSTITUTION? WHY NOT JUST MAKE A LAW?

Once you jump that hurdle you’re in the High Court not Parliament. Think Mabo and European Court of Justice and the attraction is obvious.

Cassie of Sydney
January 14, 2023 9:04 am

“Same with the put up job on parrot twerp. Zero sympathy.”

I actually do have sympathy for Perrottet but he should have stood in front of the MSM on Thursday and said, “yes I did a stupid thing when I was 21 years old, MOVE ON”. And if the MSM pursued it, then “who among you hasn’t done a stupid thing when they were 21 years old?” Instead, by furiously apologosing and grovelling, Perrottet fed the MSM lions and like all lions, they’re hungry for more.

Anyway, Jewish community leaders and rabbis have rallied to support Perrottet because we know where the real Jew haters are, it isn’t in some story about a spotty, snotty 21 year old going to a party, the real Jew haters are alive and well operating in Labor left and in the stinking putrid Greens.

shatterzzz
January 14, 2023 9:04 am

It’s a rotary cutter. Never tried it on pizza.

Thanx .. had to google rotary cutter .. probably useless to me but at least only a dollar out of pocket ..
lot cheaper than some of the wierdo things I pick up .. LOL!

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 14, 2023 9:05 am

80+ year CoverUp by the RAN and successive Governments.

Surely you’re not back on this Ed?

What exactly then did they cover up, and what evidence do you have to show that?

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 9:05 am

Politics has always attracted corrupt people. Some countries are more open and accepting of corruption than others. I used to be amazed at the blatant stuff that was going on in PNG.

Watching footage of the recent PM visit, I felt like one of the animals looking through the window at the men and the pigs.

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

areff
areff
January 14, 2023 9:05 am

Lehrmann changed his story 3 times

There’s a backstory here: Poor Bruce was dosed with the infamous ‘warble fly vaccine’ of which Sad Case yesterday informed us.

Miltonf
Miltonf
January 14, 2023 9:07 am

Thing is Cassie parrot was part of a government that brought the abortion ambush and the vandalization of the power grid.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 9:08 am

Surely you’re not back on this Ed?

You kept asking me for my opinion on HMAS Sydney.
You’ve got it.

Got evidence to the contrary?
Lead it out, no one’s stopping you.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 14, 2023 9:09 am

Groogs bringin’ the idiocy today. Just like every day. Go hard, go Groogs.

Cassie of Sydney
January 14, 2023 9:11 am

“The moment people twig that it’s their money being used against them – all of them – things might change.”

I used to think so but I’m not sure anymore. Watching people’s gullibility over Covid has destroyed any hope I have. People are being deliberately gaslighted, and it appears they lap it up. I never thought I’d see the day where Australians were so willingly apathetic, so willingly captured and so utterly gullible. People like us, here, are a minority.

This country is a shell of what it was.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 14, 2023 9:13 am

Richard Cranium really does have the hots for Mzzzz Knickerless, doesn’t he?

WolfmanOz
WolfmanOz
January 14, 2023 9:13 am

Cassie of Sydney says:
January 14, 2023 at 8:54 am
“Janet Albrechtsen on the Britney the Knickerless payout:”

Janet A is again superb, it’s why I still subscribe to the Oz, because of her, Mitchell, Kenny, Merritt and a few others. As for this payout, why on earth is anyone surprised? Britney da Knickerless was given a job, she did that job superbly because, and I’ll say it again and again and again, Scumbag Morrison and the Liberals were worse than useless, they were so utterly craven and supine, they couldn’t fight their way out of a guinea pig cage, and now Britney’s been remunerated by the taxpayer, very nicely too. And don’t worry, it’s a winning formula that will be replicated again in the future, of course, only a formula that’ll be be used against Liberal and National politicians. But then again, the Liberals and Nationals will have only themselves to blame because you reap what you sow. Cowardice and capitulation will get you nowhere. In 1940, Scumbag would have waved the Germans through London.

I despise Sleazy the word Slusher but I loathe Morrison more, because Morrison dumped on his own. He is not missed.

This 100% ! ! !

Same with me Cassie re my subscription of The Oz.

Janet A.’s articles are worth the price alone.

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 9:14 am

On the dress-ups. Costume parties and the things people wear to them go in fashions like everything else. I have no doubt that, at the turn of the century, it was reasonably common to have people dressing up as Nazis, particularly if you had a “goodies and baddies” theme.

And it’s always much more fun to dress as a baddie, particularly for a nerdy looking young man who could get away as a ringer for an Allo! Allo! character.

I wonder who the “baddies” would be this time round? Russians? Trumps? Plague Doctors?

Frank
Frank
January 14, 2023 9:14 am

I just may be in love. Stolen from Ace.

Cassie of Sydney
January 14, 2023 9:14 am

Eddy, go and eat your weetbix, and make sure you remember to add prunes.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 14, 2023 9:15 am

I actually do have sympathy for Perrottet …

How long has he been in the NSW Parliament and the NSW Lieboral Party? Nah, sorry. Like Latham, happy to play the game until they say he can’t bat any more.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 9:16 am

Lehrmann changed his story 3 times

Yeah, dumbarse.
Story #1.
I went back to PH at 1:20 am to stick PostIt notes on some files
Story #2.
I went back to PH at 1:20 am to drink Whiskey at my desk.
Story #3.
I went back to PH at 1:20 am with an extremely drunk Brittany Higgins because I forgot something.

Naturally, he declined to give Evidence in his Defence.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 14, 2023 9:18 am

Hold on to your hat. Groogs could be right.

shatterzzz
January 14, 2023 9:19 am

“The moment people twig that it’s their money being used against them – all of them – things might change.”

If there’s anything the reaction to BAT FLU showed in Oz ..
it was we is very light on “Schindler’s” but luv the cattle car ..!

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 9:19 am

All three reasons are not mutually exclusive.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 9:20 am

I wonder who the “baddies” would be this time round? Russians? Trumps? Plague Doctors?

In Thank You For Smoking, it outlined the current (at the time) people who were viewed as baddies so it was acceptable for them to be smoking on screen.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 14, 2023 9:20 am

Still doesn’t change any of the points Albrechtsen and others (including here) have made.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 9:21 am

“To be informed about how best to protect ourselves and our loved ones is the smartest thing we can do. I chose the vaccine.”

— 12 March 2022, Lisa Marie Presley

307 days later, she “died suddenly”.

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 14, 2023 9:23 am

Conversion of energy from one form to another e.g. gas to electricity (for heating), involves some considerable energy wastage. Turbines aren’t that efficient.
Fuels like like LPG and LNG can be used as they are, rather than undergo conversion to another form.
Using a convenient transport fuel to generate electricity when you have unlimited coal is, to put it plainly, frickin insane.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 14, 2023 9:23 am

Ed Casesays:
January 14, 2023 at 7:56 am
That would have been forced by that twat ScumMo – the defamation did not exist as it was said in private however,

You’re a Lawyer now?

Are you? As well as being a medical doctor?

Miltonf
Miltonf
January 14, 2023 9:25 am

Bear I think you’re being unfair to Latham. He is prepared to go against approved speech and articulate his thought crime.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 14, 2023 9:25 am

Ed Casesays:
January 14, 2023 at 8:02 am
And still some morons plump for ‘in my my mind he’s guilty’.
Someone raped her.

No evidence of sexual intercourse was produced. If you are actually a lawyer, you’re not a very good one.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 14, 2023 9:25 am

Frank, you like horses that much?

Gabor
Gabor
January 14, 2023 9:26 am

How is Morrison being treated by his colleagues now, after the election?
Anyone knows?

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 14, 2023 9:28 am

Ed Casesays:
January 14, 2023 at 8:22 am
HMAS Sydney. Your thoughts on the matter, please.

80+ year CoverUp by the RAN and successive Governments.

Please provide details of the cover-up.

Indolent
Indolent
January 14, 2023 9:28 am
areff
areff
January 14, 2023 9:28 am

Hear ye, hear ye: Lord of the Warble Flies is bringing his legal smarts to bear

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 9:28 am

The OpenAI tender offer whisper number was $US29bill.
Microsoft latest is $10bill for 49% which will grow to more as OpenAI uses varying Microsoft ecosystem tools (the biggest one being Azure).
Keep in mind, this isn’t new capital being injected.
It’s reliant on shareholders accepting a tender offer.
I wonder how many shareholders will not tender any shares (the the flip side, how many will tender the lot).

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 14, 2023 9:29 am

Bear I think you’re being unfair to Latham. He is prepared to go against approved speech and articulate his thought crime.

While he was part of the Liar machine?

Frank
Frank
January 14, 2023 9:29 am

Equus! It’s where it’s at man.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 9:30 am

How is Morrison being treated by his colleagues now, after the election?
Anyone knows?

With respect.
The last thing they want is a nasty preselection followed by a ByElection in a Safe Seat.

areff
areff
January 14, 2023 9:30 am

If you are actually a lawyer

If he did your conveyancing the cat would end up listed as the homeowner

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 14, 2023 9:32 am

The Road to Damascus is covered with former Liar politicians.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 14, 2023 9:32 am

Nut Case since you know waving in the breeze britnee was raped it must have been you coz brucie didn’t do it and britnee doesn’t know. That only leaves you. Britnee the nickerless presented false evidence, deleted phone records and lied about her dress. She should have been sacked the same as brucey.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 9:32 am

While he was part of the Liar machine?

No, he totally sucked arse in the Labor Party.
Even Wayne Swan was sickened.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 9:34 am

She should have been sacked the same as brucey.

Really?
Remind me, what did “brucey” get sacked for?

The Beer whisperer
The Beer whisperer
January 14, 2023 9:35 am

I never thought I’d see the day where Australians were so willingly apathetic, so willingly captured and so utterly gullible. People like us, here, are a minority.

This country is a shell of what it was.

Indeed, Cassie. I almost wish dad didn’t teach me to be sceptical. Ignorance is bliss, after all. However, I doubt it would’ve lasted. I always want to know the big picture. I could never operate with blinkers. Fortunately, people slowly cotton on, but like in a disaster, they usually wait until it’s too late. It feels like The Matrix, where they only redpill one person at a time. And some are like that guy who just want to believe they’re eating steak, and will betray their peers to live is blissful ignorance.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 14, 2023 9:36 am

Ed Casesays:
January 14, 2023 at 9:08 am
Surely you’re not back on this Ed?

You kept asking me for my opinion on HMAS Sydney.
You’ve got it.

Got evidence to the contrary?
Lead it out, no one’s stopping you.

Check out recent books on the subject.

Assuming, that is, that you can read.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 14, 2023 9:37 am

Frank I would have linked a picture of Saint jacinda but that’s going too far. Did you see the young woman on the bagpipes? Now that’s a cracker. Wars have been fought over lesser beings.

Johnny Rotten
January 14, 2023 9:37 am

A British ship is sinking. The radio operator is sending out a distress call saying “Mayday, mayday we are sinking. Please help”. A few kilometres away, a German ship hears the call, and the radio operator, who doesn’t speak English very well and is new on the job, answers “Uh hello, we hear you. Um, what are you sinking about?”

After church on Sunday, the pastor approaches the family and confirms their dinner the coming Friday. After making small talk for a few minutes, the pastor turns to the couple’s 5-year-old. “Have your parents told you what they will be making for us on Friday?” The child thinks a second and replies “Goat”. The pastor squinted and exclaimed “Goat?” As the parents are speaking up to clarify, the child cuts in loudly. “Yeah, yesterday I heard mummy tell daddy that Friday is as good a day as any to have the old goat for dinner!”

Indolent
Indolent
January 14, 2023 9:38 am

Leaked: The Australian names attending Davos 2023

— 1 —
Peter Holmes à Court
Australian Financial Review.
— 2 —
Genevieve Bell
Distinguished Australian Professor.
— 3 —
Julie Bishop
Former Foreign Affairs Minister and Chancellor of Australian National University.
— 4 —
Brian Schmidt
Vice-Chancellor of Australian National University.
— 5 —
Caroline Cox
Vice President of BHP.
— 6 —
Mike Henry
CEO of BHP.
— 7 —
Timothy Ayres
NSW Assistant Minister for Trade.
— 8 —
Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forest
Fortescue Metals.
— 9 —
Elizabeth Gaines
Fortescue Metals.
— 10 —
Jade Hameister
Teen Environmental Activist.
— 11 —
Julie Inman Grant
eSafety Commissioner.
— 12 —
Naomi Flutter
Wesfarmers.
— 13 —
Michael Schneider
Bunnings.

Two from BHP. Two from Fortescue. And, of course, Wesfarmers.

Johnny Rotten
January 14, 2023 9:38 am

History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided.

– Konrad Adenauer

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 9:38 am

Fun fact, former NFL players have an average lower life span than the broader population.
Substantially.
When referring to dying suddenly, former NFL players are one of the worst groups of people to refer to.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 14, 2023 9:40 am

He certainly didn’t get sacked for raping britnee. He was out the door before she made false claims.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 14, 2023 9:43 am

Two from BHP. Two from Fortescue. And, of course, Wesfarmers.

The guy from Bunnings probably needs to discuss trading terms with Pooh Bear. Twiggy just needs a couple of cheques countersigned.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 9:44 am

He certainly didn’t get sacked for raping britnee. He was out the door before she made false claims.

So, what did he get sacked for?
And why hasn’t he put in a Claim for wrongful dismissal?

lotocoti
lotocoti
January 14, 2023 9:45 am

Assuming, that is, that you can read.

He only does scratch and sniff.

bons
bons
January 14, 2023 9:46 am

For cutting fabric and fingers, as I discovered.
Background checks should be required for purchasers.

calli
calli
January 14, 2023 9:52 am

Bons, I have one with a retracting blade for “safety”. The one I cut the top of my finger off with.

The glass of wine may or may not have had something to do with it.

Ed Case
Ed Case
January 14, 2023 9:52 am

Fun fact, former NFL players have an average lower life span than the broader population.
So what?

When referring to dying suddenly, former NFL players are one of the worst groups of people to refer to.

Huh?
You just said they live shorter lives, not that they “Die Suddenly” more often.

vr
vr
January 14, 2023 9:58 am

Peggy Noonan’s article on Harry Markel’s book.

Prince Harry’s book is odd. There’s even something half-mad about it.

He opens with a dramatic meeting at Frogmore, his former mansion on the grounds of Windsor. It is just after the death of Prince Philip, Harry’s paternal grandfather. For months Harry has been estranged from his father, Charles, and his brother, William—a “full-scale public rupture.” Harry has flown in from America and requested a meeting. The day is overcast, chilly. Charles and William arrive late looking “grim, almost menacing,” and “tightly aligned.” “They’d come ready for a fight.” Harry is tongue-tied, vulnerable, leaves heartbroken. “I wanted peace. I wanted it more than anything.”

You feel such sympathy. What could have driven them so far apart? Why are Charles and William so cold? Then you realize, wait—Philip died just a month after the Oprah interview in which Harry rather coolly portrayed his family as remote and hapless puppets and implied they were racist.

Harry forgets, in the opening, to tell us that part. But you can see how it might have left Charles and William a little indignant.

This is the book’s great flaw, that Harry doesn’t always play it straight, that he thinks “my truth” is as good as the truth. There are other flaws, and they grate. There’s a heightened-ness to his language—he never leaves a place; he flees it “in fear for our sanity and physical safety.” He often finds his wife “sobbing uncontrollably” on the floor and the stairs, mostly over what he fails to realize are trivial things. He is grandiose: “My mother was a princess, named after a goddess.” “How would I be remembered by history? For the headlines? Or for who I actually was?” Lord, he was an attractive man fifth in line for a largely ceremonial European throne; it would hardly remember him at all. (Unless he wrote a scalding book and destabilized the monarchy!) He repeatedly points out that he’s a Windsor and of royal blood. His title means a lot to him. He is exhibitionistic: “My penis was oscillating between extremely sensitive and borderline traumatized.” (Frostbite.)

There are gaps in his knowledge-base that wouldn’t be irritating if he weren’t intent on establishing that he’s giving you the high-class rarefied inside dope. “Never complain, never explain” has been an expression of the old American upper class since forever, and I’m sure the British one too. It isn’t special to the Windsors. “An heir and a spare” is old Fleet Street tabloidese. It doesn’t mean, as he suggested on book tour, he was bred for body parts.

Famous families often have internal communication problems. The children of those families learn much of what they know from the many books written about the clan. They internalize and repeat observations and stories that aren’t quite right but are now given their insider imprimatur.

RTWT in the Journal.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 14, 2023 10:01 am

Ugh, just had a look at the Tele. It’s awful. Some of the stories on the main website right now:

Finding the light: the inarguable inspiration that’s Michelle Obama
The past few years have been tough, even for former US First Lady Michelle Obama. Her new book is a beacon of hope, detailing her challenges and her strategies for overcoming them.

‘Concerning’ climate record we broke again in 2022
The year 2022 was among the hottest ever, but scientists have expressed concern about one particular climate record which got smashed for the fourth year in a row.

EV upgrade cost: What Aussies will pay
Aussie unit owners are facing massive bills as new laws about at-home electrical vehicle charging stations edge closer. See what you could be up for.

What rubbish. Why would anybody subscribe with this stuff spat into their faces.

bons
bons
January 14, 2023 10:06 am

How long before Janet is cancelled or framed?
Trashing consigliere, made men and molls in Big Tony’s Albanese/Andrews crime family is a surefire recipe for a concrete boot fitting.

Shy Ted
Shy Ted
January 14, 2023 10:13 am

Also going to Davos for the WEF is Mathias Cormann. He’s been going for years.
Might not be “ours” any more but he was going when he was. He’s OECD now –

He said the OECD would stay focused on maximising the strength of the economic recovery from COVID-19, to promote ambitious action on climate change and work on finalising a multilateral approach to digital taxation.

And that’s how you get the gig.
Traitor.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 14, 2023 10:13 am

How long before Janet is cancelled or framed?

Albrechtsen did time on the ALPBC board. I suspect she can look after herself. The risk of Arkancide is fairly low in Australia.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 14, 2023 10:28 am

As for fears it [the Voice] will be able to make laws, forget it.

“It won’t be able to amend them, can’t stop them (and) can’t make them,” he says.

So, rather like a parallel, unelected Opposition, but racially based – and, if the Calma Langton model is adopted, with hands directly in the policy development.

“If I can compare it with something that already exists,” says Selwyn Button, a member of the government’s Referendum Engagement Group, “its powers will be not be dissimilar to a parliamentary committee that gives advice to government, the difference being this committee will be there forevermore.”

Indeed.

If this ‘advisory role’ is such a trivial embellishment to the legislative process, why not send the Opposition home after a Government is elected? Why bother with Parliamentary debate at all?

Not a Third Chamber, for sure – but a massive bolt-on to the Government side of both Houses. Any legislation coming to Parliament blessed with Voice Approval would be fireproofed and sandbagged against Opposition scrutiny – irrespective of its merits:

“Mr Speaker, once again, Mr Speaker, those opposite choose to throw dirt in the faces of the Nation’s First Peoples – Dirt Mr Speaker – by questioning the ancient wisdom that has the Voice supporting the Union Preference in SME Award Negotiations Bill (2023)…”

(Meanwhile, an unnoticed regulatory change shovels a few lazy millions into the Remote Area consultative LandCruiser Safari Limited Edition upgrade program.)

Pop goes the weasel.

Makka
Makka
January 14, 2023 10:28 am

RTWT in the Journal.

Not on your life. The pair are both fruitcakes and best ignored. Or mocked when ever possible.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 10:30 am

Today I learned that US ambassadors get the same budget (ex security) regardless of appointment.
So you have to prove you can fund the gap of what’s expected of the post.
The cost of getting the London role is $US17mill per annum.
So why do people want these roles?
It’s because you get the capital gains exemption like others in the executive branch.
That cgt exemption applies to all ambassadors regardless if it’s the “premium” one or the less sought after ones.

Roger
Roger
January 14, 2023 10:34 am

So why do people want these roles?

Call me cynical but…

Vanity.

Status.

Perhaps the odd one does it to serve their country.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 10:34 am

Rex Tillerson saved himself 100mill USD when he sold his portfolio when he got the Sec State role with Trump.
Not bad for a year’s work.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 10:36 am

The Kennedy’s have been part of the diplomatic organism for so long, I’d expect many of their clan don’t know what CGT is.

Roger
Roger
January 14, 2023 10:36 am

The past few years have been tough, even for former US First Lady Michelle Obama. Her new book is a beacon of hope, detailing her challenges and her strategies for overcoming them.

Does that include running for POTUS in 2024?

Louis Litt
January 14, 2023 10:37 am

From yesterday, it’s hot in adders today, I am doing something I don’t like – sweating with my la coffee typing this under my covered outdoor area looking at the pool – re this perrenoit thing and a nazi uniform. – except if you Jewish – why would’nt you wear one – Hugo Boss designed the uniforms.
Designed for long lean bodies.
Don’t tell anyone, but I did buy a studio Italia suit once (young family wife not working) , it was the only suit where I did had to amend the girth of the pants in but
And the length had to be amended for a false seem ( it did balloon out at that stage).
Made for wide people and shorter than your average northerner.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 14, 2023 10:38 am

Ed: You kept asking me for my opinion on HMAS Sydney. You’ve got it. Got evidence to the contrary?

Edward, Ed, Ted, mate…if you have an alternative to the now-accepted story, it’s up to you to prove it.

Not to just fling some accusation out – “there was a cover-up” – and then say “prove me wrong”.

There’s been some excellent books on the subject. Wes Olson’s HMAS Sydney (II) In Peace and War is perhaps the best, and extremely comprehensive at 620 pages, but David Mearns did an excellent coverage of the search and discovery.

Now off you go to the library and check them out, and if you have some sort of alternative account after that then publish it. Or you can come on here and lay it out page by page and see how you fare.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 10:41 am

I bought my first bespoke suit in 2009.
I still have it.
There have been times when it has been too tight & times when it’s been too loose.
Cost 1200.
Still looks great.
Even if you are a semi regular wearer of them, a bespoke suit is the way to go.

JC
JC
January 14, 2023 10:43 am

Bern

Did you take a look at the Money Centre bank stocks after the results last night? Prices were stunningly volatile. They actually had a decent result by and large too and ended up on the day. What a day.

Punters seem to be playing the likely shallow recession, but I think it’s been discounted.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 14, 2023 10:45 am

EV upgrade cost: What Aussies will pay

Aussie unit owners are facing massive bills as new laws about at-home electrical vehicle charging stations edge closer. See what you could be up for.

This is an interesting stealth issue that I’m sure Team Albanese has considered.

At an apartment I know quite well, three residents have installed EV chargers in their garages (with Body Corporate approval). Two other residents have now applied for the same permission – only to discover (along with the BC) that the unit switchboard only has capacity for one more EV load.

The argument then became “well, upgrading the switchboard benefits all residents, future-proofing the building for when they want an EV of their own…”.

With a bit of guidance, the argument stalled on the realisation that the supply side pad transformer and street transformer would also need replacing at a cost of $350,000 – $500,000 (providing the exchange fit in with the Energex reticulation plan).

Rinse and repeat 1000’s of times.
In good hands.

JC
JC
January 14, 2023 10:46 am

Still looks great.
Even if you are a semi regular wearer of them, a bespoke suit is the way to go.

Do a Putin before the war. Have the chief tailor at Brioni or Kiton come to measure you up (twice) and pay US$80,000 for the bag of fruit. Looking good. Always look good, even if you start a war and get the shit beaten out of you.

Frank
Frank
January 14, 2023 10:49 am

“Does that include running for POTUS in 2024?”

There was a time when the thought of it was not so bad, she will be tested at times sans the fawning press to cover for her and things will be OK. Then they installed a turnip as president. Fear is the appropriate response to ideas like Mooch 2024.

Roger
Roger
January 14, 2023 10:51 am

A defeat would be “a constitutional and moral disaster,” Prof Craven says.

“Australians will have, for whatever reason, rejected their Indigenous brothers and sisters. “

No, Prof. Craven, they will have rejected an amendment to the constitution that was thin on detail and fat in implications.

And seeing as you want to talk about morality, ordinary Australians can have a different view from the elites on how indigenous people can best progress without having to wear the label “racist”.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 14, 2023 10:52 am

Just quickly revisiting Rosie’s post linking to a rebuttal of the “Pell got off on a technicality” – that technicality being evidence – it ought to be borne in mind that for lefties evidence is a technicality.

For that matter so are trials, which are only a florid way of announcing judgements decided long before, in small back offices, by a small group, and in the service of imperatives utterly unrelated.

What could be more progressive than a show trial.

Frank
Frank
January 14, 2023 10:53 am

“Even if you are a semi regular wearer of them, a bespoke suit is the way to go.”

With increasing years the mind turns to the inescapable fact that we all need something to be buried in.

JC
JC
January 14, 2023 10:53 am
Tom
Tom
January 14, 2023 10:54 am

LOL. Googleory takes on Top Ender, a published historian who’s forgotten more about World War Two than Googleory will ever know.

Top Ender, he’s a troll whose main mission here is to get attention for himself via his half-arsed misunderstanding of the world.

JC
JC
January 14, 2023 10:56 am

Nonsense Tom.

Eddles is a finely tuned flamer and spook detector. Not necessarily a national treasure, but most certainly a Cat treasure.

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 11:03 am

Ed Case:
The question was:

Are there 25 million net tax payers in Australia?

Care to answer it, clever dick?

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
January 14, 2023 11:03 am

J

C says:
January 14, 2023 at 10:53 am

This has to be parody. I hope.

His Bio;
Damien Slash
@damienslash
Comedian/ satire trolls/ parody

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 14, 2023 11:03 am

In Clickbait for Progressives Lefties news:

Cardinal George Pell’s final days spent writing furiously about the Catholic Church’s ‘toxic nightmare’

Unfortunately for those hoping to find the traditional ABC caricature ‘toxic nightmare’ of kiddie fiddling, financial corruption, and voluptuary – the ABC Rome hackette finds:

The cardinal complained of a “deepening confusion, the attack on traditional morals,” the adoption of “neo-Marxist jargon about exclusion, alienation, identity, marginalisation, the voiceless, LGBTQ” and an ignorance of “Christian notions of forgiveness, sin, sacrifice, healing, redemption.”

Strangely, the piece doesn’t criticise Pell for sharing those views. Presumably, for an ABC audience, they are so heretical, outrageous and revolting that no further comment is required.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 14, 2023 11:04 am

I came across a meme yesterday, where some fellow says he looked at the contact list in his phone and saw it had things like “John Electrician”, “Mark Landlord”, and he realised that Anglo names have always worked like that.

Greg Craven has a very Anglo name.

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 14, 2023 11:04 am

How long before Janet is cancelled or framed?

Use the elevator Janet.

Roger
Roger
January 14, 2023 11:05 am

With a bit of guidance, the argument stalled on the realisation that the supply side pad transformer and street transformer would also need replacing at a cost of $350,000 – $500,000 (providing the exchange fit in with the Energex reticulation plan).

Cogs turning…

There must be some way to pass this cost on to the tax payer…call the local member!

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 14, 2023 11:05 am

Punters seem to be playing the likely shallow recession, but I think it’s been discounted.

I think the BoJ shenanigans are playing on flows globally.

JC
JC
January 14, 2023 11:06 am

Thanks Carpe

This isn’t parody though. It’s real.

Not too long ago Damon Young, an occasional New York Times contributor pontificated, “Whiteness is a public health crisis. It shortens life expectancies, it pollutes air, it constricts equilibrium, it devastates forests, it melts ice caps, it sparks (and funds) wars, it flattens dialects, it infests consciousnesses, and it kills people . . . .”

Found in

A Rendezvous With Rwanda?
As Americans separate, do we really know the final consequences of what the diversity, equity, and inclusion tribalism truly entails?
By Victor Davis Hanson

JC
JC
January 14, 2023 11:09 am

I think the BoJ shenanigans are playing on flows globally.

I’ve been watching the Yen and boy it’s strengthened. I’m pretty shocked because I didn’t think widening the band on the bond buying program would have caused this. Wow! That’s what is was, right or am I missing something?

Roger
Roger
January 14, 2023 11:16 am

What could be more progressive than a show trial.

The prog-leftist ideal is a society in which every prole lives with the fear that he is guilty unless he can prove his innocence…and might be called upon to do so at any time.

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 11:17 am

Flyingduk:

Id be in favour of the total elimination of government ‘welfare’ and a return to the old days of ‘private charity’.

Same here, FD.
The chances of that happening are less than me flying to the moon tonight.
But unless we can remove the incentives for the bludgers, it’s going to kill the economy. Which, of course, is what it’s supposed to do.

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 14, 2023 11:25 am

I always wear a face mask.

When off to rob a stage coach.

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 11:29 am

Cassie of Sydney:

I used to think so but I’m not sure anymore. Watching people’s gullibility over Covid has destroyed any hope I have. People are being deliberately gaslighted, and it appears they lap it up. I never thought I’d see the day where Australians were so willingly apathetic, so willingly captured and so utterly gullible. People like us, here, are a minority.

Correct.
They are only going to wake up when lights don’t go on and food rots in the freezer.
Even then, there will be the idiots who demand phone service so they can ring Pizza Hut.

MatrixTransform
January 14, 2023 11:32 am

At an apartment I know quite well, three residents have installed EV chargers in their garages (with Body Corporate approval). Two other residents have now applied for the same permission – only to discover (along with the BC) that the unit switchboard only has capacity for one more EV load

this is concurring on a very broad scale

self appointed virtue-drivers are careening head-long into the gaia-dialectic
figuring they can save the planet and and garner the luxury prestige that comes with an EV
they take satisfaction badgering the crap outta the OC Committee for ‘good’ instead of ‘evil’

everybody else doesn’t necessarily want to pay for their fancies

the Owner’s Corp members and building Asset Managers are starting to wake up one at a time when they find out exactly the breadth (and cost) of what is required.

typically, a building can’t get extra capacity without upgrades to transformers, consumer’s mains, and internal distribution infrastructure

truly, infrastructure upgrades are gonna make a very serious dent in your budget.

right now we are in the process of putting together a budget estimate for some charging in a large residential tower.

They’re lucky this time, their tranny, consumers mains and MSB have the spare capacity.

still, best guess at this point … about $600k

JC
JC
January 14, 2023 11:32 am

LOl, mandated pregnancies.

Where the hell does the Demonrat party find these morons. Demonrat minority leader.

Dave Rubin

This guy has really stepped up to become the most pre-packaged, pandering, putz in the party…
Quote Tweet
Tom Elliott
@tomselliott
·
Jan 13
.@RepJeffries: Republicans are trying to “impose government-mandated pregnancies on the American people”

rugbyskier
rugbyskier
January 14, 2023 11:34 am

Id be in favour of the total elimination of government ‘welfare’ and a return to the old days of ‘private charity’.

In the US it used to be a cultural expectation that the wealthy would be philanthropists providing the resources for charities to provide welfare. Of course that has been usurped by governments.

I can recall a prescient ‘Peanuts’ cartoon where Linus is saying to Charlie Brown “when I grow up I want to be a great philanthropist” to which Charlie responds “you need to have a lot of money to be a great philanthropist” so Linus thinks about it and says “well I’ll be a great philanthropist with someone else’s money”.

Robert Sewell
January 14, 2023 11:34 am

Calli:

I wonder who the “baddies” would be this time round? Russians? Trumps? Plague Doctors?

Trump supporters, Calli.
The ‘Baddies’ will be Trump supporters.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 14, 2023 11:36 am

Yes, you’re right chaps – I shouldn’t rise to the bait.

JC
JC
January 14, 2023 11:39 am

I wonder who the “baddies” would be this time round? Russians? Trumps? Plague Doctors?

Grampian Nazis for sure.

cohenite
January 14, 2023 11:44 am

‘Concerning’ climate record we broke again in 2022
The year 2022 was among the hottest ever, but scientists have expressed concern about one particular climate record which got smashed for the fourth year in a row.

What record was it: the amount of bullshit being spat out by the alarmists. I could believe that record being smashed.

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