Open Thread – Tues 17 Jan 2023


The Strawberry Thieves pattern, William Morris, 1883


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Vicki
Vicki
January 20, 2023 11:08 am

One of the things I most love about this blog is the strength of conviction of contributors. Sure, there is personal acrimony and division of thought on lots of issues. But I would suggest that we all value freedom above all. I believe it is important that blogs like this continue to exist to support the strength of this concept. This excerpt appeared in Robert Malone’s substack today. I think it is very apropos :

There is only one thing that we must agree on.

That freedom is our birthright.

Now is the time to let go of whatever it is you’re holding on to that keeps you divided from your friends, family and fellow humans. Rise above all the micro dramas and distractions to see that a much bigger story is unfolding. Swallow your pride. Humble yourself. Let it go. I’m not suggesting that we look the other way when someone is clearly thwarting our forward momentum. There are people who deserve to be called out by name, especially those who are undermining our trust in each other. But even then, we should remember that there is a human life being affected by our words. We’ve been so conditioned to believe we are powerless that we’ve become careless with our power.

Like toddlers with loaded guns. How many times do we need to shoot our own foot till we realize that the power is in our hands?

The only thing that can stop us at this point… is us.

We’ve all been lied to, scammed, fooled, tricked, conned and coerced. Yes, it sucks.But here we are, wiser and stronger than we were just three years ago. This is the moment for us to activate our innate ability to create solutions that can only happen through the awareness of symbiosis defined as a mutually beneficial relationship between different groups. All of life depends on relationships. Every living thing is in communication from the stars, to the planets, the earth, the plants, the elements, the insects, the animals, the humans and every cell within us. Real change out there, begins with real change inside.

The question is: How bad does it have to get, before we’re willing to change?

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 20, 2023 11:08 am

self-aware Big Website

How does saBW sound for short?

sfw
sfw
January 20, 2023 11:09 am

Seems that Jeff Kennett backs Albanese plan. What happened to him? This from Twitter 2 hrs ago.

“The PM yesterday indicated he might legislate The Voice to the Parliament if the referendum fails.
Hold the Referendum, to generously recognise Indigenous and Torres Strait islanders as the first settlers on our continent as Chapter 1 of our Constitution,and legislate The Voice”

https://twitter.com/jeff_kennett/status/1616189909051793408

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 11:09 am

As someone who was too young to remember the Whitlam years it is kind of Albo and Turtlehead to re-create them.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 11:09 am

It’s amazing how much you can learn if your intentions are truly earnest.

– Chuck Berry

Gabor
Gabor
January 20, 2023 11:09 am

Self-Aware Artificial Intelligence

You don’t need an AI self-aware or any kind to destroy a computer, either physically or just destroy data when moved.

All you need is a GPS locator inside the box, a small explosive charge or a software that will be triggered and battery power that last long enough to do the job.

Or if not battery powered then, wait for the next power up from the mains, not rocket science.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 20, 2023 11:09 am

Armstrongfaulty.

Brilliant.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 11:09 am

Now for some self spruiking myseld re CAD ASX now MTL ASX (Mantle, formerly Caneus).

Ann: Phase 2 Drilling Results from Pardoo Nickel Sulphide Project

Good news. Math out the old nickel reserve at current prices, discount by half (say 15% for 6 years) for start up, 30% margin, divided by shares, in dollars, divided by a 20 year mine life and…

Its got Ni, Cu, Co and Pd.

All other holders on that Hot Copper forum think the firm management belong in gaol for not working over Christmas.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 11:11 am

Dot has a done a truly excellent job of slowly dismantling Marty Armstrong. Great work, Dotster. Your effort is appreciated. And yes, someone ought to report Marty to his parole officer so he (Marty) ends back in Leavenworth.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 11:12 am

A yuuuge shout out to Dot for pulling the wings off that blowfly, Martin Armstrong.

It wasn’t me. I wish I was as cool as the guy who runs that blog.

https://armstrongecmscam.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-mother-of-all-forecast-claims.html

COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong, I attended the Berlin Conference and I must say, you told us to expect a move between the Benchmarks in gold, and that the first quarter looked to be a countertrend move. You seem to be able to map out the direction of markets all the time. I am still working out the best way to read the arrays. But I have to ask. Why have you not been given the Noble Prize with such a long track record that is unbeatable?

REPLY: The fact that we can forecast any event to the day PROVES that markets are by no means RANDOM.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 11:13 am

Seems that Jeff Kennett backs Albanese plan. What happened to him?

Happens to all old farts. He will be making tea and coffee on Shut the Gates protests in a Friends of the ABC T-shirt in a couple of years.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 11:14 am

Tucker Carlson: “The New York Post is reporting tonight that the crowds of prostitutes who have flooded into Davos, Switzerland to service the sad elderly men who falsely believe they run the world, have upped their prices.”

“At least somebody is benefitting from the WEF.”

hahahahahahahahahaha.

I bet the war has had an impact too with the Russian border essentially closed to the West. Lack of Russian hookers would’ve caused the big price hike.

132andBush
132andBush
January 20, 2023 11:17 am

feelthebern says:
January 20, 2023 at 10:42 am
Crowder wants a guaranteed contract.
Apart from some Fox subsidiary, it’s hard to see anyone giving him what he wants.

I think DW have undervalued Crowder.
I watched the DW reply yesterday and yeah, reasonable enough I suppose.
They should’ve gone to him with a much higher figure.
Even they admit he’s the largest conservative presence out there.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 11:17 am

The Russian hookers would be pleased to get out of Dubai this time of year. Even if it means taking a pay cut.

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 20, 2023 11:18 am

They are after your kids. But you knew that. Clarissa Bye in the Daily Telegraph:

Teachers should keep parents in the dark if a student wants to change sex, while all residents could change the gender on their birth certificate without undergoing surgery, the state’s peak children’s advocate says.

But critics have slammed the advice, saying it would be “dangerous” to keep secrets from parents.

NSW Advocate for Children and Young People Zoe Robinson recommends the state government make policy changes in response to her report, which was based on interviewing 233 LGBTQIA+ people aged between 12 and 24.

“Staff should be encouraged to maintain confidentiality when a student chooses to disclose their sexuality or gender to teachers, wellbeing staff and school leaders,” the report states. “This will protect students’ wellbeing in that it may not be safe for the student if the staff member were to mention their disclosed identity to parents or carers.”

One Nation MP Mark Latham, who has advocated for a parental rights bill in NSW parliament, said “no good ever comes from keeping parents in the dark”.

“To say it’s unsafe to tell the parents about the sexuality and gender of students is just a disgusting slur against parents,” he said.

The report, The Voices of LGBTQIA+ Young People in NSW, also calls for “all-gender bathrooms” in addition to boys’ and girls’ toilets in all NSW schools; more content on diverse gender and sexuality in the PDHPE syllabus; and says the government should pass new laws to protect LGBTQIA+ students’ rights, which would override existing laws allowing religious exemptions.

Save Women’s Sport co-founder and lawyer Katherine Deves said the report was “promoting an ideology to children” and would “lock” them into an identity that could lead to irreversible medical and surgical interventions.

“Children should not be able to alter their sex on their birth certificate, nor should they be able to change their name without parental consent,” she said.

Christian Schools Australia public policy director Mark Spencer said it was a “massive overreach” to exclude parents from their children’s care.

“To take the unfiltered, unexamined, unverified claims of a tiny sample — 233 young people when there are more than 1.2 million students in NSW schools — that has all the biases inherent in the methodology used to produce the document, as the basis of public policy recommendations is … extraordinary,” Mr Spencer said.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said it was important students could speak to someone they trusted, like a teacher.

“It is my expectation that a school would discuss any potential disclosure with a student before disclosing this information to a parent or carer,” she said.

The Children’s Advocate was contacted for comment.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 11:19 am

Dot

Did you see the PPI down .5% and CPI down .1% . The fed could be easing sooner than later maybe.

I said throughout last year that there was a huge disparity between the inflation rate and the bond market. Inflation at 8% plus for a time and the 10 year nudging 4% and now retreated to below 3.5% can’t work longer term. Something has to give.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 11:20 am

Its got Ni, Cu, Co and Pd.

Grade is your friend Dot.
In this case grade is not your friend though.

The Beer whisperer
The Beer whisperer
January 20, 2023 11:20 am

That freedom is our birthright

Indeed. The hypocrisy of the left, condemning slavery only when it suits them. They went full on plantation owners during covid. Their true colours.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 11:21 am

https://armstrongecmscam.blogspot.com/p/armstrongs-ignorance.html

Armstrong’s ignorance of basic science
Martin Armstrong in trying to defend himself about his own “new” ideas gave us an example from his personal life, encountering a “smart” person who tried to get his perpetual energy generator off the ground, and not wanting to take a $50 million offer for it. Here is the story from his website (note the spelling mistake in the title):

Fake New & Silence Any New Achievement

In Tokyo, a man came to me with a magnetic engine. He wanted me to help him and take it public. He left me a scooter and told me to test it out. You plugged it in once and thereafter it self-generated power and did not need to be plugged in again. I was skeptical at first. I asked him why he was coming to me? He said he had been to all the top auto manufacturers and everyone wanted to buy it. He was offered $50 million and turned it down not because he wanted more, but because they wanted to shelve it so it would not see the light of day. That was another project they ensured was killed in my affair.

Honestly, I am personally astounded by how low Armstrong’s knowledge in basic science is. He, supposedly, the person who created some artificial intelligence program or Socrates that can predict all the financial markets in the entire world, simply doesn’t understand the most basic law of conservation of energy from high school physics. Well, yeah, according to his Martin Armstrong Wikipedia Page he did only have a high school degree, and NO college degrees, but that should have been enough education for him. Maybe he didn’t even pass any of the science classes?

Ideas on Perpetual Motion Machines have been long time coming, and according to Science Explained: The Physics of Perpetual Motion Machines, NONE of any perpetual motion machines are real so far. And even if a 100% efficient machine can be built, NO energy can be extracted for use, or else the machine will lose energy and stop. But Armstrong, a “great forecaster”, cannot even understand something that is so basic. Not only that, during the last 20+ years of his life, after the supposed “encounter” with this Japanese scooter man, he is UNABLE to come to this basic understanding of law of energy conservation (energy+mass, if you include nuclear reaction). The scooter man said that his machine “self-generated power and did not need to be plugged in again”. And Armstrong believed what he said, and Armstrong HAS the scooter that the man left to him.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 11:22 am

H B Bear says:
January 20, 2023 at 11:17 am

The Russian hookers would be pleased to get out of Dubai this time of year. Even if it means taking a pay cut.

This would be a cooler end of the year and the high season for hookering in the Mideast.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 11:22 am

What grades would be decent?

local oaf
January 20, 2023 11:24 am

Just last month a man was sentenced to 22 weeks in prison after a woman reported him for “continuously staring” at her on a train in Berkshire.

He was just training for the upcoming finals…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWgg20IqibM

mem
mem
January 20, 2023 11:24 am

https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/news/professor-susan-jebb-recognised-with-academy-of-medical-sciences-fellowship
Looks to me like the cake professor has a malnourishment problem herself. Under weight, dark circles under eyes and although a nice smile could be anorexic or anemic.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 11:26 am

He said he had been to all the top auto manufacturers and everyone wanted to buy it. He was offered $50 million and turned it down not because he wanted more, but because they wanted to shelve it so it would not see the light of day. That was another project they ensured was killed in my affair.

LOL. Where’s the the Rolls Royce Engines executive to explain to us this perpetual motion machine? This magic machine.

Marty needs to report to his parole officer.

Vicki
Vicki
January 20, 2023 11:27 am

For a “it made my day” moment, view the following video of Ezra Levant & Avi Yemini of Canada’s Rebel News “button-holing” Albert Bourla CEO of Pfizer at the current WEF meeting. This what not one of the international media/MSM have dared to do:

https://drtrozzi.org/2023/01/19/pfizer-ceo-albert-bourla-confronted-by-rebel-news/

Zipster
January 20, 2023 11:31 am

Detective Inspector Sarah White, who leads British Transport Police’s sexual offences team, said her officers are receiving daily reports of people committing sexual offences including staring.

the uk is now officially a shithole

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 20, 2023 11:31 am

Folk-rock pioneer David Crosby dies at 81
By AFP
AFP
10:41AM January 20, 2023
2 Comments

David Crosby, an influential musical pioneer of the 1960s and 1970s who created a distinctly American brand of folk-rock with the Byrds and later with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, has died. He was 81.

Variety first reported the news, citing the singer’s wife, Jan Dance, who said Crosby died following “a long illness.”

Rolling Stone later cited a source close to the musician as confirming his death.

The two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer – known as much for his alternative guitar tunings, lush harmonies and abstract lyrics as for his pacifist activism, brutal honesty and living dangerously – remained a prolific artist throughout his life.

Over the course of six decades in the music industry, the vocalist, guitarist, and composer at the forefront of countercultural rock penned a rich array of heartfelt ballads and knife-edged bangers.

Famous for his walrus moustache and his laid-back stage presence, often in jeans paired with flannels, he crafted subtle acoustic guitar riffs and multi-layered harmonies on tracks including CSNY’s Guinnevere, a gentle song rife with allusions to medieval myth.

bons
bons
January 20, 2023 11:33 am

Eerie, spot on. All she ever was was a P&C Mummy Karen.
No wonder the girly journos loved her.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 11:34 am

What grades would be decent?

Oops, Dot, I was hoping the link would open to the PDF announcement, but it didn’t. You can click on the ‘download document’ link though and it should open in your browser.

The resource estimate was 50 MT at 0.3% Ni and 0.13% Cu. From the drill core data the Co level is about 0.03% and the Pd content about 0.05 g/t. None of those are particularly juicy.

My sort of benchmark always has been Mt Keith, which the wiki says had 270 Mt of 0.6% Ni. I can’t recall what the other metal levels were and I won’t bother trying for them now. It was always a fairly large low grade open pit deposit.

This one looks shallow enough to open pit, so it could be a goer. But at half the nickel grade of Mt Keith and a fifth of the tonnes it looks to be a modest discovery.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 11:35 am

Rotten, you better be putting your hand in your pocket for that perpetual motion machine. Not pulling some Ten Pound Pom bullshit.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 20, 2023 11:35 am

The fed could be easing sooner than later maybe.

My view, there will be a pause sooner than the markets are currently pricing and then held at that level.
Ie, rates don’t go as high but don’t expect any cuts during 2023.

PS, views subject to change depending what saBW says.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 11:41 am

Oops, Dot, I was hoping the link would open to the PDF announcement, but it didn’t.

I’ve read it it, it isn’t spectacular.

Talking my own book here but a couple of three things.

1. They’re also looking for magnetite.
2. The old estimate is…old! They’re looking for a more accurate picture and an eventual JORC estimate.
3. They’re sulfides and not laterites.

4. If Mt B is approved then it’s straight to a Bunga Bunga party.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 11:42 am

Eerie, spot on. All she ever was was a P&C Mummy Karen.
No wonder the girly journos loved her.

St Jacinda? Imagine a tranny Albo with worse teeth.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 11:45 am

US rock legend David Crosby dies aged 81

Veteran US folk-rock star David Crosby has died aged 81, his representative has confirmed.

He helped set up two major bands in the 1960s: The Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash. He was renowned for his guitar-playing and vocal harmonies.

His career saw him achieve the rare feat of being inducted to the revered Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.

Crosby’s wife told showbiz site Variety that he died “after a long illness” while surrounded by family.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64341315

Christine
Christine
January 20, 2023 11:46 am

Hunters and gatherers didn’t have a culture. Culture: improvement/development/refinement. “Always was, always will be” (once referring to God) now gifted to activists by the churches.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 11:49 am

It’s a very tough time in the United States, man. Donald Trump has pulled a scab off an ongoing infection in this country of racism and stupidity that is beyond belief. He’s made it obvious that the big part of the bell curve of the intelligent distribution is at a room temperature IQ. And there’s a whole shitload of not very smart people out there who buy into Donald Trump. Trump is an obvious charlatan, an obvious liar, an obvious piece of shit. The only people who would believe in him are dummies. People who are politically primitive. His and their world is laced with racism. The racism in this country is fully active and fully discouraging in how pervasive it is.

duncanm
duncanm
January 20, 2023 11:54 am

The Maoris were similar and basically starving when Cook turned up.

I’d have to disagree with this comparison, somewhat.

Maori inter-tribal warring seems to have accelerated their development much more than the Australian indigenous peoples. They also had agriculture (as per. their Polynesian forebears).

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 11:54 am

Christinesays:
January 20, 2023 at 11:46 am
Hunters and gatherers didn’t have a culture. Culture: improvement/development/refinement. “Always was, always will be” (once referring to God) now gifted to activists by the churches.

Hunter gatherers don’t own property either.

duncanm
duncanm
January 20, 2023 11:59 am

The main message for us to deliver [at the rally] is that, for a lot of us, we are not for the Voice, we are for sovereignty. It’s about our self-determination as Aboriginal people, as original sovereigns of this country,”

So.. piss off to the expansive land that’s been handed back and don’t expect any first-world assistance from the colonisers. Right?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 12:01 pm

Dot – I’m rusty on WA nickel stuff but I’m aware of such things having worked directly with several WA nickel operations. Ni and Cu prices today aren’t substantially different from when Mt Keith was developed iirc. Co has gone through the roof though. My old manager said to me one day that most of WA would be nickel ore if you could economically mine at 0.3% Ni. That was lateritic not sulfide, and somewhat hyperbowl, but the comment stuck with me at the time.

One of the fun things with QNI in Townsville is that the process turned the iron content of the ore to magnetite. From time to time someone would suggest magnetically recovering the magnetite from the tailings, and selling it to the Chinese or someone. There’re many millions of tonnes in the tailings dams, so I was amused that Clive Palmer has gotten $1.5 billion for the defunct QNI operation. I suspect the tailings dams are the yummiest bit.

Incidentally the QNI tailings would grade higher in Ni, Co and possibly Pd than the Pardoo resource, albeit oxides not sulfides. Plus about 50% magnetite. And you just shovel it up out of the tailings dam.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 20, 2023 12:02 pm

I can’t believe their systems are so brittle.

FAA Says Contractor Unintentionally Caused Outage That Disrupted Flights

The Federal Aviation Administration said a contractor working for the air-safety regulator had unintentionally deleted computer files used in a pilot-alert system, leading to an outage that disrupted U.S. air traffic last week.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 12:02 pm

Hunter gatherers don’t own property either.

In a primitive sense, they most certainly do, you appalling ill-bred buffoon. In fact hunter gatherers would be quite wealthy if one considers the land to people ratio it sustains.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 12:09 pm

Wretchard nails it (via Instapundit):

wretchardthecat@wretchardthecat

The men on Davos are a tribe; and it would be impossible to understand the nature of the Great Reset without grasping the tribal nature of the enterprise. These as the most narcissistic people on the planet. Of course they know all the answers.

1:48 PM · Jan 17, 2023

Scroll up from that tweet to read the rest of the thread, which is excoriating and entirely true.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 20, 2023 12:10 pm

Let’s fudge the stats

But…but…but…there would have been more without the vaccines!

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 12:11 pm

It must be a great idea as the left are screaming.

GOP want’s to replace income tax with a national sales tax of 30%.

Won’t happen though, but wow, it would be great.

President Biden and Democrats have found a new political punching bag in Republicans’ legislation to eliminate income taxes and the IRS in favor of a national sales tax.

Mr. Biden has seized on the issue to bludgeon Republicans in the perennial struggle to prove which party is doing more to help middle-class Americans.

“They want to raise taxes on the middle class by taxing thousands of everyday items from groceries, gasoline, clothing while cutting taxes for the wealthiest,” Mr. Biden said during a Monday appearance at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. “They want to supplant the money lost from taxes on the millionaires and billionaires with a sales tax on virtually everything in the country.”

Congressional Democrats, who hope to keep the Senate and take back the House in 2024, are following the president’s lead. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who faces a tough reelection campaign in Montana, is already pledging to oppose the “awful” plan.

“Montana has no sales tax and we don’t need the federal government imposing one on us,” said Mr. Tester. “House Republicans’ plan to tack a 30% national sales tax on every good from gas to groceries would skyrocket costs for Montana’s working families.”
Top stories

I
Rep. Sean Casten, Illinois Democrat, even claims the bill is proof that Republicans believe “your grocery bill is too cheap and that you need to pay an additional 30%.”

Republicans say Democrats are misrepresenting their proposal. For one, they say, the bill would replace income taxes, payroll taxes, estate taxes, and gift taxes with a flat 23% sales tax — not 30% as claimed by detractors.

Rep. Buddy Carter, who introduced the bill this Congress, chalked up the 30% exaggeration to Democratic “fear-mongering.” The Georgia Republican said that contrary to opponents’ claims, his legislation would simplify the tax code and give citizens more control over how much they pay the government at the end of the year.

“Let’s face it, people don’t like paying taxes,” said Mr. Carter. “But if they’re going to pay taxes, they would much rather pay a consumption tax. You can control what you want to pay, if you’re going to buy a boat you’re going to pay taxes, if you don’t want to pay taxes then don’t buy the boat.”

Mr. Carter’s bill would create the national sales tax to replace taxes derived from individual and corporate income. Only goods and services purchased for personal use, and not for business, would be subject to the tax. 

Not all Republicans are happy that the bill will likely receive a floor vote sometime this year. Several House Republicans told The Washington Times that they viewed Mr. Carter’s bill as generating needless controversy, even as it fared little chance of passing the Democratic-run Senate or being signed into law by Mr. Biden.

“It’s a great idea if you’re sitting in some conservative think tank inside the Beltway,” said one House GOP lawmaker. “But pragmatically, it’s not going anywhere and it just opens us up to attacks. Biden is already saying we want to cut Medicare [and] Social Security using the debt limit, now he says we want to raise tax on grandma’s groceries.”

The national sales tax would fall on top of state and local sales taxes that consumers already pay, which range between 4% and 7%. While 32 states and the District of Columbia exempt most food purchases from local sales tax, Mr. Carter’s bill would cover groceries. 

To help cushion that added cost, households, regardless of income, would receive a monthly lump sum payment calculated on the sales tax rate and the federal poverty level. It would ensure a family of four can spend up to $26,000 annually without paying any taxes, according to Mr. Carter’s office.

The bill further would abolish the IRS, with proponents arguing there would be little need for the agency if the multibracket tax code is replaced with a national sales tax.

“This transforms the U.S. tax code from a mandatory, progressive, and convoluted system to a fully transparent and unbiased system that does away with the IRS as we know it,” said Rep. Bob Good, Virginia Republican.

Apart from abolishing the IRS and giving citizens more control over their tax bill, supporters say the legislation will also help shore up Social Security and Medicare. The programs, which face insolvency, are currently funded by payroll taxes levied on 160 million workers annually.

Under Mr. Carter’s bill, approximately 300 million Americans and more than 50 million tourists visiting the country would be subject to the national sales tax. Mr. Carter’s office also estimates under the current tax code, 33 cents of every dollar earned in the U.S. goes to the U.S. government via income taxes. That figure would drop to 22 cents for every dollar under the proposal.

Mr. Carter’s national sales tax bill has been co-sponsored by at least 23 House Republicans. The number is deceptive because many of its key supporters overlapped with the group of GOP lawmakers that initially opposed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership bid this year.
 
Among others, those supporters include Mr. Good, Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, and House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. The holdouts reportedly secured an agreement from Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, to put the sales tax bill up for a vote as part of a bigger deal to support his ascension to speaker.

“I wasn’t privy to those negotiations, but it looks like this will finally come up for a vote,” said Mr. Carter.

Mr. Carter said he recognized the bill faced long odds with a Democrat-run Senate and White House, but was frustrated by the naysayers in his own party.

“I recognize the political reality … But that doesn’t mean we still shouldn’t do our job in the House,” he said. “I’m not going to be intimidated by people saying ‘it’s never going to happen, you’re wasting your time.’”

“I’m not wasting my time, this is an idea whose time has come and it needs to be put forward,” he said.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 20, 2023 12:15 pm

St Jacinda? Imagine a tranny Albo with worse teeth.

Sometimes the Cat throws up unbelievably horrid word pictures.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 12:18 pm

JCsays:
January 20, 2023 at 12:02 pm
Hunter gatherers don’t own property either.

In a primitive sense, they most certainly do, you appalling ill-bred buffoon. In fact hunter gatherers would be quite wealthy if one considers the land to people ratio it sustains.

Jerkoff Cretin. In a primitive sense, you are primitive. They did not own property. Full stop.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 12:19 pm

Eww.

I tattooed my eyeballs black — people are worried I’ll go blind (17 Jan, via Instapundit)

A Brazilian social media influencer is raising eyebrows for tattooing the whites of her eyes black.

Kiki Mary, a fan of unusual tattoos and piercings, shocked fans with her new look in a two-part stomach-dropping TikTok series that has drawn more than a million views.

The first video shows a tattoo artist injecting black ink into Kiki’s eyeball with a syringe.

Over in Northern Ireland, mom Anaya Peterson said she tattooed her eyeballs bright blue after being inspired by Australian model Amber Luke, who reportedly went blind for three weeks and cried blue tears.

“I don’t have 20/20 vision anymore. From a distance, I can’t see features on faces,” Peterson recently told Kennedy News. “If I didn’t have my eyeballs tattooed, I wouldn’t be having this problem.

This is an age where kids want the whites of their eyes not to be white. The whole world’s gone mad.

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 20, 2023 12:20 pm

Let’s fudge the stats

Adjusting the stats to suit the paymasters belief system is nothing new. It has been going on for a few score millennia.
In the last few centuries, up until the 1980s, this had gone out of fashion and was frowned upon. Humanity advanced in leaps and bounds.
It is baaack.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 12:24 pm

“In large part, the returns that will be made by these companies will be determined on the export market and will be available substantially to continue to be the source of the funds and the returns for investment in new supply,” Cass-Gottlieb said.

So shes going to implement a minimum price for their products as well?

Say… $10 a GJ, to provide “certainty” for the market?

Are there enough lampposts in Caberrah?
Can we do a test to see just how many troughers and useless eaters can be suspended from each one?

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 20, 2023 12:26 pm

The boss doesn’t like the figures on the cooling rate of the reactor.
Let’s fudge the stats!

Why I hate data f1ddlers so.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 12:30 pm

“It’s a great idea if you’re sitting in some conservative think tank inside the Beltway,” said one House GOP lawmaker. “But pragmatically, it’s not going anywhere and it just opens us up to attacks.

and it just opens us up to attacks

Well theres the pioneering spirit that shook off the tyranny of the English throne, won the west and stormed the beaches at Normandy

“We will win by not holding any positions other than our foes, but doing them slower”, seems to be the catchcry of the uniparty globally.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 20, 2023 12:30 pm

In more news about how this country is stuffed. Needed some brake parts for my wagon. $695 original parts. $62.90 for aftermaket, including postage.

Perth Trader
Perth Trader
January 20, 2023 12:30 pm

Beautiful day here in ‘gods country’ [ west. aust.] . I’ve never seen so many new dodge rams on the road. Every cockies son and tradie must have got one for xmas. How are things on the other side ya layabouts? Are ya back to work yet or are us west aussies still carryin’ ya?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 20, 2023 12:33 pm

19m ago
SA first in line to enact Indigenous voice
Laura Placella
LAURA PLACELLA

South Australia will become the first state in the country to have an elected Indigenous voice to parliament after the SA Greens confirmed they would back the Labor government’s legislation establishing the body.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister and Attorney-General Kyam Maher told The Advertiser that he now expects the SA voice to be in operation by the end of this year.

“What SA is proposing is an Australian first – a fully elected Aboriginal body that will not only be a voice to our parliament, but a voice within our parliament,” Mr Maher said.

“This will be done through a series of elected local Aboriginal voices and from there they will form a statewide voice that will have the ability to make an annual address to a joint sitting of parliament every year.

“(The voice will also have the) ability to speak on the floor of parliament on any piece of legislation, provide reports to parliament on matters of interest and to have regular meetings with cabinet and chief executives.”

The SA voice will operate regardless of the fate of the federal government’s referendum on a national Indigenous voice to parliament

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 12:33 pm

CDC Knowingly Left Serious Adverse Events Off Post-Vaccination Surveys, Documents Show

Epoch Times –

“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) didn’t include serious adverse events like heart inflammation on post-vaccination surveys even though the agency knew the issues could be linked to COVID-19 vaccines, documents show.

Even before the surveys were rolled out in December 2020 after the first vaccines were authorized, the CDC knew that myocarditis—a form of heart inflammation since confirmed as being caused by the Pfizer and Moderna shots—and other serious adverse events were of “special interest” when it came to the vaccines, according to a newly disclosed version of the protocol for the survey system.

The Nov. 19, 2020, protocol (pdf) for V-safe, the survey system, lists myocarditis, stroke, death, and a dozen “prespecified medical conditions.” The protocol was obtained by the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a nonprofit that seeks transparency around health information. All of the conditions can cause severe symptoms.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/cdc-left-serious-adverse-events-off-post-vaccination-surveys-despite-knowledge-of-possible-link-documents-show_4988809.html?utm_source=newsnoe&src_src=newsnoe&utm_campaign=breaking-2023-01-19-one&src_cmp=breaking-2023-01-19-one&utm_medium=email&est=jprox19hgztEp0pmkKBAyO1tDODmVEyNJ3coK8sWm4Su3WMtYKt4wChhaf8u4WwG03%2FP7w%3D%3D

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 20, 2023 12:36 pm

Vickisays:
January 20, 2023 at 11:08 am
One of the things I most love about this blog is the strength of conviction of contributors. Sure, there is personal acrimony and division of thought on lots of issues. But I would suggest that we all value freedom above all. I believe it is important that blogs like this continue to exist to support the strength of this concept.

Sorry, Vicki, there is at least one contributor here who clearly does not “value freedom above all”. Look at his posts yesterday for all the evidence you need.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 12:36 pm

Are ya back to work yet or are us west aussies still carryin’ ya?

I own 0.0000000000000003 % of WA, you may call me “Sir” or “Lieutenant Governor”.

duncanm
duncanm
January 20, 2023 12:37 pm

GreyRangasays:
January 20, 2023 at 12:30 pm
In more news about how this country is stuffed. Needed some brake parts for my wagon. $695 original parts. $62.90 for aftermaket, including postage.

both will be foreign- what’s the problem?

(ps: did you try QFM, they make a good range of pads).

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 20, 2023 12:37 pm

Tractor production is up

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 12:38 pm

You will hear and believe what we tell you to, peasants.

New misinformation laws to protect Australians (20 Jan)

The federal government will give the media regulator new power to reduce the spread of misinformation.

The new legislation will give the media watchdog greater power to request information, such as data on complaints handling and how they manage the spread of harmful content from big tech giants of Twitter or Google.

How dare you search for what is reality. WE determine what is reality.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 12:39 pm

They did not own property.

Yes they did. Certain landmarks were hereditary.

The “no ownership” myth is communist claptrap and it is the main leg of native title which ironically holds Aboriginals back from development.

m0nty
m0nty
January 20, 2023 12:40 pm

30% sales tax and Senator Abbott, LOL. Does the Western right want to lose every election?

Perth Trader
Perth Trader
January 20, 2023 12:40 pm

”Holy High Protein Wheat” , batman…Dots part of the Landed Gentry.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 12:41 pm

Are ya back to work yet or are us west aussies still carryin’ ya?

This is the attitude that will see the Big Sneaker’s codpiece back up in lights. I’m still wondering why they reopened the border?

Perth Trader
Perth Trader
January 20, 2023 12:46 pm

The reason ‘sneakers’ is premier is because he has no opposition. The Liberal party here uses a ‘smart car’ to get to work.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 20, 2023 12:47 pm

 2

Johnny Rottensays:

January 20, 2023 at 11:45 am

US rock legend David Crosby dies aged 81

Martin Armstrong predicted this last week.

dopey
dopey
January 20, 2023 12:47 pm

In case people missed it yesterday regarding George Pell.
Ed Case: “2 juries found him Guilty unanimously.” Keep up the good work Ed, and there is no need to point out that the jury were unanimous. I suppose the first jury were unanimous in disagreement.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 12:50 pm

Groogs doesn’t sweat the small stuff.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 12:51 pm

Perth Tradersays:
January 20, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Beautiful day here in ‘gods country’ [ west. aust.] . I’ve never seen so many new dodge rams on the road. Every cockies son and tradie must have got one for xmas. How are things on the other side ya layabouts? Are ya back to work yet or are us west aussies still carryin’ ya?

Happily retired and enjoying retirement on my hard earned savings/investments. You lot keep working and paying those taxes. The Liebore Feral Guv’ment and WA State Crooks need all the dosh that they can steal, I mean get………..

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 12:52 pm

I own 0.0000000000000003 % of WA, you may call me “Sir” or “Lieutenant Governor”.

Assistant rhinestone fluffer 3rd class, underside codpiece division.
When he hits second class he no longer has to use his tongue, they give him a chammy cloth instead.

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 20, 2023 12:52 pm

Lysenko’s stupidity killed lots (millions?) of people.
The words Lysenkoism Lysenkoist are now in the dictionary.

I’m calling it early, we will get “Bowenism”

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 12:55 pm

I call for a tax on lefty doctors.

Doctors calls for sugar tax on soft drinks (Sky News, 20 Jan)

Doctors want consumers to pay 16 cents more for a can or bottle of sugary soft drink to reduce rates of obesity, diabetes and dental problems in children.

The Australian Medical Association says 85 countries now have a “sugar tax”, and it’s time Australia introduced one, too.

The AMA are so fruity now that they don’t even support their vaccine-injured former president.
Just go away, lefty witchdoctors.

Perth Trader
Perth Trader
January 20, 2023 1:00 pm

Johnny Rottensays:
January 20, 2023 at 12:51 pm…..well done Johnny, congrats. I have’nt got time to retire..I’ve still got things to do and ideas I have’nt even thought of yet.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 20, 2023 1:03 pm

Bj the person you mentioned contributes nothing. Also the Rotting Head with the woody for Armstrong, the magnificent forecaster of how to extract money from the gullible.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 20, 2023 1:03 pm

Armstrong-Faulty’s “self-aware self-destructing Big Website” has a sinister purpose.
So far his little scam might be just on the right side of the law, by a whisker.
Offering dodgy advice to gullible ex Rolls Royce cleaners may not be against the law (depending on licensing laws governing financial advice in whatever jurisdiction he operates in).
Claiming the “forecasts” are based upon sophisticated compuda algorithms when no such programs exist might be something else altogether legally.
Hence, if they sieze his compuda, he has to have a reason why there is no complex predictive model on there.
“It ate itself.”

m0nty
m0nty
January 20, 2023 1:04 pm

Monty.
This logic doesn’t fly: “I agree with it being mandated so it isn’t really a mandate”.
Or:
“It isn’t mandatory to wear a bike helmet, you can just walk instead”.
“Seatbelts aren’t mandatory, no one is going to hold you down and strap you in”.
The vaccines were in all practicality to a large proportion of the population, mandatory. They couldn’t avoid getting them without severe penalty. And if they had insisted on turning up unvaccinated after being dismissed, the full force of the law including incarceration would have applied via trespass laws etc.
It is left to you to justify the mandate. You can’t deny it was indeed a mandate.

The logic I am using is that, as db said, the government made it mandatory to be vaxxed if you wanted to work in certain customer-facing jobs like health. However, you could choose to remain unvaxxed and work at home in another industry. Thus is was not mandated.

Do I have to draw you a Venn diagram? In health etc: mandated. In wider society: not mandated. Thus, not mandatory. You didn’t have to work in those sectors.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 1:07 pm

Do I have to draw you a Venn diagram? In health etc: mandated. In wider society: not mandated. Thus, not mandatory. You didn’t have to work in those sectors.

It was far more pervasive than that.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 1:08 pm

Plot twist:

Marty Armstrong reveals in court, under Federal prosecution, that HE is the Socrates soopacompooda.

m0nty
m0nty
January 20, 2023 1:15 pm

It was far more pervasive than that.

If it was mandated, why aren’t 100% of people vaxxed?

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 1:19 pm

The logic I am using is that, as db said, the government made it mandatory to be vaxxed if you wanted to work in certain customer-facing jobs like health.

Zap Montygen rallies his pixels for another frontal charge into prepared defences. Slithers from “It wasnt mandated”

To “It was mandated upon threat of losing career”.

Winning!!

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 1:22 pm

Zap Montygen will soon be resorting to such classics as

“The government provided bridges for them to sleep under”, and “Well why didnt they just re-train for other jobs in the facilities/schools/TAFEs/Unis we banned them from entering”.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 20, 2023 1:24 pm

m0nty=fa

The logic I am using is that, as db said, the government made it mandatory to be vaxxed if you wanted to work in certain customer-facing jobs like health. However, you could choose to remain unvaxxed and work at home in another industry. Thus is was not mandated.

Do I have to draw you a Venn diagram? In health etc: mandated. In wider society: not mandated. Thus, not mandatory. You didn’t have to work in those sectors.

Please draw the Venn diagram. Don’t forget to cover non-customer facing jobs that cannot be done at home. Cleaning, truck driving, ones like that.

Just identifying those jobs might (only might) educate you on the wider economy outside your twin obsessions of health and fantasy life.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 1:25 pm

If it was mandated, why aren’t 100% of people vaxxed?

You know why, but let me elaborate.

Because a large minority forced to be vaccinated were coerced and are still pissed off.

The small minority who remained unvaccinated were financially well off to not worry about job losses.

Until Novavax was approved, there was no truly safe or effective vaccine, let alone an ethically made one for COVID.

It was also highly questionable to mandate vaccinations 30 months after COVID 19 had been PCR tested to be in western countries.

Vicki
Vicki
January 20, 2023 1:27 pm

For those who don’t think we are inexorably heading towards a socialist agenda:

Just heard it announced on TV that the feds are proposing a Code of Conduct regarding “misinformation” to be applied to social media venues (Twitter, Facebook etc) to “shield” Australian from “misinformation.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 1:27 pm

gee, my surprised face is wearing out and its only mid January.

US Supreme Court unable to identify leaker of draft Roe v Wade abortion decision

85 suspects, no forensic evidence found.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-20/us-supreme-court-unable-to-identify-leaker-in-abortion-decision/101874954

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 1:29 pm

Ukraine missed the chance to win militarily

That’s a weird reimagination of history. I can’t recall a single time in the last year that Ukraine had any chance to militarily defeat Russia. Yes they were using the force-multiplication that defending gets, especially with trench warfare and high tech western AA and AT systems. But actually win the war? Militarily? Nope, doesn’t scan. If that was possible they’d be in Sevastopol by now.

I’ve said several times this reminds me of the Italo-Greek War and the Iran-Iraq War. The latter went on for 7 years in a stalemate. This war is a stalemate. Unless there’s a quantum shift of some kind it will continue indefinitely, as the Ukrainians hate the Russians like ebola and the Russians can’t withdraw without serious risk of political collapse. So it will just go on and on then freeze like it did after 2014.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 1:32 pm

Perth Tradersays:
January 20, 2023 at 1:00 pm
Johnny Rottensays:
January 20, 2023 at 12:51 pm…..well done Johnny, congrats. I have’nt got time to retire..I’ve still got things to do and ideas I have’nt even thought of yet.

I can help you out there. Just write down a list of all of the things that you haven’t thought of yet.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 1:33 pm

Gruinaid blooding some work experience kids with their twitterfeed news.

Ill highlight what might be the small error in this report.

Pilbara Minerals posts ‘absolute cracker’

Driven by EV takeup and decarbonisation, Australia’s biggest lithium miner has had an “absolute cracker” December quarter on strong production and growing global demand.

“It’s all coming together at the perfect time,” Pilbara Minerals CEO, Dale Henderson, said on an investor call on Friday.

“What an amazing quarter we’ve had.”

The chief financial officer, Brian Lynn, said the December quarter was an “absolute cracker” with a strong operating margin supporting an $815m increase in the cash balance to $2.2bn.

He said operating costs continued to be elevated and are still being impacted by labour shortages and supply chain shortages.

“There is this general inflationary pressure being experienced,” he added.

The company has not yet started paying tax.

The first payment, of $90bn, will be made to the tax office in February.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 1:35 pm

85 suspects, no forensic evidence found.

Was any of those 85 suspects a guy named John Roberts?

Speedbox
January 20, 2023 1:36 pm

Perth Trader says:
January 20, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Beautiful day here in ‘gods country’ [ west. aust.] . I’ve never seen so many new dodge rams on the road. Every cockies son and tradie must have got one for xmas. How are things on the other side ya layabouts? Are ya back to work yet or are us west aussies still carryin’ ya?

Dear Perth Trader

Once again I have to set you straight about the master/slave dynamic. Please try and concentrate. We in the East of the country allow you certain toys (such as the RAM) as a modest incentive. But, and this is important, these trinkets are designed to lift your focus to creating even further wealth for those of us in the East. A bit like hanging a carrot in front of a dimwitted donkey.

So, please don’t interpret our largesse as goodwill – and get back to work.

Arky
January 20, 2023 1:39 pm

m0nty says:
January 20, 2023
The logic I am using is that, as db said, the government made it mandatory to be vaxxed if you wanted to work… (irrelevant qualifier)

..
Correct. It was mandated.
Many people subsequently lost their livelihoods. Some lost their lives.
As the damn thing has subsequently not proved to be either safe or effective as repeatedly promised, we should now start talking compensation and legal actions over the whole bloody mess created by the assumptions that the pharma companies were trustworthy and that government bodies are the correct place to decide your healthcare, rather than between you and your doctor.
It is noted that even as early as 2021/ early 2022 the TGA and CDC has noted deaths caused by the vaccines and recorded them on their websites.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
January 20, 2023 1:43 pm

Eyrie eyrlier-
She’s got a kid about to go to kindy and primary school.
I’ve noticed that it’s passing strange that so many western women will run away from their newborn during the nappies-n-breastfeeding years, yet fall back into domestic tradition when the school-based care commences.
Either they’re keen to hit the well-earned Sauv Blanc after a hectic morning of hitting buttons on the washer-dryer combo and packing sandwiches… or they don’t want their kid spending their formative years with purple-haired heffalump Co-operative Learning Journey Co-navigators alone.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 1:43 pm

m0nty says:
January 20, 2023
The logic I am using is that, as db said, the government made it mandatory to be vaxxed if you wanted to work… (irrelevant qualifier)

But, but, but……….Scomo said that it wasn’t mandated……………….By the Feral Guv’ment……………

Arky
January 20, 2023 1:44 pm

m0nty says:
January 20, 2023 at 1:15 pm
If it was mandated, why aren’t 100% of people vaxxed?

..
If bike helmets are mandatory, why isn’t everyone wearing a bike helmet everywhere they go at all times?

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 1:49 pm

If bike helmets are mandatory, why isn’t everyone wearing a bike helmet everywhere they go at all times?

Careful Dot.
Exposing the government as less than omniscient and all powerful, able to bend reality at will might cause Zap Montygen a sads.

Vicki
Vicki
January 20, 2023 1:49 pm

They did not own property.
Yes they did. Certain landmarks were hereditary.

Both concepts probably correct. “Ownership” in our sense (even without documentation) did not apply – as you would expect in a stone age culture. But, at least in some areas of the continent, specific areas of “country” were acknowledged by neighbouring groups as “belonging” to other groups, clans or whatever you like to call them.

There was no doubting this, as the fear of native guides re entering surrounding areas was reported by Watkin Tench in Governor Philip’s time when forays were made into the area surrounding Sydney Cove. The principal exception to this rule was the periodic gathering of adjacent clan groups for male initiation ceremonies over many days, when all hostilities were temporarily abandoned.

But equally, landmarks in these areas were seen as significant to particular clans & the required maintenance (including renewal of engravings and paintings) was attended to by these people.

Just by the way, it always amuses me when contemporary Aborigines make a fuss about the “Stolen Generation”. Women were traditionally “stolen” from adjoining clan groups since “skin taboos” forbade them from taking a wife from within their familial group.

Vicki
Vicki
January 20, 2023 1:59 pm

It is noted that even as early as 2021/ early 2022 the TGA and CDC has noted deaths caused by the vaccines and recorded them on their websites.

From anecdotal evidence, at least, it appears it was very difficult to establish a death as directly attributable to the vaccine. The official position on this matter was established very early. No GP, would risk their job in venturing the suggestion of a connection. In our regional area I read an account on a social media site of a country nurse who repeatedly reported complaints which she believed must be vax connected. These reports “disappeared” & her superiors subtly suggested that she stick to her basic duties.

m0nty
m0nty
January 20, 2023 2:00 pm

Because a large minority forced to be vaccinated were coerced and are still pissed off.

The small minority who remained unvaccinated were financially well off to not worry about job losses.

Um.. they weren’t forced to do anything, as they remained unvaxxed.

What you are saying is that being unvaxxed was a lifestyle decision, an accessorisation like buying a Gucci bag. Fair call actually.

Dot
Dot
January 20, 2023 2:02 pm

90 bn AUD in taxes.

Oh my. What a year. /sarcoff

m0nty
m0nty
January 20, 2023 2:02 pm

If bike helmets are mandatory, why isn’t everyone wearing a bike helmet everywhere they go at all times?

Yeah, see this is where COVID analogies quickly descend into absurdity. Best not to use analogies, lest you look like a fool. Stick to the actual arguments.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 20, 2023 2:03 pm

Bruce of Newcastle says:
January 20, 2023 at 10:59 am

I can’t pass up this one, it’s fun.

Biden Orders a Bacon Burger, Washington Post Wets Itself (19 Jan)

President Biden
@POTUS
United States government official
Ordered a bacon cheeseburger from a local restaurant yesterday to celebrate over 10 million new small business applications during my presidency.

I may’ve caught Brittany off guard.

Brittany is a typical Amish MacDonalds Employee who enjoys free food

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 20, 2023 2:06 pm
Arky
January 20, 2023 2:07 pm

Ohhhh. I get it. You’re just trolling.
Stupid me.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 2:08 pm

Sometime in the Middle Ages, a Duke sought to overthrow an earl who was his rival.

So he sent a group of his soldiers to attack the earl’s castle. As word of the soldiers coming spread through the town outside the castle, most people ran or hid.

But as the soldiers passed through the market square, they heard a voice calling “Wool for cheap, wool for cheap”.

The captain of the soldiers went to investigate and found the stall where voice was coming from. It was empty except for a sheep. The sheep said “Wool for cheap, wool for cheap”.

Surprised to find a talking sheep, the captain asked him how much the wool cost. “One bag of wool for one bale of hay” bleated the sheep. The captain replied “I have no hay, but I have coin”. “No coin. Wool for hay. Wool for hay”.

The captain shook his head and went to re-join his men in their advance on the castle.

As the men reached the castle, they found the gates shut tight and archers on the wall. Several times they attacked, riding through a hail of arrows, but each time they were turned back before they could break down the castle gate.

The captain had an idea and called one of his men “Go back to the market square in the town. In one of the stalls, there is a talking sheep. Bring it to me”.

The soldier went back and found the sheep. He grabbed it up and rode back to the castle. He passed the struggling sheep over to the captain who organised his men for another charge.

As they neared the gates, the captain flung the sheep hard against the gate, and the gate promptly collapsed. The Duke’s men overran the castle and captured the earl.

As they were preparing their prisoners and spoils to return to the Duke, one of the soldiers rode up to the captain and asked him “Sir, I am confused. Why did you send me for that sheep? How did it break down the gates? And how did you know?”

The captain smiled and answered “Simple. It was a bartering ram”.

Frank
Frank
January 20, 2023 2:09 pm

Just heard it announced on TV that the feds are proposing a Code of Conduct regarding “misinformation” to be applied to social media venues (Twitter, Facebook etc) to “shield” Australian from “misinformation.

It will be about as effective as you might imagine. Some poor schlub will get locked up, ABC fact checkers will offer tendentious clarifications and the general public will shrug most of it off as self serving crap. Monty will continue to trumpet the company line. The consumers are more sophisticated than the purveyors and have been for some time.

That blows my optimism budget for the month.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 2:09 pm

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.

– Salvador Dali

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 20, 2023 2:10 pm

The chief financial officer, Brian Lynn, said the December quarter was an “absolute cracker” with a strong operating margin supporting an $815m increase in the cash balance to $2.2bn.

The first payment, of $90bn, will be made to the tax office in February.

To be fair to the Grauniad work experience kiddies, I suspect this is the way government and the prog-left generally thinks about renewables and associated industries.

‘Too cheap to meter’ comes from somewhere.

Tom
Tom
January 20, 2023 2:11 pm

Joe Biden’s use-by date as the useful idiot of Permanent Washington (a.k.a. the Deep State) has expired and so he is being run out of town for a security breach of classified documents.

The real story started 60 years ago with the CIA’s decision to help assassinate President John F. Kennedy in 1963 after he pursued the CIA for its aborted Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

A decade later, Permanent Washington decided to run another wildly popular American president out of town, Richard Nixon, after he told CIA director Richard Helms he knew all about who killed Kennedy.

Nixon was railroaded by Permanent Washington in 1973 over a break-in at the Watergate hotel in what became known as the Watergate Affair.

What was not known until now is that:

a) four of the five burglars who broke into the Watergate hotel were employed by the CIA.

b) the story of the break-in was broken in the Washington Post by Bob Woodward, who to this day is celebrated as the author of the scoop of the century.

In fact, Woodward, who still shows up on CNN has a doddery old Never Trumper, had no employment record in journalism before he turned up at the Washington Post.

Woodward had been in the US Navy and was therefore a very useful idiot for Permanent Washington.

The CIA are old hands at toppling governments in the Third World. We just didn’t know until now the agency would stop at nothing to protect itself from domestic enemies as well.

Tucker Carlson Tonight.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 2:11 pm

Um.. they weren’t forced to do anything, as they remained unvaxxed.

The inmates of the concentration camp were grateful to still be alive.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 20, 2023 2:14 pm

I may’ve caught Brittany off guard.

His Brittany is even larger than our Brittany.
Ghostburgers must be awesome. She certainly is.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 2:17 pm

Franksays:
January 20, 2023 at 2:09 pm
Just heard it announced on TV that the feds are proposing a Code of Conduct regarding “misinformation” to be applied to social media venues (Twitter, Facebook etc) to “shield” Australian from “misinformation.

It will be very interesting as to how the Guv’ment Agencies treat the very good information on a Blog like this and Jo Nova’s Blog for example. MontyPox Virus and Head Case will need to lift their game a notch or two……………..or three or a billion more…………….Miss information was always very Miss Understood of course.

Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
January 20, 2023 2:19 pm

My much younger partner and I were treated very much as second class citizens for resisting the madness of crowds and not getting those bullshit jabs.
In the end it haw been worth it. I’m the fittest I have been for a number of years. Unfortunately having major surgery cancelled 4 times precluded me from demonstrating against the fascist crapocracy that is the uniparty.
As for the gullible and quisling in lockstep with the new Luddite science, I pity the fools.
I fought against totalitarianism overseas. Never thought I would have to try and subvert it in my own country.
A pureblood and a cynic. It’s for winners.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 2:21 pm

Bruce of Newcastlesays:
January 20, 2023 at 2:14 pm
I may’ve caught Brittany off guard.

His Brittany is even larger than our Brittany.
Ghostburgers must be awesome. She certainly is.

Brittany in France is demanding their $3 Million Bucks for being left out of the rort.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 20, 2023 2:22 pm

Johannes Leak

https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/c14f17968468d5dc28e56d62df233548?width=1024

I felt she talked like a Horse, but Leak gets the Horse Teeth Perfectly

On JoNova Open Thread

Tremor in Dark Force – While Davos Ongoing, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Announces She’s Quitting – Before Getting Crushed in Election

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacina Ardern was only exceeded in the leftist hierarchy by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Ardern is to the Australian continent what Barack Obama was to North America and Angela Merkel was to Europe

Ronin
January 19, 2023 at 7:14 pm · Reply
She could get a job at Flemington.

John B
January 19, 2023 at 8:54 pm · Reply
Naughty.

Kalm Keith
January 19, 2023 at 9:02 pm · Reply
Neighhh.

Perth Trader
Perth Trader
January 20, 2023 2:23 pm

Johnny Rotten…Speedbox….you people are what I luv about this place, the wit and intelligence . Keep up the good work ‘ya layabouts’.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 2:25 pm

Miss Anthropistsays:
January 20, 2023 at 2:19 pm
My much younger partner and I were treated very much as second class citizens for resisting the madness of crowds and not getting those bullshit jabs.
In the end it haw been worth it. I’m the fittest I have been for a number of years. Unfortunately having major surgery cancelled 4 times precluded me from demonstrating against the fascist crapocracy that is the uniparty.
As for the gullible and quisling in lockstep with the new Luddite science, I pity the fools.
I fought against totalitarianism overseas. Never thought I would have to try and subvert it in my own country.
A pureblood and a cynic. It’s for winners.

Likewise. Onwards and upwards. At age 70 years I am as fit as a fiddle. No Jabs for me only loads of red wine………………..

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 20, 2023 2:26 pm

Not for the faint of heart
Very disturbing. Yet monty will defend them.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 2:29 pm

Perth Tradersays:
January 20, 2023 at 2:23 pm
Johnny Rotten…Speedbox….you people are what I luv about this place, the wit and intelligence . Keep up the good work ‘ya layabouts’.

Thank you Perth Trader. Onwards and upwards for me as I am now a Professional Layabout. First Class. Age 70 years and still going strong. Maybe Armstrong as well. LOL

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 2:30 pm

In “Women empowered by everything women does’ news this from Van Rancidporker

Jacinda Ardern’s graceful departure is the personification of modern democratic ideals
Van Badham

Because nothing says “graceful departuer from politics” like leading you party to its lowest ever possible poling numbers and bailing before the election”

She returned to government a Labour party who many thought was condemned to an ongoing political wilderness by using “Jacindamania” to boost the Labour vote in 2017 into a politically adroit coalition with minor parties*. She maintained elements of that coalition by grace even when she provided her party with a thumping outright majority in the “Jacindaslide” of 2020.

Over her five years of leadership she shepherded New Zealanders through the tragedy and aftermath of the Christchurch massacre, managed a pandemic that not only threatened lives but devastated key local industries** and reckoned with the climate crisis*** in country already susceptible to natural disasters. Domestically, her leadership faced a housing crunch****, the need to rebuild a tattered industrial relations system*****, eroded services and post-pandemic inflationary pressure. She also had a child while in office. In her resignation statement, Ardern said she had “nothing left in the tank”.

* Fellating Winston Peters and co was a masterstroke – for Winston.
** Much the same way a person manages a wealthy relatives health by placing a pillow over their face.
*** Farting sheep taxes.
**** Worse than when she started
***** worse than when she started

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 20, 2023 2:34 pm

Thursday, January 19, 2023
Tomato soup inflation – it’s not fruitful any more

Political Calculations has tracked the price of a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup over the past 126 years. It’s proved to be a pretty accurate bellwether of inflation. Its latest calculation is not comforting.

Political Calculations has tracked the price history of Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup over the past 126 years because of its remarkable consistency as an identifiable product over time. In fact, if you had a time machine and could travel to nearly any point in time from January 1898 to the present, you could likely find a 10.75 ounce size (Number 1) can of Campbell’s condensed tomato soup stocked for sale in American grocery stores.

That long-running consistency makes Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup an ideal product to follow to understand how inflation has affected American consumers through its history.

In January 2023, we find the prevailing average sale price for this food product over the past 12 months is $1.23 per can. That figure has risen by over 29% from the trailing 12 month average of $0.95 per can we recorded in January 2022.

There’s more at the link. Recommended reading.

You’ll note the relatively steady price progression from 1898 until the early 1970’s. From then onward, it’s been a steady upward progression. Why, you ask? It’s simple. President Nixon took the USA off the gold standard, and exited the Bretton Woods system, in 1971. Since then, the dollar has steadily lost its buying power. It’s not that tomato soup has become more expensive: it’s that the dollar is that much weaker today than it was then.

Food – in this case, soup – for thought.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 2:34 pm

I actually agree with Fatboy on that point. Analogies are a really stupid way to present an argument.

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
January 20, 2023 2:41 pm

OldOzzie says:
January 20, 2023 at 2:22 pm

Thanks, had a good laugh at that post.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 2:42 pm

Old Ozzie

Focusing on a can of soup to determine the inflation rate is hugely misleading and wrong. CPI or core CPI is based on a range of goods and services and therefore reflective of real life.

Instead of using the can of soup, use a computer. Allow for the refinement over the past 50 years and you would assume that looking at the price of a new computer means the world experienced massive deflation. This is also untrue.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 2:44 pm

Dover

Do you believe that once you have a job, you own it? In other words you can lay claim to it as your possession?

Plasmamortar
Plasmamortar
January 20, 2023 2:46 pm

you couldn’t work in any organization post-Oct 15 2021 without being vaxxed, ‘customer-facing’ or not

What was very telling was that even the trade unions threw their members under the bus without a fight.

There was an opportunity for all the major unions to come together to fight an important battle. (I had exactly this conversation with one of the ETU reps from NSW, asking why they weren’t planning to do anything…)

Unfortunately, the unions were not ‘for the working man’…

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
January 20, 2023 2:47 pm

I’m fascinated that the very lefty Jacinda is wanting to get MARRIED! Will she take her husband’s name, or keep her fathers ??

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 2:47 pm

They’re actually an excellent way.

No they’re not. The moment you enter an analogy into the ring you’re allowing the other person to blow a hole into your argument because they are never exactly parallel.

The only problem is that some people don’t understand analogies. Don’t be that guy.

Or better still, don’t be the person who argues through an analogy. It’s really dumb.

Roger
Roger
January 20, 2023 2:49 pm

Analogies are essential to inductive reasoning.

Mind the false ones but…

Diogenes
Diogenes
January 20, 2023 2:50 pm

He wants to argue that it wasn’t mandatory except you couldn’t work in any organization post-Oct 15 2021 without being vaxxed, ‘customer-facing’ or not,

NSW Teachers had to be vaxed, even when the lockdowns were on, and they were teaching remotely.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 2:51 pm

Roger says:
January 20, 2023 at 2:49 pm

Analogies are essential to inductive reasoning.

Mind the false ones but…

Explain exactly what you mean by false in this instance.

If you mean no events or set of circumstances are exactly the same and therefore false, then you’d be right. But it would mean then that all analogies are false. :-

Figures
Figures
January 20, 2023 2:52 pm

What you are saying is that being unvaxxed was a lifestyle decision, an accessorisation like buying a Gucci bag.

Good to know that monty doesn’t believe that anybody in history has ever done anything because they needed to earn a living.

That means that Monty now agrees that every socialist in history was wrong about everything.

Thanks Monty. On your sage advice I will never believe a single word any left winger says about any economic issue.

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 2:54 pm

Diogenes says:
January 20, 2023 at 2:50 pm

He wants to argue that it wasn’t mandatory except you couldn’t work in any organization post-Oct 15 2021 without being vaxxed, ‘customer-facing’ or not,

I don’t believe that was the case across the board. A friend’s wife works for one of the large tech companies. She wasn’t vaxxed and it was fine for her to work from home. A lot of cases were like that. Obviously not all, so I don’t want to see someone suggesting not all jobs were like that.

Diogenes
Diogenes
January 20, 2023 2:55 pm

they were teaching remotely.

And further to this, when they did go back (and Qld had the mandate as well) , despite being double vaxxed , whole staffrooms were taken out at a time, so it was really effective at stopping teh spread (the reason given for getting vaxxed)

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 2:56 pm

What’s this in relation to?

In relation to the question.

Zipster
January 20, 2023 2:57 pm

Facebook Lifts Ban on Bare Breasts for Trans & Non-Binary Users
Free the nip just got a little too free … for some people.

After numerous complaints from LGBTQ users who want to share their bare breasts on social media, Meta’s Oversight Board ordered Facebook and Instagram to lift the ban on topless women. That is — for topless women who identify as trans or non-binary.

The case that facilitated the Board’s decision revolved around two posts from a US-based couple who identify as transgender and non-binary. The posts featured the couple “bare-chested with the nipples covered.”

Figures
Figures
January 20, 2023 2:59 pm

It’s astonishing the lengths Monty will go to just to avoid admitting any kind of error. Given a choice between murdering a million people and admitting he once made a mistake, he would choose the former.

In his world, nobody has ever been coerced to do anything in all of human history.

Some POW women weren’t raped by the Japanese in WWII, ergo, according to Monty logic, there was no coercion of *any* POW women. Monty genuinely believes that every woman POW was begging for it.

It’s astonishing how sick and evil he is. He loves the Holocaust, rape and baby murder. But if you disagree with him, apparently it’s you that rejects society.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 20, 2023 2:59 pm

JC says:
January 20, 2023 at 2:42 pm

Old Ozzie

Focusing on a can of soup to determine the inflation rate is hugely misleading and wrong. CPI or core CPI is based on a range of goods and services and therefore reflective of real life.

Instead of using the can of soup, use a computer. Allow for the refinement over the past 50 years and you would assume that looking at the price of a new computer means the world experienced massive deflation. This is also untrue.

JC,

Soup day to day food item – perfect analogy of price inflation – standardised over a very long timeline

Computer – indulgence & and following Moore’s Law (speaking as someone who started on SILLIAC, then DEC, IBM Plug Wired Accounting Machines, IBM 1401 – 16K Memory, IBM 360 Airline Reservations Systems – IPARS derived by IBM from IBM PARS for American Airlines SABRE, for BOAC and picked up in 1970 London by Qantas, Real Time System still going strong today) still working.

So, not a good analogy to compare Inflation Staple Soup vs Indulgence Computer

Miltonf
Miltonf
January 20, 2023 3:01 pm

Tom at 211pm, thanks for that information. Fascinating in a horrible way and explains so much.

Figures
Figures
January 20, 2023 3:01 pm

I actually agree with Fatboy on that point. Analogies are a really stupid way to present an argument.

Yes. Fancy following other people’s arguments to their logical conclusion to determine if they make any sense.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 3:04 pm

.. Meta’s Oversight Board ordered Facebook and Instagram to lift the ban on topless women. That is — for topless women who identify as trans or non-binary.

I have some good news and some bad news …

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 20, 2023 3:05 pm

Figures says:
January 20, 2023 at 2:59 pm

It’s astonishing the lengths Monty will go to just to avoid admitting any kind of error. Given a choice between murdering a million people and admitting he once made a mistake, he would choose the former.

In his world, nobody has ever been coerced to do anything in all of human history.

Some POW women weren’t raped by the Japanese in WWII, ergo, according to Monty logic, there was no coercion of *any* POW women. Monty genuinely believes that every woman POW was begging for it.

Suggest he read – 392 Pages

The Knights of Bushido: A History of Japanese War Crimes During World
War II by Lord Russell of Liverpool

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 3:05 pm

So, not a good analogy to compare Inflation Staple Soup vs Indulgence Computer

It’s not exactly an analogy, but the point that technology is a vital component of the basket of goods and services used to measure inflation.

If you use one product to measure inflation, then I can use one too.
It’s hugely misleading to apply one product to the mix.

Miltonf
Miltonf
January 20, 2023 3:07 pm

Funny to see the old thief being cut loose by former ‘friends’ – couldn’t happen to a nicer person. What a repulsive evil old ‘man’.

Speedbox
January 20, 2023 3:08 pm

Perth Trader says:
January 20, 2023 at 2:23 pm

Very kind but by my reckoning, the time is currently 12:08pm in the West. Why are you gasbagging on the Cat? Get back to work.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 3:09 pm

for topless women who identify as trans or non-binary

So its the nudist conundrum all over again.

Teenager: “theres naked people there”!
Adult: “The wrong naked people, you stupid boy”…

The people whos nips you arent wanting to see will be able to flaunt them.

Miltonf
Miltonf
January 20, 2023 3:09 pm

The old thief – a tick on the American body politic for 50 years.

Vicki
Vicki
January 20, 2023 3:10 pm

Likewise. Onwards and upwards. At age 70 years I am as fit as a fiddle. No Jabs for me only loads of red wine………………..

I suspect many of the unvaccinated will report better health and fitness than before the “pandemic”. Whatever belief about the severity of Covid19, it was fundamentally a wakeup call for most of us to reevaluate diet and fitness. In our household we supplemented with the FLCCC recommended vitamins etc and improved our diet by adding a morning “Nutribullet” of vitamised fruit and veggies. As we already get more than our fair share of daily physical exercise (which I supplement with a 45 minute walk around the property) that was not a problem. However, we drew the line at the evening glass (or two) of wine on the verandah.

All of the above certainly should have aided in our physical fitness. It certainly did for the greater part of three Covid years. However, hubris, no doubt, ensured that it was not flawless. In the last few months of 2022 husband was afflicted with an impacted bowel and what we initially thought was cellulitis, but turned out to be gout! Both were transitory, thank goodness – but they seem to have added husband’s head & he had a friendly conversation (while I was in the paddocks) with a clever hacker – which promptly brought us more upheaval.

In short, we appear to be in reasonable physical health in emerging from this period – but I reckon I have suffered (husband is very naturally phlegmatic) from a touch of PTSD as I am still outraged at the unexamined thrashing of some basic freedoms in the last three years.

John H.
John H.
January 20, 2023 3:11 pm

JCsays:
January 20, 2023 at 2:47 pm
They’re actually an excellent way.

No they’re not. The moment you enter an analogy into the ring you’re allowing the other person to blow a hole into your argument because they are never exactly parallel.

The only problem is that some people don’t understand analogies. Don’t be that guy.

Or better still, don’t be the person who argues through an analogy. It’s really dumb.

Analogies too often become straw man arguments and shift the focus away from the important points. Sometimes useful but in scientific literature analogies are rarely invoked.

Robert Sewell
January 20, 2023 3:12 pm

Bourne 1879:

VIC guy talked about having to drop mandate for CFA as would lose 50%.

The Victorian Government want to lose 50% volunteers. They will then be replaced with 50% permanent full time employees.
Did I mention they’d be union members?
No?
OK. Oddly enough, Union membership will be mandatory.
See how easy it is to work out policy from Dans’ Government when you realise it’s a Union Government – not yours?

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 3:13 pm

The people whos nips you arent wanting to see will be able to flaunt them.

So the same as every European nude beach then?

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 3:14 pm

In what context are you asking, is it in relation to the vax mandates?

Answer the question and I’m happy to tell you.

Figures
Figures
January 20, 2023 3:15 pm

Truly extraordinary that Monty explicitly believes that a member of the majority group always has the right to murder and rape any member of a minority group.

Monty, what if the dreaded anti-vaxers were right?

Of course we are. An entire continent proves that. Africa.

Does being wrong in any way shape or form change the right of the mighty Monty? Or is it ok for them to rape and murder anybody they like based on any moronic belief they like?

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 20, 2023 3:16 pm

It will be very interesting as to how the Guv’ment Agencies treat the very good information on a Blog like this and Jo Nova’s Blog for example.

Michelle Rowland tells us exactly how:

The ACMA will also be empowered to register an enforceable industry code and to make a standard, should industry self-regulation measures prove insufficient in addressing the threat posed by misinformation and disinformation. This graduated set of powers includes measures to protect Australians, such as stronger tools to empower users to identify and report relevant cases.

These powers are consistent with the key recommendations in the ACMA’s June 2021 report to government on the adequacy of digital platforms’ disinformation and news quality measures. They are intended to strengthen and support the voluntary code arrangements undertaken by industry through the Digital Industry Group Inc (DIGI) and will also extend to non-signatories of the DIGI Code,

ACMA notes:

With the strengthening of platform moderation activities by some platforms throughout 2020 and the first half of 2021 (see Appendix C), an important trend in the propagation of misinformation has been the migration of some conspiracy-driven individuals and communities from mainstream sites like Facebook and Twitter towards smaller, free-speech oriented platforms with less rigorous content moderation policies.

…and recommends that Government should give it the power to regulate content on any non-DIGI platforms – such as WordPress – which give it cause for concern.

Which approval appears to be forthcoming.
As is winter.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 20, 2023 3:20 pm

For the third day in a row, a Qantas Boeing 737 has suffered a mechanical defect mid-flight.

Flight QF430 from Melbourne to Sydney turned around shortly after takeoff at 9.28am on Friday, landing back at Tullamarine at 10.18am.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the pilots received an indication of a “minor engine issue” and as a precaution returned to Melbourne.

Doesn’t the Irish gnome CEO live in Botany Bay with his boyfriend. Why isn’t he on the phone to each pilot as they takeoff, land, and all the time. What can he be doing?

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 20, 2023 3:21 pm

m0ntysays:
January 20, 2023 at 2:02 pm
If bike helmets are mandatory, why isn’t everyone wearing a bike helmet everywhere they go at all times?

Yeah, see this is where COVID analogies quickly descend into absurdity. Best not to use analogies, lest you look like a fool. Stick to the actual arguments.

Word, m0nty=fa. Follow your own advice.

Kneel
Kneel
January 20, 2023 3:26 pm

“Needed some brake parts for my wagon. $695 original parts. $62.90 for aftermaket, including postage.”

Could be worse…

In any case, you should always check original prices first, even if your car is old – sometimes they are much cheaper than aftermarket (but only sometimes – usually the other way around).

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 3:27 pm

Speedboxsays:
January 20, 2023 at 3:08 pm
Perth Trader says:
January 20, 2023 at 2:23 pm

Very kind but by my reckoning, the time is currently 12:08pm in the West. Why are you gasbagging on the Cat? Get back to work.

Very unfair Speedbox. Even those WA’ns need a Lunch Break. Get the food in them and they may well work harder. You can’t be a slave driver anymore. Union rules apparently. They are the new slave drivers……………lol

JC
JC
January 20, 2023 3:27 pm

Here’s the problem with the Tubby Thought Leader’s view on Covid mandates.

He’s fine with government mandates of the sort he loves – like full-0n hardcore fascist industrial protectionism at any cost. Covid mandates.. oh no. How could the government do such a terrible thing.

He was fine with the Duarte regime summarily executing 30,000 to 40,000 people during the period of his rule over drugs distribution or personal use. Oh, but covid mandates are.. they’re, they’re like compulsory seat belt laws… Terrible, terrible.

Give me a f… break.

Reading this laughable crap is better than watching decent clown act.

Crossie
Crossie
January 20, 2023 3:28 pm

The federal government will give the media regulator new power to reduce the spread of misinformation.

The new legislation will give the media watchdog greater power to request information, such as data on complaints handling and how they manage the spread of harmful content from big tech giants of Twitter or Google.
How dare you search for what is reality. WE determine what is reality.

We are soon reaching the time when the only information worth having will be spread via email under coded subject lines. Nothing on the social media or presented by Google will be trusted. Don’t even bother with other browsers, they will all be the same.

The good byproduct of this development will be the loss of internet advertising revenue and rightly so. Go woke, go broke or more accurately, be the censors’ mouthpiece, go broke.

Robert Sewell
January 20, 2023 3:28 pm

Johnny Rotten:

Socialism is collapsing and governments will fight to their last breath until the politicians are dragged out and hung on the streets as is typical in such cases of economic malfeasance. What is emerging at the state level is simply versions of Warren’s Wealth Tax which will be applied to WORLDWIDE assets. The hated rich policies, who have provided all the jobs over the centuries by creating industries, are to be stripped mined.

Socialism always ends up eating the seed corn.
It’s what happens every. bloody. time. the mugs get their hands on the Treasury keys.
Except this time, they are assuring us they are doing it right. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
January 20, 2023 3:29 pm

Australian schools will have to meet strict new academic and student wellbeing targets to receive federal government funding worth $26 billion a year after an alarming report found 90,000 children are flunking basic tests.

Basic literacy and numeracy tests include:
* Q: If I have 7 coal fired power stations and I close 2 of them how many virtue signalling points do I have left? (A: negative, like, negative, like, omg just sooo negative, right?)
* Q: Rearrange the letters R E A T G to spell a word meaning large in size or admiration? (A: GRETA)

I recommend rolling back the standards to about 1994 instead of making payment contingent on the new ones.

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Doesn’t the Irish gnome CEO live in Botany Bay with his boyfriend.

Mosman, with his husband.
He’s prolly too busy dodging incoming rotten tomatoes, navigating around after the most recent ‘dunny papering’ of the joint, etc. to be phoning his bus drivers to see how they’re getting on.

Likely he’s packing his bags, arranging shipping of his objets d’art & choosing which castle to buy in Ireland.

Indolent
Indolent
January 20, 2023 3:34 pm

Absolutely horrifying. There’s simply no humanity left.

COVID Mess: ‘Something Very Dark Is Happening’

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 20, 2023 3:36 pm

It is getting colder.

Let’s fudge the stats!

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 3:38 pm

Doesn’t the Irish gnome CEO live in Botany Bay with his boyfriend. Why isn’t he on the phone to each pilot as they takeoff, land, and all the time. What can he be doing?

If he lived in Botany Bay he would be on or under the water. Oh, he is which is why his phone doesn’t work that well if he is under the water. And if the phone does work on top of the Bay, ‘Thank you and your call is very important to us. Please hang on for 2 to 3 hours and we will get right back to you……………”

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 20, 2023 3:42 pm

Analogies too often become straw man arguments and shift the focus away from the important points. Sometimes useful but in scientific literature analogies are rarely invoked.

Leave me out of this one.
I’m still struggling with the concept of a “celebrity accountant”.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 3:43 pm

I recommend rolling back the standards to about 1994 instead of making payment contingent on the new ones.

I recommend going back to when Teachers could teach. 1950s/1960s. Reading. Riteing and Rithmatic. Talk to Dotty Dot as she/it/whatever doesn’t know the difference between desert and dessert.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 20, 2023 3:44 pm

Who Would Win a War Over Taiwan?

A war-game exercise reveals holes in U.S. deterrence strategy.

By The WSJ Editorial Board

Good news: The Chinese military can’t easily seize Taiwan by force. That’s the gist of the headlines about a recent war game from a Washington think-tank. But that’s not the full story, and the details in the 160-page report show that even a victorious fight for Taiwan would be a ruinous affair, and the U.S. is still showing little sense of urgency in deterring it.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies set out to test what would happen if China attempted an amphibious invasion of Taiwan. Analysts played the war game 24 times, and in most instances U.S. intervention beat back the invasion. Taiwan remained an autonomous democracy, albeit as a ravaged island without basic services like electricity.

War games are a product of choices and assumptions, but there were four preconditions to defeating an invasion, none of them guaranteed.

First the Taiwanese have to fight. The island is ramping up its spending on defense but its conscription and readiness are underwhelming.

Condition two: Arms need to be pre-positioned; the U.S. can’t pour in weapons over friendly borders after the fight starts a la Ukraine. American weapons deliveries to Taiwan now lag years behind orders.

Three: The U.S. must be able to rely on its bases in Japan. American fighter jets lack the range to commute to the war without Japan’s outer islands, one more reason Tokyo is America’s most important Pacific ally.

The fourth condition? The U.S. “must be able to strike the Chinese fleet rapidly and en masse” with long-range weapons.

The cost in blood of U.S. sailors and airmen would be enormous. “In three weeks,” the report notes, the U.S. would suffer “about half as many casualties as it did in 20 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Commanders would have to “move forward despite a high level of casualties not seen in living memory.”

The American public has no experience since World War II of enduring dozens of lost ships, including two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers (crew: 5,000) badly damaged or lost in most scenarios. The casualties and equipment losses compound the longer the U.S. waits to intervene, a warning about the costs of political indecision in a crisis.

It’s also worth asking if a U.S. President in his 80s would have the stamina and concentration to manage the flood of difficult decisions coming at him.

The weapons that can help win faster are available, yet the U.S. is making little progress in acquiring them in sufficient numbers. In the war game, American attack submarines “wreaked havoc” on the Chinese fleet. The U.S. Navy now has a fleet of about 50 attack subs and a goal of 66, but the shipbuilding plan doesn’t hit 60 boats until 2045. Congress wants to buy three hulls a year but the U.S. industrial base delivers about 1.2.

Another war-winner: Long-range anti-ship weapons, known as LRASMs. Bombers could fire these weapons without having to enter contested airspace, which significantly reduces U.S. casualties. One problem: “The United States expended its global LRASM inventory within the first few days in all scenarios.” The Pentagon should run a public campaign to buy a LRASM to save American pilots, and procure them in the thousands.

One known unknown is how well the Chinese military would perform, a warning to the Communist Party. A contested amphibious assault, across about 100 miles of ocean, is a varsity operation, much harder than rolling over a land border as Vladimir Putin did in Ukraine. The last time a Chinese combat plane shot down a manned aircraft was 1967.

Missile defenses may work well in peacetime testing but fail at higher rates in combat. One question Chinese President Xi Jinping might ask himself, after watching Mr. Putin’s travails in Europe, is whether the reports he’s receiving on his military’s prowess are accurate.

Some readers may conclude the answer to all this is to let Taiwan fall, but that would end America’s status as a credible global power.

U.S. allies would recalibrate their alliances, and rogues would take more risks. All the more reason to spend the money and energy on demonstrating to China that it will lose a Taiwan war. CSIS has done a service in putting out an unclassified document that can educate the public on what is required.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 3:44 pm

I’m still struggling with the concept of a “celebrity accountant”.

It helps if you’re from Sydney.

Rococo Liberal
Rococo Liberal
January 20, 2023 3:46 pm

Trust the little poof to live on the worng side of the Harbour and “husband” should be in inverted commas when referring to the partner of another man.

Robert Sewell
January 20, 2023 3:48 pm

Bruce O’Newk:
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/british-food-tsar-hints-cake-ban-office-compares-health-harms-passive-smoking

The bastards will NEVER STOP trying to control you and your life – all for your own good, they say.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 20, 2023 3:49 pm

… and “husband” should be in inverted commas when referring to the partner of another man.

See above.

Indolent
Indolent
January 20, 2023 3:52 pm

John Rich??
@johnrich

During the lockdowns, I stated I’d NEVER play a concert venue that forced fans to show their “papers” for entry concerning Covid. One venue added that rule after I agreed to play, so I cancelled it. The promoter sued me. He LOST the case today! Happy to say I never bent the knee.

The Covid theatre continues. Don’t think it’s over. I visited a nursing home today and just to enter you have to have a Covid test, a temperature test, sign in with Covid details and wear a mask. It’s just like a prison.

And no mention of how long they might continue with all this. 1 year, 10, forever? I was not happy and make it known. Don’t think for a moment they won’t turn it back on us at the first opportunity.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 3:57 pm

OldOzziesays:
January 20, 2023 at 3:05 pm
Figures says:
January 20, 2023 at 2:59 pm

It’s astonishing the lengths Monty will go to just to avoid admitting any kind of error. Given a choice between murdering a million people and admitting he once made a mistake, he would choose the former.

In his world, nobody has ever been coerced to do anything in all of human history.

Some POW women weren’t raped by the Japanese in WWII, ergo, according to Monty logic, there was no coercion of *any* POW women. Monty genuinely believes that every woman POW was begging for it.

Suggest he read – 392 Pages

The Knights of Bushido: A History of Japanese
War Crimes During World War II by Lord Russell of Liverpool

Thankyou OldOzzie. Everyone should read this and never ever let the Military takeover in charge of the Government.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 20, 2023 3:58 pm

Germany’s Standoff Over Tanks for Ukraine Overshadows West’s Arms-Deal Meeting

Berlin says it won’t allow allies to give its Leopard tanks to Ukraine until the U.S. sends American-made main battle tanks

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his new German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, on Thursday about an hour after Mr. Pistorius was formally sworn in as Mr. Scholz’s new defense minister. But no agreement on the supply of the German tanks was announced.

Ukraine’s most ardent backers in Europe said Thursday they would give Ukraine weapons far beyond what it has received to date, in what officials said was an attempt to pressure Germany and the other nearly 50 countries attending the meeting at the Ramstein U.S. Air Base in Germany.

Among other donations, the U.K. offered 100,000 artillery rounds, hundreds of precision-guided missiles and a squadron of British-made Challenger 2 tanks, the first Western-designed main battle tanks destined for Ukraine, along with armored vehicles to service and repair them in the field. Denmark said it would give all 19 of its French-made Caesar howitzer artillery systems. Poland offered antiaircraft guns with 70,000 rounds of ammunition and Sweden promised 50 CV90 tracked infantry fighting vehicles and 12 modern Archer self-propelled 155 mm howitzers.

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania offloaded their stores of Cold War-era howitzers, grenade launchers and other conventional arms left over from their decades as Soviet republics. Collectively, the donations they put forward Thursday are the kinds of equipment needed to wage a ground war over an active front line sprawling over hundreds of miles.

France this month pledged to provide AMX-10 RC, light tanks. Canada has said it will provide 200 armored personnel carriers.

The U.S. intends to announce a new aid package to Ukraine on Friday which will include Stryker armored fighting vehicles, a U.S. official said. The U.S. has no plans to send tanks to Ukraine any time in the near future. Abrams are “not off the table,” a U.S. official said, but won’t be approved any time soon.

U.S. officials said Abrams tanks are too complicated and expensive for Ukraine to run, compared with the German-made Leopard 2 tanks.

Those tensions erupted into public acrimony ahead of Friday’s meeting, with Germany’s chancellor at odds with other NATO leaders over whether the time has come to provide Ukraine with the alliance’s heaviest combat vehicles.

The debate over tanks comes as a consensus is growing within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that Ukraine could use more tanks and armored vehicles to retake territory from poorly equipped Russian soldiers, clustered into trenches that recall World War I. They would also signal to Moscow that the West’s support for Ukraine isn’t dwindling, as Vladimir Putin hoped, perhaps pressuring the Russian president to reassess his odds of success in an yearslong conflict.

NATO allies, together with Finland and Sweden that are seeking membership, have more than 2,000 Leopard tanks, which are probably the most successful modern tank design in the world, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. It is unclear however how many of them are battle-ready and could be sent to Ukraine.

Around 50% of Germans are against sending tanks to Ukraine, while only 38% are in favor, according to a recent survey by polling company Insa.

Mr. Scholz and other German politicians are acutely sensitive to the fact that Nazi tanks rolled across the territories of today’s Ukraine and Russia during World War II, these officials said.

Using German tanks to now attack Russia in the same area could give Mr. Putin an opening for a propaganda campaign against Germany and the West, especially if a German-made tank was captured and displayed for propaganda purposes, the officials said.

Germany is also concerned about escalating the conflict by providing equipment that Russia could find provocative. Those concerns have fallen increasingly out of favor in Washington, however, where U.S. officials have voiced frustration that Germany is seeking to follow the U.S., rather than show more leadership within Europe.

From the Comments

Amazingly the US corporate War Machine continues to produce.

Seems just like yesterday we pulled out of a country that cost the US tax payer over $300 million per day! That War Machine darling — Afghanistan. Multiple that x 20 years = 2 trillion dollars. (According to Forbes magazine).

Now that we are out of Afghanistan the War Machine has found a new scape goat to continue the pillage on our tax money…. Ukraine.

Funny how that happened so quickly?

Not Uh oh
Not Uh oh
January 20, 2023 3:59 pm

Does anyone (Top Ender I’m kind of looking at you) know what the story is with our Taipan helicopters. They’re being retired 10 years ahead of schedule with big maintenance problems so there appears to have been a major procurement blunder here. I’m just wondering who made the decision to buy them (and why) and who should have but didn’t, step-up to say they were a piece of crap. I must confess, I didn’t even know we had them; thought we were still flying the Blackhawks.
Anyway if anyone has got some background information about this I’d love to hear it.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
January 20, 2023 4:00 pm

Indolentsays:
January 20, 2023 at 3:56 pm
End Wokeness
@EndWokeness

Anthony Fauci is 84
Klaus Schwab is 84
George Soros is 94
Nancy Pelosi is 82
McConnell is 80
Joe Biden is 80

Imagine how much better off we’d be if they were all in nursing homes

Just do what they wanted to do to everyone else in Nursing Homes. Put them in Lockdown, give them the jabs and boosters, don’t let them see their Family and let them dribble.

Speedbox
January 20, 2023 4:08 pm

Johnny Rotten says:
January 20, 2023 at 3:27 pm
Very unfair Speedbox. Even those WA’ns need a Lunch Break. Get the food in them and they may well work harder. You can’t be a slave driver anymore. Union rules apparently. They are the new slave drivers….

Lunch break? Since when? What devilry is this.

Get the food in them and they may well work harder.

Yeah they might, but get the whip on them and they’ll definitely work harder. Replaceable as well. Breed like rats over there.

You can’t be a slave driver anymore. Union rules apparently. They are the new slave drivers….

Uh huh. We’ll see about that. I’ll send a few of those RAM trucks around to UnionsWA in Hay St. You think those fellas don’t have a price? Just as long as a facade is maintained.

Perth Trader – I know you’re reading this. GET BACK TO WORK or it won’t be this Cat you’ll be thinking of…..it’ll be the the cat’o’nine tails coming your way. We have bills to pay over here.

Kneel
Kneel
January 20, 2023 4:08 pm

” Put them in Lockdown, give them the jabs and boosters, don’t let them see their Family and let them dribble.”

And most importantly, make their pension the same as the old age pension!

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 20, 2023 4:08 pm

Seems just like yesterday we pulled out of a country that cost the US tax payer over $300 million per day! That War Machine darling — Afghanistan. Multiple that x 20 years = 2 trillion dollars. (According to Forbes magazine).

Just as good, there is no chance of a Vietnam loss type soul searching/restructure/clearout of the people who made most of the shit decisions.

The par in Russia is a war of Institutional Avoidance behavior, where the humiliation of losing to camel jockeys and donkey botherers can be ignored while the new war is fought.

What is avoidance behavior?
Avoidance is a maladaptive coping skill that offers the mind an escape from uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and/or experiences. It may seem like avoiding discomfort could be helpful, however, it results in never addressing the actual issue. In fact, avoidance may create a cycle of behavior that exacerbates feelings of anxiety and depression, making it much harder to problem solve, cope, and heal.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 20, 2023 4:09 pm

They’re Coming for Your Gas Stoves and They’ve Already Started

First they declared they were coming for our natural gas stoves; then, after a firestorm of opposition erupted, they denied it.

Don’t believe the denial. They’re definitely coming for our gas stoves – just like they came for our dishwashers, our shower heads, our toilets, and our gasoline-powered cars before them.

The latest blowup occurred last week, when a commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Richard Trumka Jr., told Bloomberg News his agency was considering proposing a ban on gas stoves.

“This is a hidden hazard,” said Trumka. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

Trumka’s stated “safety” concern is not that gas stoves are unsafe because they remain hot (and can, therefore, cause burns) for quite some time after being turned off – that’s a problem unique to electric range tops – but that they can create indoor air pollution, which can lead to asthma, especially in children.

The Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t see it that way. “Gas stoves (and gas fireplace inserts) do not require EPA certification,” says the EPA. “Whether designed to burn natural gas or propane, they burn very cleanly, emitting very little pollution.”

Nor does the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, which found “no evidence of an association between the use of gas as a cooking fuel and either asthma symptoms or asthma diagnosis.”

If the CPSC isn’t really concerned about the pollution aspect of cooking with natural gas – and it’s not –

what is the agency’s real problem? Simple: natural gas itself, because natural gas is a fossil fuel, and you can’t allow the continued use of fossil fuels if you’re determined to shift everything to electricity.

Yes, that’s right, the bureaucracy of the CPSC, better known for annually blowing up mannequins before the Fourth of July to warn the public of the dangers of improper use of fireworks, has entered its bid to join the Green Army.

The move against gas stoves is only the most recent Biden Administration move against natural gas. A month ago, the Energy Department proposed banning federal buildings from using fossil fuels.

Yet the feds are late to the game on the switch-out-the-natural-gas-for-electricity front. Across the nation, more than 100 progressive municipalities and states have taken steps to “require or encourage the move off fossil fuels to all-electric homes and buildings,” according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a progressive think tank pushing a green energy agenda.

For instance, the New York City Council decided in 2021 to prohibit natural gas hookups in new buildings smaller than seven stories, beginning at the end of 2023; larger buildings will be given an additional four years to come into compliance. California’s Air Resources Board unanimously approved a proposal last September to ban the sale of all new natural gas-fired furnaces and water-heating appliances by the end of this decade. In November, Montgomery County, Maryland, became the first county on the East Coast to ban fossil fuels from almost all newly-constructed buildings, with the ban to go into effect by 2026. And New York Governor Kathy Hochul last week called for “the nation’s most aggressive ban on fossil fuels in new buildings,” according to Energy Wire, urging her state’s legislators to “phase out the sale of fossil fuel heating equipment in existing residential buildings beginning in 2030 and in 2035 in commercial ones. The governor also proposed requiring new residential and commercial buildings to be all-electric by 2025 and 2030, respectively.”

The gas-stove grabbers are employing a carrot-AND-stick approach – subsidies (in the form of tax credits, particularly a federal tax rebate of up to $840 for the purchase of a new electric range, found in the absurdly named Inflation Reduction Act) to induce the less determined/more easily swayed gas-stove lovers to give up the gas and make the switch, combined with coercion (in the form of regulations, restrictions, and outright bans) to force the more resistant/less easily swayed gas-stove lovers to give them up and make the switch.

PS – Biden nominates son of top union boss to oversee Consumer Product Safety Commission

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