QANTAS flight due in Sydney from Auckland has issued a mayday alert.
Engine problem.

Ah, that explains why 45,000 people are tracking it on Flightradar 24 at the moment.

You have to wonder if Old Man Greta Thunberg Pokemon, Martin A Armstrong is actually sundowning.

Landed safely in Sydney with 135,000 people watching on Flightradar 24.

Cassie

Labor is now the party of the inner-west and the wealthy Teal electorates. They no longer care about the working class.

The Liars have been such for some decades now. The Lieborals are too stupid to take advantage of this.

Ahahaha! All this Biggles and Algy talk.

including the establishment of the National Voice as a new independent Commonwealth entity.

For the “Voice” to be fully financially independent, AnAl might need a second Constitutional amendment to remove that pesky bit about spending only money appropriated according to law.

Section 83 Money to be appropriated by law
No money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the Commonwealth except under appropriation made by law….

Section 83 Money to be appropriated by law
No money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the Commonwealth except under appropriation made by law….

Make it (The Voice) a corporation and we’re good to go. That is where the games will begin. Sure you have the CRF as well as s 83 but the Federal budget is so large there is definitely wiggle room.

Rococo – Great to see you! Things have turned even darker since Doomlord’s Cat but at least we can all have fun with memes and conversations about the mess we’re in. I’m not looking forward to the NSW election, like choosing which means of torture you want applied to you.

What if you don’t follow the crowd and lose 3 bn USD of investor’s money?

What if you don’t follow the crowd and run a 46 mn USD trading fund but tell your clients its worth 1 billion USD?

What kind of “short cover rally” will that precipitate?

I was the one who first used the catchphrase “Sinistra delenda est” on the old blog, so I am glad to see that it is a tag line here.

It will happen, the normies are slowly waking up.

Bruce O’Newk:

Funny how price caps always do this. It’s almost as if the Labor Party didn’t learn anything at all from all those empty Soviet shops.

And someone posed the question:

The only question is, since energy price caps are failing to deliver the politically desired outcome, what is the government’s next move?

The next move will be to reinforce the failure of the legislation. Not because they’re a bunch of incompetents who would be hard pressed at unrolling a roll of dunny paper, but because Nationalisation was the end of the process anyway.

Rosie – If you visit the Panthenon try not to get sent back in time to the Ostrogoth Kingdom.

I’ve never been to Rome, except via the written word, albeit a lot of written words!

The great replacement is real

Australia is on track for net migration of more than 300,000 people this year, more than 25% higher than Treasury forecasts, due to a surge in arrivals, according to a former top immigration official.

Abul Rizvi, the former deputy secretary of the immigration department, said that Treasury forecasts of a 235,000-person annual boost to population from migration – the long term pre-pandemic average – have “significantly underestimated” net figures.

Rizvi’s intervention comes as the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, signalled the government could adopt a proposal from the Business Council of Australia for permanent migration to be set as a percentage of the total population, automatically raising the current cap of 195,000.

Test

Winston – The survey in news.com.au and the Tele seem to be the same survey. I voted early and it was up to 51% “no” about half an hour after Old Ozzie linked it. Now 73% against as you say (I just checked).

More interesting is that the lefties who favour news.com.au haven’t spammed it.

Black Ball:
You’re missing the point that the whole thing is about collapsing the gas industry so it can be declared yet another example of market failure. The government will then nationalise the industry, and guess who wins?
The Unions, of course. Lot’s and lots of union jobs and dues, plus the income from them.
They aren’t stupid, but we are for voting for them.

Well, well, well – Rococo Liberal has found us. Every time I see your name I think of Fragonard’s Girl on the Swing.

Whether you are the lass losing her shoe, or the happy gentleman glimpsing her undies…only you can say. 🙂

Hmmm

Understand one thing. Madoff did not collapse in isolation. His losses were curiously suddenly attributed to a Ponzi scheme. That was very convenient.

He ran a 64 bn USD ponzi scheme.

and

Calling something a Ponzi scheme as a matter of law meant that EVERY transaction was a fraud.

No, this is not true at all.

This is worth a read. Keep in mind that idiot Jubelin (I think, scum) has his own podcasts, etc and is even pushing political candidates

https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/noble-cause-corruption-police-committing-crimes-to-achieve-criminal-convictions/

Having failed to implicate Mr Savage and with the objective of obtaining a conviction and thereby appeasing the public, Jubelin and his fellow officers concocted a plan to “crack” an innocent man, William (Bill) Spedding; in other words, to put so much pressure on him that he would provide information regarding young William’s disappearance.

That plan involved, among many other things, bringing bogus historical child sexual assault charges against the washing machine repairman by “coaching” complainants to fabricate non-existent events, before fronting the media to present him as a paedophile.

Police undertook numerous exhaustive searches of Mr Spedding’s property from 2015, emptying his septic tank and digging areas of his property, as well as conducting physical and electronic surveillance. Not a shred of evidence was ever uncovered linking him to young William’s disappearance.

In what can only be seen as an appalling abuse of process, Mr Spedding was nevertheless charged with the child sexual assault offences.

He was acquitted of all charges after a trial in 2018.

Spedding brought civil proceedings for malicious prosecution the next year and, just last week, Justice Harrison of the Supreme Court found in his favour, awarding him nearly $1.5 million in damages plus legal costs.

The judge was scathing in his criticism of the investigators, noting that the child sexual assault charges were, “concocted and false and could not be supported”, and that:

“Mr Spedding’s reputation was comprehensively destroyed as the result of his arrest and prosecution on the historical sexual assault allegations. It is doubtful that it will ever be restored.”

The award included both aggravated and exemplary damages which will, of course, ultimately be paid by New South Wales taxpayers and not by the offending officers.

The relentless pursuit and systematic annihilation of an innocent man was also an act of injustice towards young William and his family, diverting resources from the pursuit of the actual culprit/s. 

Have read nothing at all by this writer but what a life. James Clavell.

Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Born in Australia, Clavell was the son of Commander Richard Charles Clavell, a Royal Navy officer who was stationed in Australia with the Royal Australian Navy from 1920 to 1922. Richard Clavell was posted back to England when James was nine months old. Clavell was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School.[5]
World War II[edit]
In 1940, Clavell joined the Royal Artillery. Though trained for desert warfare, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 he was sent to Singapore to fight the Japanese. The ship taking his unit was sunk en route to Singapore, and the survivors were picked up by a Dutch boat fleeing to India. The commander, described by Clavell years later as a “total twit”, insisted that they be dropped off at the nearest port to fight the war despite having no weapons.[6]
Imprisoned in Changi[edit]
Shot in the face,[6] he was captured in Java in 1942 and sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp on Java. Later he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore.[7]
In 1981, Clavell recounted:
Changi became my university instead of my prison. Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life—the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving, the most important course of all.[6]
Prisoners were fed a quarter of a pound of rice per day, one egg per week and occasional vegetables. Clavell believed that if atomic bombs had not been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he would not have survived the war.[6]
Clavell did not talk about his wartime experiences with anyone, even his wife, for 15 years after the war. For a time he carried a can of sardines in his pocket at all times and fought an urge to forage for food in trash cans. He also experienced bad dreams and a nervous stomach kept him awake at night.[6]
Post-war career[edit]
By 1946 Clavell had become a captain, but a motorcycle accident ended his military career. He enrolled with the University of Birmingham, where he met April Stride, an actress, whom he married in 1949 (date of marriage sometimes given as 1951).[8] He would visit her on the film sets where she was working and began to be interested in becoming a film director.[9

Politics and later life[edit]
In 1963 Clavell became a naturalised citizen of the United States.[6] Politically, he was said to have been an ardent individualist and proponent of laissez-faire capitalism, as many of his books’ heroes exemplify. Clavell admired Ayn Rand, founder of the Objectivist school of philosophy, and sent her a copy of Noble House during 1981 inscribed: “This is for Ayn Rand—one of the real, true talents on this earth for which many, many thanks. James C, New York, 2 September 81.”[36] Between 1970 and 1990, Clavell lived at Fredley Manor near Mickleham, located in Surrey in South East England.[37]
Death[edit]
In 1994, Clavell died in Switzerland from a stroke while suffering from cancer. He died one month before his 73rd birthday. After sponsorship by his widow, the library and archive of the Royal Artillery Museum at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, in southeast London, was renamed the James Clavell Library in his honour.[38] The library was later closed pending the opening of a new facility in Salisbury, Wiltshire;[39] however, James Clavell Square on the Royal Arsenal development on Woolwich riverside remains.

“One engine is plenty.”

More is better. Also, the only time you have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.

Cassie:

Whilst our supposed conservative/right of centre parties, the Liberals and Nationals, do and say nothing to oppose any of this.

Their job is to block any effective labor opposition from arising.
They have no intention of shitting – just blocking access to the dunny.

roger;

I’d suggest by the time the next election falls due the public won’t know what’s hit them after having suffered the biggest fall in living standards in living memory.

No. They’ll be celebrating the chocolate ration rising to 20 grams/week.

Jorge thanks for that bit on James Clavell. Read a few of his books but his own life is probably more interesting.

Don’t Cadbury’s advertise 1 and a half in every block. The just don’t say what anymore. If they say cups I may have to complain to the false advertising department. Have to listen more carefully. Not that I eat their products anyway.

and adds a bit of Armstrong special sauce.

Are we back talking about the specsavers ad Dover posted yesterday?

Shogun, a fascinating novel, but I found the torture episode early in the piece really difficult to read.
Rosie does have the best travel tales.

Don’t Cadbury’s advertise 1 and a half in every block. The just don’t say what anymore.

It’s “a glass and a half in every block”.

I’m thinking those dicky little cut glass sherry glasses.

Always fun to see what the hand does, not what the mouth says.

Matt Kean signs for Santos to enter private land (Ncl local news, 17 Jan)

Mining giant Santos has been given authority to survey private land in its exploration for routes from the Narrabri gas project, as part of the Hunter Pipeline. The revelation today received backlash from land owners, who have concerns about the environmental impacts.

Fortunately for him the Libs are going to be totaled in the upcoming election. But it’s clear he realizes the state is between a rock and a hard place on electricity generation. Otherwise he wouldn’t risk such a headline just before an election.

Bye Libs, you dispensed with your base so your base has dispensed with you. You are the No-Friends Party.

Dot at 16:47 quoted:

The judge was scathing in his criticism of the investigators

Oh that must really sting. Oh those judges’ words. Ouch, so scathing in that criticism. With words.
And the investigators…just go straight back to work, no skin off their nose.
The facade of justice.

That’s in a case where the injustice comes to light mainly because the spies ultimately had to show up in court – because as cops their whole job was to eventually present a court case. The government agencies whose main goal is to stay out of the limelight have far greater latitude in what they can do and get away with it. If uniformed cops can fabricate evidence against Mr Spedding and basically get away with it, can you imagine what the spooks are willing to do?

It is not democratic for the rest of us to have a separate parliament – an advisory one for now – for people of just one race

But worse than the lies to sell the Voice is that it’s undemocratic – not just for Aborigines but every other Australian. What a disgrace.

Herald-Sun

Re the possible deaths in a conventional war if the A-Bombs were not used:

Chapter 16 – What Allied casualties would have been experienced if the A-bombs had not been used?

An analysis of the loss rates of the Army and Navy; militias and “armed civilians”, and of the effects of Operation Starvation upon the population of the Home Islands. Taking a figure of 72,147,000 for the overall population, the study concludes that approximately 27,879,000 Japanese would have lost their lives by the end of a 14-month long conventional invasion, which would have ended in December 1946. Caveats around this figure are explained.

From my book Atomic Salvation

The Allied casualties from any invasion of mainland Japan would have been catastrophic. The Americans had a taste of this when they launched a ground assault on Okinawa.

My Father in Law was a young schoolboy during the war. As a barely teenage boy he was trained to fight with a bamboo spear in the event of an invasion of the home islands, it was that crazy.

If the Allied forces had attempted a ground invasion the carnage would have been terrible, hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians would have died (that is not hyperbole) and tens of thousands of allied soldiers would have joined them.

I still firmly believe that if the bomb hadn’t ended the war then i doubt my wife would have been born.

Lithium could be making its way back to the mines they were pulled from in the form of lithium-ion batteries with a company called Mevco making a commitment to order 8,500 all-electric Hilux and Landcruiser models over the next five years.

For electricity generation most remote minesites use diesel gensets…

Cassie

The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of Japanese kamikaze attacks and the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle was the bloodiest in the Pacific, with around 50,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese deaths, including Okinawans conscripted into the Japanese Army.

The US Navy lost 36 major ships sunk, and hundreds damaged.

The “damaged” included the fast carrier Franklin, hit by kamikaze, around 800 of her crew killed, hundreds more injured, and the fast carrier Bunker Hill, another kamikaze victim, with around 400 of her crew killed, and hundreds more injured.

But it gets even less democratic. This Voice, under the Co-design plan, will have an outrageous gerrymander.

I called it.

In batty Britain:

I asked my daughter’s teachers not to call her a boy… they reported me to social services

Attended the AO this afternoon (miserable weather), they are handing out free Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander flags (take your pick) at the public information booths and via roaming helpers. The push is on…

the Blogs leading Huffer & Puffer.

Freudian projection.

Any links to my support of Pfizer yet?

A MAYDAY?
A PAN call surely.

Dear Cats,
Can any of you remember a data based assessment of the percentage of people who died above the normal rates of cancer after Chernobyl?

I was sure it was at or below and that mainly kiddies through drinking cows milk and more died from displacement and the stress of having an effective “C”branded on their head.

I did bookmark it but have lost them on the old laptop.

A bit of a private stoush. Thanking you.

Please provide a source for this statement.

Hi Cassie.
Yeah, it’s true.
Why Tokyo was fire bombed in 1945, or the A Bombs dropped later on, I have no idea.
But, the Surrender was on the Terms that the Japanese had been requesting for a long time and it was accepted.
Why it couldn’t have been accepted earlier, no one knows for sure, since the decision makers are all dead.
The Japs held out for what they wanted, which wasn’t much, and they got it.