Open Thread – Weekend 4 Feb 2023


The Bazincourt Steeple, Camille Pissarro, 1895


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Vicki
Vicki
February 5, 2023 4:11 pm

A thought provoking essay by Robert Kagan on the likelihood of China believing it can defeat the West led by the USA.

Challenging the U.S. Is a Historic Mistake

Like Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, today’s China is a rising power determined to dominate its region and convinced that American strength is waning. It runs the risk of experiencing a similar fate if it attacks Taiwan.

Chinese foreign policy under Xi Jinping rests on certain basic assumptions: that in a just world, China should be hegemonic in East Asia, the center of a system in which the other regional powers pay their respect and take direction from China, as was the case for two millennia prior to the 19th century; that regions once considered by Beijing to have been part of China should be “reunified” with it; and that a revived China should have at least an equal say in setting the norms and rules of international life. These goals are achievable, Mr. Xi asserts, because the world is undergoing “great changes unseen in a century,” namely, the “great rejuvenation” of Chinese power and the decline of American power. “Time and momentum are on our side,” according to Mr. Xi.

There is no denying that China has acquired substantial global power and influence in recent decades. Even if this is “peak China,” as some suggest, it is already East Asia’s economic hegemon and, were it not for the U.S., would likely become the region’s political and military hegemon as well (though perhaps not without a conflict with Japan). Left to itself, a modernizing China could one day dominate its neighbors much as a unified, modernizing Germany once dominated Europe and a modernizing Japan once dominated China and the rest of East Asia. Those powers also believed that “time and momentum” were on their side, and in many respects they were right.

Yet those examples should give Chinese leaders pause, for both Japan and Germany, while accomplishing amazing feats of rapid expansion for brief periods of time, ultimately failed in their ambitions for regional hegemony. They underestimated both the actual and potential power of the U.S. They failed to understand that the emergence of the U.S. as a great power at the beginning of the 20th century had so transformed international circumstances that longstanding ambitions of regional hegemony were no longer achievable. At this moment of high tension over Taiwan and the Chinese spy balloon detected this week over the U.S., Xi Jinping runs the risk of making the same historic mistake.

The world entered a new phase when the U.S. emerged as a great power at the beginning of the 20th century. As Theodore Roosevelt observed in 1900, the U.S., due to its “strength and geographical situation,” had become “more and more the balance of power of the whole globe.” This was no metaphor. As Germany discovered in World War I, the U.S. could determine the outcome of any major regional conflict by bringing its vast wealth, population and productive capacity to bear on one side or the other. Although the Germans correctly calculated their military and economic superiority over their neighbors, the additional millions of fresh American troops and billions of American dollars’ worth of supplies quickly made their situation untenable. As one top German general put it, “We cannot fight the whole world.”

In World War II, Germany and Japan may have correctly judged their chances of success against their regional opponents. By early 1942, well over half the planet’s productive capacity was under the control of the Axis powers—Germany, Japan and Italy. Yet even then the entry of the U.S. into the war marked the beginning of the end for all three powers and their regimes. As an exasperated Hitler observed, the Americans and British together had “the world at their disposal.” In addition to America’s size, wealth and productive capacity, it enjoyed something close to invulnerability from foreign invasion. Hitler once remarked that Germany had as much a chance of conquering America as America had of conquering the moon, and he admitted soon after the U.S. entered the war that he had no idea how to defeat it.

Victims of aggression, especially those with liberal regimes, came to expect sympathy and eventual support from America. The problem was not just America’s power and relative invulnerability. Prior to the emergence of the U.S., regional hegemons could generally count on their weaker neighbors to accommodate their rising power. But the arrival of the U.S. as a power with global influence at the start of the 20th century changed the equation. Would-be victims of aggression, especially those with liberal regimes, came to expect sympathy and eventual support from liberal America. As Winston Churchill put it after Dunkirk, the British would fight on until “in God’s own time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

The expectation of eventual American support proved a critical factor in Europe before and during World War II. As Hitler remarked ruefully to his generals in January 1941, hope for America’s help “keeps Britain going.” In 1934, Tokyo blocked any further Western assistance to the Chinese, correctly believing that it discouraged the Chinese from accepting Japanese rule. Let Asia be for the Asians, was the Japanese slogan, which in practice meant letting Japan manage relations with its neighbors without American interference. Hitler, too, promised to leave “America for the Americans” if the U.S. would just leave “Europe for the Europeans,” which was to say, for Germany.

The critical role the U.S. played in the decision-making of others was best demonstrated over the course of the 1920s and ‘30s. For the first decade and a half after the end of World War I, as the U.S. stepped away from direct involvement in Europe, the European powers did indeed try to settle their own problems in the only way left to them—by accommodating the rising power and growing ambitions of Germany. America’s policy of deliberate disinterest—codified in the neutrality laws of the mid- and late-1930s—played a critical part in convincing Britain’s Neville Chamberlain to pursue appeasement. The agreement at Munich to give parts of Czechoslovakia to Germany was the result of a domino effect that began with the U.S.: The Czechs, though prepared to fight the Germans, could not do so without the support of Britain and France, but the British and French would not offer their support if they could not count on the U.S. to back them up.

Appeasement ended after 1938 not just because Hitler reneged and took the rest of Czechoslovakia but because it became clear to everyone that the Americans, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, were finally changing their minds about the importance of Europe. Even this flicker of hope was enough to make them resist. Hitler blamed the U.S. both for Poland’s rejection of his territorial demands in 1939 and for Britain and France’s decision to declare war after he invaded Poland that year.

In both world wars, the aggressors believed that the U.S. would not try to stop them.
America’s unpredictability itself posed a problem for would-be aggressors, for in each crisis the aspiring hegemonic powers badly misjudged both American capabilities and, perhaps more importantly, American intentions. In both world wars, the aggressors believed that the U.S. would not try to stop them and that, even if it did try, it lacked the wherewithal to make a difference in time.

Such miscalculations were understandable. The American military in both 1917 and after 1939 was not remotely prepared for industrial warfare on a global scale. In 1917 the Americans could not deploy more than 25,000 troops abroad for any length of time and lacked a navy capable of operating with effect in both the Pacific and the Atlantic theaters at the same time. In 1939 the Luftwaffe had 8,000 new aircraft; the U.S. Army Air Force had 1,700 mostly outdated planes. The German army had 2,000 new tanks; the U.S. had 325, many of World War I vintage. Meanwhile, the Imperial Japanese Navy had more and better warships than anything the Americans could put in Pacific waters, especially once the war in the Atlantic heated up.

Nor did the U.S. in 1939 possess the industrial plant required to boost weapons production quickly. Arms manufacturers, hounded by congressional investigations and starved of government contracts, had shut down production lines. Any significant buildup would require retooling factories and a transformation of the national economy that would take at least two years.

It was not just that the Americans were physically unprepared for war. They also insisted they would not, in fact, go to war. The neutrality legislation that barred the U.S. from even embargoing an aggressor persisted well into 1939. As late as 1941, Roosevelt was still promising not to send American soldiers overseas. It was clear to foreign observers like the Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels that, while Roosevelt might be prepared for war, the American public still wanted peace. “What is America but beauty queens, millionaires, stupid records and Hollywood?” Hitler remarked, while the great Japanese naval strategist, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, regarded the American people as “self-indulgent weaklings.”

Neither could imagine that the U.S. of 1939 would become the U.S. of 1942, producing weapons and materiel at a rate that defied all past experience. Between the summer of 1940 and the summer of 1945, American shipyards produced 141 aircraft carriers, eight battleships, 807 cruisers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts, and 203 submarines. American auto manufacturers and other industries converted their assembly lines to produce 88,410 tanks and self-propelled guns, 257,000 artillery pieces, 2.4 million trucks, 2.6 million machine guns and 41 billion rounds of ammunition. The budding American aviation industry eventually produced 170 aircraft per day for a total of 324,750 over the course of the war.

And who could have anticipated the furious blood lust that seized Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor? Walter Lippmann once observed that Americans were “too pacifist in time of peace and too bellicose in time of war.” The racially charged hatred for the “Japs,” compounded by the “infamy” of the attack on Pearl Harbor, turned a generally pacifist America into a bloody-minded America. The would-be hegemons of Europe and Asia, looking at the U.S. in peacetime, could not imagine the powerful fury of which Americans were capable in wartime.

Chinese leaders today may be making the same error as past aspiring hegemons. And China, for all its growing might, starts from a less formidable position. At their peak in 1941, the Axis powers had a combined GDP larger than that of the U.S. and only a little smaller than the combined GDP of the U.S. and Britain. Today the U.S. and its allies and partners (which includes most of Europe, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and others) produce over 50% of the world’s wealth, while China and Russia together produce a little over 20%.

The Chinese military, though large and growing, also remains untested by battle. On paper Vladimir Putin’s military looked formidable—more formidable than China’s—yet its performance has not matched its reputation. Despite billions of rubles spent on modernization, Russian technology still lags behind that of the U.S. and its allies. Nor have Russia’s nuclear weapons been of any real use in this conflict, except as a bluff. One of the great myths today is that nuclear weapons have changed all military calculations, but as the conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated, conventional war involving nuclear powers is still very possible.

China has begun its drive for regional hegemony from a much weaker starting point than past would-be hegemons. China has also begun its drive for regional hegemony from a much weaker starting point than past would-be hegemons. By the time the U.S. began to rouse itself to deal with the German challenge in World War I or with the aggressions of Germany and Japan in World War II, those great powers had already acquired both military and economic hegemony in their respective regions. Even the Soviet Union started the Cold War with hegemony over half of Europe, though in the end it could not preserve it.

China, on the other hand, does not even control all the territory in the region it regards as its own: notably, Taiwan and some islands in the East and South China Seas. It is surrounded by powerful neighbors—an India that is about to surpass China in population; a Japan that has the third largest economy in the world and could become a powerful nuclear state overnight if it chose; a South Korea that wields substantial economic and military power; and, of course, Australia. All of these countries are fearful of China’s rising power and are either allied to the U.S. or look to it to help defend themselves.

Mr. Putin, facing similar obstacles in Europe, has discovered the resilience of the American-led system and his neighbors’ willingness to resist superior Russian power when protected by it. Would the people of Ukraine, for all their courage and heroism, still be fighting Russia today without the support of the U.S. and its allies? Or would they have had to accept their fate as the neighbor of a powerful, aspiring hegemon, as the Czechs did in 1938? Who knows how well the Czechs might have fared against an untested German military had they been given the minimal support they needed? And who knows what might have become of Hitler if he, like Mr. Putin, had failed to achieve a rapid success?

Beijing faces a parallel problem in Taiwan. For most of the past three decades governments in Beijing have hoped that the people of Taiwan would gradually yield and agree to unification with the mainland. Instead, the Taiwanese have been able to defy Chinese pressure because of the support and commitments they receive from the U.S. The Chinese are bitter about this. They believe that the “One China” policy, dating from the Nixon administration, was supposed to reduce American support for Taiwan to the point where the Taiwanese would feel they had to accept Beijing’s offer of union. Things have not turned out that way. Nazi Germany defeated France, the strongest land power in Europe at the time; China has not been able to compel a small, isolated island less than one-fiftieth its size to knuckle under.

That the Germans and Japanese achieved more, and by force, does not mean they were more inherently aggressive than the Chinese might be, or than Mr. Putin has proven himself to be. They found themselves in a temporarily permissive environment when the U.S. turned inward after World War I. China’s environment has not been as accommodating because of the strength of the American-led liberal world.

Even if the Chinese did succeed in forcing Taiwan to “reunite,” either by military assault or naval blockade, would China then be in a position to exercise hegemony across East Asia? Or might that be the beginning of the end for this Chinese regime? The attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent destruction of American forces in the Philippines and the western Pacific were astonishing victories over the U.S., but they were also the beginning of the end for Imperial Japan. Beijing may well be able to take Taiwan, and the U.S., typically slow to prepare and respond, may not be able to prevent it. But what then?

Perhaps Mr. Xi believes that the U.S., Japan and the other powers in the region will simply adjust to the new reality. Many Americans may now think the same. There would certainly be voices in the U.S. calling for restraint. But while an attack on Taiwan would not have the same effect on Americans as the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. is already very anxious about the threat of China, even when an attack on Taiwan is only prospective. It would be foolish for the Chinese to assume that such an attack would not prompt the American public to support a far more aggressive approach.

Whether the ensuing conflict is hot or cold, China would have to expect to face the full weight of the American-led liberal world order. Japan, which has already modified its pacifist constitution to allow greater military cooperation with the U.S., would likely militarize further and might even start producing nuclear weapons. India would become more concerned about China, as would all of China’s neighbors other than Russia. Even Europe is likely to view a Chinese act of aggression as yet another threat to the democratic order they are defending in Ukraine. And all will look to the U.S.

Xi may believe American power has declined dramatically, but as Putin has discovered, the contrary is true. Mr. Xi may believe American power has declined dramatically, but as Mr. Putin has discovered, the contrary is true. The ability of the American-led order to defend itself is far greater than it was in the first half of the 20th century. In 1917 and 1939, the U.S. had no overseas allies; today it has more than 50 allies and strategic partners across the globe. Prior to 1945, the U.S. had no significant overseas military presence outside the Western Hemisphere; now it has the world’s only true blue-water navy and military bases throughout the world. In the 1930s the American peacetime military was incapable of taking on other great powers; now it has a large, highly equipped and battle-tested force superior to all other militaries. And it exercises, with its rich allies, a remarkable degree of control over the global economy, with sanctions and other financial weapons that did not exist until the last three decades—as Mr. Putin has also discovered.

Is the U.S. still able to outproduce an adversary as it did in the two world wars and during the Cold War with the Soviet Union? We don’t know what a more fully mobilized 21st-century America would look like, but there is reason to think it would be formidable. This year the U.S. will spend less than 4% of its GDP on defense. That is a peacetime military budget and a comparatively low one. In Dwight Eisenhower’s last budget in 1960, the U.S. spent 9% of GDP on defense; in the Reagan years it spent just under 7%. If the U.S. spent 7% of GDP on the military today, it would amount to annual defense spending of almost $1.6 trillion, compared with the slightly over $800 billion it currently spends.

As for the technological competition, the Chinese have certainly kept up with and perhaps even rivaled the U.S. in some areas of weapons development. But would a U.S. fully geared for confrontation and possible war not be able to match China? Today, the technological superiority of American weaponry on the battlefield is evident in Ukraine. It’s possible that the Chinese could surpass the U.S. in innovation and development in an all-out, head-to-head competition, but it seems unlikely.

Are Americans as a people up to a major confrontation with another great power, whether in immediate conflict or a protracted Cold War-like struggle? It would be dangerous for a potential adversary to assume they are not. Whatever condition the American political system may be in, it is not appreciably worse than it was during the 1930s. That, too, was a deeply polarized America, including on the question of whether to intervene in the world’s conflicts. But once the U.S. found itself at war, dissent all but disappeared. If ever there could be a cure for American political polarization, a conflict with China would be it.

Can it possibly be worth it for Xi Jinping to bring on such a confrontation? Consider Mr. Putin’s attempt to conquer Ukraine. Even if Russia were to prevail—which looks increasingly unlikely—Ukraine’s neighbors would arm themselves to the teeth, the U.S. would increase its forward presence, and a new iron curtain would fall along the western borders of Ukraine. Mr. Putin’s overall objective of regaining Russian hegemony in eastern and central Europe would still be far off and likely unreachable. The U.S.-led liberal world order would still be intact and capable of blocking further Russian advances. Mr. Putin has made a very expensive investment for what in the best of circumstances must be a relatively small payout.

A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would pose the same problems. Beijing might achieve a significant strategic victory, but it would come at the price of alarming the whole world, pushing American allies into a closer embrace with Washington and frightening the American public into an all-out effort to contain and weaken China.

China’s fundamental problem, after all, is not Taiwan’s continuing de facto independence. It is the unfavorable configuration of power in the world, of which Taiwan’s defiance is only a symptom. The Chinese will likely always chafe at the liberal global hegemony that American power sustains. They will be uncomfortable relying for the security of their shipping on the goodwill of the U.S. Navy. They will be unhappy having their historic ambitions frustrated. China is the latest “have not” great power. Like Germany and Japan in the years leading up to World War II, it wants vast wealth and power, a large sphere of influence, control of the seas and a seat at the head table setting the rules of international affairs.

But what Xi Jinping’s China wants and what it can have are two different things. China is succumbing to a common malady of rising powers—an inability to be satisfied with “good enough.” The unification of Germany in 1871 was analogous to China’s recovery and success during the reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping. The German-speaking population spread across central Europe had been weak and divided among its many small states and principalities. For Otto von Bismarck and his generation, unification was an immense, historic achievement. The Germany they created was big, rich and relatively secure—more so than at any time in the history of the German-speaking people.

Under Bismarck, Germany was a satisfied power, likely to become the hegemon of Europe simply by being the continent’s biggest economy and most populous nation. Indeed, he feared that any further German expansion or signs of ambition would lead the other European powers to gang up against it. His strategy was to balance Germany’s competitors against one another, and he was content to let Britain rule the seas and to preserve a rough balance of power in Europe with Russia and France.

The next generation of German leaders had greater ambitions, however, commensurate with their greater power. And they feared that they would be prevented from their fair share of global influence by Britain, France and Russia. Fear of being contained and denied drove Germany to precisely the end it most feared. As the historian Michael Geyer describes it, “a catastrophic nationalism” led Germans into a “real-life disaster in order to avoid mythical catastrophe.”

Japan pursued much the same tragic course. The Japanese had accomplished amazing feats by the end of the 19th century. From a position of near complete isolation, Japan emerged after the Meiji revolution in the late 19th century as the strongest power in East Asia, defeating China in 1895 and Russia a decade later. The old oligarchs of the day warned that it would be dangerous to seek more. As the respected Japanese statesman Ito Hirobumi put it in the late 1880s, “The high tree encounters strong wind.”

But younger generations of Japanese leaders were not satisfied. The Japan that emerged from World War I was stronger than ever but uncomfortably dependent on the two Anglo-Saxon powers. Many Japanese believed that their country could not keep up in the competition, win the respect it deserved and acquire the land it needed to expand unless it became an empire. Japan’s ambitions were not unreasonable for a rising power; it just turned out that those ambitions could not be accomplished without conflict with the U.S.

Modern Chinese thinking is not so different. China’s leadership sees further growth, power and expansion as necessary to its survival. They believe that the U.S. and other powers seeking to constrain China are bent on its destruction—or, more specifically, on the destruction of the Chinese Communist Party. The goal of the U.S. and its allies, Mr. Xi told a party conference early in his tenure, is “to vie with us for the battlefields of people’s hearts and for the masses, and in the end to overthrow the leadership of the CCP and China’s socialist system.”

Ideology is now also a major obstacle to China’s further “unification.” China’s crackdown on democratic institutions and forces in Hong Kong has greatly increased Taiwan’s hostility to the idea of One China, just as U.S. support encourages the Taiwanese to resist Beijing’s pressures. The two together are a disaster for Chinese ambitions.

Can Xi Jinping reconcile himself to these limits, to a world that will continue to be defined by the liberal hegemony of the U.S.?

The Japanese faced just this dilemma in 1941. By that point, leading Japanese military officials believed ultimate victory against the U.S. was unlikely. Yet the option of backing down and accepting “Little Japan” was too humiliating. It meant giving up the dream of a new Japanese-led Asian order. For Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, as for other Japanese leaders in 1940 and 1941, war was more honorable than accepting an American-imposed peace, even a losing war.

As Tojo put it, “Occasionally, one must conjure up enough courage, close one’s eyes and”—in the Japanese expression for taking the plunge—“jump off the platform of the Kiyomizu [temple].” Xi Jinping, too, may decide to take the leap. If so, he is likely to join Vladimir Putin, the Soviets, and the Axis leaders of World War II in bringing a tragedy upon his people and the world.

Mr. Kagan is the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution.

P
P
February 5, 2023 4:11 pm

I don’t know how many known aboriginal languages still exist here in Aus. Some sites state 10 are still spoken.
They do though seem to be able to find a word when they want to for renaming a place etc.
In my searches I’ve yet to find an aboriginal word for homosexual on the www.

flyingduk
flyingduk
February 5, 2023 4:13 pm

Trailer FIXED I think – despite the wheel apparently spinning freely, binding, I backed off the brake adjuster and just did a 50km test run: both sides now running mid 20C range; 🙂

Will console self with ‘the bearing looked ok when i pulled it’

Robert Sewell
February 5, 2023 4:22 pm

Mother Lode:
He’ll probably get it too, being a subgroup of a minority. In this house anyway.

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
February 5, 2023 4:23 pm

I don’t know how many known aboriginal languages still exist here in Aus. Some sites state 10 are still spoken.

That would be an underestimate.

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 4:25 pm

Just found, by accident, The Racial Slur Database.

Anyway, Albo is a racial slur of Albanians, and it gets worserer from there on down.
Happy reading.

Frank
Frank
February 5, 2023 4:27 pm

“In my searches I’ve yet to find an aboriginal word for homosexual on the www.”

Not quite words for homosexual but still it is a start.

Brotherboy and Sistergirl: Terms used by some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to describe trans people. Brotherboy typically refers to masculine spirit people who may be assigned female at birth, Sistergirl typically refers to feminine spirit people who may be assigned male at birth.

Found here. Trannies are not traditional indigenous adornments so it must be new language.

CHAMPIONS FOR LGBTQIA+ YOUTH
Minus18 is Australia’s charity improving the lives of LGBTQIA+ youth

Nothing creepy going on with this place, nope; nothing creepy at all.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
February 5, 2023 4:33 pm

The kid probably I expect grew to a man with a tit fetish.
Well, despite Loudon III’s fears…
…Rufus didn’t.
…unless you count autogynephilia

Pogria
Pogria
February 5, 2023 4:38 pm

I would be very happy if I received this bouquet for Valentines Day. 😉

Vicki
Vicki
February 5, 2023 4:39 pm

Brotherboy and Sistergirl: Terms used by some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to describe trans people.

I suspect that this is an invention of the Alphabet People. From my experience “sister” – for example – is a term colloquially used by Aboriginal men for a woman or girl – but who is not a “sister” in our familial sense.

cohenite
February 5, 2023 4:42 pm

Anyway, Albo is a racial slur of Albanians, and it gets worserer from there on down.
Happy reading.

Crotchless is 3rd nations for antisemite.

Vicki
Vicki
February 5, 2023 4:44 pm

I don’t know how many known aboriginal languages still exist here in Aus. Some sites state 10 are still spoken.
That would be an underestimate.

I can’t be absolutely certain – but I am fairly sure that more than 10 languages are still spoken in various communities. In colonial times, I think it was well over 300. Clan groups in fairly close geographical proximity not infrequently had difficulty in communication.

The proliferation of languages in early times makes a mockery of this “First Nations” nonsense.

bespoke
bespoke
February 5, 2023 4:45 pm

Vickisays:
February 5, 2023 at 4:11 pm

Cheers. It is a very real threat driven by ideology not necessity.

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 4:45 pm

Cat is 3rd Nations for Mr Sulu.

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 4:47 pm

The proliferation of languages in early times makes a mockery of this “First Nations” nonsense.

How so?
Nations are distinguished by their own languages, right?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 5, 2023 4:48 pm

Vicki says:
February 5, 2023 at 4:11 pm

A thought provoking essay by Robert Kagan on the likelihood of China believing it can defeat the West led by the USA.

Challenging the U.S. Is a Historic Mistake

Vicki,

thanks for that, a compreshensive & interesting assessment

My only question in today’s America, is that its ethnic makeup has changed a lot from the 30s/40s. and would there still be the cohesion to fight?

cohenite
February 5, 2023 4:49 pm

Meow.

Cassie of Sydney
February 5, 2023 4:50 pm

Years later Junie was still breast-feeding their six year old son, as I recall.

Decades ago, living in Bondi, I had a neighbour who breast-fed her daughter until the girl was about seven years old. The little girl had bad speech problems. I often wondered if these speech problems were caused by the fact she was being breast-fed years past an appropriate age.

There’s also a woman on a bus I catch, who last year in full view of everyone on the bus, whipped out her droopy breast for her daughter, who was about six years old and who was still being pushed in a pram, to suckle on. You could see everyone on the bus, myself included, grimace.

Diogenes
Diogenes
February 5, 2023 4:51 pm

Mr. Kagan is the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution.

Yawn, 100 years ago Rah Rah Rah.

The people of the US today are no longer the people of their forefathers.

In the olden days, you could make tanks and planes in a repurposed railway workshop. Today? Any slipway large enough could build a submarine, or a destroyer. Today? How many slipyards are there big enough? Home hobbyists and small workshops with a lathe could make parts for weapons. Today?

I see no evidence the US is preparing itself for war in the same manner as it did in 1939 as per this talk on the preparation for war by the Chieftan. https://youtu.be/siG939PqkkY

P
P
February 5, 2023 4:53 pm

Perhaps 65,000 yrs or whatever could not have been achieved with ‘freeloaders’, whether it be aged or those not contributing to the birth rate.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
February 5, 2023 4:53 pm

In my searches I’ve yet to find an aboriginal word for homosexual on the www.

Buma Buma, or, try that Chat GTP ‘thingy’ and see how you go………………….

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 4:58 pm

Perhaps 65,000 yrs or whatever could not have been achieved with ‘freeloaders’, whether it be aged or those not contributing to the birth rate
The present Aborigines are of White European descent and haven’t been here 65,000 years or anything like that.

Before 1788, they weren’t exposed to Alcohol or Vaccines and that made a huge difference to their overall health, as the first explorers commented on their appearance.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 5, 2023 4:59 pm

Psays:
February 5, 2023 at 4:11 pm
I don’t know how many known aboriginal languages still exist here in Aus. Some sites state 10 are still spoken.
They do though seem to be able to find a word when they want to for renaming a place etc.

Given the absence of written records, a made-up word is quite adequate for such purposes.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 5, 2023 5:03 pm

Ed Casesays:
February 5, 2023 at 4:25 pm
Just found, by accident,

Suuuuuure it was “by accident”, we all believe you.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
February 5, 2023 5:10 pm

Incursions into territory and other dekiberate ongoing ‘provocations’ made by commumist nations are a feature not a bug when it comes to communism. Ask the South Koreans about this, as I’ve mentioned re our DMZ visit.

You could also ask the Israelis, for the left runs cover for Palestine re provocations too.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 5, 2023 5:12 pm

Pogriasays:

February 5, 2023 at 4:38 pm

I would be very happy if I received this bouquet for Valentines Day. 

I see it is from the Boing-Boing shop.

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 5:13 pm

Cassie
There’s one solution to avoiding those grimacing scenes. Avoid public transport at all costs in Australia. I have, and in fact, I have only taken a tram in the last 30 years. Never buses nor trains.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 5, 2023 5:15 pm

There’s also a woman on a bus I catch, who last year in full view of everyone on the bus, whipped out her droopy breast for her daughter, who was about six years old …

If they’re old enough to ask for it, they are too old for it.

Cassie of Sydney
February 5, 2023 5:18 pm

“JCsays:
February 5, 2023 at 5:13 pm
Cassie
There’s one solution to avoiding those grimacing scenes. Avoid public transport at all costs in Australia. I have, and in fact, I have only taken a tram in the last 30 years. Never buses nor trains.”

LOL…you’re like my sister!

I don’t have a car so it makes sense to use public transport. I live in the inner-city.

I haven’t driven in years although I keep my license up to date. I wouldn’t mind doing some driving. Yesterday, my sister picked me up in her new Volvo and I suggested that perhaps I could drive it to my nephew and his wife’s new abode. The look I got back from my sister put paid to that idea.

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 5:20 pm

Philip Pilkington
@philippilk
As a result of the sanctions, Russia’s economy is expected to grow faster than Germany. Everyone knows these policies have failed miserably. Can we stop pretending?

Bullshit. It may have grown, but we don’t know as the figures could be played with. But to suggest that living standards are rising with rising production is moronic nonsense when the Russians are on a war footing and producing war material as fast as they can.

Producing humungous amounts of bullets doesn’t do a thing to rise living standards.

The consumer is not better off considering the sanctions, etc. That’s all that really counts in a decent economic scenario, and the likely gouging going on from their southern ally would be huge and debilitating to the Russian consumer. Russian didn’t live by bread alone.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
February 5, 2023 5:22 pm

Oh dear. Plane’s delayed in Oz.
And I said the ‘f’ word about it so am in moderation. Hairy says it has now cleared the Torres Straits so it is on its way a/c to travel tracker.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 5, 2023 5:26 pm

There’s also a woman on a bus I catch, who last year in full view of everyone on the bus, whipped out her droopy breast for her daughter, who was about six years old …

Certain bogan princesses in this part of the world whip out a droopy tit to feed Junior, and any male who happens to glance in their general direction is branded a pervert…

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 5, 2023 5:32 pm

ChatGPT

Question: number of aboriginal languages in australia

Response: There were approximately 250 indigenous languages in Australia prior to European settlement, but today many of these languages are endangered and only around 120 are still actively spoken.

Question: What are the 120 aboriginal languages still spoken actively today

Response: There is no exhaustive list of the 120 aboriginal languages that are still spoken actively in Australia today, but some of the more commonly known language groups include:

Warlpiri
Arrernte
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY)
Tiwi
Pitjantjatjara
Yolngu
Bundjalung
Gamilaraay
Kala Lagaw Ya
Wangkangurru
Yankunytjatjara

It’s important to note that the list is not exhaustive and that the number of speakers for each language can vary greatly, with some having only a handful of speakers and others having thousands.

list all the commonly known aboriginal language groups

Here is a list of commonly known indigenous language groups in Australia:

1. Arrernte
2. Koori
3. Dharug
4. Pitjantjatjara
5. Yolngu
6. Warlpiri
7. Kaurna
8. Wangkatha
9. Noongar
10. Anangu
11. Yanyuwa
12. Gumbaynggir
13. Tiwi
14. Gamilaraay
15. Gumatj

Note: There are many more indigenous language groups in Australia, but this list includes some of the most well-known.

Living languages

In Australia there are more than 250 Indigenous languages including around 800 dialects. Languages are living things that connect people to Country, culture and ancestors.

In some areas like Arnhem Land, many different languages are spoken over a small area. In other areas, like the huge Western Desert, dialects of one language are spoken.

In the Torres Strait three main languages are spoken:

Kala Lagaw Ya is spoken on the western islands of Mabuiag and Badu.
Meriam Mir is spoken throughout the eastern islands of Erub (Darnley Island), Ugar (Stephen Island) and Mer (Murray Island).
Yumplatok, also known as Torres Strait Creole, is spoken in the Torres Strait and in some parts of Cape York Peninsula.

As of 2006 it was estimated that there were just over 200 Meriam Mir speakers.

Warlpiri is a central Australian language spoken primarily in the communities of Yuendumu, Lajamanu, Nyirripi and Willowra.

The 2006 Census recorded just over 2500 speakers, making it one of the most spoken languages in Australia in terms of number of speakers.

While languages may have been lying dormant they are never lost. By drawing on the memories of Elders and historical records, languages are being recovered and revitalised for future generations.

For almost a century, the Ngunnawal language had not been spoken fluently. Today the Ngaiyuriija Ngunawal Language Group, comprised of a number of Ngunawal family groups are revitalising their language, finding words thought lost, rediscovering language through journals, tapes and the few words held and shared by Elders.

In Port Headland, Western Australia, the Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre preserves, promotes and maintains around 31 Aboriginal languages across the Pilbara.

Today it holds a unique and diverse cultural collection including 5000 recordings of Pilbara languages in its archives.

Arthur Capell and language codes
Tue, 11 Oct 2016
Dr Kazuko Obata

For many years AIATSIS has been looking after Arthur Capell’s archive of more than 230 reels of language recordings. Among these are around 160 reels of recordings of non-Australian languages which AIATSIS has donated to the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures.

‘Arthur Capell was a foundation member of our Council and his early work inspired our referencing system for Australian languages which is still used by linguists and collections staff today.’ — Russell Taylor, former AIATSIS CEO.

Preparation of this donation reminded me of an ongoing presence of Arthur Capell’s work at AIATSIS. Arthur Capell was a foundation member (1961-1968) of the Council of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS, now AIATSIS).

Among the significant contributions Capell made to the study of Australian languages was the introduction of language codes.

In his Linguistic Survey of Australia (1963), which Capell wrote for AIAS, he assigned a language code to each Australian language.

Each code consists of a letter and a number. The letter represents a region where the language is located. Australia is divided into eleven regions with each region represented by the first letter of the region name (Capell attributes David Moore for these divisions).

Arthur Capell’s language classification

Why was there need for language codes?

Australian languages were not written languages and it was only after the arrival of Europeans that people started writing down Australian languages. Since there was no standard orthography, different people (often with different language backgrounds) wrote the name of the same language in different ways.

Imagine saying a Japanese word to a group of people and asking them to write down what they have heard using the English alphabet. They will probably come up with different spellings, especially if each of them has a different language background.

To illustrate the variety of spellings that can be given to a language name see the section below on Yuwalaraay in Capell’s linguistic survey (more alternative spelling of this name can be found in Austlang).

Language codes are unique identifiers and are used to manage variations of spellings and names. AIATSIS adopted this referencing system but only the alphabets, not Capell’s own numbering. For example, the AIATSIS code for Yuwalaraay is D27, while Capell’s is D26.

These language codes are still in use by AIATSIS as a unique identifier in Austlang, a database of Australian languages.

Even today, many Australian language names do not have a standard spelling and there is no standard list of Australian languages. So don’t be surprised if you see the name of a language spelt differently, just think about which language code goes with it!

Why was there need for language codes?

Australian languages were not written languages and it was only after the arrival of Europeans that people started writing down Australian languages. Since there was no standard orthography, different people (often with different language backgrounds) wrote the name of the same language in different ways.

Imagine saying a Japanese word to a group of people and asking them to write down what they have heard using the English alphabet. They will probably come up with different spellings, especially if each of them has a different language background.

To illustrate the variety of spellings that can be given to a language name see the section below on Yuwalaraay in Capell’s linguistic survey (more alternative spelling of this name can be found in Austlang).

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 5:34 pm

This is the Homer Paxton view of understanding and explaining economics. Years ago, that idiot Homer was peddling Keynesian economics, and of all the examples he raised, the daft moron brought up Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The idiot suggested that German GDP rose a lot from the time Hitler took over to just before the war.

It likely did so, but the production was forced and went directly towards stocking up on war material. And here’s the clincher, despite the increase in production, German living standards didn’t rise throughout this period. To some extent, the same thing applied to the US. Despite the mammoth increase in production during the war years. It was massive; American living standards did not rise until the late 1940s. The production significantly increased GDP… for the war effort, but did nothing to help consumers. War is and will always be economically destructive. This is all we need to keep in mind about this subject. Wars reduce living standards.

shatterzzz
February 5, 2023 5:36 pm

The numbe rof 251 languages is infinite! .. all you have to do is make one up like 90% of these plac enames no one else has ever heard before ..
Pascoe University has an entire 4 storey block for the languages dept. .. only qualification is to identify yourself as at least a 1024th .. Luigi funds it all via the one universal 251 word .. CentreLink ..

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 5:39 pm

There’s also a woman on a bus I catch, who last year in full view of everyone on the bus, whipped out her droopy breast for her daughter, who was about six years old …

Times like that, you say to yourself, is this reality?

The result is degenerate weebs like Mike Rowe. (47 second clip of him on late night shopping network with a very strange segue…)

https://youtu.be/mDBM8lwVmQo

Frank
Frank
February 5, 2023 5:47 pm

The look I got back from my sister put paid to that idea.

Does this hint at there being more to the story about your not currently driving?

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 5:50 pm

Cassie
With one exception. Catching a ferry in Sydney is wonderful outside peak hour. 🙂

Black Ball
Black Ball
February 5, 2023 5:52 pm

Brotherboy and Sistergirl: Terms used by some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to describe trans people.

No it isn’t. Complete nonsense.

duncanm
duncanm
February 5, 2023 5:53 pm

Ed Casesays:
February 5, 2023 at 4:25 pm
Just found, by accident, The Racial Slur Database.

these are making me LoL.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
February 5, 2023 5:55 pm

dover0beachsays:
February 5, 2023 at 5:07 pm
Philip Pilkington
@philippilk
As a result of the sanctions, Russia’s economy is expected to grow faster than Germany. Everyone knows these policies have failed miserably. Can we stop pretending?

Economic Sanctions have always worked. BUT, not as intended.

P
P
February 5, 2023 5:59 pm

OldOzzie says:
February 5, 2023 at 5:32 pm

Thanks OldOzzie.

I only asked the question re ‘homosexual’ because 40yrs ago I was in contact with an academic who was doing his PhD in compiling a dictionary of the Dharug language. He told me at that time that there was no word in that language for homosexual or same sex relationships.

Frank
Frank
February 5, 2023 6:01 pm

“These people are third-rate hucksters. Frauds.”

It is axiomatic, they are frauds if they are on TV. Understanding modern politics is best done with a copy of the DSM V on hand by way of a psychological bird spotting manual. The left seems to collect bunny boilers at a higher rate than mere chance would suggest.

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 6:07 pm

Economic Sanctions have always worked. BUT, not as intended.

The flow of goods from the West and its allies has basically stopped. Financial flows have stopped. Russia can access goods from China and India, but the cost is very high as they are being gouged. A dear friend recently sent me a macro piece from a large bank stating that China is now reducing its purchases of crude oil from Russia via sea transport because the Chinese cannot access freight insurance, and the shippers are gouging too. Wodney Woddenhead, just stick to posting that crap from the Leavenworth ex-con and stop thinking. Thinking is harmful to your health because it can lead to a massive stroke. STFU.

rosie
rosie
February 5, 2023 6:07 pm

I agree Aldi is more egalitarian in Australia, it’s just my observation of the location of lidls in Europe, the range of goods and the people who’ve been shopping there when I visited.
People here more likely go to markets and speciality shops, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, etc of which there seem to be infinitely more than in Australia.

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 6:08 pm

It’s failing, JC. You just have to watch the videos of people in stores (packed shelves) or reports from visitors to see that the sanctions have largely failed. They have either replaced departing companies with their own or substituted them with parallel imports through various countries. IMF is even forecasting growth above 2% in 2024.

Oh yeah, perhaps you’re too young to recall pictures of those Soviet stores brimming with consumer goods.

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 6:12 pm

The only way to shut up ChatGPT from telling me I needed gender equality in a building labouring firm was to tell it that giving legal advice was illegal.

Miltonf
Miltonf
February 5, 2023 6:13 pm

These people are third-rate hucksters. Frauds.

You’re being too polite. I prefer psychopaths, narcissists and/or grifters.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 5, 2023 6:15 pm

Haha!

It’s Official: Ugly People More Likely To Wear Masks – University Study (5 Feb)

Well that completely disproves the thought that masks are useless, as this study claims:

‘Little to no difference’: Massive mask meta-study undermines remaining COVID mandates (3 Feb)

There you go, masks don’t stop a virus but do make you look less ugly.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 5, 2023 6:21 pm

Catching a ferry in Sydney is wonderful outside peak hour.

Catch a Manly ferry and they have the Four Pines pissery going.

rosie
rosie
February 5, 2023 6:33 pm

Didn’t Jim Cairns live in Hawthorn and sell signed copies of his books at Camberwell Market on weekends?

Zipster
Zipster
February 5, 2023 6:34 pm
Cassie of Sydney
February 5, 2023 6:34 pm

“JCsays:
February 5, 2023 at 5:50 pm
Cassie
With one exception. Catching a ferry in Sydney is wonderful outside peak hour. ?”

Two weeks ago I had a work lunch at Manly. I caught the fast ferry across from Circular Quay and the slow ferry back. It was divine. As mentioned before, I don’t particularly like work lunches but the ferry ride there made it bearable. The journey across was quite rough, particularly when the ferry passed the heads and it was choppy on the way back with lots of spray but when you’re sitting on the ferry you see a sublime harbour and foreshore that you don’t see from the land. On the ferry I thought of James Cook who no doubt, no doubt whatsoever, viewed the harbour, and of the First Fleet sailing in eighteen years later.

It was a real treat.

Roger
Roger
February 5, 2023 6:35 pm

This line they’re running now with the Voice, that it’s ‘above politics’…

Come on down and play the game…Dom Perrottet!

Your question…What is the price of integrity?

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 5, 2023 6:39 pm

rosiesays:
February 5, 2023 at 6:33 pm
Didn’t Jim Cairns live in
Hawthorn and sell signed copies of his books at Camberwell Market on weekends?

Does/did Fat Boy know him? (Not in the biblical sense, of course.)

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 6:41 pm

He told me at that time that there was no word in that language for homosexual or same sex relationships.
There’s no word for Homosexuality in the Hindu language, but, …

My reading of the works of the Anthropologists is limited but I believe the
Aborigines copulated and defecated in the open but ate alone.
So, perhaps there wasn’t the opportunity for the Neuroses and Psychosis that was common among the English and Irish to develop?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 5, 2023 6:44 pm

As a result of the sanctions, Russia’s economy is expected to grow faster than Germany.

I am not an economist, but to me the situation seems to be this:

Trade occurs when both parties come out ahead. It is not a zero-sum. If I have 10 loaves of bread but no water, and I meet a guy with 10L water but no bread, we are both better off after the deal. (This is what Chalmers doesn’t understand. He believes in the zero sun and thinks only government can do it ‘fairly’)

Point is that when Germany lost out with their sanctions, the Russians were not left richer, but poorer.

If they have been able to sell gas to someone else, they can’t have been as good customers as the Germans otherwise they would have preferred them to the Germans already.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 5, 2023 6:45 pm

Sanctions hurt both countries.

Cassie of Sydney
February 5, 2023 6:45 pm

“Rogersays:
February 5, 2023 at 6:35 pm
This line they’re running now with the Voice, that it’s ‘above politics’…

Come on down and play the game…Dom Perrottet!

Your question…What is the price of integrity?”

Isn’t a funeral “above politics”? So where was Dominic, Chris and Anthony, all three supposed Catholics? Oh that’s right, attending a funeral takes integrity.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 5, 2023 6:45 pm

Superbowl is next Monday, and we have a guy in it.

Inside story: Agent on how Aussie became $64m Super Bowl star (Tele, 5 Feb, paywalled)

Australia has one big stake in the Super Bowl. It’s Jordan Mailata, or the ‘tsunami of power’ as some call him. From NRL rejections to car explosions on NFL Draft night, it’s some journey.

So I look up his wiki. Fine reading!

“Jordan Mailata is the son of Samoan immigrants to Australia. Mailata was born in Bankstown, Sydney … Mailata was then offered the opportunity to join the South Sydney Rabbitohs’ U20s team in 2017. The South Sydney Rabbitohs offered Mailata a one-year contract worth $5000 to play for the North Sydney Bears. … After seeing video clips of him playing rugby league, NFL executives invited Mailata to try out … Mailata was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles with the 233rd overall pick in the seventh round of the 2018 NFL Draft … On 31 August 2021, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni named Mailata the starter at left tackle for the 2021 NFL season … On 11 September 2021, Mailata signed a four-year, USD$64 million contract including $40.85 million guaranteed … On 21 December 2022, Mailata was named an NFC Pro Bowl alternate … His success has seen him frequently described by the media as a human “wrecking ball”.”

Wow, from Aussie $5000 in 2017 to one hundred million in 2023. Samoan Aussies are ace, a friend of mine in a Samoan Aussie with a PhD. He’s built like a brick outhouse, quite like Mr Mailata. I hope Mr Mailata goes well in the Superbowl!

Zipster
Zipster
February 5, 2023 6:46 pm
H B Bear
H B Bear
February 5, 2023 6:48 pm

The aborigines never seeded their land….but Bruce Pascoe saw them doing just that, surely.

Phrasing.

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 6:48 pm

dover0beachsays:
February 5, 2023 at 6:18 pm
Here is a mall walk through in 2023.

It’s a signature Moscow mall and it’s basically empty of shoppers. Moscow has always historically been relatively better serviced than the regions even during the comparable commie period.

You’re telling us that 40% of the world’s economy has essentially stopped trading with Russia and everything is hunky dory. It’s had no impact much.
I’ve always wanted a Chinese car. That’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid.  🙂

This is where things go from bad to worse. The embargo has presumably stopped high-tech products and equipment from going from the West to Russia. A Russian hospital has issues with its CT equipment. It can neither replace the parts nor buy the latest, fancy CT scanner. How about parts for its airline fleet that aren’t Russian-made? You’re dreaming if you think the war and sanctions have little to no impact. These are a couple of top of my head examples.

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 6:48 pm

Brotherboy and Sistergirl: Terms used by some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to describe trans people.

Chur, chur. The Vikings also had trans teens, amirite?

PS

Wouldn’t it be brothergirl and sisterboy???

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 6:49 pm

Parrothead may have done the No Case a big favor by announcing for Yes, given that his endorsement isn’t worth much.

Obviously, it’s a NonWhites v White Australians Push, so the longer
Peter Dutton can string Albanese along with legit questions about The Voice, the more likely the Aussie in the Street will see the Referendum for the massive power grab that it is.

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 6:52 pm

I highly doubt Joebama is capable of calling the shots anywhere, even at home sinking battleships whilst Dr Jill makes fish and chips for her best crackhead son.

It’s not that Ukraine doesn’t have a history of poor governance. It is the idea of the phantom handshaker organising a car boot let alone a colonial military office is hilarious.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 5, 2023 6:52 pm

Heirloom McLaren Vale Alaska Grenache is very good.

Not just the grape needing Shiraz and Mataro to make it acceptable in your GSM.

Fun too: if you thought GSM was the delicious experimenting of irreverent Australian vignerons and oenologists then think no more: it is just the mix for Chateauneuf du Pape but we cannot use the French name.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 5, 2023 6:53 pm

Fun too?

I typed ‘Fun fact’.

Auto-corrupt is becoming increasingly…strange.

rosie
rosie
February 5, 2023 6:54 pm

I see Camberwell Market has already been discussed.
I knew Cairns lived on Wattle Rd in Hawthorn, in a nice old Victorian.
Google now tells me he moved to Narre Warren in the early 80s so he must have driven in to sell his books.

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 6:59 pm

Google now tells me he moved to Narre Warren in the early 80s so he must have driven in to sell his books.

Huh, I took a look at Google earlier to see who Junie M was and it said they moved to French Island and the house was up for sale in 21.

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/french-island-farm-linked-to-jim-cairns-and-junie-morosi-for-sale/

calli
calli
February 5, 2023 7:01 pm

What is the price of integrity?

Far, far too expensive for most of our politicians.

Integrity costs.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 5, 2023 7:01 pm

One of the Australian media’s most famous annual bashes appears to have disappeared from the calendar – at least for 2023. Peter FitzSimons and Lisa Wilkinson’s Australia Day party was not held last month, leaving the pair’s nearest and dearest wondering whether it is now off for good.

Confidantes of the couple confirmed the bash fell victim to what they said – borrowing from the late Queen Elizabeth – an “annus horribilis” for the republican couple.

“They feel they’ve had the worst year of their lives: Fitzy with the controversy over his Jacinta Price interview, and Lisa, who felt she was unfairly targeted by sections of the media during the whole Brittany Higgins affair,” the friend said.

“So, as a result, they’re not having a party.”

Parties at FitzSimons and Wilkinson’s harbourside mansion in Cremorne have been a favourite of this column and its readers, with tales of A-list attendees such as PM Anthony Albanese, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, NSW premier-in-waiting Chris Minns and actors Simon Baker, Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward.

The highlight last year was an Indigenous performer reciting the Uluru Statement by heart.

But one notable omission got tongues wagging last year – the banishment of Stan Grant. The ABC’s Q+A host had ruffled the couple’s feathers in 2021 when he wrote a chapter for The Australian’s summer novel, Oh Matilda: Who Bloody Killed Her?

Grant made headlines by describing Fitzy and Lisa’s annual Australia Day bash in the novel as “a woke lefty love-in”, full of “journos, actors, writers, a couple of ex-Wallabies, a few washed-up politicians … and a former managing director of the ABC”.

One of Grant’s lines particularly irritated the couple by describing alleged contents of their house: “There were dot paintings on the wall, a photo with their arms around Cathy Freeman at Sydney Olympic Stadium and a framed copy of Paul Keating’s Redfern Statement signed by the last great Australian Prime Minister himself.”

Wilkinson is in the midst of her longest break at Ten since she joined the network five years ago, after announcing her shock departure from The Project in November. Diary understands that while she is still on leave, she is weighing up her next ‘project’ with the network.

With Wilkinson unlikely to put her hand up for Ten’s reality tentpoles like The Bachelor or jungle duty on I’m A Celebrity, her most likely next move is said to involve some form of interview special for Ten.

While she weighs up her future, she continues to collect a rumoured seven-figure salary under the watertight contract renewal she signed with Ten back in 2021.

Oz

cohenite
February 5, 2023 7:05 pm

Some voicing in the US:

Black Guy Runs Down & Kills White Guy While Screaming About Racism

The poor sap killed was an ER doc specialising in treating black victims of crime.

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 7:07 pm

The highlight last year was an Indigenous performer reciting the Uluru Statement by heart.

Good lord they’re laying it on thick. Are they going to give their assets away to the nearest Aboriginal Land Council? No? Okay then.

rosie
rosie
February 5, 2023 7:08 pm

That sort of squares up, Gwen is alone at Wattle Rd 1976 or a little before, then in 1981 it’s back together at Narre Warren.

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 7:08 pm

Just so we make sure the record is correct. DOCTOR Jim Chalmers doesn’t have an economics degree. He doesn’t even have a political economy degree, which is just communism. DOCTOR Jim Chalmers, has a degree in political science and a PhD on Paul Keating (as we all knew). He’s spent his entire working life in politics. In other words,  big ears is basically a no-nothing imbecile.

Roger
Roger
February 5, 2023 7:10 pm

Far, far too expensive for most of our politicians.

Integrity costs.

Yes, indeed.

But it also strikes a deep, resonant chord that most people are pre-tuned to respond to.

And it can’t be faked.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 5, 2023 7:11 pm

Heirloom McLaren Vale Alaska Grenache is very good.

I’m sipping some St Hallett “Lore of the Land” 2021 shiraz, which was on special so I thought I’d try it. Very decent.

I like GSMs a lot. Last week I saw someone has a riesling-shiraz blend out, which intrigued me, but I wimped out and didn’t try it. Shiraz-viognier is yummy though.

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 7:11 pm

1 mn+ a year for Wilkinson? That is utterly bonkers. Give some young stud or beauty queen with an IQ above 100 a chance. Time to take the amphibian out to the lily pond upstate.

calli
calli
February 5, 2023 7:12 pm

Is there a Doctorate in Spivology? Or is it On the Job training like TAFE?

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 7:13 pm

I took my chances last night. Random white house wines at the pub. One rule, no chardonnay. I think the Prosecco was best.

jupes
jupes
February 5, 2023 7:14 pm

Lisa, who felt she was unfairly targeted by sections of the media during the whole Brittany Higgins affair,

Hahahahaha! Lucky the cloth-eared-bint isn’t in jail!

Roger
Roger
February 5, 2023 7:14 pm

DOCTOR Jim Chalmers, has a degree in political science and a PhD on Paul Keating (as we all knew). He’s spent his entire working life in politics. In other words, big ears is basically a no-nothing imbecile.

He wrote a PhD on Paul Keating and learned nothing.

That’s a special kind of imbecility.

John Spooner is on to it…he draws Chalmers’s eyes as small, vacant black dots.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 5, 2023 7:16 pm

Mother Lode says:
February 5, 2023 at 6:52 pm

Heirloom McLaren Vale Alaska Grenache is very good.

Not just the grape needing Shiraz and Mataro to make it acceptable in your GSM.

Fun too: if you thought GSM was the delicious experimenting of irreverent Australian vignerons and oenologists then think no more: it is just the mix for Chateauneuf du Pape but we cannot use the French name.

Tonight Drinking Heirloom Vineyards
Heirloom Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

Nice Drop – Will raise Glass to you Mother Lode & Cat Bloggers – Sante!

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
February 5, 2023 7:17 pm

Far, far too expensive for most of our politicians.

Integrity costs.

The lack of it is even more expensive. You can’t be happy if deep down you despise yourself.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 5, 2023 7:19 pm

I have a Chinese friend who was never much of a drinker: just made her feel unwell.

But through the persevering of my vices she has settled upon Riesling as eminently drinkable.

I am gladdened that she can now, in social situations (which happens a lot in business) choose a drink to sip on rather than feeling like the awkward teetotaller

She is a Design Manager on projects who learned her craft in the Construction industry so she can swear with the best of them. Now she can vent with grog too.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 5, 2023 7:20 pm

Is there a Doctorate in Spivology?

Oi! My first job I stained my feet black for a week because of the copper concentrate I was sloshing around in. One Christmas night I was up to my neck in magnetite slurry repairing a tank agitator. Another Christmas I dug out a roaster in a silver suit. I’m allowed a bit of spivitude now in my old age.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 5, 2023 7:23 pm

Bruce of Newcastle says:
February 5, 2023 at 7:11 pm

Heirloom McLaren Vale Alaska Grenache is very good.

I like GSMs a lot. Last week I saw someone has a riesling-shiraz blend out, which intrigued me, but I wimped out and didn’t try it. Shiraz-viognier is yummy though.

On Serrat Mailing List and have been purchasing Serrat Shiraz-Voigner since 2014 (stiil have 3 bottles left)

2020: showing the cool late year, black pepper and spice plenty of graphite like tannins, needs a couple of years in the cellar to show it’s best 2026+

Tried 1 Bottle so far & definitely could taste Black Pepper

calli
calli
February 5, 2023 7:23 pm

Lisa, who felt she was unfairly targeted by sections of the media

Oh dear.

Look at me! Look at meeeee! LOOK AT ME!

How DARE you look at me!

jupes
jupes
February 5, 2023 7:24 pm

But through the persevering of my vices she has settled upon Riesling as eminently drinkable.

Well done ML! Next step, reds.

Rabz
February 5, 2023 7:24 pm

In other words, big ears is basically a know-nothing imbecile

Which is blindingly obvious as soon as you see him, much less hear him try to string a sentence together.

It is quite frankly impossible to take any of the spiteful z-grade mediocrities in the current labore goat rodeo even remotely seriously. Deeply stupid obnoxiously obstinate staggeringly ignorant dunderheads. The thought of them being in government for more than one term is the stuff of nightmares.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 5, 2023 7:26 pm

Oh you mean Jim Chalmers. As you were.

Frank
Frank
February 5, 2023 7:29 pm

Integrity costs.

Usually by getting in the way of what you want.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
February 5, 2023 7:29 pm

In other words, big ears is basically a know-nothing imbecile

. He may look like Gomer Pyle but not as smart

calli
calli
February 5, 2023 7:31 pm

Oh you mean Jim Chalmers. As you were.

It’s times like this Dover definitely needs the roaring with laughter emoji.

Frank
Frank
February 5, 2023 7:33 pm

He may look like Gomer Pyle but not as smart

Is he a flamer?

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 7:33 pm

So, … there is a Doctorate in Spivology?

Cassie of Sydney
February 5, 2023 7:34 pm

““They feel they’ve had the worst year of their lives:”

Don’t you just love the narcissism? Prejudicing a trial, not getting charged for prejudicing a trial when anyone else would have been charged, and she’s claiming to be the victim! The epitome of chutzpah! In any event, I bet the Amphibian’s year hasn’t been as bad as Bruce Lehmann’s year.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 5, 2023 7:34 pm

Lisa, who felt she was unfairly targeted by sections of the media during the whole Brittany Higgins affair,

She inserted herself into the whole sordid affair, presented herself as a champion of the cause, a tournament knight ready for combat to defend Brittany’s honour – until someone said “OK. Let’s do this.” At which moment she suddenly transformed into a victim.

Comically stupid woman.

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 7:35 pm

Did Tintarella wanna know that Gomer was a Flamer?
I think not.

calli
calli
February 5, 2023 7:35 pm

Definitely one in So-ology.

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 7:39 pm

Lisa played a big part in getting Albanese over the line.
Without her Higgins interview, Scotty woulda got up.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 5, 2023 7:39 pm

The highlight last year was an Indigenous performer reciting the Uluru Statement by heart.

Given that nobody has probably ever read the Uluru Statement, said performer could recite any old rubbish..pulling the legs of gullible whitefellas is considered fine sport by the indigenous…

Roger
Roger
February 5, 2023 7:43 pm

““They feel they’ve had the worst year of their lives”

Would make a good case study in narcissism.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 5, 2023 7:46 pm

Brittany soon became a ticking pass the parcel, to mix a metaphor. And the real fun hasn’t even begun. A few people will be doing the walk of shame before this is over I predict. Albrechtsen’s story on the judge chairing the inquiry suggests he isn’t one to be trifled with.

P
P
February 5, 2023 7:50 pm

. He may look like Gomer Pyle but not as smart

The Impossible Dream

Robert Sewell
February 5, 2023 7:54 pm

Vicki / Old Ozzie:

My only question in today’s America, is that its ethnic makeup has changed a lot from the 30s/40s. and would there still be the cohesion to fight?

I think the cohesion may be there but I wouldn’t count on it.
The wild card will be the 7 million who have come across the borders. The Democrats think they’ve been clever with subverting the Republicans, but the last laugh hasn’t been uttered on that one yet. The US may just have inherited a very large amount of young men – 5 million + who may just seize the chance for a life they dreamt of, and would be happy as hell with a citizenship for return of service deal. And may just be damn unhappy with any troublemakers who threaten that offer.
The issue is with the industrial infrastructure and the lead time. Our planners have forgotten how quickly modern warfare eats up complex systems like missiles and tanks, aircraft and circuit boards.
Look at the shortfall of anti tank missiles as well as air to air weaponry. Even though the need to replenish inventory is there and obvious, no one seems to be moving – the bureaucracy continues with an antiquated system of contracts for 100 of this and 10,000 of that and until the paperwork is signed, nothing is moving. The artillery lines should be running – not flat strap – but at least at a sustainable 3 shift a day rate that will refill the empty 155mm bunkers.
No, the production war is where it will be won or lost and the Chinese will have been stocking up the basics for at least a decade. Just like the Russians. And I bet they won’t have sold down their strategic reserves of oil and copper, aluminium and cobalt, lathes and milling machines.

Roger
Roger
February 5, 2023 7:54 pm

The epitome of chutzpah!

Chutzpah maybe (chutzpah is admired regardless, yes?), but definitely hubris.

Nemesis awaits…

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 7:55 pm

Frank says:
February 5, 2023 at 7:33 pm

Is he a flamer?

Eddersly, is he?

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
February 5, 2023 7:55 pm

2020: showing the cool late year, black pepper and spice plenty of graphite like tannins, needs a couple of years in the cellar to show it’s best 2026+

Tried 1 Bottle so far & definitely could taste Black Pepper

You can save time by buying a bottle of tequila and ground black pepper.

Also how can you tell the difference ibn taste between black, white and green pepper, asking for a friend.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 5, 2023 7:55 pm

Will raise Glass to you Mother Lode & Cat Bloggers

Much appreciated.

Well done ML! Next step, reds.

She is unaccountably less than enamoured with anything ‘Red’. She has friends back in China, but she has clearly picked out which country is home.

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 7:57 pm

Albrechtsen’s story on the judge chairing the inquiry suggests he isn’t one to be trifled with.

You mean it won’t turn out like John Durham? Remember him?

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 7:57 pm

More than 18.1m border crossings have taken place out of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022, according to data from the UN.

Does it exist anymore? IIRC their pre war population was about 44 million.

Frank
Frank
February 5, 2023 7:58 pm

Also how can you tell the difference ibn taste between black, white and green pepper, asking for a friend.

They can’t. Too many wine producers have proved it to themselves (using cleanskins matched to previous reviews) that wine reviewers are cretins.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
February 5, 2023 7:59 pm

He told me at that time that there was no word in that language for homosexual or same sex relationships.
I believe there is a sign-language indication, including waggling eyebrows and a one-hand-on-hip, one forward with limp wrist.
Seriously though folks-
A good friend of mine was from Yamatji stock, and she taught me a lot of non-verbal hand and arm signals which are used, both in normal interactions and to convey meaning in “sorry business” areas. Having been tuned in, I am always interested to see them creeping in to a lot of the ABC/SBS/Film Commission productions from city folk like Thornton and Ms Perkins.

cohenite
February 5, 2023 8:00 pm

Top selling records each month from the 1960s. Sorta renews your faith; a little bit. Boy Elvis was big:

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

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
February 5, 2023 8:01 pm

““They feel they’ve had the worst year of their lives:”

Comprised wholly of unforced errors.

Cassie of Sydney
February 5, 2023 8:03 pm

“(chutzpah is admired regardless, yes?),”

Not really. Chutzpah can mean “destructive and ugly or vital and fantastic”, but it’s never in-between. In the Amphibian’s case, it’s destructive and ugly, very very ugly.

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 8:04 pm

Let’s put it this way:
Was Rock Hudson a Flamer?

JC
JC
February 5, 2023 8:04 pm

It’s as busy as Chadstone or Southland on a workday. If the shit was hitting the fan you’d see more kids, the unemployed, etc. loitering around, and far less cleanliness. You’ve also be given reports by Speedbox from the foothills of the Caucauses that shelves are full down there too.

How do you know it’s a workday? No, you wouldn’t necessarily see unemployed hanging around because there may not be high unemployment as a consequence of the war. With men called up and the war production effort there is likely to be lots of work. I don’t know how you rationalize this. The place is cut off from the West and you appear to believe all is well with the Russian economy because a signature Moscow mall is open. This doesn’t mean that living standards aren’t impacted. They are.

No, the IMF reported a small hit last year of about 2%, with a small recovery forecast this year, and above 2% growth next year. That is consistent with the evidence so far.

For war production!

I’m sure they can source most of these from China or by other means. If they can still access Western goods what is preventing them from purchasing a high tech goods as well?

Personally, what would you hit a Russian buyer for as a gouge if say they came to you looking for high tech parts etc?
200% or 300%?

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
February 5, 2023 8:05 pm

Just to be clear the current Federal Treasurer’s sexual proclivities is of no concern to me, what is concerning is his arrant stupidity and incompetence.

cohenite
February 5, 2023 8:08 pm

Then the Beatles took over.

Delta A
Delta A
February 5, 2023 8:09 pm

Do any star-gazer Cats know what time of night the green comet will be visible in Oz?

Roger
Roger
February 5, 2023 8:10 pm

Not really. Chutzpah can mean “destructive and ugly or vital and fantastic”, but it’s never in-between. In the Amphibian’s case, it’s destructive and ugly, very very ugly.

Right…context!

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 5, 2023 8:10 pm

There will be a few bottles of champagne being cracked at Channel Nein. Just like when one of the bank customers you had been trying to manage out the door refinances.

calli
calli
February 5, 2023 8:10 pm

his arrant stupidity and incompetence

Combined with the diabolical twist of knowing…just knowing, he’s right. Regardless of every piece of crushing historical evidence that he is not.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 5, 2023 8:10 pm

rosiesays:

February 5, 2023 at 6:33 pm

Didn’t Jim Cairns live in Hawthorn and sell signed copies of his books at Camberwell Market on weekends?

He might have.
But I definitely remember him at South Melbourne market too.

duncanm
duncanm
February 5, 2023 8:14 pm

Zipstersays:
February 5, 2023 at 6:34 pm
Bill Maher
@billmaher
If you’re part of today’s woke revolution, you need to study the part of revolutions where they spin out of control.
A Woke Revolution

A very good rant. Dissects it nicely.

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 8:16 pm

Just to be clear the current Federal Treasurer’s sexual proclivities is of no concern to me, what is concerning is his arrant stupidity and incompetence.


Uh, there’s been some flamin’ confusion.
Jim Nabors announced himself Gay years ago.
So, if he’s still alive, yes, he’s a Flamer.

Jimmy Chalmers is a dangerous dope who believes he’s saving the World.
No suggestion he’s a Flamer, but there was a brief article
in the Courier Mail last year about some Academic from UQ named Chalmers facing serious Child Abuse Pornography related charges.

Robert Sewell
February 5, 2023 8:17 pm

Diogenes:

Home hobbyists and small workshops with a lathe could make parts for weapons. Today?

That reminded me of Albert Speers distributed manufacturing plan. IF you still had a lathe or a milling machine, or a former, and it hadn’t been requisitioned previously, you could machine up little blocks of metal that fit into the engine of a DB601, or that little bit of metal that held the driving bands in place on a 75mm A/T shell. A horse drawn cart would drop around once a week and take away the finished pieces. Well, that was the plan, anyway.
Or in 1984, Julia volunteers Winston to give up one of his evenings putting fuses into grenades which seems a little dodgy to me. Perhaps fuses into compartments of boxes of grenades perhaps.
There’s a lot of piece work and very simple assembly that the individual can do that not only helps fill out production lines but involves the civilian sector in the war effort.

Indolent
Indolent
February 5, 2023 8:18 pm

“Vaccines work” “I’m absolutely pro-vaccines” “science is important”

‘You are wrong’: Dan Andrews heckled over vaccine mandates at press conference | 6 News Afternoons

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 5, 2023 8:19 pm

JC

Are Fitzsimian and the Can Toad on Twatter? If they are, can you ask them how much voluntary land rent they are paying to the local indigenous Land Council.

Roger
Roger
February 5, 2023 8:20 pm

Combined with the diabolical twist of knowing…just knowing, he’s right. Regardless of every piece of crushing historical evidence that he is not.

In that respect, a typical product of modern education.

Doctrinaire, incurious and – barring a road to Damascus experience – unteachable.

cohenite
February 5, 2023 8:21 pm

Jim and Junie were a handsome couple.

They were at the 1974 ALP conference at Terrigal. My lasting memory of the alp from that time was that they were the scenes which didn’t make the final cut for Don’s Party.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 5, 2023 8:24 pm

Do any star-gazer Cats know what time of night the green comet will be visible in Oz?

“Visible” is the word. You probably will need binoculars. From what I can see it may be visible on the northern horizon right after dusk, maybe up to an hour after sunset, just below Capella.

I’m amused that the start of The Day Of The Triffids occurs when everyone is awed by green meteors.

How to spot the bright green comet you’ll never see again in your lifetime (7 News, 5 Feb)

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 5, 2023 8:24 pm

Franksays:
February 5, 2023 at 7:33 pm
He may look like Gomer Pyle but not as smart

Is he a flamer?

Pretty sure that Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle) was, not sure about the nitwit.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 5, 2023 8:26 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
February 5, 2023 at 7:39 pm
The highlight last year was an Indigenous performer reciting the Uluru Statement by heart.

Given that nobody has probably ever read the Uluru Statement, said performer could recite any old rubbish..pulling the legs of gullible whitefellas is considered fine sport by the indigenous…

I hope that they had a hand talker. It would be sooooo non-inclusive if they didn’t.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 5, 2023 8:32 pm

callisays:
February 5, 2023 at 8:10 pm
his arrant stupidity and incompetence

Combined with the diabolical twist of knowing…just knowing, he’s right. Regardless of every piece of crushing historical evidence that he is not.

Enough about Fitzsiminan’s doorstoppers. AKA, historically based novels, badly written.

Roger
Roger
February 5, 2023 8:32 pm

French Island farm linked to Jim Cairns and Junie Morosi for sale

‘One Agency Peninsula’s Michael Phoenix is handling the sale and said with solar panels, wind turbines and a generator, as well as extensive water supply, the property was completely off the grid.

The island address is also free of local government, meaning no council rates.

No. 72 The Rest, French Lane, has a $3m-$3.3m asking price.’

The vendor will share 10% with the local aboriginal corporation to, you know…pay the rent…right?

Louis Litt
February 5, 2023 8:33 pm

BlackBall
Thanks for the article. I find it unusual that some one fudge his text messages.
Why would anyone go after him – he offers no motivation or reason why this was done.

cohenite
February 5, 2023 8:34 pm

And who can forget The Harper Valley PTA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZPBUu7Fro

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 5, 2023 8:48 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAsQ772VtQ4

Return to Harper Valley P.T.A.

cohenite
February 5, 2023 8:49 pm

Rowan Dean endorsed Trump for 24. Dean showed an excerpt from Trump’s policies dealing with the gender industry and their exploitation of vulnerable kiddies. Trump will pass into law that there are only 2 genders and that medical shits and others who profit from the exploitation of minors can be sued and criminally charged.

Now, who should be Trump’s VP?

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
February 5, 2023 8:54 pm

Now, who should be Trump’s VP?

Not Tulsi Gabbard. Not Ron de Santis.

cohenite
February 5, 2023 8:54 pm

Interesting:

G’day VSF Community,

Over the last two weeks, we have been contacted by members and families of the Special Forces community expressing concerns about the new Stan Australia Movie – Transfusion. From Director Matt Nable and starring Sam Worthington.

These concerns focused on the depiction of the two SAS operators within the movie and the perceptions of perpetuating negative themes and stigmas including mental ill-health, criminal activity and extreme violence. These have been specifically highlighted as causing real concerns within the context of what has been an extremely difficult period for many SAS personnel and their families post the Brereton report and the ongoing trail by media and some agendas therein.

VSF Managing Director, Heston Russell, submitted a formal complaint to Stan Australia seeking a conversation to discuss the concerns that have been raised and provided to us.

Stan Australia responded immediately and in the week since there have been numerous conversations resulting in the following actions as expressed directly from Stan Australia:

1. “The programming team are preparing a warning title card to play at the beginning of the film. It involves going back into the master files and going again through the delivery and upload process – they have estimated that in a week the warning card version will be live on Stan, so please do assure your members that we are taking steps to address their concerns.”

2. “Matt Nable has supplied a statement that he is happy for you to share with any of your members if you feel it would be helpful – please find it attached.”

file:///C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/14I977UW/email.mht

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 5, 2023 9:00 pm

From the Oz. I’ve posted the whole article. Constitutional recognition and the voice will make all the vooking difference, won’t it?

Bashings, killings, rapes: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on living in the ‘hellholes’ of Alice Springs

EXCLUSIVE
By LIAM MENDES
Reporter
@liammendes
8:26PM February 5, 2023
No Comments

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was just 12 when she lay all night with her baby cousin after her parents rescued the one-and-a-half year-old boy away from alcohol-fuelled ­violence.

The Country Liberal senator recalls driving into the Inarlenge town camp – also known as Little Sisters – outside Alice Springs with her parents to “rescue” the baby, as her aunty and uncle were caught up in “mob … all fighting”.

“That night I wanted to just protect him,” she said through tears. “I remember we were driving in there and everything was going on and him being handed over to us and then driving away.
Read Next

“I remember holding him in my arms all night, putting him to sleep next to me, and he just slept next to me all night.”

The toddler’s father, a man she “loved deeply”, died from excessive alcohol consumption.

Watching loved ones succumb to grog, the horrific murder of her aunt, and the sexual assault “in some way, shape or form” of every woman in her family are among the standout childhood memories for Price.

As she leaves her troubled hometown for Canberra and the first sitting week of the parliamentary year, Price says these memories will drive her fight to restore sweeping alcohol bans to Alice Springs and its surrounding communities.

The senator – with the ­Coalition’s backing – will move to present a bill this week that would immediately reintroduce the ­restrictions that existed under the lapsed Stronger Futures legislation.

Her bill will force grog bans in communities until they develop alcohol management plans with the help of the federal government. Labor has not said whether it will back the bill.

Price’s legislative push comes as a secret report about the issues in Alice Springs, held tight ­between Anthony Albanese and senior Northern Territory government ministers, is set to be released by the end of the week.

In an interview with The Australian about the violence in Alice Springs and her plan to stop it, Price could not hold back tears as she remembered scenes from the town camps, where many of her family still live and struggle.

She has one word for the central Australian town camps many of her relatives were brought up in and in which many of her closest family members have died: “hellholes”.

Her aunt was “killed and bashed and stabbed to death” by women in a town camp. “These are some of the things that go on,” Price said. “I witnessed people in violent situations, a woman stabbing herself in the leg because she was drunk, she was yelling at everyone and screaming and wanted attention or things weren’t going her way, so she stabbed herself in the leg,” Price recalled.

“I remember her little boy, who must have been about four or five, clambering over us all to get away from her and to get into safe arms.

“I know of a cousin who was living in a town camp when she was a young mother and she had a little baby girl and she just thought every night she thought ‘this could be the night that I could be stabbed to death by my boyfriend, and I gotta get out of this situation’.”

Price has lost dozens of relatives to alcoholism and said her sober relatives had died from the stress and conditions they would go through living in the town camps “day in and day out”, which have become the talking point of the nation as Alice Springs battles a youth crime wave and alcohol abuse problems among its Indigenous population.

Born in Darwin in 1981, Price moved to Alice Springs with her mother Bess, a former Northern Territory politician and her Anglo-Celtic father Dave when she was two.

While she didn’t live in one of the many camps dotted along the outskirts of Alice, many of her relatives did, and she has seen the trauma her family and other locals experience today.

The earliest camps, established in the 1970s and ’80s were initially areas set aside for Aboriginal ­people who were visiting towns for short periods from “out bush” but quickly became permanent homes for many.

Price said for decades perpetrators have been threatening victims and witnesses into silence.

“You’ve got that threat looming over you constantly, you don’t want to talk about those things,” she said.

Rampant child sexual abuse was occurring in the communities and a “complete overhaul” of child protection systems was required.

“I think it’s criminal that we’re allowing for the abuse, the sexual abuse, in horrific circumstances to occur to Aboriginal children in this country, to any kid, but it’s predominantly Aboriginal children,” she said.

“That, to me, is where the ­racism lies. It’s that lowering of standards, all because and I hate to say it, but many who are a result of the Stolen Generation are controlling the large organisations.

“They’ve benefited from an education. Humans are capable of overcoming adversity, but they can’t do that unless they have the opportunity at gaining an education and having their needs met and these kids aren’t getting any of that.

“So to suggest that their culture, and somehow this romantic idea of a connection to land is more important than upholding their human rights is completely and utterly wrong.”

She said people in the camps were too ashamed to talk about the sexual abuse they lived through.

“It’s shame, and it’s probably traumatic for them,” Price said.

“There’s not a woman in my family who hasn’t been sexually assaulted in some way, shape or form, whether it’s when they were children or in their teenage years, or as adults. It’s that prevalent. Kids are preyed upon by sexual predators, pedophiles, that have easy access to those kids in town camps because homes aren’t safe.”

In December, Price lost her cousin Regina France, a 42-year-old non-drinker who lived her whole life in a town camp, two days after Christmas.

“I believe it’s because of the stress and the conditions of living in a town camp, they are hell­holes,” she said.

“Drunken family, even people that didn’t even know them, would turn up in their house and just go through their fridge, eat everything, so they’d never have food.

“They could never ever, ever, really just live a life that was about themselves, it was always people drinking at night, people drunk at night, and violence and so you never got a good night’s sleep.

“Having sat by the hospital bed those last few days in the palliative care unit with my cousin, she was happy to die. She was so ready to be at peace because that was really the only peace she was ever going to get, is to ultimately die.

“The sad thing is, that’s their normal … an everyday Australian living on the northern beaches or something in Sydney, it’s a complete and utter world away. It’s like Beirut … you could never fathom unless you actually lived there.

“That’s why when authorities decide, even the Stolen Generation decide, have made these policies that impacts the lives of these kids here, they wouldn’t leave their own kids in those circumstances.”

Oh come on
Oh come on
February 5, 2023 9:02 pm

Why anyone would pay the slightest attention to Robert Kagan these days is mystifying.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 5, 2023 9:03 pm

Bashings, killings, rapes: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on living in the ‘hellholes’ of Alice Springs

By LIAM MENDES
REPORTER

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was just 12 when she lay all night with her baby cousin after her parents rescued the one-and-a-half year-old boy away from alcohol-fuelled ­violence.

The Country Liberal senator recalls driving into the Inarlenge town camp – also known as Little Sisters – outside Alice Springs with her parents to “rescue” the baby, as her aunty and uncle were caught up in “mob … all fighting”.

“That night I wanted to just protect him,” she said through tears. “I remember we were driving in there and everything was going on and him being handed over to us and then driving away.

“I remember holding him in my arms all night, putting him to sleep next to me, and he just slept next to me all night.”

The toddler’s father, a man she “loved deeply”, died from excessive alcohol consumption.

Watching loved ones succumb to grog, the horrific murder of her aunt, and the sexual assault “in some way, shape or form” of every woman in her family are among the standout childhood memories for Price.

As she leaves her troubled hometown for Canberra and the first sitting week of the parliamentary year, Price says these memories will drive her fight to restore sweeping alcohol bans to Alice Springs and its surrounding communities.

The senator – with the ­Coalition’s backing – will move to present a bill this week that would immediately reintroduce the ­restrictions that existed under the lapsed Stronger Futures legislation.

Her bill will force grog bans in communities until they develop alcohol management plans with the help of the federal government. Labor has not said whether it will back the bill.

Price’s legislative push comes as a secret report about the issues in Alice Springs, held tight ­between Anthony Albanese and senior Northern Territory government ministers, is set to be released by the end of the week.

In an interview with The Australian about the violence in Alice Springs and her plan to stop it, Price could not hold back tears as she remembered scenes from the town camps, where many of her family still live and struggle.

She has one word for the central Australian town camps many of her relatives were brought up in and in which many of her closest family members have died: “hellholes”.

Her aunt was “killed and bashed and stabbed to death” by women in a town camp. “These are some of the things that go on,” Price said. “I witnessed people in violent situations, a woman stabbing herself in the leg because she was drunk, she was yelling at everyone and screaming and wanted attention or things weren’t going her way, so she stabbed herself in the leg,” Price recalled.

“I remember her little boy, who must have been about four or five, clambering over us all to get away from her and to get into safe arms.

“I know of a cousin who was living in a town camp when she was a young mother and she had a little baby girl and she just thought every night she thought ‘this could be the night that I could be stabbed to death by my boyfriend, and I gotta get out of this situation’.”

Price has lost dozens of relatives to alcoholism and said her sober relatives had died from the stress and conditions they would go through living in the town camps “day in and day out”, which have become the talking point of the nation as Alice Springs battles a youth crime wave and alcohol abuse problems among its Indigenous population.

Born in Darwin in 1981, Price moved to Alice Springs with her mother Bess, a former Northern Territory politician and her Anglo-Celtic father Dave when she was two.

While she didn’t live in one of the many camps dotted along the outskirts of Alice, many of her relatives did, and she has seen the trauma her family and other locals experience today.

The earliest camps, established in the 1970s and ’80s were initially areas set aside for Aboriginal ­people who were visiting towns for short periods from “out bush” but quickly became permanent homes for many.

Price said for decades perpetrators have been threatening victims and witnesses into silence.

“You’ve got that threat looming over you constantly, you don’t want to talk about those things,” she said.

Rampant child sexual abuse was occurring in the communities and a “complete overhaul” of child protection systems was required.

“I think it’s criminal that we’re allowing for the abuse, the sexual abuse, in horrific circumstances to occur to Aboriginal children in this country, to any kid, but it’s predominantly Aboriginal children,” she said.

“That, to me, is where the ­racism lies. It’s that lowering of standards, all because and I hate to say it, but many who are a result of the Stolen Generation are controlling the large organisations.

“They’ve benefited from an education. Humans are capable of overcoming adversity, but they can’t do that unless they have the opportunity at gaining an education and having their needs met and these kids aren’t getting any of that.

“So to suggest that their culture, and somehow this romantic idea of a connection to land is more important than upholding their human rights is completely and utterly wrong.”

She said people in the camps were too ashamed to talk about the sexual abuse they lived through.

“It’s shame, and it’s probably traumatic for them,” Price said.

“There’s not a woman in my family who hasn’t been sexually assaulted in some way, shape or form, whether it’s when they were children or in their teenage years, or as adults. It’s that prevalent. Kids are preyed upon by sexual predators, pedophiles, that have easy access to those kids in town camps because homes aren’t safe.”

In December, Price lost her cousin Regina France, a 42-year-old non-drinker who lived her whole life in a town camp, two days after Christmas.

“I believe it’s because of the stress and the conditions of living in a town camp, they are hell­holes,” she said.

“Drunken family, even people that didn’t even know them, would turn up in their house and just go through their fridge, eat everything, so they’d never have food.

“They could never ever, ever, really just live a life that was about themselves, it was always people drinking at night, people drunk at night, and violence and so you never got a good night’s sleep.

“Having sat by the hospital bed those last few days in the palliative care unit with my cousin, she was happy to die. She was so ready to be at peace because that was really the only peace she was ever going to get, is to ultimately die.

“The sad thing is, that’s their normal … an everyday Australian living on the northern beaches or something in Sydney, it’s a complete and utter world away. It’s like Beirut … you could never fathom unless you actually lived there.

“That’s why when authorities decide, even the Stolen Generation decide, have made these policies that impacts the lives of these kids here, they wouldn’t leave their own kids in those circumstances.”

Oz

Frank
Frank
February 5, 2023 9:03 pm

Doctrinaire, incurious and – barring a road to Damascus experience – unteachable.

Invincible ignorance.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 5, 2023 9:04 pm

Snap Zulu!

Frank
Frank
February 5, 2023 9:06 pm

Jim Nabors was married, to a dude. Safe to say he was gay. I was enquiring about Chalmers since the question seemed pertinent, given the way the guy looks.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 5, 2023 9:07 pm

Great minds, Top Ender.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 5, 2023 9:11 pm

JC at 7:08.

DOCTOR Jim Chalmers, has a degree in political science and a PhD on Paul Keating (as we all knew). He’s spent his entire working life in politics. In other words,  big ears is basically a no-nothing imbecile.

So, if I churn out a 60,000 word tongue bath of the Clock King.
What odds that my PhD supervisor isn’t going to tick that off?
BTW, have you ever seen Jim Chalmers and Lex Greensill in the same room?
Those ears.
Separated at birth.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 5, 2023 9:17 pm

Mavis has rung in. He wants to know where his honorary doctorate is?

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
February 5, 2023 9:17 pm

BTW, have you ever seen Jim Chalmers and Lex Greensill in the same room?

With the caveat that everything is relative, Greensill is a helluva lot smarter than Chalmers.

cohenite
February 5, 2023 9:19 pm

Bongino has an interesting take on the chunk balloon. He reckons the chunks have been playing the yanks for suckers for yonks; everything from Swalwell and Fang Fang, intellectual property, running their own police force in the US (victoristan too), owning numerous pollies, including biden. So the balloon was symptomatic of what the chunks think of the yanks: that they’re gutless, stupid and ridiculous so they send the most low tech spying device to show how little they think of the yanks.

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 5, 2023 9:26 pm

Would the MSM tell us if Jim Chalmers was a Flamer?

Hell, no.

The only reason I say Jim Cairns was a Flamer is that the Melbourne Truth ran a story in 1973 about him being bashed almost to death in his own home by someone who wasn’t a burglar or a family member.
Reading between the lines …

Unsure if The Sun or The Age even covered what was a huge story.

cohenite
February 5, 2023 9:38 pm

The only reason I say Jim Cairns was a Flamer is that the Melbourne Truth ran a story in 1973 about him being bashed almost to death in his own home by someone who wasn’t a burglar or a family member.
Reading between the lines …

You’re an antisemite idiot crotchless. Cairns was a commie squelch who couldn’t count past 10 but he wasn’t a pillow biter or plunker puncher.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 5, 2023 9:40 pm

Is there anything sadder than beach photos on Port Phillip Bay on Instagram?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 5, 2023 9:41 pm

Now, who should be Trump’s VP?

Look – I wasn’t going to say anything, but I am waiting by my computer for the email.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 5, 2023 9:43 pm

Are you even at the beach?

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 9:43 pm

The British Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities

Oh for lord’s sake these modern names are absurd.

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 9:44 pm

Where’s Doris Bagshawe on Jim Chalmer’s “doctorate”?

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity
February 5, 2023 9:46 pm

Department for Leveling Up

I don’t even know what this could possibly mean.

Eyrie
Eyrie
February 5, 2023 9:55 pm

Leveling Up is MinTru GoveSpeak for Leveling Down.

custard
custard
February 5, 2023 9:56 pm
Boambee John
Boambee John
February 5, 2023 9:56 pm

Richard Cranium

The only reason I say Jim Cairns was a Flamer is that the Melbourne Truth ran a story in 1973 about him being bashed almost to death in his own home by someone who wasn’t a burglar or a family member.
Reading between the lines …

Are you getting mixed up with the Peter Baldwin bashing in Sydney? It was in a similar timeframe. That was a factional dispute, the Liars factions play hard.

custard
custard
February 5, 2023 9:59 pm

Alice is Hillary

Wonderland is Saud.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 5, 2023 10:12 pm

custardsays:

February 5, 2023 at 9:59 pm

Alice is Hillary

Wonderland is Saud.

Obviously.
And Biden is March Hare.
But who, oh who, is Queen of Hearts?

Old Lefty
Old Lefty
February 5, 2023 10:13 pm

Jim Cairns was a far-left loonie: apart from his grotesque incompetence in economics, he returned from an official junket to Moscow in 1971 assuring the world that there was no dissent in the Soviet Union.

But he definitely wasn’t a flamer. Remember how he made a complete spectacle of himself over his infatuation for Junie Morosi?

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 10:14 pm

Levelling up – always use a Paladin and only use Light-Light characters. Always use a mage and healing wizard as your allies.

Hence the typical Square Enix character set.

Almost as believable as Q Drops.

custard
custard
February 5, 2023 10:15 pm

If there is a queen here Sancho it’s you

custard
custard
February 5, 2023 10:18 pm

This blog is so unsophisticated that it has still failed to reconcile presidential executive orders 13818 and 13848

Until this blog does so, I will continue to call this blog on its ignorance.

Oh come on
Oh come on
February 5, 2023 10:23 pm

Alice is Hillary

Wonderland is Saud.

Why not just say so?

This otherwise unnecessary use of coded language is only for the purpose of making the recipients feel as though the info they’re receiving is so dangerous that it can’t be explicitly disclosed. Of course, the ‘code’ is invariably disclosed as part of the communication (otherwise not even the most rabid Q believer would know what the hell it’s all about) but never mind that.

Dot
Dot
February 5, 2023 10:24 pm

Trump isn’t President.

He may never be President again.

The Democrats might get away with the last 14 – 4 years of BS.

Get over it. Trudy isn’t under arrest and the SS isn’t going to start arresting Democrats and Epstein associates on 50,000 magical sealed indictments.

Nor will Muellerween ever be a thing. Stephen Colbert keeps on seeing his shadow.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 5, 2023 10:24 pm

I take it we’re still off the pace?
But, seeing as you’re here Custard …
The Donald?
Is he President as of 31st January 2023?
If not, why not?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 5, 2023 10:26 pm

Remember how he made a complete spectacle of himself over his infatuation for Junie Morosi?

“A Morosi – a loose screw that holds a Cabinet together.”

Oh come on
Oh come on
February 5, 2023 10:27 pm

This blog is so unsophisticated that it has still failed to reconcile presidential executive orders 13818 and 13848

Do these contain an accounting error? Someone here knows double-sided bookkeeping, surely. Or maybe they have a spare copy of MYOB they don’t mind forwarding to custard.

custard
custard
February 5, 2023 10:28 pm

Why is this blog unable to google (or something else) about presidential executive orders?

They are determinative.

They had sunset clauses.

They were renewed under the (so called) Biden administration,

That doesn’t make any sense.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 5, 2023 10:33 pm

Trump is President.
Or is he?
Vulnerabilities.
Ukraine.
The 1979 Grand Final being stolen from Collingwood.
And 2018.
Balloons.
When you lost your keys in 1995.
Worldwide arrests. Gitmo full.
A new virus.
What does it mean?

Connections.

Entropy
Entropy
February 5, 2023 10:33 pm

But he definitely wasn’t a flamer. Remember how he made a complete spectacle of himself over his infatuation for Junie Morosi?

Cairns, Morosi and her husband David made an interesting trio.
But pretty sure both were attracted to Morosi.

Entropy
Entropy
February 5, 2023 10:36 pm

For God’s sake, they’ve have replaced McDonald’s, for example, with a Russian knock off.

McDowells?

rosie
rosie
February 5, 2023 10:38 pm

Sunday in Messina.
A bright but windy day.
Was too late for mass at the little Norman church. Reading the information sign it was built over with private buildings after the 1783 earthquake and was, perhaps as a consequence, one of the few survivors of the 1908 one. Fairly bare inside.
Round the corner t0 10.30 mass at the cathedral. Choir and organ were magnificent.
Nothing much open food wise, so I’ve settled for Hungry Jack’s in the rather sad Galleria Victor Emmanuel II.
Catania tomorrow then in a few days, Syracus, both look like being much more interesting than the ‘town without a history’.
Then hopefully a straightforward train to Pozzella and a ferry to Valletta.

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