Open Thread – Tues 7 Feb 2023


Daedalus and Icarus, Charles Le Brun, 1645


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rosie
rosie
February 7, 2023 12:03 pm

Sooner or later.
And if there is a prediction that the Turkish quake will trigger something in Italy, north or south, shouldn’t that be soonish.
And how big should it be?
As the USGS site shows, there’s been 125 earthquakes over 2.5 in the past day.

Where does the energy go?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 12:06 pm

C.L. says:
February 7, 2023 at 11:28 am

It’s all falling apart in Ukraine.

Interesting C.L. – Politico no less

Ukraine army discipline crackdown sparks fear and fury on the front

Critics say new legislation that punishes deserters and rule-breakers more harshly contravenes human rights and demotivates military personnel.

KYIV — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to veto a new law that strengthens punishment for wayward military personnel on Thursday, rejecting a petition signed by over 25,000 Ukrainians who argue it’s too harsh.

“The key to the combat capability of military units and ultimately of Ukraine’s victory, is compliance with military discipline,” Zelenskyy said in his written response to the petition.

Ukrainian soldiers have stunned the world with their resilience and battlefield successes, withstanding a year-long onslaught from Russian troops. But among Kyiv’s forces, made up largely of fresh recruits lacking previous military experience or training, some are struggling to cope. There are those who have rebelled against commanders’ orders, gotten drunk or misbehaved; others, running low on ammunition and morale, have fled for their lives, abandoning their positions.

Seeking to bring his forces into line, Zelenskyy in January signed into force a punitive law that introduces harsher punishment for deserters and wayward soldiers, and strips them of their right to appeal.

The law aims to standardize and toughen the repercussions for rule-breaking, improving discipline and the combat readiness of military units. Disobedience will be punishable by five to eight years in prison, rather than the previous two to seven; desertion or failure to appear for duty without a valid reason by up to 10 years. Threatening commanders, consuming alcohol, questioning orders and many other violations will also be dealt with more harshly, potentially with prison time; those who broke these rules in the past may have gotten away with a probation period or the docking of their combat pay.

Those who lobbied in favor of the new law, such as the Ukrainian Army General Staff, argue it will make discipline fairer: Previously, because courts adjudicated infractions on a case-by-case basis, some perpetrators were able to escape punishment for serious rule-breaking entirely, while others received harsher sentences for less significant violations, according to an explanatory note that accompanied the new law.

But soldiers, lawyers and human rights watchdogs have slammed the measures as an inappropriate and blunt instrument that won’t deal with the root causes of military indiscipline — and over 25,000 Ukrainians called on the president to veto the law altogether in a petition submitted to the president late last year.

The new punitive rules remove discretion and turn courts into a “calculator” for doling out punishment to soldiers, regardless of the reasons for their offenses, lawyer Anton Didenko argued in a column on Ukraine’s Interfax news agency.

“This law will have negative consequences for the protection of the rights of military personnel who are accused of committing a crime and will reduce the level of motivation during service,” an NGO, called the Reanimation Package of Reforms Coalition, said in a statement. “This can carry risks both for the protection of human rights and for the defense capability of the state.”

Zelenskyy’s military commanders disagree, arguing the measures are necessary to hold firm in the face of Russia’s assault.

Army of civilians

Markus said commanders frequently didn’t understand the problems and shortages faced by their troops on the ground due to local sergeants failing to communicate with them. He played videos of soldiers complaining about a lack of weapons or inappropriate or illegal orders from their commanders, before telling those in the audience that most problems could be resolved internally through the proper channels, while publicly airing complaints discredited Ukraine’s army and undermined attempts to help troops.

“Do I recognize the existence of problems that lead to the arbitrary abandonment of positions? Yes,” Zaluzhnyi said in his video supporting the reforms. “Am I working on their elimination? Successful operations to liberate the territories of our state are a confirmation of that.”

But members of Ukraine’s armed forces, many of whom have expressed respect for Zaluzhnyi, were deeply disappointed by his support of the new law.

“It is very demotivating. This is such a striking contrast with Zaluzhnyi’s human- and leader-oriented ‘religion,’” said Eugenia Zakrevska, a human rights lawyer who enlisted in the war effort and is now a member of the 92nd Ivan Sirko Separate Mechanized Brigade. This was a pointed reference to an interview the commander-in-chief gave to the Economist in December, in which he said that unlike the Kremlin, the “religion” he and Ukraine practised was “to remain human in any situation.”

Treating the symptoms, not the disease

It is only out of sheer desperation that soldiers leave their posts, Zakrevska argued, adding that to prevent desertion, commanders should rotate fighters more frequently. But she acknowledged that in many places, R&R for the troops is impossible due to a shortage of combat-capable fighters.

Most brigades are full, Zakrevska said — but some of those in them aren’t fit to fight, and “it is impossible to fire them. Because no one can be fired from the army at all. Only after a verdict in a criminal case. Such a system also greatly undermines morale. Because it turns service in the army from an honorable duty into a punishment.”

“In the situations of despair and complete exhaustion, fear of criminal liability does not work,” Zakrevska argued.

rickw
rickw
February 7, 2023 12:07 pm

Patrick Dodson now wants Voice seat at the “national cabinet” to control all parliaments. Albanese says the ‘door is open.’ Penny Wong says that “shouldn’t be a problem.”

The Uniparty Cabinet.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 7, 2023 12:08 pm

JCsays:
February 7, 2023 at 8:56 am
Imagine his work schedule. There’s not enough days in the week.

Last 3 months were extremely tough, as had to save Twitter from bankruptcy, while fulfilling essential Tesla & SpaceX duties. Wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone.

Twitter still has challenges, but is now trending to breakeven if we keep at it. Public support is much appreciated!

He’s turned Twitter around. Where’s Fatboy?

Hiding in the basement, with his head stuck up his rectum?

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 12:08 pm

Amazing how people are happy to make accusations without even ascertaining that what they are accusing another of is accurate.

Erm…it’s Twitter.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 12:08 pm

These yutzes don’t even know what they want a blank cheque on a blank cheque for.

Lysander
Lysander
February 7, 2023 12:09 pm

DB
just remember the RC “found” fu#k all on Pell.

Their greatest “finding” was that it was inconceivable that Pell didn’t know. As Hendo and many others have pointed out, that’s a lazy of saying “we have no evidence but we’re gonna make a claim anyway.”

rickw
rickw
February 7, 2023 12:10 pm

There are those who have rebelled against commanders’ orders, gotten drunk or misbehaved; others, running low on ammunition and morale, have fled for their lives, abandoning their positions.

Dying for Zelensky would be like dying for Tennis Albo.

Zipster
February 7, 2023 12:12 pm

What’s the best way to piss off half of America in less than five minutes?

It would be hard to beat what the Grammys did last night when they had pigtailed, filler-face-plumped Madonna introduce non-binary singer Sam Smith — who first came out as gay, then gender-fluid, and now demands to be called “they” — to perform a duet of a song called “Unholy,” with a transgender artist named Kim Petras, in which Smith dressed up as Satan in red tunic, hat and horns while dancers performed a devil-worshipping ritual around him, as “they” and Petras sang about a married couple who leave their children home to both commit adultery.

Oh, and then reveal it was all sponsored by Viagra manufacturer Pfizer!

Robert Sewell
February 7, 2023 12:12 pm

Bruce O’Nuke:

The net result is that capital costs go up, maintenance costs go up, therefore the required electricity price also has to go up. And that is out of the control of the company, so they go bankrupt.

Is a quiet snigger justified?

Vicki
Vicki
February 7, 2023 12:13 pm

Pat Dodson wants an indigenous rep on the “national cabinet.”

The Voice will be the domain of the “Big Fellas” – people like the Dodsons, with some token black women, like Langton.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 12:14 pm

New Info on Chinese Spy Balloon From NORAD Commander Is Jaw-Dropping

At this point, everything the Biden team says about the Chinese spy balloon just seems to make the problem worse.

One of the big questions that people have had is why the balloon wasn’t shot down earlier, for example, over the Aleutian Islands, near Alaska. Or over any of the less populated areas of Alaska, Canada, or Montana that it went over?

Now, they’re out with more comments and they’re not helping themselves. They had earlier claimed they didn’t have a “water shot.” That answer has now “evolved” further.

According to the Department of Defense, the U.S. did not have time to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon right after it crossed into Alaskan waters.

The balloon “did not present a physical threat” to the US and Canada, said Gen. Glen VanHerck, Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). “I could not take immediate action because it was not demonstrating … hostile intent.”

Um, what? You let a spy balloon from a hostile foreign power enter our airspace with God knows what intention because it wasn’t demonstrating “a hostile intent”? Exactly how do you judge that? Wait until it gets to where it wants to go and drops something? My colleague Bob Hoge outlined any number of things that such a balloon could be involved in, including an EMP attack. Do they have to be holding up a sign that says: “We come to attack you/spy on you”? Come on, man! This seems to be an insane military reaction. Not to mention a terrible signal to our enemies that we are risk-averse and won’t do the basic things we need to do to protect our country.

That answer also evolved — did you not take the shot because you didn’t have a shot or you didn’t take it because it wasn’t demonstrating hostile intent? Which was it here?

But it gets worse.

“Northcom chief Gen. VanHerck says the balloon was up to 200 ft tall, with a payload the size of a jetliner,” Politico reporter Lara Seligman said. “It weighed ‘in excess of a couple thousand lbs’ and potentially carried explosives ‘to detonate and destroy the balloon.’”

So, VanHerck is saying it was that big with potential explosives, but they didn’t see any “hostile intent” or potential issue with letting it float over the country for more than a week? Am I losing my mind here, or is this explanation crazy?

I’m wondering if the real answer here — and why nothing makes sense — is that they did tell Joe Biden right away and he’s the guy who was talking about “no hostile intent” and said don’t take the shot.

VanHerck said one other important piece of information: He said that U.S. intel agencies “pieced together” through additional means of intel collection that there had been three prior balloons that had been undetected. I wrote about the problems with what the Biden team has said so far on this and how the narrative keeps changing.

Once again this raises big questions: Is it three or four? What about the one four months ago over Hawaii that has been reported? Supposedly there were three under Trump and one under Biden that were undetected. And how could they go undetected given the powerful ability that we supposedly have to detect things?

Is he saying that we can’t detect a slow-moving balloon of such size? Yes, that’s what he’s saying.

“I will tell you we did not detect those threats and that’s a domain awareness gap we have to figure out,” Gen. VanHerck said. They became aware due to additional means of intel collection.

What did the incursions involve and was there any spying? How is the intel community reaching this conclusion? Did they drop this to cover Joe Biden’s posterior because of the backlash?

This shows a huge hole in the defense of our country if this is true. And they just announced it to our enemies.

JC
JC
February 7, 2023 12:17 pm

I put it in there because if the numbers were reversed you’d have no problem with it, but since they aren’t you have to look past them.

The estimates for Russian GDP are reasonably credible. But you refuse to even entertain the idea that the growth rate is spoiled by a now outsized military spend. I don’t know how large it is but it’s quite large.

Okay, let’s go with your view that the Russian economy is in great shape. Excellent shape.

By the way, how would verify the video you keep showing is legit and filmed in recent times?

I’ll come back to the other points later.

Lysander
Lysander
February 7, 2023 12:17 pm

Who is hoping for a .5% increase to rates today?

I read one economist yesterday saying that the RBA better “get the skates on” with even higher hikes sooner or the ensuing plunge will be worse…

Thankfully our mortgage belt is pretty loose but, gosh, 800,000 going from fixed rate to variable today.

Lysander
Lysander
February 7, 2023 12:19 pm

Sorry, not today, but “imminent”

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 7, 2023 12:20 pm

And if there is a prediction that the Turkish quake will trigger something in Italy, north or south, shouldn’t that be soonish.

I’ve not seen anything to link that particular fault with the Italian subduction zone and associated faults. Not least that there’s the whole Hellenic subduction complex between Turkey and Italy – it pretty much separates those areas from each other geodynamically.

I’d be more concerned about the faultline as it extends to the south, which keeps on going all the way through the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. Israel has had Ritcher 8s in historical times.

The Israelis have taken note of this:

Knesset to review earthquake readiness next week, as state comptroller sounds alarm (7 Feb)

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 12:23 pm

It’s no different in real life, Roger. I’ve had many heated conversations with people re Pell and they had no idea what the facts actually were in most cases and were nevertheless happy to condemn.

Erm…their twits.

But yes, I’ve had the same experience. They’re irrational.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 12:25 pm

Thankfully our mortgage belt is pretty loose but, gosh, 800,000 going from fixed rate to variable today.

Prepare the looms and coal mines for incoming child workers.

duncanm
duncanm
February 7, 2023 12:26 pm

Was the ethnic background of the soup nazi ever revealed? He was rather swarthy if I remember correctly.

When he shut up shop, he was going to Argentina.. so I suspect Argie.

Lysander
Lysander
February 7, 2023 12:27 pm

At the end of the day DB, any fairminded person should read the HC transcript. The fact that Judd and Walker were laughed out of the court (which I have never seen before) should convince anyone.

If not, they’re partisan hacks and deserve to be ridiculed.

As you know, that’s been my approach on twaddle… educate first and if still a hack, demise (remind them of ABC’s Neville or Jon Stephens, or Rudd’s Heiner Affair etc…). By that stage you’re usually blocked (which is a good thing).

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 12:27 pm

Vicki says:
February 7, 2023 at 12:13 pm

Pat Dodson wants an indigenous rep on the “national cabinet.”

The Voice will be the domain of the “Big Fellas” – people like the Dodsons, with some token black women, like Langton.

Vicki,

you mean like

Your Australian Taxpayers Money at Work & Tennis Elbow Albasleezy wants you to trust him and the Labor/Greens on the Voice – Part 1 Follows

Indigenous charity head’s trail of sackings, probes and misused cash

Jim Golden-Brown – accused of misusing credit cards and overspending at four Aboriginal charities – now chairs a $20 million charity caring for elders.

The chairman of a charity providing healthcare to Indigenous elders in remote South Australia has a history of alleged misuse of credit cards and lavish overspending at a string of Aboriginal organisations over 15 years.

Jim Golden-Brown, a former officer at NSW’s anti-corruption agency, oversees the Aboriginal Elders & Community Care Services Inc (ACS), which manages $20 million in government funding.

ACS’ finances have been investigated by the health department and a probe by the aged care regulator in 2022 found it was non-compliant with six of seven aged care quality standards.

Mr Golden-Brown, who is Indigenous, was appointed chairman of ACS in the same year he was sacked by another Indigenous charity, and a protracted probe into his spending there – including overseas trips and mountains of booze – is still under way.

An investigation by The Australian Financial Review finds Mr Golden-Brown left previous roles at four government-funded bodies under a cloud of allegations over the last 15 years.

The investigation shows Mr Golden-Brown has escaped serious sanction despite more than a decade of warnings raised at the highest ranks of the government. It highlights the difficulty of clamping down on egregious waste in social programs and ensuring the integrity of the $300 billion in government services delivered by private and corporate players.

Part 2

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 7, 2023 12:27 pm

Here’s a good science article on Italian earthquake aspects:

Italy’s deadly earthquake is the latest in a history of destruction (The Conversation, 2016)

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 7, 2023 12:28 pm

I’m putting this in the same basket as calling tax increases ‘savings’ for the budget.

Not necessarily well known outside the bureaucracy, but tax concessions are known to Treasury as “Tax Expenditures”.

dopey
dopey
February 7, 2023 12:28 pm

ABC: We will be referring to Brunei by its traditional name, Brown Eye.

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 12:29 pm

I was watching ‘Zulu’ on You Tube last night.

Digitally remastered, it looked all flash and new, like it was made yesterday.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 12:29 pm

This whole Eliza Bleu thing just gets weirder and weirder.

I can’t believe her traffickers forced her to go on Blind Date. How atrocious…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMDih1JveEo

” She talked about sex within 30 seconds and her fun fact was she doesn’t own underwear…. “

?

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 12:31 pm

Was the ethnic background of the soup nazi ever revealed? He was rather swarthy if I remember correctly.

Iranian.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 12:37 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
February 7, 2023 at 11:27 am

Please.
States are a colonial construct.
We need one from each of the 300 nations.

It’s what it’s going to boil down to – each member of the voice, will, of course, need a fully staffed office, a car with driver, and unlimited air travel.

What do you mean ONLY One Car?

PS Jim Golden-Brown – accused of misusing credit cards and overspending at four Aboriginal charities – now chairs a $20 million charity caring for elders.

already gets need a fully staffed office, a car with driver, and unlimited air travel.

The chairman of a charity providing healthcare to Indigenous elders in remote South Australia has a history of alleged misuse of credit cards and lavish overspending at a string of Aboriginal organisations over 15 years.

“The payment for surgery, hospitals, doctors, and in particular recovery while on holidays with family, again in luxury hotels and consuming expensive meals at lavish restaurants represents misuse of public funds. Moreover, and perhaps the most egregious and controversial is Mr Golden-Brown’s overseas travel via a trip to Hawaii.”

That Hawaii trip in 2020 for three employees resulted in a charge of $28,000 to NATSIC, and came at the same time Mr Golden-Brown’s wife Kate Whiteley (also a former NATSIC staff member) posted to Facebook a picture of a beach in Hawaii with the caption: “A magical holiday and a needed de-stressing for me.”

Although the trip was ostensibly for a disability conference, a charge of almost $9000 was billed to NATSIC more than a week after the completion of the conference, as were charges to an upmarket Japanese restaurant.

NATSIC was also charged by Hawaiian Air for upgrades to business class.

Meanwhile, charges worth almost $1000 were racked up for a stay at the Radisson Blu Resort in Nadi, Fiji, when Mr Golden-Brown was in the Pacific Island nation for his wedding in 2019.

In March 2022, Crawford Legal, acting on behalf of NASTIC, contacted Mr Aitken, who by then was CEO of ACS, requesting the return of five Toyota vehicles that had been leased to NATSIC.

duncanm
duncanm
February 7, 2023 12:37 pm

Disney finally bought Pixar in 2006. Since then, Pixar has produced more sequels and less quality. Pixar used to be a carat mark of quality filmmaking, but I barely even heard of Pixar’s last three movies — Luca, Turning Red, and Lightyear, apparently. Lightyear is memorable only because it was so woke and so boring that it’s one of Pixar’s few flops.

I’d disagree with this. Maybe some of these were in production before the Disney rot set in, but Wall-E, Up and Inside-Out were all good movies.

I was most surprised by Inside-out.. very much expecting a wokeathon, but it was surprisingly touching and a wonderful way to communicate emotional concepts to early teens.

They did destroy the subversive tone of the original “Incredibles”

Helen: Everyone’s special, Dash.

Dash: [muttering] Which is another way of saying no one is.

C.L.
C.L.
February 7, 2023 12:38 pm

Sorry, Peter Dutton.
I don’t understand WTF you’re trying to say either.

rickw
rickw
February 7, 2023 12:39 pm

I’ve had many heated conversations with people re Pell and they had no idea what the facts actually were in most cases and were nevertheless happy to condemn.

That’s most of Australia. They’re F’cking Mongs. If Government or Police accuse you of something, we’ll you did it! Government and Police are always right! F’cking Mongs, they absolutely deserve what is happening to the country.

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Thankfully our mortgage belt is pretty loose but, gosh, 800,000 going from fixed rate to variable today.

That’s 800,000 times two (assuming a husband & wife)
1,600,000 voters who’ll have uppermost in their minds: “Wtf do I have to do to keep my house? I’ve worked too many years to arbitrarily lose it.”

They’ll not be amenable to robocalls instructing them The Voice is the most important issue of their era.

JC
JC
February 7, 2023 12:42 pm

Military spending just is what it is. It is a part of internal domestic production so it will form a part of GDP. The fact that it isn’t directed wholly to the consumer is neither here nor there.

You’re kidding or actually serious about this?

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 7, 2023 12:43 pm

Lysander

Who is hoping for a .5% increase to rates today?

I described the situation as being like when Wile E Coyote runs off the cliff and keeps running in the air before plummeting into the gorge. That is where we are. It will be a miracle if Australia avoids a recession this time around. The Chinese won’t be any help.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
February 7, 2023 12:44 pm

“I will tell you we did not detect those threats and that’s a domain awareness gap we have to figure out,” Gen. VanHerck said. They became aware due to additional means of intel collection.”

Meanwhile as the Military focuses its 18th Century Captain Cook telescope at the high altitude CCP Balloon, Kim Jong Unn donning a Dick Dastardly moustache sends a slow moving balloon across the USA at a height of 100ft to get close-up photos of Costco’s crazy crazy prices! Kim has sent a trawler to wait in the Atlantic to retrieve the on-board camera and will view the images as soon as the Guaranteed 7-day only photo development process is complete.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 7, 2023 12:46 pm

… requesting the return of five Toyota vehicles that had been leased to NATSIC.

Always start with the Landcruisers.

sfw
sfw
February 7, 2023 12:47 pm

Here’s a game that David Thompson linked to, best I’ve been able to score 4041. See if you can do better.
https://www.chronophoto.app/web.html

johanna
johanna
February 7, 2023 12:48 pm

Tom says:
February 7, 2023 at 10:42 am

ABC calling Turkey “Türkiye” for some reason.

The ABC: when too much hatred of Australian culture and tradition is barely enough.

But it’s OK — we have SBS for that.

SBS – shows the odd good movie or series from o/s, but for the most is a propaganda machine. They have a weekly dose from Bill Clinton’s former Press Secretary (George many-opouloses), countless tributes to Hillary, 100% anti-Trump ‘documentaries’, unremitting pro-Voice sentiment and repeated claims that Australia is racist, a predictable party line on ‘refugees’ and so on and so on. They make TheirABC look moderate.

Like TheirABC, there is no need for SBS. Their content is available by other means. But, instead of shutting it down, successive governments allowed it to expand into underserved fields (/sarc) like food channels. Why on earth does a government funded body need to provide a food channel? There are hundreds, probably thousands of them available online.

Even the food channel all too often morphs into a mouthpiece for greenie talking points, like how mass produced food is evil – mass starvation, apparently, is not.

Finally, I note that SBS attracts a lot of the ads I have been seeing for six decades, featuring starving black children as props. Yet, they never commission or show programs explaining why those ads haven’t changed in more than half a century. That is, apart from the usual suspects demanding that Western nations give more money to countries where the leadership promptly funnels it into Swiss bank accounts.

flyingduk
flyingduk
February 7, 2023 12:49 pm

The RFDS just released a study which they say shows that rural and regional Australians die earlier than metropolitan Australians due to a lack of access to health care for otherwise manageable issues like heart disease and diabetes.

These are largely nutritional diseases, hence ‘health care’ at best, palliates them

duncanm
duncanm
February 7, 2023 12:51 pm

Thankfully our mortgage belt is pretty loose but, gosh, 800,000 going from fixed rate to variable today.

today? I thought this number was spread over 2023.

johanna
johanna
February 7, 2023 12:53 pm

C.L. says:
February 7, 2023 at 10:27 am

Today:

Patrick Dodson now wants Voice seat at the “national cabinet” to control all parliaments. Albanese says the ‘door is open.’ Penny Wong says that “shouldn’t be a problem.”

Don’t forget that these ‘seats’ in this or that forum are always accompanied by free travel and accommodation, plus sitting fees in the hundreds of dollars a day.

Gives a whole new perspective to ‘sit down money.’

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 12:58 pm

Byron York
@ByronYork

Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD, takes questions on Chinese spy balloon. Was asked about previous balloons administration says crossed US in Trump years. Has very little to say.

Then asked: If you didn’t know about them then, how do you know now? Has even less to say.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 7, 2023 12:58 pm

What inconsistency is their between cultural Marxism and cultural liberalism?

L is for Liberalism
M is for Marxism
N is for Nazism
O is for Oh Sh*t

We’re roughly at a point between M and N at the moment.

flyingduk
flyingduk
February 7, 2023 12:58 pm

Who is hoping for a .5% increase to rates today?

I’m hoping for an end to central planning of the money supply – ie NO official interest rate, and the price of money being set by the free market.

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

The RFDS just released a study which they say shows that rural and regional Australians die earlier than metropolitan Australians due to a lack of access to health care for otherwise manageable issues like heart disease and diabetes.

A geographic, racial, & occupational breakdown on that study may prove instructive.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
February 7, 2023 1:01 pm

SBS..
They ran a series last year ‘Australia in Colour’ under the guise of historical black and white film showing Australia now coloured up with modern tech. Every episode referred to the white Australia policy, stolen gens, wacism, wacism, wacism. I gave up early on the show.

Then if there is a half decent movie on SBS the ads…. as Johanna mentioned…. are about the usual grifters…, Starving Africans, Animal cruelty, Save the Koala, and of course the SBS themselves with ads about themselves virtue signally against wacism and gently reminding viewers…. no whites allowed.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 1:02 pm

Great Reset unravels? Germany is thinking of using Green subsidies on weapons of war instead

By Jo Nova

Remember how the war with Ukraine was going to accelerate the green energy revolution?

For some reason, unreliable wind and solar power are not helping German industry build more tank ammunition. Instead, the federal government is allegedly talking to the state governments about taking green subsidies and spending the money on factories to build shells instead. And they are building those factories near the coal plants.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the chief of Germany’s army warned that sending weapons and arms to Ukraine has left military stockpiles “bare”.

Germany led the way in the great Green Energiewende transformation spending in the order of €32 billion a year, every year, in a quest for green electrons. Instead of creating peace on Earth and better weather, it just made the legendary economic powerhouse of Europe weak and vulnerable.

Tell the world, if the Germans can’t run a nation efficiently on “renewable” power, who can?

It’s perhaps not the Reset Klaus had in mind:

Great Reset Fail? Germany Mulls Diverting Green Agenda Cash Aimed at Killing Coal to Arms Industry
Kurt Zindulka, Breitbart

The German government is reportedly considering diverting green agenda subsidies aimed at cutting coal power to the defence industry in order to ramp up production of arms amid the war in Ukraine.

A report from Bloomberg claims that the federal government in Berlin is conducting confidential conversations with regional state governments to direct green subsidies to produce more weapons and ammunition and thereby create more jobs in areas of the country impacted by the attempted move away from coal.

According to a source familiar with the plans who spoke to the news organisation, German defence contractor Rheinmetall AG is planning to build a factory to produce the basic components for ammunition in the state of Saxony, one of the main hubs of the coal industry in the country.

Trump did warn them.

Robert Sewell
February 7, 2023 1:09 pm

Wolfman Oz @ 09222:
“1 Voter = 1 Vote”.
Not “1 Voter gets 2 votes because black or something”.

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 1:14 pm

Don’t forget that these ‘seats’ in this or that forum are always accompanied by free travel and accommodation, plus sitting fees in the hundreds of dollars a day.

Gives a whole new perspective to ‘sit down money.’

The Soviet poet Yevtushenko visited Australia in 1966 and described it as a cafeteria built on a graveyard.*

Seems to me that is an apt description of the aboriginal industry.

* (I guess he didn’t like the place, but then he spent most of his time in Adelaide).

Vicki
Vicki
February 7, 2023 1:14 pm

The chairman of a charity providing healthcare to Indigenous elders in remote South Australia has a history of alleged misuse of credit cards and lavish overspending at a string of Aboriginal organisations over 15 years.

The infuriating thing is that, generally, only rural and regional Australians understand the reality of the distribution of wealth in Aboriginal communities. It was traditionally a culture constructed according to seniority. Any largesse was distributed according to status. What we see in the families of well known Aboriginal artists – and more recently amongst political entities – is the product of the societal expectations.

While ever governments allow, and even encourage, the continuation of “culture” we will continue to see this inequitable, and in terms of mainstream Australia, extortionate behaviour ro continue.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 7, 2023 1:19 pm

dover0beachsays:
February 7, 2023 at 12:05 pm
In a twitter conversation where someone is now accusing Pell of moving priests around. Amazing how people are happy to make accusations without even ascertaining that what they are accusing another of is accurate.

There is an element of truth in it, but in a different timeframe. IIRC, once he became Archbishop of Melbourne, he moved homosexual priests out of parish appointments, forcing some to retire. But that isn’t what they mean.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
February 7, 2023 1:20 pm

The chairman of a charity providing healthcare to Indigenous elders in remote South Australia has a history of alleged misuse of credit cards and lavish overspending at a string of Aboriginal organisations over 15 years.
Lets not forget the Aboriginal land councils own almost all the commercial land in Alice Springs and most of the land in Darwin not owned by the CCP. The Councils and said communities are v wealthy. Lack of funds is not the issue.

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 1:22 pm

A geographic, racial, & occupational breakdown on that study may prove instructive.

My thoughts too.

I’ll have to follow it up.

Gilas
Gilas
February 7, 2023 1:25 pm

Since no one has yet mentioned the obvious porky in that abortion of an interview of the ugly whiner by the ABCess, I’ll have to do it.

The slag mentioned looking for a “house” in Coogee in 1995 for $150,000. The cow presumably did this with a straight face, while looking at the retard affirmative-hire from Marxist broadcasting, who swallowed the BS whole and without chewing.

I happened to be looking for an apartment in Coogee around 1989.
2-bedroom hovels, without water views, were going to auction for more than $240,000 at the time.. houses were well beyond my budget, at $500,000++… in 1989.

Forget the brain-farted 19% interest rates, typical of the late 1980s.
The whole story was another example of why no one should waste a microsecond listening/reading anything excreted by the MSM.
Evil to their core!

Rabz
February 7, 2023 1:25 pm

Smith dressed up as Satan in red tunic, hat and horns while dancers performed a devil-worshipping ritual around him

The staggeringly stupid z-grade mediocrity is certainly in for a shock when he finds himself in satan’s realm “receiving” the pineapple, rather than “administering” it.

Oh well, too bad, so sad. Perhaps satan will allow “them” to write an unlistenable ditty about it.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 1:25 pm

Previously Posted but Good – Russian Army Ad Makes Woke US Army Ad Look Like a Joke

Love the Comment at the End

We are screwed People – Can you Imagine that Russian Guy coming up against that Girl – No offence to that Girl, but if you give me an East Village Lesbian versus Vladimir Putin – Who’s going to Win?

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
February 7, 2023 1:25 pm

rosiesays:
February 7, 2023 at 12:03 pm
Sooner or later.
And if there is a prediction that the Turkish quake will trigger something in Italy, north or south, shouldn’t that be soonish.
And how big should it be?
As the USGS site shows, there’s been 125 earthquakes over 2.5 in the past day.

Where does the energy go?

Again, he forecasts, not predicts. The method he uses is based on his discoveries explained in this video. 80% + success rate…better than weather forecasters I reckon. You clearly didn’t bother to watch the clip I posted above. If it is going to gobble up phone data, have a coffee at a net café. Oh, Dutch has a massive following in Italy for obvious reasons.

* He attempts to get within 200 miles of strike. Anyone suggesting that he should give an exact epicenter location and time are kidding themselves.
* He forecasted a 6+ in the very region in Turkey that got hit. Instead a 7.8 hit.
* Once you get a grasp of the method in the clip below, you can forecast
them yourself.
* The USGS hate him. Why you ask? Because his forecasting method works and the d*ckheads refuse to accept that a tree lopper could have discovered it. One of the pricks at the USGS wanted him sent to jail FFS for him giving warnings and forecasts.

Once again, safe travels.
________

A grade 7 primary school student could understand this clip below.

7/04/2019 — HOW TO FORECAST AN EARTHQUAKE — Fundamental principles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txQFnGZvuHo&t

caveman
caveman
February 7, 2023 1:26 pm

Zelensky probably pizzed off he’s not centre of attention with all the aide going to Turkey n Syria.

C.L.
C.L.
February 7, 2023 1:27 pm

Russia is churning out legacy classics by the gazillion while the Biden administration places more orders for Homer’s car with Raytheon.

No they won’t:
Wunderwaffen Won’t Save Ukraine.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 1:27 pm

The staggeringly stupid z-grade mediocrity is certainly in for a shock when he finds himself in satan’s realm “receiving” the pineapple, rather than “administering” it.

Oh! Mr Slave! I’m a real whore!

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 1:29 pm

* He attempts to get within 200 miles of strike. Anyone suggesting that he should give an exact epicenter location and time are kidding themselves.
* He forecasted a 6+ in the very region in Turkey that got hit. Instead a 7.8 hit.

80%+ success rate?

Let’s look at depth, duration and dates and times as well.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 1:30 pm

Vicki says:
February 7, 2023 at 1:14 pm

The chairman of a charity providing healthcare to Indigenous elders in remote South Australia has a history of alleged misuse of credit cards and lavish overspending at a string of Aboriginal organisations over 15 years.

The infuriating thing is that, generally, only rural and regional Australians understand the reality of the distribution of wealth in Aboriginal communities.

It was traditionally a culture constructed according to seniority. Any largesse was distributed according to status.

What we see in the families of well known Aboriginal artists – and more recently amongst political entities – is the product of the societal expectations.

While ever governments allow, and even encourage, the continuation of “culture” we will continue to see this inequitable, and in terms of mainstream Australia, extortionate behaviour ro continue.

Vicki,

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

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.”

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 1:31 pm

Because his forecasting method works and the d*ckheads refuse to accept that a tree lopper could have discovered it.

Just like Martin Armstrong and “everything is pi”.

What a huckster.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 1:34 pm

Dutchsinse can’t predict nor forecast earthquakes. He’s been doing this for many years, and not a single numerate person believes his forecasts, and no defensible evaluation has been done, to my knowledge, except by me, to test his performance.

For three weeks, I took a compilation of his global forecasts, two by him, one by a follower of his, and compared them to see whether the largest events of the week were on his weekly list. He generally caught about 10% of the biggest events, usually in the lower edge of the generous magnitude range that he allowed. He never again compiled a list specific enough to check after those two turned out so badly. Details of first check[1]
, second check[2]
.

He also thinks CERN causes earthquakes, HAARP modifies the weather, he’s a fan of QAnon, and thinks the USGS lies and is after him and that the government is messing with his internet.

That his followers, with no quantitative skills of their own and the inclination to disbelieve all the scientists in the world, can be so blindly credulous still amazes me.

You can read a long Facebook forum discussion among scientists and Dutch zaniness here[3]
. Also random snippets of alarmingly bad ideas from his posts[4]
.

Here’s a thorough debunking[5]
of a key Dutchsinse idea, that deep earthquakes lead to bigger, shallower earthquakes.

Anyone who can link scientific evidence that Dutchsinse’s predictions work, i.e. specific lists of predictions archived ahead of time, compared to the most significant earthquakes in the region that actually happened, feel free. It’s clear that so far, such evidence does not exist. I can be reached at [email protected]
or [email protected]
. I was on NEPEC, the US National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, for more than a decade, and hope as much as anyone that quake prediction someday becomes possible.

calli
calli
February 7, 2023 1:35 pm

Thanks Gilas. I wasn’t quite sure of house/flat prices circa ‘95 in Coogee. $150k looked on the low side, maybe 1brm with closet for a kitchen.

I think her “memory” is a convenient decade out. Convenient, because those interest rates would place the story fair and square in Hawke/Keating territory.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 1:35 pm

No. As of now, we don’t know how to predict earthquakes. After reading through some of Janitch’s work, it clearly sounds like he has no clue what he’s talking about.

I read part if his latest “report” on his main website, which was on May 14th. It was analysing an earthquake in Ontario, Canada. Some of the quotes with serious problems in them (with the problem parts bolded:

“A very rare earthquake has occurred at a fracking operation…”
“It would appear that the location in question is vulnerable to seismic pressure as the pressure is coming from the West Coast of the United States + Canada.”
ML 2.2.

The problem with the first one is that earthquakes are very common around fracking sites. The problem with the second is that any pressure buildup from the West Coast would hardly affect the area in question due to the vast distances between. The third problem is that it’s such a small earthquake, and as such is common enough as to not really be noteworthy for talking about for as long as he did (though he didn’t talk about it for long).

Watching part of the latest video, he said something about how deep earthquakes can often cause shallower, more devastating earthquakes on the other side of the tectonic plate, calling it a “jackhammer effect”. This is rather inaccurate, and doesn’t happen. Janitch claims that a deep earthquake in the west Pacific caused a shallow, more devastating earthquake in Mexico, because they’re on opposite sides of the same plate. First of all, the earthquake in the west would have minimal effect, if actually any at all, on Mexico. Secondly, the plate subducting under Mexico, the one that caused the Mexican earthquake, is not the Pacific plate—it’s the Cocos Plate.

Janitch is a fraud, like anyone else who makes videos in styles such as that, claiming to be able to predict earthquakes, and anyone who believes he can predict them is being fooled. Don’t be one of those people.

Rabz
February 7, 2023 1:38 pm

They’ll not be amenable to robocalls instructing them The Voice is the most important issue of their era.

Nor will they be amenable to a sack of faeces like hydia thorpe screeching at them about paying rent to fauxborigines as the mortgagees are existing on “stolen land”.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 1:41 pm

C.L. says:
February 7, 2023 at 1:27 pm

Russia is churning out legacy classics by the gazillion while the Biden administration places more orders for Homer’s car with Raytheon.

No they won’t: – Wunderwaffen Won’t Save Ukraine.

There is still the prospect for diplomacy and negotiation to resolve the war in Ukraine. But nothing about Biden or his administration suggests either the wisdom or restraint to take such a course.

Throughout the war, the Germans undeniably had more sophisticated and superior weapons, including their Panther and Tiger tanks. They also developed jet fighters, as well as the first cruise and ballistic missiles. In addition to these technical advantages, the German Wehrmacht had an innovative and decentralized system of tactics and maintained rigorous training for officers through the end of the war.

Even so, in spite of such qualitative superiority, by 1944 it was obvious Germany was going to lose. Israeli historian Omer Bartov goes further and argues that Germany was destined to lose the war from the moment it invaded the Soviet Union. Germany’s chief disadvantage was the size, or rather lack of size, of its population and economy, compared to the combined might and numbers of the British, American, and Soviet empires.
Economic Power and Wars

As Germany retreated from its high-water mark in 1942, many Germans consoled themselves with rumors that Hitler was setting a trap. The rumor went as follows: as soon as the Germans appeared to be defeated, they would unleash a fusillade of Wunderwaffen, i.e., wonder weapons, which would turn the tide, exact revenge on the allies, and lead to a German victory.

No such victory would be forthcoming. In a war of attrition, numbers, supply chains, and mass end up counting for more than the quality of armaments and other technological advantages. As Paul Kennedy famously argued in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers,

The triumph of any one Great Power in this period, or the collapse of another, has usually been the consequence of lengthy fighting by its armed forces; but it has also been the consequences of the more or less efficient utilization of the state’s productive economic resources in wartime, and, further in the background, of the way in which that state’s economy had been rising or falling, relative to the other leading nations, in the decades preceding the actual conflict.

A similar dynamic is currently underway in Ukraine. Russia, the supposed basket case nation with an economy “the size of Italy’s,” has not only survived, but turned the tide, in spite of crushing Western sanctions. Talk of a winter offensive by the Ukrainian army has disappeared, as casualties mount and Russia surrounds concentrated Ukrainian forces.

American media seem confused, but this is probably because very little of this war is “telegenic” when compared to the American Gulf War. Rather, this is a war of attrition, where artillery is predominant, the battles are slow and dirty, and the chief technological marvel is the widespread use of cheap drones to augment the abilities of forward observers.

An Industrial Economy Proves Resilient

Russia’s industrial age economy is apparently well suited for a war of attrition, as Russia has the ability to produce both food and other necessities for her people, while also producing tanks, endless kamikaze drones, and an order-of-magnitude more artillery shells than its opponent. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s economy is destroyed, with its government payroll and military budget entirely dependent on Western subsidies.

Not only can Russia produce more than Ukraine, but it turns out, at least for now, that it can produce more arms and ammunition than the entire West. Having offshored much of its dual-use industrial infrastructure to China in service to globalization over the last 20 years, the West’s military industrial complex is now only optimized for profits. Western leaders mistook economic activity measured by GDP with productive capacity.

Thus, the United States and NATO can produce very sophisticated weapons systems like the F-35 and the Patriot missile, but can only do so slowly and expensively. Like German industry producing sophisticated, but delicate and expensive tanks during World War II, the western arms industry is not optimized for either speed or volume. It will take years to catch up.

By contrast, Russia has followed its successful World War II practice of producing many good (but not great) weapons, which are simple and reliable, like the T-90 tank. Moreover, Russia appears to possess domestic factories and techniques to produce mountains of artillery shells, which are now pulverizing the large numbers of Ukrainian forces gathered in Bakhmut.

Vicki
Vicki
February 7, 2023 1:41 pm

I was watching ‘Zulu’ on You Tube last night.

One of my all time favourite movies!

Rabz
February 7, 2023 1:43 pm

BTW, what is thorpe’s and WAR’s real agenda?

Terrorist attacks?
Random bashings of white people?
Gulags?
Compulsory confiscation of land and other assets?

The slag is barking mad and I’m being restrained in my description here. Nice that she’s managed to secure another five and half years of her senate sinecure before being punted after gaining several hundred votes next time she’s up for re-election.

Quite frankly, she’s emblematic of everything that is both ridiculous and wrong in this country. A two dollar shop version of AOC.

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 1:44 pm

I was watching ‘Zulu’ on You Tube last night.

One of my all time favourite movies!

Same…they just don’t me ’em like that anymore.

Rabz
February 7, 2023 1:47 pm

The soviet poet Yevtushenko

Whose works no doubt made the Vogons’ epics read like Wordsworth.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 7, 2023 1:47 pm

In the Oz today – excellent:

Academics must stand by beliefs and convictions

TERRY GOLDSWORTHY

Academics hold a privileged position in society by utilising the principles of academic freedom and taking part in the contest of ideas in public debate through informed intellectual discourse.

This is because in a democracy we have the right to freedom of thought and expression, the right to disagree in a fair and measured way, and we recognise that debate is healthy. Such robust discourse needs to be conducted in an evidence-based, respectful and civilised manner. Our universities should see their role in a modern society encouraging open communication, community engagement and freedom of expression; these are fundamental tenets.

I use my expertise to actively engage in public debate on criminal justice issues. I hold to no political persuasion, but rather look at the effectiveness of policies and their utility in my field of expertise. I have been critical of the policy of all sides of politics, from the ill-fated Queensland LNP bikie laws to, more recently, the inept juvenile crime responses of the Queensland Labor government.

Academics need to engage with contentious issues – the very meaning of contentious is to cause argument or debate. There is little to gain from commenting on non-contentious issues.

Without such involvement and encouragement of debates, how can we expect students to think independently and immerse themselves in societal issues, examine broad issues and find their voice to speak up.

Yet it is with concern I have watched the shutting down of public debate on contentious issues. Such intolerance has come at the cost of independence of thought.

If you argue against legalisation of drugs or pill testing, you are labelled as someone who wants to harm young people at dance festivals.

Such claims ignore the factual evidence that pill testing does not make drugs safe to take. Users are told that regardless of the findings, testing does not provide evidence of safety, they are told “the only way to guarantee, 100 per cent, that you are not harmed by consuming drugs is not to consume drugs”.

The evidence that legalising drugs is a positive policy response is problematic at best.

If you argue against raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years you are cast as someone who wants to send children to jail and does not care about their welfare. Yet ABS data tells us that the number of custodial sentences in Children’s Court matters in Australia has been declining over the last decade.

Very few young people under the age of 14 ever get sent to jail, only 2 per cent of that cohort received a custodial sentence in 2020-21.

When I published an evidence-based article on a university-funded website arguing against raising the age, the immediate response from those campaigning to raise it was to contact the website and state they were “disappointed to read this”.

The implication being that there is no place for dissension or disagreement. The right to publish an alternative view is forfeited.

The obvious question is why?

Is debate no longer tolerated? Another public figure tweeted: “It’s easy to understand his views, he is an ex-cop. The racial gendered violence of policing doesn’t end because he’s no longer a cop ”.

Why argue with facts when you can just defame someone?

In the absolutist world, acceptance of a differing view is not enough, you must surrender your intellect and agree unconditionally with the opposing view. As one senior academic noted “notions of ambiguity, shades of grey, and multifaceted perspectives can get lost in a populist stance where black is black and white is as pure as driven snow”.

We need to protect freedom of inquiry and expression; such protections have been of major benefit to human society and to the development of knowledge as a whole.

As a detective inspector for 28 years, I protected those whose rights had been transgressed and sought justice for victims of crime – inalienable rights that we should all be able to access.

As an associate professor of criminal justice, I also teach in the field of expertise in relation to miscarriages of justice.

Yet when I posted on my personal social media a short comment on the death of Cardinal George Pell and its implications as a miscarriage of justice I was subject to abuse and vitriol from those so prejudiced they sought to deny the fact of the unanimous 7-0 verdict by Australia’s highest court; a decision that found Pell had been wrongly convicted and was entitled to the presumption of innocence.

I was cast aside by a victim support service I had assisted for a decade; I was told my post was not in accord with “their values”.

My crime was to post a link to the High Court judgment. Hypocrisy is now overlord; the highlighting of fact is punishable. I was to be subject to an inquisition. I resigned out of principle.

As a Catholic I am reminded of the denial by Peter of Jesus. The Gospel tells us Jesus foretold that Peter, one of his disciples, would deny he knew him before the rooster crows. When Jesus was seized, Peter was accused of knowing him, he denied it three times, and then the rooster crowed, and Peter wept.

The message here is that you must stand by your convictions and beliefs; to fail to do so is a betrayal of the contest of ideas and a surrender to the absolutism of populist narratives where only one viewpoint is acceptable.

But worse, it will mean the generations that follow will never hear fearless voices arguing a position with conviction based on fact in the face of the baying mob. And how many of us, like Peter, will then weep for our failure to protect the freedoms that we have come to enjoy.

Terry Goldsworthy is associate professor of criminal justice at Bond University and a former Queensland detective inspector.

Link

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
February 7, 2023 1:47 pm

“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.

Sounds like a scene from “The Fringe Dwellers”. They knew this was degenerate in the 1986 movie but forgot to learn from it. They’ve got voices but they refuse to listen to their own voices.

Robert Sewell
February 7, 2023 1:49 pm

Vicki:

I imagine that this will be a common story for many, many western corporations who invested heavily in China.

I just checked the price for an iPhone.
Who on earth would spend $2,000 on a phone that probably cost $200 to make?
Why?

Tom
Tom
February 7, 2023 1:50 pm

SBS – shows the odd good movie or series from o/s, but for the most is a propaganda machine.

Johanna, I note from SBS’s latest annual report (for 2021) that it costs $427 million p.a. to run, but it recovers only $132 million (30%) from ads.

It’s nominally a fairly disciplined operation commercially with around four 3-4-minute commercial breaks per hour, but most of the ads are for charities and activist groups, like the animal rights crowd, and only a tiny minority from commercial businesses like Harvey Norman.

That means 90%+ of the advertisers are getting a huge discount which makes the whole operation sub-economic.

If advertisers were required to pay a commercial rate, there’d be far less of the activist advertising material, for which SBS is viewed among the ferals as a free kick, even though the animal rights fund-raising is now so lucrative the ferals are happy to pay full freight at other TV providers, like Foxtel.

I have no doubt a competent commercial manager could make SBS pay for itself by abolishing the freebies and asking the activists to pay a slighty less sub-economic rate (SBS has 6.5% of the TV market, compared with the ABC’s 18.7%).

But SBS is now just a Big Government bolt-on added by the Whitlam regime in 1975 when it seemed like a good idea to give migrants their own network – before it became a vehicle for political separatism and non-English-speaking migrant ghettoes.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 1:51 pm

https://www.minusrus.com/en

Personnel
~529.640 +3480
killed ~132.160
wounded ~396.480
prisoner of war ~1.000

Ukraine just has to kill or injure enough Russians and make Putin fold as did the Vietnamese to the Americans. If the next offensive fails as did the initial invasion, Putin won’t win. If the wonder weapons won’t help Ukraine, how did they repel Russia in the first instance?

“Dying for Zelensky!”

Yes, sure, but why would you sign up to die for Putin, ex KGB colonel who oversaw the Stasi?

Rabz
February 7, 2023 1:52 pm

A very brief sampling of a Yevtushenko work:

“Oh mighty traktor factoree
How I love toiling in thee
Watched over by Joe
We labour so slow
Imagining our non existent monee …”

Translation courtesy of Yuri Olive-Drab.

shatterzzz
February 7, 2023 1:54 pm

This is an ad from tomorrow’s half price specials in Woolworths ..
could someone with better mathematical abilities than me explain how you save $7 .. LOL!
https://postimg.cc/gnbzJggb

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 1:54 pm

BTW, what is thorpe’s and WAR’s real agenda?

She’d better watch her rhetoric if she wants to continue to collect her pay check.

Inciting terrorism or insurrection would make her ineligible to sit in the senate.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 7, 2023 1:55 pm

BTW, what is thorpe’s and WAR’s real agenda?

Decolonization – the process by which indigenous people determine their own futures, while retaining all the benfits of colonization.

Tom
Tom
February 7, 2023 1:56 pm

Thanks, Rabz at 1.52pm — my second laugh out loud for the day, the first having been provided by Areff.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
February 7, 2023 1:57 pm

*cheque, Roger, mate

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 1:57 pm

This is an ad from tomorrow’s half price specials in Woolworths ..
could someone with better mathematical abilities than me explain how you save $7 .. LOL!

Full price $14.00?

shatterzzz
February 7, 2023 1:58 pm

Who on earth would spend $2,000 on a phone that probably cost $200 to make?

never mind it costs $200 to make .. if their are idiots out there prepared to pay $2 000 for a phone ..
I’ve got a great looking BRIDGE for sale .. you’ll get your initial outlay back in a month just from the, compulsory, tolls ..LOL!

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 1:58 pm

*cheque, Roger, mate

That’s my American ancestry breaking out.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
February 7, 2023 2:01 pm

Dutchsinse can’t predict nor forecast earthquakes. He’s been doing this for many years, and not a single numerate person believes his forecasts, and no defensible evaluation has been done, to my knowledge, except by me, to test his performance.

For three weeks, I took a compilation of his global forecasts, two by him, one by a follower of his, and compared them to see whether the largest events of the week were on his weekly list. He generally caught about 10% of the biggest events, usually in the lower edge of the generous magnitude range that he allowed. He never again compiled a list specific enough to check after those two turned out so badly. Details of first check[1]
, second check[2]
.

He also thinks CERN causes earthquakes, HAARP modifies the weather, he’s a fan of QAnon, and thinks the USGS lies and is after him and that the government is messing with his internet.

That his followers, with no quantitative skills of their own and the inclination to disbelieve all the scientists in the world, can be so blindly credulous still amazes me.

You can read a long Facebook forum discussion among scientists and Dutch zaniness here[3]
. Also random snippets of alarmingly bad ideas from his posts[4]
.

Here’s a thorough debunking[5]
of a key Dutchsinse idea, that deep earthquakes lead to bigger, shallower earthquakes.

Anyone who can link scientific evidence that Dutchsinse’s predictions work, i.e. specific lists of predictions archived ahead of time, compared to the most significant earthquakes in the region that actually happened, feel free. It’s clear that so far, such evidence does not exist. I can be reached at [email protected]
or [email protected]
. I was on NEPEC, the US National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, for more than a decade, and hope as much as anyone that quake prediction someday becomes possible.

I am laughing my box off. The above is absolute BS for clueless minds.

Here you go, watch this. Note the 5.5 EQ that hit in Indonesia. Follow the red arrow towards Bangladesh and India. I forecast that silent zone will be filled in the coming days…similar size 4.5 – 5.0+. If lower, so be it. The energy flow is on its way.

Easy pee zee.

https://www.twitch.tv/dutchsinseofficial

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:05 pm

Artificial Intelligence Is Freaking Terrifying

Especially when none of our leaders possess the real kind

jimtreacher.substack.com
@jtLOL

This video is fake 1 Min 35 Secs, and it looks like the text they plugged into the AI Biden voice generator originated in a 2020 4chan post.

It won’t be long before these deepfakes are indistinguishable from the real thing. Skynet has already won.

Every new technology brings with it new opportunities for trolling.

Even the most casual Biden-watcher can tell within seconds that this video isn’t real, because all the words are pronounced correctly and formed into complete sentences.

Plus, Joe would never admit any of this stuff out loud. But as with anything else, people of below-average intelligence might be fooled.

It’s only a matter of time before somebody writes a dementia algorithm, automatically adding awkward pauses and mispronunciations and whatnot. (“It’s a stutter!”) Then AI voices will be indistinguishable from actual old people.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 7, 2023 2:07 pm

Woke Disney sparks outrage with new kids cartoon that claims America was ‘built on slavery’ – as it pushes reparations and says Lincoln had no desire to liberate the enslaved

Daily Mail

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
February 7, 2023 2:11 pm

What’s next, Dot? A quote from the IPCC supporting “man made global warming”. You are so easily misled that I now rate you as a d*ckhead. Watch the clip I posted above and learn for yourself…..but, I do not think you will. Stay in your bubble and rely on . Gov “experts”.

Janitch is a fraud, like anyone else who makes videos in styles such as that, claiming to be able to predict earthquakes, and anyone who believes he can predict them is being fooled. Don’t be one of those people.

Hilarious.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:11 pm

Roger says:
February 7, 2023 at 1:57 pm

This is an ad from tomorrow’s half price specials in Woolworths ..
could someone with better mathematical abilities than me explain how you save $7 .. LOL!

Full price $14.00?

Based on Image you are actaully saving 0.02C

15.56 per Kg – weight 450g = $15.56 x 0.45= $7.02 – so saving 2 C

C.L.
C.L.
February 7, 2023 2:11 pm

Thanks for links and copy today, OldOzzie.
Much appreciated.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:12 pm
feelthebern
feelthebern
February 7, 2023 2:13 pm

No-one got my Aliens reference.
Sad.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 7, 2023 2:14 pm

It’s just a hunch but I reckon, were you ask these victims if they’ve ever had carpal tunnel syndrome and other manifestations of virulent imaginitis, the Venn diagram would be a near perfect overlap.

areff, Venn diagrams belong on another blog.
We’re a bit more highbrow around these parts.

shatterzzz
February 7, 2023 2:15 pm

Fisher argues due to his lower life expectancy as an Indigenous Australian, he should be able to gain early access to the pension.

Don’t know whether he won or lost but guessing if he won we’d know a sthe media would have trumpet-ed it!
But, along the same lines how many folk are aware that 251s & Torres Strait Islanders can apply for old age care packages form the age of 50 .. packages which are not available to others before they reach retirement age .. and the, specific, reason quoted on the gummint website .. 251s & TSIs have an, official, lower life-span than others ……

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 2:16 pm

Based on Image you are actaully saving 0.02C

15.56 per Kg – weight 450g = $15.56 x 0.45= $7.02 – so saving 2 C

That calculation applies to the already reduced price.

They’ve left off the original price information , $14.00/$31.11 per KG.

Which seems mighty expensive for canned ham.

Robert Sewell
February 7, 2023 2:19 pm

rickw:

Dying for Zelensky would be like dying for Tennis Albo.

I’m surprised they haven’t formed blocking detachments.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 7, 2023 2:22 pm

as it pushes reparations and says Lincoln had no desire to liberate the enslaved

Any reparations could take the form of repatriation to Africa…

Speedbox
February 7, 2023 2:22 pm

Roger says:
February 7, 2023 at 2:16 pm
They’ve left off the original price information , $14.00/$31.11 per KG.

Holy smoke. $31,110/tonne for canned ham.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:23 pm

TOP SECRET UMBRA

The Fecklessness is the Point

America’s Chinese spy balloon drama unmasks the unpleasant reality that our much-feared Deep State is really the Derp State

John Schindler

Ever since Donald Trump began his presidency, over six years ago, America has been engaged in a tempestuous debate about the so-called Deep State and its alleged nefariousness. That our security agencies, broadly defined, now constitute a threat to democracy has become a common trope on the Right, particularly on its MAGA fringes.

None of this debate is new. Republicans today are rehashing criticisms of the Intelligence Community that were proffered by the Left in the 1970s, in Watergate’s wake, when many Democrats viewed America’s security agencies as a profound threat to civil liberties and freedom itself. For decades after, the Left’s mythology had it that America’s spy agencies were misguided, nefarious, perhaps even evil. The Right didn’t think about the IC much, but conservative mythology imagined that our intelligence outfits were competent, staffed by hard-working patriots doing a tough job for freedom, quietly. All that’s changed since the Trump presidency is that many on the Right have taken up anti-IC arguments made by the Left a half-century ago.

But what if neither of these myths is exactly … true?

What if the Intelligence Community is neither especially evil nor especially competent? What if America’s security agencies are mainly staffed by mediocre careerists, bland bureaucrats more interested in their pension, and currying favor with politicians, than in stealing secrets? What if the Intelligence Community is really just a highly secretive and extraordinarily expensive Department of Motor Vehicles?

That cold, harsh reality is pleasing to neither Left nor Right, but what if it’s the truth? The strange events of the last week, with a huge Chinese spy balloon flying across most of the United States before being shot down by the Air Force as it left our Eastern coastline, will not be soon forgotten by many Americans.

This unprecedented event demonstrates that our very expensive national security state isn’t capable of doing its most basic job, namely the defense of our borders from foreign military incursions.

When the global hegemon can’t monitor and defend its own airspace, is it really the hegemon anymore?

There are many obvious questions here, none of which the Biden administration seems to be in any hurry to answer. The Pentagon is having trouble keeping its story straight, but the five-sided funny farm’s response here is that they didn’t consider the Chinese spy balloon a direct threat, so they left it alone (until, strangely they didn’t, shooting it down off South Carolina with an F-22 Raptor). Since when are incursions of foreign military aircraft, particularly from avowedly hostile states, into U.S. airspace not a threat? Who decided that?

Moreover, the Pentagon maintains, it didn’t want to endanger civilian lives by shooting down the balloon over U.S. territory. Who, exactly, was in central Alaska in danger of said falling debris? Neither is Montana exactly overflowing with people. We are supposed to take at face value that the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who have waged multiple losing wars of choice since 2001, at the cost of countless lives, and right now are incurring the risk of thermonuclear World War Three over Ukraine and perhaps Taiwan, were afraid of killing some polar bears and maybe a rural hermit or two? What’s amazing is that the Pentagon thinks anybody can accept their explanations here with a straight face.

Biden cheerleaders tried some of this tack too, initially explaining that A) everybody spies, it’s no big deal, B) Chinese spy satellites collect all this stuff already, plus C) it’s too high to shoot down anyway.

Now, reality:

C) In the end, a USAF F-22 fired a single Sidewinder missile from 58,000 feet which took out the Chinese balloon as it flew at 62,000 feet. Shooting it down turned out to be straightforward.

Moreover, 63 years ago, Soviet air defenses managed to shoot down Francis Gary Powers in his U-2 CIA spy plane as it flew near Sverdlovsk, at an altitude higher than our Chinese balloon, using an S-75 (NATO calls it an SA-2) missile, 1950’s technology,

so the notion that the Pentagon couldn’t shoot down the PRC’s floating intruder was so dumb it was perfect for Twitter.

P
P
February 7, 2023 2:23 pm

Top Ender says:
February 7, 2023 at 1:47 pm

In the Oz today – excellent:

Academics must stand by beliefs and convictions
TERRY GOLDSWORTHY

Thank you for posting this whole article.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:26 pm

Roger says:
February 7, 2023 at 2:16 pm

Based on Image you are actaully saving 0.02C

15.56 per Kg – weight 450g = $15.56 x 0.45= $7.02 – so saving 2 C

That calculation applies to the already reduced price.

They’ve left off the original price information , $14.00/$31.11 per KG.

Which seems mighty expensive for canned ham.

In that case “Mea Culpa” – they were correct in Savings

cohenite
February 7, 2023 2:26 pm

BREAKING: Ontario police arrest Josh Alexander, who protested boys in girls’ bathrooms, for attending class

It’s a catholic school which has had the young guy arrested. Poor old Pell went to jail for this.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
February 7, 2023 2:27 pm

With GDP and Government spending, which includes spending on the Military, it is interesting that for the USA, Government spending to GDP was 37% in 2022. It was nearly 48% in 2020 and 43.64% in 2021.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spending-to-gdp

For Russia, Government spending to GDP was estimated at 35.52% in 2022. It was 39.25% in 2020 and 35.93% in 2021.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/275349/government-expenditure-as-share-of-the-gross-domestic-product-gdp-in-russia/

I find it interesting that the USA, which I guess considers itself to have a Free Market Economy, has such a high level of Government spending.

Robert Sewell
February 7, 2023 2:27 pm

Old Ozzie:

What did the incursions involve and was there any spying? How is the intel community reaching this conclusion? Did they drop this to cover Joe Biden’s posterior because of the backlash?
This shows a huge hole in the defense of our country if this is true. And they just announced it to our enemies.

If there are no moves made to impeach Biden over this farce, we can only assume the entire US administrative complex is owned by China.

calli
calli
February 7, 2023 2:27 pm

Cats may already know this. From what I can gather, National Cabinet is exempt from all FOI requests.

We are informed of their deliberations by press release.

In other words, they can do as they please.

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 2:29 pm

Holy smoke. $31,110/tonne for canned ham.

Same price at Coles, $14.00. Extraordinary.

If you’re into your canned ham, hustle on down to Woollies.

Zipster
February 7, 2023 2:29 pm

from above

The West and its leaders are either engaged in massive denial or they are deliberately destroying their limited reserves of weapons and ammunition for some nefarious purpose.

it’s a mystery

Roger
Roger
February 7, 2023 2:31 pm

From what I can gather, National Cabinet is exempt from all FOI requests.

Very handy if you’re devising highly questionable, novel polices during a pandemic.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:32 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
February 7, 2023 at 2:22 pm

as it pushes reparations and says Lincoln had no desire to liberate the enslaved

Any reparations could take the form BY repatriation to Africa…

bespoke
bespoke
February 7, 2023 2:34 pm

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” -Francis Chan

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:34 pm
calli
calli
February 7, 2023 2:39 pm

Roger, the “pandemic” is over. And we’re stuck with it. In a few months’ time the country will be wall to wall Labor.

Not even a squeak of opposition. All that’s left is the dogs fighting over the carcass, without us knowing who is responsible for any specific excess. Zero accountability to the electorate.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:39 pm

Horrified Satan Distances Self From Grammys

ENTERTAINMENT – Feb 6, 2023

RobK
RobK
February 7, 2023 2:40 pm

https://www.mining.com/web/inside-germanys-renewable-energy-boondoggle/
A well written essay on Germanys energy policies

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
February 7, 2023 2:43 pm

After a particularly poor game of golf, a popular club member skipped the clubhouse and started to go home. As he was walking to the parking lot to get his car, a policeman stopped him and asked “Did you tee off on the sixteenth hole about twenty minutes ago?” “Yes” the golfer responded.

“Did you happen to hook your ball so that it went over the trees and off the course?” “Yes, I did. How did you know?” he asked. “Well” said the policeman very seriously “Your ball flew out onto the highway and crashed through a driver’s windshield. The car went out of control, crashing into five other cars and a fire truck. The fire truck couldn’t make it to the fire, and the building burned down. So, what are you going to do about it?”

The golfer thought it over carefully and responded… “I think I’ll close my stance a little bit, tighten my grip and lower my right thumb”.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:44 pm

https://instapundit.com/568062/#respond

EVERGREEN HEADLINE: School food vendor [Aramark] apologizes — again — for ‘inexcusable’ Black History Month menu. – Aramark, a food service vendor, served students at Nyack Middle School chicken and waffles and watermelon for dessert on the first day of Black History Month.

—NBC News, yesterday.

? Westwood Catholic School apologizes for offering fried chicken as part of Black History Month celebration.

—The Boston Globe, February 4, 2022.

? How NYU and Food-Service Giant Aramark Stumbled Into a Black History Month PR Fiasco.

—New York Magazine, February 9th, 2019.

? Loyola dining vendor apologizes for ‘insensitive’ Black History Month menu.

—The Chicago Sun-Times, February 10th, 2018.

? School apologizes for fried chicken menu for Black History Month.

—NJ.com, February 20th, 2017.

? Ohio college apologizes for Black History Month menu that featured fried chicken.

—The Washington Post, February 23, 2015.

? Park Tudor School apologizes for ‘misguided’ Black History Month lunch.

—The Indianapolis Star, February 27th, 2014.

? UC Irvine says fried chicken and waffle dinner on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was insensitive.

—The L.A. Times, January 27th, 2011.

? Black History Month Lunch Menu Racist?

—CafeMom.com, February 9th, 2010.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
February 7, 2023 2:45 pm

Men –

To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; Whenever you’re right, shut up.

– Ogden Nash

bespoke
bespoke
February 7, 2023 2:48 pm

Men –

To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; Whenever you’re right, shut up.

– Ogden Nash

Simp!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 2:49 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
February 7, 2023 at 2:22 pm

as it pushes reparations and says Lincoln had no desire to liberate the enslaved

Any reparations could take the form of repatriation to Africa…

Sorry Zulu, Brain not in Gear today reparations & repatriation

Totally agree with your statement – repatriation to Africa…

Speedbox
February 7, 2023 2:50 pm

callisays:
February 7, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Cats may already know this. From what I can gather, National Cabinet is exempt from all FOI requests. We are informed of their deliberations by press release. In other words, they can do as they please.
…….without us knowing who is responsible for any specific excess. Zero accountability to the electorate.

Feature not a bug. We will all be long gone (or far too old to care) when the true nature of the travesty comes to light – presuming it ever does. I will bet my socks that some National Cabinet minutes from the past 2-3 years will be embargoed for the next 50.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
February 7, 2023 2:52 pm

I have decided to become a prepper. From which Costco can I buy below?

Holy smoke. $31,110/tonne for canned ham.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 7, 2023 2:57 pm

OldOzziesays:
February 7, 2023 at 2:11 pm
Roger says:
February 7, 2023 at 1:57 pm

This is an ad from tomorrow’s half price specials in Woolworths ..
could someone with better mathematical abilities than me explain how you save $7 .. LOL!

Full price $14.00?

Based on Image you are actaully saving 0.02C

15.56 per Kg – weight 450g = $15.56 x 0.45= $7.02 – so saving 2 C

The $15.56 per kg is the discounted price? $31.12 per kg the full price?

P
P
February 7, 2023 2:58 pm

Care for creation a focus for Oceania bishops assembly
7 February 2023

I do wish they would care more about the saving of souls.

Robert Sewell
February 7, 2023 2:59 pm

Dutchinsense:
I’ve looked at his site multiple times and could never get past the graphics and ‘information’ overload.
I suspect it is a shite site.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 7, 2023 3:04 pm

callisays:
February 7, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Cats may already know this. From what I can gather, National Cabinet is exempt from all FOI requests.

We are informed of their deliberations by press release.

In other words, they can do as they please.

An FOI action to gain access a year or so ago failed.

Interestingly, I vaguely recall that their records (if such exist) are not subject to the Archives Act. No show and tell in 30 years time.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 7, 2023 3:08 pm

Totally agree with your statement – repatriation to Africa…

My memory fails me, but I think it was Hugh Thomas, in his history of slaver, made the claim that, without the connivance of the African kings and tribal chiefs, not a single slave would ever have left Africa!

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 7, 2023 3:13 pm

Dover

I haven’t followed the Twatter thread, but I suspect the reference to “moving around” relates to when he was on that Ballarat advisory group, in which he had little power, that allegedly moved accused pedo priests to new unsuspecting parishes at the direction of the Bishop. (Little?)

My reference was to after Cdl Pell became Archbishop of Melbourne and then took more decisive action. Perhaps I should have said that he sacked homosexual priests? That is what I understand that he did. The activists seem to be deliberately or ignorantly mixing up the two timeframes.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 3:15 pm

THE DISASTER OF COVID SHUTDOWNS

Governments’ responses to the covid epidemic represent the worst public policy disaster of our time. The were an economic, social, health and educational fiasco.

It may have been possible to devise worse policies than the shutdowns that upended America, but it wouldn’t have been easy.

Now, researchers at USC have tried to put a price tag on covid shutdowns:

U.S. GDP fell during the pandemic due to COVID-19 lockdowns and resulted in trillions of dollars in losses in these past years, a consequence mainly driven by mandatory business closure policies, according to a study by researchers from the University of Southern California (USC).

By the end of 2022, the pandemic had cut $12.2 trillion from U.S. GDP, the study published in Economic Modelling journal estimates. Researchers expect total losses to hit $14 trillion by the end of 2023.

The study blamed involuntary business closures as the “leading cause” for the massive decline in America’s GDP during this period.

“I’m still amazed at how powerful a negative impact COVID is projected to have on the U.S. economy compared to previous man-made and natural disasters,” said study co-author Adam Rose, a research professor at the USC Price School and senior research fellow at the USC Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Threats and Emergencies (CREATE)…

“COVID’s impact on GDP is estimated to be nearly 100 times more than the previous largest disaster of the 21st century—the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks.”

That sounds about right. What we did to ourselves, mostly at the behest of the Democratic Party, was vastly worse than what any terrorists could do. This is key:

The study blamed three factors for America’s economic decline during the pandemic: deaths and illnesses, mandatory business closures, and voluntary avoidance of activities that stimulate the economy but prevent infection.

Of these three, the study found mandatory business closures had the “greatest impact” on the U.S. economy.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 3:19 pm

OUT TODAY: ‘AMERICAN REQUIEM’ ON FOX NATION

For those of you who are subscribers to Fox Nation, you may wish to take in a new documentary that dropped today, “American Requiem.” Here’s the one-minute trailer for the film, where you may just see a familiar face (actually several familiar faces):

And if you aren’t a Fox Nation subscriber, here’s a two-minute highlight reel of a certain familiar face from the film:

flyingduk
flyingduk
February 7, 2023 3:25 pm

Ukraine just has to kill or injure enough Russians and make Putin fold as did the Vietnamese to the Americans.

The converse metric, of course, also applies, and the Ruskies appear to be enjoying a better kill ratio and a larger starting force.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 7, 2023 3:25 pm

Anthony Albanese acting like used car salesman on voice: Tony Abbott
By Dennis Shanahan
National Editor
Follow
2:10PM February 7, 2023
No Comments

Tony Abbott has accused Anthony Albanese of behaving like a “used car salesman” on his campaign to support the indigenous voice to parliament because the Prime Minister only wants to talk about “the great duco” and not about how the engine works.

“The Prime Minister is not being frank when he says that this is a modest change,” the former Liberal Prime Minister said.

Mr Abbott said Mr Albanese had admitted only a “brave government” would go against the recommendations of the voice to parliament which Mr Abbott said made it a “fourth arm of government”.
Read Next

On Tuesday morning Mr Albanese told his Labor colleagues said the referendum was about two things: recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution and consulting Indigenous people on matters that affect them.

“That’s what it’s about. And all of the misinformation that we’re seeing out there won’t distract from that great task,” Mr Albanese said.

But, in a podcast interview with the Institute of Public Affairs, Mr Abbott said Mr Albanese was not being frank and “should come clean” about what he is doing.

“Honestly, He’s like a used car salesman who says, ‘Yeah, it’s got great duco. Don’t worry about the engine’. Really, he’s not being frank. He must know that this would have far-reaching ramifications,” Mr Abbott said.

“In terms of what we might do to ourselves for the long term, this is by far the biggest issue facing our country. Any constitutional change is for keeps. Unlike legislation, which can always be reversed, any constitutional changes for keeps,” Mr Abbott said.

“Indigenous people need to be at the heart of the mainstream of Australia. Any spirit or sense or institutionalized separatism is destructive. And this is institutionalized separatism,” Mr Abbott said.

“I don’t have anything personally against the Prime Minister, who is a decent human being who wants to do the right thing, I’m sure, but he’s dead wrong on this, completely wrong. This idea that it’s a, as he said over the weekend, a modest but meaningful change. It’s not modest. It’s a very, very big change,” Mr Abbott said.

Crossie
Crossie
February 7, 2023 3:29 pm

Lysander says:
February 7, 2023 at 11:36 am
A friend on twitter is asking if the Voice contravenes Section 9 of the Racial Discrimination Act?…The RDA says..

(1) It is unlawful for a person to do any act involving a distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent or national ethnic origin…
Once it’s in the Constitution, that will “outrank” the RDA but not before that…

In that case, doesn’t the whole of the Racial Discrimination Act become null and void? It cannot be inapplicable in one case but applicable in all other cases.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
February 7, 2023 3:37 pm

Hard to believe there are still organisations still sacking people for being unvaccinated.

Senator Rennick has recently written to Coles CEO about the issue. Saw on Twitter somebody posted his recent termination letter from VIC Department of Justice and Safety as the staff member still not vaccinated.

Just mind blowing that this is still going on. Clearly some organisations are not up to date with the fact they are now known to not stop transmission.

The misery this is causing in the country is incredible. More so when those involved know the vaccines are well out of date.

Robert Sewell
February 7, 2023 3:38 pm

ZK2A:

“I don’t have anything personally against the Prime Minister, who is a decent human being who wants to do the right thing, I’m sure, but he’s dead wrong on this, completely wrong.

This is Tony Abbotts death line.
He’s learnt nothing about the swamp creatures he needs to deal with. Albo is a communist – in all the crap ways Communists manifest themselves. It’s not yet obvious to mainstream Australians, but look at the people Albo is surrounding himself with.
Tony, you’re piss weak if you think he’s a decent man.
Stop being such a weak bastard that can’t call him an evil, divisive prick.

jupes
jupes
February 7, 2023 3:38 pm

Ukraine just has to kill or injure enough Russians and make Putin fold as did the Vietnamese to the Americans.

Hahahahaha! Good one Dot.

The Russians are already advancing on multiple fronts and they haven’t even started their offensive yet.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 7, 2023 3:41 pm

From what I can gather, National Cabinet is exempt from all FOI requests

Unexceptional. I expect it has been from Day 1.

calli
calli
February 7, 2023 3:41 pm

the Prime Minister, who is a decent human being

Is he? That remains to be seen.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 7, 2023 3:41 pm

He also thinks CERN causes earthquakes, HAARP modifies the weather, he’s a fan of QAnon, and thinks the USGS lies and is after him and that the government is messing with his internet.

Told youse.

The National Earthquake Information Center now locates about 20,000 earthquakes around the globe each year, or approximately 55 per day.

I predict an earthquake (remember, scale and/or epicentre doesn’t matter, apparently) here, here, here, here, here, there, here, there and here tomorrow.

I’m a genius!

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 7, 2023 3:47 pm

Subscribe for premium content!

132andBush
132andBush
February 7, 2023 3:52 pm

Subscribe for premium content

The bloke is a supreme grifter.
Could probably sell ice to eskimos.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 7, 2023 3:52 pm

In God’s country again.

29 degrees. 23% humidity. Brilliant.

Eyrie
Eyrie
February 7, 2023 3:59 pm

the Prime Minister, who is a decent human being

Is he? That remains to be seen.

He’s a Communist. Reserve a seat on the helo.

132andBush
132andBush
February 7, 2023 4:05 pm

I just checked the price for an iPhone.
Who on earth would spend $2,000 on a phone that probably cost $200 to make?
Why?

Me.
If that’s the best price on the day and I need to update then I’ll pay it.
I usually get 5 yrs use out of these phones and their value to me and my business is way more than any purchase price I have paid.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 7, 2023 4:07 pm

Speaking of nuffers:

Daryl Valroy Young, another Quenthland SovCit lunatic who shot and killed his elderly neighbours and their adult son last year, and who critically injured another adult son, and who was also in a (very) ‘active’ relationship with his stepmother had another court date today.

Naturally, he didn’t recognise the court, travelling in his conveyance, sovereignty, birth certificates etc etc.

Genuine question: What is it with SovCit Quenthlanders and incest?

Eyrie
Eyrie
February 7, 2023 4:08 pm

What does a $2000 iPhone do that my nice Motorola $145 phone can’t do?

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 7, 2023 4:08 pm

the Prime Minister, who is a decent human being

Is he? That remains to be seen.

As they say in the classics, I think that might be contended.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 4:08 pm

We already knew this:

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, worked for Soviet intelligence while living in Switzerland in the 1970s, Swiss newspapers have reported, citing declassified archives. Under the code name “Mikhailov” and officially in Geneva as a representative of the Russian Orthodox church at the World Council of Churches (WCC), Kirill’s mission was to influence the council and push it to denounce the US and its allies, the papers reported.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 7, 2023 4:09 pm

Genuine question: What is it with SovCit Quenthlanders and incest?

The weather?

Frank
Frank
February 7, 2023 4:17 pm

What does a $2000 iPhone do that my nice Motorola $145 phone can’t do?

Frees you from being chained to google for one thing.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 4:17 pm

Ukraine is a western country now. If this sort of thing is happening you wonder what they will consider changing next, like Cyrillic to Latin.

“Ukraine’s main Catholic church has said it will move to a new calendar that would see Christmas celebrated on 25 December, rather than 7 January, as part of Kyiv’s efforts to break cultural links to Russia.”

The move by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) was welcomed by culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko, who posted to social media:

“This decision is appropriate to the demands of our time and public opinion.”

Russian strategic aims have failed. NATO hasn’t been this United since the pre Gorbachev era and never been bigger. What do they get if they win? 26 million people who hate them, +100k KIA, +400k wounded, +900k emigres and crippled tax revenues now and for decades.

I can’t see this war ending well for Ukraine or Russia.

What’s Russia’s actual objective? It seems flexible. What do they do if they decisively defeat the Ukrainian Armed Forces?

If Russia loses the only people “breaking up Russia!” will be Putin in his own imagination and then Xi in reality.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 7, 2023 4:26 pm

Setting the Record Straight; Stuff You Should Know About Ukraine

Mike Whitney – The Unz Review

On February 16, 2022, a full week before Putin sent combat troops into Ukraine, the Ukrainian Army began the heavy bombardment of the area (in east Ukraine) occupied by mainly ethnic Russians.

Officials from the Observer Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were located in the vicinity at the time and kept a record of the shelling as it took place. What the OSCE discovered was that the bombardment dramatically intensified as the week went on until it reached a peak on February 19, when a total of 2,026 artillery strikes were recorded. Keep in mind, the Ukrainian Army was, in fact, shelling civilian areas along the Line of Contact that were occupied by other Ukrainians.

We want to emphasize that the officials from the OSCE were operating in their professional capacity gathering first-hand evidence of shelling in the area. What their data shows is that Ukrainian Forces were bombing and killing their own people. This has all been documented and has not been challenged.

So, the question we must all ask ourselves is this: Is the bombardment and slaughter of one’s own people an ‘act of war’?

We think it is. And if we are right, then we must logically assume that the war began before the Russian invasion (which was launched a full week later).

We must also assume that Russia’s alleged “unprovoked aggression” was not unprovoked at all but was the appropriate humanitarian response to the deliberate killing of civilians. In order to argue that the Russian invasion was ‘not provoked’, we would have to say that firing over 4,000 artillery shells into towns and neighborhoods where women and children live, is not a provocation? Who will defend that point of view?

No one, because it’s absurd. The killing of civilians in the Donbas was a clear provocation, a provocation that was aimed at goading Russia into a war. And – as we said earlier – the OSCE had monitors on the ground who provided full documentation of the shelling as it took place, which is as close to ironclad, eyewitness testimony as you’re going to get.

This, of course, is a major break with the “official narrative” which identifies Russia as the perpetrator of hostilities. But, as we’ve shown, that simply isn’t the case. The official narrative is wrong. Even so, it might not surprise you to know that most of the mainstream media completely omitted any coverage of the OSCE’s fact-finding activities in east Ukraine. The one exception to was Reuters that published a deliberately opaque account published on February 18 titled “Russia voices alarm over sharp increase of Donbass shelling”.

Here’s an excerpt:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voiced alarm on Friday over a sharp increase in shelling in eastern Ukraine and accused the OSCE special monitoring mission of glossing over what he said were Ukrainian violations of the peace process….

Washington and its allies have raised fears that the upsurge in violence in the Donbass could form part of a Russian pretext to invade Ukraine. Tensions are already high over a Russian military buildup to the north, east and south of Ukraine.

“We are very concerned by the reports of recent days – yesterday and the day before there was a sharp increase in shelling using weapons that are prohibited under the Minsk agreements,” Lavrov said, referring to peace accords aimed at ending the conflict. “So far we are seeing the special monitoring mission is doing its best to smooth over all questions that point to the blame of Ukraine’s armed forces,” he told a news conference.

Ukraine’s military on Friday denied violating the Minsk peace process and accused Moscow of waging an information war to say that Kyiv was shelling civilians, allegations it said were lies and designed to provoke it.” (Russia voices alarm over sharp increase of Donbass shelling, Reuters)

Notice the clever way that Reuters frames its coverage so that the claims of the Ukrainian military are given as much credibility as the claims of the Russian Foreign Minister. What Reuters fails to point out is that the OSCE’s report verifies Lavrov’s version of events while disproving the claims of the Ukrainians.

It is the job of a journalist to make the distinction between fact and fiction but, once again, we see how agenda-driven news is not meant to inform but to mislead.

The point we are trying to make is simple: The war in Ukraine was not launched by a tyrannical Russian leader (Putin) bent on rebuilding the Soviet Empire. That narrative is a fraud that was cobbled together by neocon spin-meisters trying to build public support for a war with Russia. The facts I am presenting here can be identified on a map where the actual explosions took place and were then recorded by officials whose job was to fulfill that very task. Can you see the difference between the two?

In one case, the storyline rests on speculation, conjecture and psychobabble; while in the other, the storyline is linked to actual events that took place on the ground and were catalogued by trained professionals in the field. In which version of events do you have more confidence?

Bottom line: Russia did not start the war in Ukraine. That is a fake narrative. The responsibility lies with the Ukrainian Army and their leaders in Kiev.

And here’s something else that is typically excluded in the media’s selective coverage. Before Putin sent his tanks across the border into Ukraine, he invoked United Nations Article 51 which provides a legal justification for military intervention.

Of course, the United States has done this numerous times to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy to its numerous military interventions. But, in this case, you can see where the so-called Responsibility To Protect (R2P) could actually be justified, after all, by most estimates, the Ukrainian army has killed over 14,000 ethnic Russians since the US-backed coup 8 years ago. If ever there was a situation in which a defensive military operation could be justified, this was it.

But that still doesn’t fully explain why Putin invoked UN Article 51. For that, we turn to former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who explained it like this:

The Rest is Long & Detailed Assesment and worth the read.

jupes
jupes
February 7, 2023 4:33 pm

I can’t see this war ending well for Ukraine or Russia.

It will end very well for Russia. Ukraine will surrender.

What’s Russia’s actual objective? It seems flexible. What do they do if they decisively defeat the Ukrainian Armed Forces?

To incorporate Russian Oblasts into Russia, to de-Nazify Ukraine and to stop NATO expansion. I dare say to destroy the Ukraine army is probably in there as well too.

Eyrie
Eyrie
February 7, 2023 4:33 pm

What does a $2000 iPhone do that my nice Motorola $145 phone can’t do?

Frees you from being chained to google for one thing.

Only to be locked in Apple’s Walled Garden.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 4:35 pm

No one, because it’s absurd. The killing of civilians in the Donbas was a clear provocation, a provocation that was aimed at goading Russia into a war.

No, Russia has been trying to infiltrate and conquer Ukraine since 2008 and you keep on posting loopy alt right cope where Putin will save the west from ‘muh degeneracy’ by beating the crap out of a former sub Kingdom the Tsar once controlled.

jupes
jupes
February 7, 2023 4:37 pm

Dot, you are being silly now.

Pogria
Pogria
February 7, 2023 4:39 pm
Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 4:48 pm

No.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-neo-nazis-fighting-ukraine/31871760.html

The video, published in December 2020, showed two nattily dressed Russian men — waistcoats, pocket squares, silk ties – sipping American whiskey in brandy snifters and discussing killing Ukrainians.

“I’m a Nazi. I’m a Nazi,” said one of the men, Aleksei Milchakov, who was the main focus of the video published on a Russian nationalist YouTube channel. “I’m not going to go deep and say, I’m a nationalist, a patriot, an imperialist, and so forth. I’ll say it outright: I’m a Nazi.”

“You have to understand that when you kill a person, you feel the excitement of the hunt. If you’ve never been hunting, you should try it. It’s interesting,” he said.

Aside from being a notorious, avowed Nazi known for killing a puppy and posting bragging photographs about it on social media, Milchakov is the head of a Russian paramilitary group known as Rusich, which openly embraces Nazi symbolism and radical racist ideologies. The group, and Milchakov himself, have been credibly linked to atrocities in Ukraine and in Syria.

Denazification begins at home.

Cassie of Sydney
February 7, 2023 4:49 pm

““I don’t have anything personally against the Prime Minister, who is a decent human being who wants to do the right thing, I’m sure, but he’s dead wrong on this, completely wrong.”

Good old Tony Abbott, always being Mr Nice Guy, that got him a long way, didn’t it? Knifed in the back by his own party, headbutted by a piece of scum in the street, sneered at, mocked, defamed, and vilified by the MSM and social media sewers, his own daughter had her personal details hacked into by leftist activist scum, his own sister was physically attacked by leftist activist scum on whilst walking into a Liberal Party function, and Abbott himself was the target of a campaign in 2019 that will go down in history as one of the nastiest, filthiest and most sordid political campaigns in Australian electoral history, and not once did I ever recall Anthony Albanese condemning what was done to Tony Abbott, and yet Abbott calls Albanese “a decent human being”.

Tony Abbott has clearly learnt nothing and still thinks Queensberry rules applies. No wonder we’ve lost the culture wars.

Bill P
Bill P
February 7, 2023 4:50 pm

Anyone needing a welcome to country or other ceremony?
Say to you
https://koomurri.com.au/images/2020-Koomurri-Corporate-Packages_and-Fees.pdf

calli
calli
February 7, 2023 4:52 pm

Abbot has no use even as an attack dog. Utterly emasculated by the Left.

duncanm
duncanm
February 7, 2023 4:52 pm

Lysandersays:
February 7, 2023 at 11:51 am
Anyone know what happened to this case?

https://www.comcourts.gov.au/file/Federal/P/VID545/2021/actions

Full court hearing 20 Feb.

calli
calli
February 7, 2023 4:57 pm

He’s trying to colour his opponent’s characters with reference to his own. It’s wishful thinking.

Abbot is a decent human being, as good as you’re going to get in the political sphere.

When Luigi volunteers for anything not associated with politics, I might change my mind about him too.

jupes
jupes
February 7, 2023 5:02 pm

Aside from being a notorious, avowed Nazi known for killing a puppy

Hahahahaha!

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 5:03 pm

Aleksei Milchakov would get along well with Dr Anthony Fauci.

rosie
rosie
February 7, 2023 5:04 pm

What’s the precise difference between forecasting and predicting?
I forecast more incoherent babbling.
I have plenty of data with my Italian sim and WiFi at my apartment.
I’m not going to watch any Youloons no matter how well and professionally made their videos are.

rosie
rosie
February 7, 2023 5:05 pm

It’s just another version of gnosticism which seems to attract some people.

Bill P
Bill P
February 7, 2023 5:08 pm

Nice cheap dreamtime package.

Package 1 – Ultimate Dreamtime
Spectacular
This is truly the ultimate dreamtime experience for
your business associates, staff and guests, leaving
lasting memories of your event.
A didgeridoo player will be available to
welcome guests to your event.
A welcome to country speech performed by a
local indigenous elder
A Smoking ceremony accompanied by a didgeridoo master. if
either of these are not wanted, the concert will be performed with more dances
and
A concert-style dance show will follow with a song man, didgeridoo player, four
dancers performing traditional dance featuring native animals, dreamtime stories
and song-lines through movement in full indigenous dress.
Audience participation in dance if required and photo opportunities available.
Cost: from $6000 + GST *Travel and **Rehearsal costs may apply.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
February 7, 2023 5:11 pm

Knuckle Draggersays:
February 7, 2023 at 3:41 pm
He also thinks CERN causes earthquakes, HAARP modifies the weather, he’s a fan of QAnon, and thinks the USGS lies and is after him and that the government is messing with his internet.

Told youse.

The National Earthquake Information Center now locates about 20,000 earthquakes around the globe each year, or approximately 55 per day.

I predict an earthquake (remember, scale and/or epicentre doesn’t matter, apparently) here, here, here, here, here, there, here, there and here tomorrow.

I’m a genius!

Nope, a .Gov believing retard.

Dutch gets the scale right many times. Epicenter…not yet. Regions most definitely with warnings. That’s why so many in seismic areas take his forecast and warnings seriously.

The National Earthquake Information Center now locates about 20,000 earthquakes around the globe each year, or approximately 55 per day.

Who gives a f*ck? They don’t give out warnings or forecasts. They record the events after taking place. Many lives have been saved because people take note of him, ignore .Gov and d*ickheads like you who think forecasting can not be done. Take your views on weather modification for example….you just do not have a clue.

NOAA Central Library:

Weather Modification Project Reports

Activities subject to reporting.
(a)The following, when conducted as weather modification activities, shall be subject to reporting:

Seeding or dispersing of any substance into clouds or fog, to alter drop size distribution, produce ice crystals or coagulation of droplets, alter the development of hail or lightning, or influence in any way the natural development cycle of clouds or their environment;
Using fires or heat sources to influence convective circulation or to evaporate fog;
Modifying the solar radiation exchange of the earth or clouds, through the release of gases, dusts, liquids, or aerosols into the atmosphere;
Modifying the characteristics of land or water surfaces by dusting or treating with powders, liquid sprays, dyes, or other materials;
Releasing electrically charged or radioactive particles, or ions, into the atmosphere;
Applying shock waves, sonic energy sources, or other explosive or acoustic sources to the atmosphere;
Using aircraft propeller downwash, jet wash, or other sources of artificial wind generation; or
Using lasers or other sources of electromagnetic radiation.

https://www.library.noaa.gov/Collections/Digital-Collections/Weather-Modification-Project-Reports

Give it up you clueless clown.

C.L.
C.L.
February 7, 2023 5:12 pm

August 2013:

World Jewish Congress urges Ukrainian Orthodox Church leader to act against glorification of Nazi soldiers.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church should work to stop clergy from participating in neo-Nazi events in Ukraine, the World Jewish Congress said today in a letter to the head of the church. WJC President Ronald S. Lauder asked Patriarch Filaret in a letter to speak out against events glorifying the Nazis. Lauder referred to a recent ceremony near Lviv marking the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Galician division of the Waffen SS, in which Ukrainians fought on the side of Nazi Germany.

Yes, those photographs are real.

This nazi shithole ‘nation’ f-ed around and found out. End of story.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 7, 2023 5:24 pm

Yes, those photographs are real.

So are the ones of Russians. The Chief Rabbi of Moscow has said to Russian Jews they should emigrate to Israel as soon as possible.

Exiled Moscow chief rabbi: Jews should leave Russia before they are scapegoated (1 Jan)

Probably a good idea.

rosie
rosie
February 7, 2023 5:26 pm

What would save lives in earthquake prone locations.
Making sure high rise apartment buildings were built using earthquake proof technology?
How many of those buildings in Turkey, many of which looked newish, were not?
After the Messina quake, in 1909 the Italian government instituted new building codes for earthquake prone regions which is why the insurance forecasting report I read suggested a significantly lower death rate by percentage and total if the same quake occurred in modern times.
The other tragedy in Turkey and Syria was that, like Messina, the quake happened in the early hours when most people were home in bed.

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 5:27 pm

Dutch gets the scale right many times

No he doesn’t. The Richter scale is set to log 10.

If you are out by 1.5 it means the quake is 31 times stronger and releases 178 times more energy than your prediction.

If the scale is in between 6 and 8, he has a fudge factor of 100 for size and 1000 for the amount of energy released.

JC
JC
February 7, 2023 5:28 pm

Of course I’m serious. You said earlier that “that the growth rate is spoiled by a now outsized military spend” It’s not ‘outsized’ at all.

They’re fighting a major war, which up until now Russia has been losing. Russia is producing war material 24/7, and you suggest it’s not outsized. Tell me, do you think Russia decided to reduce military spending in order to fight the war?

My comment that you took issue with was quite reasonable. The GDP growth that was cited in the initial Twitter link is comprised of increased military spending. I made the assertion that economic growth as a result of military spending is nothing to rave about.

They are fighting a war they plan on winning; it’s necessity that determines whether or not spending on the military is proportionate to what is needed nationally.

I guess, but so what?

You might want to ask what effect ‘under-spending’ on Defense will have if current spending is unable to meet current or future security needs?

I don’t understand the purpose of this question. You presented a Twitter comment projecting Russian GDP growth. I highlighted that one needs to be cautious because of the pickle the war effort has created.
Do you get the concept that resources are finite and that war causes finite resources to be moved away from the consumer towards building war material? How is this good for the Russian people?

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
February 7, 2023 5:30 pm

Has anybody spotted Aboriginal Senator Jacquie Lambie in Alice Springs yet?

Dot
Dot
February 7, 2023 5:30 pm

Imagine the scorn if meteorologists could declare their accuracy with an error range of 1000 times the lowest estimate!

Robin Williams (either of them!) could have headed up the surf report.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 7, 2023 5:31 pm

I am amused that you guys can’t seem to comprehend that both sides are Nazis.
It’s not as if there isn’t abundant evidence.

I like Russians, I worked with several at various times. They’re not unlike Aussies in worldview. I haven’t met a Ukrainian as far as I can recall. But there a strong streak of fascism and antisemitism which is endemic in both countries. To ignore that is to embrace fantasy not reality.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
February 7, 2023 5:36 pm

From Gateway Pundit:

“The Biden administration distributed “Black Resistance” flyers to U.S. Border Patrol agents that celebrated the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-American activist Colin Kaepernick, causing a stir among officers who criticized the agency’s promotion of groups that hate law enforcement”.

The Biden administration is doing all it can to ruin USA.

132andBush
132andBush
February 7, 2023 5:36 pm

Give it up you clueless clown.

An excerpt:

As part of Public Law 92-205 (1972), all non-Federal weather modification activities must be reported to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, via the NOAA Weather Program Office. Below is a list of these reports and is updated on an annual basis.

Which means, Steve, that the authorities would like to know if people are attempting to make it rain more in one area or another.
There is no, repeat no, evidence that any of the listed methods actually work, with perhaps cloud seeding being the exception.
I mean to say, my Landcruiser ute has the basic components to break the sound barrier.

Perhaps they just want the heads up on any wing nut who wants to try a bit of back yard rocketry with associated unknown chemical dispersal?

Frank
Frank
February 7, 2023 5:40 pm

Has anybody spotted Aboriginal Senator Jacquie Lambie in Alice Springs yet?

She’s not that stupid.

Reminds me of the time Kathy Freeman went to the block in Redfern to give a pep talk to the locals. She took muscle with her, for safety.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
February 7, 2023 5:41 pm

rosiesays:
February 7, 2023 at 5:26 pm
What would save lives in earthquake prone locations.
Making sure high rise apartment buildings were built using earthquake proof technology?
How many of those buildings in Turkey, many of which looked newish, were not?
After the Messina quake, in 1909 the Italian government instituted new building codes for earthquake prone regions which is why the insurance forecasting report I read suggested a significantly lower death rate by percentage and total if the same quake occurred in modern times.
The other tragedy in Turkey and Syria was that, like Messina, the quake happened in the early hours when most people were home in bed.

“What would save lives in earthquake prone locations.”

A warning would help. .Gov doesn’t do it. They say it can not be done. Total BS! It’s a shame Dutch’s first channel on sussietube was scrubbed. Many examples with forecasts and warnings were prevalent. People took precautions and lives were saved.

I agree with you on the rest. I’ve been reading in feeds saying corruption in the Turkish building sector is rife, but I can’t be bothered following it up. The evidence that this is true, to me, is self evident in the carnage. Italy have taken steps, however, a huge amount of old buildings remain and it’s only a matter of time before they get pummeled, too.

Indolent
Indolent
February 7, 2023 5:42 pm
rosie
rosie
February 7, 2023 5:47 pm

If you knew how old Coogee home buyer’s daughter now was you’d be able get a gauge on her timeline.
Incidentally has Coogee ever really been struggling first home buyer territory?
Or is it a bit like struggling Sandringham first home buyer?

MatrixTransform
February 7, 2023 5:49 pm

What’s the precise difference between forecasting and predicting?

for decades the post-enlightened experts told me that my scurvy was due to a ‘miasma’

and of course, I believed them

these days, I’m worried I’ll catch something really stupid from reading The Cat that an N95 mask won’t prevent

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