Open Thread – Tues 7 Feb 2023


Daedalus and Icarus, Charles Le Brun, 1645


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Dot
Dot
February 8, 2023 10:02 pm

Dot, I don’t want to be called a Russian booster but Mrs Zelensky was at the Black Pink gig in Paris a couple of weeks back.

I had to look that up. “What’s a Black Pink?”. Really she should stay in France.

JC
JC
February 8, 2023 10:02 pm

Cronkite.

I was getting a little tired of Alexandria. I’m glad she’s gonksy. Spence could’ve done better.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 8, 2023 10:03 pm

Dot, I said apart from the last episode.
Twas some one else shitting on the last season.
Not I.
The lot was awesome.

Siltstone
Siltstone
February 8, 2023 10:04 pm

Pogria 9:23
I will say though, Kazakhstan, if they filmed there for real, is a complete shithole.

Went to Almaty and surrounds several years ago, loved it. Agree though, it’s a poor country.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 8, 2023 10:04 pm

Mare of Newtown

Kate Winslet, great actress.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 8, 2023 10:06 pm

Lot of great Aussie movies recently.
Not so many great TV series.
Last one I watched was Mr Inbetween.
Before that, the first series of Underbelly.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 8, 2023 10:06 pm

Verse 2, The Armstrong Song:

I bent over in the shower block
To get some love for free
Now subscriber doofus flogs
Tongue bath my nuts for me

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 8, 2023 10:08 pm

Kate Winslet was in an Aussie movie called The Dressmaker.
Great watch.
If olden days country Victoria was like that, it doesn’t surprise me Malcolm Fraser was spawn from it.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 8, 2023 10:09 pm

I’m gayer than Mick Jagger
and I like to make a splash
It doesn’t matter if I’m wrong
I still get heaps of cash

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 8, 2023 10:10 pm

Great unsung Aussie movies.
The Dressmaker.
The Drover.
The Stranger.
Keep it simple, stupid.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 8, 2023 10:11 pm

I guess profiling of terrorism risk brings middle-aged caucasian ladies to the fore?

Mme Zulu was being monstered by some Fascist in the name of security. It was explained to me that she might be the courier carrying a bomb or weapon onto the aircraft to be handed to the actual terrorists…..

FWIW, at Charles De Gaulle airport, some Follower of the religion of peace, who objected to his wife being asked to remove her veil, was frogmarched off by two airport cops, carrying sub-machine guns…

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 8, 2023 10:11 pm

Great unsung Aussie movies.

Two Hands.

cohenite
February 8, 2023 10:11 pm

So, Cute Owls… don’t exist in the wild. They are put together like a Feejee Mermaid, and displayed like a hired Ferrari…. and no-one gets a ride.

Well, that’s cheery. Don’t know about the ride. Conceding the quads probably got you in the bad books. I always found doing a full stack on the leg press plus 2 cute owls, one on either side did the trick. For a finale, non supinated chins with one of the cute owls hanging around your neck was always worth mileage.

Anyway as sublimated, here is a couple of cute owls. Without tattoos since that provokes pansy flare. Serratus extraordinaire. Lovely muscle, the serratus.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 8, 2023 10:12 pm

Wolf Creek was an ok horror movie, but not a patch on Van Diemen’s Land.
Best Aussie horror, thriller ever.

Johnny Rotten
February 8, 2023 10:12 pm

JCsays:
February 8, 2023 at 9:55 pm
I was born here wodney. You weren’t. You’re a lowrent limey dickhead. Anyone who continues to post stupid crap from the former Leavenworth inmate has a personality defect. F… off.

You are a short arse Italian Australian wanker with a chip on both shoulders, And a pompous windbag to boot. You do not own this Blog so STFU and listen to others for a change. What you know about finance, you could write a book. What you don’t know would fill a Library. Fark off back to NYC and don’t come back. Enjoy the pizza and get fatter.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 8, 2023 10:13 pm

KD, Two Hands is the best Aussie movie of all time.
It gets sung.

Real Deal
Real Deal
February 8, 2023 10:15 pm

I was just perusing a DVD catalogue and I can order a complete Box set of “Champions”.

Was that the late 60s show? Remember it well. Along with Department S etc. Growing up watching Thunderbirds I was a sucker for Gerry Anderson shows such as UFO and Space 1999. Later loved Bodie and Doyle in The Professionals.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 8, 2023 10:15 pm

Boys, you need to hit the rope at the gym.
Chris Hemsworth swears by it.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
February 8, 2023 10:16 pm

I’ve always found it ironic at Brisbane airport that the people handling security and testing us for explosives

If the newer scanners aren’t working I cop expl trace all the time. Had it in 3 airports in 1 day once, Townsville, Brisbane and Sydney before I made my final destination in Melbourne that evening.

Observation I have made is they seem to go for Anglo’s only as we don’t generally make a scene of it. Sydney Airport would be the worst for it IMO and amazingly in the Qantas Terminal mostly used the old scanners (was there a few weeks ago still same). Newcastle-Port Stephens had this ridiculous button that was allegedly random but seemed to catch everyone all the time before they upgraded the scanners. I hit they guy up once that there seemed nothing random about it as it routinely got everyone, LOL he was adamant it was indeed random.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 8, 2023 10:23 pm

Later loved Bodie and Doyle in The Professionals.

Did wonder what sort of James Bond, Lewis Collins would have made.

C.L.
C.L.
February 8, 2023 10:24 pm

Wow. James Macpherson and Liz Storer really don’t like each other.
The Late Debate is very aggro and shouty.

Johnny Rotten
February 8, 2023 10:24 pm

And here is more stuff for the short arse italian/aussie with chips on both shoulders…………lol

Trusted News Initiative – Mainstream Monopoly for Fake News

“The Trusted News Initiative (TNI) was founded in 2019 and its goal is to push only the accepted narrative ending both free speech and real independent journalism. TNI actually violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and should be criminally charged for its deliberate destruction of our society and the censoring of any news that was warning about the vaccine side effects.

TNI includes companies such as Google, Facebook, BBC, YouTube, Twitter, the New York Times, Microsoft, and Reuters. It also includes all of the companies owned by these companies, and therefore, it has destroyed independent journalism no different than the Stalin control of media in Communist Russia. To this group, freedom of speech means they have the freedom to censor whatever they disagree with. So tell your children to forget journalism as a career. They will be reduced to a mindless propaganda machine.

Everything from ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, and Fox News indeed trickle down to your local news affiliates despite the fact that they are supposed to be independent stations. The newspapers engaged in this monopoly of news are USA Today, the Washington Post, and even the Kansas City Star. Of all of the countless mainstream television channels in the USA, they are ALL owned by only SIX companies! Time Warner, Viacom, CBS, Disney, National Amusements, and News Corp. By uniting in this monopoly TNI for news, this is really criminal activity as if they were producing a car. What is the difference because it is news content?

In 1983, there were more than 50 companies that owned our television channel’s media content. The crime took place with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, during which the FCC removed restrictions on how many news outlets an owner could own thereby legalizing a monopoly in news. Telecommunications Act of 1996, was purported to bring more competition to the telephone market for both local and long distance service. Fine, it ended AT&T monopoly, but it allowed a monopoly in news to take shape.

It was passed by Congress in January 1996 and signed into law by none other than Bill Clinton in February 1996. It permitted firms that served competitive local markets to enter the long-distance market, and it attempted to implement a single layer of regulation at the federal level. Additional provisions of the act removed restrictions on media ownership and resulted in immediate consolidation within that segment of the industry. Yet another provision provided guidelines for Internet indecency and prohibited sending indecent or obscene communications to minors via the Internet (see Communications Decency Act, sponsored by Republican Tom Bliley). The Supreme Court, however, later ruled that the provision was unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Another significant provision protected Internet service providers from liability for the content of third parties on their service.

Here we had legislation that was supposed to create competition and instead created a monopoly. Today, we have fewer television media channels compared to what was available in 1983. And there were more than 50 companies who owned those outlets then versus now just SIX!”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/press/trusted-news-initiative-mainstream-monopoly-for-fake-news/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
February 8, 2023 10:30 pm

Sky News today:

A prominent Indigenous leader has slammed the Andrews Government’s decision to “indoctrinate” Victorian school children with the Voice to Parliament.

The political class seem to be proceeding with this ATIVTP with all the inevitability that the UNFCCC had.
I am sure we were already being taught global warming doom material in geography class in high school in 1992, which meant it had to have been added to the curriculum about a year before the treaty was signed in Rio.
The indoctrination precedes the public ceremony, but the internal political decision precedes the indoctrination. All on rails.

P
P
February 8, 2023 10:32 pm

WolfmanOz says:
February 8, 2023 at 9:54 pm

Given all the discussion on TV series today maybe someone should write up a post say on favourite TV shows -split between 20th century and this century.

The discussion gave rise to me just tonight watching
When the Boat Comes In S1 01

JC
JC
February 8, 2023 10:32 pm

You are a short arse Italian Australian wanker with a chip on both shoulders, And a pompous windbag to boot.

That’s coming from someone giving folks grammar lessons – a capitalized conjunction after a comma.

You do not own this Blog so STFU and listen to others for a change.

Funny that, because I was just telling a light story and Wodney Woddenhead came at me all abusive. Now he’s telling me I don’t own the blog and should listen to himself and the Leavenworth veteran.

What you know about finance, you could write a book. What you don’t know would fill a Library. Fark off back to NYC and don’t come back. Enjoy the pizza and get fatter.

I’m not fat and I’m not really short. You, on the other hand, have mental issues.

I asked you to describe how you feel about the fraudster you keep posting about here. We’re still waiting.

Dot
Dot
February 8, 2023 10:34 pm

Cohenite: I’ll do it man, I’ll kill all the url links to “cute” OWLS.

Me: Go ahead, I don’t shop here.

WolfmanOz
February 8, 2023 10:34 pm

Pogria says:
February 8, 2023 at 9:58 pm
Wolfman,
that’s a great idea. I was just perusing a DVD catalogue and I can order a complete Box set of “Champions”. I was so young, no not young, little, when that series first aired. Seriously going to buy it.

I might whip something up for early next week (assuming Dover is OK with it) – rather than an analysis just a quick post to prompt others to make suggestions etc.

Champions – WOW that’s going back to the 60s.

Zipster
Zipster
February 8, 2023 10:41 pm
Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
February 8, 2023 10:44 pm

For a finale, non supinated chins with one of the cute owls hanging around your neck
Respect

cohenite
February 8, 2023 10:46 pm

Stuff 1923. I’m going to rewatch P&P 1980 where the only danger to the characters is a harsh word and a snub.

rosie
rosie
February 8, 2023 10:48 pm

Waiting to join my ex Benedictine monastery tour and am having a little coffee with milk from across the road.
Was going to have lunch up here at one of the cafes that caters to the university crowd but couldn’t resist the panini at the pasticceria next to my place, ham and cheese on one of those beautiful soft bread rolls made with semolina, €2.20.
Am thinking about next time, a family member wants to come with, and I’m thinking of doing a Rome Corsica Sardinia Sicily Naples Rome circuit. I don’t mind reruns if I’ve got someone else to show the sights to, with the benefit of learning from my previous mistakes 🙂
Next time I’ll work around being in Catania for the feast of Saint Agatha though.
Would be most appropriate.
The fresh food market here just off the main square is worth a wander, I was too early to consider having lunch there, loads of fresh fish including enormous swordfish which all have tags on their swords.
I bought a couple of little watercolours of fish from that street artist in Palermo, I hope one of them was a swordfish, can’t remember, going to get them framed for my grandchildren. Definitely got a shark, a whale and octupi.
In my building someone was cooking, there is a tiny oval window on the staircase, metal bars and a wooden shutter, no glass, they’d opened it for the cooking so both the smell and the warmth from the gas stove wafted through.
Some kind of meat, I sort of wanted to say hello but didn’t.
Now the temperature has really dropped.
Some suggestion of snow, glad I wore my warm hat today and a little sorry I didn’t bring my gloves.

cohenite
February 8, 2023 10:49 pm

I’m not fat and I’m not really short

Please go on head prefect, spare no detail about your appearance and muscle tone.

JC
JC
February 8, 2023 10:53 pm

Muscle tone is pretty decent, Cronkite. I’m at the gym three times a week doing weight machines. Unfortunately, you reside in regional NSW or QLD (?) so you won’t be able to join Keiser.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 8, 2023 10:55 pm

Cohenite: I’ll do it man, I’ll kill all the url links to “cute” OWLS.

Gay AF.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 8, 2023 10:59 pm

I enjoyed GoT, although I could not bring myself to watch the last season – it was not based on any book but was a storyline come up with by what are apparently called ‘story runners’.

In the series they were able to satisfy requirements for race diversity through the very sensible representation of different skin colours and physique types belonging to different regions. As far as I know it did not contradict the story as written (which is actually gets my goat – the facile need for the change is more glaring than the change itself), and in fact, in GoT it gave added depth.

In HoD it was fine because it was a ruling family in a particular place – gelling with the way alliances are formed and people move to more prosperous or powerful regions as reward for deeds done in the past. And again in this way and inviting this interpretation, it added depth – hinting at a history not explicitly presented or relevant to the immediate story.

A bit like the movie ‘The Death of Stalin’ where the actors used their varied native accents, because the Soviet Union WAS massive and drew people from far and wide to the centre where their varied heritages would naturally lead to such contrasts. In fact it would have been weird if they all spoke with those clipped Oxbridge, or chewy Shakespearean accents. A lot of those old Soviets were gruff brutish oafs. Especially the Man of Steel himself.

After Jennifer Lawrence’s masterful acquittal of her achievements as an action hero with lady-parts I looked back at the shows I have watched and enjoyed. One that really stuck out (like trans-men’s silicone prosthetic balls) was the Star Trek series Voyager. After initially noting that the Captain was a woman this time, and that she was not particularly hot (my testicles and testosterone are natural) I just watched the series. It wasn’t until later that I saw it pointed out that the most dynamic relationships were between three women – the Captain, the Engineer, and the reclaimed Borg (who is now apparently a dipsomaniac rug-muncher – I think those Borg implants might need recalibrating!) I didn’t notice because the show did not show anything absurd. The Engineer was resourceful and forthright, but they never made it look easy. The Captain was serially wrestling with her conscience, but that is one of the things the show was trying to stir up in its audiences: what is the right thing. Yhe Borg babe was the most obvious foil for the Captain. It didn’t matter that all or any or none of them were women. The did not artificially elevate the women by denigrating the men.

I don’t think they can do that now. And, indeed, with Discovery and Picard they have shown they cannot.

cohenite
February 8, 2023 10:59 pm

so you won’t be able to join Keiser.

I cut my teeth on Nautilus. Everything lives in its shadow. What’s your favourite muscle.

cohenite
February 8, 2023 11:02 pm

This is definitely not a cute owl:

Higgins willing to appear in Lehrmann defamation case

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 8, 2023 11:15 pm

Last July, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced: “I reaffirm my government’s promise to implement the Statement from the Heart at Uluru, in full.”

That statement demands apartheid: “(Aboriginal) sovereignty … has never been ceded or extinguished, and coexists with the sovereignty of the Crown … With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.”

Indeed, I once drove Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney to an example of this “black sovereignty” – the Yidindji Tribal Nation which black activists have declared around Cairns, with its own prime minister.

I asked Burney if this was seriously a model for our future. With shining eyes, she replied: “Yeah, I do approve of it.”

That’s why Labor isn’t satisfied with Aborigines already having a voice – a vote in elections, 11 Aboriginal politicians in federal Parliament, more than 30 land councils, 2700 Aboriginal corporations, and around 70 big Aboriginal organisations.

No, that’s still not enough because none of that can form a black parliament of Aboriginal nations in apartheid Australia. That’s the real vision. Ask Thorpe.

Andrew Bolt. Settler militia’s will just have to invade the Yidindi Tribal Nations – google them – and bring them back into the Commonwealth…

MatrixTransform
February 8, 2023 11:27 pm

What’s your favourite muscle

technically, it isn’t a muscle

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
February 8, 2023 11:27 pm

Should I wear heels or just walk on tippy toes?
Zinc for the afternoon sun, or will a quarter inch of slap do the same job?

DAHRLIN, DA THESE SHORTS MAKE MA BUM LOOK SMALL? </auntie-jack-voice;>

Bruce in WA
February 8, 2023 11:40 pm

Please!

The Avengers — Mrs Peel was, to a teenage boy, a sex goddess.

The Champions — Alexandra Bastedo — well, see above.

Charlie’s Angels — Farrah Fawcett — see above.

Till Death Do Us Part — let’s see them make this now!

The Equaliser — ditto above

Danger Man

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Danger Man
Man in a Suitcase
The Baron
The Saint

All good watching winding down after work.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 8, 2023 11:51 pm

“Sliante” to you mob.

I’m reading “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!” – written by the New South Wales copper, who read Man Haron Monis his horoscope, at the Lindt Cafe siege.

JC
JC
February 9, 2023 12:03 am

Oh look, it’s Trans.

MatrixTransform
February 9, 2023 12:14 am

JC,

you pathetic tosser, you say the same idiotic shit every day

… what’s it like living with dementia?

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
February 9, 2023 12:19 am

If you look closely, which I’m sure you did, or you wouldn’t have noticed – the reinforced bearer seems firmly supported by rubble and the bed is just cheap fiberboard.

It’s a version of the truck stuck under the bridge problem. Don’t try to lift the bridge structure, let the air out of the tyres.

The bed base and mattress are protruding towards the camera. Following the line of the base of the concrete beam and looking at the crush on the mattress I doubt that there is any prospect of reducing the bed and simply dragging the body out.

(But, I otherwise agree – disaster staging and grief-porn are both abhorrent.)

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
February 9, 2023 12:29 am

Till Death Do Us Part — let’s see them make this now!

And almost all of the 1960’s-1970’s Brit comedy: Frankie Howerd, Dick Emery, Benny Hill, Are You Being Served, and all 97.3 Carry On filums.

And in Australia Steve Vizard and Michael Vietch must be sweating cobblers, hoping nobody remembers their camp air steward routine on the lamentable Fast Forward.

rosie
rosie
February 9, 2023 12:41 am

I recommend the monastery tour in Catania, the jolly guide was very knowledgeable and responded well to stupid questions about monks building tunnels to brothels.
Especially as this particular one, in its original format, was partially inundated with lava in 1669, and it took workers using pick and shovel three years to remove the inundation which came through both first and second floor windows as well as clear around a four metre width of 12 metre high lava from the grounds on the western perimeter.
Can’t imagine them going to the trouble to tunnel through lava when they could just walk out the front door.
Someone from the group mentioned that one of the monasteries in Sorrento had an escape tunnel in case of attack by pirates, and guide said of course this was very common in monasteries, castles, palaces etc to have a secret way out in case of attack.
Also said in this particular case the monks, who were all younger scions of rich noble families and were apparently somewhat excess to requirements had no need of secret tunnels, they were not cloistered and were well known to live libertine lives, as few were motivated by religious vocations but had chosen the religious life over other options, such as the military, (and obviously not interested in getting married), (information also prompted by a question from a member of the group 🙂 ).
Also said that the city Catania had not been covered by seven layers of lava, as some historians claim, but only where lava had obtruded over the city walls on the western side in 1669, as the monastery gives testament.
I guess that should be obvious from the level of the Roman Baths immediately below ground level in the main square.

rosie
rosie
February 9, 2023 12:46 am

Dr F
Disaster porn is what I thought it was, especially the close up of the poor girl.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
February 9, 2023 1:07 am

Enjoying the travel notes, rosie.

Gabor
Gabor
February 9, 2023 1:31 am

cohenite says:
February 8, 2023 at 11:02 pm

This is definitely not a cute owl:

Higgins willing to appear in Lehrmann defamation case

Hard to say which is less appealing, those muscle bound freaks you seem to have a crush on or her?

JC
JC
February 9, 2023 1:38 am

JC,

you pathetic tosser, you say the same idiotic shit every day

… what’s it like living with dementia?

Oh do I? Piss off you useless wannabe intellect . You actually think people can’t see through the think veneer. Go get a remake you worthless goon. You depressed drunk blaming the University instead of yourself.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
February 9, 2023 2:03 am
Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
February 9, 2023 2:04 am

…cos there’s no need to go running to She-Hulk territory

rosie
rosie
February 9, 2023 2:40 am

Sitting next to the fascist building eating almond granita, only because they didn’t have lemon.
It’s not bad except it brings back memories of almond paste under royal icing.
Definitely prefer lemon.
I visited the Greco Roman theatre, which I loved, still partially covered by 18th century buildings.
Only drawback was having my way blocked by a couple of the cat inhabitants but I waited til they moved on and it was safe.
There is a shop on Victor Emmanuel II called ‘Frank Bill’, room after room full to the gills of underwear, pyjamas, sheets etc, all boxed, you actually have to squeeze sideways in parts to look, though I think the idea is you tell the assistant what you want and they fetch it for you. I bought something little, for the grandchildren.

Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:13 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:14 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:15 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:17 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:18 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:19 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:20 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:22 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:23 am
Tom
Tom
February 9, 2023 4:24 am
rosie
rosie
February 9, 2023 4:34 am
Armadillo
Armadillo
February 9, 2023 4:42 am

What’s the go with Patreon? They seem to be buying up decent sized Youtube creator channels and paying them to promote Marxist propaganda.

It’s reminiscent of Soros paying to install Prosecutors.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 9, 2023 4:45 am

Thanks for the ‘toons Tom!

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
February 9, 2023 5:04 am

State Of The Union – some belters there Tom. Thanks.

Megan
Megan
February 9, 2023 5:56 am

Thanks Tom. The entire Western world, but especially the US, is in a cultural and economic death spiral towards the rapidly immovable object and we can only look on in horror. Plus laugh at the ridiculousness of how we actually arrived at this point.

Ed Case
Ed Case
February 9, 2023 6:19 am

The next Chinese Spy Balloon?

Pogria
Pogria
February 9, 2023 6:26 am

I think I’m in love!
Check out the casual hair flick at the end.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 9, 2023 6:29 am

Powerline has a good summary of the State of the Union address. I don’t know what frisizhnjubs are.

Meanwhile someone had some fun by appointing both MTG and AOC to the same committee!

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 9, 2023 6:33 am

How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline
The New York Times called it a “mystery,” but the United States executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret—until now

Seymour Hersh debuts on substack.

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=email

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 9, 2023 6:45 am

Hersh dropped this 8 hours ago.
Apart from zero hedge, I can’t see any coverage on the front pages of any corporate media.
Compare that to the wall to wall coverage of anything he reported during GWB or Trump’s administrations.

Cassie of Sydney
February 9, 2023 6:52 am

“Higgins willing to appear in Lehrmann defamation case”

We’ll see how long her “willingness” lasts, I’ve noticed one that with La Knickerless, she likes to talk a lot but little else. Anyway, if she does appear her testimony will be interesting given her disposition to “mental fragility” in the past, however to be fair I’m sure La Knickerless is feeling quite refreshed and on top of the world and she’ll be La Amphibian’s star witness, her recent payment of $2.5 million bucks and a holiday at a 5 star Maldives’ resort can do wonders to improve one’s physical and mental states. Geez Louise, I wouldn’t mind such dosh, I wonder who I can falsely accuse of rape?

Gabor
Gabor
February 9, 2023 6:59 am

Cassie of Sydney says:
February 9, 2023 at 6:52 am

“Higgins willing to appear in Lehrmann defamation case”

Can’t see what it would achieve?
She said, he said. Nothing was proven in court of law and the prosecution’s case was a mess.
If anything, it could backfire biggly.

Johnny Rotten
February 9, 2023 7:08 am

An American Patriot is riding his Harley by the zoo in Washington, DC when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage.

Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter addressing the Harley rider says “Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I’ve seen a man do in my whole life”.

The Harley rider replies “Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt right”. The reporter says “Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist, you know, and tomorrow’s paper will have this story on the front page. So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?” The biker replies “I’m a U.S. Marine and a Republican”.

The journalist leaves.

The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:

U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH

… and that pretty much sums up the media’s approach to news these days.

Johnny Rotten
February 9, 2023 7:10 am

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

– Dalai Lama

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 9, 2023 7:11 am

Brih-nee Commando’s evidence in any civil trial, once she realises that the lowered standard of proof – on the balance of probabilities rather than beyond a reasonable doubt – works both ways, and that the ‘grilling’ she endured during the criminal trial would be a hug-a-thon compared to what’s waiting for her, will consist of ten minutes of wailing followed by six months of ‘self-care’.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 9, 2023 7:16 am

When the NS2 explosions first happened, so many of the 100 or so accounts I follow on twitter were sharing stories, giving their own views on it.
Since this Hersh story dropped only four of the people I follow have shared it.
Snowden.
Taibbi.
Greenwald.
Mate.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 9, 2023 7:19 am

I wonder who the first corporate media operative will be to call Hersh a right wing conspiracy theorist.

calli
calli
February 9, 2023 7:21 am

Forget the cultural and moral decline of the west. In this little pocket of the world, we know what real culture is.

Charity pig races at Anna Bay on the 19th.

Be there or be square.

calli
calli
February 9, 2023 7:23 am

I’m delighted the young lady’s mental health has improved so much since the large injection of cash. A great tonic for the mentally fragile.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 9, 2023 7:25 am

Charity pig races at Anna Bay on the 19th.

When I was a child, at a school fete they greased up a small pig at let it loose on the tennis court and let anyone who wanted try and catch it.
Impossible unless working in some form of team which was impossible with sugar filled kids.

Johnny Rotten
February 9, 2023 7:45 am

I wonder who I can falsely accuse of rape?

That would take a lot of thinking. And, you would not do it anyway.

sfw
sfw
February 9, 2023 7:47 am

ftb, the Daily Sceptic has posted about the Hersh story. It’s a comprehensive story and I suppose it’s true. I said on the other OT that I’m really starting to wonder if many things I dismissed as conspiracy theories are really true. Tucker Carlson’s story on the Kennedy assassination etc.

I’ve been rereading Malcom Muggeridge’s memoir, the second volume ‘The Infernal Grove’, it recounts his time in the British intelligence service in WW2. In some paragraph he reflects on the Kennedy assassination and thinks that the CIA were aware of Oswald and his plans and just let him alone to go about his business. Malcom wrote that in the late 70’s.

I no longer know what’s true and what’s not.

Robert Sewell
February 9, 2023 7:52 am

sfw:

ftb, the Daily Sceptic has posted about the Hersh story. It’s a comprehensive story and I suppose it’s true. I said on the other OT that I’m really starting to wonder if many things I dismissed as conspiracy theories are really true.

I understand what you’re saying sfw. It’s getting difficult to answer the question “Are we the Baddies?”

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 9, 2023 7:57 am

Anyway, if she does appear her testimony will be interesting given her disposition to “mental fragility” in the past,

Not sure what she hopes to contribute since it is about La Amphibian (thanks, Cassie), Maiden, and Luhrmann.

Notionally they may try using her to assert the defamatory statements were true and therefore not actionable but Britnee spectacularly retreated from having her claims tested. If it is a case of Maiden and Wilkinson claiming to have good reason to believe them they may come a cropper on the fact they did not seek to verify facts with such old-fashioned means as…speaking to the guy they were accusing.

My suspicion, they will try to replay the poor Britnee show and publicly smear Luhrmann from the steps in front of the court again.

I hope it provides a chance for Luhrmann’s lawyers to rope Britnee into a lawsuit as well.

Roger
Roger
February 9, 2023 8:04 am

“Higgins willing to appear in Lehrmann defamation case”

Can’t see what it would achieve?

Attention.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
February 9, 2023 8:04 am

The biggest contrast I’ve noticed between Indian news and interests as compared to Australia is the trivial nature of what are considered matters of national importance here.
We visited the home of a lady we know who’s one of the loveliest people you could ever meet. After a bad investment decision by her husband, she’s living in a three room rented house with her child and her husband’s parents – not enough room to swing a cat comes to mind.
She is still full of hope that life will improve if she just puts in more effort and luck turns their way.
We could solve a lot of her current difficulties with money that we would not miss but there’s not a chance in hell she would accept charity.
Britney Higgins should spend a day in this lady’s life. She may reconsider what being brave and inspirational as a woman truly means.

Johnny Rotten
February 9, 2023 8:05 am

Scientists Take Australian Bureau
of Meteorology to Court Over
Disputed Temperature Records

For years, Australian biologist Jennifer Marohasy has questioned the
reliability of the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) historical weather records,
which have shown a significant rise in temperatures over the past few
decades.
By Nina Nguyen
February 7, 2023 Updated: February 8, 2023 ?? ? Print

The BoM has attributed record-breaking temperatures to manmade global
warming, but Marohasy is sceptical saying some recent warming could be
attributed to natural weather patterns.

In response, her husband, environmental researcher John Abbott, took the
matter to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Brisbane with Marohasy
appearing as an expert witness. They called for the BoM to make raw
temperature data public, something the weather bureau has refused
previously.

A public hearing was held on Feb. 3, but the case was taken back to
mediation before Marohasy presented her evidence. Further, the public was
asked to leave. The case was set to resume on Tuesday

file:///C:/Users/andic/Downloads/Scientists%20Take%20Australian%20Bureau%20of%20Meteorology%20to%20Court%20Over%20Disputed%20Temperat.pdf

flyingduk
flyingduk
February 9, 2023 8:09 am

amazing story of earthquake survival

They will likely go on pulling survivors out for another week or so. Sadly, typically half of these will go on to die from ‘crush syndrome’ – renal failure due to muscle damage from compression.

Robert Sewell
February 9, 2023 8:11 am

Mother Lode:

I hope it provides a chance for Luhrmann’s lawyers to rope Britnee into a lawsuit as well.

Well, she’s flush with a bit of cash so now’s the time to go for it.
The Coven has doubled down every chance they got and should have left the table a fair while ago.
The distancing of the players from the outcome will be instructive.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 9, 2023 8:17 am

My nephew and his girlfriend are in NZ at the moment, 250 km into a 3000km walk the length of NZ. Some days have been 12hrs walking coz of trees down. They have allowed 3 months to do it. He has done the North Island part once before as a fund-raiser for his church.

flyingduk
flyingduk
February 9, 2023 8:17 am

I’m really starting to wonder if many things I dismissed as conspiracy theories are really true. Tucker Carlson’s story on the Kennedy assassination etc…… thinks that the CIA were aware of Oswald and his plans and just let him alone to go about his business.

I no longer know what’s true and what’s not.

Many experienced long range shooters, myself included have looked at the weapon used, the range and the rapidity of the shots, and conclude Oswald was NOT the shooter ‘from the grassy knoll’.

Fun fact, the CIA invented the word ‘conspiracy theory’ to shut down sceptics of the Oswald was the shooter story. We see the same process today, single or ‘3 word slogans’ used to shut down debate and discredit those who go against the official narrative.

Eg:

‘Holocaust Denier’
‘Anti-vaxxer’
‘Raaaacist’
‘Islamophobe’

Cassie of Sydney
February 9, 2023 8:18 am

“Johnny Rottensays:
February 9, 2023 at 7:45 am
I wonder who I can falsely accuse of rape?

That would take a lot of thinking. And, you would not do it anyway.”

Do you know women?

Indolent
Indolent
February 9, 2023 8:22 am
flyingduk
flyingduk
February 9, 2023 8:23 am

250 km into a 3000km walk the length of NZ. Some days have been 12hrs walking coz of trees down……. He has done the North Island part once before as a fund-raiser for his church.

Without wishing to be churlish, describing the above as a ‘fund-raiser’ is inaccurate because the activity does not generate wealth. It, like so many of these other events (dog walks, charity runs, shaving your head) would be more accurately deemed ‘fund – transfer’ activities: they transfer funds from elsewhere to your cause.

If people *really* wanted to ‘raise funds’, they need to do some extra, productive activity (work an extra day, make something etc) and donate the funds that result.

Indolent
Indolent
February 9, 2023 8:25 am
Robert Sewell
February 9, 2023 8:29 am

Old mate and I get together for coffee – instant – every few days for a catch up.
Both being widowers, we are clearing out our respective homes from the detritus of ‘stuff’ that has been mouldering in cupboards for ages. He remembered my desire of buying a breadmaker, and dragged one over that he’d not used for about ten years.
“Here, Bob. take this one. There’s another in the garage if it doesn’t work.”
“Two breadmakers? And your missus didn’t use them?”
*shrug* and a “Don’t ask me” look.
He got a George Foreman ice drink maker – unused, still in the box.
“Must have been a present.”
*shrug*

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 9, 2023 8:31 am

Will ‘special ed’ be called as a witness for the Reptilian as he knew everything that went on?Will the commando be commando in court? Will the commando be found once again walking the streets of Canberra in the rain when things are not going her way? Has the advance for the book deal brokered by the Reptilian’s husband, pirate pete, been returned? Is Ch10 going to cut loose the Reptilian to pay her own legal fees? Are popcorn futures too high to make any money on the side? These are questions that need to be answered.

Miltonf
Miltonf
February 9, 2023 8:35 am

Re your friend in India Farmer G, it shows how bad the infestation is here of horrible, spoilt, entitled adult beats. All amplified by the meja who are the same types. Best example, the chaser brats.

Miltonf
Miltonf
February 9, 2023 8:36 am

Adult brats

Indolent
Indolent
February 9, 2023 8:36 am

The heading is based on 5 jabs and some extrapolation. But the data is there to judge for yourself.

CDC Data confirms COVID Vaccination knocks up to 24 years off a Man’s life

Robert Sewell
February 9, 2023 8:38 am

Johnny Rotten:
Here’s a link to the Epoch Times story on Jennifer Morohasy and the BoM records.
The Epoch Times gives an expanded review of the court goings on.
Jennifer is getting her teeth stuck in and the BoM is refusing to co operate.

Roger
Roger
February 9, 2023 8:38 am

LIBERTY QUOTE
But if we are to retain freedom, then we can only do so by keeping the determining mass of the citizens the possessors of property with personal control over it, as individuals or as families. For property is the necessary condition of economic freedom in the full sense of that term. He that has not property is under economic servitude to him who has property, whether the possessor of it be another individual or the State.

— Hilaire Belloc

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 9, 2023 8:39 am

We see the same process today, single or ‘3 word slogans’ used to shut down debate and discredit those who go against the official narrative.

Article on that yesterday:

Denialism: A Woke Way To Stifle Dissent (8 Feb)

As with misinformation, labeling someone who disagrees with the current standardthink as a “denier” has become, pardon the term, endemic amongst the woke.

Covid denier, climate denier, election denier, science denier – are all bandied about to immediately end debate, tar any difference of opinion as literally insane, and depict anyone who ever disagrees with you as stupid and evil.

This epithet is now even being used pre-emptively to makes sure that no matter what anyone who now or ever questions the move to ban gas stoves will not be doing so based on facts or logic but because of their “gas stove denialism.”

Shut up they explained.

shatterzzz
February 9, 2023 8:40 am

Look! I realise that Turkey (Turkiye) has suffered from a massive earthquake and hasthousands dead & injured but all this media crocodile tears & handwringing is a bit too much! .. I’ve never, ever met anyone who likes Turks! .. any other week the media is reporting the war mongering, endless supply of threats from Erdogan whilst backgrounding him as a paler version of King Jong Un but this week .. bit of an upheaval and we is all supposed to forget the usual let’s-laff-it-orf and sympathize …. duuuuuuuh!

I also noted, tucked away so folk who ain’t searching won’t see it something that should have made the headlines but doesn’t fit the standard media agenda for things Turkish quake related …..
Israel has sent 300 recue & medical personnel & equipment to help .. boots that are already on the ground in Turkey not looking for publicity but HELPING! ….. given the Turkish attitude to israel the Israelis are a lot more humane than me, that I can guarantee …….!

P
P
February 9, 2023 8:45 am

Cardinal George Pell’s Via Crucis in Sydney
NCR – Father Raymond J. de Souza -Vatican – February 8, 2023

But not everyone was there.

While two former Australian prime ministers attended, John Howard and Tony Abbott, ostentatious in their absence were the current prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the premier of New South Wales, Dominic Perrottet, both of whom are Catholics. Aside from Catholics honoring the great churchman, they should have been present as civic leaders at the funeral of one of Australia’s most accomplished citizens.

On the Via Dolorosa a great many who had formerly followed Jesus kept their distance. So it was in Sydney. Not only in the state, but in the Church, too.

There were churchmen who, when Cardinal Pell was under sustained and unjustified attack, kept their distance. Like the young man in Mark’s Gospel (14:52), they ran away, not naked, but in full pontificals.

That group was represented by Archbishop Denis Hart, Pell’s successor as archbishop of Melbourne. He did not come to the funeral.

It should have been a shocking absence. It was not. Archbishop Hart had long abandoned Cardinal Pell in life. His absence in death was both painful — and predictable.

Archbishop Hart and the others made their contribution to Cardinal Pell’s final via dolorosa. The scene includes both the jeering crowd and those who ran away.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 9, 2023 8:46 am

Duk he was doing it anyway but I get your point and agree generally. Its like making a donation to save the koalas and get a cuddly chinese koala and a keyring. I don’t donate to anything that has paid employees to raise money. I used to donate to Variety as they operated on donating only and voluntary workers, plus they were a great bunch of guys.

shatterzzz
February 9, 2023 8:47 am

He remembered my desire of buying a breadmaker

Coupla months ago whist op-shopping and seeing several of the, donated, machines, around the $20 mark, this idea also popped into my head .. make it yourself! ..
But before the plunge thought I’d check on what ingredients you need .. trip to Woolie ssorted that out .. sight cheaper to BUY bread than make itusing retail stuff .. LOL!

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 9, 2023 8:48 am

So tired of seeing these every damn day.

Plus the injuries.

Covered Up Tragedy: Doctors, Officials Turn Backs On Tens Of Thousands Of Seriously Vaxxed Injured (8 Feb)

Europe’s ARTE presents an English language documentary on those seriously injured by the COVID vaccine in Germany.

For Germany’s vaccine-injured, the search to get help has become a nightmare as doctors and authorities dismiss them and want nothing to do with them. “It’s psychosomatic…just be patient and everything will be okay.”

Some insist that the injuries have nothing to do with the vaccine and it’s just a coincidence. Young, athletic persons suffering sudden paralysis happens all the time!

The worst thing is there are so many people with these injuries who don’t get adequate treatment because doctors are scared. And governments and businesses are scared of the lawsuits. So they bury it, persecute anyone who dares to say anything, and leave the victims to suffer silently.

Indolent
Indolent
February 9, 2023 8:49 am
shatterzzz
February 9, 2023 8:49 am

getting old! .. never, ever seem to notice the “auto correct” errors until I’ve pressed the button .. duuuh!

Roger
Roger
February 9, 2023 8:50 am

Seems the Greens are facing a split over the Voice.

Trotskyists v. the Troika; ice picks at 30 paces.

Johnny Rotten
February 9, 2023 8:51 am

Cassie of Sydneysays:
February 9, 2023 at 8:18 am
“Johnny Rottensays:
February 9, 2023 at 7:45 am
I wonder who I can falsely accuse of rape?

That would take a lot of thinking. And, you would not do it anyway.”

Do you know women?

Apparently not. I’m divorced.

Rabz
February 9, 2023 8:54 am

I’ve never, ever met anyone who likes Turks!

I dated a Türkiyesh chick back in the early 2000s. She was absolutely gorgeous. Hated islam and Türkiyesh men, whom she denounced as “pigs”.

Indolent
Indolent
February 9, 2023 8:54 am
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 9, 2023 8:56 am

Jennifer is getting her teeth stuck in and the BoM is refusing to co operate.

I don’t like her chances unfortunately. Peter Ridd had a solid case because of his employment contract in writing, yet he still lost. And climate sceptics took on NIWA in NZ over unjustifiable temperature adjustments and lost with costs awarded against them. The judge basically said he couldn’t understand the science so therefore he couldn’t find NIWA guilty.

BoM of course will go all out. And poor Dr Marohasy may be skint after this, like Mark Steyn and Tim Ball – meanwhile Michael Mann is still up to his old tricks.

alwaysright
alwaysright
February 9, 2023 8:58 am

‘Hottest weather of summer’ set to hit

The universal narrative.

It’s tough. I’m looking down the barrel of 27C here.

Robert Sewell
February 9, 2023 9:01 am

Shatterzzz:

But before the plunge thought I’d check on what ingredients you need .. trip to Woolie ssorted that out .. sight cheaper to BUY bread than make itusing retail stuff .. LOL!

I did that – the bread I usually buy is currently $4.40 a loaf. I use three loaves a week. It’s cheaper for me to make it than buy it. (I haven’t factored in breadmaker electrical costs because I didn’t know how to do it but considering my electricity is about $60 – $70 a month, meh.)

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 9, 2023 9:05 am

Johnny Rottensays:

February 9, 2023 at 8:51
………
Do you know women?

Apparently not. I’m divorced.

Well, there’s a surprise.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
February 9, 2023 9:13 am

On Artificial Intelligence:

While thinking about PEP11, the NSW offshore gas exploration permit currently the political plaything of the Albanese Government as its gas cap strategy crashes and burns, I was scratching my brain as to whether any exploration wells have ever actually been drilled on the offshore Sydney Basin, and specifically in PEP11.

I know; I’ll ask ChatGPT to do a search for me.
Should be right up its street.

Q: What petroleum wells have been drilled on PEP11?
A: blinking cursor – [ChatGPT ‘s equivalent of stunned silence]

So, my bad, I should probably simplify and clarify the conversation…

Q: where is PEP11?

A: PEP 11 refers to Python Enhancement Proposal 11, which is a design document providing information to the Python community, or describing a new feature for Python or its processes or environment. It’s not a physical location, but a document available online in the Python Enhancement Proposals (PEPs) repository on the Python.org website.

No, no, no, no – silly computer.
Let me be a bit more specific…

Q: where is exploration permit pep11?

A: Exploration Permit PEP 11 refers to an exploration permit issued by the government of New South Wales, Australia, for the purpose of exploring an offshore area known as PEP 11. It covers an area located in the Sydney Basin, approximately 40 km off the coast of Newcastle, New South Wales. The exact location of PEP 11 may vary, but it is generally located in the waters off the coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Better (although “The exact location of PEP 11 may vary…” is a bit of a warning signal).
Now, let’s get more specific again…

Q: has there been any drilling on the offshore sydney basin?

A: Yes, there have been instances of drilling in the offshore Sydney Basin. The Sydney Basin is a major petroleum producing basin in Australia and has been the site of exploration and production activities for many decades. The Basin contains a number of offshore oil and gas fields, some of which have been developed for production. Companies operating in the Basin have conducted drilling operations, both for exploration and production purposes, to access the hydrocarbon resources present in the Basin.

Wait. What?
“The Sydney Basin is a major petroleum producing basin in Australia… The Basin contains a number of offshore oil and gas fields, some of which have been developed for production.”

No it’s not.
The offshore Sydney basin contains zero oil or gas fields and there’s no production or development at all. Now or ever. None.

Better check what Chat GPT thinks it’s on about…

Q: which offshore oil and gas fields lie in the offshore sydney basin?

A: There are several offshore oil and gas fields in the Sydney Basin, including:

Bass Basin
Gippsland Basin
Otway Basin
Perth Basin
These fields contain significant reserves of oil and natural gas, and exploration and production activities are ongoing in the Basin. The exact location and extent of these fields can vary, and new discoveries are being made in the Basin as exploration continues.

Complete twaddle. These are unrelated sedimentary basins, not fields – and the Perth basin is on the other side of the continent. Absolutely meaningless rubbish cobbled together from the lining of the internet parrot cage, confirming zero intelligence.

But delivered convincingly, with brio.

This is the future of journalism and public discussion. Braindead reliance on chatbots that establish their credentials by giving a convincing precis of John Steinbeck’s novels – and then talk complete bullshit like a front bar drunk. Or an Expert.

We are about to march backwards, whistling confidently, into a minefield of wrongness.

sfw
sfw
February 9, 2023 9:14 am

I went on a ‘Walk to Cure Cancer’ once, there were several thousand of us, we walked for hours but not one of us discovered how to cure cancer.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
February 9, 2023 9:14 am

Of course Labor wants government to be Daddy and Mummy too – Bettina Arndt has asked that this article be shared – a bit long sorry but as Nonni and the only grandparents my grandchildren have, I don’t want to be shut out, ever.

Winner takes all
Labor’s new family law bill panders to feminists by pushing divorced dads out of children’s lives.

Bettina Arndt
16 hr ago

This week a television crew from the Japanese public broadcaster came to Sydney to interview family law specialist Justin Dowd, a former President of the NSW Law Society. Japan is considering a move away from mum-custody towards “joint parental authority” – which recognizes that it’s in the best interests of children to have both mum and dad remain involved in their care.

The Japanese crew came to Australia because they acknowledge this country as one of the world leaders in encouraging separated parents to share decisions about raising their kids. That achievement stems from John Howard’s path-breaking 2006 reforms promoting “equal shared parental responsibility” which resulted in a major increase in care from dads, more shared care, better relations between parents, and less litigation. The result was improved children‘s well-being, according to UNSW research, and the reforms were a big hit with the public, “overwhelmingly supported by parents, legal professionals, and family relationship service professionals,” according to research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

Yet Justin Dowd had to tell the Japanese crew that it’s all now at risk. The Labor government has just announced draft legislation that will take Australia back to the dark ages of the winner-takes-all custody model. “The Albanese government went back to the future this week,” pronounced the Australian Financial Review (AFR) spelling out the proposed laws which would end of any notion of shared parental responsibility, shifting the power in divorce battles firmly back into women’s hands.

This is huge, people. This dastardly political attack on our society will undermine the welfare of children, ramp up hostility between parents, and swell the coffers of lawyers who will benefit from the appalling fallout. Yet our media and politicians will no doubt avert their eyes to this impending catastrophe and just usher the new laws through – unless we stop them.

Back in 2007, I was approached by a retiring family court judge, keen to enlighten me on how the family court had gone astray. The problem? “The woman has had all the power, the man almost none.” In the judge’s view, children were missing out on vital contact with both parents due to decisions to award sole custody to the primary carer. “The custodial parent has been all-powerful. She – it’s usually she – has had the power to regulate access, sometimes regardless of court orders. She’s had complete authority to live anywhere, with the child, that she desires. The power to determine the child’s school, church, decisions about day-to-day living, and the power to get a greater slice of the matrimonial cake. More often than not that power is exercised unreasonably.”

The Howard reforms very effectively eroded that power and, ever since, feminists have worked feverishly to get it back – regardless of the cost to children. Now comes their reward for marshalling the women’s vote to help Labor regain government. It’s payback time… and Labor has come good by offering women the greatest prize of all – the children.

According to bright new world of Family Law being promised by the Albanese government, the following will no longer be deemed important in making decisions about children’s care:

Ensuring children benefit from meaningful involvement with both parents.

Children’s right to know and be cared for by both parents.

Children’s right to spend regular time with both parents and other significant people like grandparents.

Parents jointly sharing duties and responsibilities for the kids’ care and development.

Parents agreeing about future parenting of children.

All gone. All the language that provided the scaffolding that enabled children to have divorced dads remain part of their lives is being ripped out of the legislation. The AFR headline said it all: “Time’s up for ‘equal rights’ in court custody battles.”

Family Law professor Patrick Parkinson, who advised the Howard government when the 2006 reforms were introduced, warns that dads will be “cut out” by the proposed family law changes. Parkinson has produced a detailed submission exposing the flaws in the proposed changes. (This submission will eventually be publicly available as part of an inquiry into the proposed changes but please contact me if you’d like to see it now.)

“Under the guise of simplification, it actually involves radical change and radical reversal,” Parkinson says, pointing out that the government is misleading the public in claiming support from various public inquiries for this move. In fact, neither the 2019 Law Reform Commission review nor a recent parliamentary committee recommended removing the pivotal section promoting “equal shared parental responsibility,” although they did suggest some changes.

Here’s where Labor’s Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus, really gets sneaky. He justifies removing this critical section, 61DA, by claiming the language of “equal shared” responsibility has deluded daft dads into thinking that they might just be entitled to equal time with their own kids. The AG’s consultation paper spells this out, explaining that the proposed repeal of this section is “a response to substantial evidence of community misconception about the law – that is, that parenting arrangements after separation are based on a parent’s entitlement to equal time, rather than an assessment of what arrangements serve the children’s best interests.”

Dreyfus is also tossing out the other key sections which gave dads hope of fair treatment, namely 65DAA which requires courts to consider equal time or substantial/significant time, as a possible parenting option.

As Parkinson points out, the proposed new laws “stripped almost all references which encourage the meaningful involvement of both parents in relation to the child after separation” – references which have been used for almost three decades to inform negotiations for parents who have “bargained in the shadow of the law.” And equally, to guide lawyers, mediators and family consultants helping parents through this process. The risk is we could go back to vicious winner-takes-all battles for the children – described by family lawyer Geoff Sinclair in the AFR as “full-on disputes – there was no silver medal. You either won or lost, and the prize was the children.” Sinclair is hopeful this won’t happen.

Now the new family law will be all about safety. The first consideration under the proposed legislation is what orders are best to promote safety for the child or carers. That’s hardly a surprise. Feminists have been using the violence card to undermine father’s contact with their children since the 2006 laws were first introduced, with constant claims about violent dads putting children at risk, and legal efforts to beef up safety considerations working very effectively to shut fathers out of children’s lives.

They’ve done a brilliant job hushing up the key statistic which puts a lie to the claim that so many dads pose a risk to their children – namely that only 1.2% of women are physically assaulted by their male partner or ex-parent each year in Australia, according to the most recent 2016 Personal Safety survey. Physical violence is blessedly rare.

No wonder they place so much emphasis on the tiny numbers of cases which actually make it through to court – complex cases, often involving mental health problems, which fail to be resolved through alternative dispute resolution. Oh yes, there’s violence here – often these cases come festooned with allegations of violence or emotional abuse from both sides. Yet there’s AIFS research showing more fathers than mothers held concerns about their children’s safety, often involving harm inflicted by mum’s boyfriend.

“Any reform of the law needs to be more sophisticated and nuanced than to be premised on an assumption that almost all perpetrators are male and almost all victims are female,” argues Parkinson yet this is precisely the main thrust of Labor’s proposed new family law. And naturally, the media laps it up. “Draft bill aims to improve safety for separating families,” applauded The Guardian. “Family law overhaul aimed at stopping abusive partners manipulating the system,” ran the SMH headline.

It’s another superb victory for the feminists, one more achievement for their mighty domestic violence juggernaut, which already works a treat stacking the family law system to favour women. Currently all it takes is one vague claim that violence could occur, requiring zero supportive evidence, to set in train a sequence of events starting with Dad being removed from the home, denied contact with children and, if he’s lucky, ending up paying big money to see his own children in our hellish supervised contact services. And mum gains all the perks, benefits and supports that come with victim status. It’s totally irresistible.

Labor’s latest move didn’t surprise me – they have form. I watched in horror when Labor regained power in 2007 and immediately appointed a fierce critic of shared custody, psychologist Jennifer McIntosh, to study overnight care by dads of infants and toddlers. Her devastating research results came to be used to deny dads overnight care of young children, not only in Australia but across the world before her research was eventually denounced by a team of international experts.

Phillip Ruddock, the Attorney General who implemented the Howard government reforms, pointed out at the time that Labor has always been keen to wind back efforts to promote divorced dads’ involvement with children. “They’ve long been captured by the female lobby determined to retain sole control over their children.”

Now’s the time to stand up and show ordinary Australians won’t stand for this attack on children’s right to be cared for by both parents. We need very quickly to get active and make enough noise to convince the politicians currently basking in feminist accolades that we are not letting them slip this one through.

I need all of you to make your voices heard – in every way possible:

Priority one is visiting local federal parliamentarians and strongly expressing concern.

Use your media contacts to raise proper discussion of this vital issue.

Warn organisations involving older people that grandparents could also be pushed out of children’s lives.

Post on social media, encourage men’s groups to get active, join public discussions.

Here are some ideas you can use to make a submission to the Attorney-General’s Department inquiry. Either email it to [email protected] or upload it here. (Note – ignore the structured questionnaire which doesn’t allow input on the important changes.)

Send the email to your local federal MPs and Senators.

We can’t afford to just sit back and let them get away with unwinding the legal framework that did so much to improve the lives of fathers and their children.

flyingduk
flyingduk
February 9, 2023 9:17 am

Why is not only China, but much of the world laughing at the US and the rest of the rapidly decaying West?

https://patriotpost.us/memes/94745-why-so-bold-2023-02-07

No further questions your honour…

Dot
Dot
February 9, 2023 9:19 am

Imma gonna go out now and travel through our desert interior as a first time tourist.

It’s okay, I have planned the trip using ChatGPT.

Dot
Dot
February 9, 2023 9:21 am

Yet Justin Dowd had to tell the Japanese crew that it’s all now at risk. The Labor government has just announced draft legislation that will take Australia back to the dark ages of the winner-takes-all custody model. “The Albanese government went back to the future this week,” pronounced the Australian Financial Review (AFR) spelling out the proposed laws which would end of any notion of shared parental responsibility, shifting the power in divorce battles firmly back into women’s hands.

This is huge, people. This dastardly political attack on our society will undermine the welfare of children, ramp up hostility between parents, and swell the coffers of lawyers who will benefit from the appalling fallout. Yet our media and politicians will no doubt avert their eyes to this impending catastrophe and just usher the new laws through – unless we stop them.

Time to “pop smoke and ghost” gentlemen.

flyingduk
flyingduk
February 9, 2023 9:21 am

I know ‘Cairns News’ is pretty much the modern iteration of the Melbourne ‘Truth’ newspaper, but I would like to know more about the legal ins an outs of this apparently successful manoeuvre to defeat the Victorian Courts in a COVID matter.

https://cairnsnews.org/2023/02/08/former-magistrate-heilpern-told-porkies-that-covid-fines-cannot-be-challenged-and-thrown-out-this-one-did-not-even-start/

If its like the ACT, I suspect the Court system is thoroughly sick of having their workload increased by BS charges being pursued against ordinary citizens.

JC
JC
February 9, 2023 9:28 am

I don’t know if anyone reported this as it was about a month ago. Richard Lindzen was on Jordan Peterson’s podcast. Man, he just rips the gerbil warming industry a new one.

The models , as everyone here knows, are complete crap. It’s an industry tainted with corruption and hysterical non-science.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7LVSrTZDopM

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
February 9, 2023 9:29 am

On our plane trip home a little boy was separated from his dad by a few rows of seats and spent most of the trip calling for him until a kind passenger swapped seats to allow the dad to be in arms length of the boy.
It reminded me how important dads are to little kids and the huge anxiety created in a child when they’re not there.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 9, 2023 9:31 am

I dated a Türkiyesh chick back in the early 2000s. She was absolutely gorgeous. Hated islam and Türkiyesh men, whom she denounced as “pigs”.

The exception disapproving the rule.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 9, 2023 9:35 am

Voice or sovereignty: Lidia Thorpe has revealed the real Blak agenda. Peta Credlin

12:00AM February 9, 2023
Comments

This week’s defection from the Greens of Senator Lidia Thorpe was so much more than your stock-standard act of political betrayal. It has provided a window into the real agenda behind the proposed voice, which is much more about who really owns Australia than it is about recognition and consultation.

Anthony Albanese keeps saying the voice is no more than a “modest but meaningful” change about being polite to the First Australians. What he doesn’t say is that the voice is just one element in the demands of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, to which he and his government are fully committed. As recently as last weekend, at the Chifley Research Centre, he said: “I am proud to lead a government committed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.”

The Uluru Statement expressly states “our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign nations of the Australian continent” and that “this sovereignty … has never been ceded or extinguished”. According to the statement, its signatories don’t just want a voice enshrined in the Constitution; they want what they call a “Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth telling about history”.
Read Next

So the argument between Lidia Thorpe and the Greens is about means, not ends; it’s about what comes first: voice or treaty. Thorpe says that accepting the voice prejudices the call for sovereignty. The rest of the Greens say (and the Albanese government never contradicts them) that the voice is just the first step towards the treaties that will eventually enshrine Aboriginal sovereignty and forever change the broader concept of Australian sovereignty for everyone else. Indeed, that’s exactly what Adam Bandt, the Greens leader, declared on Monday: that he’s supporting the voice precisely because he had received “guarantees” from the government “on sovereignty and funding to progress treaty and truth”.

When the PM was asked about sovereignty at the weekend, he left the door open on Indigenous claims; he certainly didn’t state that any Indigenous sovereignty had been extinguished by the settlement of Australia or by the growth over two centuries of the migrant population. Instead, he danced around it, saying that the referendum will have “no impact on the issue of sovereignty”.

But that’s not what his senior colleagues think. Labor senator Pat Dodson has said at various times that the whole point of the voice is that “we are seeking recognition of our sovereign status” and that the voice is about “addressing the tyranny of Indigenous dispossession”. Then there’s Labor’s Senator Malarndirri McCarthy who recently said: “We’ve never ceded sovereignty, and do you think I’d stand by and let that happen?”

No one should be surprised the PM is trying to square the circle between Indigenous activists who want the voice to rewrite history, as if the British and 25 million others hadn’t come here starting 250 years back; and those people whose ancestry doesn’t extend back beyond 1788 and who won’t appreciate being told they’re lesser Australians. The surprise is that Albanese is being allowed to get away with reassurances that simply don’t add up.

As the historian and editor Keith Windschuttle has pointed out, the coming referendum should not be seen “merely as a sympathetic means of eroding the marginality of Indigenous people in remote communities but as a potential threat to Australia’s unique geographic and political status”. He says, in an article in last September’s Quadrant magazine, that the Indigenous activist class simply won’t accept their position as just another minority group in a ­diverse society – “its members want political power commensurate, not with their numbers in the population, but with the fact that they got here first”. To the activist class, he says, “closing the gap” has never really been about improving the lot of poor Aboriginal people but about re-establishing Indigenous people as the rightful possessors and titleholders to Australia.

Far from being against Indigenous sovereignty, the green-Labor alliance wants to entrench it, with ever more race-based separatism, on the understanding that Indigenous people have so far come off worse in the clash of civilisations. As early as 1982, the nationally elected National Aboriginal Conference declared that sovereignty required the eventual establishment of “Aboriginal states” that would evolve into “separate nations”. “The status thus created would be an interim for as long as the Aboriginal nation needed to evolve to the point of being able to exercise the right of self-determination”.

A close inspection of what’s under way across the Tasman is ­illustrative of the activists’ co-governance endgame.

As Windschuttle says, voters in the referendum should “recognise that its ultimate objective is the establishment of a politically separate race of people and the potential break up of Australia”. Hence the question: precisely what guarantees has the government given to the Greens, as affirmed by Bandt, on sovereignty, on treaty and on truth? And what promises have been made to Aboriginal leaders like Dodson? On all these questions, the PM is increasingly slippery. Perhaps because he knows only too well that if he answers them in a way that would satisfy the green-left, he would also reveal to voters this voice is a Trojan Horse to change Australia forever.

Fundamentally, what’s at stake in this debate is: who really runs Australia? Is it the parliament elected by all Australian citizens; or is it the parliament, provided the 800,000 Indigenous people represented by the voice don’t object?

The Blak Sovereign Movement that Senator Thorpe says she now represents wants every homeowner to pay 1 per cent of wages to the relevant Indigenous body as a tax or rent to the original inhabitants whom, she says, are still really the current legal owners of Australia. According to Thorpe, those who came since 1788, and their descendants, are permissive tenants only with no absolute right to be here.

How’s that for creating two classes of citizen based on people’s ancestry? If nothing else, it undermines the decades-old multicultural push that newly arrived Australians are just as much citizens of this country as those with convict-era heritage. Should this voice pass, be under no illusion about what will then happen: Australia Day will change; there will be more demands to rewrite history; and there will be a multitude of treaties at all levels of government between our country and small groups of its citizens.

And ultimately, there will be demands for more payments from taxpayers to Aboriginal Australians – on top of the $30bn a year that the Productivity Commission estimates is currently spent on Indigenous programs.

To be clear, it’s not the spending I begrudge but the lack of outcomes tied to it, and the industry that’s grown up around the suffering of mainly women and children in remote communities that seem perversely incentivised for the suffering to continue in order to secure their next round of funding.

By blowing up the sovereignty issue this week, Thorpe might have inadvertently shaken voters out of their complacency.

The voice is not just about being polite and respectful to Aboriginal people. It’s about whether Australia belongs to all of us – or to just some of us – with the rest of us being barely tolerated interlopers.

Dot
Dot
February 9, 2023 9:37 am

What are we actually voting for or against so far?

Dot
Dot
February 9, 2023 9:39 am

The Blak Sovereign Movement that Senator Thorpe says she now represents wants every homeowner to pay 1 per cent of wages to the relevant Indigenous body as a tax or rent to the original inhabitants whom, she says, are still really the current legal owners of Australia. According to Thorpe, those who came since 1788, and their descendants, are permissive tenants only with no absolute right to be here.

Good luck with that you idiots. This inflammatory, fallacious, racist garbage and it will bear poisonous fruit.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 9, 2023 9:39 am

Clover Moore under fire as residents threaten to stop paying rates over Sydney garbage bin strike

Sydney’s broken down rubbish collection has residents questioning why they should pay their council rates, with fed up locals threatening to stop forking out until their waste is collected.

Fed up inner city residents are threatening to boycott paying their rates, citing Sydney’s waste collection breakdown as the reason.

The growing crisis resulting in the city’s streets becoming “filthy” with refuse has hit a new high with up to 24,000 rubbish bins going uncollected on Tuesday – while a backlog of bulky waste pick-ups has resulted in new collections being suspended for almost a month.

The City of Sydney has pinned the blame on industrial action by garbage truck drivers against their employer, with Lord Mayor Clover Moore holding urgent meetings with the city’s cleaning contractor Cleanaway’s chief executive to discuss the crisis.

But the measures mean little to angry councillors who say the Lord Mayor has presided over months of worsening rubbish collections unrelated to the latest industrial action.

Outraged Councillor Yvonne Weldon said the situation had reached “crisis point” and left people living in filthy streets, with waves of residents calling her and questioning whether they would pay their rates.

“I’ve had emails and phone calls from residents who are threatening to not pay rates,” she said.

“In fact, I’ve spoken to some residents who have had to fork out to dispose of waste by other means. They want to know if the City of Sydney will reimburse them.”

She said it was time for the council to at least allow residents to drop off large items at a depot, like other councils.

Labor Clr Linda Scott said she was being “overwhelmed with complaints from every corner of the city of Sydney experiencing missed waste collections”.

Liberal Clr Shauna Jarrett added the Lord Mayor’s “Team Clover” “should be delivering basic council services and also promoting Sydney as Australia’s global city rather than let it be run down with filthy streets and a lack of services”.

A spokesman for Lord Mayor Clover Moore confirmed she had met with the management of Cleanaway “and urged them to resolve the industrial dispute as soon as possible to return the high level of service expected”.

“The current industrial dispute and service disruptions are not related to other City expenditure and would not be solved by cutting budget line items. There has been no reprioritisation away from essential waste services,” he said.

The Lord Mayor added following their meeting with Cleanaway that she had been assured “bulky waste services will resume as normal from the end of next week, with additional resources being allocated specifically to this service”.

Darlinghurst resident Patrick Mazza was one constituent who threatened to boycott paying his rates.

“What am I paying rates for? One of the council’s key responsibilities is waste and vermin control and they’re not doing it,” he said.

“You’d be hard pressed finding a house under two million dollars in my street … and we’re dealing with this.”

At the same time Surry Hills resident Julie Waters has had to live with a broken down stove and clothes dryer sitting in her loungeroom since December.

Unluckily for the retiree, both large items stopped working just as the council stopped its normal collection on bulky items.

“It’s been a nightmare,” she said. “My stove died the week before Christmas, and my clothes dryer also died in December and they are both still sitting in my loungeroom waiting to be collected.”

Comments are not supportive of Clover:

Tom

Well, a majority of residents voted in this sorry excuse for a council. They are too occupied with woke causes to take out the trash, thank you very much!

Richard

Those who voted for them need to admit they were wrong and chuck them all out at the next council elections.

Nicky

The Empress has no clothes. Any one with half a brain can see that but unfortunately my fellow City of Sydney residents are mainly drongo progressives.

and so on. Daily Tele

Diogenes
Diogenes
February 9, 2023 9:43 am

thousand of us, we walked for hours but not one of us discovered how to cure cancer.

My favourite is, because again standards of language are falling, “We’re raising money for breast cancer”. “What you want more of it?”

Dot
Dot
February 9, 2023 9:43 am

Paulie “Walnuts” Gaultieri says it all about this stupid “Aboriginal Peerage tax”.

It is the last word on the matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mip3X-2jMA

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 9, 2023 9:44 am

This has been remarked upon several times, most notably by Gez and the great lamented John Constantine – however, I will add some lesser quality input into the state of country roads in Victoria and their degeneration over time.

There are roadworks from time to time, such as what appears to be (justified) complete rebuilds of 3-4km section stretches about 20km out of Horsham and just the other side of Rupanyup, but it is very obvious that any repairs done are strictly patchwork and on a shoestring. Usually it’s just a localised – and I mean anything from the size of a blanket to the length of a backyard – bitumen pour into the affected area.

Naturally, when anything bigger than a minibus goes over it, it pushes the bitchy to the side which creates both a new hole in the surface and a mound of crap off to one side – of both both are to be avoided at all costs going over 60kph. Bear in mind, this is a ‘repaired’ road surface – and that’s on a ‘highway’.

The smaller connecting roads are even worse, with no shoulder and road surface worn away over up to half its width. I am reliably informed that the allegedly sealed road from Beulah to Rainbow is only navigable at 40kph or less. Blown tyres, shock damage and excess vibration is the norm for grain trucks and anything else attempting to get through them.

In contrast, out in the Latrobe Valley last week the roads were without exception obviously both maintained and constructed properly in the first place. Out here there are entire stretches where the confluence of holes, mounds and resulting camber changes pinballs you across and over outbound and inbound lanes with no notice, and there’s no doubt that there are unwary drivers no longer around to talk about them.

There is the ongoing shitfight between local and State government as to who is responsible for this travesty. Tellingly, I am also reliably informed that whenever State pollies travel north of Ararat, they fly.

There appears to be an endless supply of free cash for noodle-armed aspiring barista/sculptors in this State, but bugger all for the people who both live and work out of sight of Spring Street, and who also put bread in supermarkets.

Heading back to Mongyang, along some of those roads shortly – aside from a small patch between Stawell and Ararat around Great Western (and the abovementioned works), the roadway south of Rupanyup – almost the exact end of wheat country – is smooth as catshit.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 9, 2023 9:45 am

Awww, sads.

AGL Energy posts first-half loss amid decarbonisation (9 Feb)

The power company’s net loss was $1.075 billion in the six months to December 31, AGL said in a statement to the ASX on Thursday. The main drivers were $706 million in asset impairments from an accelerated decarbonisation plan and a change in the value of financial instruments, AGL said.

I love screams of agony from companies who go green. GWGB.

Dot
Dot
February 9, 2023 9:45 am

Write them a promissory note, Diogenes, to the value of “You will catch more flies with honey than vinegar”.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
February 9, 2023 9:49 am

Yesterday Karl Stephanovic said he and others had had enough vaccines and he was more concerned about the effects of the Vax than the virus. Ben Fordham also had a 5 minutes segment on vaccine injuries sparked by a speach in parliament.

Daily Mail covered the Karl segment well and got over 500 comments.
News com au mentioned it briefly but did not allow comments. The Oz ignored the story. Courier Mail mentioned jab 5 but not Karl and were clearly suppressing comments in one article that allowed comments but only had 2 after 10 hours.

Neil Breen of 4BC happily counting down to his 5th jab.

The media it must be said again are totally failing the public.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 9, 2023 9:51 am

Sidernee ratepayers should revert to the time-honoured backyard incinerator – or, failing that, backyard bonfires as waste disposal tools.

See how quick good old Clover comes to the table then.

Dot
Dot
February 9, 2023 9:51 am

Neil Breen of 4BC happily counting down to his 5th jab.

I hope he gets as many as his body will allow needles to stick in him.

Go for gold, Neil!

Roger
Roger
February 9, 2023 9:51 am

The Blak Sovereign Movement that Senator Thorpe says she now represents wants every homeowner to pay 1 per cent of wages to the relevant Indigenous body…

Last week it was $12.50 per homeowner per week.

What will it be next week?

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 9, 2023 10:02 am

The Federalist picks up the Hersh story.
12 hours and zero mainstream coverage.

shatterzzz
February 9, 2023 10:03 am

The Blak Sovereign Movement that Senator Thorpe says she now represents wants every homeowner to pay 1 per cent of wages to the relevant Indigenous body

Reality is when you’ve 5 years of bludging and troughin’ off the taxpayer to go you can say. squeal whatever you like without fear of consequences .. added to that being a media flavour-of-the-month centre-fold means all your wackiness getz full coverage ……
remember the good, old dayz when Sassy Two Daddies was the media “sweeheart” now she’s been replaced by Vroom, vroom, Lidia of the pack .. same old Green BS … different head ..!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 9, 2023 10:07 am

Plibersek kills Clive Palmer’s coal mine

Jacob Greber – Senior correspondent

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has slammed the door on a controversial Clive Palmer-owned central Queensland coal mine project, potentially setting a powerful precedent for her to block almost two dozen other proposed fossil fuel projects.

The decision marks the first time that a minister has used Australia’s 22-year-old Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to reject a coal mine, raising expectations Ms Plibersek will use her powers to halt other projects that threaten biodiversity and habitat loss.

Her department last year agreed to a request from environmental lawyers to reconsider decisions made by previous ministers dating back to 2011, including for Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Whitehaven and Glencore projects.

Ms Plibersek, who vowed in December that Labor would halt new extinctions of plants and animals on its watch, said the proposed mine would cause irreversible damage to nearby coastal habitats and release destructive sediment into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Region.

Her move also indicates the minister accepted warnings from scientists that there could be no way for Mr Palmer to mitigate the mine’s impact on the environment.

Located less than 10 kilometres from the reef and 130 kilometres north-west of Rockhampton, the mine, which was formerly known as the Styx Basin project, would have involved two open cut pits producing up to 10 million tonnes of coal per year for export.

“I have decided not to approve the Central Queensland Coal Project because the risks to the Great Barrier Reef, freshwater creeks and groundwater are too great,” Ms Plibersek said on Wednesday.

“Freshwater creeks run into the Great Barrier Reef and onto seagrass meadows that feed dugongs and provide breeding grounds for fish.”

‘It’s a political decision’

Mr Palmer, who splurged an estimated $117 million at the last election, including against many Labor candidates, slammed the decision as a “farce” that would discourage foreign investment in Australia.

“We’re getting advice on it,” he told The Australian Financial Review on whether he would appeal. “It obviously wasn’t a decision made on the merits. It’s a political decision.

“It’s contrary to what human nature is. You want to create and develop wealth. You want to increase the pie, so we can protect our community with government revenue and GDP. It’s going contrary to the natural interests of the people of Australia.”

The decision follows almost six months of consultation by the Department of Environment after Ms Plibersek announced her intention to reject the project on August 1.

The department received more than 9000 public comments on the proposed decision, with more than 98 per cent supportive of the minister’s planned rejection.

Greens threat

The decision adds to another landmark ruling in December by the Queensland land court, which refused approval for Mr Palmer’s Galilee mine because it would worsen the global climate crisis.

News of the decision came as Adam Bandt put Labor on notice the Greens would seek to amend legislation for a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to ensure it could not invest in coal and gas.

The government says the fund will focus on stimulating sovereign capability in seven areas: value-adding in resources; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; transport; medical science; renewables and low-emission technologies; defence capability; and enabling capabilities such as fintech, artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum physics.

While these priority areas have been determined by the government, investment decisions in individual projects will be made by an independent board at arm’s length from government.

‘First step in rejecting new fossil fuel projects’

“There is an unacceptable level of risk with this legislation that this government, or subsequent governments, have almost unlimited discretion to declare ‘priority areas’ for a gas-fired recovery or a coal mine renaissance,” Mr Bandt said.

“There is a serious possibility that this $15 billion fund could be turned into a ministerial vessel for fossil fuel finance.

“There is nothing in the legislation itself to prevent investment in coal and gas, or in projects that would lock in and extend the use of coal and gas. Anything the Government of the day chooses to support could be declared NRF priorities in the future.”

Australian Marine Conservation Society campaigner Cherry Muddle said Ms Plibersek had listened to the scientists and community by rejecting the Palmer project.

“This is the first time the Australian government has rejected a coal mine after federal assessment and should be the first step in rejecting new fossil fuel projects,” she said.

“The International Energy Agency has said we cannot start any new fossil fuel projects if we are to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – a critical threshold for the survival of coral reefs.

“Australia and Queensland need to embrace the massive economic and job opportunities in renewable energy. We have some of the best and most abundant renewable energy resources in the world and can become a renewable energy superpower, powering the industries of the future.”

Environmental Advocacy in Central Queensland director Coral Rowston said recent flooding demonstrated the risk to the reef of projects such as Mr Palmer’s.

“If the Central Queensland Coal Project had been in operation last month when we were in flood, it would have pumped millions of litres of toxic wastewater directly into the Broad Sound fish habitat area – a vital nursery for many species vital to the Reef’s health and our fishery industry,” she said.

Ms Plibersek’s department is reconsidering the potential referral under the EPBC act of 18 coal and gas projects that environmental activists say will damage the climate.

She is also working on the biggest overhaul of the EPBC act since it became law in 2000, including the creation of an independent Environmental Protection Agency charged with policing and punishing companies that damage the environment.

Changes to the EPBC will likely need the support of Greens and independent senators including David Pocock, who late last year said their support would be contingent on the creation of an explicit climate trigger as well as outright bans on new coal and gas projects.

The act currently does not require companies to demonstrate how their activities would worsen climate change.

Last year’s damning State of the Environment Report found bushfires and climate change are increasingly savaging Australia’s environment, accelerating mammal species extinctions to the fastest pace of any other continent.

Ms Plibersek seized on the report as a call to arms and promised to establish an environmental watchdog that would protect landscapes and biodiversity.

“Queensland’s future is as a renewable energy powerhouse, not as a coal quarry,” said Australian Conservation Foundation spokeswoman Jaclyn McCosker.

“We urge Minister Plibersek to keep listening to scientific experts and the community and reject the dozens of other coal proposals waiting for final approval.”

Australia will be Totally Stuffed Under Labor/Greens/Liberals – Why owuld anyone invest in Australia?

Delta A
Delta A
February 9, 2023 10:08 am

Farmer Gezsays:
February 9, 2023 at 8:04 am

Excellent comment, Gez.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 9, 2023 10:08 am

The Federalist picks up the Hersh story.

IBT has it, but yes I’ve not even seen Breitbart pick it up yet.

lotocoti
lotocoti
February 9, 2023 10:09 am

Why is not only China, but much of the world laughing at the US …

History rhymes:
In peacetime training, we’ve gone for too damn much folderol. We’ve put too much stress on Information and Education and not enough stress on rifle marksmanship and scouting and patrolling and the organisation of a defensive position …
… They’d been nursed and coddled, told to drive safely, to buy War Bonds, to give to the Red Cross, to avoid VD, to write home to mother – when somebody ought to have been telling them how to clear a machine gun when it jams …
Col John Michaelis
27th infantry
Korea 1950.

Roger
Roger
February 9, 2023 10:10 am

“It’s been a nightmare,” she said. “My stove died the week before Christmas, and my clothes dryer also died in December and they are both still sitting in my loungeroom waiting to be collected.”

Am I to understand you can’t hire a “bloke with ute” in the City of Sydney?

Dot
Dot
February 9, 2023 10:17 am

A lot of people vote for the Greens to to stick it to the ALP and LNP.

They don’t even care what policies they have.

Pogria
Pogria
February 9, 2023 10:17 am

Woo hoo! Bruce is going Scorched Earth.

Jorge
Jorge
February 9, 2023 10:19 am

I’ve been rereading Malcom Muggeridge’s memoir, the second volume ‘The Infernal Grove’ …

Muggeridge anticipated so much of our decline.

He worked in the media all his life but by the end had a kind of Swiftian loathing for it.

His autobiography and his life remain unsung but he is like one of those sinner/saints who remain unheralded for centuries, but eventully his true significance can be seen.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 9, 2023 10:20 am

It was only a matter of time until the Aboriginal Industry moved to a subscription service model. It’s very popular elsewhere.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
February 9, 2023 10:23 am

folderol

What a beautiful word – perfect description of the issues concerning the Leftists which have imbeggared and immiserated the Western world.

Roger
Roger
February 9, 2023 10:24 am

If we’re only tenants will they replace my hot water system when it goes bung?

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 9, 2023 10:24 am

As Pogria highlights above, Bruce has lawyered up:

Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann has warned the ABC he will sue for defamation over its broadcast of the National Press Club address by Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame in February last year unless it takes down the YouTube video of the event, apologises and pays compensation.

In a concerns notice sent to the ABC on Wednesday, Mr Lehrmann’s lawyers say the broadcast was “a malicious and an apparent contemptuous attempt by the ABC to prejudice the jury” in the rape case against him.

They say even though Mr Lehrmann was not named in the broadcast, he was identifiable to many viewers because of the extensive reporting – including by the ABC – that he was the man accused of, and charged with, the sexual assault of Ms Higgins.

If the ABC did not take the video down within 28 days, Mr Lehrmann would “immediately institute proceedings”, lawyer Mark O’Brien said.

At time of writing, the video was still available on the ABC’s YouTube site and had been watched more than 126,000 times over the past 11 months.

The concerns notice comes a day after Mr Lehrmann sued Channel 10 and star presenter Lisa Wilkinson for defamation, accusing them of seeking to exploit allegations of sexual ­assault against him for ­personal and professional gain.

Oz

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 9, 2023 10:24 am

Plibbers and Albo have got the Greens breathing down their necks. They’ll both be the last Liars to hold those seats.

Roger
Roger
February 9, 2023 10:26 am

A lot of people vote for the Greens to to stick it to the ALP and LNP.

They don’t even care what policies they have.

They will when they have to pay for them.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 9, 2023 10:28 am

I expect in some nondescript LA building they are discussing the least cost method to dump Mrs Pirate Pete.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 9, 2023 10:31 am

They will when they have to pay for them.

Roger – that assumes people can connect the dots. I would describe that assumption as heroic.

Miltonf
Miltonf
February 9, 2023 10:31 am

I hate our pollimuppets as much as they hate Australia.

Pogria
Pogria
February 9, 2023 10:33 am

Gawd, it’s pouring rain and cold down here. Considering lighting a fire.

Cassie of Sydney
February 9, 2023 10:33 am

“Bruce has lawyered up:”

Go Bruce.

Buccaneer
Buccaneer
February 9, 2023 10:38 am

Reuters picked up the Hersh story

Roger
Roger
February 9, 2023 10:41 am

Roger – that assumes people can connect the dots. I would describe that assumption as heroic.

Reality is going to be pretty grim in watermelon world.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 9, 2023 10:43 am

Now Sundance

Details Surface of Biden Administration Deliberately Destroying Nord Stream Pipeline, Then Lying About It Repeatedly

February 8, 2023 – Sundance

One of the things about big lies is the sheer weight they create, and the effort needed to maintain them. Everyone of reasonably intelligent disposition knew the Russians did not blow up their own Nord Stream gas pipeline last year; they had no motive to do so. All indications were always that the U.S. government conducted the operation and then obfuscated blame toward Russia.

Investigative journalist Mr. Seymour Hersh now writes a comprehensive outline showcasing just how the Biden operation to destroy Nord Stream was conducted. [SEE HERE]

As the article notes, initially in the planning stage, Joe Biden and his administration were all in for the operation, assuming of course the resulting action -essentially a declaration of war- came with plausible deniability.

What is unclear, despite all the details revealed, is whether in the final decision-making Joe Biden actually had anything to do with it; or whether the dark handlers running his covert administration from the Intel and State Dept., felt they had enough prior approval to just carry out the order without him.

As a reminder, in late September 2022, Joe Biden denied the U.S. involvement…. He lied.

For the U.S. to deliberately attack the Nord Stream gas pipeline, that is a direct act of war against a sovereign country, Russia.

The coverup of this story is going to make the coverup of all prior Obama/Biden stories pale in comparison.

Miltonf
Miltonf
February 9, 2023 10:46 am

Yes Bruce L shows lawyers have their users. It’s about time these meja parasites were put in their place.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 9, 2023 10:46 am

Bill Gates Says It’s OK For Him To Use Private Jets — He’s “The Solution” To Enviro Change

In a cringe inducing interview with a BBC reporter, Bill Gates argued that it’s perfectly fine for him to fly around the world on private jets because he’s doing much more than anyone else to combat climate change.

Gates claimed that because he continues to “spend billions of dollars” on climate change activism, his carbon footprint isn’t an issue.

“Should I stay at home and not come to Kenya and learn about farming and malaria?” Gates said in the interview with Amol Rajan.

“I’m comfortable with the idea that not only am I not part of the problem by paying for the offsets, but also through the billions that my Breakthrough Energy Group is spending, that I’m part of the solution,” Gates added.

Most recently, Gates flew around Australia on board his $70 million dollar luxury private jet lecturing people about climate change.

Gates, who has declared that the energy crisis is a good thing, owns no fewer than FOUR private jets at a combined cost of $194 million dollars.

A study carried out by Linnaeus University economics professor Stefan Gössling found that Gates flew more than 213,000 miles on 59 private jet flights in 2017 alone.

Gates emitted an estimated 1,760 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, over a hundred times more than the emissions per capita in the United States, according to data from the World Bank.

Elsewhere during the carefully constructed interview, Gates said he was surprised that he was targeted by ‘conspiracy theorists’ for pushing vaccines during the pandemic.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
February 9, 2023 10:46 am

She – it’s usually she – has had the power to regulate access, sometimes regardless of court orders.

Deny access to kids in violation of the court order.
Cant be prosecuted or punished because ‘its not in the best interest of the children”

In a stunning and brave example of how the courts work.

Have the kids.
Dump kids on dad after the amounts to be deducted from dads wage are calculated.
Go to court to get kids back off dad just before next calculation is due.
Rinse/repeat for 7 years.

And when dad goes to agency to point out hes paying for the kids and shes getting free money hes told ” once the payments are set we cant change them till next year”…

In nicer news, the chap whos ex was after 70% of their assets is walking away with less than 50% after yesterdays court hearing.

I seriously dont know why the streets arent littered with the bodies of family court workers

Miltonf
Miltonf
February 9, 2023 10:46 am

their uses

Robert Sewell
February 9, 2023 10:48 am

Bruce O’Nuke:

BoM of course will go all out. And poor Dr Marohasy may be skint after this, like Mark Steyn and Tim Ball – meanwhile Michael Mann is still up to his old tricks.

Then she should go for a Fundme page. I’ll put up $100 even if I do have to eat scrambled eggs and home made bread/toast for a month.

Miltonf
Miltonf
February 9, 2023 10:49 am

Is Gates all there?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 9, 2023 10:51 am

And https://www.realclearpolitics.com

Wednesday, February 8

. Media Pushes Biden’s ‘Everything Is Awesome’ Narrative Joe Concha, The Hill
. Republicans Turn Themselves Into Props for Biden John Harris, Politico
. How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline Seymour Hersh, Substack
. White House & CIA Deny Report US Carried Out Attack Lewis Pennock, Daily Mail
. Republicans Can’t Succumb to Fantasy on Ukraine Rich Lowry, Politico
. Why Huckabee Sanders’ Response Condemned the GOP James Downie, MSNBC
. U.S. Is Becoming a Country of Despair Under Biden Tucker Carlson, FOX News
. Biden, Dems, and the Potential Mini Blue Wave of 2024 Brent Budowsky, The Hill
. Why Biden Is in a Weak Position Heading Into the 2024 Cycle Harry Enten, CNN
. Biden Takes Big Gamble in State of the Union Speech Mark Penn, FOX News
. Regulation, Productivity, and the Meaning of Life Paul Krugman, New York Times
. Public Unions: An Existential Threat to Nation Mary Williams Walsh, Substack

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 9, 2023 10:52 am

Reality is going to be pretty grim in watermelon world.

That has never stopped them. We’re probably 5 years behind Germany and the UK. Some cracks emerging in the electricity and gas markets. Gas costs haven’t really entered consumer prices and deindustrialisation/employment yet. Manufacturing not really a major sector outside parts of Sydney and Melbourne really.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 9, 2023 10:54 am

OldOzzie

For the U.S. to deliberately attack the Nord Stream gas pipeline, that is a direct act of war against a sovereign country, Russia.

The coverup of this story is going to make the coverup of all prior Obama/Biden stories pale in comparison.

It’s not the crime that gets them, it’s the coverup.

See also: Watergate.

Anchor What
Anchor What
February 9, 2023 10:54 am

Elect Labor, impoverish the nation.
Plibeserk is going to kybosh all new coal mines at a time when coal is bringing in enormous amounts of cash.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 9, 2023 10:56 am

How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline

The New York Times called it a “mystery,” but the United States executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret—until now

Seymour Hersh

Notice the Name that always keeps cropping up in reference to Ukraine!

There was a vital bureaucratic reason for relying on the graduates of the center’s hardcore diving school in Panama City. The divers were Navy only, and not members of America’s Special Operations Command, whose covert operations must be reported to Congress and briefed in advance to the Senate and House leadership—the so-called Gang of Eight. The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022.

President Biden and his foreign policy team—National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, and Victoria Nuland, the Undersecretary of State for Policy—had been vocal and consistent in their hostility to the two pipelines, which ran side by side for 750 miles under the Baltic Sea from two different ports in northeastern Russia near the Estonian border, passing close to the Danish island of Bornholm before ending in northern Germany.

Anchor What
Anchor What
February 9, 2023 10:56 am

The Watergate Affair was not as reported, and neither Nixon or the “journalist” who became famous for his expose deserved their fates.

rosie
rosie
February 9, 2023 10:57 am
H B Bear
H B Bear
February 9, 2023 10:57 am

I seriously dont know why the streets arent littered with the bodies of family court workers

One of the few (only?) judges killed in Australia was from the Family Court. Security there is a step up from elsewhere. I’ve been in the Perf court when everyone got scrambled. Don’t know how often it occurs.

Robert Sewell
February 9, 2023 11:00 am

I’ve just contacted Jennifer Morohasy at her email.
jennifermarohasy at gmail.com
I’d like to see us give her a hand.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 9, 2023 11:01 am

rosie says:
February 9, 2023 at 10:57 am

UK times 9 hours ago, paywalled
US bombed nord stream gas pipelines claims invesigative journalist Seymour Hersh

Yep, Full Article is there on The Times UK

You are reading this article for free.
Subscribe for unlimited article access.

Roger
Roger
February 9, 2023 11:05 am

Plibeserk is going to kybosh all new coal mines at a time when coal is bringing in enormous amounts of cash.

While Palaszczuk is busy approving new coal leases in the GBR catchment.

Pass the pirogi.

Bar Beach Swimmer
February 9, 2023 11:08 am

Last night, Bolt had on SFL NSW Senator Andrew Bragg, who’s put out a booklet on why we can all support da Voice. There was a magic moment when Bolt listed the numbers and purview of the Aboriginal organisations currently active throughout the country.

Bragg responded that that would all end when da Voice entered the Constitution. Paraphrasing, Bolt said, “What makes you think that?, all those organisations are not going anywhere!”

Bragg was stumped. But having had reality poke him in the eye, is going to be man enough to acknowledge that there’s nothing in the proposal that commits to the end, or even curtailment, of the current Aboriginal middle and upper-management sinecures already out there?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
February 9, 2023 11:08 am

America Definitely Rots From the Head of President??? – Hiden Ten Per Cent Biden & his Family

SMOKING GUN – HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP EXCLUSIVE: Burisma Asked Hunter to End Ukraine Investigation on Company – Then Joe Biden Threatened Ukraine and Had Investigator Fired

We have now uncovered an email thread on Hunter’s laptop where Burisma asked Hunter to use his influence to end the Ukrainian prosecutor’s investigation into the company.

In the email thread below on page 3, Burisma requests Hunter to stop an investigation in the Ukraine of Burisma. This email was sent in 2014.

We urgently need your advice on how you could use your influence to convey a message / signal, etc .to stop what we consider to be politically motivated actions…”

TheNew Burisma Urgent Issue2 Redacted 4 Pages worth reading

A short time later in early 2016 Joe Biden had Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor investigating Burisma fired.

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  2. I see scrolling down at his Cricinfo [age that Joe Burns made 108 not out for Italy vs. Romania. Forza…

  3. https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/joe-burns-326632 Joe Burns is out of calculations as he is now representing Italy in cricket, the rotten Dago turncoat. Neil…

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