Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph, Rembrandt, 1656
It’s not commonly known, but Teslas use Righteous Electrickery (RE), so all is balanced with Gaia. Namaste.
Open Thread – Tues 14 Feb 2023
- Open Thread – Mon 25 Nov 2024
- The more you gets the less you eats
- Open Thread – Weekend 23 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 21 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 18 Nov 2024
I see scrolling down at his Cricinfo [age that Joe Burns made 108 not out for Italy vs. Romania. Forza…
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…
Only if he builds a new road to the house.
Yes, but that would be counter propagandical.
Fare enough. A desktop printer in the $2000+ range would take 17 to 24 hours to make something useful. Plus the cost of carbon fibre filament is around $130 a kg.
I’m looking at co2 lasers. May have to sell the caravan (Mil included) to get a reasonable one.
Interesting how these people are getting more and more excitable. That’s a good sign since it suggests people increasingly aren’t listening to them.
U.N. Chief Guterres Warns of Mass Climate Exodus on a ‘Biblical’ Scale (15 Feb)
“ROME — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres offered his apocalyptic view of the coming climate catastrophe Tuesday, warning the Security Council that rising seas threaten the very existence of “entire countries.”
In his doomsday address, the U.N.’s alarmist-in-chief declared that the danger “is especially acute for nearly 900 million people who live in coastal zones at low elevations — that’s one out of ten people on Earth.”
“Low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear forever,” Guterres asserted. “We would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale.”
“Rising seas are sinking futures,” Guterres intoned with hyperbolic flourish. “Sea-level rise is not only a threat in itself. It is a threat-multiplier.” “
Maybe he should build an ark then. Incidentally sea level rise based on tide gauges is rising at about 1.6 mm per year with no sign of acceleration. That would be a devastating five inches by 2100.
Dr Faustus says:
February 15, 2023 at 4:15 pm
Mission Accomplished in Ukraine, declares Milley.
Sounds like it might be a good idea for Zelenskyy to start considering career and relocation options…
Andrey Sushentsov: Here’s why Ukraine’s Zelensky wants a long war with Russia
The Ukrainian leader has shown no interest in seeking a peace deal with Moscow, and it’s all part of a big gamble
It is unlikely that President Vladimir Zelensky expects to win militarily. But it seems that he genuinely believes that he will succeed in turning Ukraine into something like Israel – a paramilitary state living with a sense of constant military threat.
Ukraine doesn’t have the military or economic resources of its own to achieve victory, and the resources provided by the West will never be enough to inflict a final defeat on Russia.
Zelensky’s calculation is likely based on the belief that by offering Ukraine as a tool for NATO to use against Russia, he will constantly mobilize Western support and thereby ensure his own survival, and that of his associates.
In the worst-case scenario, as he sees it, Zelensky is probably counting on emigrating to the West with his closest associates, where they will advocate a continued policy of Russian containment. But does he care about the interests of ordinary people in Ukraine?
The unprecedented hardships of war that the country now faces could have been significantly reduced if Zelensky had been willing to settle the crisis diplomatically. Russia has repeatedly taken diplomatic initiatives to resolve this conflict. In the first phase, for example, negotiations took place in Belarus and Turkey. However, under the influence of the US and the UK, Kiev has set a course to prolong the conflict, banking on Western military assistance to achieve its goals.
As Ukraine’s own military and economic resources have dried up, the country has become increasingly dependent on Western supplies, and has ultimately become a tool to fight Russia. Nevertheless, Kiev still has the opportunity to begin talks with Moscow.
Zelensky could take the initiative to negotiate a status quo that is still comfortable for Ukraine. Of course, as the Russian military campaign progresses, the situation will change in ways that are far from favorable to Kiev. And the solutions put forward by the Russian delegation at the beginning of the crisis will no longer be on the table. However, there is still the possibility of a sustainable peace, with reduced risks of escalation into Europe’s biggest military conflict since the Second World War and a nuclear catastrophe.
Zelensky could still claim the laurels of a peacemaker who sacrificed some of his personal ambition in the name of saving Ukrainian lives and ensuring a peaceful future for his country.
A truce would alleviate the economic difficulties of Kiev’s supporters in the West, and thus generate some gratitude. Ukraine would also save a considerable amount of its military resources. Peace would obviously limit them, as deliveries would dry up, but those resources in situ would still be at the disposal of the Ukrainian government.
Yet, Zelensky’s government acts as if it sees no value in preserving Ukrainian statehood. The administration is squandering citizens’ lives and the economic fabric of the country in the belief that this sacrifice is necessary to gain some possible, rather indefinite, advantage in the future.
Instead of acting as a peacemaker, as someone who is prepared to make sacrifices to save the lives of his people, Zelensky acts like a gambler, while feeding the population military propaganda.
The unprecedented military, political and economic support Ukraine is receiving from abroad essentially covers up all of the mistakes by Zelensky’s government. A strategy which is based on the axiom “war will pay for everything”.
At home, the militarist line has allowed the president to establish a political dictatorship and persecute his opponents in all spheres of state life, including religion. As a result, he has secured an unprecedented concentration of power in his hands and, for the first time in Ukrainian history, silenced all centers of opposition.
Zelensky need not worry about Ukraine’s economic well-being in the short term: the foreign economic aid being handed to the Ukrainian government will suffice. Meanwhile, Kiev is still actively betting that Russia’s $300 billion in foreign currency reserves, frozen in the West, will fall into its hands. What would amount to state-piracy would also allow it use the money as it sees fit.
As a result, Zelensky expects that even if he is defeated and loses part of his territory, he will remain in power as the military leader the West needs for the new Ukraine, which will be the main anti-Russian outpost on NATO’s eastern borders. One that will be armed to the teeth, saturated with Western economic aid and that will provide its citizens with an acceptable standard of living.
I believe that Zelensky is genuinely convinced he will succeed in turning Ukraine into something like Israel, a paramilitary state in a hostile environment, and living with a sense of constant military threat.
I do not exclude the possibility that even in the worst-case scenario, where there is a complete collapse of his government, Zelensky expects to find himself and a group of his closest associates in exile in the West. Once there, they will actively advocate a continued policy of containment and defeat of Russia.
History shows that this prospect has every chance of materializing.
Some of it is clearly subsidence of land, not rising of water levels.
The 6PR program director, overnight:
‘put me in a room with all Cats, and I’ll throw fists’
Hahaha. 24 hours away from throwing a rod.
egg_esque.
The picture wireless tells me a bloke in Craigieburn was having a crack at stealing a car on a suburban street. On being confronted by residents, a ‘brawl’ ensued.
Then an ambulance was called, and then this bloke died.
Great result.
Anyone got a link to Malcolm Roberts grilling the CASA mongs?
Here’s what is going to happen.
Farmers will deliberately denude their paddocks of organic carbon. It’s very hard to build up C in the soil, a process which takes decades, particularly in lower rainfall areas but very easy to “burn” it out.
All one need do is a few cultivation’s especially when it’s too wet and hey presto, back to pre zero till carbon levels and soil structure.
You then get your base-line audit done for soil C, apply for the “carbon farming” handout and start zero till farming again (you already have the machinery).
Only downside is the loss of productivity in the short term from wrecking your soil but I’m guessing the saving the planet money will more than compensate.
Just watch.
Tom says:
February 15, 2023 at 5:55 pm
Calli, females born since the turn of the century are not just “fag haggy”; homosexuality is now a social fashion with around a third if young people currently identifying as gay, according to a recent survey in the Herald Sun.
Of course, it’s a fad and it will pass, but if you’re wondering where our low fertility is coming from, that’s where.
Millenials are barracking for the end of humanity out of cultural self-hatred. They’re ashamed of how successful we are as as species through its wealth-creating devices like the free market, which they’re now hell-bent on destroying.
Tom,
speaking with Grandaughter in Sydney yesterday afternoon, mentioned Granddaughter in Melbourne had said 25% of her class identify as Lesbian or Trans – Sydney Granddaughter said the same in her class
Weird World today
Sinc in the AFR re Lowe.
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/in-defence-of-philip-lowe-and-the-rba-20230214-p5ckbd
I don’t get the Margolis cartoon. What’s that brown thing in the foreground?
ET watching his ship being blown up!
Angus is an honorable and serious minded man, but he has allowed Labor and the PS to take him for a ride with his defence review.
It’s a comic.
Is it true?
Rachel W is dead at 82.
Senator Rubio Questions Undersecretary Nuland Over Biolabs in Ukraine
During her testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations committee about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland answers a question from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) about whether or not Ukraine has chemical or biological weapons. She replies, “Ukraine has biological research facilities, which, in fact, we are now quite concerned…Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of.” She then refutes allegations from Russia that Ukrainians are plotting to use biological weapons, and says that if such an attack happens in Ukraine, “there is no doubt in my mind” it would be caused by Russian forces.
c-span.org – Complete Text of 2 min 06 secs clip
THE PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA. IT’S INCREDIBLY TROUBLING, AND IT WOULD MEAN NOTHING. WE WOULD NOTICE NOTHING. HE’S MORE THAN HAPPY TO AGREE TO NEGOTIATIONS. HE USES THEM TO DIVIDE THE OPPOSITION AND DEMORALIZE THEM HABITUALLY THE PARKWAY PUTIN HASWAY PUTIN HAS DONE AS WELL. I ONLY HAVE A MINUTE LEFT, LET ME ASK YOU, DOES UKRAINE HAVE CHEMICAL OR BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS? >> UKRAINE HAS BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH FACILITIES, WHICH, IN FACT, WE ARE NOW QUITE CONCERNED RUSSIAN TROOPS, RUSSIAN FORCES MAY BE SEEKING TO GAIN CONTROL OF, SO WE ARE WORKING WITH THE UKRAINIANS ON HOW THEY CAN PREVENT ANY OF THOSE RESEARCH MATERIALS FROM FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF RUSSIAN FORCES SHOULD THEY APPROACH. >> I’M SURE YOU’RE AWARE THAT THE RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA KBRUPS ARE ALREADY PUTTING OUT THERE ALL KINDS OF INFORMATION ABOUT HOW THEY’VE UNCOVERED A PLOT BY THE UKRAINIANS TO RELEASE BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS IN THE COUNTRY AND WITH NATO’S COORDINATION. IF THERE’S A BIOLOGICAL OR CHEMICAL WEAPON INCIDENT OR ATTACK INSIDE OF UKRAINE, IS THERE ANY DOUBT IN YOUR MIND THAT 100% IT WOULD BE THE RUSSIANS THAT WOULD BE BEHIND IT? >> THERE IS NO DOUBT IN MY MIND, SENATOR, AND IT IS CLASSIC RUSSIAN TECHNIQUE TO BLAME ON THE OTHER GUY WHAT THEY’RE PLANNING TO DO THEMSELVES. >> LAST QUESTION, I AM CERTAIN THAT THE RUSSIANS WERE LOOKING AT THEIR RESERVES AS A WAY TO BUFFER SANCTIONS. DO YOU KNOW — NOW THAT WE’VE SANCTIONED THE CENTRAL BANK ALONG WITH OTHERS, DO WE HAVE AN IDEA WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THEIR RESERVES ARE FROZEN OR INACCESSIBLE TO THEM? >> VIRTUALLY ALL OF THEM ARE NOW FROZEN. YOU NOTICE THAT THE COUNTRY’S BEEN UNDER CURRENCY CONTROLS FOR ALMOST TWO WEEKS NOW, AND THE WHOLE POINT OF PUTTING SO MANY OF THESE TOP TEN BANKS UNDER SANCTIONS IS TO MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM TO GET ACCESS TO THEIR
*This text was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.
Delayed gratification is next to cleanliness and godliness.
Righto. I’ll put off seeing my mistress until the weekend.
Off on the Queen Vic Southampton Iceland Southampton in late June. Not too many days at sea at all and plenty of interesting shore excursions. Looking forward to it.
It might have been me yapping about machines on ships and the Beloved’s on board social life centred in the laundry. It. Was. A. Joke.
Of an evening, we’re usually too knackered to go to on-board entertainment – never been to a single show. Prefer to sit after dinner with a drink and listen to a string quartet or the like mid-ships.
As for camping it has been said – any fool can be cold and wet. 😀
Klaus Schwab Outlines How the Transformation Will Deliver the New “Master of the World”…
February 15, 2023 – Sundance
A lot of people are going to cite and replay a part of the remarks by World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab, where he outlines what attributes are needed in order to beome the new “Master of the World.”
However, the more interesting, buried lead in his remarks was his talking about the new power structures within global government. He literally says multinational corporations are the power centers for global government in the same way as nations like India. First, the soundbite everyone will discuss. WATCH:
But don’t get too hung up on that one aspect of his remarks. The full speech is below, I suggest listening to it all; and pay particular attention at 04:50 where he talks about “the political transformation“.
Prompted, just hit play:
…”We are moving from a world more or less dominated by one super-power, into the patchwork of a multi-power world. With one superpower, a competing superpower, aspiring superpower like India, middle powers, but also rogue states, companies who have become global powers, technology companies – social media.”…
Is Scotland saved, or is it like NZ?
Raquel not Rachel, Gabor.
Who can recall Ronnie Corbett singing:
Oh Raquel Welsh I love your left doodah, doodah …?
And in the Pete and Dud movie “Bedazzled” Raquel played deadly sin “Lust” while Barry Humphries got a role as “Anger”.
Potentially great?
Sen Roberts grilling CASA chumps #1
https://youtu.be/clyT4MYWmP4
Adern then Sturgeon – nothing fishy about that. It’s just like Victoria, where Labor Premiers get to spend more time with their mistresses, sorry, family, when they start to look like a liability.
It’s hard to bitch about other people’s choice of holidays – they do what they love and what suits them. I thought that was what freedom was all about. Every type has its down side or appeal.
As Bruce in WA noted, you would never see the galloping glacier unless you approached it by ship. But what really took my breath away was the noise it made, crunching and grinding away, with bits falling off the face of it every few minutes. And the colour, the icy aqua deep into the core. And great chunks of ice floating by the side of the ship full of stones. The other fun places – approaching Little Britain (Stanley) by tender and passing Cape Horn or Gallipoli.
Driving is for thrill seekers too. Nothing like having the GPS direct you into a residents only area in Italy or the dangerous suburbs of Washington DC. The important thing is to have fun.
Good one Calli – string quartets are amazing, particularly the Beethoven sets.
An older one of Sen Roberts ripping CASA
#2
https://youtu.be/XBTfrxgVK5c
Only the most willfully blind can believe that the entire 2020 “most secure election ever!” was above board. The idea that an addled basement gimp racked up 81 million votes — more than any U.S. presidential candidate in history — defies belief. And the massive discrepancies and irregularities in crucial swing states have never been seriously looked into or satisfactorily explained.
Yet no judge, no legislator, nor any executive agency dared instigate any serious examination of what happened.
I have yet to find a graphic or phrase that better explains the frustrating problem of a disinterested law enforcement apparatus when it comes to election shenanigans than this one (source unknown):
Note to self: it’s Welch not Welsh.
D’oh!
It’s Raquel.
Anyway, was she vaxxed?
Thanks, Dot. I’ll watch that later at home. Pip Spence is hopeless. I wondered if they would follow the FAA on the heart thing.
Heh. May have mentioned it…
Last-but-one cruise had a bloke put off for fighting in the laundry.
At a port, unfortunately. I would have made him walk the ironing board.
Quite so, Old Ozzie:
“Elections Expert Seth Keshel Releases National Fraud Numbers: Finds 8.1 Million Excess Votes in US Election, Affirms Trump Won PA, MI, WI, NV, AZ, GA and MN”
Retired army captain and data analysis genius Seth Keshel had all the goods on the 2020 election way back.
The link is to his analysts at Gateway Pundit. He also appeared at the Mike Lindell symposium.
And 5 Days ago at TGP: Captain Seth Keshel Discusses the 2020 Election Anomalies Ignored by the Media and GOPe – And What MUST TAKE PLACE to Save Democratic Elections in America
Charges Dismissed Against Reporter Arrested While Covering East Palestine Press Event by Ohio Governor DeWine
You mean he has produced some evidence?
We went camping for two summers in late 80s to please the kids and let them get it out of their system. Two years was enough thankfully by which time they were teenagers and into other things.
Even those two separate weeks were enough to store some interesting memories. We were camped at Lake Keepit and hired a motorised tinny for an afternoon. The motor conked out in the middle of the lake so we simply had to wait until it cooled to start it again.
On one of the camping trips we were unlucky to get a run of thunderstorms which threatened to wash away the whole tent into the lake. To save the tent my husband dug trenches around it to drain away the water.
A family drove up to our spot in the campground and said do we mind if they camp there. We had no objections but the next morning they packed up and moved to the other side of the campground. We figured it may have been my husband’s snoring.
Ah, camping fun but just as well the kids got sick of it fairly quickly. I like air conditioned hotels and resorts.
“Is Scotland saved, or is it like NZ?”
I think Scotland is gone, far gone. However, in a vain attempt to try and “always look on the bright side of life”, I’m comforted that Sturgeon is now gonksi, brought down by one of the holy pillars of the modern left, transgenderism, and its accompanying ludicrous tenets of self ID and that “transwomen are women”, even a male rapist who self IDs so as to be put in a female only prison and struts around outside court wearing lipstick and skinny tights that show his bulging “dick”.
So, looking on the bright side of life, reality can triumph ideology but this is why the left want to squash free speech, gaslight us and destroy language. They will stop at nothing. The resignation of Sturgeon is simply a casualty of a skirmish, the real battles are in the schools, universities, corporations, and government departments. And those battles are also probably lost too.
‘was she vaxxed?’
Killed by an (unpredicted) earthquake.
Florida’s Ron DeSantis puts wokester banking and Chinese-style social credit systems in the crosshairs
Camping is part and parcel of getting to good fishing spots, or to be alone for a while. Sometimes the company is better than you get in a pub or a small party. You drink erm, more “honestly” as you normally don’t drink until 3 AM. So if you do drink you don’t get ripped up the next day. People who go camping all of the time are probably nuts though.
Helen Joyce wrote a very good book I highly recommend called “Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality”.
Ms Sturgeon is a casualty of the war between reality and ideology. A particularly loathsome female who’s turned Scotland into a dystopian totalitarian nightmare however, this is the fault of the Scots for voting for the Nationalist Party. The voters vomited her up. Anyway, I bet J. K. Rowling is smiling this morning.
Here’s a fact for the day, TRANSWOMEN ARE NOT WOMEN.
Finally
Trust in media is so low that half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them
Two interesting GPS events in Europe, once ended up in a cornfield when we should have been on an autobahn on-ramp. Another time due to roadworks being repeatedly directed to a blocked road until we decided to drive much further in the opposite direction to break the cycle. This was at night, in the rain, not far from Zurich.
Americans Increasingly Skeptical of Ukraine Aid, Poll Shows
WASHINGTON (AP) — Support among the American public for providing Ukraine weaponry and direct economic assistance has softened as the Russian invasion nears a grim one-year milestone, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Forty-eight percent say they favor the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29% opposed and 22% saying they’re neither in favor nor opposed. In May 2022, less than three months into the war, 60% of U.S. adults said they were in favor of sending Ukraine weapons.
Americans are about evenly divided on sending government funds directly to Ukraine, with 37% in favor and 38% opposed, with 23% saying neither. The signs of diminished support for Ukraine come as President Joe Biden is set to travel to Poland next week to mark the first anniversary of the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Hernandez, a Republican, added that it’s difficult to support generous U.S. spending on military and economic assistance to Ukraine when many American communities don’t have the resources to deal with the ramifications of migrants crossing into the U.S. at the southern border, a rise in drug overdoses caused by fentanyl and other lab-produced synthetic opioids, and a homelessness crisis in his state.
Biden has repeatedly stated that the United States will help Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel the Russian invasion that began on Feb. 24 of last year. Privately, administration officials have warned Ukrainian officials that there is a limit to the patience of a narrowly divided Congress — and American public — for the costs of a war with no clear end. Congress approved about $113 billion in economic, humanitarian and military spending in 2022.
The poll shows 19% of Americans have a great deal of confidence in Biden’s ability to handle the situation in Ukraine, while 37% say they have only some confidence and 43% have hardly any.
Views of Biden’s handling of the war divide largely along partisan lines. Among Democrats, 40% say they have a great deal of confidence in Biden to handle the situation, 50% have some confidence and 9% have hardly any. Among Republicans, a large majority (76%) say they have hardly any confidence. Those numbers are largely unchanged since last May.
The Bee
‘OK, Take Us To A Different Leader,’ Say Exasperated Aliens After Trying To Communicate With Joe Biden
The Bee is on fire
Officials Remind Residents Of East Palestine To Protect Themselves By Getting Their COVID Booster
I did some firefighting on the big KI fires several years back. The intensity of the fires was such that the topsoil was turned completely to ash down to a depth of 30cm or so.
Federal Judge Strikes Down New York’s Social Media ‘Hate Speech’ Law
Dad went on a cruise ship. The most exciting time was when he was passing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. After that, it was boring as ***k.
Have to agree .. I did 20 nights LA to Sydney to finish off my, beat Cancer, world tour (2013) as a change from airplanes ..! ..I preferred the Chemo sessions …….!
Ardern…tick.
Sturgeon…tick.
Albanese…
Anyway, perhaps I shouldn’t point the finger at Scotland. At least in Scotland and other parts of the UK they are having the debate. Here in Oz, mainly silence and if you do poke your head above the parapet, like Katherine Deves, you’ll be blastered and smeared from the north pole to the south pole and even so called “Liberal” MPs and senators will join in the blasting and smearing.
In the state of Victoria there are 2 male prisoners who self ID as “female” and who are now lodged in female only prisons. And I’m pretty sure one of them is a rapist.
About cruising or camping.
I merely responded to Steve Stickler, who took it upon himself to antagonise the members of this blog, and doing it without the charm and grace of Ed Case.
A wild 304 appears, it cries in pain as it lashes out at its Pokemon trainer!
It uses a Pretty Pass, but it’s not very effective!
https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/taylor-schabusiness-attacks-lawyer-in-court-after-accused-of-killing-lover/
From my observation last year:
The Scottish are strongly nationalistic. They despise England. On the other hand, they want to stay in the EU and despise Brexit. They survive emotionally on myth and past glory.
They believe they can go it alone economically via gas and wind production. They have few other industries except tourism.
The place is basically deserted apart from the big cities which have all the usual problems.
The countryside is beautiful. In summer. In winter it’s hell on earth unless you have heating.
They are deluded, but don’t dare tell them.
Smith: How Obama and Biden Weaponized Even National Archives
Closing In on the Classified Cover-up
A major Biden ally is also a top donor to the National Archives. Could private equity billionaire David Rubenstein hold the key to the White House documents scandal?
BY LEE SMITH
At the center of the Biden document cover-up is the question of who blocked the National Archives and Records Administration from informing the U.S. public about the classified records found in the president’s office in early November. The archives’ general counsel told members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability that he couldn’t divulge that information, but GOP House leadership concluded that only Attorney General Merrick Garland or Biden himself could have given those orders.
But there’s a third powerful name in play, this one from outside of the government: David Rubenstein. Co-founder of the Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm the Carlyle Group, Rubenstein is one of the archives’ most generous patrons. In 2013, the David M. Rubenstein Gallery at the National Archives was completed at a cost of $13.5 million. Rubenstein is also a major Biden ally. He has regularly hosted the Biden family at his Nantucket estate for Thanksgiving—in 2022, 2021, and 2014.
According to the chairman of the GOP-led House Oversight Committee James Comer, the archives’ “inconsistent treatment of recovering classified records held by former President Trump and President Biden raises questions about political bias at the agency.”
And, indeed, under recently retired chief archivist David Ferreiro, the archives gladly joined forces with the Department of Justice-led anti-Trump campaign. As Trump’s lawyers were negotiating last winter with archives officials over which documents constituted presidential records and which were personal, Ferreiro, his tenure winding down, struck his final blow for the resistance: He referred the former president to the DOJ for a criminal investigation that led to the FBI’s August raid of Trump’s Florida home.
For Americans wondering why, in contrast to its partisan activism last summer, the National Archives has suddenly gone silent during the Biden affair, Rubenstein’s patronage may offer a clue. A spokesperson for Rubenstein said he played no role in this matter and a spokesperson from the National Archives responded that they have no comment.
Indeed, Biden’s friend Rubenstein appears to exercise considerable influence over the staffing of senior personnel at the agency. Before Ferreiro was appointed by Barack Obama in 2009 to lead the National Archives, he was the university librarian and vice provost for library affairs at Duke University from 1996 to 2004, at the same time that Rubenstein was chair of the Duke Board of Trustees. The nominee to replace Ferreiro at the archives, Colleen Shogan, is also affiliated with Rubenstein. She is currently the director of the David M. Rubenstein Center at the White House Historical Center.
The National Archives is supposed to be above the political fray, an institution dedicated to preserving historical records. And indeed history is one of Rubenstein’s passions. According to one profile focused on his funding of Washington, D.C., monuments and institutions, “Rubenstein has shaped the cultural landscape of the nation’s capital perhaps more than any other private citizen in the past century.”
It seems that Rubenstein’s historical mission is to turn U.S. institutions into platforms to promote contemporary progressive ideas.
He donated $20 million to refurbish parts of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello home in a makeover that recasts the founding father’s legacy as an object lesson in systemic racism. Ibram X. Kendi’s titles are available for purchase at the David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center, and the permanent David M. Rubenstein exhibit at the National Archives, “Records of Rights,” focuses on America’s disenfranchisement and mistreatment of minorities.
Like other top Biden allies, Rubenstein has long been bullish on the Chinese Communist Party. “China has a very bright economic outlook,” Rubenstein told a Davos audience in 2022. “We will continue to invest there.”
Secretly?
Trudeau gov’t office secretly authorized research to explore national digital ID system
Are you effing lying about my predictions? You shyte-splattered turd! You belong in the septic holding tank where all condemned imbeciles belong! Dutchsinse saves lives, what have you ever done?!
calli says:
February 16, 2023 at 8:12 am
From my observation last year:
The Scottish are strongly nationalistic. They despise England. On the other hand, they want to stay in the EU and despise Brexit. They survive emotionally on myth and past glory.
The countryside is beautiful. In summer. In winter it’s hell on earth unless you have heating.
They are deluded, but don’t dare tell them.
calli,
my last observation of Scotland was 10 years ago, and I was stunned by the number of new forests – I could have been driving in the NSW State Forests outside Oberon – all we saw were trees
It did not compare to my 1st Trips to Scotland in 1970 when it was all open moors & stunning scenery
Bloke I know doesn’t do camping. Used to get paid for it as US Marine.
Old Ozzie 14/2 – 9.20 am
Throw in the following – Putin calling O Bama an idiot or want to harm his people for adapting socialism, the masssing of Ukrainian militia from 2014 in the Donbas to shell, pound the region and kill 14,000 Russians.
That is enough for an invasion/ war.
I do not know what happened prior to that, if there was provocation by the Russian population prior to that or the history of the region.
Women are basically being eliminated.
Catturd ™
@catturd2
This is ridiculous.
Chief Nerd
@TheChiefNerd
“We Basically Nuked a Town” Says Hazardous Materials Expert on the Ohio Disaster
“We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open”
Scotland has the north sea oil revenue I believe. That is about the only reason to keep them, other than nukes, which I can’t see how they’re entitled to if they voluntarily choose to leave the UK.
The English (and Irish) need to free themselves of Welsh and Scottish lunar green left insanity.
I say we start with destroying all copies of Taggart, which kind of makes the Scots look cool.
Why I Am Against Saving the Planet
(and why you should be, too)
BY MICHAEL LIND
We are constantly being exhorted to “save the planet.” Indeed, saving the planet has become the de facto religion of politicians, business elites, and intellectuals in the West, replacing Christianity’s earlier mission of saving individual souls.
But what does the environmentalist slogan actually mean? On examination, the phrase means saving the planet from us—that is, from human beings and our works.
What is more, the very concept of “the planet” turns out to be incoherent. The use of “the planet” as a synonym for “the environment,” instead of as a description of the Earth as one of the planets in the solar system, appears to be only a generation or two old. The term “environment” itself is a recent coinage: In 1828 the British writer Thomas Carlyle, a well-known critic of democracy, coined the term “environment” to translate the German word umgebung in an essay on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
It was only in 1956—six years before I was born—that the English word “environment” was used for the first time in print to refer to the ecosystem. And the term “ecosystem” itself was coined as recently as 1935 by the British natural scientist A.G. Tansley.
The term “ecology” was invented in 1873 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel, and his work owed much to his own environment of 19th-century Romanticism, typified by a bias against society and civilization and a pantheistic awe before an idealized Nature. German romantic culture is the native soil from which our own modern environmentalism has grown, and many pseudoscientific elements of popular environmentalism that are unthinkingly assumed to be rational and progressive are in fact legacies of a passionately reactionary 19th-century Romantic tradition. One is the dubious idea of the web of life—no species of plant or animal can become extinct without harming all the rest. This is nonsense, because species have come and gone for billions of years, without necessarily causing the extinction of great numbers of other species. In some cases the disappearance of some kinds of plant and animal life has opened up opportunities for others, in the way that the extinction of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to expand into new niches.
The notion of a self-regulating ecosystem disturbed by human activity that would automatically restore itself to a “natural” condition if not for human interference is another bit of unscientific nonsense taken on faith by the green lobby. The evidence suggests that greenhouse gasses in the industrial era have warmed the Earth’s atmosphere. But it is also true that global temperatures have fluctuated wildly for billions of years, most recently in the Pleistocene ice ages. Human civilization developed in one of several warm “interglacial” spells following repeated expansions of ice to cover much of the Northern Hemisphere. In addition to fluctuations like these, there are catastrophic events that alter the climate and wipe out many species, like the asteroid or comet thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs and many other animals and plants on Earth. Contrary to what you would assume listening to green propaganda, if the human race vanished tomorrow the climate would not “stabilize” but would continue to fluctuate dramatically over time—at least until the gradual warming of the sun evaporates the oceans and turns the Earth into a steam-shrouded desert world in half a billion years, if the predictions of contemporary astrophysicists are correct.
But there is a crucial difference, according to the belief system of environmentalists. If an asteroid annihilates the dinosaurs, that is natural and not a crime. But if a local species of frog becomes extinct because officials drain a malarial swamp and replace it with a civic water reservoir that saves millions of people from infectious diseases, that is mass murder (of frogs).
According to the peculiar ethics of mainstream environmentalism, practically any modification of “the environment” or “the ecosystem” or “the planet” or “nature” is, by definition, harmful.
Developers who cut down woods and build housing subdivisions are evil, because they are displacing the local plants and wildlife. Electricity that powers life-saving hospitals and air conditioners or heaters in buildings is sinful, if it is generated by coal or oil or natural gas that emits carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
Paved roads? Forget it. They turn wild animals into roadkill.
In short—every single modification of nature by humanity is evil by definition, according to the popular conception of environmentalism.
It might seem that the term “planet,” as it’s used by the greens, has no fixed meaning whatsoever. But that would be a mistake. “The planet,” in the lexicon of environmentalism, is defined in contrast with what it is not: the “Not-Planet.”
Precisely.
Mike Lee
@BasedMikeLee
Climate fanaticism has held back humanity long enough. It’s time to unshackle ourselves from this false doctrine of collective self-loathing. Fossil fuels matter because they MAKE LIFE POSSIBLE and ENABLE HUMAN FLOURISHING. If you’re against them, you’re resisting humanity.
All those forests in Scotland are IKEA forests full of invasive species. There is a real problem with native species displacement.
Not all that is green is good. Of course our friends in Scandinavia preen themselves on their environmental cred while despoiling other places.
Finally.
Eric Matheny
@EricMMatheny
This is why the media and the Biden Administration have been quiet about Ohio. Their corporate overlords are the top shareholders.
You spend a shitload on equipment in a vain attempt to be half as comfortable as home
never been into camping/caravanning .. Last time I camped was 1968 .. Gold Coast/Tallebudgera Creek .. overnight stay at the camping ground, per tent, was $1.50 .. guessing it’s gone up slightly since then .. LOL!
but wonder is caravanning worth the cost? .. on my,usual, bike ride I pass two houses with caravans in the drives .. I’ve noticed that over several years these vans are only absent 3 or 4 times a year for periods up between 1 and 2 weeks .. I don’t know much about pricing but assume the average caravan comes in at over $50 000 so it seems a lot for several weeks a year roaming .. plus one of the two looks a top of the range monster size model so would be worth a pretty penny …..
And in the Pete and Dud movie “Bedazzled” Raquel played deadly sin “Lust” while Barry Humphries got a role as “Anger”.
According to Peter Cook’s biographer, Harry Thompson, Dudley Moore had problems with the Raquel Welch scene. He had to wrestle in a bed with her and therefore wore two pairs of jeans while filming to hide any possibility that he was impressed by Raquel. Apparently the plan failed.
Meme
Yes, it’s a mystery. Their economy depends on north sea oil and gas yet they are frothing greenies. They have tours of the wind turbines for the yoof who go out and worship the things, much like our own eco- worship of the GBR.
ALX
@alx
BREAKING: @ElonMusk speaks out against the idea of a “World Government” at the “World Government Summit” and warns it could lead to civilizational collapse.
It’s Raquel.
Anyway, was she vaxxed?
Must have been cos she had 2 boosters .. LOL!
Indolent says:
February 16, 2023 at 8:19 am
Women are basically being eliminated.
Catturd ™
@catturd2
This is ridiculous.
In my day, a male exposing himself in a female locker room would get arrested.
Today, if you ‘identify’ as female but still have a penis…you should steer clear of women’s locker rooms until you fully transition into what your mind is telling ONLY you…or face arrest.
Ok lets Add – America Today at Its Best
A Bearded Woman and a Severed Head In a Crock Pot: More Signs of the Failure of Our Therapeutic Culture
Anyone who is paying attention knows that there is something deeply wrong with American society today. That much is obvious. Increasingly obvious, albeit less well known, is the fact that the fixes that all too many people are applying to heal their broken lives are not helping a thing; in fact, they’re only making things worse. In many cases, they’re the source of the problem. But when will we turn away from these spurious therapies and embrace some genuine solutions?
Take, for instance, a Monday news item from WCBI, a TV station in Columbus, Miss. The headline was straightforward enough: “Arkansas woman arrested, accused of making bomb threats in Oxford.” We’re told that “Oxford Police said an Arkansas woman is facing charges for making bomb threats in Rebel territory. 29-year-old Lily Mestemacher is accused of false reporting of placing explosives. Police said they got information that she was mentioning bomb threats in Oxford on social media several times.”
All right. That’s bad enough in itself, but the story also carries a photo of Lily Mestemacher.
The attentive reader will notice quickly that there is something off about Ms. Mestemacher: she is actually Mr. Mestemacher. In what is clearly a mug shot, a scruffy fellow with messy bleached hair and about a week’s growth of beard grins weirdly, his abundant chest hair visible over his orange prison v-neck.
So who’s crazier: “Lily” Mestemacher, or the “journalists” who believe that they have a duty to indulge his fantasies by referring to him, without any caveat or explanation at all, as an “Arkansas woman”?
Followed by
And speaking of mental instability, there’s the case of Taylor Schabusiness, who by all accounts is a genuine woman in Wisconsin. On Tuesday, the winsome Ms. Schabusiness made headlines for attacking her own lawyer during a courtroom hearing. She was in court in the first place because, according to the New York Post, she is “accused of decapitating her lover during a wild, meth-fueled escapade last year.”
Wait, it gets worse. Ms. Schabusiness reportedly hooked up with one Shad Thyrion, and “allegedly decapitated Thyrion during sex, continued to perform sexual acts on his lifeless body, and mutilated his corpse with a serrated bread knife. She then stuffed his severed head and penis in a bucket and other body parts in a crock pot, leaving them for his mother to find.”
She told police to “have fun trying to find all of the organs.”
“The English (and Irish) need to free themselves of Welsh and Scottish lunar green left insanity.”
When it comes to lunacy and insanity, Ireland is streets ahead of Wales and Scotland.
how long before they can switch off faggot behaviour? its just a matter of time
Meme
How can you tell if a turd is shyte-splattered?
The Vigilant Fox
@VigilantFox
Alarming Events: Headline After Headline of Pilot Incapacitations
On November 7, 2022, Captain Alan Dana summarized several worrying headlines. These are just some of many:
November 1, 2022 — Austrian Airlines OS235 from Vienna to Berlin. The co-pilot vomited over the instrument panel and then leaned on the thrust levers.
November 3, 2022 — Fly Dubai 737. Incapacitated pilot by stroke.
September 21, 2022 — Lufthansa Airlines. First officer collapses on a flight attendant when he’s taking a restroom break.
October 22, 2022 — Indonesian pilot collapses in the cabin (caught on video).
Meghan Markle’s 2014 blog post about Kate Middleton’s wedding resurfaces
Meghan Markle has reportedly been caught in a fabrication (i.e. “Lie?”).
A blog post allegedly from her now-shuttered lifestyle website, “The Tig,” reveals she knew who the royal family was – and wasn’t impressed with the chatter around “Princess Kate” – despite previous protestations.
Markle coyly claimed during an interview after her engagement with Prince Harry in 2017 that she “didn’t know much” about her blue-blood fiancé or his family before she met him.
However, in the alleged entry from 2014 – which was written when the former actress, 41, was on “Suits” – she reportedly revealed her feelings about princesses and royal weddings.
The now Duchess of Sussex wrote that she was tired of hearing the “endless conversation” around the royal nuptials of “Princess Kate” to Prince William, reports DailyMail.
The alleged blog, written two years before she met now-husband Prince Harry, explains that she was unlike most little girls who “dream of being princesses,” and instead was focused on “She-Ra, Princess of Power.”
“For those of you unfamiliar with the ’80s cartoon reference, She-Ra is the twin sister of He-Man and a sword-wielding royal rebel known for her strength,” she continued. “We’re definitely not talking about Cinderella here.”
Markle then noted that many adult women seem to hold onto their childish dream of becoming a princess.
“Grown women seem to retain this childhood fantasy,’ she wrote. “Just look at the pomp and circumstance surrounding the royal wedding and endless conversation about Princess Kate.”
Sadly, the snippy comment about “Princess Kate” seemingly fits into the sisters-in-law’s frosty relationship which never blossomed.
Klaus Schwab
It strikes me that any reasonably interested adult with access to the interwebs might come up with this exact same analysis.
I reckon it’s only the prospect of agreeable annual Davos piss-ups that keeps Schwabie in with the in-crowd.
Either that, or they’re dim enough to find him profound.
Deja vu.
But when you’re wrong, just escalate! 50M has morphed into 900M. aieeee!
circa 1990
https://apnews.com/article/bd45c372caf118ec99964ea547880cd0?fbclid=IwAR0gYfXIC27oWEPB-lA_BWR8LZxxoeLfGQtXODhlBXqDXDJk8xl1qgShhQM
circa 2005
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/feared-migration-hasn-t-happened-un-embarrassed-by-forecast-on-climate-refugees-a-757713.html
The internet is forever:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081012010832/http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/fifty-million-climate-refugees-by-2010
Well, if you didn’t see trees it wouldn’t have been a forest, no?
Outstanding clip from a young lady.
Gonzalo Lira
@GonzaloLira1968
“We had good intentions! Can’t we just move on?”
F*ck no, b*tch — no justice, no peace.
Raquel.
My teenage self is in mourning today.
A very entertaining letter to the editor in the Age today:
Scary encounter
This morning, a middle-aged male was about to jaywalk, and he appeared not to be aware of my electric vehicle. I noted he had earbuds in and was carrying a cup of coffee, so I did a very light beep, not loud enough to alarm him just to let him know that he was about to run into an EV. I had my window down, as I had just left home and it was hot in the car.
What he did next left me in a state of disbelief. He turned around, looked me in the face, and threw his full coffee cup in my window. I am 73 years old. It went all over my shirt and the car seat – I was very lucky not to bear the brunt of it in the face.
Suzette Boyd, Hawthorn
That’s why the frenzied attacks against the Judeo-Christian religions. The Bible stated God gave Man dominion over the earth and to go forth and be fruitful. The environmentalists still want dominion over the earth but only for them, not the “Everyman”.
America Today – A Falling/Failing Nation
Recent college grads not ‘emotionally’ ready for work: survey
More than half of recent grads ‘report emotional or mental health challenges’
A survey conducted by the Mary Christie Institute discovered that recent college graduates are not emotionally prepared for the workforce.
Specifically the survey found that more than half of these young professionals self-reported “emotional or mental health challenges.”
“Our findings show that once in the workplace, young people continue to struggle mentally and emotionally,” the think tank wrote.
The survey found that 43 percent of those individuals with mental health said they had anxiety while 31 percent reported having depression.
“Women reported worse mental health than men, with 68% of males self-reporting good or excellent mental health, compared to 45% of females,” the survey reported.
Survey respondents also reported burnout to be an issue as they enter into the workforce.
Over half of surveyed individuals reported that they feel burnout at least once a week in their careers. The survey defined “burnout” as “a state of prolonged physical and psychological exhaustion, which is perceived as related to the person’s work.”
Furthermore, almost 40 percent of respondents claimed that college is “not strongly perceived as preparing students emotionally for the workforce.”
These respondents believe that their time spent in college did not adequately prepare them to make the “transition” into the workforce.
Yes.
Before hitting play, guess Phoebe’s hair colour.
Hint: Phoebe’s hobbies include throwing soup on works of art to save the planet.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: STUBBORN FACTS
Worth having on the record here:
John Adams:
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Mark Twain:
“Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.”
Ain’t that the truth.
I get the feeling Suzette has left out some details.
On the graduates not being emotionally ready for work…
Prophetic.
I was always quite fond of Trainspotting, it was more of a documentary though.
I suspects it’s much the same here for graduates of the Sandstones. The newer universities tend to produce more practical graduates.
After fifteen years, Regular and Reservist, as a rifleman in the A.D.F., camping holidays, tinned corned beef and Boots General Purpose are VERBOTEN!
Suzette Boyd on twitter Fan of Springsteen and the ESB. Human rights and social justice for everyone. Volunteer Mon4 Kooyong. Successfully flushed Frydenberg down the toilet, Go Teals
lotocoti says:
February 16, 2023 at 8:59 am
Before hitting play, guess Phoebe’s hair colour.
Hint: Phoebe’s hobbies include throwing soup on works of art to save the planet.
I am Colour Blind, so haven’t a clue – but would assume if she is colouring her hair she is using fossil fuel chemicals in those products
Some of the most common and dangerous ingredients used in hair dyes are;
ammonia,
peroxide,
p-phenylenediamine,
diaminobenzene,
toluene-2,5-diamine,
resorcinol etc.
Via David Thompson, a modern mugshot: “Woman arrested for making bomb threats in Oxford”.
Two weeks of camping in northern NSW in February 1988 cured me of that rather odd habit for good.
OldOzzie
Yet no judge, no legislator, nor any executive agency dared instigate any serious examination of what happened.
I have yet to find a graphic or phrase that better explains the frustrating problem of a disinterested law enforcement apparatus when it comes to election shenanigans than this one (source unknown):
We would all like to see a “disinterested” law enforcement apparatus, but I think you meant “uninterested”.
Raquel Welch in “Fantastic Voyage”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO5E4wkg0hA
Saw it as a supporting film in the 66s. It eclipsed the main feature.
CLAPPER’S CLAPTRAP
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is one of the Deep State 51 who lent his credibility to the open letter to the castigation of the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. According to Clapper et al., the emails reported by the Post “ha[ve] all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Given to Natasha Bertrand, the letter was published by Politico in conjunction with the story “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”
The letter of the Deep State 51 came in handy for candidate Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. It provided ground for him to stand on when he condemned it as Russian disinformation. It also supported the suppression of the Post’s reporting by social media.
Indeed, the letter of the Deep State 51 seemed to be coordinated with the secret FBI campaign warning of a pending Russian intervention in the campaign. As any fool could see, the letter of the Deep State 51 was itself a deep state disinformation operation.
Clapper elaborated on the “disinformation” theme on CNN (video below). Glenn Greenwald accurately comments: “Every word in this October 17, 2020 interview with James Clapper on CNN by @ErinBurnett – every word – is false.” Politico’s Natasha Bertrand, by the way, has since moved on to CNN.
Miranda Devine is of course the New York Post columnist who contributed to the Post’s reporting the Biden laptop and wrote the book on it.
She concisely nails Clapper’s current claptrap in two words.
Miranda Devine
@mirandadevine
Still lying. “There was message distortion,” James Clapper says of the election-rigging letter he signed claiming Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinfo. “Politico deliberately distorted what we said.” He didn’t say a word for 2 years. Now he’s scared
I have found a real beta male loser in “Unlearning Economics”.
Some comments from one of his videos.
Dear idiot,
Have you heard of dark matter?
Maybe if you tried to prove the economy was based on irrational people permanently paying negative prices for negative quantities of goods, you wouldn’t get far?
Methodology isn’t important? Let me guess, you’re going to change the world with MMT?
Qualitative data sucks because you literally cannot model it as well, even with very good data and statistical techniques. You can approximate revealed preferences, that’s about it.
It could be worse though. These communist trust fund kids could fail to sell the book they wrote about evil capitalism or they could be like Andrew Charlton and just lie about their Ph D (data sample zize).
These people aren’t even worth in engaging with. Japan has a debt to GDP ratio of 263%. You just have to let people get mugged by reality.
That latest Telstra ad is a shocker. It’s too long, lacks coherence, and the soundtrack is wearing out my mute button.
HAHAHA
https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/2ssyhp/i_stumbled_upon_this_today_from_mr_unlearning/
ivansml
·
8 yr. ago
hotshot with a theory
Some time ago, I got banned from commenting on UE’s blog for arguing that R2 in a regression cannot be negative (while debating some results of Steve Keen’s, no less). Fun times…
It continues:
GobtheCyberPunk
·
8 yr. ago
I see he is also unlearning mathematics as well then.
CHORTLES IN DOT:
Integralds
·
8 yr. ago
Living on a Lucas island
Don’t give people any ideas.
Next thing you know…
Professor: “Agents choose a commodity vector x \in X…”
Insufferable undergrad: “But what is the direction of that vector?!”
Professor: “…”
Insufferable undergrad: “Nailed it. This is totally going on my blog!”
———————————————–
You know what’s really funny? I have made a partial least squares programme give me a -r^2 with PLS.
That’s some black magic shyte right there.
You may call me Nagash, or simply, the Supreme Lord of the Undead. Remember I am a Lv 5 wizard and only Teclis and Ikit Claw can match me.
Just skimmed through a piece on behaviour of retirees.
Age 65 -75: spend up and enjoy. Buy RV, or cruise, travel, go mad.
75 – 85: much quieter.
85 – 95: health concerns and costs become the major priority.
This is why 93.1% of “economics” is complete and utter bullsh*t. It is also why there is no such creature as an “economic theory”.
The ‘DeSantis Is Trump Without the Baggage’ Crowd is in for a Rude Awakening
Since President Trump left office, many of the “trustworthy” media outlets have created a talking point that is now held by a minority, yet noticeable number of Conservative Americans. The belief is “DeSantis is Trump, without the baggage.” This group supported President Trump’s policies and felt he did a tremendous job as president, but now feel the baggage that came with Trump would not be present with Ron DeSantis. Many have taken this a step further and believe this baggage would give DeSantis (or others) a better chance of winning in a general election against the Democrat nominee than President Trump.
The first and most important angle to consider when analyzing this stance is the present reality of American elections. President Trump’s seemingly insurmountable election night leads in 2020, which were significantly larger than his leads throughout the night in 2016, somehow vanished into slim Biden victories.
In other words: Without our corrupt election systems being corrected, it doesn’t matter who runs since the winner is predetermined. Trump didn’t cost us; the election was stolen.
But for the sake of this discussion, we’ll say that our elections are free and fair.
Despite his alleged loss, Trump gained more than 12 million votes from 2016 (and likely more,) the largest increase in vote total for any sitting president in American history and the highest vote total by any presidential candidate ever, aside from Biden’s highly suspicious 81 million votes that same year.
So, the media-manufactured Trump baggage has not had any negative impact on voter enthusiasm for Trump. Based on his vote increasing by millions, you could make the argument the baggage led to more people rallying to support him.
Prior to 2016, Conservative voter enthusiasm in the previous two presidential elections was abysmal. John McCain and Mitt Romney both lost convincingly to Barack Obama due in large part to their politically correct, low energy approach to politics when conservatives were looking for the exact opposite.
Most of the baggage from the Trump presidency was completely manufactured by media with the purpose of doing exactly what it is accomplishing to an extent now: Diminish enthusiasm for Trump at any cost, no facts needed. The goal was never to prove any of the false accusations against Trump. They knew this was impossible; they created them.
With the current, fragile state of foreign affairs, Americans now more than ever want to be sure the commander-in-chief is not being influenced by any foreign countries (such as now.) The American perception of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is unique, because while the majority of Americans oppose Putin and Russia, support for the U.S. to continue sending money to Ukraine is also dwindling. Which is why DeSantis GOP opponents will undoubtedly question him on his Press Secretary, Christina Pushaw, who recently had to register as a foreign agent because of her paid work with, of all people, a Ukrainian politician named Mikheil Saakashvili. She also shared a tweet in February of 2022 stating she supported Zelensky, was in Ukraine when Zelensky won the primary and that a “big party” ensued. While U.S. support for Ukraine heavily outweighs support for Russia, having close ties to a foreign agent of a country the U.S. continues sending endless amounts of money to will certainly create baggage within the GOP should DeSantis choose to enter the race.
Try picturing the amount of baggage that would come with accusations of DeSantis drinking and partying with his own female students, alleged first-hand accounts about his role in inhumane forms of torture that violate international law, his former press secretary and current rapid response director registering as a foreign agent, and recently having warmonger John Bolton promote him. Again, allegations are all that is needed to create baggage, not facts. The baggage potential for DeSantis makes Trump’s look like peanuts.
So, if DeSantis does run, those pulling for him solely for baggage purposes will be severely disappointed
So, the “DeSantis is Trump without baggage” group must shift the question they ask themselves to this: Which of the two is better equipped to withstand the attacks?
There is no doubt the answer to that question is Donald Trump.
The press seem to fall for it. Must be the tailoring and haircuts.
The solution isn’t to become a whinging communist turd, selling a book, trying to take data and maths out of economics and then follow some crackpot ideas like MMT or catastrophic climate change.
The solution is to get good at your job, data science, stats maths, theory, writing and learn as much as you can about as many industries as possible and macroeconomic models that work, such as demographics & real business cycle models.
The “economics is bad” mob (not you) are just whingers trying to turn everything into garbage like “pluralism” (communism) and deny realities like communism cannot work because the assumptions are mathematically invalid.
The “economics is bad” mob love crap like CPI. Oh look, inflation is so low! Everyone worries about buying a bookshelf, not their rent, fuel or food! There is no reason with the amount of data collected and AI/dat science techniques that an almost real level of CPI can be calculated each month or quarter and it could automatically rebase all other data. The rebasing of CPI done in 2010/2011 was an absolute joke.
It’s like how physics has and still has problems.
Einstein didn’t become a witch doctor. He solved problems. Dark matter has had billions poured into it and there are better solutions and physical data which make it redundant. The solution isn’t to ignore the laws of physics and build bridges based on diversity hires. The solution is to improve.
The real problem is the “economics is bad” mob are actually the deep state. They wish they had a magic pudding.
Also
The economics is baaaad crowd are responsible for most of the bad economics!
Baaaa!
Seems the Epstein list is about to come out soon. Apart from two who are legally trying to stop it. One of those very well known. Any Bills we know ?
FF Laura Jayes is interviewing Jacinta Price, trying not to look adversarial while giving her some tough ones. The facial expression gives it away though.
..and now for my final thought.
The “economics is baaaad” crowd would also like to blame a 263% debt to GDP ratio for Japan on capitalism, “rational economic actors”, “simplified models” and so on.
It is completely dishonest to do so.
The real reason is because they are the problem. They have captured much of academia and the public service and come up with BS excuses to ignore economics. The problem is they either don’t understand the theory or are dangerous idiots who cannot learn from disasters like the Continental Dollar, Argentine Peso and the like.
Which are problems always caused by capitalism and “unrealistic models”, never reckless public authorities ignoring reality.
MMT is the solution and when it fails, blame capitalism, sexism, a lack of pluralism, too much data, too much mathematics but never blame themselves or their stupid ideas!
Camping is very … well … camp.
As dads Viet wife puts it.
“sleeping under the tree with the frog and the snake”
Not a big fan of going bush.
The SNP and Nicola Sturgeon are the outworkings of Blair’s Cool Brittania.
In a taxi-driver’s nutshell:
The serious push for devolution started after WW2 and hit its straps in the 1960’s – 70’s as the traditional heavy industries declined and North Sea oil and gas spread into the Scottish sector. After the failed 1979 devolution referendum, and the near collapse of industry, Scotland became welfare heavy – which is a fertile breeding ground for Marxist nuttery (already alive and well on the Clyde).
The Blair Government arranged the 1997 devolution vote which led to the establishment of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood as an overlay to Westminster. In the temper of the times, it was an ‘anything-is-possible-if-you-just-wish‘ assembly from the get go – which is a fertile breeding ground for Green-style ‘all-care-no-responsibility‘ nuttery.
Which is where the young Sturgeon came in.
The Scottish Parliament is largely ineffective on big ticket economic issues because of Westminster’s reserve powers, hence most normal people pay limited attention to it – which has allowed the SNP to flourish on the perpetual promise of Something Big is Coming, and in its train the shite, urban, finger-wagging, woke identity politics to become dominant to the extent that the voteherd push back in disgust.
Which is where the older Sturgeon goes out.
There is a lesson for Australia somewhere in this.
Further to the recent resignations of Sturgeon, Ardern and others, time and time again we on the right fall for this adolescent thinking of whoop-de-doo, hooray, hoorah, they’re gone, except such thinking is juvenile and it’s a trap, akin to decapitating a body, we take the head and celebrate it like a bounty hunter but alas the body remains and is alive still spreading the sinister pernicious woke virus. We think the resignations of Sturgeon, Ardern and co means the end of the woke ideology but it doesn’t, wokeism operates like termites in a building, permeating the foundations of a building, in this case the West, and eating away at those foundations. The woke virus runs amok through those foundations, even with Sturgeon and Ardern gone, through our media, our universities, our schools, our corporations, our entertainment industry, government bureaucracies, even our language. We have a senior health department bureaucrat who refuses to even define “what a woman is”, this after almost nine years of Coalition government.
And here’s an example, posted above…
Via David Thompson, a modern mugshot: “Woman arrested for making bomb threats in Oxford”.
The fact the MSM explicitly refers to this male as a “woman” is a perfect example of how this woke virus has infected everything in the West. So, please tell me who’s winning because as far as I can see, we’re not.
The woke agenda is now affecting airline safety in America. There have been two major near-disasters in the past month caused by airline managements reducing pilot training standards.
Woke airline managements are prepared to endanger their customers to comply with corporate America’s latest buzzword, equity. What’s now important to airline managements is ticking new ideological boxes invented by the political left.
According to experienced pilots, many new pilot hires aren’t interested flying or piloting skills, just the money.
It’s frightening and unprecedented.
Tucker Carlson predicts it’s a matter of time before there’s a major disaster. Segment starts at the 28-minute mark.
https://digital.library.sydney.edu.au/nodes/view/3585?keywords=Honi%20Soit%201964%2010&highlights=eyIwIjoiaG9uaSIsIjEiOiJzb2l0IiwiMiI6IjE5NjQiLCIxMyI6IjEwIn0=&lsk=b0c5da5ea59415337a449532968aaadd#idx14042
Martin Sharps View of The Sydney Uni Commemeration Day Manly Ferry Cruise 1964 (Organised by The Syd Uni Engineers – we only made it just out of Circular Quay) and Chief Justice Michael Kirby (then President SRC) defended students arrested during Commem, including one of my Mates who was arrested at the Wharf after the Cruise, defending his girlfriend.
His Orginal Invitation to The Commem Day Harbour Cruise was a Classic Martin Sharp Cartoon- Wish I had kept a copy
Oh yes. The resources boom here is a parallel. It meant an easy life without real work and real production because you could dig it up and sell it and ship it off and the rest could survive happily on the resulting fairy farts.
The trouble is, with nothing productive to do and a full belly, the minds and sticky fingers start devising all sorts of stupidity and ruinousness.
Looks like push factors are back on the menu boys!
Defence providing ‘surge’ support to border protection efforts north of Australia
So Labour, having learned nearly nothing from their last border/’fugee follies have learnt only one thing.
They have to stop the appearance of boats as its electoral poison.
“It is of the nature of additional aircraft surveillance and additional ships that are patrolling in our northern waters”.
Vice Admiral Johnston confirmed the surge was requested in the last few weeks, but wouldn’t specify why, telling the committee it was a question better put to Home Affairs.
This week the Albanese government confirmed thousands of refugees who arrived in Australia before “Operation Sovereign Borders” began in 2013 would be eligible to stay here permanently.
On Monday the OSB Commander published a stern online warning to potential asylum seekers who were contemplating travelling to Australia by boat.
“The Australian government’s decision to resolve legacy temporary visa caseloads does not change how Australia protects its borders,” Rear Admiral Jones says in a video translated to several regional languages.
“Let me be clear, anyone who attempts an unauthorised boat voyage to Australia will be turned back to their country of departure, returned to their home country or transferred to a regional processing country.”*
* Until you become “sick” as certified by a green/left health professional, and are transported to Australia where a green/left lawyer will be granted an injunction against you being returned to the 3rd country because it makes you sad.
Ouch. Straight to the furniture store.
It would be funny if Trump beats DeSantis because DeSantis is seen as too close to Ukraine.
ABC(d) for defamation has found another hotbed of far right racist, sexist , mysoggykeesist, people to highlight.
Curiously they have held off on the “far right” excoration after being flogged for it last time.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-16/youth-crime-forum-toowoomba-community-safety-police/101977706
Any news from the local matia helldrivers branch?
Harrowing stories of pensioners being mugged at ATMs, youths roaming the streets with machetes and children now too scared to leave home have been aired at a town hall meeting in Toowoomba on Wednesday night.
Toowoomba has been the subject of violent burglaries while car thefts have skyrocketed in the regional centre over the past year.
…
In firey exchanges with police and politicians, locals shared chilling personal stories of being threatened with knives and metal bars or being confronted by intruders in their own homes.
One woman asked, “How do you counter a machete?”, after being told she was able to defend herself during a break-in, so long as she did not use an “offensive weapon”.
“They were literally walking around my suburb last week with a machete,” she said.
“I go for my walk and they threaten me with a machete. What can I do?”
Another woman bravely revealed she had been raped by a 14-year-old boy in the town.
“[He] got three counts of rape, no criminal record, just parole,” she told the auditorium.
“I can’t even say his name. I’ve been through a lot and, in the court, all they care about is him.”
“Youths”
If only those “youths” had a voice.
Sturgeon forgot the other Golden Rule – Don’t upset the trannies. She had to go.
We’ll put it on the Agenda.
The ALPBC request for media accreditation has been referred to a subcommittee.
Exhibit A: “I did a very light beep”.
And the only reason the cops/pollies got involved in Toowoomba was to protect the scallywags from well deserved floggings.
As usual.
‘The system’s broken’: police fear vigilantism as Toowoomba residents vent their anger over youth crime
Locals share harrowing stories at sold-out Queensland forum, some admitting they had considered taking the law into their own hands
…
Frustrated Queenslanders have told a youth crime forum that they have considered taking matters into their own hands, prompting police to warn that there could be “no place” for vigilantism.
Police minister Mark Ryan, youth minister Leanne Linard and the state’s police commissioner Katarina Carroll, addressed an unruly crowd* on Wednesday night at a community forum in Toowoomba’s Armitage Centre.
……
Chief executive of Emerge Youth Toowoomba, Jen Shaw, hopes the community will stay calm and support those engaging with troubled youth.
“I have met many kids who are offending because they want to go to detention. That’s where they find… shelter, food, clothing, hygiene,” she said.
“When you feel like you belong somewhere and people get you… that’s when beautiful change starts to happen.
“How can we take what’s working for these kids and wrap ourselves around them? They’ve already had the punishment, let’s try a different approach.”**
*How dare they be unhappy.
** Tell me its a bunch of Aboriginal kids from homes full of drug rooted skellies with out saying it.
Back in the late 80’s, Toowoomba was being touted as Australia’s most desirable place to live – climate, services, socio-economic advantage, good schools.
The people who moved there then must be ruing the day.
Please, not until ticket sales have ended.
That latest Telstra ad is a shocker
Have just left Telstra after 35 years, and have penned a short article for Choice – “Well Telstra, the divorce papers came through…”
Still fighting them as my account is in credit, and there seems no way to get an easy transfer to my bank, or a cheque.
Another upper middle class wanker, eh mUnts?
Chief executive of Emerge Youth Toowoomba, Jen Shaw, hopes the community will stay calm and support those engaging with troubled youth.
“I have met many kids who are offending because they want to go to detention. That’s where they find… shelter, food, clothing, hygiene,” she said.
Give them what they “want”. Tell the Beaks that they must grant their wishes, and sentence them to detention.
Then watch Mizzzz Shaw scream “Wayssisssssm”.
Good luck out there.
Monty – DeSantis is too close to the RNC. He got an invite to, and attended, the Club for Growth, Trump was excluded. Republican voters notice such things.
If DeSantis is too close to Ukraine that would be because the RINO herd is also. DeSantis is not a RINO but the GOP party machinery is rather like the Liberals’ party machinery. Conquest’s 2nd Law in action.
Lord Bebo
@MyLordBebo
German mainstream newspaper “Berliner Zeitung” interviewed Seymour Harsh about Nord Stream 2.
-> Germany is standing up for themselves slowly? … To early to call it, but certainly that’s how a first step would look like.
That was Hercules next task.
East Palestine toxicology test relies on controversial consulting firm accused of serving corporate interest rather than public health
Queensland is working towards “truth telling” and a “Treaty’ – that will heal all ills.
Yoga and meditation will fix it!
Los Angeles launches unarmed policing alternative including yoga, healing circles, meditation (15 Feb)
Sure to work. It’s very trendy! Maybe they could try it Alice Springs too.
As for camping it has been said – any fool can be cold and wet
After the obligatory camper trailer fell apart on our first outback adventure years ago (Fair Trading victory followed), we tried a 2 man “tourer tent” after seeing an 80 year old couple erect it in 5 minutes. However, got sick of hard ground (despite blow up mattresses) eventually & tried a camper trailer called an “Ecotourer”. This was truly an amazing vehicle – a fibreglass construction designed by a boat builder which sat flat behind the Landcruiser & was easily erected into a roomy trailer with kitchen/dining, a sprung Queen bed and even a shower toilet! Better still, it was so well built that we drove across the Tanami Track and didn’t break a glass in the cupboards!
However, the “Eco” was damn heavy to manoeuvre around into camping positions. We should have bought a parking device, but instead opted to sell it (got new price back!) and buy an Ultimate. The latter was, again of fibreglass construction and superbly designed for easy erection, superb towing and so compact it could go into the roughest terrain. Once again, superb mattress. A little ripper.
However, having over many years travelled all over Australia, including Tasmania, we decided to sell the Ultimate and had literally a queue of potential buyers who vied to be the first at the farm when the recent Lockdown concluded. Even so, I confess to having the “bug” to get out into the wilderness again. Not that it is easy to camp solo. Wherever we went – including the most remote places, some damn camper would appear out of nowhere at dusk & want to camp alongside. My eventual solution was to put on “The Three Tenors” at full noise at first sight of their vehicle. Worked every time. didn’t see them for the dust.
“…Lowe has acknowledged that “unemployment needs to rise to bring inflation back down“…”
These are the morons we have in charge – FMD.
No you goon, at least one (and preferably both) of these need to happen:
* interest rates need to rise enough to lower demand to meet supply
* supply needs to rise to meet demand
But, as usual, these grommets think that only the former will do, despite abundant evidence that the latter produces less pain for Mr & Mrs Average, and results in long term improvements that the former – by itself – almost never does.
Reduce government spending.
Reduce tax.
Reduce red tape.
Worked for Thatcher, worked for Raegan, worked for Hawke/Keating, worked for Howard, worked for Trump, to name just a few.
That’s because he’s a climate bedwetter. All that is needed to bring inflation down is throw open the oil, gas and coal sectors, since energy prices are what caused it in the first place.
But he can’t say that, so he has to screw ordinary people.
Unemployment is the real unknown. If they lose control of that one there will be blood flowing in the streets. Spoken as a member of the Bob Hawke Surf Team circa 1990.
“… Tonight we had a forecast of a “low intensity heat wave”,”
Yeah, what a shocker heat wave,eh?
39C in Sydney, in summer.
Obviously forgotten the 50C we had those oh so many months ago.
Watch property prices then. Prior to that I was at NAB – people would put offers 30% below the asking price. Not all of them were rejected.
Europe is incapable of defending itself, thus prostrating themselves at the feet of the GAE.
Driving is for thrill seekers too. Nothing like having the GPS direct you into a residents only area in Italy or the dangerous suburbs of Washington DC. The important thing is to have fun.
Calli, husband insists on hiring a car and driving in virtually every country we have visited. The countries where this was impossible – eg Russia pre Perestroika, & China- I would have to go on a tour on my own. He did consent to join me on conducted safaris in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Most western countries are fine – USA, UK and European countries. We have had some “interesting” experiences, though, driving in Morocco and Oman, and even in Thailand. Omanis are very hospitable and English is widely spoken, but we did have a rather exciting venture into the “Empty Quarter” trying to locate our desert camp late in the day. Morocco, I think, is less hospitable and we had a lot of trouble with the French and Arabic signs and particularly trying to find parking and then negotiate our way on foot into the medinas. Re Thailand – these days we look at our road journey on Google Maps before we leave Oz & it really helped in Northern Thailand when we landed late in the afternoon, had to pick up our hire car and drive at nightfall to our hotel deep in the countryside. Husband recalled an important fork in the road – thank God.
Not far off, Bruce.
Criminologist at the University of Southern Queensland has suggested “healing centres.”
BTW – re driving OS:
I have to say our most recent OS hire car experiences are reducing the attraction of self drive. Like cities in Oz – the traffic is just too horrendous and parking impossible unless your hotel has it attached. Parking in the street is a cut-throat experience. When in Bilbao we had to park in the street adjacent to our hotel and returned to find dents in both the front and rear of our car’s bumpers. That was expensive. The hire cars themselves have idiosyncrasies that even my car mad husband finds difficult. On the roads in Switzerland on a trip prior to the pandemic he was infuriated by an electronic warning device which stopped you drifting out of your lane. This was fine except for when there was an old, as well as a more recent, line on the road!
Google Maps must have taken a lot of the excitement out of travelling. Nothing like landing in a city with only the map in your dog-eared Lonely Planet Guide to Western Europe aka The Brick.
Some Cats may recall I work with a lovely mother of 3 whose family endured a home invasion in outer Melbourne and partner stabbed 2 years back. The last of the gang is to have his trial in March. He is being tried as an Adult.
Hows this, he asked the judge in the last hearing, if he pleads guilty how much time does he get? Judge advised 3 years min mandatory sentancing. Response oh Im not doing that and will plead NG.
How the fk does that work? Surely just by asking that stupid question he is cooked? I guess not, it is Victoria.
Anyway by late March my colleague may be able to get on with her life instead of having to relive it again and again for each one of the 4 xunts as the try to avoid justice.
“… That’s because Russia was domesticated and not going threaten anyone, right?”
Russia is paranoid – and given their history, arguably reasonably so.
The only time they have had peace is when they were strong.
Two times in the 20thC, the Germans invaded them.
Mongels and others throughout history have tried the same.
The “deal” that gave Ukraine its independence for surrendering its nukes included the specification that they would NOT join NATO – which the US and EU studiously ignore to this day. The US and the EU broke the deal, or at the very least provoked Russia into believing they would, if not immediately, then certainly long term. And they continued to do so, despite Russia saying it was a “red line” they would not tolerate being crossed. Who is the “bad guy”?
IMO, it would have been a much smarter move to court Russia in terms of economic activity – trade etc – after the collapse of the USSR.
Certainly Russians in general are more closely aligned with European values than the Chinese are or ever were. But the US elites needed an enemy, and Russia was an “easy” one to pick – they had been, over their entire flirtation with communism, an avowed enemy, so you don’t have to convince the older people, just the younger ones.
Oh and in a statement by a girlfriend who joined said criminals they bragged about stabbing a white man.
No wacism in Victoria move along.
Lucky Brittaneeeee has got lots of dosh, courtesy of the taxpayer, for the two of them…
“Brittany Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz let go by radio station owner Southern Cross Austereo
By YONI BASHAN
David Sharaz, the partner of former government staffer Brittany Higgins, has abruptly resigned from his job with regional television and radio owner Southern Cross Austereo, two weeks after defamation action was taken against him by Liberal senator Linda Reynolds.
It’s understood Sharaz’s departure was made official this morning, with his last day carried out on Wednesday. Margin Call understands the exit was conducted on mutual terms with the company.
Instead of a short biographical statement on his Twitter account, Sharaz has written “AWAY” in capital letters. He declined to comment when contacted and comment has been sought from SCA.
A journalist by profession, Sharaz worked for several months as a media advisor in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet during 2020 before returning to the profession as a breakfast newsreader in March 2021 and being elevated to SCA’s Queensland news operations in February last year.
His profile grew dramatically through his association with Higgins, a former political staffer who alleged that she was sexually assaulted by her colleague, Bruce Lehrmann, after an evening of drinking that ended in federal parliament.
Lehrmann’s subsequent trial captured and polarised the nation, but also led to sweeping audits of workplace safety and sex discrimination practices over a two-year period in parliaments across the nation.
During that time SCA appeared highly supportive of Sharaz as he took time off to accompany Higgins throughout the criminal case and through a review ordered by former prime minister Scott Morrison, as well as other engagements.
Higgins and Sharaz announced their intention to marry in January.
But Sharaz is also known for his prolific tweeting, and he was recently issued with a defamation complaint by lawyers acting for Reynolds over two tweets he published in relation to Higgins in January and December last year.
Reynolds’ lawyers are seeking an apology and damages over “inaccurate and professionally damaging” criticisms of her, including that she bullied Higgins, interfered with the police investigation examining her allegations, and that she leaked privileged material concerning her compensation claim.
Announced on the same day as the Toowoomba community meeting by the cloth-eared Premier who refused to attend said meeting.
As is tradition in Canadia, the Low Countries and Australia.
France and the UK are fine. They’ve got the bomb.
When is the Chook up for re-election? She must be close to losing the energy to do the job.
She’s got plenty in the tank.
Just like the Wee Krankie.
Vicki says:
February 16, 2023 at 11:07 am
As for camping it has been said – any fool can be cold and wet
Even so, I confess to having the “bug” to get out into the wilderness again. Not that it is easy to camp solo. Wherever we went – including the most remote places, some damn camper would appear out of nowhere at dusk & want to camp alongside.
My eventual solution was to put on “The Three Tenors” at full noise at first sight of their vehicle. Worked every time. didn’t see them for the dust.
Vicki,
classic example – Road testing Solo, Land Rover Discovery 3 for 4WD Journo mate (have driven black top Sydney to Broome over 5 days to start the Road Test)
We were a group of 5 Vehicles road testing 3 new 4WDs – we had come through Rudall Natl Park, then down the Talawana Track to Canning Stock Route, then up Canning Stock route to Well 33, where we refuelled at Kunawarritji Community, then headed East along Gary Junction Road towards Alice Springs
– We reached Jupiter Wells around 1300, a large beautiful stand of Desert She Oaks in the middle of desert area, and with fresh water, the ladies in the Group decided that we should stop & set up camp and they set about washing their hair – It was a huge area and we set up well apart.
At 5pm a group of 3 4wds arrived from the Alice Direction, and would you believe it, camped right next to me – loads of area nowhere near me, but had to camp immediately next to me
that was then enhanced by the WA Roads Grading Convoy arriving from the WA/NT Border, 2 x 4WDs, 2 Graders, 1 Bulldozer on Trailer towed by 4WD truck, and 3 Caravans and setting up opposite me with huge trailer generator keeping their food supplies & drinks cold, and they were pleased to have company
It was a good sociable night
So in the middle of nowhere – definitely Not Solo Camping
The good news was from Jupiter Wells to the WA/NT Border the road was great having just been graded – it deteriorated from there on the NT side
26 Oct ’24.
Oft remarked in the press.
I’d say this treaty nonsense is her attempt at leaving a legacy of sorts.
And in more ‘doctors are baffled/died suddenly’ news:
Experts have narrowed it down to soccer, video games, deferred medical care and coffee…. The ROP and the shots have been ruled out.
When politicians are at their most dangerous. Gillard?
Suzette Boyd, Hawthorn
Another upper middle class wanker, eh mUnts?
A tremendous amount of fun is there to be had for someone with the time & skills to run a blog making fun of the letters to the editor columns of the Age and SMH (possibly also the Grauniad but I have never dived into that cesspool). Ridicule of the venal, misinformed, nonsensical and specious arguments that fester there would be a good place to start. For instance the contribution yesterday from someone who claimed trusting the government on the Voice was OK because he often trusted waiters to decide what to serve in a restaurant.
Another section might be a statistical analysis of frequent contributors to the green-left echo chambers that are the letters columns of those august publications. There are many frequent fliers there, obviously liars, green, getup and teal apparatchiks.
There could even be a voting system like the Q&A one that was on the old Cat with a prize for the most inane letter of the week.
The possibilities are limitless…
Shades of Paul Pelosi
Someone overnight wrote a comment that claimed that all we talk about here is “no knickers Brittany Higgins“.
Well, I don’t think we talk about the Higgins imbroglio incessantly and certainly not for the “1000th time” as this person alleges however it’s worth remembering why we do sometimes talk about it, and here are some rather valid reasons…
1. The Higgins affair played a significant role in ending a Coalition government because it enabled the left to run with the line that all conservative and right-wing men are monsters and/or rapists. It was a deliberate hit job.
2. The Higgins affair trashed the presumption of innocence in this country, it was already on shaky ground after the Pell Affair, but the Higgins imbroglio has probably damaged it now permanently. The trial had to be delayed and then abandoned, it was prejudiced from the beginning, by Higgins herself, by her amphibian mentor, by the MSM, by social media sewers and by other players in this sordid affair.
3. From the beginning there was political malfeasance involved and if the Liberals are too spineless to push for an inquiry into the affair and in particular to the payout to Higgins, then they’re not worth their salt but as all know here, they aren’t worth anything!
Finally, forget about earthquakes in Italy and Romania, the Higgins imbroglio has caused a major earthquake here in this country, an earthquake that has done terrible damage to not just our legal system, but has destroyed a young man’s life.
We enjoyed the hospitality of a road grading camp after the Old Man’s Holden broke down somewhere between Tom Price and Port Hedland. His lack of mechanical sympathy and neglect of basic maintenance was potentially even greater than mine. Curiously my half brother now works as a maintenance engineer at Alcoa.
A dangerous and un-American belief exposed.
From the I-like-pancakes. Why-do-you-hate-waffles school of logic:
Reported to’ve been a head injury, but no details yet how that could’ve occurred.
UnHerd: Jeffrey Sachs: Who really blew up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline?
Very good.
Vagabond – the Alene Composta blog was some of the best satire I have ever read on the Interwebs. Babylon Bee is consistently good.
In the tradition of Ern Malley…from before the interwebs.
Haha, here’s her electoral page.
She’s a typical Dem hypocrite.
Also variously reported by Leicestershire Police as ‘not suspicious’: The death, they said in a statement, was not being treated as suspicious.
So….how would being found dead of a head injury in a hotel be ruled ‘not suspicious’ so rapidly?
Nothing to see here.
Probably global warming.
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/02/15/30-more-young-people-dying-from-heart-attacks-n531026
Duk – A friend of mine tripped, fell, hit his head and died. You can be unlucky. I can’t say whether the reporting is correct, I’m just reporting what the reporting I saw reported… 😀
On vax injury stuff Jack the Insider has a column in the Oz today from what I could see. I’m not a subscriber so all I saw was the excerpt:
How health agencies are inspiring misinformation on vaccine injuries (Oz, paywalled)
When you drop a weight on your head during a home workout.
Ask the FBI.
I’m sceptical of that claim.
Detention is reserved for violent offenders; by that point they’re tough nuts.
The kids breakin ginto houses & stealing cars generally don’t go armed and they know if they plead guilty the magistrate will release them. They are well schooled in playing the system.
I met plenty of hard-core lesbians while lecturing at university in cultural areas. Most of them seem to have been born that way, sexually attracted to girls from early years, mostly at puberty, with one of a couple often more ‘dominant’ and male than the other, a sort of ‘acting out’ I always thought. I don’t know how much cultural influences interacted even at puberty though. Then there were the LUGs – the Lesbians Until Graduation – the girls who flirted, literally, with lesbianism but who were basically heterosexual and who drifted away from it, often into relationships with men and then marriage. I suspect that LUG’s are subject these days to some hardline propaganda at uni to remain that way these days, and the ‘experimental’ aspect is downgraded. Sadly, this could introduce a lifetime of emotional confusion and lost heterosexual opportunities to those women.
The other sorts of lezzos are the divorced women and widows who ‘discover’ sexual pleasure through lesbianism after a loveless (sexually bad) marriage, and also through a lack of available males once divorced or widowed. They are not so much lesbian as uncatered for heterosexually.
For many women in lesbian relationships, it does seem that once the initial sexual attraction is explored, the relationship easily slips into a sort of comfortable female friendship and sex can be very much on the back burner. In historic times, when women slept together in the same bed by necessity, often with their servants, slap and tickle stuff must have happened, ‘undercover’ as it were, and seems to have had little or no bearing on a woman’s heterosexual marital life. A matter of perspectives.
That Erin Healy chick isn’t hiding much with a gold outlined red star over her campaign logo.
Comrades!
H B Bear says:
February 16, 2023 at 12:52 pm
So….how would being found dead of a head injury in a hotel be ruled ‘not suspicious’ so rapidly?
When you drop a weight on your head during a home workout.
A French friends son who was epileptic, had seizure lifting weights at home by himself and that exaxtly happened – with a child with Epilepsy – believe me, you always worry
‘We were all forced’: Mum of ‘healthy’ 21-year-old who died after Moderna blames vaccine mandates
The mum of a “fit and healthy” 21-year-old from Melbourne who died after taking the Moderna vaccine has blasted authorities for mandating Covid injections.
The 21-year-old from Rowville in Melbourne’s southeast — a competitive netball player and hardworking student in her fourth year of law and commerce at Deakin University — would have turned 22 on Monday.
Nearly one year ago, on March 27, 2022 — her late grandmother’s birthday — Natalie died of heart failure at The Alfred Hospital, six weeks after receiving a booster dose of the Moderna vaccine.
“You’ll never be the same,” her mother Debra Hamilton, 52, told news.com.au.
“No parent should bury their child — especially from medical negligence and a compulsory vaccine.”
Ms Hamilton, a single mother who raised Natalie and her older brother alone, says their tight-knit family group has been torn apart by the “horrific” ordeal, and is now demanding accountability for her daughter’s “brutal, unnecessary death”.
The tax agent is furious at Victoria’s health system for mistreating and misdiagnosing her daughter until it was too late, at the government of Premier Daniel Andrews for “forcing” the vaccines on the public without proper long-term safety data, and the federal medicines regulator for its handling of Natalie’s case.
Blood clotting link
She also alleges that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) should have flagged a risk for antiphospholipid syndrome, an uncommon blood clotting disorder estimated to affect one in 2000 people.
Natalie, who had no other major health issues, had been diagnosed with antiphospholipid syndrome as a 15-year-old by chance while having her appendix removed.
Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick, a vocal and at times controversial critic of Covid vaccines, contacted the TGA in October 2021 flagging a potential danger.
“He wrote to them in October 2021 to have Moderna pulled for people with antiphospholipid syndrome,” Ms Hamilton said.
“If they’d done that she’d be alive. A lot of people don’t even know they’ve got it. Had I known what the Senator had said back in October, there was no way in a million years I’d have let her have another one.”
Natalie received two doses of Pfizer in September and October 2021, followed by the Moderna booster on February 18, in order to keep her job at fleet management firm LeasePlan — as well as attend in-person classes at Deakin University — under the state’s sweeping vaccine mandates at the time.
“I don’t blame her workplace to be honest,” Ms Hamilton said.
“My workplace had to check people’s vaccination status. We were all forced by Daniel Andrews. We were forced by government regulations. At my workplace they turned up to audit us and had we not complied it was going to be a $10,000 fine.”
“Still fighting them as my account is in credit,…”
My Telstra account remains $0.01 in credit.
They dutifully send me a statement every year or so telling me that, and saying I can spend the cost of a local call with them to get my 1c back.
Nah. You just keep spending 25c/year trying to get me to balance your books about 1c. Suits me you bunch of useless tossers.
Oh, and if you keep your balance in arrears with them, keep it under $5 – then the bill will always say “Don’t pay anything – wait for next bill”. A friend had this after he cancelled a service, and got a “Don’t pay – wait for next bill” for several years at least – as far as I know, he might even still be getting them, from a 1990’s bill!
Sometimes in amongst all the doom & gloom tales the media relish .. the odd HAPPY one ..!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-16/macaws-outlive-owners-find-new-home-at-urimbirra-wildlife-park/101956340
Rubbish. No one has thought less of or discriminated against a blood relation stepping up in cases were one or both parents are killed or die of accident or illness.
Vicki, on our last European holiday I booked hotels a day or two ahead and only those that had guests parking. I would rather pay more than have to drive all over looking for a parking.
Recently I had a rental car while mine was being repaired that also had that lane control. It was really jarring that the steering wheel would suddenly want to steer on its own. I almost had to wrestle it for control.
Pomgolians choosing to end themselves.
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-poverty-of-choice/
The number of abortions in the UK increased by 47 per cent in the first two weeks of 2023, compared with the same time in 2022. This follows after 2021 saw the highest number of abortions ever recorded in England and Wales: there were over 214,000 abortions and around 625,000 live births. Excluding miscarriages, this means that around one quarter of pregnancies ended in abortion. Naturally, pro-lifers will lament such statistics — but pro-choicers, pro-lifers, and pro-whateverers alike have cause for concern.
Of course, many factors play a part in women deciding against having children. In an age of widespread contraceptive use, baby making is no longer the default position for most couples. At a time when women are putting off having children — in many cases so as to pursue the myth of “having it all” or to “girl-boss” their way through life — the goal of becoming a mother is an increasingly foreign concept to my generation. The cost of living crisis doesn’t help matters. Neither do unstable housing, even more unstable relationships, climate change fears, career stress and a generation of people who have grown up accustomed to divorce and family breakdown. Add into the mix reduced religiosity among the British public, and the ingredients for rejecting motherhood are in abundance.
rickw:
Be careful, Rick. That sounds a lot like a quote I made and was roundly condemned for. In a pile on I think! 🙂
We found it OK in the US and UK recently, avoided cities, and always took care to book hotels with plentiful easy parking – that was often the decider in where we stayed. Parking Stations were generally ok in the cities and we limited street parking, especially in that long low Audi thing I called The Beast which had also tried to imprison me electronically inside it. Hairy is currently having a battle with the hire company over a scratch underneath the front bumper which we reckon was made not by careful us, with me getting out to guide in his parking, but by the hopeless parker of the previous hire, who left the car with the alloy wheels on the parking side quite damaged. This wheel damage was listed on our damage report at hire, but not the scratch under the bumper that side, we we didn’t see in the half-dark when we picked the car up, and which was not apparent for the whole time we drove it, as it was out of normal view; when we returned the car they shone a torch up under it! The Brits have a reputation for gouging people who hire cars, so we await dispute resolution on that. We’ve found too that countries also differ greatly in their hire car policies re minor scratches and damage.
We find carefully selected tours by bus or people-mover are good, such as we took in Korea recently, and taxis are great if you organise a return pick up, or you can splash out on a car and driver (often not worth it). There’s also walking, lol. Sometimes involuntary, and especially in airports. I am old enough to cry feeble and ask for a transport to a distant gate, but I am not willing yet to place myself in such a category. I do see some fairly able bodied people on those transports, tho’. Makes you wonder.
Vicki, check your email or email me. Not sure if I have your current email correct.
OldOzzie says:
February 16, 2023 at 6:32 am
Ukraine doesn’t have the military or economic resources of its own to achieve victory, and the resources provided by the West will never be enough to inflict a final defeat on Russia. Zelensky’s calculation is likely based on the belief that by offering Ukraine as a tool for NATO to use against Russia, he will constantly mobilize Western support and thereby ensure his own survival, and that of his associates.
As Ukraine’s own military and economic resources have dried up, the country has become increasingly dependent on Western supplies, and has ultimately become a tool to fight Russia. Nevertheless, Kiev still has the opportunity to begin talks with Moscow. Zelensky could take the initiative to negotiate a status quo that is still comfortable for Ukraine. Of course, as the Russian military campaign progresses, the situation will change in ways that are far from favorable to Kiev. And the solutions put forward by the Russian delegation at the beginning of the crisis will no longer be on the table.
Indeed. We all ‘get it’. Zelensky doesn’t want to be seen as the weakling; negotiating peace terms with an aggressor; enjoys unprecedented Western support; sees himself as almost “Churchhillian’; feted with access to world leaders; addressing Western parliaments; etc.
But the fact remains that Ukraine cannot defeat Russia on its own and Western support has limits (time, money and/or equipment). Whether in commerce or war, negotiating from a relatively weaker position than your opposition is always a bad idea and as Russia appears to be gaining momentum on the battlefield, Zelensky should grit his teeth and open negotiations, via a 3rd party, with Russia. If nothing else, Zelensky should consider the outcome for the average Ukrainian if the conflict drags on for another 1-2-3+ years. Russia (Putin) won’t just give up and withdraw as this will mean NATO barracks on the Ukraine/Russian border within months.
I am not proposing appeasement or simple capitulation to an aggressor – instead, a negotiated settlement that satisfies both parties. That is an achievable outcome and various models have been suggested over the past 11 months. All have been rejected and the problem here is that Zelensky painted himself into a corner by legislating a no-negotiation stance and, he spends far too much time listening to the hawks in the USA who have an entirely different agenda. There is a lot of truth in the Western saying “fight to the last Ukrainian”.
I don’t want to see Ukraine damaged – I’ve been there many times and yes, it’s corrupt as buggery but that doesn’t diminish the incredible historical features and natural beauty. I don’t believe Ukrainians are being well served by their President who clings to the myth that Western support is inexhaustible and will inevitably lead to a Ukrainian victory with Russian forces retreating with their tail between their legs (including from the Crimea). Zelensky needs to get on the front foot and open negotiations as a leader.
I check the addresses of carparks o/s like I check the addresses of laundrettes.
And fabric/yarn shops come to think of it.
Be Prepared. Dib dib dib.
Cassie upthread noted where the real work lay if we want to stave off the demise of the West. This isn’t the best of starts, Hun:
Junior soccer players will be barred from participating in a Melbourne Victory halftime kids game if they don’t wear pride T-shirts.
Parents of six and seven-year-olds have been told their children will not be able to take to the pitch during Melbourne Victory’s small-sided football match at the Pride Cup on February 26 if they do not agree to their kids wearing LGBTQI+ pride T-shirts.
The coach of one junior team invited to participate in the event received registration forms from Melbourne Victory this week which outlined the requirement.
“Please note that Melbourne Victory will be celebrating Pride Cup at this fixture. As such, participants playing half time small sided games will be wearing a specially designed pride T-shirt during the game,” the registration form read.
“By continuing with this registration form you agree to your child wearing the MVFC pride T-shirt.”
One shocked parent said while he backed the A-League’s Pride Cup, children should be “kept out of social and cultural matters”.
“It’s deeply disturbing that the Melbourne Victory is forcing 6 year old children to be moving billboards,” he said.
“While I personally agree with the concept of pride and the safety of all LGBTQI+ persons to participate in sport, primary aged schoolchildren are not the correct avenue to express these sentiments.”
Melbourne Victory on Wednesday, however, denied children were being forced to wear the T-shirts, telling the Herald Sun families that were not comfortable could participate on an alternative day.
“The Club has not forced any of its players, staff, fans or junior participants to wear or participate in anything they are not comfortable with,” a spokesman said.
“This game is a celebration of LGBTI+ participation in sport and we have put processes in place to ensure those who are not comfortable to participate in the day as a whole, will have the option to participate in another match day they feel comfortable participating in.”
The Pride Cup first kicked off in 2022 after Adelaide’s Josh Cavallo became the men’s competition’s only openly gay player.
Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory players, who will face off on the day, will wear rainbow shirt numbers and armbands as a display of support for the LGBTQI+ community in football.
I think a suitable response to this would be to gather all the pride shirts, shred them, and sprinkle on the doorstep of the Melbourne Victory facility.
Not by anybody sensible, normal, or sane, you weren’t.
Anyway, not sure one person + their sock puppet really should count as a pile on.
He’s not constitutionally authorised to relinquish terrirory…that has to go to a referendum. The best he can do is go to the people with such a proposal. When he last suggested it, he was threatened with assassination. I believe this, and the Ukrainian peoples’ intransigence on the matter (which may budge over time) plays a large part in his stance.
“Junior soccer players will be barred from participating in a Melbourne Victory halftime kids game if they don’t wear pride T-shirts.
Parents of six and seven-year-olds have been told their children will not be able to take to the pitch during Melbourne Victory’s small-sided football match at the Pride Cup on February 26 if they do not agree to their kids wearing LGBTQI+ pride T-shirts.
The coach of one junior team invited to participate in the event received registration forms from Melbourne Victory this week which outlined the requirement.
“Please note that Melbourne Victory will be celebrating Pride Cup at this fixture. As such, participants playing half time small sided games will be wearing a specially designed pride T-shirt during the game,” the registration form read.
“By continuing with this registration form you agree to your child wearing the MVFC pride T-shirt.””
Faaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk…..this is NOT tolerance. This is fascism.
I am not proposing appeasement or simple capitulation to an aggressor – instead, a negotiated settlement that satisfies both parties. That is an achievable outcome and various models have been suggested over the past 11 months. All have been rejected and the problem here is that Zelensky painted himself into a corner by legislating a no-negotiation stance
Regrettably, few of the bystanders to this conflict have followed it closely enough – yet we are all suffering its consequences. A settlement was indeed achievable from the very beginning of the escalation over 12 months ago. The meeting proposed in Turkey would have been a good start. Of course the territory east of the Dneiper River would have been hotly contested diplomatically. But a settlement at that stage would have saved so many innocent lives.
But this commentary is right in noting that Zelensky has become such a media hero in the West that he believes his own narrative, and certainly has worked himself into a place in history.