Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph, Rembrandt, 1656
Born to rule.
Open Thread – Tues 14 Feb 2023
- Bumtree #5
- The beach which banned vanilla ice cream
- Bumtree #4
- Open Thread – Thurs 2 May 2024
- Bumtree #3
This swine should be on the next aircraft out of the country.. I take that to mean Albo Sleazy and…
Racist koalas!
Media Watchdog.
Detainee’s multiple breaches of curfews before attack laid bare By paul garvey Senior Reporter and rhiannon down Reporter3:42PM May 3,…
JC – “At the very least, you always treat dangerous devices and ordinance with total respect. It’s moronic to be throwing these devices around.”
I agree, I just don’t understand why you have to call people names like ‘Turtlehead’ etc, when you post on a subject it’s generally worth reading. The problem is that you seem to lose your senses at times and start ad hominem attacks that serve no purpose, except perhaps relieve some internal tension in you. Do you have an anger management problem?
Sorry, ‘prolific.’
Profligate would suit most of the ruling class.
Brain snap, same people involved.
dover0beach says:
February 16, 2023 at 11:40 pm
I’m not convinced that history bends towards the West, not least because what ‘the West’ means right now is ambiguous.
The circumstances and events leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been discussed at length and most Cats should be very well informed on that aspect. But, IMO, there are two other large geo-political elements in play.
Firstly, the West’s response in arming Ukraine is also a direct message to China over its alleged plans to resume Taiwan by force. The message is undeniable in that the West will impose wide-ranging sanctions and will do its best to financially cripple and isolate China. Moreover, China will be fighting ‘the Western world’ and not just Taiwanese forces.
From a trade and economic standpoint, this is a far bigger issue for China than it will ever be for Russia who, it must be said, have had some 70 years practice as the world’s pariah and been largely isolated from much global commerce. Trade figures between Russia and the West demonstrate the point and Russia has been forced to create alliances with other ‘non-aligned’ countries. That’s why trade sanctions have so little impact on Russia – their international trade structure just isn’t built on vast interrelated exchanges with the West.
Secondly, the CCP, and Xi in particular, are convinced that the Western empire is in decline and the East is in the ascendency. This will take decades but is inevitable. But, they recognise their Achilles heel – namely that any move on Taiwan will lead to trade sanctions (raw materials in particular) that will choke their economy leading to eventual discontent among their population. The very survival of the CCP could be at risk. Ergo, they must take steps to insulate themselves and who better than their large neighbour who happens to be fabulously wealthy in tapped and untapped natural resources (not to mention nuclear armed and distrustful of the West). A natural fellow traveller with whom they have created extensive relations.
Although the odds are vanishingly small, the West’s ultimate goal is the breakup of the Russian Federation into a dozen or more independent nations making it substantially more problematic for China to maintain relations with those independent entities. Indeed, it could even bring a Western military alliance very near to China’s western flank. Thus, the West reasons, if the break-up of the Russian Federation can be achieved, China would be dissuaded from any aggressive activities as its ‘partner’ has been dissolved and the supply of materials will be heavily disrupted. China would have to start again in building relationships with the new nations whilst in direct competition with the West who will pledge no end of support for the former Russian entities.
IMO, the stakes in the Ukraine/Russia conflict stretch far beyond the Ukraine. Before February last year, most people couldn’t find Ukraine on a map, much less the Donbas. (exception: Hunter Biden). Those who did know of it would have probably thought no more than it being a deeply corrupt little nation somewhere in eastern Europe that used to be part of Russia.
The overarching raison’d’etre for the West’s involvement in Ukraine is to send a blunt message to China and if, by some fluke, the Russian Federation is wholly or partially ruptured, then all the better. Even the dislocation of Putin (hoping he is replaced by a Western ‘friendly’) would be a win. The hard heads in the State Department, CIA and NSA et al couldn’t give a rat’s backside about Ukraine itself – there are much bigger issues at stake.
A stupid comment, by a clueless twit who knows nothing about what they’re looking at.
Some people do know what they’re looking at.
Defer to those who do know. Instead of being an oppositional deadshit & throwing around mindless juvenile abusive verbal diarrhoea, which only shows how clueless, idiotic, & immature you are. Stay in your lane.
How about on a different day they require a mandatory Christian cross jersey?
Didn’t think so. Then the answer is no.
Rita Panahi:
Well, well, well, haven’t the race-baiting sports media been stunned into silence?
The same hacks eager to disregard any notion of due process and destroy the livelihood and reputations of three men, Alistair Clarkson, Chris Fagan and Jason Burt, based on a report penned by an activist and leaked to the media, are suddenly quiet.
The author of that report, Phil Egan, who failed to interview the three accused, or indeed anybody who was non-Indigenous, nevertheless concluded that there had been race-based “bullying and intimidation’’ that amounted to “human rights abuses”.
Incredibly, his Cultural Safety Review was accepted as gospel.
It mattered not to the football media that the trio was being damned based on untested allegations of anonymous accusers whose identities remained protected while the accused were named, shamed and forced to take leave from their respective roles.
When I wrote about this saga back in September the witch-hunt was at fever pitch, with the majority of football pundits believing that Clarkson was a goner and possibly Fagan, too. Such was the blood lust among the media that Clarkson was criticised for strongly refuting the allegations and slamming the process.
Veteran reporter Caroline Wilson called Clarkson “combative” and his statement proclaiming his innocence “ill-advised”. One wonders whether silence would’ve been interpreted as an admission of guilt.
If they float then they’re a witch, if they sink and drown then they’re innocent. Seems fair.
This week Egan was arrested as part of a fraud investigation. He was released and, police say, is expected to be charged on summons for allegedly stealing from a body meant to help Indigenous communities.
Egan denies any wrongdoing and is innocent unless proven guilty. That’s how it’s supposed to be. But when it came to the trio accused of racist bullying there was no such restraint. Though they did not face any criminal charges, there was an eagerness to believe the worst of the accusations. The entire process was deeply flawed and unfair.
Every single person at Hawthorn Football Club party to commissioning this report should resign and apologise. They have recklessly inflicted enormous damage on the club, as well as the competition, not to mention irreversibly damaging the good names of three men.
I thought profligate meant extravagant, in a reckless, negative sense not a generous one. Like dissolute, another favourite.
Were they thinking “promiscuous”?
Another odd one is “taken off” rather than “taken from”. I always imagine the Space Shuttle is involved.
Which wouldnt matter, of course, except that government has now taken control of such a large chunk of the economy this way… there is no competition outside of it for many industries – even in medicine, where it is impossible to practice ‘privately’ because medicare still funds a big chunk of private care too.
Harry’s frost-bitten willie makes an appearance too.
A few pet hates:
Enormity doesn’t mean whopper. Fulsome doesn’t mean thorough. “Weather conditions” and “time period” are tautologies. “Biological male” is a pleonasm.
Oh, I see. Should have refreshed the page.
How about “uninterested” and “disinterested”?
😀
Answer it, be fanatical and articulate.
If this sort of thing is not humbugged, it’s unmentionable acts for Catholic pre schools.
C.L.
Mine are an old Collins, the first Macquarie (before they became woke) and a concise Oxford. Between them, I can usually work out what is going on.
I have the Penguins about medical terms and mythology and so on as well.
Merriam Webster is not reliable these days, infested by the Wokerati.
You have to admire AngryKaren’s newly found sanctimony when Karen was without doubt the worst, most venomous abuser towards Liz. It went on for years and carried over to this site until I made it stop. Now, she’s giving the blog owner advice. Ironically, if the blog owner had taken that attitude at the beginning, Karen would’ve been bounced out of here.
Surabaya airport has an “Ugly but capable” on display in the middle of a roundabout.
A Fairy Gannet.
I think just nearby they also have a Nomad on display?
Dropped into Chadstone Shopping Centre (SE Melbourne) this morning to pick something up. I always like to ask the retailer hows business. Today’s response: ‘Very concerned for some in the centre…. We all talk. Some retailers have barely any customers coming in…. Its not good.”
Well done Dan and Tennis Albo. Sh!tholification full speed ahead!
‘Uninterested’ and ‘disinterested’ – don’t get me started.
When talking about governance, it’s a crucial distinction.
Everyone Is Being Brainwashed – Jocko Willink & Tulsi Gabbard
Raquel .. gone but not forgotten .. RIP
https://postimg.cc/WFmnZJg1
There are some great words here. Treasure trove.
Many are used on this blog. Like “bonhomie”. 😀
Oh, look, It’s Lambert’s twin. Driller if we all stayed in our lanes, you’d still be mending fences or pouring flat beers. Now STFU and go do some yard duty around that filthy hovel called a motel. You respect weapons, you oppositional waste of oxygen.
This was taught to me at a young age. I’m surprised that your father, who you claim was in the military, didn’t teach you any of that, but then, being the fraud that you are, nothing about your background can be believed.
Watch & wait ……..!
https://postimg.cc/zVhfFS37
Speedbox says:
February 17, 2023 at 12:38 pm
Secondly, the CCP, and Xi in particular, are convinced that the Western empire is in decline and the East is in the ascendency. This will take decades but is inevitable. But, they recognise their Achilles heel – namely that any move on Taiwan will lead to trade sanctions (raw materials in particular) that will choke their economy leading to eventual discontent among their population. The very survival of the CCP could be at risk. Ergo, they must take steps to insulate themselves and who better than their large neighbour who happens to be fabulously wealthy in tapped and untapped natural resources (not to mention nuclear armed and distrustful of the West). A natural fellow traveller with whom they have created extensive relations.
The overarching raison’d’etre for the West’s involvement in Ukraine is to send a blunt message to China and if, by some fluke, the Russian Federation is wholly or partially ruptured, then all the better. Even the dislocation of Putin (hoping he is replaced by a Western ‘friendly’) would be a win. The hard heads in the State Department, CIA and NSA et al couldn’t give a rat’s backside about Ukraine itself – there are much bigger issues at stake.
Taking to Daughter-in-Law, driving her out to Sydney Intl yesterday, we were discussing that the number of Chinese walking along the beachfront in Manly had increased dramatically, as had been noted by my wife in her walks, similarly in our own Area, the number of properties being bought by the Chinese recently was quite noticeable
I said that having been shut down over the last 2 years, the Chineses will be anxious to get out & create an anchor base in OZ & Overseas.
She laughed and said we will be taken over by the Chinese just like the Japanese were supposed to in the Late 80s here in OZ
It was interesting doing business in Japan in 1989, it was the time of
“The Japan That Can Say No: Why Japan Will Be First Among Equals”
(?NO???????, “No” to Ieru Nihon)[1] is a 1989 essay originally co-authored by Shintaro Ishihara, the then Minister of Transport and leading LDP figure who would become governor of Tokyo (1999-2012); and Sony co-founder and chairman Akio Morita, in the climate of Japan’s economic rise.
It was famous for its critical examination of United States business practices and its treatment of Japanese companies, known as “Japan bashing”, and for advocating Japan’s taking a more independent stance on many issues, from business to foreign affairs.[2]
The title refers to the authors’ vision—Ishihara’s in particular—of a Japanese government that is more than a mere “yes man” and a client state to the United States. Many unauthorized translations were made and circulated in the United States. The authorized 1991 Simon & Schuster English translation by Frank Baldwin (out of print) did not include the essays by Morita.
And the People I dealt with were proud of that book and it was when the Movie “Rising Sun” starring SeanConnery reinforced this point
However the Japanes Population Aged and their ambitions have dropped
As I have seen in RNSH Outpatients over the last 2 years, the Chinese seem to be exporting their ageing problem to Australia. and I agree with my Daughter-in-Law that we will see an vast increase in Chinese & Indian Immigrants to OZ over the next number of years
What I am leading to is re your point above – Secondly, the CCP, and Xi in particular, are convinced that the Western empire is in decline and the East is in the ascendency. This will take decades but is inevitable.
The Chinese are now on the same downward aging slope as Japan, and the Chinese do Not have Decades
shatterzzz says:
February 17, 2023 at 12:57 pm
Watch & wait ……..!
https://postimg.cc/zVhfFS37
Colour Blind – What Colour is it Supposed to Change to?
Colour Blind – What Colour is it Supposed to Change to?
Sometimes I wonder .. is it me? .. or ….!
read the, bloody, chart .. LOL!
…… that won’t stop me calling it a terrorist attack.
Plenty of Protestant sects believe in the rapture. To smear them as Christian terrorists is contemptible.
As I have seen in RNSH Outpatients over the last 2 years, the Chinese seem to be exporting their ageing problem to Australia.
Yet we keep hearing the, official, gummint policy is NO age-d immigration and NO residency with medical issues ..
pix on Medicare cards could solve a lot of hospital needed “illness” diagnosis methinx ..!
Good post.
My thinking on Russia v the West tends to be through the prism of energy and resources- mainly because that’s all I know.
It’s interesting to me that the China-Russia energy link has been missing from the Hersh narrative. If the Biden Administration really did pop the Nordstream pipelines, they were obviously assuring a long-term gas stream to China, on favourable terms, to the US’s hegemonic rival.
Not sure why they would want to facilitate that.
My now departed father *invariably* corrected anyone using the term ‘G-Force’ by stating ‘G is an acceleration not a force’.
OTOH, what is it with Flammable and Inflammable? vs (say) ‘Organic and Inorganic’?
Fair Shake says:
February 17, 2023 at 12:48 pm
Dropped into Chadstone Shopping Centre (SE Melbourne) this morning to pick something up. I always like to ask the retailer hows business. Today’s response: ‘Very concerned for some in the centre…. We all talk. Some retailers have barely any customers coming in…. Its not good.”
Well done Dan and Tennis Albo. Sh!tholification full speed ahead!
Coming to Australia Soon
The UK housing market is cracking
House prices have fallen for four consecutive months, the longest sustained drop since 2008, and every major bank and building society predicts that house prices will fall this year.
Will Dunn
On Ryecotes Mead, a cul-de-sac in a south London suburb, there is a three-bedroom flat available as a leasehold that encapsulates the current condition of the British housing market.
Trudi, the estate agent, opens the door with a tight smile. The property is all on one floor: two modest doubles, one with en suite; a small single room; shower room; lounge; and a small kitchen. Plus a garage, in which an old chair awaits disposal (“You could rent it out to someone with an expensive car,” says Trudi, extending her arms into the space).
The flat – Trudi attempts “bungalow” – was built at the end of the 1960s and most of it has not been redecorated for decades. The porch has a corrugated plastic roof. It’s a leasehold, so a buyer would never technically own it; charges and permissions are involved. No one has lived here since the previous owner died some time ago. The air in the bedrooms seems to have thickened in the long silences.
We move to the garden, laid out exclusively in concrete slab, and outside we are reminded that the property is less than 90 metres from the South Circular, one of the most congested and polluted roads in the capital.
However, it’s less than 5 kilometres to the nearest Tube station. In 2002, you could buy a place on Ryecotes Mead for £200,000. Now, the owners want a cool million ($1.74 million). Somehow, just by existing, this flat has spent two decades making more money than the average worker.
A million quid for this! And who’s to say the owners won’t get it? Every year since 2009, records have been set in house prices, and every year people have asked how long the market could continue to defy gravity. But this year is different. The force that kept prices aloft – the historically cheap borrowing created by low interest rates and quantitative easing – has abruptly been withdrawn.
Last year, lender Halifax offered the cheapest mortgage ever, fixed at 0.83 per cent for two years. But to borrow the same amount today would cost (at the 4.95 per cent Halifax now offers for a two-year fixed) an extra £4916 a year. This at a time when inflation is eroding people’s disposable income, unemployment is rising, and the Bank of England is forecast to increase its base rate still further (financial markets predict a peak of 4.5 per cent this year, from 3.5 per cent today).
Confidence in the market was severely dented in September when the BoE and the then government of Liz Truss announced policies that entailed selling tens of billions of pounds in government debt on the bond markets.
Yields – the cost of servicing that debt – shot up, as did the (related) cost of servicing bank debt which, in turn, pushed up what banks charge people to borrow.
Within days, a young woman from Manchester – the archetypal first-time buyer, the person on whom the whole edifice of housing wealth depends – told BBC Question Time and the country she was being quoted an interest rate of 10.5 per cent for a mortgage. The audience moaned as if witnessing a physical injury; within three weeks, Truss was out.
But while bond markets have calmed since the Truss-Kwarteng debacle, house prices have fallen for four consecutive months, the longest sustained drop since 2008.
Every major bank and building society predicts that house prices will fall this year. The UK’s largest mortgage lender, Lloyds, is using a 7.9 per cent drop in prices as the “base case” for its assumptions in 2023; the “severe downside” scenario involves a fall of 17.9 per cent. And these are nominal values – against the price of everything else, with inflation still in double digits, house prices are already plummeting.
Almost three-quarters of the properties sold in November went for less than the asking price, while over the same period, sales fell by almost a third and demand almost halved.
The world’s largest ratings agency, S&P Global Ratings, has warned that property in London and the south-east is overvalued by up to 50 per cent, that a “sticky, gradual decline” will take hold in house prices in the UK, and that the effects of interest rate rises could take almost three years to be fully costed in by the market.
The same is happening across the world, as central bankers make borrowing more expensive in an attempt to curb inflation. In Sweden – where the government is much less active in its support of the market than in the UK – house prices have fallen 17 per cent from last year’s peak.
On one hand, this is a necessary correction. House prices are grossly inflated and almost everyone aged under 40 faces an unprecedented crisis of affordability.
But a crash could bring new dangers: an even more expensive rental market, fewer properties for social housing, and the risk of negative equity among new buyers.
It could also harm all the other industries that benefit from the housing market, which include not just house building but appliances, furniture, DIY and legal services – some solicitors who specialised in property conveyancing have already gone bankrupt, as the waning market makes it impossible to pay for the legal insurance they need.
Even apparently unconnected businesses could suffer, as home owners’ perceived wealth is sharply diminished, and consumer spending tightens.
A significant correction could even become a test for banks and other financial institutions if large numbers of borrowers begin to default on their mortgages.
Ratings agency Fitch recently found that the UK’s borrowers and banks were more exposed to the risk from residential property loans than any other developed economy.
Mass exercise in self-deception
The housing market is hard to predict. Ben Bernanke, as economic adviser to George W. Bush, told Congress in 2005 there was “no bubble to burst” in the US housing market; in 2008, as chairman of the Federal Reserve, he predicted that problems in the sub-prime mortgage sector would be “limited”, and have no effect on the wider US economy (despite these predictions, he was awarded the Nobel Prize last year).
But Britain’s property boom is different; almost everyone involved knows that it is a mass exercise in self-deception, our economy’s biggest lie.
Real wages have hardly risen for more than 20 years – and the pensions of today’s workers are mostly paper-thin – but the dizzying rise of the property market has offered a substitute for economic growth. It was a substitute people accepted because it seemed permanent: the expensive house that sucked up a lifetime’s wages became the savings account, the pension, the inheritance. That wealth is now beginning to dissolve.
When Danny Dorling was a student economist at Newcastle University in the late 1980s, a bulky envelope would arrive each month containing ten floppy disks, on which were stored the month’s housing transaction data. One day in the autumn of 1989, he opened the envelope to see a single disk inside. He called the building society to check if there had been a mistake, but that was all there was. The number of people buying houses in the previous month was so small that all the data fitted on to a single floppy.
“And that’s when we knew,” says Dorling, now a professor of geography at Oxford University. That October, interest rates were almost 15 per cent, eliminating demand in a market that Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation of social housing had already over-inflated. In the crash that followed, in some areas of London prices fell by 40 per cent over the next three years. By 1991, 75,000 homes were being repossessed in a single year.
When the next crash arrived in 2008, stronger medicine was administered. Governments introduced a new world of cheap debt via near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing, and house prices recovered.
We are now starting to pay for that recovery. As interest rates rise again, they appear to be at much lower levels than in the 1980s, but they don’t feel it. This is because real (inflation-adjusted) house prices are almost three times what they were in the Thatcher era. Home owners today have so much more debt that mortgages at 6 per cent interest take up about as much disposable income as they did in 1989, when they crashed prices and forced thousands of people into negative equity, mortgage arrears and repossession.
Dorling says this creates a self-reinforcing risk: people who should be selling up, such as retirees in big houses, will see prices falling and so won’t move.
“The biggest squeeze” on housing supply in this country, he says, is not the first-time buyers who have been the focus of so much government policy, but a quiet mass of last-time buyers with empty bedrooms.
As prices fall, he says, these owners will restrict supply further by “not accepting a fall in house prices – sticking in their three-bed semi when there’s only one person there because they think it’s worth £50,000 more than it is. Numerically, that is by far the biggest problem.”
This is not an act of selfishness, but rather the reality of the post-2008 economy, where houses have become financial assets rather than goods. The simple laws of supply and demand have ceased to apply, and people have been incentivised to keep an expensive property because it’s their biggest and most dependable asset. In an era of stagnant real wages, the house has become the bank.
“It is part of your retirement, because your pension won’t be enough … it’s the money you’re going to give to your grown-up kids, that will give them their deposit,” Dorling says.
This creates a market that is fundamentally irrational. “It’s such a large amount of money that people aren’t in a position to accept that drop in their perceived wealth … We’re just not ready for a fall that’s a real fall, where it doesn’t return again. And the more we don’t accept the fall, the sharper we make the fall that actually occurs.”
But the longer this denial persists, the more serious the risk to the people at the other end of the housing chain: those in need of social housing.
Someone in another part of London depends on a wealthy pensioner buying the flat on Ryecotes Mead because for every 70-year-old holding on to their Victorian three-bedder there is a family that can’t leave their two-bed flat, a renter who can’t become a first-time buyer, and a cash-strapped housing association placing tenants in flats with potentially lethal mould and flammable cladding.
“We have more space than we’ve ever had before, more empty bedrooms than we’ve ever had”, says Dorling. The empty rooms in the Victorian three-bedder are still in use, not as housing but as assets; the financialised housing market has created more space for money than for people.
Policies for higher prices
This situation isn’t a natural upshot of unmanned market forces. Decades of government policy have pursued higher prices: Thatcher created the 1980s boom through the Right to Buy scheme, which sold off 2.2 million council houses to private owners but restricted the supply of new social housing. Gordon Brown preserved tax reliefs for landlords, and pushed the BoE to use QE to keep the 2008 crash at bay without planning for its effects on asset prices.
In 2014, the then chancellor George Osborne gave people the option to withdraw money from their pensions at 55, meaning that in a rising market, becoming a landlord was for many still the most obvious investment. He also introduced Help to Buy, a £29 billion program of loans that, according to the House of Lords Built Environment Committee, unnecessarily inflated the market.
By 2016, 40 per cent of the council houses Thatcher and her successors had sold were being rented by private landlords. For a few million people, Britain’s rentier economy was capitalism on easy mode: owning a house guaranteed an appreciating asset (a house that rose in value) and an income stream (rent).
The tax system was also rigged in favour of landlords, who pay as little as 10 per cent on their capital gains and no National Insurance. By 2018, about £52 billion of Britain’s GDP consisted of people paying each other rent.
When COVID-19 struck, then chancellor Rishi Sunak (now Prime Minister) pumped the market harder still by removing stamp duty and reviewing borrowing requirements. It was under Sunak’s chancellorship that the first 50-year mortgage – the ultimate admission of a failed market, a house that can never be paid off – was approved.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt appears determined to continue that work by supporting first-time buyers who are prepared to take on a mortgage for 95 per cent of the value of their property; anyone who does so at this point is very likely to find themselves in negative equity. Hunt has also announced that he will be moving the next stamp duty change to 2025, which will boost demand before the next general election and cause the market to slump after it.
The result of this great experiment in market intervention was the reimposition of Britain’s class system. The generation born at the end of the Second World War grew up in a world in which social housing was almost the default; many people, at some point in their lives, lived in a council house.
But as council housing was privatised and the property boom took hold, homes became once more a barrier to social mobility. By 2021, almost half of young first-time buyers used their parents’ money to buy their home, according to Legal & General; we are returning to an inheritocratic society, in which the normal way to become a property owner is to be born into a family of property owners.
The big joke, at our expense, is that this was supposed to be a meritocratic shift. Even as it was moved out of reach by the price bubble, the ideal of home ownership saturated our culture: the nation of shopkeepers became a nation of house-hunters.
On TV, Location, Location, Location has run for more than two decades, alongside thousands more hours of Grand Designs and Property Ladder. HGTV and PropertyTV show nothing but programs about buying, selling and improving houses.
A CEO bonus
For a small cadre of large-scale house builders, meanwhile, a real boom did occur. In the five years that Help to Buy enabled what was then the UK’s largest house builder, Persimmon, to expand its profits, a few senior executives at the company paid themselves annual salaries amounting to £444 million.
Persimmon’s CEO, Jeff Fairburn, left after his 2018 bonus of £75 million caused a shareholder revolt. Those same house builders are now clamouring for the return of Help to Buy. With so little competition in house building, and such desperation for new homes, these companies remain free to build homes not where they are needed, but where they are most profitable.
Dorling compares them to the companies running Britain’s water systems: “We’ve ended up with a monopoly of extremely greedy businesses, not interested in the long-term future.”
How much do prices have to fall before banks begin to panic? Residential mortgages make up more than half the value of all loans in the UK financial system. At some High Street banks, this proportion is higher: 85 per cent of Santander’s loan book comprises mortgages. Lloyds has more than £300 billion in mortgages outstanding, about £50 billion of which is loaned on buy-to-let properties.
The answer depends on the bank. The major High Street banks have a strong institutional memory of 2008, and are regulated more tightly than they were then. The capital buffers they hold would cover the BoE’s most severe stress test scenario, in which prices fall by more than 30 per cent. (As a general rule, because the average loan-to-value ratio on a British property is circa 50 per cent, prices would need to fall by around that much before banks weren’t able to recoup what they had lent through foreclosure.)
Fortunately, no one in the industry that I’ve spoken to expects prices to fall by that much, and even were that to happen, banks would probably allow people to stay in their homes because mass repossessions would force more homes onto the market, which would depress prices further and cause greater losses.
But the fallout from former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget was a reminder that in times of stress, esoteric financial constructs can cause chaos. In September, a specific type of investing strategy based on derivatives (liability-driven investing) suddenly began to cost pension funds hundreds of millions in margin calls needed to cover potential losses.
Two people in the financial services industry (neither of whom wished to be identified) said that specialised lenders – offering riskier loans, or with borrowers concentrated in one industry or area – might be tested as more borrowers are unable to meet their payments. Or we may begin to hear more about real estate investment trusts, which investors such as pension funds use to invest in large bundles of property assets. Several REITs have recently stopped investor withdrawals.
New defences
For regular home buyers, new defences are being prepared against the coming storm. In December, Hunt met mortgage lenders and the Financial Conduct Authority to discuss measures such as switching borrowers from repayment to interest-only mortgages in order to lower their monthly payments and keep home owners solvent during the recession.
But such measures assume that the house-price crash will be a temporary issue. This is by no means guaranteed: in Japan, residential property prices have still not recovered back to their 1991 peak. The big question for the UK financial sector is not how much prices will fall, but how long it will take them to recover.
Countries can be defined as much by their failed markets as their successes. The US economy, for example, is buoyed because two-thirds of the country’s population depend on their employer for health insurance; the fiercely competitive US workplace, in which workers accept no paid holiday, no parental leave and long hours, is partly a fight for affordable medication and hospital beds.
Britain has the opposite problem. I once asked the founder of a British technology start-up what advice he would give readers who wanted to go into business. “Don’t buy a house,” he replied. His reasoning was that had he been a home owner, he would have spent all his money paying a mortgage rather than following his entrepreneurial dream.
It was terrible advice (I never regretted buying a flat; his business went under) but overpriced housing does hold people back.
The economic problems that define modern Britain – low growth, low investment in business, over-dependence on services, an imbalance between London and elsewhere – stem partly from so much of Britain’s capital being either tied up in unproductive assets – the largest of which is a £9.2 trillion pile of bricks and mortar – or spent servicing the debt on those assets.
I interviewed financial crime specialist Oliver Bullough, who spoke about the dirty money – much of it from Russia – that washes through the UK housing market. A reader asked us if he should feel guilty for benefiting from the value that corruption has added to his house. The answer is no: you should feel enraged. The apparent wealth may feel like a win, but it isn’t: it is money taken from your children and grandchildren. Rising house prices are not a benefit; they are a tax on the future.
In this sense, the looming housing crash may, if there is political will, be made into an opportunity. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Housing Minister Michael Gove could use the inevitable market correction to return sanity to house prices and rents, to end the speculation that has served as a proxy for real economic growth, and the deep inequality that this has created between people who own property and people who don’t.
A bold program of housing reform could allow the Conservatives to steal ground from Labour in a policy area that will only become more emotive. Attempts to prolong the fiction will only make it worse.
Will Dunn is business editor of the New Statesman.
shatterzzz says:
February 17, 2023 at 1:08 pm
Colour Blind – What Colour is it Supposed to Change to?
Sometimes I wonder .. is it me? .. or ….!
read the, bloody, chart .. LOL!
The Charts Coloured – I am Colour Blind so read the, bloody, chart .. LOL! – Que?
Martin Armstrong (convicted fraudster) is slathering the mayo on his own Dorothy Dixer questions.
..!
AND we can ditch any need for a national ID Card!
I think that some of the stories about Aboriginal kids in institutions need to be put into context.
When we came to Australia in 1959, we first lived in the hostels at Scheyville and Villawood. My sister and me were about 3-4 years old.
I got the measles and was put into a makeshift hospital to isolate me. Can’t remember which one of the hostels.
What I do vividly remember is that after I wet the bed, the so-called ‘nurse’ made me stand at the end of the bed while she threw the urine-stained sheets over my head.
I don’t doubt that Aboriginal kids had similar experiences. What they need to know is that it happened to everyone.
Yet we keep hearing the, official, gummint policy is NO age-d immigration and NO residency with medical issues.
Being official government policy of course means it’s a complete lie. One of the “prizes” of emigrating to Australia is being able to gain access to Australian health care for elderly parents.
Yet we keep hearing the, official, gummint policy is NO age-d immigration and NO residency with medical issues.
Being official government policy of course means it’s a complete lie. One of the “prizes” of emigrating to Australia is being able to gain access to Australian health care for elderly parents.
Fair Shake says:
February 17, 2023 at 12:48 pm
Dropped into Chadstone Shopping Centre (SE Melbourne) this morning to pick something up. I always like to ask the retailer hows business. Today’s response: ‘Very concerned for some in the centre…. We all talk. Some retailers have barely any customers coming in…. Its not good.”
Well done Dan and Tennis Albo. Sh!tholification full speed ahead!
Nearly half of home loans at risk of breaching payment buffers
Westpac has warned that almost half of its $471 billion in home loans were written using interest rate buffers that are set to be exceeded, in an update on Friday morning.
The bank said $212 billion of its home loans, or 45 per cent, were made assuming interest rates will end up at a lower level than they will be once the Reserve Bank finishes its rate rising cycle.
The looming breach of bank “serviceability buffers” – which are applied by lenders under prudential rules set by APRA to ensure customers can withstand higher repayments – is a big test for the banking sector’s broader lending standards.
As official rates continue to rise, customers will be making higher repayments than banks expected when they issued the loans.
Westpac said on Friday that between August 2019 and June 2022, it had originated $212 billion of mortgage loans using a serviceability buffer of between 2.5 per cent and 3 per cent. This is added to the market interest rate offered by the bank at the time.
But the cash rate has jumped from a record low of 0.1 per cent last May to 3.35 per cent in February, above the top end of the buffer – and Westpac economists forecast it to peak at 3.85 per cent.
At the expected peak rate, “the serviceability buffer for these mortgages is expected to be exceeded,” the bank said.
And
AV Jennings says rate rises slashing demand
Home builder AV Jennings said the Reserve Bank of Australia’s rapid run of rate rises had halved inquiry levels from a year ago and put the onus on governments to maintain demand for new housing through stimulatory measures such as stamp duty reductions.
Even as it reported a surge in half-year profit as settlements rose 22 per cent, and said the entrenched housing shortage and return of inbound foreign migration would ensure continued growth in demand for dwellings, the listed builder said consumer sentiment and borrowing capacity were weakening due to the surge in lending rates.
“In the short term, the impact of the RBA’s actions of rapidly increasing the cash rate to 3.35 per cent from a low of 0.1 per cent in April 2022 is having a significant impact on the property industry,” AV Jennings said in a statement on Thursday.
“As a result, enquiry levels have softened to around half the peak activity levels from a year ago. Much will depend upon how the current economic cycle plays out, further government stimulus packages such as stamp duty concessions, low deposit mortgage schemes, and the length of time before interest rates begin to stabilise.”
That impact is likely to persist. RBA governor Philip Lowe told a Senate committee in Canberra on Wednesday that interest rates had not yet peaked. Money markets are pricing in a cash rate peak of 4.2 per cent, implying at least three more quarter-percentage point increases.
Exhibiting keyboard machismo = when you don’t have what it takes to call people names IRL, not without requiring emergency maxillo-facial reconstructive surgery.
A husband and wife were having dinner at a very fine restaurant when this absolutely stunning young woman comes over to their table, gives the husband a big kiss, says she’ll see him later before walking away.
His wife glares at him and says “Who the hell was that?” “Oh” replies the husband “she’s my mistress””. “Well, that’s the last straw” says the wife. “I’ve had enough, I want a divorce!”
“I can understand that” replies her husband “but remember, if we get a divorce it means that you don’t get any more shopping trips to Paris, no more wintering in Barbados, no more summers in Tuscany, no more Ferrari’s and Porsche’s in the garage and no more yacht club. But the decision is yours”.
Just then, a mutual friend enters the restaurant with a gorgeous babe on his arm.
“Who’s that woman with Jim?” asks the wife. “That’s his mistress” says her husband. “Ours is prettier” she replies.
I used to go missing a lot… Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World.
– George Best
Secondly, the CCP, and Xi in particular, are convinced that the Western empire is in decline and the East is in the ascendency.
Pretty self evident. Any sane person in the West can see the destruction from within.
When your main competition has a senile pedo in charge and their SE Asian proxy has a toothy houso in charge. You know they’re rooted.
Emotional incontinence on display – yet again.
What Biden Appears to Have Shot Down Over Lake Huron Is Clown-Show Stuff</strong>
So let me get this straight. The United States Air Force wasted nearly $1,000,000 in AIM-9X missiles to down what looks to be a trash bag with a radio attached to it. Never mind the cost to scramble the jets themselves. And they did that because the Biden administration was desperate to save face after looking pathetically weak in dealing with the original Chinese spy balloon?
What an absolute clown show. Truly, this country is run by the most unimpressive people imaginable. No wonder the F-16 that fired on the object missed the first time. It was the size of a beanbag chair. This also makes Chuck Schumer and others who said these were more spy balloons look ridiculous. What intelligence were they going off of when they made their statements? Because if it existed, it wasn’t any good.
At the moment these objects were revealed to be tiny balloons of no consequence, they should have been left alone or downed with guns. Instead, it appears that the administration wanted to look tough so they blew a bunch of your tax money to shoot down a piece of plastic. It’d be comical if it wasn’t so sad.
RIP to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’s ~$80 ham radio transmitter balloon, likely the victim of friendly fire by a $143,000,000 USAF F-22 firing a $485,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missile during the Great Balloon Panic of 2023.
The Lead CNN
@TheLeadCNN
President Biden says objects shot down last week don’t appear to be a part of China’s spy balloon program.
Driller keeps making these subtle threats. I wonder what the liquor control board would think of him sitting behind an anon making underhanded threats. I wonder if we’d get the “pray for me” comment all over again.
This is the “manly” man who reckons only he is able to figure out GST, talks about barely legal girls like they were pieces of meat, reckons Barndoor Joyce was frightened of him, claims to be labor royalty, and told us Prince Andrew would be treated as a hero for “drilling young girls.”
I just nipped down to Dan’s to get some beer.
Just inside the swing gates a large pevert/groomer flag was painted on the floor.
I turned around to go to the other booze shop in the centre but changed my mind and confronted the floor manager in her pulpit.
I noted that it was not her doing but requested that she inform the branch manager that I objected to corporates using their power to push political agendas and would no longer patronise the business.
She looked pained and said that they have been copping it ever since the abomination was installed.
Dan’s have form with these stunts. A couple of years ago, when you paid, you were asked to buy a white ribbon to “combat violence against women by men “.
Dan’s now resides in the bin with Airbnb and Starbucks.
A husband and wife were having dinner at a very fine restaurant when…
That’s pretty darn funny!!
Lol. Armstrong has nothing on the Drillsie
At the moment these objects were revealed to be tiny balloons of no consequence, they should have been left alone or downed with guns. Instead, it appears that the administration wanted to look tough so they blew a bunch of your tax money to shoot down a piece of plastic. It’d be comical if it wasn’t so sad.
MAGA Balloon Day should now be a thing.
Any practical solutions to Medicare fraud by international visitors using friend’s Medicare cards?
I had both a regular customer, migrant medical specialist himself and my own GP complain to me about how blatant it was.
Australia had sadly changed quite a lot since Australia Card was rightly rejected in the 1980s.
Interesting – “Change of Tone”
Ukraine conflict will likely have no military winner – top US general
Mark Milley talked to FT after traveling to Brussels to coordinate NATO efforts on shoring up Kiev’s firepower
The Ukraine conflict can only end through a negotiated peace deal because neither side is likely to achieve its goals on the battlefield, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday.
“It will be almost impossible for the Russians to achieve their political objectives by military means,” Milley claimed without providing specific reasons for his stance. “It is unlikely that Russia is going to overrun Ukraine. It’s just not going to happen.” He added that it also would be “very, very difficult for Ukraine this year to kick the Russians out of every inch” of the territory that Moscow’s forces have already captured.
America’s top-ranking military officer made his comments after traveling to Brussels earlier this week to coordinate efforts with NATO allies on shoring up Ukraine’s firepower for a planned spring counter-offensive. Kiev is burning through weaponry at a rate “many times higher” than its Western allies can produce it, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday.
Milley said the ammunition strain has forced the Pentagon to review its weapons inventories and contemplate increases in spending. US officials are re-examining their assumptions about supply needs after decades of focusing on counterterrorism missions and unconventional warfare.
“One of the lessons of this war is the very high consumption rates of conventional munitions, and we are re-examining our own stockages and our own plans to make sure that we got it right,” Milley told FT. “We’re trying to do the analysis so that we can then estimate what we think the true requirement would be, and then we have to put that in the budget. Ammunition is very expensive.”
The Pentagon’s current annual budget stands at $817 billion, exceeding the combined total for the rest of the world’s ten largest military spenders combined. Washington has already allocated more than $110 billion in aid for Ukraine since Russia’s military operation began last February.
Republican lawmakers, such as Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Andy Biggs of Arizona, have criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for severely depleting US weapons stockpiles to arm Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Milley told reporters in Brussels that Russia has already lost. “They’ve lost strategically, operationally and tactically, and they are paying an enormous price on the battlefield.”
I don’t doubt that Aboriginal kids had similar experiences. What they need to know is that it happened to everyone.
Oh Johanna – you are so right. My maternal grandmother was deserted by her husband during the Great Depression. She had eight kids. She was always terrified that the “Welfare” workers (from the government) would call one day and take them. Mum said that she used to hide them when they came periodically to check on the household. “Muma Puma”, as she was fondly known to her great grandchildren, took in washing and ironing, cleaned for people and took in boarders, in order to keep her children. She successfully raised them all on her own. A remarkable woman.
When I tell the “Woke” the story, they actually disbelieve me – convinced that only indigenous families ever had children “stolen”! Incidentally, you rarely hear such people rail against contemporary Child Welfare officials taking non-Aboriginal children from dysfunctional households. Indeed, they complain that such children, who are at risk, should be fostered.
Such intellectual and moral dishonesty. I once accused a Leftie of the latter – and saw unbelievable rage on his face. They really are pathetic.
More for the Armstrong ‘lovers’ to stew over. Mind you, they don’t need to read the posts if they don’t like him.
War & Capital Flows
From Armstrong Economics –
COMMENT: Marty, I attended your coming out WEC in Philadelphia in 2011. Just about everyone I spoke with said the same thing. They all showed up to make sure it was really you and not some government stooge pretending to be you.
I must say, when you put up the war cycle, I thought it was interesting and everyone respected your work so we listened. At the time it was perhaps a curiosity and would be something we would watch on TV instead of the Oscars. Here we are. In the middle of this mess. I can now see how they used that tactic to demonize Trump to get Biden elected if he was really elected.
Now every person who voted for Biden has voted for World War III. They bought the hatred of Trump to remove him when he was like JFK and would never have agreed to war as you said when you went to dinner at Mara Largo. The recent tapes show that Nixon confronted the CIA for killing JFK. The very people who did the Watergate break-in were operatives for the CIA to make sure Nixon would be removed.
Our leaders really want war. I would never have thought your war model would predict that we would be the aggressor. Our government lies about everything. Why? Do they hate humanity that much?
GP
REPLY: I appreciate what you are saying. The Deep State has always had its agenda and it was always just about them. Never in my wildest dreams looking at these forecasts a decade ago did I ever contemplate that we would be the aggressor. The Neocons just want to annihilate every Russian. That is all they think about. That is why John McCain handed Hillary’s fake dossier to James Comey at the FBI. They were two Neocons and always wanted war with Russia. It was Hillary that conditioned the Democrats to think that Russia was the enemy and they rigged the election for Trump.
You see both Democrats and Republicans cheering war now. There is no stopping the warmongering. All we can do is prepare, and understand how the capital will shift as the arrays will give us the timing. This will enable us to position ourselves to make it to the other side of 2032. Fortunately, Socrates was constructed using the raw data to provide a picture of global capital flows.
That was why I was called in by the Brady Commission back in 1987 for as you can see, the G5 was taking the dollar down for trade by 40% and then foreign investors sell US assets for they will lose on the FX exchange. Those morons never understood capital flows or currency.
When again they were trying to talk the dollar down in 1997 for trade purposes, I warned them they would unleash another crash making the same mistake as before. They at least listened and backed off.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/war-capital-flows/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
Rita’s article concerning the (falsely accused?) three football folks is disturbing. Why though have they not sued?
bons @ 1.41pm
I noted that it was not her doing but requested that she inform the branch manager that I objected to corporates using their power to push political agendas and would no longer patronise the business.
Good for you, bons!
Retrospective propping up the narrative?
Rookie mistake today, didn’t let hotel iron heat up fully, which meant the goop on the bottom of it was still transferable! 🙁
Nuland outlines US goals in Ukraine
The Maidan “midwife” hopes for conquest of Crimea and regime change in Russia
Unless the Crimean peninsula is at the very least “demilitarized” Ukraine won’t feel safe, while the ideal end to the current conflict is with a revolution in Moscow, the US Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said on Thursday.
Ukrainians “have to get to a map that is more sustainable for them,” Nuland said in a video interview with the Washington think tank Carnegie Endowment. They have “significant chunks of territory they need to be a viable state, before you even get to the question of Crimea, and that’s what they’re focused on now.”
The US position is that Ukraine is “owed and due all of their territory within their international borders,” which means Crimea as well, Nuland added.
Assigned to Ukraine by the Soviet Union in 1954, Crimea voted to rejoin Russia in March 2014, after the violent coup in Kiev that Nuland helped “midwife,” according to the infamous phone call intercept.
“Ukraine is not going to be safe unless Crimea is – at a minimum, at a minimum – demilitarized,” Nuland insisted on Thursday, claiming that Moscow had turned the peninsula into a military base, with command posts, logistics depots and airfields for “Iranian drones.”
“Those are legitimate targets, Ukraine is hitting them, and we are supporting that,” she said.
Earlier this week, Politico quoted two anonymous officials to imply that Nuland’s boss, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, had admitted the US was not “actively encouraging” Ukraine to seize Crimea and that any moves on the peninsula would be “Kiev’s decision alone.”
Nuland, however, told Carnegie that the battlefield objectives of Washington and Kiev overlap “in terms of what the Ukrainians want to do on the battlefield, and what we’re enabling them to plan to do.”
Asked how she saw the conflict ending, Nuland said the West “must never trust, as long as Vladimir Putin is in power, or somebody like him, that this is truly over.” Even if the fighting ends on Ukraine’s terms, there “has to be a long-term plan” to build up Ukraine’s military as a deterrent. She also expressed a preference for Russians overthrowing their government for a “better future” offered by the West.
The US has committed more than $100 billion in military aid to Ukraine just over the past year, but Washington officially insists it is not a party to the conflict.
From the Comments
– So, “Blinken warns against seizing Crimea”, but in the same time, Victoria Nuland “hopes for conquest of Crimea and regime change in Russia”. This is how far “United We Stand” goes. Then, these guys, not able to tune themselves, are surprised that no one listens to them, even less willing to talk with them.
– The Irony of America’s political elite love, is you die, slaughter for their hate and gain. A country is turned into a human meat packing industry for their military industrial complex and its stakeholders.
– Nuland replaying Hilary’s Libya in Ukraine.
– Victoria Nuland = KFC special….two small breasts with two large thighs
– This is a true monster, she has no soul!, she’s an empty vassal. The deaths she has orchestrated deserve an eternity in HELL!!
Good pickings from the whacky world of islam in Jihad Watch:
Muslima financed her life in the Islamic State in Syria for years with Austrian welfare payments
Germany: Muslim who once beheaded a man threatens to behead officials
Syria: Muslims attack people collecting truffles, murder at least eleven of them
I’ve never been fond of truffles.
What is the “Liquor Control Board”?
Don’t just sit there mouthing off online give them a call, tell ’em I’m breaking the law.
You can do it.
OK Photo Now Available for Distribution – Pauline’s Please Explain with Therapeutic Albanese in the Sam Smith gimp suit
Please send Photo to Friends and Politcians as a Keepsake
OldOzziesays:
February 17, 2023 at 1:20 pm
Fair Shake says:
February 17, 2023 at 12:48 pm
Dropped into Chadstone Shopping Centre (SE Melbourne) ….‘Very concerned for some in the centre…. We all talk. Some retailers have barely any customers coming in…. Its not good.”
Coming to Australia Soon
The UK housing market is cracking
More work colleagues returned to our office from visiting HO in Germany. The mood in Germany is very low, recession mentioned often is discussions.
See I told you shutting down the western economies for a few days to beat the virus would have no lasting effects on the economy….cos my power-point slide said so. Its the keeping us apart which keeps us together. Another serve of horse-ploppings sir?
Stoopid italics
One of my many books in storage is written by a woman whose family went through the Barnardos mill. When I was at school, Barnardos was depicted as an organisation full of love and caring. This woman, English, tells the story of how her family was ripped apart by the ‘charities’ that had the power of everything over the people they were put in charge of.
The kind of busybodies that you get on bodies corporate or local sport clubs or the P&C were in charge of these ‘charitable’ organisations.
The faith that some here have in private charity is a bit of a worry.
I deep sixed Dan Murphys 2 years ago when they told me they had to ration my purchases to keep me safe during COVID. Worse still, they implied it was a government edict when it wasnt.
I then found out I could buy my Muscat direct from the producer and have it deliverd for free.
Retrospective propping up the narrative?
Narrative fortification. The public serpents are truly disgusting.
The only solution to rorting of any and all government programs (including the kickbacks to the politicians themselves) is to ‘Take away the honeypot’. The less money our wise leaders control in these programs, the less they can be corrupted. Abolish the lot.
Which is *exactly* what they want – an endless conflict, with endless ‘opportunities’ for the MIC, dragged out as long as possible.
Exhibit A: Vietnam
Exhibit B: Iraq
Exhibit C: Afghanistan
Russia issues space warning
Civilian satellites used by the military could become targets, a senior Moscow diplomat has cautioned
The US and its allies are exposing civilian space assets to potential attack by utilizing them for military purposes, a senior Russian diplomat has warned. The warning came after NATO unveiled plans for a space monitoring fleet that will use commercial and military satellites for its missions.
Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the non-proliferation and weapons control directorate in the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday that the US is weaponizing space and blurring the boundaries between military and civilian infrastructure in orbit.
American use of spacecraft to benefit other nations on the battlefield “is in fact a form of participation in [conflicts] by proxy,” Vorontsov said, adding that “quasi-civilian space infrastructure” in particular could face “retaliation.”
“At the very least, such provocative use of civilian satellites is questionable under the [1967] Outer Space Treaty,” he stated.
Vorontsov’s warning came at a round table discussion in the Russian parliament which focused on the legacy of the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative, and how it influences current US military planning.
Ahead of the announcement of NATO’s new space project on Wednesday, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the US-led bloc will use commercial satellites as a military booster.
“This will improve our intelligence and surveillance, and support NATO missions and operations,” Stoltenberg said, adding that this would allow for “better navigation, communication, and early warning of missile launches.”
The NATO chief revealed the project as he reported on what the organization was doing to assist Ukrainian forces against Russia.
The fusion between civilian and military equipment in the Ukrainian conflict came to the forefront last week, when SpaceX announced that it was restricting the functionality of its Starlink space internet system, meaning Kiev’s troops could not use it to pilot drones.
CEO Elon Musk explained that Starlink was a commercial product not intended for military purposes, and that he did not want it to be used to escalate the hostilities, potentially unleashing a “third world war.”
The system remains available to the Ukrainian military for communication, even though SpaceX as a private company could simply switch off the terminals, he added.
The Kiss of Death – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Endorsed by George Soros
Florida Governor DeSantis just received the kiss of death. George Soros has endorsed DeSantis for 2024.
This could not be worse for DeSantis.
When the devil likes you, you might be doing something wrong.
George Soros famously admitted to helping the Nazis in World War II steal from Jews and take their booty. He said in a 60 minutes interview 20 years ago from Ukraine of all places, that if he didn’t do it then someone else would – shrugging it off.
Gaining a Soros recommendation is not a good thing for DeSantis.
Conservative Treehouse reported on Thursday:
Saying that DeSantis “is shrewd, ruthless, and ambitious”, George Soros delivers an endorsement of the Florida governor adding, “He is likely to be the Republican candidate.”
When billionaire leftist and creepy globalist George Soros is complimenting your personality attributes, you just might be doing the whole Republican presidential candidate thing wrong. Just sayin’.
This might be problematic. In addition to DeSantis supporters needing to defend the unlimited Ukraine grift, and the value of eating bugs as a conservative lifestyle, now they have to spin an endorsement of ruthless ambition by Darth Soros. Eh, sucks to be them.
George Soros never complimented Donald Trump.
The Washington Examiner pointed out the comments from Soros earlier in the day:
In a wide-ranging speech, Soros ripped Trump’s presidency and complemented elements of DeSantis’s style.
“DeSantis is shrewd, ruthless, and ambitious,” said Soros, adding, “He is likely to be the Republican candidate.”
Trump, on the other hand, “has turned into a pitiful figure continually bemoaning his loss in 2020. Big Republican donors are abandoning him in droves,” he said.
Soros, an international financier and philanthropist, typically dumps millions of dollars into political races and committees. He heads a global liberal network of groups pushing climate change, financial reform, and changes to the criminal system.
He recently teamed with Charles Koch and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to revive the Iran nuclear deal, according to reports.
Soros hates President Trump and did all he could to see him removed from office. The fact that he shared this about DeSantis is not a good thing for the Florida governor.
Yep…after Dan’s put over zealous security guards on I found a locally owned bottle-o that never questioned my entering unmasked.
OldOzzie says:
February 17, 2023 at 1:01 pm
Yes, the ageing Chinese population is a serious issue for them but it is also one they are addressing. For at least 18 months the CCP has issued assorted financial incentives and correspondingly lowered the costs of raising children. Still, the percentage of 65+ aged persons is pronounced but I wouldn’t bet that will be a disabling feature for China.
As an aside, the Russian government have instituted a range of measures to address their stagnant population growth. Some of the measures are very generous and although it is too early to tell if the measures will be successful, people are usually motivated by the idea of ‘free’ money.
Dr Faustus says:
February 17, 2023 at 1:18 pm
The West is not ‘scared’ of Russia but is cautious. Similarly, the West is not ‘scared’ of China but is also cautious and perhaps much more so. A Russia/China alliance is an entirely different matter for the West with China providing the muscle and Russia a vast, inexhaustible trove of natural resources. New gas and oil pipelines are under construction; minerals, wood and anything else you care to name by the daily train load(s) from Russia. In the event an ascending China decides the time is right to reclaim Taiwan, the West’s response to a Russia/China alliance will cause incalculable disruption to our way of life (setting aside the military personnel losses as we try to beat them back). A classic pyrrhic outcome for the West.
As yourself this: When did you last purchase any product you knew was manufactured in Russia? Is there any product you previously purchased ‘off the shelf’ that is now not available due to the Russian sanctions? Indeed, have you ever purchased a product made in Russia?
Alternatively, how many items have you purchased in the past 12 months that were Chinese manufactured or, had Chinese manufactured components? In the last 10 years? 20 years? Probably dozens if not hundreds and so have billions of other people. Not a criticism, just a fact of our global trade life.
See where I’m going with this? The West invested huge sums of money into Chinese manufacturing and although some have noted the dangers of this dependency, the shift away from China is agonisingly slow. With the taking of Taiwan, the West’s access to computer chips is largely extinguished although it may not make much difference as around 90% of the rare earths required to run, well, almost everything, are processed in China.
The West is like a junkie and the Chinese recognise the Western dependency. They already have form in using relatively minor trade sanctions against the West and look at the trouble it causes for the target nation. Their alliance with Russia which covers not only trade is, IMO, just another step in a much larger outcome they see as their destiny.
I can, but I wouldn’t. I was just wondering out loud how your behavior accords with their character test, you degenerate blowhard.
This entanglement had absolutely nothing to do with you, but because of the fact that you’re made to look like a moron time and time again, you feel you need to spiteful and stoush troll. If you have nothing to add to a conversation, then your time is better spent cleaning mold-ridden rooms and a lime green pool.
Embattled Reserve Bank chief Philip Lowe DITCHES designer watch worth thousands of dollars for a cheap version – as he issues a dire warning for Australia
Dr Lowe was wearing a more budget-friendly Fossil watch, worth about $400 as he spoke today, having also worn that watch on Wednesday as he faced a separate Senate hearing.
The economist in charge of monetary policy normally wears a IWC around his wrist, which retails for thousands of dollars.
In other news, and I’m not sure if its been reported Rachel Welch died at 82. One of the most gorgeous gals of her time.
Dilbert
h/t Sparty
Bottlecap Balloon Brigade – an Illinois hobby group – claims its $13 weather balloon last pinged near Yukon on February 10 – hours before F-22 brought down UFO in SAME area with $400k missile
. Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade reported one of its balloons ‘missing in action’ around the same time location jets downed an object over Alaska
. It’s now suspected the object shot down using $400,000 Sidewinder missile may have been the group’s balloon
. Hobby balloons cost as little as $12 and carry device that transmits their location
Biden makes the Keystone Cops look competent.
Emotional incontinence on display – yet again.
Plus straying out of your lane into stuff you know nothing about.
OldOzzie says:
February 17, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Embattled Reserve Bank chief Philip Lowe DITCHES designer watch worth thousands of dollars for a cheap version – as he issues a dire warning for Australia. Dr Lowe was wearing a more budget-friendly Fossil watch, worth about $400 as he spoke today, having also worn that watch on Wednesday as he faced a separate Senate hearing. The economist in charge of monetary policy normally wears a IWC around his wrist, which retails for thousands of dollars.
So what? Pure click bait.
Nothing practical then.
johannasays:
February 17, 2023 at 12:28 pm
Time for this old chook to air her latest hate in the illiteracy stakes. Apart from ‘tow the line’ instead of ‘toe the line’ …
I present to you my ex’s favorite mangle of a popular saying.
“That really gets up my goat”.
Was years before I corrected her.
‘People are tired of them’: Experts warn Sussexes should be ‘very concerned’ their ‘standing in America seems to be changing’ after pair became latest stars to be lampooned by South Park
Harry and Meghan should be ‘very concerned’ about their standing in America after being royally lampooned by satirical cartoon South Park, experts have warned.
This week’s episode depicts the ‘Prince and Princess of Canada’ – a young royal couple who loudly beg for privacy while drawing attention to themselves.
The red-headed prince and his wife, who wears the exact same dusty pink outfit that Meghan donned for Trooping the Colour in 2018, are seen promoting the prince’s book – Waaagh – the cover of which strongly resembles Harry’s memoir Spare.
The episode is filled with swipes at the Sussexes, with main character Stan branding their cartoon equivalents the ‘dumb prince and his stupid wife’, while Kyle complains about the private jet parked outside their home.
US royal reporter Kinsey Schofield told GB News: ‘What they’re saying is, these two are not sincere people, they say that they want their privacy while going on every television show, writing books, doing six hours of Netflix.
‘They broke it down and said…. they’re not very likeable… people are tired of them.’
Royal commentator and expert Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline the Sussexes should be ‘very concerned’ after South Park ‘went for the jugular’.
He said: ‘Harry and Meghan are obsessed with being in control of the narrative and we’ve recently seen them attack the royal family over a period of weeks when they knew the response would be silence.
‘They should, however, be very concerned that their standing in America seems to be changing, a Newsweek poll showed it to be seismically affected after Harry rubbished his family in his memoir.’
He added: ‘The sight of a cartoon version of Harry and Meghan storming off a television show after the interviewer criticizes them, chanting ‘we want privacy’ sums up their hypocrisy and is hilarious.
‘When they move to South Park, their neighbour Kyle says ”Its seriously driving me crazy. I’m sick of hearing about them. I can’t get away from them”.
I think he speaks for many millions.’
In what world is $400 considered a cheap watch?
These fellers don’t realise how easily they give themselves away.
Speedbox says:
February 17, 2023 at 2:36 pm
OldOzzie says:
February 17, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Embattled Reserve Bank chief Philip Lowe DITCHES designer watch worth thousands of dollars for a cheap version – as he issues a dire warning for Australia. Dr Lowe was wearing a more budget-friendly Fossil watch, worth about $400 as he spoke today, having also worn that watch on Wednesday as he faced a separate Senate hearing. The economist in charge of monetary policy normally wears a IWC around his wrist, which retails for thousands of dollars.
So what? Pure click bait.
Nope – Image – realises he is embattled and that wearing IWC Watch shows that – changing shows he realises he is under the Starter’s Gun
I urge all Cats to read Cassie’s lead article today on the blog. It is brilliant. Sometimes it is easy to overlook these articles in favour of general comments on the Open Thread.
The RBA head earns around $1 million a year. Don’t criticize his watch, criticize his comp because its appalling- especially because I don’t believe he has ever achieved the inflation target. Prior to COVID it was under and after COVID it was way above. He should be fired for this alone.
Name Philip Lowe
Short-term Benefits Base Salary 911,728
Bonuses –
Other Benefits and Allowances2 8,190
Not surprised. Eaton mall in oakleigh pre pandemic used to be packed on thursday night, friday night, saturday mornings/evenings, and sunday lunch. I’d barely rate it as having half the business during peak times now.
I suspect quite a few of the Greek families have left, as there’s not the oldsters doing the coffee and a smoke in the mornings like there was.
The for lease or sale signs were quite prominent too. Makes me wonder if there’s quite some truth to what I’ve been told of the local MP can’t show his face, having to sneak in and out of his office. On the other hand, he was re-elected….
OldOzzie says:
February 17, 2023 at 2:39 pm
Seriously? Why would he give a crap? If he resigns or is booted from the RBA, I would expect a large number of public company directorships will be available plus oodles of money on the speaking circuit. At a guess, I imagine he’s been able to put away a few dollars of his $1.1m annual salary during his tenure. Some people are just weak – stand up for yourself. It’s just a watch.
Damned right, Black Ball at 12.41pm [quoting Rita Panahi].
Considering how much sports fans hate politics intruding into sports coverage, you’d think sports writers would take note of what sports fans think before unleashing their opinions in print (or in the electronic media).
But in my experience, they’re arrogant tone-deaf smartarses just as much as the journos who inject their own green-left opinions into political stories in the general news pages.
No matter what they write about, most journalists see themselves as kingmakers who know what’s best for the general public, who they despise as too stupid to vote.
See this.
This is why we cant have nice things.
Be a lifelong catamite for expanding government (and therefore opportunities for graft) with a track record of abysmal predictions and continue to fall up with the “great and good”.
Ben Bernanke, as economic adviser to George W. Bush, told Congress in 2005 there was “no bubble to burst” in the US housing market; in 2008, as chairman of the Federal Reserve, he predicted that problems in the sub-prime mortgage sector would be “limited”, and have no effect on the wider US economy (despite these predictions, he was awarded the Nobel Prize last year).
When I finish developing my line of catgirl housemaid/assassins its going to make the PLO look like a bunch of gluten constipated girl scouts.
In what world is $400 considered a cheap watch?
I wonder if it tellz a different time to my Ebay, Chicom, $A1.95 (postage included) model I’ve been wearing for the past 18 months .. LOL!
Mole – can those catgirl housemaids be trained in other things apart from assassination?
Asking for a friend.
Not surprised. Eaton mall in oakleigh pre pandemic used to be packed on thursday night, friday night, saturday mornings/evenings, and sunday lunch. I’d barely rate it as having half the business during peak times now.
See, carbon emission reduction in action.
Because thats what it will take.
Less consumption + more poverty = Gaia happiness.
Warner avoids a first ball duck. We are going well.
In other news, and I’m not sure if its been reported Rachel Welch died at 82. One of the most gorgeous gals of her time.
Raquel .. who knew she was a biologist, as well! .. LOL!
https://youtu.be/DuZVATEGF-8
What is a Doc of Phil in Physics? Is it just a doc in Physics?
From the Daily Telegraph. Note the first sentence:
A gay hate row has erupted in Sydney on the eve of WorldPride.
CBD printing business Kwik Kopy refused to print flyers for an official Pride Match roller derby event that is taking place on Friday night at the Hordern Pavilion on the basis of religious beliefs.
The Kwik Kopy head office, which is the franchisor of 43 stores across Sydney, moved to make amends for the brewing scandal when contacted by The Daily Telegraph — as the Market Street franchisee doubled down on her stance.
“We are into our 40th year of business and it has always been our aim to provide a consistent level of service and reliability. Leo, I am unable to print this job for you,” owner Wing Khong wrote in her original refusal email to the Sydney roller derby player.
“I am a Christian and my faith requires me to obey what the Bible teaches. I hope you understand.”
The 1984 Sex Discrimination Act states that it is illegal to refuse goods or services based on sexuality or gender.
“I’m still processing it,” Roller Derby League skater Leo Bunch, 33, said.
“It’s 2023, I just walked through two train stations absolutely smothered in Pride flags, and the content they weren’t happy to print was some logos for the different teams.”
The Pride Match team names on the posters (Butches, Femmes, Rainbows, and Sparkles) are “tongue-in-cheek” references to gay stereotypes, given the sport’s popularity with queer women.
“It’s common for fans to bring homemade signs, and for WorldPride we wanted to provide them,” Bunch continued.
“There’s nothing particularly inflammatory, nothing sexual about them. I’m in shock.”
When asked what material warranted the refusal, Khong said: “I have no comment to make other than to say we need to respect one another in the view and position we take.”
However, Kwik Kopy Australia CEO Sonia Swabsky issued a swift and grovelling apology.
“We are genuinely sorry for the recent experience Leo had at one of our centres,” she said.
“This is by no means reflective of our values and code of conduct, of which every franchisee is versed. Our organisation embraces a richness of cultures, and a look into the make-up of our teams to reinforce our stance on diversity.”
Swabsky also offered Bunch complimentary printing to support the event, and is “currently in direct discussions with the franchise owner involved”.
Nicholas Stewart, partner at Dowson Turco Lawyers, has acted in large discrimination cases for the LGBTQ+ community. He said the incident may invoke Section 22 of Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act, which relates to the sale of goods or services.
The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 states: “It is unlawful for a person who, whether for payment or not, provides goods or services, or makes facilities available, to discriminate against another person on the ground of the other person’s sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, marital or relationship status, pregnancy or potential pregnancy, or breastfeeding.”
Stewart says that “generally, religious belief is not a defence to discrimination when it comes to the provision of goods and services in Australia”.
The only circumstance in which a religious person or organisation has an exemption, he added, “is when they have a religious body and the conduct relates to them offering their religious services or premises to people, and then of course in schools”.
He continued: “Incidents of alleged LGBTQ discrimination … enlivens the debate about whether people with religious views or affiliations should have the right to determine who they trade with in commerce.”
It’s his view that “no human right is superior, we are all equal under international human rights law”.
Mr Stewart said he believed people of religious faiths should also have protection when buying goods and services.
Bunch and her teammate Vanessa Peterson, 46, would prefer any intensity involving their sport to happen with skates on.
“I’m white and cisgender, so I don’t cop a lot of this,” Bunch said.
“But unfortunately there are some people out there holding onto some things that they’re not often saying out loud.”
Back into Sydney Tuesday night after 4 months overseas. The airport was back to its crappiest worst. Half the pre immigration machines weren’t working but that was a minor problem. The bigger issue was the luggage carousels.
There were a number of flights from Asia arriving contemporaneously and someone had limited the number of carousels. Our flight was one of 3 on the same carousel with many subcontinentals in evidence. Consequently there was a jostling mob of passengers embedded in a thick miasma of BO crowding out attempts to reach the luggage.
Naturally the adjacent carousel was empty.
Having finally claimed the luggage the next problem was the customs queue which snaked around with 3 separate lines converging into one line. Two of the lines were intermingled with the baggage seekers at our carousel.
As the main entry point into Australia it was a disgrace.
Without qualification every major Asian airport is better than Sydney.
As late as 1957 my Big Sis aged fifteen and employed was scared ‘the Welfare’ would come around and take me, aged fourteen and three months and living alone with her in a garage, and put me into Parramatta Girls Home, a place with a fearsome reputation. She felt protected herself because she was very well employed, having put her own age up, so the pressure was on for me to get a full-time job – as soon as, she insisted, I had learned to type to improve my job chances. She gave me three months and I got a job at fourteen and six months as a typist/dogsbody in an office, which I hated. We went to the Church Fellowship in order to appear well-behaved. We enjoyed it and both met boyfriends there. After six weeks typing invoices in that awful boring office with an old bat of a supervisor who hated me, I put my age up two years and I applied for and got a much better job as a medical receptionist, where for the next two years I finished my growing up. We successfully kept under the radar of ‘the Welfare’, but it was always a background threat.
NFL Players’ Association Urged To Screen for Heart Issues Over Vaccine Side Effects
The NFL Players’ Association is being urged to offer players cardiac screening in light of the growing concern over COVID-19 vaccines causing heart inflammation.
The Health Freedom Defense Fund urged the association in a recent letter to implement screening because the vaccines can cause myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation. Young males are the most at risk.
Most NFL players received a COVID-19 vaccine under pressure from teams and the league.
“Safety signals illustrate that the near and long-term health outcomes of the COVID-19 vaccines remain uncertain,” Leslie Manookian, president and founder of the fund, told DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the association (NFLPA), in the missive.
“A multitude of adverse reactions to these injections, including myocarditis, are wide ranging and confirmed, and as such, prudence dictates that the NFLPA investigate the extent to which the COVID-19 shots may have resulted in injury, compromised health or death of players,” Manookian said.
She pointed out that Damar Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills, suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during a Monday Night Football game in January. The reason for the incident remains unknown; Hamlin declined to convey what his doctors told him during a recent televised interview. Former NFL players have also suffered heart attacks and strokes following vaccination.
The NFLPA should introduce “a testing and screening program to determine whether players have been adversely affected by the injections and to develop a set of functional medical protocols and treatments in order to address and heal any deleterious effects of the vaccines,” Manookian said.
The NFLPA declined to comment to The Epoch Times.
The association has not responded to the letter, which was sent via email and regular mail, Manookian told The Epoch Times.
Former NFL player Ken Ruettgers, who started the Voices for Medical Freedom podcast, previously warned an associate who works for the NFLPA of post-vaccination cardiac events and offered to connect the group with doctors with knowledge of the issues.
The associate thanked Reuttgers but did not accept the offer, Reuttgers told The Epoch Times.
It’s been fun watching the dreadful heatwave in action. Yesterday the forecast was 31 C, it got to 28. Today the forecast was 32 C, again it got to 28. The weather is fine with no wind so BoM really has no excuse.
I’m sure it’s because the climate model they use for forecasting is overheated due to a humungous CO2 factor. It’s a pity they don’t keep the forecasts in a file that we can access, presumably in view of how embarrassing they are.
And when I wrote to them with my customer feedback, they ignored it, no response – Bunnings was the same when I wrote to them about the transformation of their door greeters into COVID nazis also.
Re, horrible nurses in the 60’s, I rode my bike in front of a car and the car ran over me when I was about 10. Not the drivers faults all mine, lucky not too seriously hurt, but both my ankles were swollen and I couldn’t stand up when the ambulance came. Took me to the PANCH in Preston, eventually a nurse came to me and said they were going to x-ray me and to follow her. I told her that I couldn’t walk because my ankles were bad, she literally yelled at me to follow her so I slid off the trolley and crashed to the floor. Then she gave me a spray for falling down and not telling her I couldn’t walk. Ahh the good old days.
Awww.
Wookada widdle face.
NATO Chief Admits: “War Didn’t Start In February Last Year, The War Started In 2014”
With the one-year anniversary of Russia’s Feb.24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine just around the corner, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg this week issued some surprising words regarding the history and origin of the conflict. In essence he finally admitted an important truth, which is of course extremely rare among top Western officials these days.
Whereas prior to these fresh remarks by Stoltenberg, US and NATO officials including major media, have framed the invasion exclusively as merely one man’s (Putin) ‘unprovoked’ naked aggression bent on enlarging an ‘expansionist Russia’, Stoltenberg now much belatedly admits “the war didn’t start in February last year. The war started in 2014.”
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“NATO has been training the Ukrainian military since 2014, NATO partners have been supplying the Ukrainian armed forces with the necessary weapons and training since 2014” — Jens Stoltenbergs admits again
“Unprovoked invasion”…
Here’s what the NATO chief said during a briefing to reporters, and in front of cameras, as also transcribed and published to NATO’s official website…
“The other thing I will say is that the war didn’t start in February last year. The war started in 2014. And since 2014, NATO Allies have provided support to Ukraine, with training, with equipment, so the Ukrainian Armed Forces were much stronger in 2022, than they were in 2020, and 2014. And of course, that made a huge difference when President Putin decided to attack Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.
And of course, a central reason for the war articulated by President Putin both in the lead-up to the invasion and after has consistently been that the West was waging an anti-Russia proxy war right at its doorstep, namely in the war-torn Donbass.
It also bears recalling that throughout last year, and especially in the opening months of the major Russian invasion, any independent voice daring to point out that the conflict in fact originated in 2014 – and that the current fighting is an extension and escalation of the ‘long war’ – was denounced as somehow ‘pro-Kremlin’ or else a ‘Putin puppet’ in mainstream discourse.
Below are some essential facts and a much-needed trip down memory lane concerning the lead-up to Feb 2022 to understand what we and other independent voices have been saying for years, and what Stoltenberg has just now very belatedly and reluctantly admitted:
. The current Ukrainian government was created in 2014 after a violent, American-backed coup against the elected President Viktor Yanukovich. The so-called “Maidan Revolution” painted itself as pro-EU and liberal, but relied on ultranationalist terror militias such as Right Sector for its muscle.
Profile: Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist Right Sector – BBC News
. Ukraine’s new government has banned the Russian language in schools and businesses, even though it is spoken by most of the residents in the Donbas region as their first language (and throughout other parts of the country as well):
New law stokes Ukraine language tensions – France 24.
. Pre-February 2022, Ukraine had already lost about 14,000 lives fighting to prevent the ethnically Russian provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk from permanently seceding (the 14,000 figure includes deaths from both sides of the civil war in eastern Ukraine). The unpopular war has been going on since 2014.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict: a look back at the human toll of fighting since 2014 – The Washington Post
. Few Western journalists are willing to show the misery this conflict has brought to the residents of the Donbas, or the war crimes that have been inflicted upon them. Patrick Lancaster has been one of the few reporting on this:
Patrick Lancaster – YouTube
. The Ukrainian government has frequently shut off water to the disputed territories, including Crimea, even while they claim sovereignty over them.
Water supply to 345,000 people in eastern Ukraine at risk as Donetsk Filter Station stops operations | OCHA (unocha.org)
Russia vs Ukraine: Crimea’s Water Crisis Is an Impossible Problem for Putin – Bloomberg.
Conflict cuts water supply for thousands in eastern Ukraine | OCHA (unocha.org)
. It’s now ok to praise Nazis on Facebook– as long as they’re “our Nazis”:
Facebook Allows Praise of Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion (theintercept.com)
. Ukrainian President Zelensky suggested last year that if the country could not join NATO, he would pursue re-arming the country with nuclear weapons.
UAWire – Zelensky: Ukraine may reconsider its nuclear status
The New York Times calls this “Putin’s conspiracy theory”, as if the words didn’t come straight from the Ukrainian President’s mouth on multiple occasions.
In the Russian view, the United States has the ability and willingness to unilaterally destroy or overthrow any government that does not do its bidding. The experience of Serbia (1999), Iraq (2003), Syria (2011), Libya (2011), and most recently Ukraine (2014) and the attempt in Belarus (2021) seem to support their perspective.
Those who are going on about Russia’s “imperial ambitions” under “Communist dictator Vladimir Putin” have little knowledge about any of this, or why the Russians might feel legitimately threatened by having a US-sponsored and NATO-aligned regime for a neighbor.
Rosie:
While working in Saudi, one of the ‘significant others ‘wives’ ‘ of the ruling class was supposed to be booked in for some sort of surgery. Because she couldn’t be bothered with this sort of stuff, she sent in one of the maids. The maid knew all the appropriate dates etc and so the substitution went off smoothly. Pre surgery bloods, ECGs etc.
Came the day of surgery, a transfusion was required… the outcome? Significant other died. Different blood group.
I wonder if that has happened yet in Australia?
LOL.
Biden sends strong message to owners of weather balloons (China, not so much)
What in the world just happened?
President Biden delivered remarks about the Chinese spy balloon and the other “objects” that were subsequently shot down, and he raised more questions than he answered (actually Biden answered NO questions).
First, the Chinese spy balloon. We now know the Defense Intelligence Agency had eyes on it practically from the moment it was set aloft from China but nobody said anything until a reporter spotted the balloon over Montana:
oday Biden delivered remarks on this topic, and on the subject of the Chinese spy balloon Biden obviously wanted to make it sound like he was sending a strong message to the CCP: “Make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people I will take it down.”
Biden didn’t add “after it’s been allowed to fly across the entire United States.”
The part that stuck out to me the most, however, was that Biden admitted that the other “objects” that were shot down are still a mystery and likely private property (i.e. weather balloons):
So let this be a message to anybody who operates weather balloons:
“If any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down,” Biden said in a speech about the series of objects the US downed over the past 2 weeks
Katie Pavlich sums up what’s happened, and it’s something else:
Katie Pavlich
@KatiePavlich
Biden says we still don’t know what the “objects” are but that they aren’t tied to China. Instead likely belong to private companies for scientific research.
Biden used $400,000 missiles to shoot down weather balloons after allowing Chinese spy balloon to travel the country.
Something tells me the country might not be in the best of hands.
Ridicule really is the most potent weapon in the war on collectivists. Whoever illustrates Pauline’s cartoons is an unsung national treasure.
Biden sends strong message to owners of weather balloons (China, not so much)
Surely theres “Old man yells at balloons” memes out there by now?
Documents: U.S. and UK Had ‘Confidentiality Agreement’ to Hide Vaccine Adverse Events
Newly obtained documents from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reveal that before the FDA approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shots, the United States and United Kingdom health regulators struck a deal to keep information about vaccine injuries hidden from the public.
Judicial Watch obtained the 57 pages of heavily redacted records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against HHS.
In a Dec. 9, 2020 email exchange, U.S. and UK regulators discussed anaphylaxis responses and adverse events related to the vaccine under “our confidentiality agreement.”
The email exchange included former FDA vaccine advisory committee member Philip Krause and officials with the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Dr. Marion Gruber, the former director of the F.D.A.’s vaccines office, and Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Krause asked if it was possible to talk under “our confidentiality agreement” ahead of the FDA vaccine advisory meeting scheduled for Dec. 10, 2020.
Marks also referenced the “mutual confidentiality agreement” with the MHRA in an email stating, “it would be very helpful if our Office of Vaccines could receive additional details on [redacted] from MHRA under the terms of our mutual confidentiality agreement.”
Jonathan Mogford, policy director of the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, provided background information on “two cases of anaphylactoid reactions in individuals with a strong past history of allergic reactions….”
Mogford later added “… attached are [redacted] hope that’s helpful in the meantime. If I can just remind – information shared under our confidentiality agreement.”
The FDA issued its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID “vaccine” for individuals 16 years of age and older on December 11, 2020
On May 14, 2021, the CDC’s Dr. Amanda Cohn emailed Gruber and Marks with the subject line “Coadministration of COVID-19 Vaccines with Other Vaccines During Pregnancy.”
Gruber wrote, “I am fine with this language.” Marks then responded to Cohn and her CDC colleague, Sarah Mbaeyi, “I can live with this too. Please let me know if you want to connect about the adverse event issue later today. Seems like work is still ongoing, but let me know. Thanks.”
Cohn replied, “We have a meeting with Rochelle [presumably CDC Director Rochelle Walensky] at 3:30 about if we should say anything or wait until we have more definitive information. I will let you know where we land. I’m not sure there is a right answer.”
A preprint paper shows that “pregnancy complications and menstrual abnormalities are significantly more frequent following COVID-19 vaccinations than Influenza vaccinations.” Pfizer Director Dr. Jordan Trishton Walker recently acknowledged on hidden video that the company has concerns regarding the potential negative impacts its mRNA products are having on women’s reproductive systems.
Both Krause and Gruber resigned in the fall of 2021 over the Biden regime’s plan to push COVID-19 booster shots on people months after they received their second shot.
“It again took a lawsuit for the Biden administration to hand over, albeit heavily redacted, information regarding the safety of the COVID vaccines that the public has every right to know,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “This disturbing batch of new documents have uncovered a secret confidentiality agreement tied to COVID vaccine safety issues and emails that raise new questions about the vaccines and pregnancy.”
Fitton said in an interview with Just the News that the new information is “troubling,” and “the documents speak for themselves.”
“Why are we engaged in a secret deal to keep secret information about adverse events related to the vaccines?” he asked. “I just think it’s troubling. The documents speak for themselves.”
Fitton noted that this isn’t the first time the watchdog has caught U.S. officials striking a secret deal to suppress information during the pandemic.
“It’s not the first time we’ve seen this,” he said. “Back when COVID first emerged, we uncovered documents showing there was an agreement with the Chinese where they dictated terms of secrecy and an agreement in exchange for our ability to go over there. And it looks like in order to look at what information they had on the virus at the time. Obviously, they weren’t terribly forthcoming.”
Rabz – he left off the horns though.
I’m so old I remember when Marilyn Manson was shocking.
Hahaha,
That RMIT factcheck might be their weakest yet.
The Pay the Rent Grassroots Collective, which organises a Melbourne-based Pay the Rent scheme, explicitly states the initiative is not a tax, as suggested by Senator Hanson, but “one element of restorative justice“.
See, totally not a tax…
And because no party has formally put legislation forward its not a proposed tax either.
In Presser, Biden Can’t Explain Why He’s Softer On Chinese Spying Than On Weather Balloons
PS – This is a Serious Article – Not – Babylon Bee!
McConnell’s Ukraine Obsession Further Illustrates His Disregard For The Plights Of Everyday Americans
With a faltering economy, a wide open southern border, imminent national security threats from the Chinese government, and radical leftists trying to co-opt unsuspecting kids into their social movements, the United States under the “leadership” of President Joe Biden is in a tailspin. So naturally, out-of-touch swamp creatures such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell felt it was appropriate to remind us plebs about what’s really important: Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
While donning his infamous Ukrainian flag-colored tie during his Thursday appearance on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” the Kentucky Republican arrogantly regurgitated the most tone-deaf statement imaginable by claiming that “defeating the Russians in Ukraine is the single most important event going on in the world right now.”
“It will save us an enormous amount of money down the road if the Ukrainians can succeed,” McConnell baselessly opined.
It’s no secret in Washington that McConnell is obsessed with shipping endless amounts of taxpayer money to Ukraine — the second most corrupt country in Europe — with virtually no oversight.
So much so that his blue and yellow tie has become the GOP equivalent of Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits.
McConnell and the GOP establishment despise their voters and the American people writ large. They don’t care about our everyday needs, or the fact that America’s left is attempting to rip the very fabric of our republic apart at the seams.
For them, Ukraine is just another shiny object they’ll chase until the cows come home. But by the time they abandon their latest folly and realize the calls are coming from inside the house, there will be no country left to save.
More from Cocaine-China Mitch – McConnell: ‘Defeating the Russians in Ukraine Is the Single Most Important Event Going on in the World Right Now’
I know China has some sort of social license system but I didn’t think we had one here in NSW, but we do.
When we got home my partner opened some of her mail which she left lying around. One item caught my eye the next day -PAY NOW in big red letters.
Your license is being suspended.
F@ck me I thought, what’s she done?
It turns out she/we didn’t vote in the local government council election in Dec 2021(we were overseas). A $54 fine was apparently issued which disappeared somewhere.
Subsequently in November 2022 she gets issued a $120 pay now notice. We were overseas again so didn’t see it.
In early January 2023 she gets a PAY NOW $160 notice or your driver’s license will be suspended. Still overseas so didn’t see that either.
Two weeks later , in January she gets a Suspension of Driver License letter, which we didn’t see since we were still OS.
License suspended!
So we had to call up Revenue NSW, spend an hour on the phone to get it reinstated.
I think this will probably to all NSW fines if they remain unpaid even though the fine has no relation whatsoever to driving.
FFS what sort of a fascist state are we living in?
Link – McConnell’s Ukraine Obsession Further Illustrates His Disregard For The Plights Of Everyday Americans
Geez that factcheck mob are wankers playing word games and many…many lies of omission.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-29/fact-check-mabo-decision-high-court-dispossession-pauline-hanson/11342504
“Same as with Mabo, and the native title. We thought we were signing over just to Mabo because his connection with the land. It’s had so much impact on us with native title, that a lot of people have been dispossessed of their lands in Australia because of it,” she said on 2GB radio.
Has the Mabo decision led to a lot of people being dispossessed of their land? RMIT ABC Fact Check investigates.
…….
Experts consulted by Fact Check could not identify any native title decisions in Australia which have dispossessed a freehold land title holder of their land.
In other words, yes, unless the land is freehold it can be used to dispossess people of land.
Johanna:
My view is that these are the ones to keep a bloody close eye on. Not the Priests, they were no problem and I have a lot of time for them these days. It’s the ones who have inveigled* their way onto management boards in oversight roles I have my doubts about.
*1. To win over by coaxing, flattery, or artful talk.
2. To obtain by cajolery.
3. To lead astray as if blind; to persuade to something evil by deceptive arts or flattery; to entice; to insnare; to seduce; to wheedle.
Why are you laughing at this? The poke and some gay stuff in schools sends you apoplectic, but literally murdering your own countrymen to pave the way for an election, this gets a pass?
In what world is $400 considered a cheap watch?
Available in all good service stations…and some bad ones.
Many people couldn’t afford the place they currently live in. Having spent the last 20 years predicting a property crash feel I’m on stronger ground this time.
Look at this world class weaseling..
Kate Galloway, an associate professor in the Faculty of Law at Bond University, told Fact Check that dispossession means to “cancel or nullify someone’s legitimate right to land”.
“Dispossession doesn’t relate to public rights to land, or rights to access public land,” she said.
“In Australia, we don’t have private title, generally, to beachfront or other public places … if the general public is stopped from accessing parts of land, that’s not regarded as dispossession. That’s just a loss of public access.”
So there you go, you havent been “dispossessed” just lost access.
NYT when not doing PR is a crisis management firm for the GAE.
I think this will probably to all NSW fines if they remain unpaid even though the fine has no relation whatsoever to driving.
FFS what sort of a fascist state are we living in?
First cab off the rank when I was asked about failing to vote in a byelection was “we will cancel your license”.
/Shitholification intensifies
“Black Ballsays:
February 17, 2023 at 3:14 pm
From the Daily Telegraph. Note the first sentence:
A gay hate row has erupted in Sydney on the eve of WorldPride.”
Sydney is the capital of “Prideland” now. We shall do as our Pride Masters tell us, and if we refuse, we will be punished.
OldOzzie at 1:28 pm
Credit were credit is due. Don’t forget SloMo and Josh.
How many are there?
Deliberate programming by their ABCcess.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/feb/17/childs-play-alex-antics-moral-crusade-against-the-abc-caught-out-by-the-clock
“Oh no we arent aiming it at kids, we just put it on the dedicated kids channel when the cartoons stop”…
“I’m interested in a program called Everything’s Gonna Be Okay,” Antic told the managing director, David Anderson, at Senate estimates. “It aired on ABC Kids recently and on the ABC’s website, the program’s genre is listed as LGBTQIA+, and it contains sexual themes.
“Why is it that the ABC thinks sexualised content and adult themes are appropriate for the ABC Kids platform?”
Anderson hadn’t heard of the program but did his best to explain the public broadcaster tackles community issues and that “includes the LGBTQIA+ community”.
But what neither men realised is that the program, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, is not a kids program at all, and was never programmed for ABC Kids. It’s comedian Josh Thomas’ show about autism and sexuality.
In the evening the ABC Kids channel becomes ABC TV Plus and converts to adult programming. Antic really should do more research before his next so-called moral crusade.
Indeed, some people might ask why “viceland” content is on the dedicated kids channel as well.
Ambiguous.
Do straights hate gays or do gays hate straights? And…
What defines “hate”? Mean looks?
Sydney is the capital of “Prideland” now. We shall do as our Pride Masters tell us, and if we refuse, we will be punished.
If you dont clap we will feed you to Big gay Als Big gay Shark.
This garbage happens Every. Single. Year.
Without fail. It’s almost as if it’s orchestrated. It probably is.
Any publicity is good publicity, as the movie mogul once said.
Straya 1/91. Warner nicking off to another straight one.
Now 3/91. Labbashagnee the nuffer gorn, ex-skipper Cheaty McSnivel caught behind second pill, and Head the Saviour very nearly LBW off his first.
Any publicity is good publicity, as the movie mogul once said.
Harvey Weinstein?? (Rgbuh) said that? Bold move!
*rotting genitals be upon him
US official backtracks after Nazi collaborator tweet storm
A prominent American foreign policy official was forced into a climbdown on Wednesday after he tweeted in appreciation of a notorious 1940s Nazi collaborator.
Paul Massaro posted a a photo of a patch bearing an image of Stepan Bandera, the leader of a Ukrainian nationalist group which butchered Poles and Jews, in collusion with Adolf Hitler’s forces.
Following a storm of protest, he later deleted the tweet.
Massaro works for is the US Helsinki Commission, officially known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
“Hey, look what I’ve got,” the grinning Massaro tweeted around 9:30 in the morning, showing off his green pseudo-military jacket with a patch that read “Bandera is our father, Ukraine is our mother.” It bore the embroidered visage of Bandera and the logo of his OUN-B organization.
Less than two hours and 270,000 views later, however, the tweet was gone. “Deleted at the request of a good Polish friend. God bless Polish-Ukrainian friendship and may it remain strong forever,” Massaro explained.
Chay Bowes ????
@BowesChay
If this photograph is real, we are looking at a #US government employee wearing a badge featuring a mass murderer, responsible for the massacre of tens of thousands of innocent Jews, Poles and Minorities.
Massaro represents the worst of the #USA but doesn’t represent the #USA
The Polish problem with Bandera is that his Ukrainian nationalists were responsible for the massacres of ethnic Poles in present-day western Ukraine, which Warsaw has deemed a genocide.
Massaro’s official biography describes him as speaking fluent German and covering “German-speaking Europe and East Asia,” with no mention of Russian or Ukrainian. This has not stopped him from becoming one of the most outspoken champions of Ukrainian nationalism online, with daily torrents of tweets demanding the West “cancel” or “decolonize” Russia, ban its athletes from all competitions, and remove Moscow from the UN Security Council.
“It arrived! Thank you, heroes. And congratulations on achieving the status of brigade!” Massaro tweeted last Thursday, posing with a flag of Azov that was signed and dedicated to him by the notorious neo-Nazi unit’s leadership. The post was viewed over three million times.
The wolfsangel on the banner is a German rune previously used by the SS panzer division ‘Das Reich’, which Azov founder Andrey Biletsky openly boasted to American reporters of appropriating. The ADL considers it a “hate symbol” used by American neo-Nazis – though the organization has not registered any protests about Massaro brandishing it in what looks to be his office.
The US government considered Azov a neo-Nazi and terrorist group just four years ago, passing a law against providing it with any aid. That provision seems to have been quietly repealed, as Washington sent over $100 billion worth of money, weapons and ammunition to Ukraine over the past year.
Set up in 1976, the Helsinki Commission is run by 18 lawmakers – nine from the House, nine from the Senate – and representatives of the Departments of Commerce, Defense, and State.
As someone who has just joined the Rolex/Tudor global waiting list (on the Tudor side of the velvet rope) I’m probably the wrong person to be asking. Not sure I would pay $400 for a Fossil unless I was going to bin it on way out of Senate Estimates though.
Lowe has got some Christine Holgate press coming his way. Best just to suck it up. For the record, I think the RBA deserves much of what is coming their way.
Interesting court case.
Ex-Barclays boss accused of holding discussions with Jeffrey Epstein about photos of young women
Im assuming the young ladies in this case were legal age though.
More at the link.
Jes Staley, the former boss of Barclays, has been accused of holding discussions with the late billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein about photographs of young women in sexually suggestive poses.
Staley, 66, is accused in a US lawsuit of exchanging more than 1,200 emails with Epstein, including messages about “women who they referred to by the names of Disney princesses that Epstein [allegedly] procured for Staley”. It is also claimed that Epstein “emailed Staley photos of young women in seductive poses”.
The allegations, which Staley denies, are included in fresh court documents filed in the US Virgin Islands’ (USVI) lawsuit against Staley’s former employer the US investment bank JPMorgan Chase. Staley is not a party to the lawsuit.
The USVI lawsuit accuses JPMorgan of helping Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of women and girls. As part of that claim, it alleges that Staley continued to communicate with Epstein even after the financier had been charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution and was sentenced to house arrest in 2008.
The lawsuit claims that: “In July 2010, Staley sent an email to Epstein, saying: ‘Maybe they’re tracking u? That was fun. Say hi to Snow White.’ Epstein responded: ‘[W]hat character would you like next?’ When Staley said ‘Beauty and the Beast’, Epstein replied: ‘well one side is available’.”
The USVI lawsuit also claimed that Staley appeared to have visited Epstein at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. “On 8 January 2009 – around the time of Staley’s scheduled visit to Palm Beach – Epstein wired $2,000 from his JPMorgan account to a woman with an eastern European surname,” the lawsuit alleges.
In August 2009, Staley is said to have told Epstein that he was coming to the UK. “Epstein inquired whether Staley would need anything while in London, and Staley replied, ‘Yep’. On 31 August 2009, Epstein wired $3,000 from his JPMorgan account to the same eastern European woman Epstein paid in January 2009.”
In another message, Staley told Epstein: “I owe you much”.
It is also claimed that Staley appeared to have visited Epstein’s private island of Little St James in the USVI. Much of Epstein’s abuse is claimed to have taken place on the island and it is why the USVI government has filed the lawsuit against JPMorgan, which it accuses of having “direct and actual knowledge of Epstein’s sex-trafficking venture”.
JPMorgan declined to comment. The bank has previously called on the court to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming it did not participate in or benefit from sex trafficking by its former client.
Russia adopts Canada’s Mandatory Euthanasia – Top Russian official found dead after falling from high-rise apartment
Since 2016, Canada’s medical assistance in dying programme – known by its acronym ‘Maid’ – has been available for adults with terminal illness. In 2021, the law was changed to include those with serious and chronic physical conditions, even if that condition was non-life threatening.
This year, it is expected to change again to include some Canadians with mental illness.
That planned expansion has ignited controversy over the assisted death programme as a whole and raised concerns that it may be too easy for the vulnerable to die in Canada.
I don’t even know what this means.
Not sure I’ve paid a total of $400 for watches in my life.
The big problem with watches is they don’t stand up all that well to daily rough & tumble, all manner of catastrophe may befall them.
Now that I’m an office johnny, there’s no use for a watch – wall clocks abound, computers show the time, heck even phones display the time.
If I’m in real trouble, I can simply ask a policeman for the time. 🙂 🙂 🙂
No. It wasn’t the movie mogul.
It was the ringmaster, P.T. Barnum.
And what a circus it is, with every type of performing animal.
It was the ringmaster, P.T. Barnum.
Is this another Pride thing?
To do with the gay boxing perhaps?
In other news, and I’m not sure if its been reported Rachel Welch died at 82. One of the most gorgeous gals of her time.
Reported world wide yesterday morning, sadly.
The Americans have some great words. ‘Absquatulate’ and ‘Bumbershoot’ for two. As in ‘If I were attacked by a machete wielding loon, I should strike him with my bumbershoot and then absquatulate.’
I was thing Samuel Goldwyn. The source of a million quotable quotes.
My favourite –
If I look confused, it’s because I’m thinking.
thinking
Eeeee. The Thing is something altogether different.
Gentle beings, it is Friday late afternoon and I have a question for the SciFi enthusiasts. I remember reading a couple of books about 25 years ago that dealt with an alien race intercepting a transmission from earth that included the Human DNA string. After recreating humans they later received an addendum that allowed for immortality to said “us”. The next book had the humans making starships out of trees and heading back to our solar system where they encountered evolved dragonflies that were quite aggressive.
Long story short, does anyone know the author. I thought it was Charles Sheffield but cannot find it in his bibliography. Help me Obi Wan Catalaxy, your my last hope.
Neil Breen on 4BC just had a good rant about cost of Brisbane Olympics.
Quoted original bid info from 2 years ago as saying would use mainly existing facilities. The cost figure given was $650m.
Then played clip from last week of Premier saying 80% built already.
Latest announcement says $2.7b on Gabba rebuild and $2.5B for a new 17,000 seater in city. Plus a few other items comes to $7B.
So already 10 X what originally told. As he points out that does not include any infrastructure such as roads and the huge cost of IT services.
He thinks final cost will be more like $15B.
Fact Check did expose all the bullshot about Aborigines being flora and fauna until the 1967 referendum.
It has to be spoken about. Is Steve Skates going ok?
Knuckles what great news, you’ve made my day. If you like both of us will bat in the second innings. My seeing eye dog is pretty sharp. You’ll have to tell me I’m walking slowly in the right direction with my zimmer to get some runs on the board. If I manage to get out I won’t blame the wicket, sandpaper or a dodgy Vindaloo. Can’t be too hard.
For our gun nuts. I held a Brown Bess today with a bayonet. Given to my mate as a thankyou. In really good nick.
good news from pfizer
If old Japanese engine parts start falling from the sky, is it raining Datsun cogs?
I’m here all week. Try the veal.
After (another) false alarm, the Media Watchdog is in da house. Woof woof.
Head the Saviour contributed less runs than the midget ranga cheat. 12.
Straya travelling beautifully. Four down, just over a ton on the board, a resurrected second-chancer (also touted as a subcontinent specialist) at the crease, and Carey and the tail to come.
Couldn’t ask for more.
KD at 6:06.
The cheatin’ houso ranga now averages 21 in India.
This is Test 2 of 4, and next up is Engerland in Engerland where he averages 26.
If he fails in the second dig here, either he is goneski, or he will end up taking Coach Ronnie and the selectors with him.
Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity says:
February 17, 2023 at 5:09 pm
Not sure I’ve paid a total of $400 for watches in my life. The big problem with watches is they don’t stand up all that well to daily rough & tumble, all manner of catastrophe may befall them. Now that I’m an office johnny, there’s no use for a watch – wall clocks abound, computers show the time, heck even phones display the time.
The obvious answer is you get what you pay for. Yes, other means of telling the time abound but a good quality utility or diving watch can last decades and withstand all manner of rough treatment. The thing most owners don’t recognise is that utility and diving watches need to be serviced every 5-10 years to maintain seals and replace internal lubricants. Do that and the watch will probably outlast its owner.
The apple don’t fall far from the tree.
The son of infamous criminal Chopper Read has made a bid for freedom in court after being hit with multiple firearms, drugs and driving charges.
Charles Vincent Read, 23, was denied bail in Hobart Magistrates Court on Friday morning.
In a previous statement, Tasmania Police said officers charged Read with counts of aggravated evade police, dangerous driving, stealing, possession of a loaded firearm, other firearms and drugs charges.
At about 10.55pm on Wednesday, police responded to several reports of a white Toyota Corolla driving dangerously on Sixth Ave in New Norfolk.
The white Corolla was spiked on Boyer Rd, Bridgewater and a short time later officers found the vehicle abandoned in the Pontville Cemetery.
Police found ammunition and a “relatively large quantity of drugs”, which officers say are “believed to be ice”.
When police searched the area they found a man who they allege was the driver of the Toyota.
A further investigation led police to find “a number” of firearms and a further quantity of drugs.
Read was remanded in custody and his matter will next be mentioned in March.
Hobart Mercury
Crazy Old Ranga:
Jayzus!
I’ve read some farout SF in my time, but that one escapes me, COR.
Brian Kates
Merrick Garland Is Damned If He Does & Damned If He Doesn’t
Well, it was a UFO, it just wasn’t from outer space. What a joke.
What Biden Appears to Have Shot Down Over Lake Huron Is Clown-Show Stuff
Mark Steyn: Even Fauci is backpedaling
WHO Convenes ‘Urgent’ Meeting Over Marburg, One of World’s Deadliest Viruses
Water contamination in East Palestine, Ohio.
and
“The Water is safe”
Chief Nerd
@TheChiefNerd
12-Year-Old New Jersey Boy Dies Suddenly After Collapsing at Football Practice
“His mom says he wasn’t tackled and he wasn’t hit either. One problem, no one there knew CPR.”
If only
New Idaho Bill to Charge Those Who Administer mRNA Vaccines with Misdemeanor
I have that set as well, in beautiful red binding.
In the Courier-Mail, sometime acting bloke Sam Neill is blaming Horse Face’s resignation in NZ on…..
Men. Specifically, misogyny by men.
No worries, champ.
Top tier trolling by The Andrew.
Khawaja gone for 81.
Misogyny!
Carey. 0.
Here we go.
Remember those ads where he said if you eat red meat, your brain develops properly?
I think he was raised in a plant based household.
Unless We Abandon Globalism, China Will Win
Maine-Endwell students given ‘Satan Club’ flyers, district responds
Steve trickler: https://lawofmarkets.com/
Steve Kates appears to be OK.
That SF has me stumped and I’ve been reading it for more than 60 years. The aggressive dragonflies though reminds me of a Brian Aldiss novel from the 1960’s : Hothouse.
The other bit sounds like Joe Haldeman but I’ve read all of his I think.
Dr. John Campbell
Vaccine brain injury
Lukashenko warns Belarus will join Russia in war if attacked
In other words, the Canberra bubble is responsible for people not being able to rent, struggling with mortgages and living in cars.
CL from earlier today.
This is true, and Lowe/the RBA should have walked back their 0.1% interest rates until 2024 policy about 6 months after that insanity.
First it was government(s) intervention.
Then the RBA.
It truly was a one, two punch that will take a generation to unwind.
Eyriesays:
February 17, 2023 at 7:23 pm
Cheers bloke.
Australian property prices explained in one chart:
https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/money-supply-m1
For our gun nuts. I held a Brown Bess today with a bayonet. Given to my mate as a thankyou. In really good nick.
Original?! Cool either way!
Everything got really screwed up since COVID. This is appalling:
https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/money-supply-m0
Dr. John Campbell
Euthanasia in the pandemic?
I watched Darkest Hour on the flight today. Was pissed off when I was reminded that it had won my most stupid/spastic/woke/historically inaccurate casting award. The black man on the tube train. Almost as good as a Ranga Zulu.
Driving around Sydney for the next month might actually be good.
A lot of roads are becoming temporary clearways.
Elijah Jordan Brown-Garcia’s family are considering legal action against the football club, no mention whatsoever that they think there is any covid vaccine involvement in his death.
What would they know?
Incredible footage.
Not for me. I’ll take a Baker rifle and a heavy cavalry sword.
Now that’s soldiering (you Dutch twat).
Sons of the Stasi?
Real one, rickw. He’s got some great stuff.
I know a guy who walked away from his lease in the CBD late last year.
He owed the landlord 100k.
They never called him about his in arrears & since he left the premises no one has contacted him.
Commercial lease.
Not resi.
Most vs. least vaccinated states: Can you guess which did better when COVID broke out?
good news from pfizer
Did they do their usual covert testing on Africans? As long as they fully tested on unsuspecting Africans and none of them died or suffered injuries, I’m ok with it….
The Incredible Power Of Pfizer Is Horrifying – Dr Robert Malone
Antifa were monstering protesters against drag queens this week.
Antifa Clash with Protesters Outside Drag Queen Story Hour Performance for Children (12 Feb)
Says a lot about drag queens that I don’t think drag queens want said about them.
Matt Walsh
@MattWalshBlog
It still blows my mind that there are people literally castrating, butchering, and sterilizing children, and many others intentionally trying to lead kids to this fate, and yet some “conservatives” are concerned that I’m being too mean in the ways that I oppose this evil
As someone who has just joined the Rolex/Tudor global waiting list (on the Tudor side of the velvet rope) I’m probably the wrong person to be asking.
Why is there a waiting list? Most of the big watch brands have got minimal inventory on display in airports?