The White Horse, John Constable, 1819
Open Thread – Weekend 18 Feb 2023
1,466 responses to “Open Thread – Weekend 18 Feb 2023”
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Ed Casesays:
February 20, 2023 at 8:40 pm
She turned up at Chinchilla’s Melon Festival on the weekend after snubbing Toowoomba.Good on her, it’s a frightful place.
Palaszczuk comes across as a sheila who knows how to look after a bloke, so I’m cool with her being Premier in either a Labor or LNP Government.That said, the cops must want her out, since there’s no way she’ll ever lose an Election in Qld.
Richard Cranium now shilling for state Labor, as well as federal.
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Perhaps the most notorious was Rasputin but history is replete with other examples, Queen Elizabeth I had John Dee as an advisor. Dee was a wizard and occultist.
I got into an argument with ChatGPT over that.
“That is not a scientific statement”
No, it’s a historical statement dickless, and I mean dickless by choice AI programmer.
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Tom says:
February 20, 2023 at 7:23 pmI do wish people would stop imagining that there was a ‘golden age’ of journalism. It never existed.
There WAS a golden age, Johanna, when journalists weren’t indoctrinated by ideology popular on university campuses and instead learned from experience on the job.
The 1970s was when journalism ceased being an on-the-job cadetship and stopped being the eyes and ears of its audience and political ideology took over as the dominant influence in the culture of reporting.
Areff, who has worked around the world in the journalism business for half a century, shares my view about that.
Tom & cassie,
I have had the pleasure of Piers Akerman’s company on various balconies in Pittwater, sipping Fine Red Wines and philosophising on Life – definitely of the Old On the Job Cadet Journalism School
Also fond memories of early mornings in the Sydney Journo’s Club after Sofware testing, with one of the team from our American Software Supplier, playing magnificently on the piano as we wound down to the dawn.
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This ad for a Vacheron-Constantin calendar watch popped up in my news feed earlier today.
“nice looking watch” sez I, “might pick one up if not too pricey”.Not too pricey! Oh Lawdy: Not exactly small change.
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calli says:
February 20, 2023 at 7:46 pm
Maybe there were grades of “journalism”, depending on the newspaper. So you had the “publications of record” or broadsheets, and the evening horror stuff with its lurid, sensational headlines.It may be less a “golden age” and more a caste system. Now it’s all pretty much homogenised trash. And if there are no pictures, it didn’t happen.
I don’t think we understand journalists and journalism. They have very little power themselves, all the power resides in editors in the case of newspapers and producers in the case of radio and television. They are given assignments and are expected to hand in their work, how it is presented to the public is in the hands of editors and producers. We should be angry at those who hold power.
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The US president has previously ruled out such a visit, saying he may travel to Poland but would not go further
US President Joe Biden arrived in Ukraine on Monday, making his first visit since Moscow launched its military operation in the neighboring state nearly a year ago.
According to reports, Biden has met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in the Mikhailovsky Cathedral in Kiev. Ukrainian news organizations published photos and video purportedly showing Biden and Zelensky walking towards the church flanked by armed security.
Biden said he was meeting with Zelensky to “reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” according to the statement released by the White House.
The US president added that he would announce a new delivery of “critical equipment” for the Ukrainian army, including artillery rounds, anti-tank systems, and radars. “Later this week, we will announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine,” Biden said.
The trip takes place as the US and other NATO members are ramping up military aid to Ukraine, having recently pledged the transfer of modern main battle tanks and other additional heavy weapons.
Biden ruled out traveling to Ukraine earlier this month, saying that he only had plans to go to Poland.
Russia sent troops to Ukraine last February, citing the need to protect the people of Donbass and Kiev’s failure to implement the 2014-2015 peace accords. The US has since then been one of Ukraine’s primary backers in the conflict.
According to the Pentagon, Washington provided Kiev with more than $27.4 billion in security aid between February 24, 2022 and January 20, 2023. The delivered weapons include HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, M777 howitzers, shoulder-fired anti-tank systems, and combat drones. The US has also pledged to transfer Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M1 Abrams tanks, and has been training Ukrainian soldiers.
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Kremlin responds to Crimea claim by ‘aggressive US hawk’
Washington’s support for Kiev’s strikes on the peninsula highlights its role in stoking global tensions, Putin’s spokesman said
The US government’s public endorsement of Ukrainian attacks on Crimea shows the growing foreign policy gulf between Washington and Moscow, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said on Thursday that Russian military installations in Crimea “are legitimate targets” for Ukraine, and that Washington supports Kiev’s attacks on them.
The peninsula overwhelmingly voted to become part of Russia in 2014 following a Western-backed coup in Kiev, but Ukraine still views it as part of its own territory.
In an interview with the Rossiya-1 TV channel, Peskov described Nuland as part of “a very large group of the most aggressive hawks in American politics”.
The spokesman said the diplomat’s remarks “once again emphasize the depth of differences between us” and highlight “the role of the United States as the main instigator of existing global tensions.”
On Friday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned Nuland’s statement on Crimea as “staggering” and “absurd,” calling it proof of “the US involvement in the Ukraine conflict.”
In addition to supplying Kiev with weapons, the US is now “pushing the Kiev regime to further escalation,” she said. “This is what we had warned about before and what had forced us to launch a special military operation.”
Earlier this month, the US announced a new $2.17 billion security package for Ukraine, including ground-launched, small diameter bombs (GLSDB) with a range of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles). The weapons could potentially give Kiev far greater ability to launch strikes on Crimea.
On Wednesday, Politico reported, citing sources, that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a group of experts that Washington was not “actively encouraging” Kiev to seize Crimea, as it believes such attempts would be a red line for Moscow, triggering a drastic response.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chair of the national Security Council, warned that any strikes inside the peninsula would be “met with inevitable retaliation using weapons of any kind.”
Nuland outlines US goals for Ukraine conflict
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 an 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 over the past year alone, but Washington officially insists it is not a party to the conflict.
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Wow.
https://techcrunch.com/2007/11/07/facebook-censors-ron-paul/
The theme of my email inbox this morning (it’s morning for me, anyway) is that for some reason a search for presidential candidate “Ron Paul” in Facebook Groups yields zero results. The reason isn’t because there aren’t any Ron Paul groups – a search for “Paul” shows hundreds. For some reason, the search is blocked.
THIS WAS IN 2007!!!
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Zelensky spent two months in bunker – The Times
Ministers and aides inside the Ukrainian president’s shelter were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, the newspaper reports
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his associates spent almost two months in a bunker after the outbreak of the conflict with Russia, instead of the planned two weeks, and underwent significant hardships, The Times has reported.
The Ukrainian government “immediately” descended into a secure shelter under the president’s office on Bankovaya Street in central Kiev when Russia’s military operation was launched on February 24, 2022, the British newspaper reported on Saturday.
The secrecy around the bunker was so high that those who accompanied the head of state underground had to sign a special non-disclosure agreement. According to the document, they were banned from revealing any details about the shelter’s design, location, amenities, or even the food that they were given.
When Russian forces were located in the suburbs of Kiev, it was a period of trauma and terror for Zelensky’s ministers and aides, the paper said. “We don’t speak about that much any more,” Ukraine’s agrarian policy and food minister Nikolay Solsky replied when asked to recall the opening weeks of the fighting.
government insider told The Times that staying in the bunker was a tough existence as “you don’t see the sun, you don’t know the time.”
Zelensky’s team experienced the conflict through their iPhones, according to the paper. They were always busy, with their sleep being “snatched and often disturbed,” it added.
Some Ukrainian officials were “growing weary of life in the underground bunker,” with one of them confessing that he once fled the shelter to eat at a restaurant, the paper wrote.
Due to fears that Kiev could fall to the Russian forces, the underground stay was prolonged for the country’s leadership, a government source told The Times.
According to the paper, Zelensky only emerged from the shelter from time to time to record video messages “to reassure the people that he had not fled.”
Earlier this month, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who mediated contacts between Moscow and Kiev at that time, revealed that Zelensky had started making his addresses only after being assured that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no plans to eliminate him.
Bennett claimed that he secured such a promise from Putin during talks in the Russian capital, and phoned Zelensky immediately after leaving the Kremlin. Two hours later, the Ukrainian leader posted a video from his office in Kiev, explaining that he was “not hiding” and “not afraid of anyone,” he said.
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Dr Faustus says:
February 19, 2023 at 3:22 pmTo me, the obvious set up says it’s going to come down to appeals against racism:
• Why do you hate the Indigenous so much that you want to Open the Gap?
• What message will it send if Australia fails at the Referendum?
Looks like Noel Pearson reads the Cat:
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
February 20, 2023 at 8:41 pm
33m ago‘I will fall silent’ if voice poll fails: Pearson
Indigenous leader Noel Pearson says he will “fall silent” and a whole generation of Indigenous leadership won’t have “anything left” if the voice to parliament fails.
Right twice a day.
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Charnel nein had an x-spurt on saying how the government was concerned super money could be taken out to pay for medical emergencies/ dental etc.
And it was awful value for punters because they had to tax the early withdrawals 22%.There is something to be said for stranding people on savage coasts.
Especially big government catamites. -
Softly, softly on hard drugs in Queensland youth crime crisis
By Michael McKenna
Reporter
@McKennaattheOz
and Lydia Lynch
9:37PM February 20, 2023
No CommentsQueensland will have among the most relaxed drug laws in Australia, with users given three chances for carrying up to a gram of heroin, cocaine or ice before facing a criminal charge.
In an unheralded move to sweep aside the state’s tough stance on hard drugs, the Palaszczuk cabinet and party room on Monday endorsed the changes as the government grappled with a politically charged youth crime crisis.
The changes, which have been quietly developed in consultation with police, as well as health and drug experts, is intended to alleviate the workload of police and the courts and keep users “with a health issue” out of the judicial system.
The move came as Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday bowed to opposition pressure and agreed to reintroduce a controversial Liberal National policy her government had scrapped in a bid to be seen to be taking immediate action on youth crime.
After years criticising the LNP policy, the Palaszczuk government will on Tuesday introduce legislation to make breach of bail a stand-alone offence for juveniles.
The drug-related laws will be introduced later in the week and extend the decade-old drug diversionary program for cannabis possession to other illicit drugs including ice, cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, ketamine and steroids.
Under the changes a person is given a warning the first time they are caught with a drug and the offer of an “opportunity” to participate in a drug diversionary program on the second and third occasions they are found to be in possession of the drug.
Only on the fourth occasion are police required to issue a person with a court notice to appear on a charge of possession – and even then they may be spared a conviction.
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Running out of readjng options.
Handed back Anne Cleeves, Agatha Christie and Donna Leon.
Slim pickings, had to go witha Dick Francis.
Had to stop reading the Leon every so often and look things up.
Yes the arsoned theatre was refurbished at a cost of €90 million and reopened, arson was committed in 1996 by a couple of electricians who were worried about heavy fines for not completing work and yes the Isle of Roses was sold to a consortium and turned into a Marriott resort, now starting from €345 a night. -
Geez, just saw an excerpt of desperate Albo spruiking the voice, screeching “this is an opportunity to unite our nation”
Yep Cassie, first thing I thought was if you want to unite people you don’t do so in a insulting, aggressive tone of voice.
Saying one thing and meaning quite the opposite, is our Tennis Elbow. -
Geez, just saw an excerpt of desperate Albo spruiking the voice, screeching “this is an opportunity to unite our nation”
You suspect he is starting to realise why both branches of the UniParty have kicked this particular can down the road for over two decades. Having grown up at the feet of The Great Man how could you not have a shot at greatness?
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Thanks Cohenite and Johanna for your info re the Preamble.
I suspect it would still be preferable to The Voice in that it is open to legislation in a way The Voice would not be. And the High Court will always intervene where it can, that’s a given.
John Howard certainly saw a Preamble statement as an alternative, some years back.As I said, I personally intend to vote a resounding No to it all. And hope that carries the day.
Relying on the good sense of the Australian voter; which I ha’ me douts about really.
There needs to be a really strong No campaign, which isn’t on yet from what I can see.
Many will look for some out and take it if they can; otherwise they may go along with Albo.If the Libs can make a strong anti-Yes case while still appearing policy driven and well-intentioned for the guilt-stricken, then good-o.
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Meantime, Hairy and I are immersing ourselves in the lengthy series The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, which is refreshing in its characterisations of the internecine squabbles of Ashkenazi vs Sephardic Jewish people in the period of the British occupation and the terrorist activities for an Israeli State. Hairy gets bored with the flashback technique, which is overused, but I don’t mind it. The relief is that it’s nothing like what is offered from the wokerati elsewhere; the facial features of the key characters are decidedly of the Middle East. It follows Rosa’s story with her Mother-in-law and her errant husband who is still in his mum’s grip, while as a dad, his spoiled daughter is now showing her rebellion; some very good family dynamics that are drawn into local politics.
You really feel for these people and get to understand them in their cultural context.
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Nearly did it again.
Had in my mind flight was leaving at 8 because 18.00Lol, Rosie. That’s the sort of mistake that led to my slightly odd adult son missing his flight back from Thailand to Oz. He never could organise himself, and flusters tend to rule.
Glad you were in plenty of time for a quick retrieval. He wasn’t. Cost us one new ticket. No refund. -
I did miss a Paris to London connection on BA once, they just stuck us on the next flight, no fuss.
Now I’m an hour too early to check in.
I did pay the extra euro to catch the Express bus to the airport. €3 v €2, it was a nobrainer.
It was the location of the international airport that made me realise how small Malta is, it’s on the south east of the island but only 5.7 kilometres from Valletta.
Oh. -
Now I’m at Costa’s having a large flat white, €4.50. And using their WiFi, naturally.
It’s more giant than large but not complaining, it’s not bad at all.
Will melita Malta sim card work in Madrid? time will tell.
I’m an easy walk from Embajamores metro in Madrid, even without internet with a photo of the map I should be fine. -
Ed Casesays:
February 20, 2023 at 9:53 pm
I’m voting No because I don’t want to entrench Apartheid in the Constitution?Who writes these zingers?
Some Gimp in the bowels of John Curtin House?The liars sold John Curtin House some years ago, when the stench of financial scandal got too much even for them.
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An attractive blonde from Cork, Ireland, arrived at the casino. She seemed a little intoxicated and bet twenty thousand dollars in a single roll of the dice. She said “I hope you don’t mind, but I feel much luckier when I’m completely nude”.
With that, she stripped from the neck down, rolled the dice and with an Irish brogue yelled “Come on, baby, Mama needs new clothes!”
As the dice came to a stop, she jumped up and down and squealed. “Yes! Yes! I won, I won!” She hugged each of the dealers, picked up her winnings and her clothes and quickly departed.
The dealers stared at each other dumbfounded.
Finally, one of them asked “What did she roll?” The other answered “I don’t know – I thought you were watching”.
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