The Seven Arches Adel Woods, John Atkinson Grimshaw, mid-late 1800s
DMT. Once or twice…enlightening. Ten or twelve times…Terence Howard.
- TULIP versus ruinous Labor
- Open Thread – Weekend 18 May 2024
- Bumtree #15
- Bumtree #14
- Open Thread – Thurs 16 May 2024
Well at least she wasn’t dragged through the streets of Flemington on the back of the HiAce. Hun: Premier Jacinta…
A guy was walking down the beach and stubs his toe on something in the sand. He looks down and…
knock over one statue and feel the WOKE pride ..! It is a sad thing, especially when Gen. Robert E.…
I had two Isuzu mainly because of the extraordinary engineering standard. I gave them away when I became old and…
Actually they did see his blood.
Walker stabbed Rolfe (in the shoulder) at close quarters – hence Rolfe was forced to subdue Walker.
Case. Closed.
Rockdoctorsays:
February 25, 2023 at 1:30 pm
Think it was HB this morning that mentioned a way of slashing the Public Service without startling the horses Kennett & Newman style. Stop recruitment.
I commented to that effect yesterday on the old thread.
Three months is the average time, in some of the communities, to lose any respect for “culture” and “parenting skills.”
On sex and love, because we had temporarily axed the Israeli serial where that that was interwoven with the political struggle for Israel, we looked on Netflix for something relaxing and undemanding to watch.
Nothing much that was new appealed. The we spotted Lady Chatterley’s Lover, recently turned into film no less. OK, we’ll give it a go. Have you ever read the book? I asked Hairy. Only the parts that automatically fell open on a schoolboys’ copy, he admitted blushingly. I’d read the whole thing, I told him, as a duty to the Great Cause of anti-censorship in the 1960’s. I also read a lot of D H Lawrence, as Hairy did later on; we both recalled reading Women in Love, Kangaroo, and especially Sons and Lovers. The man could spin a yarn well, and was a great writer to boot, though a bit odd, y’know, crypto-fascist and maybe heading towards a bit gay.
Well, guys, all I can say about the movie is – don’t bother. It is a load of old bollocks, as one might say.
The sexualisation of language beyond pornography, the tenderness of sexual love, the essentialist nature of sexual connection beyond social boundaries so crucial in the original, doesn’t get airplay. Instead we get misty focussed soft porn, endlessly repeated, plus naked cavorting in the rain, and the storyline, which tries to be true to the class-based nature of the tale, fails to hit its target. It all feels fake. The two main characters don’t help. She’s a long thin streak of a modern girl who doesn’t ring sensually true as Connie in my reading. Mellors as the gamekeeper is better, maintaining the accent that is so much part of their differentiation, but there is no particular dynamic drawn out between them. It’s two hours long, so that may be part of the problem. About half way we both looked at each other with an unspoken query of had enough? shall we turn it off ? Nah. More wine and we’ll see it through, but with detachment ruling.
Radio check, over.
As Rolfe was working for NT Police, it should be either the Commissioner, Minister for Police, or Chief Minister who should be on the receiving end of payback
Yeah.
No stitches required.
Some stab wound.
3 shots to the chest from Rolfey.
Result: Trip to the Morgue.
Rolfey flees Australia, wants Medal.
So much for all the clowns who championed Rolfey’s Right to continue working in the N.T. Police Force
Not at all.
If Rolfey perjured himself at the Murder Trial, he can be Tried again.
Loud and clear, out.
Ed,
You missed the bit about him being on his partner trying to stab him.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Mr Rotten – I know what a rolling steamroller is. Gen. Brusilov invented it. Unfortunately the modern Russian army can’t seem to repeat those tactics successfully, I think because of insufficient training and logistics. They have been using them with a bit of success in the Donetsk front.
If they had a year to train a solidly professional army, with Brusilov’s tactics, built up the artillery stockpiles for it, perhaps they could do it. Unfortunately one difference from 1916 is the availability of detailed aerial and satellite intel, plus very long range precision rockets (ie. HIMARS). That has made building ammunition stockpiles difficult, since they can be found and destroyed whereas that wasn’t possible in 1916. Ukraine has been doing that especially since it uses their limited ammo with highest ROI.
The old saying that war is logistics, logistics, logistics has a interesting twist in this one. The smart AA and AT munitions have defaulted tactics back to 1916, as we’ve often discussed. But logistics are actually worse than 1916 because of the inability to stockpile enough for a massive offensive. That’s why Russia has been concentrating on the eastern sector – because they have good rail links through Donbas to the front to deliver just-in-time artillery stocks. That way they can keep up the rolling barrages without having to build vulnerable stockpiles.
(One of the differences between US artillery ammunition eg for the M777s and the Russian artillery is the former is palletized for easy handling, whereas the Russians still are manually handling single artillery rounds in wooden boxes. It’s a mindset thing that the Russian Army never seemed to advance from unfortunately. That makes the job of getting the arty ammo to the front all that much harder.)
Wrong.
There was no urgency to arrest Arnold Walker, Rolfey had been told that by his superiors.
He unilaterally took the action he did, so he alone should bear the consequences.
What justice would Rekeisha Robertson have received fro the repeated bashings she suffered at the hands of poor, wronged, Arnold Walker?
This is just sickening.
Rekeisha Robinson was Arnold Walker’s fiancee, she is in mourning and in no way supportive of Rolfey’s murderous actions.
Oh.
You mean what white-fella used to call “spring fuel reduction burns” until the Greens effectively banned them.
“Bruce of Newcastlesays:
February 25, 2023 at 10:27 am
Catturd ™@catturd2 · 5h
She says she’s not done yet.
First Lady Says Biden Ready to Run (24 Feb)
She added, “He says he’s not done. He’s not finished what he’s started. And that’s what’s important.”
He looks pretty finished to me, but I’m sure she can prop him up on a hat stand or something. Anyway we can eagerly anticipate many more dresses that look like sofas.”
If Biden runs again, it will be Sulawesi Style. 😀
oops! messed up my formatting. 🙂
If that’s the case, then how did Rolfey manage to shoot him in the chest 3 times without placing his partner or others in danger?
Haven’t been keeping up.
I assume “Rolfey” is Rolf Harris?
Boambee Johnsays:
February 25, 2023 at 1:42 pm
I stand corrected. Still I think the method has merit and is desperately overdue at all levels of Government.
Recall the autumn leaves burn-up on the side of the road in suburban Melbourne? I loved the smell of the burbs at the time. Imagine doing that now. You’d have the fire department and the cops converge on your home, possibly with a SWAT team too.
They would say at one mine I worked at:
Say again, words twice.
Reading you Five.
Haven’t been keeping up.
I assume “Rolfey” is Rolf Harris?
Uh, yeah.
How’s he doing, do you still keep up?
How about Bill Cosby, sent him a Christmas card?
Lol, get a load of this little communist skunk.
Adam Ant , the economist.
In a perverse way, he’s right. Inflation falls when corporate profits fall, because monetary tightening causes a recession, which is a fall in income (wages, salaries, and corporate profits). The little dickhead believes that raising taxes on corporations will lower inflation. I really don’t understand how this imbecile could be in parliament.
Actually, the Labor Party banned them.
The Greens aren’t in Power anywhere, so when Labor wants to destroy jobs and generally oppress the people, they say:
We had to do it to win Green preferences at the next Election.
People bare still voting Labor, so they must still be buying the Labor bullshit.
It’s incredible to think a brainless, mendacious little turd like Adam Ant is in Parliament.
Corporate profits fund investment through earnings retention, they fund retirement. Healthy corporate profits means a healthy economy. The Ant thinks they’re bad.
Ant is elected by fukwits in places like Fitzroy and Brunswick
Cassie of Sydney:
….and by extension, what is happening to Rolfe, Pell and Lehman is happening to all of us.
The have wanted to polarise the nation for years and their efforts are being successful.
The question is “What to do?”.
I know Milt. I just find it incredible. I’m shocked every single time I hear or read his name.
Here ya go, Sancho. Rolf Harris gravely ill.
Interestingly, given your architectural bent, Rolf Harris’s dad and Frank Lloyd Wright originated from the same part of Wales.
Cassie of Sydney:
I will be voting Labor the next election. Why?
.1 Because the Liberals are not worth my vote;
.2 Because the voters haven’t yet learnt their lesson about distrusting government and a collectivist administration and they deserve democracy good and hard;
.3 Because I’m a cranky old fart, that’s why.
🙂
I had to post this. 😀
This also goes for Australia.
Absolutely, and coming to a country you live in.
Just wondering ….. did the arseless chaps of years gone by survive?
Or will Sleazy don them tonight for the poove etc parade?
I still hope he is sodomised on the float ponceing down oxford street.
Rolf Harris shouldn’t have been imprisoned.
Zachary Rolfe leaving the country – understandable.
If my memory is intact, “prominent lawyer Rob Stary” was the go-to legal chappy on ABC Mornings in Victoria many moons ago.
This analysis of the thinking of Dietrich Bonhoeffer re the sometimes inexplicable stupidity of populations is especially relevant, I think, to the compliance of Australians in the recent Covid madness
“On Stupidity”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theory explains much of contemporary politics and culture.
By JOHN LEAKE
In 1943, the Lutheran pastor and member of the German resistance, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was arrested and incarcerated in Tegel Prison. There he meditated on the question of why the German people—in spite of their vast education, culture, and intellectual achievements—had fallen so far from reason and morality. He concluded that they, as a people, had been afflicted with collective stupidity (German: Dummheit).
He was not being flippant or sarcastic, and he made it clear that stupidity is not the opposite of native intellect. On the contrary, the events in Germany between 1933 and 1943 had shown him that perfectly intelligent people were, under the pressure of political power and propaganda, rendered stupid—that is, incapable of critical reasoning. As he put it:
Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than wickedness. Evil can be protested against, exposed, and, if necessary, it can be prevented by force. Evil always harbors the germ of self-destruction by inducing at least some uneasiness in people. We are defenseless against stupidity. Nothing can be done to oppose it, neither with protests nor with violence. Reasons cannot prevail. Facts that contradict one’s prejudice simply don’t need to be believed, and when they are inescapable, they can simply be brushed aside as meaningless, isolated cases.
In contrast to evil, the stupid person is completely satisfied with itself. When irritated, he becomes dangerous and may even go on the attack. More caution is therefore required when dealing with the stupid than with the wicked. Never try to convince the stupid with reasons; it’s pointless and dangerous.
To understand how to deal with stupidity, we must try to understand its nature. This much is certain: it is not essentially an intellectual, but a human defect. There are people who are intellectually agile who are stupid, while intellectually inept people may be anything but stupid. We discover this to our surprise in certain situations.
One gets the impression that stupidity is often not an innate defect, but one that emerges under certain circumstances in which people are made stupid or allow themselves to be made stupid. We also observe that isolated and solitary people exhibit this defect less frequently than socializing groups of people. Thus, perhaps stupidity is less a psychological than a sociological problem. It is a special manifestation of the influence of historical circumstances on man—a psychological side effect of certain external conditions.
A closer look reveals that the strong exertion of external power, be it political or religious, strikes a large part of the people with stupidity. Yes, it seems as if this is a sociological-psychological law. The power of some requires the stupidity of others. Under this influence, human abilities suddenly wither or fail, robbing people of their inner independence, which they—more or less unconsciously —renounce to adapt their behavior to the prevailing situation.
The fact that stupid people are often stubborn should not hide the fact that they are not independent. When talking to him, one feels that one is not dealing with him personally, but with catchphrases, slogans, etc. that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell; he is blinded; he is abused in his own being.
Having become an instrument without an independent will, the fool will also be capable of all evil, and at the same time, unable to recognize it as evil. Here lies the danger of diabolical abuse. Through this, a people can be ruined forever.
But it is also quite clear here that it is not an act of instruction, but only an act of liberation that can overcome stupidity. In doing so, one will have to accept the fact that, in most cases, real inner liberation is only possible after outer liberation has taken place. Until then we will have to refrain from all attempts to convince the stupid. In this state of affairs, we try in vain to know what “the people” actually think.”
The Bible states that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Thus, the inner liberation of man begins by living responsibly before God. Only then may stupidity be overcome.
Bruce of Newcastle says:
February 25, 2023 at 1:51 pm
(One of the differences between US artillery ammunition eg for the M777s and the Russian artillery is the former is palletized for easy handling, whereas the Russians still are manually handling single artillery rounds in wooden boxes. It’s a mindset thing that the Russian Army never seemed to advance from unfortunately. That makes the job of getting the arty ammo to the front all that much harder.)
In The Spirit Of Russian ‘Total War’
An exploration of how Russia’s warfighting doctrine differs from the West.
This further extends to the more holistic aspects of armies and how they function—the logistical architecture of the mechanized forces which form the backbone of an armed forces.
This thread from a twitter-celebrated American military expert is very enlightening—though probably not in the way he intended.
He compares the American military logistics machine to a Walmart distribution center, using the example of a corporate hub as the ideal standard by which all ‘efficient’ militaries should be judged, fawning over the extremely specialized, fancy-acronym’d equipment like HIAB cranes, FMTV’s and MHE’s, etc., that make up the lifeblood of American mechanized force logistics.
Such sleek automation is, in the American view, the paragon of how true, ‘Modern Armies’ should be run. Of course, that’s one of the problems, Western militaries are run more like corporations than fighting forces (cue the ESG, CRT, DEI, etc., currently taking over Western militaries)
But that’s the problem, Western militaries rely on a host of ‘specialized equipment’ even in the backend of their operations
One American commentator once harshly judged a video showcasing a Russian artillery battalion ammo dump. In the video, the soldiers could be seen stacking walls of olive-colored ammo crates by hand. The American snobbily dismissed it as an example of Russian backwardness, boasting how similar American formation depots utilize a variety of heavy-duty loaders and fancy specialized cranes with very impressive sounding names, typical of the soulless corporate culture parlance, like Super-High-Mobility-Heavy-Expanded-Tactical-Mine-Resistant-Ambush-Protected-Crane-Enabling-Ultra-Palletized-Load-System-X5000, or conveniently shortened by Lockheed Execs to ShMheTMRapCeuPLSx5000.
In the very thread quoted above, you can likewise see the pointing and laughing at the following photo comparison of a Russian logistics offload in Ukraine to a U.S. depot.
The problem with relying on such heavy mechanization is that in a real, high-intensity peer conflict, i.e. ‘Total War’ scenario, most of the stuff will be hit, break down, have parts/fuel/supply/wear-and-tear and maintenance issues, etc.
Not to mention, for a variety of reasons, fighting in the modern ISR dominated battlefield, having so many electronic and heat signatures would make you glow like a lavalamp from a variety of space/drone/plane based observational platforms.
The U.S. simply never had to deal with those limitations because they’ve never dared fight an opponent even remotely approaching those capabilities.
Just watch this illuminating Dr. Philip Karber presentation to the U.S. Army West Point cadets, particularly from about the 26 minute point onward:
He mentions many of the points of how the U.S. army’s reliance on certain key luxuries would redound heavily against them in a confrontation with a real power like Russia.
Few clips better highlight the disparities in economy and utility of design mindsets than this one
comparing Russian 2S1 Gvozdika Self-Propelled Artillery crews to those of the American M109 Paladin.
Can you begin to envision the problems the second crew would have in a high-intensity Total War scenario? Just take a look at the sheer labyrinthine maze of protocol initiations and hand-offs that emblemize the West’s reliance on systems antithetical to the Total War creed. Imagine these same crewmen under high pressure, no sleep, having fought for months without rotation, famished and exhausted, with the pounding cannonades of a peer-level adversary’s artillery rumbling off around them, having to pucker through this firing pageant?
Another example is the loading of a Russian Bm-21 Grad vs. American HIMARS.
Compare the effortless two man job of sliding Grad rockets into a simple slot, to this gargantuan-looking undertaking, which seems to require an entire engineering team, several cranes, jacks, generators and porta-potties, just to load one HIMARS unit. (M270 here, but same thing).
Look at the sheer number of movable components, prone to wear-and-tear and breaking under high-stress/intensity conditions.
The fact is, everything in the Western military ecosystem is laborious, overburdened, and bloated with impracticality.
Sure, the comparison is slightly disingenuous for the fact that the Grad is a much smaller 122mm rocket system vs. the 227mm of the M270/HIMARS, and Russia’s own larger systems like the Bm-27 Uragan and Bm-30 Smerch do have mechanized loaders of their own. But the point is, Russia diversifies and retains much more simplified systems like the Grad for situations when the others can’t cut it, whereas the U.S. exclusively relies on the ‘high-tech’ ones.
Ultimately, it’s hard to imagine how, with a straight face, some Westerners can accuse Russia of being incapable of proper supply/logistics operations, yet in the same breath bemoan that it expends more shells per day than the entire Western military bloc is able to produce in a month. Do you know what level of sheer organizational prowess lies behind the ability to efficiently resupply 60,000+ shells per day, day in and day out? The operation is incalculably massive; and since we still hear the daily screechings from the West about Russia’s shell overmatch, it can only mean they’re competently fulfilling all logistical demands, with or without the fancy Heavy-High-Mobility-Advanced-Mine-Resistant-Palletized-Auto-Crane-2000 Lockheed money-sink boondoggle robotic jib arm.
In fact, few are aware that Russian, for instance, has launched more cruise missiles in the first year of the Ukraine conflict than U.S. has launched of its famed ‘Tomahawks’ in the entirety of the Tomahawk’s four decades’ lifespan. Back in August, Zelensky admitted Russia has launched over 3,500 missiles thus far, and since then Russia has only upped the intensity, which means by this point the count is likely over 5,000.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has launched a total of 802 Tomahawks during the entirety of the 2003+ Iraq War, and around 2,300 total since the Tomahawk’s inception in the early 80’s.
The point made is one of sustainment, production, and manufacturing power.
The Western powers like to scoff and balk, or jeer at ‘the gas station masquerading as a country’, but in actuality Russia’s commitment to the ‘Total War’ principle has enabled it to eclipse Western manufacturing potential in many key areas, which is exemplified by the munitions spent.
Robert – this morning I informed a surprised Labor candidate for the state electorate of North Sydney that I would be voting Labor for the first time in the state elections.
Reason being that I believe that Svengali Kean would soon overthrow the weak Perrotet anyway – & then, God help us all. Chris Minns, on the other hand, is surprisingly measured and reasonable in most major policy areas. I suppose that could be upended by the Party – but who knows?
Of course, I could vote informal. Am I feeling lucky, punk? No – its just that we are living in a highly unstable era.
Richard Cranium
There was no urgency to arrest Arnold Walker,
Your contemptuous dismissal of his tribal name, Kumanjayi, by ignoring it, shows a racist lack of cultural sensitivity. Report to the re-education centre immediately.
Big Nambas:
Thanks for that, it’s a gem. I’ve just ordered 5 T shirts from Vistaprint with that meme.
Fair.
The Liberals used up a lifetime of voters assuming they were more responsible than the feckless other lot.
Then under Abbott they seemed to decide that past deficits were best handled by more zero interest borrowings, not reducing the balance; the harbours mined with NDIS and NBN seemed to convince them that they could spend big too for no political cost. And Trumble then Morroison hand-waved it into the present.
On top of that they used us shooters as punching bags for 27 years straight. Now I am a cranky old fart and I want to not just vote, but donate and volunteer so as to make the country a better place.
This leaves me wanting a party that doesn’t exist.
Ed Casesays:
February 25, 2023 at 2:03 pm
Ed,
You missed the bit about him being on his partner trying to stab him.
If that’s the case, then how did Rolfey manage to shoot him in the chest 3 times without placing his partner or others in danger?
Check the CCTV records, the DVD should be filed right next to the Mizzzz Knickerless/Lerhman/Parliament House DVD.
To be speared through both thighs?
Chrissays:
February 25, 2023 at 2:19 pm
Radio check, over.
They would say at one mine I worked at:
Yeah, loud and… annoying.
Say again, words twice.
Say again, all after “Mumble, mumble”.
So you’re going to teach voters a lesson. Piss off.
Miltonfsays:
February 25, 2023 at 2:31 pm
Ant is elected by fukwits in places like Fitzroy and Brunswick
Carlton?
Of course.
China’s missile program is a wake-up call to the nation
China’s PLA is the world leader in developing anti-ship ballistic missiles. Trying to change Beijing’s calculus should be a high priority in Canberra.
By DAVID KILCULLEN
From Inquirer
February 25, 2023
Anti-ship ballistic missiles are a class of medium or intermediate-range ballistic missiles pioneered by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the world leader in developing them. A US intelligence assessment in 2017 noted: “China continues to have the most active and diverse ballistic missile development program in the world. It is developing and testing offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, qualitatively upgrading missile systems, and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defences.”
In the years since, PLA programs have only accelerated: China now has hypersonic missiles (which travel five to 10 times the speed of sound, making them extraordinarily hard to intercept) and hypersonic glide vehicles (space shuttle-like warheads accelerated to hypersonic speed by a ballistic missile, which can orbit the planet and re-enter the atmosphere to strike a target anywhere on Earth). The PLA is building missile launch complexes – hectare upon hectare of subterranean silos – in China’s western desert, and constructing replicas of US ships as mobile targets.
As the name suggests, anti-ship ballistic missiles are designed to destroy surface warships, though they can also target fixed locations, such as ports, air bases and, under certain circumstances, submarines. Chinese systems are land-based and road-mobile. Like other ballistic missiles, ASBMs follow a parabolic path, passing briefly through space before descending to their targets. In 2020 China claimed its ASBMs – the most advanced on the planet – had demonstrated the ability to manoeuvre during descent (avoiding missile defences) and then strike a moving target at sea.
China’s two principal ASBMs are the DF-26, with a range of at least 4000km, and the DF-21D, which can strike targets at 1685km. Even with non-nuclear payloads, ASBMs are sufficient to sink major fleet units, including big-deck amphibious ships (such as HMAS Canberra or Adelaide) or aircraft carriers, hence their nickname, “carrier-killers”.
When China’s security agreement with Solomon Islands was revealed in April last year, it prompted much discussion about spheres of influence, introspection about Australia’s colonial legacy in the Pacific and debate about China’s ambitions in the region. In July, under pressure from Australia and others, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare ruled out a permanent Chinese military base in the country. The cancellation of a Chinese company’s attempt to lease the island of Tulagi, whose harbour makes it an attractive naval base, reduced tension, but a different Chinese company is still pursuing plans to purchase an airstrip and deep-water port at Kolombangara, in the New Georgia group of the northwest Solomons. Chinese advisers have deployed to train Solomon Islands security forces, and the emergence of the Southwest Pacific as a zone of great-power competition remains of concern in Canberra.
China’s ties with Solomon Islands – and other Pacific states – must be understood through the lens of the PLA’s long-range missile capability. To be clear, there is currently no public evidence that Beijing intends to place ASBMs at any of China’s offshore bases or in Chinese-controlled ports across the Indo-Pacific, let alone in the Solomons. But from a military standpoint, strategists understand future threats by analysing capability (which takes years to build) rather than intent (which can change in an instant).
Consider the precedent of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. In March 2015, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying insisted Beijing’s intentions in the islands were peaceful, seeking merely to fulfil China’s international obligations in areas such as maritime search and rescue. Six months later, during a press conference with Barack Obama, Xi Jinping acknowledged that the PLA was building runways and living facilities in the Spratlys but claimed “China does not intend to pursue militarisation”.
These soothing statements were abruptly walked back in 2016 after the discovery of radars and missile emplacements on the islands. By 2018, the PLA had stationed surface-to-air missiles in the Spratlys, along with cruise missiles able to strike ships 545km away, and was staging nuclear-capable H-6 strategic bombers through the islands. Chinese intentions, in other words, were peaceful – until they weren’t.
Beijing’s record of deception and obfuscation in the Spratlys (and elsewhere) suggests capability, rather than stated intent, must guide any threat assessment, especially when it comes to long-range strike assets such as ASBMs. Maps showing the ranges of PLA missiles often portray them as if measured from the outermost edge of mainland Chinese territory; on such maps, the DF-21D’s range appears to extend to northeastern Borneo, while the DF-26 reaches northwestern Papua New Guinea and falls just short of Darwin.
This is unrealistic, of course: the PLA does not deploy missile units right on China’s borders. A more accurate depiction (based on the location of the PLA Rocket Force’s first DF-26 unit, thought to be based in Henan Province) gives a range that reaches Borneo and brushes the Vogelkop on the northwestern tip of Indonesia’s Irian Jaya province.
But ASBMs are not constrained to mainland China. Both launchers and missiles can be shipped in the vehicle deck of a car ferry or amphibious ship. Transported by sea, they could be placed on any Chinese-controlled island or at any of the ports and naval bases China owns or is building across the Indo-Pacific.
These include the harbour at Hambantota in Sri Lanka, the naval base under construction at Ream in Cambodia, the port of Gwadar in Pakistan and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, all of which are Chinese-controlled, while two (Djibouti and Ream) are PLA bases or shared facilities.
Obviously enough, a Chinese base in Solomon Islands could serve the same purpose. Forward positioning could occur openly, or covertly with support from “denial and deception” activities, as during the Soviet deployment of medium-range nuclear missiles by cargo ship to Cuba in 1962.
The PLA has the ability to ship missiles to any Chinese-controlled port facility, then operate them from container-based launchers or from a truck-like system (called a transporter-erector-launcher), with or without the knowledge of the government concerned. A pre-developed pattern of “lily pads” – a network of regional sites set up to receive missiles and launchers when needed – would enable rapid deployment of ASBMs in a crisis or conflict.
The impact of even potential placement of ASBMs would be almost as significant as their actual deployment.
If Solomon Islands became part of a Chinese lily-pad network, the implications would be profound. DF-26s in the Solomons could strike ships anywhere west of Fiji or Tuvalu, south of the Marshall Islands, north of Brisbane, or east of Wewak, in PNG. They could prevent ships leaving Cairns, Townsville and Brisbane, block transit through the Torres Strait, interdict export terminals in Queensland and NSW, and deny movement around Vanuatu, Nauru and New Caledonia. Shipping routes connecting Australia and New Zealand with Asia and the US – which pass through the Solomon Sea, between New Ireland and Bougainville, carrying much of our maritime trade – would be threatened. Australia’s energy imports, critical to every aspect of national life, would be severely impacted, while our ability to protect fibre-optic cables and other offshore infrastructure would be hampered, since naval forces would need to avoid the PLA’s missile bubble.
Such a “sea denial” strategy, employing a web of land-based ASBMs overlaid with cruise missiles, bombers, submarines and surface warships, is exactly the approach China is taking in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. Described recently as an “anti-Navy”, it has changed Washington’s entire risk calculus for deploying naval forces into the region. Naval commanders are now much more cautious about risking fleet units in the area, while analysts, for the first time this year, assessed the US military’s ability to perform assigned tasks in the Western Pacific as “weak”.
China now has ‘more intercontinental ballistic missiles’ than the US
Sky News host Paul Murray says China now has more intercontinental ballistic missiles than America. “They literally have more missiles than the United States,” Mr Murray said.If China applied the same approach off Australia’s northeast coast, this would severely limit Washington’s appetite to assist us in a crisis. In extremis, it could block American or allied reinforcements in a major war, leaving Australia isolated unless we develop the capacity to neutralise it – or, far better, prevent the PLA from putting it into practice.
The impact of even potential placement of ASBMs would be almost as significant as their actual deployment. Merely by creating a sustained presence in the Solomons (say, under the guise of ongoing security assistance) and then resupplying deployed troops with vessels capable of carrying containerised missiles, China would send an important message. The PLA would, in effect, be demonstrating the capacity to interdict maritime movement across an enormous area, excluding American and Australian naval forces from Southwest Pacific. Communicating that capability would allow Beijing to call the shots across the region in political, economic and diplomatic terms. All this suggests that changing China’s calculus should be a high priority in Canberra.
At the strategic level, the tactical and operational implications of Chinese ASBMs are concerning. As far as China is concerned, American strategic ambiguity on Taiwan increasingly looks as if it masks uncertainty, while economic sanctions and technology restrictions (particularly on semiconductors and critical commodities) risk backing Beijing into a corner. US Navy commanders openly talk of a danger window, starting this year and running until 2027, when China will be in the strongest position it will ever reach, relative to the US, and may be tempted to move against Taiwan – an action that would almost certainly provoke a wider war in the Pacific, drawing Australia in.
Australian leaders of all parties would do well to consider the risks involved in continuing to tie Australia so tightly to an alliance partner that is clearly in relative, if not absolute, decline. This does not imply walking away from ANZUS, let alone attempting to play both sides or position ourselves as neutral in a future conflict. After everything that has happened in our relationship with China, this would be unlikely to work, while telegraphing weakness that might only provoke an attack. Rather than rejecting the US alliance, Australian strategists should be realistic about its limits.
The West faces an extraordinary threat from the rise of China but many of our political leaders have dramatically downplayed what is happening in the region. In this special investigation Sky News Australia spoke to intelligence… experts who detailed how we are already in the grips of a cold More
In a crisis over Taiwan, it is entirely possible that Washington might back down from a confrontation. Even if the US were to fight China and win, Australia would likely suffer heavily. And if US forces fought and were defeated, the impact would be even worse.
In any of these cases, Chinese ASBMs in Southwest Pacific – cutting us off from reinforcement and resupply, blockading critical commodities, interdicting our seaborne trade – would pose an existential threat. In May 1942 the US Navy, along with Australian warships and land-based aircraft operating from Townsville, defeated a Japanese invasion fleet in the Battle of the Coral Sea, buying time for Australia to mobilise against the Japanese onslaught and allowing the US to deploy forces to Australia and, in time, mount a counterthrust.
In a future Pacific war, such a battle might never take place if ASBMs had already been pre-positioned in the region. Any battle would involve heavy losses with limited chance of success: US commanders might refuse to risk scarce, critical national assets such as aircraft carriers under those conditions. Even if the US were only temporarily neutralised in the initial phase of a conflict with China, a PLA missile bubble in the Southwest Pacific would mean Australia might need to survive unaided for a considerable time, perhaps years. This perhaps sounds alarmist, but unless Australians understand the stakes, we run the risk of missing the urgency of the problem. Prevention is critical: retaking a regional lily pad, once ASBMs were established, would require the entire ADF and, even with US help, we would likely suffer casualties on a scale unprecedented since 1945.
Nor can we rely on Washington to rescue us – whether American leaders want to help or not, their capacity to do so is clearly declining. Instead, we need to engage partners, now, to develop regional deterrence and a cost-imposition strategy. This alone would not solve the problem but it might buy time for urgently needed military modernisation (including theatre missile defences, our own long-range strike assets, the ability to project joint forces into the region and a capability for stealthy distributed operations).
It would also buy time to improve national resilience across the board, an effort that is crucial given the sharply increasing likelihood of conflict between our most important trading partner and our traditional military and political ally. Seen in this light, China’s pact with Solomon Islands is not simply a matter of economic and political influence but also a matter of firepower, missile ranges and hard-power logic. Given the risks involved, it ought to be a wake-up call for Australia.
This is an edited extract from David Kilcullen’s article Wake-Up Call in Australian Foreign Affairs. Out Monday.
From Vicki’s except on Bonhoeffer and stupidity:
Linked to pressures from the group to conform to and adopt sometimes ludicrous ideas and defend them mercilessly.
Mass formation?
My post above is from today’s Australian & is, I believe, like the late Jim Molan’s book, essential reading.
I find it astonishing, and disconcerting, that, despite all the shrill warnings from defence analysts, the average – even the well educated Australian – seems to underestimate the danger we are facing. China has a window of no more than 4 years when it has the numbers and mechanisms to assume political ascendancy (if need be – through force) in the Pacific.
Wrong.
There was no urgency to arrest Arnold Walker, Rolfey had been told that by his superiors.
He unilaterally took the action he did, so he alone should bear the consequences.
There were outstanding warrants for walker’s arrest on a number of serious complaints, including a prior attack on police. All warrants for arrest are expedient. Walker was a violent thug. He attacked Rolfe and his partner when Rolfe justifiably attempted to implement the arrest warrant.
The only qualifying factor here is walker was an aboriginal; and just as with the fu.king voice which seeks to operate a profound inequality so is it the case with aboriginal criminality where ridiculous exemptions, usually at the expense of aboriginal women and children, are perpetrated.
I suspect your opinions on this issue are genuine crotchless in which case I diagnose your condition as extreme leftism and prescribe a thorough dosing of brain bleach.
Tucker’s warning if Ukraine war continues
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
February 25, 2023 at 3:22 pm
Report to the re-education centre immediately.
To be speared through both thighs?
And both arms, but not the head. No spear could penetrate that.
Carlton …. or more correctly caaarrrtton.
Lead Collingwood by 25 points in the last quarter -only needing a draw to make the eight and the finals.
Lost by a point and cried. Missed the finals but Collingwood into the top 4.
There are some beautiful things in life.
(Sleazy in aresless chaps won’t be one of them).
unless he’s being rogered hard!
Stary must be 66?
Nothing wrong with being a defence lawyer.
Meet ‘terrorist lawyer’ Rob Stary: ‘I don’t judge. I don’t prosecute. I defend
Nothing wrong with being a defence lawyer?
There is when you’re supposed to playing the role of Hizzonna.
Just because you don’t like his decision doesn’t mean it wasn’t correct at law.
MiltonF:
I see we are due for a wave of religious fanaticism according to Heinleins novels which seem to have held up so far…
Hope it’s not too late.
It’ll give me something different to get cranky about…
I don’t want to teach voters a lesson, I want to help voters get a decent Government that manages debt instead of swimming in the ‘other people’s money bin’.
It would be nice if they also preserved the basic ideas of classical liberalism, the rule of law and the distinction between truth and falsehood.
Liberals seem to have been trained by the drive-by media, their university educations and especially our cultural national treasure the ABC, to be at best Labor’s placeholder. In WA they can also hold their AGM in a phone box.
What have you got for me Milton?
Globull warming is a pseudo religion or an ersatz one. With all the fanatics and persecution of ‘heritics’.
Voters in Australia vote against pernicious policies and then get them anyway.
Sometimes it’s better to vote informal which I have done on at least two occasions
Some Labor shill proclaims:
Ed Case says:
Pass the barfbag.
Likewise just because one lone Magistrate (whose decision for very good reason is not called a “judgement” & also for very good reason cannot set legal precent) said “No jury (i.e. no twelve random Victorian normies) would see this as excessive or wrong, so no need to look any deeper” does not mean it is either correct at law, or acceptable to the public.
It sure don’t pass any pub test – I’ll warrant not even in a barrister’s pub.
Chris Minns says:
February 25, 2023 at 4:25 pm
MiltonF: So you’re going to teach voters a lesson. Piss off.
I don’t want to teach voters a lesson, I want to help voters get a decent Government that manages debt instead of swimming in the ‘other people’s money bin’.
Yeah, Chris.
In 3 months time you’ll be doing all the things you said ParrotHead was going to do, but that you would never do.
Pass the sickbag.
In readiness for the eyegasm of fabulousness that is soon to occur (and just so I can get up to speed), what is it that the ghey is so proud of? Clearly there is something motivating the sea of social engineering rhetoric around pride month but the specifics seem to have eluded me.
My university job stopping people opening the doors to a now demolished inflatable building may have left me a little jaded. I lasted 2 weeks.
I suspect that “something” is a lot of people holding potions of influence/power lead double lives. And therefore are “encouraged” by their secret partners to support this depravity- or else.
… positions of influence/power… etc
So Makka, what you’re saying is: Albo’s getting pegged tonight?
Don’t distract Groogs. He’s behind as it is.
On this glorious warm and sunny day, I took myself to the Crookwell Rolling Chrome Car Show. What a great display of motors. Some were restored to immaculate beauty, there were a couple there with their old owners extolling the virtues of their sixty year old cars. Said cars also looked as if they hadn’t had a clean in those sixty years! Though their engines were still revving strong and the dogs in the back were happy.
Then there were all the beauties in between. A magnificent Chevy Impala. When I was seventeen, I went out with a fellow who had just bought an Impala. He said all he needed was a blonde in the front seat. Lucky me! I saw my first ever Torino. I thought it should have had a sign in the window saying “Get off my Lawn!”. 😀
All proceeds went to local Charities.
There was not a single rainbow sticker, flag, pennant or pamphlet to be seen anywhere, not at the car show, not at the shops, not even at the Art Gallery where you would expect such things. The only jarring note today was seeing an Abo flag being flown next to the Aussie flag out the front of what I think may have been a local government building. Nobody else was flying one.
No Drag Queens, no ugly Trannies.
It really is different out here in the country. The locals are too busy fending for themselves to go in for that crap. Also, the filth don’t like venturing any further than Parramatta.
There’s a lot to be said for the old saying, “Go West young man”.
Could well be Frank.
Always look to self interest first.
Too busy to spend much time in Alice Springs, or any other outback towns….BTW, any military type Cats got any thoughts about Service personnel marching in uniform?
After 30 years climbing the Liars greasy pole he should be used to it.
Taxpayers certainly know which end of the pineapple to expect. And they didn’t even ask for an invite to the After Party.
Are they marching to/from a troopship, a “Welcome Home” parade, or an ANZAC Day or other remembrance ceremony?
Look, the Military is chock a block fulla Flamers, always has been.
As a matter of fact, I read that U.S. Marines are known to have Sex Change Ops at 3 Times the rate of men in general.
Although George W Bush being a Male Cheerleader at the University of Texas, that was up there too.
Bragg postures as the ‘friend of the worker’, whilst being a most reliable servant of the Establishment he pretends to revile.
It really is different out here in the country. The locals are too busy fending for themselves to go in for that crap. Also, the filth don’t like venturing any further than Parramatta.
Sure is! The day before yesterday we drove to Newcastle to visit beloved grandson who is studying at Newcastle Uni. That evening he took us to his favourite pub on the waterfront where we had dinner. I looked around at the packed crowd there & became a little emotional. It was “old Australia” that I knew as a kid. Many of you will visualise it well. Up there I guess they are families of coal mining descent and other occupations in the mills. They were all having a great time and there was an excellent band playing songs you understood.
Not a damn rainbow flag or banner in sight!
I’d never heard of the wanker, until he stuck his uninformed & arrogant nose into the finer points of working holiday visas Australia grants to foreigners.
Gary John’s knows a thing or two about ALP machine politics. He explains (in the unlinkable Oz) Uncle Luigi’s plans for The Voice:
In Albanese’s calculus, the politicians doing the deals would be Labor politicians. Coalition politicians would be observers, with no seat at the dealing table.
Labor, grifters, apparatchiks, and Big Men locked in a constitutional ballet; graft for ever and ever, Amen.
And, as Linda Burney says, once the voice is enshrined in the Constitution “they won’t be able to get rid of it, the same as they did ATSIC.”
That’s very cheering.
I don’t think the loonies have the numbers, but they do have the organisation and the fanaticism.
ZK2A, great article on Segouin, thanks!
Agree Dr BG and they’ve manoeuvred themselves into key positions particularly in arts, meja and ejucashun.
And the institutions, and the purse strings of Government, and the boardrooms captured and skinsuits to make Groogs envious… but be of good cheer.
My pleasure, Chris.
The Teals better get their act together on super. I doubt their sugar daddy would be pleased about Doc Chalmers coming after his super. With that said, he might only have a smallish super balance if his money’s tied up in trusts that loan him his income, in which case he may not care. Though I think he’d care about his surrogates maintaining their seats.
The surrogates themselves (and their families) seem the types who would have large super balances, though, so perhaps they may oppose the proposed reforms on self-interest grounds.
Personally, I think super contributions should be tax free and withdrawals taxed at the marginal rates – perhaps with the tax free threshold removed and a flat rate applied for lump sum withdrawals. Seems silly to tax super on the way in. That 15% would be better off compounding over the years until preservation thus making the pie significantly larger, would it not?
Gary John should have a corner named after him on the Road to Damascus.
Vicki,
the Novocastrians are a breed apart. I remember Newcastle in the seventies. Tough people. Quite insular as well, which has been to their advantage. Newcastle’s twin, Wollongong was much the same, but it has become gentrified. The locals are being bought out, new builds that are not sympathetic to Old Wollongong. Like Redfern, the toughness and stoicism has gone, but you’d need a nuclear bomb to separate the people of Newcastle from their independent thinking.
Haven’t been there for decades. Your comment made me think of MarreeS. I wonder how she’s doing. I miss her.
Zulu, great post, but you forgot pictures!
It will be a while before Billy Bragg joins Mental as Anything on the RSL circuit.
Snork! Life in Australia pre 1788.
A different interpretation of Mardis Gras.
I’ve lived and worked in Newcastle and could be talked into moving back there. Sydney never. Great beaches and the wonderful Hunter Valley.
I once saw a docco about Bragg. His mother was interviewed. Turns out Bragg’s background was very, very middle class. Unintentionally funny moment occurred when his mother wondered why he put on that Cockney accent when he sang. Tells you all you need to know about the guy, really. He’s a complete phony.
There seems to be some worry about China invading Oz. Take a drive around Box Hill in Melbourne and stop worrying. The slanty eyed b@stards won’t get off the beaches. They will drive up and down all day while we pick them off. 🙂
I don’t even know who he is thank goodness
It was “old Australia” that I knew as a kid. Many of you will visualise it well. Up there I guess they are families of coal mining descent and other occupations in the mills. They were all having a great time and there was an excellent band playing songs you understood.
Newcastle is very much like that. Where we live it’s full to the brim of Aussies, and not just in our street, it’s mostly all over the area and the city.
When we moved here many decades ago, my parents-in-law came to visit. My FiL went home telling all and sundry that he could live here. When I thought about it, I realised that to him it was like Melbourne in the 40s-50s. Proudly – in the original understanding of that word – full to the brim with industrial, heavy engineering and mining people.
No matter how much they may want to, they can’t get rid of our mines, our coal loaders, the coal trains or us (yet).
The closest Australian equivalent to Billy Bragg is probably Peter Garrett, I’d say.
Old Ozzzie:
A lot of information about the logistic train is written in Victor Suvorovs book “Inside the Soviet Army”
His descriptions of training, supplying, manufacture/naming of the Red Army are an extraordinary reveal of how the West has bought into overly complicated, prone to failure, and expensive systems – all of which benefit the Military Industrial Complex and leave the frontline soldier vulnerable to supply failure.
My late uncle “went droving” out of Alice Springs, in the late 1940’s. He told the story of the Aboriginal camps where the men got first pick of what was being cooked on the fire, the dogs came next, and the women and children “made do” with the scraps..
I have full confidence, in General Camp-Belle and his acolytes, regarding the threats to Australia.
He will of course, take the logical steps, to ensure Australia’s security, namely
1. Ensure adequate presence of troops at the Mardi-Gras.
2. Immediately update the preferred pronoun list, with reference to all possible adversaries.
3. Initiate immediate “truth” telling and smoking ceremonies, for general morale support.
4. Conduct “Pride Awareness” training, at least weekly, at the compulsory tea parties, held at Battalion and Squadron level.
5. Look to add some colour, to our otherwise drab looking uniforms. Perhaps a dash of pink and chartreuse, in the form of a blouse, or scarf, would make them more fetching.
Sleep well Australia, General Camp-Belle has everything under control.
Recently spent 2 years in the upper Hunter, loved it except the winters. Spent half a year back when I left school round Newcastle & the Hunter as well, as a young guy plenty of pubs and ladies to keep me entertained that the establishments still seem to be around in different iterations.
Newcastle is still old school but however is changing. As mentioned above about Wollongong there is a definite move to gentrification. That I did notice, that said I did note many who would fit in the “old school” Australia moving there because of what Sydney is turning into. My mother lives on Lake Mac, still very old Australia there. There may be some hope still.
Comment, from the Oz.
16.2 mm to 9:00 am this morning and another 7.6 mm since.
The thick end of an inch of rain.
Noice drop.
“My late uncle “went droving” out of Alice Springs, in the late 1940’s. He told the story of the Aboriginal camps where the men got first pick of what was being cooked on the fire, the dogs came next, and the women and children “made do” with the scraps..”
Zulu, nothing has changed then.
RD, we’re lucky that we’re a bit further away from the Big Smoke than is Wollongong.
In town, unit blocks are going up but there’s a height limit – can’t be higher than, iirc, 10 storeys, and must not be higher than Christ Church Cathedral, which is a blessing.
Even in those units, there’s mostly Aussies. And the beaches are to die for.
I used to like Billy Bragg when I was in my late teens/early 20s (still do like his older stuff, almost never listen to it though). I went to a gig of his when he played at the old Sandringham pub back in 1999, I think. Crowd was full of champagne socialist types. Bragg lectured us about Aboriginal rights and said the national anthem should be Advance Australia Fair-skinned.
F**k off back to your dreary sh*thole island, limey.
(Forgot comments need to be PG rated now)
I think Midnight Oils position on stuff, especially aboriginal Australia is genuine. It certainly predates a lot of what is occurring lately. Unfortunately it comes across as hypocritical once bands have made it and reside in eastern suburbs mansions. A lot of Australian Crawl stuff was written about the hypocrisy of the Melbournibad society scene.
Frank Brennan, constitutionalist and Voice supporter, is also appalled at Uncle Luigi’s shitty gamesmanship:
(Unlinkable Oz.)
Father Brennan’s wording suggestion for Option 1:
If you took away “and with such other functions as the parliament determines” you’d be getting somewhere…
Bragg is similar to Morrissey. Insufferable.
Situational Accent Appropriation.
See also, Shorten, Bill and Gillard, Julia.
Prim prahvate school and sandstone university accents quickly turned to ’nuffink, somefink and polluders’ when they joined a Labor Law Firm.
Of course, they passed the plum to Geoffrey Robertson who was going in the other direction on his Accent Appropriation transition.
The real danger of the Voice is giving the High Court something new to work with.
Even in those units, there’s mostly Aussies. And the beaches are to die for.
+1000, especially Bar Beach at Merewether which is my favourite.
Midnight Oil preformed in South Africa, just after the election of the Mandela Government, and donated the proceeds to the African National Congress.
You obviously skipped the Slugs & Grubs Induction course.
Agree, I think Garrett is generally sincere. He was somewhat naive in thinking he could effect change within a Labor government. However, when he learnt otherwise, he bailed.
A lot of Midnight Oil’s political positions are respectable.
Always preferred the Hopetown (Hopetoun?). We were more the Beasts of Bourbon types in those days, that music was more suited to the ambience of Surrey Hills. The place where uni students go to die.
Why would any politician, especially the PM who is supposed to represent all of us, would take part in a demonstration by a noisy but small group whose only intention is to show that they are different?
ZK2A:
Disgraceful that the government is allowing cult members to despoil our streets in our nations uniform, under our flag.
Not just the High Court.
Every lower court Mordy will be tying themselves in knots trying to avoid black letter law by reference to Da Voice.
The only one I remember is the constant (Bob Whittaker/Numbers style) hectoring that any ” excess profit” was bad & people who made money were skimming the worker, blah blah blah.
….. then when a push began to reduce Australian CD prices to parity with world prices, or from circa $30 to about half – Oh woweeee, Garret came out swinging, with a list of reasons longer than your arm as to why CDs should remain at $30, blah blah blah.
I’ve always wondered at bruvva Bill’s awfentik accent.
To me, as a filthy furriner, Shorten’s imagined workerspeak makes him sound like he’s from Essex, innit.
The can’t.
Fr Frank Brennan tinkers. He wants “… and with such other functions as the parliament determines.”
I reject his input.
No
There is some footage of Maxine McKew from the 1980s droning on in an accent that would make Robertson sound like a chav.
Queen’s Wharf?
Reckon we walked right under that pub only 2 weeks ago
… and it was roaring like pubs in Old Australia do
To pretend that they are different?
(See Bill ‘Man of the People’ Shorten.)
To be fair, Morrissey also appears sincere in his beliefs. He’s actually pretty based on immigration and Brexit. He’s quite fearless in speaking his mind, even when doing his resulted in him being blacklisted by much of the music industry.
I find him far less insufferable than Bragg. Bragg is a disgustingly shameless pawn of the ruling class.
He does, Christine. He’s obliged to, because he’s part of that machinery.
Which is why his rejection of Albanese’s dishonesty carries water for the No argument.
Morrissey is a truth teller on Islam and Muslim immigration which is why the left loathe him and why they have tried to cancel him. Tis the same with his friend, the writer Julie Burchill, both from working class families who call out progressive lies and bulldust.
Bill’s father was an English merchant seaman?
Maybe he borrowed from that.
He certainly didn’t get it from his mother or the Xavier debating team.
Meant to say, since moving here we’ve both discovered that some of our ancestors first arrived in 1820s Newcastle so we’re both true Novocastrians.
Snap OCO.
Spoken like someone without a ‘higher need’ for that 15%.
(Compensation for cancelling Pahn Class submarines won’t just pay itself, y’know.)
Don’t remember how many times I’ve seen Gone with the Wind. Vivien Leigh is magnificent as the most self centred character ever. Much of the rest of the cast are wooden. She carried it.
especially Bar Beach
Oh, RD, I’m blushing!
Sure is! The day before yesterday we drove to Newcastle to visit beloved grandson who is studying at Newcastle Uni. That evening he took us to his favourite pub on the waterfront where we had dinner. I looked around at the packed crowd there & became a little emotional. It was “old Australia” that I knew as a kid. Many of you will visualise it well. Up there I guess they are families of coal mining descent and other occupations in the mills. They were all having a great time and there was an excellent band playing songs you understood.
Not a damn rainbow flag or banner in sight!
Newcastle is predominantly old school liars. Nuts and bolts graft where the pollies like the Jones and Morris boys did not put on airs and graces. But make no mistake it now has one of the wokest Unis in Australia, a media that is Pravda and is unionised beyond the national average. It also has a lot of drones who revere medibank and all the social services. Tall poppyism abounds and if you want a good pub fight it’s the still the place to be.
Queen’s Wharf
Used to be a favourite of ours for Sunday Seshes or a starter on Friday nights back in the early ’90’s.
Great place.
In the pantheon of rock hypocrites there is Bono and daylight. He is able to move seemlessly between discussing German supermarket investments held in a BVI trust with the accountants and Davos by private jet.
The usual muslim shit:
Jihad Watch
And a bit of optimism from Geller:
Once again, Trump Middle East peace. Everyday a new miracle in the Middle East, because of President Trump’s Abraham Accords. When President Trump is back in office in January 2025, all of Israel’s Arab neighbors will establish full diplomatic relations with Israel.
The only good news is Trump news.
Will defer on this. I literally cannot listen to him or the Smiths. Up there with Sarah Ferguson’s voice, I have to sprint across the room.
I see the latest ratcheting up of Australia’s Shithole Rating involves recruitment of Police from overseas. (Qld).
The issue seems to be that the local inhabitants don’t want to join the Gestapo.
The ultimate definition of failed policing is a police force that is so shit that no one wants to join it.
Can’t wait for Dickhead Dan to cotton on to this idea, an even more partisan Vikpol is at hand!!
All the problems they are trying to fix could be easily fixed, no tax in, no tax on fund earnings, normal marginal rates on withdrawals, including sums left in the fund when the super owner dies and money is disbursed to their heirs.
The first 2 mean more in the pot when you retire, the last means there is no incentive to use it for estate planning.
The new Liars candidate for my state electorate is a ex Newcastle Herald journo. He and his wife were nice, when they doorstopped last week, and I thought at least working as a journo is better than the usual straight from uni to staffer to HoR. But I have no illusions where his politics are: Ncl Herald is unreadable.
Why would any politician, especially the PM who is supposed to represent all of us, would take part in a demonstration by a noisy but small group whose only intention is to show that they are different?
He wants to be buggered?
Diogenes- the problem (then and now) with that is a big hole in tax revenue at re-election time. Deferred benefits for thee but not for me.
That lovely French lady is just great. The world is a poorer place for her passing. The world became a better place because of her. Like those here that served, I appreciate the sacrifice but being wasted on so many that find fault in that service. The physical battle was won. The psychological battle is a long way away. We haven’t had our El Alemein yet.
Becoming doe eyed about Garret is misdirected empathy.
He was simply another totalitarian thug covering his Marxism with a hypocritical gloss of sophistication and false caring.
He didn attempt to tone down Labor, he wanted more radical policy.
Fortunately even Gillard’s PR mob couldn’t cover for his incompetence.
Oh, and couldn’t sing, even though he thought of himself as a Bowie or Jagger.
Heh, I don’t listen to his music! One of his more recent songs is a hot contender for worst lyrics ever:
How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel
Embarrassing that a man in his 50s wrote that. It might be compelling for an angsty yet dim teenager, but that’s it.
Some choice lines include:
Have a listen – it is comically awful.
Richard
43 minutes ago
Cost of living crisis? Yep.
Inflation and interest rates running rampant? Yep.
Electricity supply crisis? Yep.
Angst in the community over socializing superannuation? Yep.
Military unprepared in dealing with a muscled up China? Yep.
Ongoing displacement from major floods? Yep.
Remote indigenous communities in total disarray? Yep.
Racial division over “The Voice”? Yep.
Where’s the Prime Minister?
Marching at Mardi Gras.
He forgot to mention that Australia is only one week of inventory away from an LPG/Petrol/Diesel/Jet supply crisis.
Agree though it makes economic sense and recognises super as just deferred income/consumption. If you thought you would actually receive income tax relief there would be an argument for an increased GST or VAT type tax and reduced welfare churn. The GST experience suggests politicians both Cth and State cannot be trusted to deliver meaningful tax reform.
Outrageous! He should be in Keeeeeeeev paying homage to Saint Zelensky. After all, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is obviously the most important issue facing our country. Even Mitch McConnell and Green Party politician Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, agree on this. We are clearly out of step.
Simone Segouin photos:
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/simone-segouin-18-year-old-french-resistance-fighter-1944/
Rained here overnight, Spanish don’t seem to be early risers, not many having breakfast in the square though it’s a bit chilly still with some promise of a clearing sky.
Churros or tostada for breakfast is the go.
I wouldn’t mind tostada but had tortilla and bread at home, which was the fashionable breakfast in Madrid.
Yesterday at lunch the waiter said my Spanish was good, a fine piece of flattery for my extremely limited vocabulary of four or five word sentences.
He said the same to the Americans at the next table.
At least we try.
H B Bearsays:
February 25, 2023 at 7:32 pm
Agree though it makes economic sense and recognises super as just deferred income/consumption. If you thought you would actually receive income tax relief there would be an argument for an increased GST or VAT type tax and reduced welfare churn. The GST experience suggests politicians both Cth and State cannot be trusted to deliver meaningful tax reform.
Income Tax back to the states, to encourage a bit of J B-P style competition, as occurred with Death Duties.
GST and Excise to fund the limited Commonwealth responsibilities set out in the constitution.
No more room for Commonwealth/state cost shifting.
The level of fanboi in this ABC parade coverage is about what you would expect. No self respect.
Off this week to see my 100 yr old Aunt. I owe her and my Uncle my sanity. With a narcissistic mother and a woose for a father they were the only real people in my life growing up. Stayed with them often. Pity they couldn’t have children.
I find it astonishing, and disconcerting, that, despite all the shrill warnings from defence analysts, the average – even the well educated Australian – seems to underestimate the danger we are facing. China has a window of no more than 4 years when it has the numbers and mechanisms to assume political ascendancy (if need be – through force) in the Pacific.
Australia’s only option, that is viable within the time frame, is to scrap all gun laws and say to Australian’s “have at it”.
1). Fast, no defence procurement involved.
2). Difficult for China to assess the risk to them posed by this change.
3). A potential demonstration of ordinary Australian’s willingness to defend their country (rolling the dice here).
4). Requires absolutely destroying all licensing and registration data, although the CCP almost certainly already has this.
Of course this won’t happen, the Aus Gov Mongs when the invasion starts will be wondering if they will get brownie points from their new masters, for handing over accurate firearm registration and licensing data.
I remember visiting Merida a few years ago where it was suggested that many of the buildings built by the visigoths and Romans were dismantled and sent to Cordoba.
The mesquite cathedral is apparently all built from ‘spolia’ if you look at the columns some are plain and some have delicate carving that definitely look recycled.
Christian symbols were chiselled away from reused fascias etc.
Under the floor of the cathedral they have exposed some of the mosaics of the 5th or 6th century church that was previously on part of the site and there are exhibits of other fragments of fine work found during excavations, some in 2020 and 2021.
There is currently excavation work being carried out in the courtyard where once stood a bishop’s palace.
Every so often there was an an announcement in Spanish and English reminding people they were in a Christian temple and to be respectful.
I know some people love to talk up Cordoba as an islamic masterpiece and the cathedral is amazing, despite being no doubt the work of Christian and other slaves.
It is quite amazing, the outside gives no real hint to the beauty of the interior.
There was a push a while back to give some of these buildings back to their ‘rightful ‘ owners but that seems to have disappeared.
The islamic kingdom of Cordoba survived on looting and slavery.
It’s good that it was overthrown.
Stayed with them often. Pity they couldn’t have children.
Sounds like they have you.
I suspect RPA will be treating lots of mpox cases in a week or so. What’s its incubation period?
The role of the Commonwealth to be reduced to defence, foreign policy, trade and immigration. All else, including the right to levy income tax to the States. The mendicant States can go bust as they please!
Bill the parents for the cost of the rescue….
OK. Just shoot me here.
Sky. in a segment supposedly discussing Little Tony’s lack of transparency on super had Hlderbrand and some ditz called Stephenson. It suddenly became and attack against “them rich oldies” who need to pay their way.
She even announced that she didn’t even know anyone who had $3m. Well nor did I sweetheart when I spent all my money on discos and trips to Surfers”.
We are in so much do do.
Pretty easy to get lost in the Pilbara. Any bozo with a grader can make a road. Often a while before you hit something to tell you you’ve missed a turnoff.
Zulu
The role of the Commonwealth to be reduced to defence, foreign policy, trade and immigration. All else, including the right to levy income tax to the States. The mendicant States can go bust as they please!
International quarantine also.
What did the plod tell the Stations to get them in the search. Been me owning the land and knowing the missing were car thieves I would have informed the plod that the choppers were need of maintenance or the pilot hours were up for the day, sorry.
Good point.
I hope you like your 15m city then
https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/7535051/15-minute-hunter-state-tries-to-plan-us-out-of-our-cars/
“Mate, those choppers don’t run on fresh air. Where do I send the account?”
I’m good, Ive got an extra $100 in cash in a jar, a 3/4 full jerry can and a tin of baked beans…
WE are all watching the left disintegrating and destroying western civilisation as if it is some sort of game, where all you have to do is express disenchantment with the way the game is being played rather than recognise the lethality of what’s being done on so many fronts.
The entire right appears to be standing on its dignity and saying “look at that, it’s outrageous” while the vandals sweep all before them.
Richard Vobes
Cancer burgers are not for me!
You seem to have missed the fact that the Australian Government is NOT on the side of the people.
I see the latest ratcheting up of Australia’s Shithole Rating involves recruitment of Police from overseas. (Qld).
The issue seems to be that the local inhabitants don’t want to join the Gestapo.
Local inhabitants don’t want a job where promotion is by Seniority, retire at 55, gold plated Pension, loaf all day, comped by Maccas?
Go on.
The reason is Diversity, they’ve gotta hire Algerians, Congolese, Tongans, Indians, Uighurs, Nepalese, the list is endless.
Q-Pig could prolly find them here if they looked hard enough, but what the hey.
Import 500/year for the next ten years.
Just remember:
If you call for the cops and get a Diversity hire Somali, don’t tap on the bonnet like that mouthy Aussie sheila in Minneapolis who gotta coupla DumDum bullets in the groin for disrespecting.
Speaking of Newcastle, in the absence of Rabz entertainment thread one of the cities better selections. Screaming Jets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KbLoVKc8dE
I have seen them more than once in venues always good, remember Hot Metal plugging them in the early ’90’s. A mate tried filling Dave Gleeson full of Bundy rum one night when he somehow chose to drink with us in Townsville, certainly was an interesting night. Seemed like a good bloke.
Meme – fantastic
New World Odor™
@hugh_mankind
What do you call a government that demands everyone think the same way and will censor you, cancel you, fire you, and ostracize you if you share a different opinion?
Not exactly inclusive, equitable or liberal is it?
Robert W Malone, MD
@RWMaloneMD
From my recent interview with Brian Rose @LondonRealTV
David Wolfe
@DavidWolfe
Factcheck it!
Megan Sparkles will turn Hazza into a lonely, embittered old man..
Luciferian Humanism: Citing The Genesis Account Is Evil
The Deep State Is Using Cult Tactics to Control the Masses
Three Random Fires Happen at Three Separate Oil Refineries in Mexico on Same Day
Expert Witness Reveals Installed AZ Governor Katie Hobbs Laundered Cartel Money Through Fake Deeds and Mortgages to Rig Elections . . . Including Her Own
Woolworths The Fascist People
Excellent! Your offer is accepted. Here’s a free plane ticket back to California.
If your into WW2 docos this is excellent .. 2 part collection of German home movies & readings from diaries .. not the official stuff but the movies/stills made by ordinary folk and enlisted troops .. I’ve only seen one of the clips before .. a Holocaust execution in Latvia .. quite an insight into everyday life, from 1939 thru 1945 of both soldiers & civilians including Jewish survivors and some who didn’t … includes film(s) from both Germany & occupied territories ….
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11452722/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
February 25, 2023 at 4:54 pm
PM will join hundreds of thousands for Mardi Gras
Too busy to spend much time in Alice Springs, or any other outback towns….BTW, any military type Cats got any thoughts about Service personnel marching in uniform?
Bernard Gaynor did and look what happened to him.
“And then the knife went in” news…
Disgusting. If there is a single incidence of a police officer being disciplined for Batflu brutality, I haven’t heard of it.
James Campbell in the Hun:
At first glance, the government’s sudden and unexpected decision to open debate on taxing super looks like a re-run of its aborted attempt to chop the Stage 3 tax cuts.
As you will recall, Treasurer Jim Chalmers surprised us last October by making it clear he was up for “a conversation” about these legislated measures, despite a clear commitment from Labor six months earlier they would be left alone.
That conversation ended a few days later when the Prime Minister effectively told him to shut up.
Now as we head into pre-budget season Chatty Jim is back again, this time floating the idea that people with a few million in their superannuation accounts ought perhaps to be paying some income tax on the money they draw out of them.
As with the Stage 3, Labor made a clear promise that if it came to government it would leave these arrangements alone.
So will this end the same way? Unlikely.
While senior government ministers are at pains to state no decision has been taken, it’s clear at this stage they plan to press on.
“I don’t think we’re going to shut down the conversation,” is the blunt assessment of one Cabinet minister.
Another thinks that, having begun another debate of its own choosing, the government can’t afford another walk away.
“This is not unwinnable for us, I’d have thought we have to go through with it.”
The reason why this is so is obvious: the numbers.
For although the majority of the money in the Stage 3 tax cuts go to people on higher incomes – as is always the case – as they are currently legislated everyone on an income of more than $45,000 gets something.
On the other hand, the mooted changes to superannuation taxation touch hardly anyone.
If the threshold for tax were to be set at $5 million it would capture 14,000 people, if it were set at $3 million that would only rise to 32,000.
It won’t have escaped their attention either that, with the exception of Higgins in Melbourne, the majority of the seats with the most to lose are held by the Teals.
It’s not a risk-free exercise, of course.
In addition to the heat they have to wear over what is quite clearly a broken promise, even one that was only made to 32,000 people, there is the danger the Opposition succeeds in convincing people that this is only the beginning and your super isn’t safe in Labor’s hands.
Given these tax changes are only likely to raise $1 billion a year, some Liberals are wondering why the government is prepared to run that risk.
Critically, the Prime Minister is making it clear privately he sees the two debates very differently.
They might both be broken promises but the commitment to Stage 3 was well-ventilated in front of the voters before the election, whereas the tax rate of millionaires in their retirement was very much a niche issue.
There’s another reason the government thinks it can get away with these tax changes – the level of government debt.
The argument we are going to hear a lot more is that, having been left with $1 trillion in debt, Labor has no choice but to find money from somewhere to start paying it back.
Ministers believe the higher interest rate environment will help it to prosecute this argument.
“(If) people have a greater sense of what debt means to them, they will have a greater sense of what it means for the government,” a cabinet minister said.
Sure, expenditure is growing, the government will say, but look it’s only on worthy things like improving aged care, the NDIS and defence, which one of these would the Coalition like to cut?
If the government were only looking at changing the tax rates of a few thousand millionaire retirees, I would say they had a pretty good chance of winning the argument.
But that’s not all it’s doing.
The decision to set a tax hare running follows on from the earlier decision to open a conversation about whether super funds should be directed into nation building projects.
What exactly all these nation building projects might be hasn’t been made clear, though Chalmers has floated the idea that money might be used to “boost housing supply, manage climate change and spur digital transformation”.
Worthy objectives all of them, but not necessarily compatible with seeking the highest rate of return.
Indeed a cynic might wonder why, if these are all such winners, why the government feels the need to insert itself into this gold rush.
That it is alive to this danger was suggested by the fact Chalmers’ assistant Stephen Jones told the AFR this week “the first, second, and third objective of super funds is the best financial interest of the members. But if we can make housing or infrastructure investment stack up, what do we have to do to work in partnership?”
What indeed! On the compatibility of those objectives a lot is going to hinge. Far more than the tax rates of a few millionaires.
I looked around at the packed crowd there & became a little emotional. It was “old Australia” that I knew as a kid. Many of you will visualise it well. Up there I guess they are families of coal mining descent and other occupations in the mills. They were all having a great time and there was an excellent band playing songs you understood.
This morning my sister picked me up at 11.00 a.m. then shortly afterwards we collected my mother. Both my mother and I live in Sydney’s inner city. My sister lives in the outer inner west (near Strathfield). The reason she drove in was to collect us so that we could drive down to the Shire to visit some relatives. As soon as we left the inner city, the LGBTQI+ flags and “Pride” banners and all the rest of the LGBTQI+ Pride crap began to disappear….very quickly, the difference was so noticeable. It was a tale of two cities. I knew I was leaving Sydney’s inner city queer cocoon and journeying into real Australia. Sitting in the backseat, driving down along Botany Bay, I saw no Pride banners, no LGBTQI+ rainbow flags, nothing, I just saw ordinary Australians of various multicultural backgrounds walking to the beach, sitting in cafes and so on. We crossed Captain Cook bridge and my mother and I had an argument as to when it was built. I said 1967, she said 1970, I said “no Mum, don’t be ridiculous, I remember how every Saturday we’d drive down to have lunch with my grandparents and we’d always drive across the Captain Cook bridge, this was in the late 1960s”. My sister settled the bickering by saying “look up Google”, so sitting in the backseat I did just that, the bridge was opened in 1966. My mother and my father are both “indigenous” to the Shire, as I am. My mother gave birth to me at St Margaret’s Hospital in Darlinghurst and for the first three years of my life I lived in a unit with mum and dad on the Kingsway Cronulla, with both grandparents living nearby in Cronulla also. My parents couldn’t wait to move to Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, I think to get away from the insular Shire where everybody knew everybody. Anyway, as usual I digress (apologies, I’m good at that).
We collected our two relatives who now live in Gymea. They’d made a lunch reservation at the “Gymea Tradies Club”. LOL, having lived in the Eastern Suburbs for too long, I thought to myself, crikey, what am I in for. You couldn’t have chosen a venue a million miles away from anything in inner-city Sydney. But I enjoyed it, the food was good, the drinks were cheap, and I was surrounded by real ordinary Australians, and as Vicki so eloquently said above, “whilst sitting in the club I looked around at the packed crowd and I too became a little emotional. It was the “old Australia”, the Australia I knew as a kid”.
But you want to know what was so refreshing? There was not one LGBTQI+ flag or Pride flag anywhere. Nobody wearing Pride colours. Nothing, nada, zilch. My mother and my sister also commented on this fact. Why not? Because we were in real Australia. Sydney’s inner-city is not real Australia. Tonight our PM intends to disgracefully participate in a very political, provocative and overtly sexual march that ninety percent of Australians want nothing to do with. And nor am I at my place in Sydney’s east tonight. I’m staying at my sister’s place, far away from LGBTQI+ land, far away from Prideland, far away from Mardi Gras.
I’m told you shouldn’t engage in too much nostalgia because it’s an indulgence but given the country we now live in, please forgive my indulgence. Tonight I’m watching The Sound of Music, for about the fortieth time, it remains sweet, beautiful, innocent, and it takes me to a place far away from LGBQTI+, from Pride and from Mardi Gras.