Open Thread – Tue 14 March 2023


Extreme Unction, Nicolas Poussin, 1646


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Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 1:03 pm

HMAS Shampoo
HMAS Duck Bum
HMAS Carbon Tax
HMAS Altona
HMAS Widows and Orphans
HMAS Awura
HMAS Musselman
HMAS Slipper
HMAS Slapper

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
March 15, 2023 1:04 pm

Keating ranting and raving on Sky News. Funny to watch.

Lots of “ya know” because he can’t articulate followed by a pause as he tries to remember – then responds to a prompt from the interviewer.

Winding up french clocks and simmering in bile has lead to senility.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 1:07 pm

Dr F

Non-clown Australia would already have a full-cycle nuclear industry – complete with complex reactor disposal facilities.

Remind leftards that RFX Connor, Minister for Minerals and Energy in the Whitless government, wanted to develop the full nuclear fuel cycle in Australia. Mining, processing, building reactors and fuel rods, re-processing of spent fuel, disposal of waste. The younger ones won’t believe a word you say.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
March 15, 2023 1:07 pm

Feds’ Foreign-Corruption Double Standard: They Protected Bidens Even as They Bore Down on Trumpworld

By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations – March 15, 2023

At the same time that Department of Justice officials were using spying and corruption statutes to aggressively pursue Donald Trump’s allies based on what turned out to ?be rumor and innuendo, they declined to use those same laws to investigate evidence of wrongdoing involving Biden family members and one of ?their corrupt Chinese business partners, DOJ documents and federal court records reveal.

In 2016-2017, the evidence shows, the FBI raided the offices and intercepted the communications of Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, ?a Chinese national agents suspected of espionage even as he was negotiating business deals with former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and brother James.

DOJ later used information obtained from the searches and wiretaps – which included conversations with the current President’s son and brother – to convict Ho of bribery and money laundering, as part of a separate corruption case involving United Nations officials. But it declined to tap into its trove of evidence – including “over 100,000 emails” – to explore the connections between Ho and the Bidens, who received millions of dollars from Ho and a Chinese intelligence front and discussed sharing office space.

At Ho’s 2018 trial, prosecutors? hid Hunter’s connection to Ho, redacting his name from court exhibits (see sidebar) while describing Ho as “the person who flies around the world paying bribes to advance the interest of the oil company [CEFC? China Energy],” according to hearing transcripts.

A federal database shows the Bidens failed to register as foreign agents while engaged in activities on behalf of CEFC, a state-owned entity? suspected of being a front for Chinese intelligence.? Federal anti-spying laws require anyone acting as a lobbyist for a foreign power to register with ?the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

The DOJ did not prosecute either Biden family? member for potential violations of FARA for representing the interests of the Chinese.

This stands in stark contrast to the DOJ’s ?aggressive pursuit of alleged FARA violations involvingno fewer than six Trump campaign officials. In August of 2016, shortly after receiving a tip that a low-level Trump campaign volunteer, George Papadopoulos, had allegedly been told that the Russians might have dirt on Hillary Clinton, the bureau opened FARA investigations into Papadopoulos and three other Trump associates with no clear ties to Papadopoulos: national security adviser Michael Flynn; campaign manager Paul Manafort; and campaign adviser Carter Page. The FBI subsequently investigated Manafort’s deputy Rick Gates; and Trump’s Mideast adviser Walid Phares under the same statute.

As RCI has previously reported, the FBI used FARA as the basis for a wide-ranging probe that included tailing them, staking out their homes, digging through their trash, and using confidential sources to secretly record them. Only one of the six was convicted for FARA-related violations, and none was charged with any espionage or conspiracy crimes involving Russia.

“It’s 100% a double standard, and it’s absolutely corrupt to the core,” former assistant FBI director Chris Swecker told RCI. “And meanwhile, [current ?FBI Director] Chris Wray fiddles.”

Other veterans of the bureau say the Obama and Biden administrations have politicized and weaponized FARA.

“Starting in 2016, the Obama-Biden administration used FARA and the criminal justice system as tools to attack and eliminate the opposition,” said ?27-year FBI veteran Michael Biasello, adding that many of the same officials are “back in charge and making sure those tools won’t be turned on?themselves.”

An FBI spokeswoman said the agency had no comment on why it did not apply the foreign lobbying law equally. The Justice Department did not return requests for comment.

Ho and Hunter:
A Lucrative Relationship

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 1:09 pm

Robert Sewellsays:
March 15, 2023 at 12:39 pm
Black Ball:

It’s much more expensive than renewable energy firmed up with batteries and pumped hydro. We just don’t need it in this country. It’s very expensive and it will put up power prices.

And this is why I think the country is stuffed.
Lies, wrapped in stupidity, encased in political and economic armour that would stop a ten ton projectile travelling at 99% of the speed of light.

To a degree, Conroy is correct. We have plenty of coal and gas. But if they are out, and we want reliable, continuous electricity, nuclear is the only remaining answer.

Kneel
Kneel
March 15, 2023 1:09 pm

“And on remakes – it’s sad watching good solid old tales remodelled into imbecility .”

With the exception of “The Italian Job”, which was very well done. Not the same story (original was theft at end, remake was theft at start), so maybe doesn’t count as a remake, more like a sequel. Either way, better than most such attempts.

Top Ender
Top Ender
March 15, 2023 1:10 pm

The Prime Minister wants to recruit seven of the country’s most important sports codes, including the National Rugby League, to co-ordinate support for the Indigenous voice to parliament in the lead-up to this year’s referendum. If he succeeds, Australian sport risks being poisoned, because the matter will force a collision between a great pastime and identity politics.

Oz

shatterzzz
March 15, 2023 1:13 pm

Well that’s alright then ! .. wasted an RC to get to this point .. kill a few, put several hundred thousand thru hell but express sadness & regret ….POLITICS 101 ..
I’m guessin’ he ain’t considering donating his pension to a fund to aid those who suffered …..
Personally, I was thinkin’ a gaol cell for several years to “reflect” might be a better option …..

Former prime minister Scott Morrison has apologised for the damage caused by the unlawful robodebt scheme.
While expressing his regret – Mr Morrison stopped short of labelling the scheme immoral.
“It’s totally regrettable and it’s a very sad thing that has occurred,” Mr Morrison said.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
March 15, 2023 1:14 pm

The Biden Justice Department Stands Accused of Hiding This Evidence of Biden-China Corruption

Above, Gal Luft, who says he was detained in Cyprus “on a politically motivated extradition request” in a bid to “bury me to protect Joe, Jim, and Hunter Biden.”

By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations
March 15, 2023

The Justice Department is not disclosing to the public or Congress links between President Biden’s son Hunter and brother James and a corrupt Chinese government agent who doled out millions of dollars in bribes. It has scrubbed the connections from court documents and is suggesting it doesn’t have evidence clearly in its possession.

In addition, the department appears to be trying to silence another disreputable partner from coming forward to tell what he knows about the Bidens’ Chinese connection.

In 2016, FBI counterespionage agents began collecting voluminous evidence against Chinese national Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, who was suspected of paying off officials and their families around the world in exchange for oil rights for a China-based energy conglomerate he represented which has ties to Chinese military intelligence.

From emails, text messages, phone calls, bank records, and other evidence gathered from wiretaps and searches of Ho’s offices in D.C. and New York, investigators discovered that Hunter Biden and his uncle James were targets of Ho and CEFC China Energy, which had struck up a business partnership with the Bidens. The deal, sealed in 2017, netted the Bidens almost $6 million for unspecified work, at least $1 million of which was paid directly by Ho.

DOJ prosecutors were able to indict and convict Ho in 2018 under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for his role in a bribery scheme aimed at former United Nations and African officials. Though the evidence also potentially implicated the Bidens, who failed to register as foreign agents of CEFC, prosecutors did not pursue charges against them.

Republican congressional leaders investigating Biden influence-peddling say the DOJ is actively covering up the illicit connection. Here’s how:

Failing to Turn Over
Surveillance Evidence

Despite Senate Judiciary Committee requests, DOJ refuses to turn over Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act materials the FBI used to spy on Ho in 2016 and 2017. DOJ claims the FISA information may not even exist.

But the FISA applications and material do exist — according to a sworn acknowledgement by former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who prosecuted the Ho case.

The Justice Department allegedly has suppressed leads provided investigators years ago on the Bidens related to CEFC by a former CEFC consultant close to both Ho and Hunter Biden.

DOJ is seeking the extradition of the tipster Gal Luft, a former senior adviser to CEFC China Energy who was arrested last month in Cyprus for charges tied to the illegal export of arms to China.

However, Luft maintains he’s “never been an arms dealer” and that the real reason the Biden administration wants to bring him into custody is to silence him from cooperation with congressional investigations into Hunter’s business dealings with CEFC and other Chinese entities.

Luft said he met with FBI and DOJ investigators in 2019 and gave them incriminating information on Hunter, but they did not pursue the leads he gave them. His lawyers recently told DOJ he plans to submit a letter to Congress detailing statements he made in that interview.

“DOJ is trying to bury me to protect Joe, Jim & Hunter Biden,” Luft claimed in a Feb. 18 tweet. He threatened to “name names” of department officials whom he says are trying to cover for the Bidens.

It was also in 2019 that the FBI was given a copy of Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive by a Delaware computer repairman several months after the younger Biden abandoned the device there. The laptop contains numerous documents featuring Ho, CEFC Energy Fund and its U.S.-based subsidiary, the China Energy Fund Committee, which Ho ran from D.C. FBI whistleblowers have told Congress that their supervisors in Washington suppressed the laptop evidence and even claimed, falsely, it was Russian “disinformation.”

Withholding Other Non-Laptop Evidence

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
March 15, 2023 1:15 pm

REVEALED: Only ONE member of failed SVB’s board had a career in investment banking – and the rest were Obama, Clinton mega-donors who ‘grieved’ when Trump won including one who went to Shinto shrine ‘to pray’

. Tom King, 63, was the only member of the Silicon Valley Bank board who had experience in investment banking
. The others were major Obama and Clinton mega-donors, including one who cried when Trump won in 2016
. The board is now being investigated for its failure to act ahead of the bank’s collapse, as some argue it was too focused on being woke

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
March 15, 2023 1:16 pm

BJ.
Your comment about RoboDebt kind of got me thinking.
Obviously it was a cock-up of massive proportions. Simplistically, the main problem seemed to be mismatching “social security periods” (fortnights or months) and “taxable income periods” (financial years), and using some pretty dumb analysts to design the code (no doubt at $500/hr, and $2,000 for partners).
It seems that they could have triangulated PAYG tax remittances, SGC contributions, social security benefits and job codes on the personal tax return to come up with targets for audit/enquiry.
Not to raise an automatic debt.

shatterzzz
March 15, 2023 1:17 pm

The Prime Minister wants to recruit seven of the country’s most important sports codes, including the National Rugby League, to co-ordinate support for the Indigenous voice to parliament in the lead-up to this year’s referendum. If he succeeds, Australian sport risks being poisoned, because the matter will force a collision between a great pastime and identity politics.

Wise man, Luigi! .. I can just see full page/screen adverts of Latrine (the) Goodes smilin’ face imploring a YES vote being thoroughly appealing to the, undecided, vote-herd …….!

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 1:24 pm

Why bother having a family at all?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-64959611

Just have some kids, give them to the government and consume, work until you die to pay off public debt incurred to pay for your kids childcare – who don’t talk to you.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
March 15, 2023 1:25 pm

Their ABC finds An Expert in love with Doctor Chalmers:

Jim Chalmers has announced changes to superannuation tax concessions. Could capital gains tax be next?

Why, yes. Yes, it could be.

Via quarterly, mark to market taxation:

That’s the simple approach Chalmers has now taken to valuing super fund income for the purpose of imposing the 15 per cent surcharge on high balances, as announced a fortnight ago.

Rather than taxing capital gains only when assets are sold (as will still happen for the bulk of what’s in super accounts), the surcharge will be calculated by applying a 15 per cent tax rate to the increase in the value of the relevant part of each fund. Super funds are already valued quarterly.

Simple.
Although it will permanently change the value of capital assets.
And cause interesting liquidity problems.
And provide another income stream to advisers, accountants, and bureaucrats.

Chalmers isn’t talking about doing it more broadly. But what he is doing shows it would be fairly easy.

Go on. You know you want to.
Those submarines and Voices won’t just fund themselves you know.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
March 15, 2023 1:25 pm

Huge bill shock with electricity prices set to surge by a staggering 31% in one Australian state – and you won’t believe the NSW Energy Minister’s “Green” Kean Liberal’s gibberish in response

. Electricity prices set to soar in NSW, Qld, SA
. NSW energy minister “Green” Kean Liberal issues bizarre statement
. Power shortages forecast as coal plants shut

Despite this NSW Energy Minister “Green” Matt Kean Liberal insisted on Tuesday night that the Coalition government was ‘putting downward pressure’ on electricity bills by ‘firming’ new renewable power infrastructure in a baffling media release.

For the hardest hit areas of NSW, households could see their energy bill increase by up to $463 while small businesses will see their bills rise by up to $858.

This comes despite a promise by Mr Kean to reduce energy prices by $130 for households and $430 for businesses this year.

Mr Kean on Tuesday announced a tender process would begin next month for ‘firming infrastructure’ to keep the lights on in NSW – in a statement loaded with jargon and technical discussion of an electricity price ‘roadmap’.

Firming infrastructure means putting back-up sources in place to keep power supplied to the grid when intermittent renewable energy, such as wind and solar, lapses due to weather conditions.

Gas generators fuelled by renewable hydrogen or biogas are the planned alternative source of power generation in NSW but they will not come online until 2025.

With the state preparing to shutter two of its biggest coal plants – Liddell in the Hunter Valley this month and Eraring on the Central Coast by 2025 – the energy market operator has warned of power shortages.

AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman said reliability gaps will begin to emerge in all mainland states and steadily worsen up until 2027.

However, Mr Kean insists his government has a comprehensive strategy to ensure households and businesses across NSW have access to reliable and affordable electricity.

‘In the short term we are delivering $250 off families’ energy bills if they shop around for a better deal,’ Mr Kean said in his statement. Has “Green” Kean Liberal ever heard of BillHero

‘In the long-term we are transforming our grid with our Roadmap, which will drive in at least 12 gigawatts of new renewable generation and two gigawatts of storage as our coal generators come offline.’

Mr Kean said the project will generate 380 megawatts of power on demand, which is a small fraction of what the state needs with the loss of Liddell and Eraring.

The closure of Eraring, Australia’s largest fossil fuel power plant, will be seven years earlier than previously planned after a surprise decision by owner Origin.

The intended green energy replacements have both announced serious delays.

A gas plant being built in the town of Kurri Kurri is a year behind schedule.

Meanwhile there have been major questions over the $6billion Snowy 2.0 hydrogen/hydro project that is intended to act as a major power back-up to renewables.

Originally announced by the Malcolm Turnbull-led Coalition Government in 2017, it was supposed to have been finished in 2021 but this has been pushed out to December 2027.

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
March 15, 2023 1:28 pm

Received electricity bill this am. Exactly 22% increase on this time last year.

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 1:28 pm

Can I make up an unlawful scheme too?

Can I create code to automatically create fraudulent debts by reckless means?

Until government lives under the same rules as the governed, it will be out of control.

shatterzzz
March 15, 2023 1:29 pm

Sancho Panzersays:
March 15, 2023 at 1:16 pm
BJ. Your comment about RoboDebt kind of got me thinking.

That’s pretty close to the nuts & bolts of it .. advisors/program writers just got too clever, took shortcuts to make it easier and didn’t see/care about the consequences .. if you look at averaging, logically, being on the dole for 9 months and working the other 3 months would thru averaging the 12 month period put you in debt .. the odds are you’d earn as much/more in those three months than the previous 9 months ..
What is really worrying is that none of these 6 figure salary public serpents saw it …….. and the political leadership equates to party hacks on ridiculous salaries without much expertise or interest in the workings of their depts. let the public serpents run things unchallenged ………!

rickw
rickw
March 15, 2023 1:29 pm

Personally, I was thinkin’ a gaol cell for several years to “reflect” might be a better option …..

Pretty much the whole of Australian politics and the entirety of the bureaucracy needs this.

A Great Reset.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 1:31 pm

Sancho Panzersays:
March 15, 2023 at 1:16 pm
BJ.
Your comment about RoboDebt kind of got me thinking.
Obviously it was a cock-up of massive proportions. Simplistically, the main problem seemed to be mismatching “social security periods” (fortnights or months) and “taxable income periods” (financial years), and using some pretty dumb analysts to design the code (no doubt at $500/hr, and $2,000 for partners).
It seems that they could have triangulated PAYG tax remittances, SGC contributions, social security benefits and job codes on the personal tax return to come up with targets for audit/enquiry.
Not to raise an automatic debt.

Re your final para, I suspect that, in theory, the necessary data could have been provided to an AI system. However, the security and privacy implications are such that I don’t think that it should be.

Targeted audits/enquiries are the way to go, triggered by an AI referral. They could provide lots of work for lawyers and accountants made redundant by AI systems.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
March 15, 2023 1:32 pm

Keating’s arrogance and bile is beautiful to watch.

He’s like the crazy loony uncle.

rickw
rickw
March 15, 2023 1:32 pm

Received electricity bill this am. Exactly 22% increase on this time last year.

What % increase and how many blackouts are required to wake up Australia?

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 1:35 pm

Dot

Until government lives under the same rules as the governed, it will be out of control.

Now, that’s a Constitutional amendment I could get behind and push hard.

rickw
rickw
March 15, 2023 1:36 pm

He’s like the crazy loony uncle.

Just remember it’s you turn to sit next to him this Christmas!

shatterzzz
March 15, 2023 1:43 pm

What % increase and how many blackouts are required to wake up Australia?

problem is we (vote-herd) have no say in any gummint decisions .. all we get is a load of waffle/promises leading up to an election and the following day everything changes to suit the “elected” knowin g they have 4 years full-on troughin’ before the next lot of BS promises ……. basically, the system is f***ed! .. there is no trigger for accountability when politicians ignore/reverse or just make it up once in office and on the public dime ..!

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
March 15, 2023 1:43 pm

Received electricity bill this am. Exactly 22% increase on this time last year.

What % increase and how many blackouts are required to wake up Australia?

It irritates me no end that there were no blackouts in summer several years ago, last 2 summers have been mild as far as I’m concerned (and I dislike the heat), but before that we wobbled through the year not quite getting a major blackout. Also, I wish the South Australian storm recently where the pylons fell
had been more long-lasting. WE NEED A DECENT BLACKOUT NOW !!

Diogenes
Diogenes
March 15, 2023 1:46 pm

Received electricity bill this am. Exactly 22% increase on this time last year.

Being in an over 50s village we buy our power from the park owners, we are on a fixed price until the beginning of 2025(!) at a ridiculous 10.x cents/kWh for peak and 5.x cents/kWh off peak.

Because of the solar panels, our bill for January was $4.96 – yes 4 cents shy of $5.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
March 15, 2023 1:47 pm

Gas generators fuelled by renewable hydrogen or biogas are the planned alternative source of power generation in NSW but they will not come online until 2025.

Not a single blush in him:

Snowy Hydro chairman David Knox has admitted that the delayed Kurri Kurri power plant in the Hunter Valley will completely rely on natural gas when it first starts up and will not be able to use green hydrogen because it is not available.

Not hyperbowl or exaggeration: this is exactly how government energy policy is developed and implemented in Australia – because that is exactly what we are seeing here, in its unfiltered ugliness.

In other areas, some ministerial minion would be out and about to smooth over the cockups, explaining that the Minister ‘misspoke’. But he didn’t misspeak – the whole show is in thrall to Unicornism.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
March 15, 2023 1:52 pm

One c-word after another on show here.

**********

Aussie Cossack:

The Australian Senate is infested with pro-Ukrainian foreign influence. Senators are pushing for more Australian involvement in war against Russia. Liberal, Labor, Nationals & Greens all blindly support more weapons, money and troops for Zelensky. There is no opposition in tr senate, no discussion, no debate, no scrutiny and no questioning the decisions to send Australia to war.

Who voted for this??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFqlHOcbqJw

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
March 15, 2023 2:00 pm

Great rant from the Rev. I largely agree.

**********

Reverend Simon Sideways:

I would ban music and film promoting gratuitous violence, dumb kids fall for it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3HlCvT-5hc

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
March 15, 2023 2:05 pm

The Mahler and Empire-clock loving failed PM doesn’t say what he would do instead though.

How many boards of Chinese banks does the old fool sit on?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
March 15, 2023 2:09 pm

ACT DPP Shane Drumgold hires top NSW silk Mark Tedeschi KC ahead of Lehrmann inquiry
EXCLUSIVE
By KRISTIN SHORTEN
Investigative Journalist
@itsKShort
12:18PM March 15, 2023

Zach Rolfe’s barrister and the crown prosecutor who put away serial killer Ivan Milat will play key roles in the upcoming Board of Inquiry into the handling of Brittany Higgins’ rape claim.

The Australian can reveal that ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC has hired Sydney silk Mark Tedeschi KC to represent him at the inquiry while Steven Whybrow SC – who represented Bruce Lehrmann at his aborted rape trial – has hired Adelaide silk David Edwardson KC.

Mr Edwardson successfully represented Northern Territory police officer Zach Rolfe in Darwin last year where, after a five-week trial, the young cop was found not guilty of murdering Indigenous man Kumanjayi Walker during a 2019 arrest at Yuendumu.

Mr Edwardson, of Adelaide’s Bar Chambers, is in high demand across the country for his expertise in serious and complex criminal trials and appeals.

He has appeared in many high profile cases over the last 15 years including the successful defence of former Western Australian barrister and Crown prosecutor Lloyd Rayney against police who were convinced he had murdered his wife Corryn.

The Australian can also reveal that ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates has hired Sydney barrister Tim Game SC from Forbes Chambers to represent her at the inquiry.

Ms Higgins alleged Mr Lehrmann raped her in Senator Linda Reynolds’ ministerial office in the early hours of March 23, 2019 after a night out drinking with colleagues in Canberra.

After she went public with her story to the media, Mr Lehrman was charged with sexual intercourse without consent.

The 28-year-old’s Supreme Court trial, before ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum, was sensationally aborted in October due to juror misconduct and immediately set down for retrial in February.

But in December Mr Drumgold announced he would not prosecute the case again due to the impact it would have on Ms Higgins’ mental health.

He said that while he still believed the evidence offered a reasonable prospect of conviction, he did not believe it was in the public interest to proceed with the prosecution.

Mr Tedeschi, Mr Drumgold’s barrister at the inquiry, was New South Wales’s Senior Crown Prosecutor for 21 years before resigning in 2018 and returning to private practice at Wardell Chambers on Elizabeth St.

During his time as the state’s most senior prosecutor the 71-year-old ran a number of high profile cases including those of Ivan Milat, Kathleen Holbigg and Gordon Wood.

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 2:19 pm

It’s remarkable. Not pay a small amount of tax (without any intent) and you can get hauled before ACIC.

A Director of Public Prosecutions can know about a complainant committing perjury in her giving of statements and he can clam up, play victim and cry out how hard done by his lot in life is.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
March 15, 2023 2:19 pm

Keating at the press club today.
I think the even the journos are just about finished with this piece of shit after an hour of abuse and dissembling about his Chinese connections.

pete of perth
pete of perth
March 15, 2023 2:32 pm

Healesville is a nice town. So clean after a week in the Melbourne CBD squaller. Visited the 4 pillars distillery.

Frank
Frank
March 15, 2023 2:39 pm

Person recovers from cold within days, call the papers!!

Sort of like the overwhelming majority of people that catch covid and just get over it. Someone should tell the papers about that one.

Roger
Roger
March 15, 2023 2:43 pm

The Prime Minister wants to recruit seven of the country’s most important sports codes, including the National Rugby League, to co-ordinate support for the Indigenous voice to parliament…

Of course Big Sport will comply enthusiastically.

They won’t even see the problem in being co-opted thus by government.

Soft fascism is our new polity.

flyingduk
flyingduk
March 15, 2023 2:47 pm

Received electricity bill this am. Exactly 22% increase on this time last year.

As noted above, that matches my Shannons bill increase near perfe tly, again indicating a real world inflation rate of 22%.

Against that, note the official interest rate of 3.6% and muse how much more ‘upside risk’ to go.

Cassie of Sydney
March 15, 2023 2:52 pm

it’s not that many years ago that Eddy’s boy, Arfur (Sinodinos) fronted an enquiry into some rip-off or other (another enquiry that went nowhere .. as they all do!) and stated that when he ran Sydney Water for the Obeids he couldn’t remember what he got paid the $A500K a year to do! ..”

Sinodinos may have his faults but I think it’s a stretch to call him “Eddy’s boy”. Oh and ICAC made no adverse findings against Sinodinos.

132andBush
132andBush
March 15, 2023 3:00 pm

Given the amount of seamen subs have in them I’m surprised someone hasn’t made a (frankly quite tasteless) joke about calling the first one the HMAS Christopher Pyne.

I don’t want to be the first.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 15, 2023 3:01 pm

An 80-year old man was having his annual check-up and the doctor asked him how he was feeling.

“I’ve never been better!” he boasted. “I’ve got an eighteen year old bride who’s pregnant and having my child! What do you think about that?”

The doctor considered this for a moment, then said “Let me tell you a story. I knew a guy who was an avid hunter. He never missed a season. But one day, he went out in a bit of a hurry, and he accidentally grabbed his umbrella instead of his gun”. The doctor continued “So he was in the woods, and suddenly a grizzly bear appeared in front of him! He raised up his umbrella, pointed it at the bear and squeezed the handle. And do you know what happened?” the doctor queried.

Dumbfounded, the old man replied “No”. The doctor continued “The bear dropped dead in front of him!” “That’s impossible!” exclaimed the old man. “Someone else must have shot that bear”.

“That’s kind of what I’m getting at” replied the doctor.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 15, 2023 3:02 pm

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

– William Shakespeare

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 15, 2023 3:05 pm

Where to Go?

“A lot of people have been asking where to go, what bank is safe, and what’s next? This is by no means over. The fiscal mismanagement is off the charts and we have a major clash with the Marxist views of the Democrats who always want to punish the rich and then ask them for funding. Only in the Democratic Party can you have a $ 10,000-a-plate fundraiser and preach how evil inequality is and that the rich must be held accountable.

Those who keep calling for a gold standard are clueless. To have a return to balanced budgets means that the Democrats will have to completely reform. They DO NOT know how to govern without class warfare. Politics has deeply divided the United States to the point that the only reasonable solution will be to separate between the blue v red. As Lincon said, a house divided cannot stand. That is becoming so obvious that there will come a day soon when that will be the case. There are over 30 civilizations that have come before us. Every single one has collapsed. We are merely waiting for our 15 minutes in the spotlight.

We must understand that things are far worse outside the United States geopolitically thanks to the Neocons who have done nothing but connive endless wars. They are ruthless evil people who have no problem sacrificing your family for their political aspirations. Short term, as they create World War III, the dollar will be the strongest currency as capital always flees from a conflict. We really need to IMPEACH Biden, because he is a dangerous puppet who reads whatever the Neocons write on the cue cards. Then we really need to launch an investigation of these Neocons who have usurped US foreign policy for decades and are never held accountable.

Now, many people have asked what is a small bank. They are typically local regional banks. The problem is if they just make decisions based on the talking heads on TV, then they will face tremendous problems ahead. To be diverse, for now into 2024, you may want to look at US T-bills 30-day to the 90-day max. Not every bank is in trouble. You should ask if they publish their portfolio. The big risk is that money was basically free, and they were investing that long-term. But as rates have risen, they have suffered losses as long-term has declined in liquidity thanks to Ukraine.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/understanding-cycles/where-to-go-3/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

Lysander
Lysander
March 15, 2023 3:06 pm

Following the nuke sub announcement yesterday a former PM got a phonecall:

Xi: Herro, is that Pauw
PK: Ah yes hello Xi, how are my KPIs going? Calling about my bonus no doubt, as there’s some cracking piggeries I’d like to acquire before we outlaw meat sales in the next few years. Of course, that won’t be for everyone SCOFF SCOFF SCOFF
Xi: I um vewy unhappy wif your fwend Arbonees and da nucrear arrouncement. You huv to make call to our frend in press offrices to condem US expansorism.
PM: Well I couldn’t do that comrade, it’d make me mate, the PM, look bad. We’re from the same party of workers, united, we’ll never be defeated.
Xi: Do it now or I will seng a pack of murtated pangorins up your backsize.
PM: Ok well, if you insist boss. I’ll do it now.
Xi: Do it now, or I do you srowly.
PM: Hey that’s my li-
Xi: DO RIT!

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
March 15, 2023 3:11 pm

So Carter trash wants the old thief to deliver his eulogy. Says a lot about Carter.

He has found the only person who is a worse President than him. Reporting on it can only invite favourable comparisons.

It is the only reason Carter has held on so long.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 15, 2023 3:12 pm

Farmer Gezsays:
March 15, 2023 at 2:19 pm
Keating at the press club today.
I think the even the journos are just about finished with this piece of shit after an hour of abuse and dissembling about his Chinese connections.

I watched the whole programme and he was either recalcitrant or part of a parallel Universe. Didn’t answer any questions he didn’t like and just ridiculed the person asking the question. Laura Tingle was kind of patient with him but must have been pulling her hair out. At least he has one or two redeeming features. He doesn’t like the Left of the ALP and Tennis Elbow and Wenny Pong in particular.

P
P
March 15, 2023 3:15 pm

CathNews 15 March 2023 provides two links.

One link to the CRA article and another to The Catholic Weekly, March 12.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
March 15, 2023 3:18 pm

Bill Hero is here to help

The official advice from the energy regulators remains that you should shop around and seek out the best-priced plans:

Customers who shop around continue to save on their bills. Based on offers available in February 2023, residential customers switching from a standing offer to the lowest market offer could save 7% to 17% and small business customers could save 9% to 26%, depending on their region.

If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll know that Bill Hero does this work for you, scouring the market on every bill cycle and running a personalised comparison, to see if there’s a better-priced plan out there for you.

If you’re not already a subscriber, then what are you waiting for?! There’s no better time to join.

Use our Autumn promo code AUTUMATIC to get 10% off your Bill Hero subscription, valid until 11:59 PM Friday 31 March AEDT.

What’s a Default Offer?

Since 1 July 2019, new regulations have replaced the old Standing Offers with Default Offers across most of the National Energy Network.

There are two kinds of Default Offers:

The Default Market Offer (DMO) is set by the AER for Residential and SME single and single + controlled load tariffs in NSW, SA and South East QLD

In Victoria, the Essential Services Commission sets the Victorian Default Offer (VDO) for single-rate and controlled-load tariffs in Victoria only

Although calculated and defined in different ways, both DMO and VDO set a cap on the price that a customer will pay if they have not entered into a Market Offer with their retailer. They also set the benchmark against which any discounts offered in Market Offers must be expressed.

Here’s more information about Default Offers from Savings as a Service:

QLD, NSW, TAS & SA Default Offer increases

The price increases put forward today by the AER in its draft DMO decision for 2023-24 look grim for energy consumers, with controlled-load households in the NSW Endeavour electricity distribution zone hit hardest with a 23.7% price increase.

State Distribution Zone Resi no CL Resi with CL SME no CL
NSW Ausgrid +22.2% +21.5% +14.7%
Endeavour +20.9% +23.7% +19.9%
Essential +22.1% +21.4% +17.5%
QLD Energex +19.8% +19.5% +19.4%
SA SAPN +21.8% +21.3% +25.4%

VIC Default Offer price increases

The draft VDO update also released today has even worse news for Victorian energy consumers:

The average annual bill for domestic customers on the Victorian Default Offer would be 31.1 per cent higher … [and] … the average annual bill for small business customers on the Victorian Default Offer would be 33.2 per cent higher.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 15, 2023 3:20 pm

He’s [Keating] like the crazy loony uncle.

Oi. Steady on old chap.

areff
areff
March 15, 2023 3:21 pm

They won’t even see the problem in being co-opted thus by government.

Long since co-opted. Notice how quickly the CEOs of all the codes reported to Canberra on the next flights when the Slapper needed a backdrop of sombre sporting faces as she announced ‘the darkest day in Australia sports’. That turned out to be nothing of the sort and ended up requiring the Bombers’ bastardisation so that there would be at least one scalp to hang on the Lodge pole?

In sport, you need to know where the grants and new stadia are coming from.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 3:23 pm

shatterzzz

basically, the system is f***ed! .. there is no trigger for accountability when politicians ignore/reverse or just make it up once in office and on the public dime ..!

There was a time when the MSM would have made an effort to bring all of them to some form of account. (Including the Liars – who could forget Whitless’s cranky “The Age shall not query them” made about a story criticising him.) No more, now all woke and never a word of criticism of “their” side.

Even when Lieborals are criticised, they never resign form Parliament, just slide onto the backbench and keep on troughing (hello Scummo).

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 3:29 pm

Franksays:
March 15, 2023 at 2:39 pm
Person recovers from cold within days, call the papers!!

Sort of like the overwhelming majority of people that catch covid and just get over it. Someone should tell the papers about that one.

But m0nty=fa is ailing, and has a (What was it? Ten percent?) chance of departing this world if he gets it.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
March 15, 2023 3:29 pm

REAKING: Russian Su-27’s Finally Down American Drone Near Crimea
SITREP 3/14/23

Simplicius The Thinker
9 hr ago
Firstly, some breaking news:

“Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” the US military complained, accusing the Russians of “a lack of competence.”

Enironmentally unsound? Quick, someone call Greta!

Must US be reminded, as I wrote about in this article:

Simplicius’s Operations Center

The Changing Face Of War – Future of the Russian SMO

In the end, this is an important escalatory ‘red line’ step by Russian command. They are demonstrating the limits of their patience to the US. However, the MQ-9 which was downed is not the primary threat by a long shot—the far more powerful RQ-4 Global Hawk which also does the rounds in that area has much more powerful instruments/sensors for scanning and providing target data on Crimea and the outlying region.

However the MQ-9 does have a AN/APY-8 Lynx II SAR radar suite which can do similar things but with far shorter range due to the fact that it has a lower operational flight ceiling (25k feet) of the RQ-4 (65k+), as well as endurance, which allows the RQ-4 to scan a much farther distance with more powerful SAR and electro-optical sensors.

SAR, or synthetic aperture radar, is basically a type of radar meant for the ground. It creates a composite ‘map’ of the terrain by bouncing the signal off the ground, through clouds or adverse weather, and can pick out ground targets for utilization by other strike assets like missiles, etc., which can now be sent to those ground targets. However it has a range limit based on its field of view and distance to horizon. At 50,000 ft. (the Reaper’s full flight ceiling), the radar horizon should be north of 600km. However it’s more normal ‘operational altitude’ is listed at a mere 25,000ft, which would give it an ability to see about this far:

However, it should be noted, the cost of the MQ-9 Reaper is somewhere north of $100,000,000 for the full package—which is nearly triple the cost of the Su-27 which brought it down….—so it is a serious loss.

Edit/Updates:

The plot thickens. Flight tracking specialists FlightRadar24 state they could not track this particular MQ-9 Reaper, which means it wasn’t using an active transponder.

That means it was likely involved in a much darker, more critical ongoing mission than the ‘usual routine’ ISTAR stuff done daily. This is likely the reason Russian command downed this bird. Even the more powerful RQ-4’s typically fly with transponders on and can be seen doing their standard tracks on various sites like FR24.

This does add great intrigue to the scenario, that means US was attempting something with this Reaper.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 3:33 pm

132andBushsays:
March 15, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Given the amount of seamen subs have in them I’m surprised someone hasn’t made a (frankly quite tasteless) joke about calling the first one the HMAS Christopher Pyne.

I don’t want to be the first.

Bronwyn Bishop, as Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, refused an invitation for a trip to sea in a sub. Her reason was that she did not want to give the media reptiles to opportunity to write a headline stating that she had “Gone down on a cylinder full of seamen.”.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
March 15, 2023 3:33 pm

So, Walter Sofronoff KC and his senior is joined by Mark Tedeschi KC, David Edwardson KC, and Tim Game SC.

Add in juniors, and someone representing Shane Rattenbury and we’re starting to look at $100,000+per diem just for the main performers.

All on the public dime.

HMAS Pisswreck.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
March 15, 2023 3:35 pm

THE INTEL DROP

2nd Kinzhal Attack Hits NATO’s Western Command Center 80 meters Underground, 40 Killed

By Cossack Colonel YURI KOMINYENKO

IN western Ukraine a Russian Forces Kinzhal struck a bunker extending to 80 metres deep. The RF believes this bunker near Lvov was a NATO strategic command point used to control anti-aircraft systems. It’s still early days but the RF assumes there were up to 300 personnel in the bunker, 40 of which were high ranking foreign specialists, hence we can expect 40 body bags heading west in due course. Unconfirmed in the Nikolaevsk region the RF destroyed four senior militants, and a number of officers and planners.

As NATO fly’s its spy planes along the Moldavian/Transnistrian (Priednestrovie) border collecting data for the Ukrainians, their troops are positioning themselves to invade Transnistria in Moldova’s breakaway region. A significant build-up of Ukrainian personnel and equipment including setting up of artillery positions and an “unprecedented” increase of drone flights over the region indicate the preparation for an invasion of the sovereign territory that was declared independent in the early 1990s. Half of Transnistria’s 500,000 residents have Russian citizenship.

Transnistria has a predominantly Russian-speaking population and the primary purpose of some 1100 Russian peacekeepers stationed there is to monitor the 1992 ceasefire. This force is now being reinforced with RF military elites. Any action by Ukraine or its US, NATO member states that pose a threat to Russian peacekeepers or nationals in Transnistria will be seen as an attack on Russia, stated the country’s Foreign Ministry. The village of Kolbasna has an enormous X-soviet ammunitions warehouse that the Ukros are desperate to acquire. One of the goals of the RF is to establish a land corridor to Transnistria. The Ukrainian forces/Azov battalion pretext for the invasion will be a fake invasion by Russian troops in Priednestrovie. Currently the RF is jamming all communications in the region.

From

The other interesting missile/rocketry news is that Russia reportedly fired upwards of 6 or more Kinzhal hypersonic missiles during its landmark strikes last week. Here’s a video of AFU spokesman Yuriy Ignat attesting to this fact.

Soon after, however, very interesting reports began to appear:

Now this is all uncorroborated of course, but if you put the actual known and confirmed pieces together, it does paint an intriguing picture:

We know Kinzhal in the past has been only rarely used against very sensitive and heavily reinforced (underground) targets. Here’s a Reuters article from early in the war which reports Russia’s first-time use of the missile against an underground weapons depot. Here was one of the pieces of footage released at the time:

Whatever it was, hit the building at an incredible rate of speed.

We have the full confirmation from an AFU spokesman that half a dozen Kinzhals were in fact used.

So putting the pieces together, we can deduce it was likely against something sensitive, the NATO command center story begins to have at least some plausibility.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 15, 2023 3:41 pm

The Brittany saga will pay off a few South Coast holiday getaway homes.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 15, 2023 3:43 pm

Just got to get a place at the trough … er … panel.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 15, 2023 3:44 pm

Censoring Social Media to Prevent Bank Runs

“They censored social media to prevent the public from learning the truth about COVID, vaccines, and accompanying mandates. They censored social media to prevent the public from learning about Hunter Biden’s laptop before his dad could be installed at the POTUS. They censored anyone who questioned the election or Biden’s crime family and deliberately leaked Republican voter information. The extreme censorship on social media by biased fact-checkers expanded beyond the US. So it comes as no surprise that the government would like to censor “misinformation” that could lead to a bank run.

The people within the system know when a bank is failing, as we saw with SVB’s recent collapse. Senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) asked the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, and Federal Deposit and Insurance Corp (FDIC) if it would be possible to censor information that could lead to future bank runs. Kelly is denying the claims despite people on both sides confirming his question.

The government implements bots on social media to support its agenda. Elon Musk exposed Twitter prior to the takeover. Twitter admitted when filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that around 5% of its 300 million users are in fact fake accounts. Once Musk began to crack down on fake accounts, members of the Democratic Party saw sharp declines in followers.

Twitter quietly began to crack down on bots in April 2022, and some of the most followed accounts saw a significant drop in followers. Former President Obama once held the record for being the most followed man on Twitter with 131.7 million followers. After the algorithm changed, Obama lost 300,000 followers instantly. Pop singer Katy Perry, the third-most-followed account and an outspoken Democrat, lost 200,000 of her 108.8 million followers. Half of President Joe Biden’s 22.2 million followers are fake accounts. Based on the 2020 US Presidential Election, Biden should be the most popular president in history after securing more votes than any other president. “My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don’t care about the economics at all,” Musk said in April of 2022.

So Kelly’s proposal is not merely a method to avoid bank runs. This is infringing on our Constitutional right to the freedom of speech to control the masses via media. Let us not forget that nearly all social media platforms heavily lean left and support the same message.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/censorship/censoring-social-media-to-prevent-bank-runs/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 3:50 pm

Yeah that “Intel Drop” page totally doesn’t look like Russian propaganda either guys.

“Ukro-Nazis”

Yeah, let’s forget these guys exist and fight for Russia or its proxies:

Sabotage Assault Reconnaissance Group (DShRG) “Rusich”
Russian National Unity (2000)
Russian Imperial Movement

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
March 15, 2023 3:51 pm

NationalWAPolice

‘Unleashing police dogs onto children is racist’, CCC boss tells WA committee
Heather McNeill
By Heather McNeill
March 15, 2023 — 10.09am

Western Australia is “better than” the current WA Police practice of allowing police dogs to chase down children, and the policy which allows it is racist, the Corruption and Crime Commissioner has told a committee hearing.

Concerns around WA Police releasing canines to chase down juvenile offenders garnered media attention in November when a 13-year-old boy was hospitalised with serious injuries after being attacked by a police dog.

At the time officers were responding to a spate of calls about break-ins and people being threatened on Holder Street in St James.

The teen, Jayden, had chunks of skin ripped from his arms and a broken nose and required surgery to treat his injuries.

McKechnie, during his opening address to a Joint Standing Committee hearing on the CCC on Wednesday, said he was gravely concerned about police using dogs on youths.

“The dogs are trained to attack and bite,” he said.

“The present policies are not racist in intent, but are racist in effect. Many dogs deployments are against young and/or Indigenous persons.”

McKechnie said the CCC received referrals, usually from WA Police or the Aboriginal Legal Service, when police dogs were used against children, but in most cases, no misconduct was found as officers were following policy which allows them to treat a dog as a use of force in between a Taser and gun.

“The word complex does not begin to describe the issue of juvenile offending, its causes are many and its solutions are difficult, but at the end of the day, we are people who are content to unleash dogs on children, I think we’re better than that,” he said.

“We look forward to working with the Commissioner of Police to find a way of limiting the use of dogs while maintaining of course the protection of the community.”

At the time Jayden was attacked, Indigenous leader Mervyn Eades said for many Aboriginal children, “the automatic reaction is to run” when they saw police.

“That’s just the way it is, so they ran and Jayden actually stopped, he didn’t want to run no more, and then he stopped, police apprehended him,” he said.

“No charges have been laid against this child, he was not in the act of committing any crime or anything like that, so why did they do it? The big question is why.

“There is no logical reasoning to set a dog upon a 13-year-old child.”

WA Police Deputy Commissioner Kylie Whiteley said at the time the force would review the incident, but defended the police dog’s deployment to the scene.

“In the middle of the night, in the dark, it’s unknown who you are chasing, so in those circumstances a police dog may be deployed, and in this instance it was a 13-year-old and others,” she said.

“It was appropriate the dog was deployed to the incident, they’re the sorts of incidents we would expect a canine unit to attend to.”

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 3:53 pm

More Russian bullshit:

Russias MoD update: In total, 387 airplanes, 210 helicopters, 3228 unmanned aerial vehicles, 405 air defence missile systems, 8011 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1044 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS, 4205 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 8494 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed since the beginning of the special military operation.

Since when did Ukraine have 8011 tanks?

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 3:56 pm

The Intel Drop smells of Russian BS, now also going hard on the antisemitism Russia is using to propagandise against Ukraine:

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2023/02/28/strange-bedfellows-the-nazi-israel-nuclear-partnership-q-classified/

Deutsche Verteidigungs Dienst

Christopher Story, longtime associate of my good friend, Lee Wanta, was an agent of Britain’s secret services, something not included in his official biography but true none the less. Story, a respected lecturer on global currency issues and intelligence, told of an organization formed during the late 1920s, formed of a coalition between the Bush family in the US, then part of the Harriman/RothMANS banking cartel of New York/City of London, and the “Hitler Project”, so aptly written about by Webster Tarpley in his Unauthorized Biography of George H.W. Bush.

___
According to Story, this group which controlled the Federal Reserve in the United States and the majority of the world’s central banks served an agenda of world conquest, both overt and covert. Story cited Hitler as a “puppet” of the organization that would later be called the DVD. British Prime Minister Edward Heath was a DVD operative as was Prime Minister Tony Blair and a significant number of high ranking British politicians.

——————

Cool story bro, needs more tunnels and adenochrome.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 15, 2023 3:58 pm

More Russian bullshit:

Russias MoD update: In total, 387 airplanes, 210 helicopters, 3228 unmanned aerial vehicles, 405 air defence missile systems, 8011 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1044 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS, 4205 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 8494 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed since the beginning of the special military operation.

Source or Sauce?

Cassie of Sydney
March 15, 2023 4:01 pm

“He has found the only person who is a worse President than him. Reporting on it can only invite favourable comparisons.”

I’ve been reading an excellent book called “The Fall of Heaven” about the collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty and the end of Imperial Iran. It’s a sympathetic look at the Shah, his years in power, his family, and his legacy. Whilst there was corruption and human rights violations under the Shah, many stories were embellished by the clerics, particularly by Khomeini and his followers, to foment the uprising and revolution. And any corruption and human rights violations that occurred under the Shah was nothing compared to what followed under the mullahs. The Shah certainly made mistakes but his reforms helped lift Iran and Iranians out of poverty, women were given the vote and many other achievements. But two things have resonated with me about the Shah’s fall, one was the deliberate US indifference and frequent malfeasance under the inept Carter presidency and particularly his ambassador to Iran at the time. Simply put, the US under Carter stabbed the Shah in the back. We all know how weak American leadership in the world is dangerous but the legacy of such weakness lasts decades, Iran is still controlled by the clerics and is a pariah. The second thing I’ve taken from the book is how millions of Iranians, from all classes of society, benefited from the Shah’s reforms in the 1960s, particularly in education. In the 1970s, thousands of young Iranians were given the opportunity to attend university and it corrupted them. Young men and women were radicalised at university, not just those from poor families but also those from the middle class and the wealthy. These students and graduates, many who were socialists, Marxists and so on entered into an unholy alliance with Khomeini and the clerics. They were sure that once the revolution happened, they’d be able to put the clerics back in their box. How did that turn out? It didn’t go to plan.

Perhaps it’s a stretch to compare the radicalised Iranian youth of the 1970s to our own radicalised young but I can’t help feeling a similarity. Perhaps I’m too pessimistic.

The book is a sad story, given what the family endured in exile, when the Shah was dying and they roamed the world looking for sanctuary and treatment. The family never really recovered and two of the Shah’s children later committed suicide.

Black Ball
Black Ball
March 15, 2023 4:01 pm

Rita Panahi:

We are living in bizarre times. On the one hand we have endless messaging around the rights of women and female empowerment and yet women in Melbourne will need police protection when they gather this Saturday for a “Let Women Speak” event in the CBD.

We hear plenty about respecting women’s boundaries but we have people in positions of power, including health chief Dr Brendan Murphy, who cannot readily define what a woman is.

And, we have a trans activist movement in this country that holds disproportionate power and wields it regularly.

It should shame the state government that right now a sexual predator, guilty of multiple rapes, is housed in Victoria’s largest female prison despite the objections of many of the terrified inmates whose pleas have been ignored by authorities.

And sadly their cries for help have also been ignored by the loudest feminists in the country.

The modern feminist movement is at a crossroads and has split in two with the bulk of “the sisterhood” siding with radical trans activists, while the remainder fight to protect women’s only spaces such as locker rooms, shelters and prisons and women’s sport from biological males who identify as women

This Saturday that clash will be evident on the steps of parliament as women gathering to talk about their rights being infringed upon are expected to be met with hundreds of trans activists, including many identifying as feminists, determined to intimidate the women into silence.

No doubt they will be successful in scaring many women away.

I attended the Sydney event, headlined by Kellie-Jay Keen, on the weekend for Sky News and heard women of all ages and backgrounds telling their stories.

They needed protection from lines of police including the mounted branch.

Throughout the rally hundreds of trans activists seeking to disrupt the women screamed into megaphones, chanted about Nazis and generally carried on like a pack of enraged clowns.

It’s frankly incredible and more than a little depressing that in 2023 women in Australia who hold very much mainstream views about gender cannot meet in a public place in broad daylight without police protection.

It’s time Australian women woke up to what is happening to their rights in the name of diversity and inclusion.

Crossie
Crossie
March 15, 2023 4:10 pm

Roger says:
March 15, 2023 at 10:46 am
SVB board member Elizabeth Burr* in 2021:

“It’s not enough to just report the numbers, instead, we need to demand a deep look at company culture — what are the informal networks and behaviors that support the status quo. Discuss this at the board level and hold management teams accountable for real change.”

Another unserious diversity hire like the chick who (still?) runs Optus. I am sick and tired of the “brilliant” young women who have been promoted way beyond their competence.

Cassie of Sydney
March 15, 2023 4:19 pm

“I attended the Sydney event, headlined by Kellie-Jay Keen, on the weekend for Sky News and heard women of all ages and backgrounds telling their stories.

They needed protection from lines of police including the mounted branch.

Throughout the rally hundreds of trans activists seeking to disrupt the women screamed into megaphones, chanted about Nazis and generally carried on like a pack of enraged clowns.”

Yep, I was there.

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 4:29 pm

Remind leftards that RFX Connor, Minister for Minerals and Energy in the Whitless government, wanted to develop the full nuclear fuel cycle in Australia. Mining, processing, building reactors and fuel rods, re-processing of spent fuel, disposal of waste.

Why?
Rex Connor was insane at the time, even his close friends said so.

sfw
sfw
March 15, 2023 4:34 pm

“Kurri Kurri power plant in the Hunter Valley will completely rely on natural gas when it first starts up and will not be able to use green hydrogen because it is not available.”

Hydrogen won’t be available for a long time, much less ‘green’ hydrogen, whatever that is. Hydrogen as others have noted here is difficult to store and transport, I think the losses alone run to around 1% per day. Then you have the fact that it’s very reactive and attacks a lot of metals etc, the maintenance costs would be very high. Throw in a huge range of flammability, 4 to 74% in air, you don’t need much of a leak to get a big bang followed by fire. Very dangerous stuff. I doubt that it will ever be a commercial success.

Tom
Tom
March 15, 2023 4:41 pm

Rex Connor was insane at the time, even his close friends said so.

The revolutionary spirit of RFX Connor is alive and well in the 21st century neo-communist ALP of Elbow (a.k.a. Luigi the Unbelievable) and his low-IQ treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Whatever it takes.

Robert Sewell
Robert Sewell
March 15, 2023 4:41 pm

rickw:

What % increase and how many blackouts are required to wake up Australia?

We’re nowhere near the point of grid crash, Rick.
First Liddell has to close. There will be power shortages “blackouts” and people will put up with it because there will be no point in complaining. The citizenry will pull together for the sake of the country, as they do in times of crisis.
It will take a fair while for them to figure out the crisis has been made by the politicians and the money boys – all of who will have gensets and taxpayer funded fuel.
You don’t really think they’re going to go without, do you?
Then the answer to your question will be 1 blackout that lasts for more than a week.
After that point, the system is irrecoverable except by incremental stages that will take months.
…and there will be no power to run the machines that send out the bills. So there’s that.

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 4:42 pm

Will be interesting to see how The Greens and The Teals sell Albanese’s Nuclear Waste Industry wheeze to their voters?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 15, 2023 4:43 pm

Not insane nut case. At the time visionary. He was able to what passes for energy today. Behold the munty and head case power company. Effing useless.

duncanm
duncanm
March 15, 2023 4:46 pm

Ed – you’re a bit like Rex, then.

Stopped clock and all that.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 15, 2023 4:46 pm

No such thing as “green hydrogen”. Using energy to produce hydrogen used to produce electricity is nothing short of a unicorn fart.

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 4:49 pm

Yeah, we’ll send our best and brightest over to Kazakhstan to study cutting edge Nuclear Waste Disposal.

Or we could just copy Japan and dump it into the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, Joe Shitpants just bailed out a Nuclear Power Company in Arizona, apparently the Economics don’t stack up.

Crossie
Crossie
March 15, 2023 4:50 pm

Recently I attended via zoom my super fund’s AGM. I was pleased that a significant amount was still invested in coal and gas fired power generation and in resources. When questioned why more was not invested in renewables and diversity projects the finance officer had to explain the energy reality and returns on our investments. I felt much better afterwards that there was at least someone looking after the funds money.

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 4:50 pm

The only green hydrogen is thus far not feasible. Nuclear fusion.

Lockheed Martin and boffins in the UK are getting close.

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 4:51 pm

Ed Case says:
March 15, 2023 at 4:49 pm

Aggressive, impotent & frustrated stupidity.

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 4:52 pm

At the time visionary. He was able to what passes for energy today.
Yeah, Cletus.
Tell us about Tirath Khemlani and that $500 Million Loan from Saddam Hussein again?

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 4:54 pm

The ALP Fluffers are out in force this arvey.

Is it Pension Day?

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 4:56 pm

Ed Casesays:
March 15, 2023 at 4:29 pm
Remind leftards that RFX Connor, Minister for Minerals and Energy in the Whitless government, wanted to develop the full nuclear fuel cycle in Australia. Mining, processing, building reactors and fuel rods, re-processing of spent fuel, disposal of waste.

Why?
Rex Connor was insane at the time, even his close friends said so.

You are too much of a Dick ‘Ed to get my point.

duncanm
duncanm
March 15, 2023 4:57 pm

There will be power shortages “blackouts” and people will put up with it because there will be no point in complaining. The citizenry will pull together for the sake of the country, as they do in times of crisis.

don’t forget the dissembling “its all the previous government’s fault, because they didn’t invest enough in renewables/transmission infrastructure/grid stability/etc”

That’ll hold off the pitchforks for a good election cycle or so.

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 4:59 pm

So, what’s your point?

Take seriously the counsels of The Insane?

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 5:02 pm

Richard Cranium

Meanwhile, Joe Shitpants just bailed out a Nuclear Power Company in Arizona, apparently the Economics don’t stack up.

The electricity that isn’t delivered is both the cheapest (no electricity bill) and the most expensive (no power equals loss of everything in the fridge, no light except torches and gas lanterns, etc).

The economics of not having reliable, continuous, electricity most certainly don’t stack up, but you are too stupid to understand that.

And solar, wind, pumped hydro, and batteries cannot, with current technology, deliver reliable continuous, electricity.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 5:05 pm

Ed Casesays:
March 15, 2023 at 4:59 pm
So, what’s your point?

Take seriously the counsels of The Insane?

Definitely not, we’re ignoring your “counsels”.

caveman
caveman
March 15, 2023 5:20 pm

He’s [Keating] like the crazy loony uncle

No, he’s just an old C##@

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 15, 2023 5:21 pm

All this AI stuff has got the Grigbot malfunctioning. Mother should turn him off and on.

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 5:25 pm

Give him a Brogan adjustment, he he, he he.

Tom
Tom
March 15, 2023 5:25 pm

Paul Keating is a shill for the Chinese Communist Party government.

He says he was paid only $5000 p.a. by one of the CPA-controlled Chinese state banks.

Rubbish.

If Peter Hartcher, of the SMH (who Keating defamed today), is a real journalist, he will go to work on finding out and writing up the true extent of what Keating has been remunerated in the past 30 years by the Chinese government and its wholly-owned and controlled businesses.

Keating is lying his head off.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
March 15, 2023 5:25 pm

And, we have a trans activist movement in this country that holds disproportionate power and wields it regularly.

It is true that they hold disproportionate power, but it is not their power. It is the power possessed by the state and given to them by politicians.

A Twitter mob or reams of newspaper columns exert little power until harpoon politicians who actually have power – the power to direct human effort without the humans so directed having to share the sentiment – a paycheck will do.

Where would the panic merchants have been fiddling with our lives and livelihoods without a ready police force ready to threaten people with violence (and more than threaten, it must be said) and the hulking mill of bureaucracy that can grind a person down to nothingness.

Without them kicking in your doors, stalking you in the streets and alarming strangers in shops and restaurants with impunity or molesting your electronic soul (raiding your bank accounts and forcing you to sport badges on your phone declaring you to be a righteous person) they would have been rutted.

If a politician had the male accoutrement of testicles said to their screeching banshees who look like a cross between 1960’s divas and circus clowns “We have an understanding of what a woman is, but we in government don’t own it. The public do. You have to convince them that a woman can have a dick, and if you can’t then there’s an end of the matter.”

Ah, but did you see what I did there? I spoke of a politician with convictions.

mem
mem
March 15, 2023 5:32 pm

Had laser surgery this morning. About a minute into the main gig heard surgeon’s voice raise, “we have lost charge on the laser”. As a result had to have eye continuously flushed during the hiatus of replacing battery. Outcome, extreme pain for several hours and probably more to come as built up fluid drains. Also had to get nurse to home to replace dressings as soaked. Moral of story is don’t be first cab off rank for surgery. Thought, aren’t we lucky we have reliable energy. Now off for a pain killer and a gnt. These last two items may become obligatory in Bowen’s new energy world.

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 5:36 pm

He’s got a point, though.

Lotta people who voted Labor or preferenced Labor didn’t vote for a Nuclear Waste Industry.
Pig Iron Bob?

How about Plutonium Waste Albo?

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 15, 2023 5:40 pm

Keating is lying his head off.

Hawkey paved the way, but it’s bipartisan policy. See Darwin Ports.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 5:43 pm

Richard Carnium

How about Plutonium Waste Albo?

Nah, just do the fashionable thing. Recycle it into nuclear weapons. How could they object? Recycling is the new leftard religion.

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 5:49 pm

Might be Scotty Morrison’s Deal.

Say you’ll give us Nuclear Subs in 25 yeas time and we’ll take all your Submarine Nuclear Waste off your hands.

5 years time:
US Navy will be rocking up to Perth towing a barge with the [Toxic for 29,000 years] remains of 3 Mile Island as cargo.

Voted Labor?
BOHICA!

dopey
dopey
March 15, 2023 6:06 pm

HMAS Harold Holt. It’s down there somewhere. Be very careful.

billie
billie
March 15, 2023 6:09 pm

HMAS We Still Love You Paris
HMAS Juliar’s Missing File
HMAS Not a Ghost Turnbull
HMAS Abbott’s Lost Courage
HMAS We’ll Change Everything
HMAS Higgins Big Score
HMAS Labor’s Nasty Ladies

cohenite
March 15, 2023 6:11 pm

5 years time:
US Navy will be rocking up to Perth towing a barge with the [Toxic for 29,000 years] remains of 3 Mile Island as cargo.

Just whack the high grade waste into the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR)s which the enlightened rub and tug government will build lickety split.

Eyrie
Eyrie
March 15, 2023 6:13 pm

Ed, you really are blathering. Stop it.

Tom
Tom
March 15, 2023 6:20 pm

One of Kevin Rudd’s useful idiots, former advisor Andrew Charlton, now the federal member for Parramatta, was on Sharri Markson’s Sky News show tonight supporting Chinese Communist Party shill Paul Keating, saying that Australia is now having to adjust to a “multi-polar world”.

Did you see what he did there?

Charlton thinks China is about to take over from the US as the world’s largest economy.

Markson is getting quite an education dealing with dissembling political radicals like Charlton (who claims to be from the ALP right faction to allay popular fear about his agenda).

A reminder that the ALP right sees itself as introducing communism only slightly slower than the Greenfilth.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
March 15, 2023 6:25 pm

Black Conservative Patriot:

Tucker Carlson reveals to a friend the main video evidence he wanted to show on Fox News and why he didn’t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObXjMLzS7TQ

Top Ender
Top Ender
March 15, 2023 6:25 pm

Michael Smith News has the full text of Paul Keating whinge.

Has a few zingers but quickly gets as boring as the bitter old bloke himself.

This is what listening to Gustav Mahler does to you.

CrazyOldRanga
CrazyOldRanga
March 15, 2023 6:26 pm

Talk of hydrogen above. Yesterday I spotted a Toyota Mirai in Melbourne. A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle no less. I didn’t realise that they were selling them here. No idea where they refuel.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
March 15, 2023 6:28 pm

Ed, you really are blathering. Stop it.

It’s not the blathering. It’s the lathering. The ointments and pastes lovingly kneaded in to keep flesh supple, elastic, and ‘life-like’. But you must be able to wipe off other fluids without compromising the daily routine.

It is a labour of very intense, personal, widely misunderstood love.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
March 15, 2023 6:31 pm

He says he was paid only $5000 p.a. by one of the CPA-controlled Chinese state banks.

A sum like that would be nuisance money to a multimillionaire pig farm investor.

Embarrassing if discovered because:
a) financial payment, and
b) the low esteem in which the recipient was held by his client.

Does not compute.

Diogenes
Diogenes
March 15, 2023 6:31 pm

Recently I attended via zoom my super fund’s AGM. I was pleased that a significant amount was still invested in coal and gas fired power generation and in resources.

Crossie,
Which fund? Mine is sadly all in on ESG.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
March 15, 2023 6:35 pm

No idea where they refuel.

Altona, or Canbraa.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 15, 2023 6:37 pm

A reminder that the ALP right sees itself as introducing communism only slightly slower than the Greenfilth.

Most of the Liars are paid up Fabians.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 15, 2023 6:43 pm

Yesterday I spotted a Toyota Mirai in Melbourne. A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle no less.

Driving around emitting large clouds of smug?

JC
JC
March 15, 2023 6:51 pm

H B Bear says:
March 15, 2023 at 6:37 pm

A reminder that the ALP right sees itself as introducing communism only slightly slower than the Greenfilth.

Most of the Liars are paid up Fabians.

When my son was at university, he was a member of the liberal-conservative club. He reckoned that the liars on the right and left hated each other more than the Libs.  I recall he reckoned that Liar right got on with his group quite well. 

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
March 15, 2023 6:56 pm

Malcolm Roberts:

Former terrorist Tedros Ghebreyesus will not fire 83 WHO staff engaged in abuse including rape and forced abortions, with one victim 13, claiming rape and forced abortion do not violate WHO’s policies because the victims were not receiving WHO aid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wpSTVoDgjM

Frank
Frank
March 15, 2023 6:59 pm

HMAS Gingerella

Frank
Frank
March 15, 2023 7:04 pm

Michael Smith News has the full text of Paul Keating whinge.

Old man, mournfully wanking into a sock. Unbeknown to him the circus has moved on.

Might give it a pass.

JC
JC
March 15, 2023 7:07 pm

Really tough girl.

Any woman would be stupid to get in the ring with him.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
March 15, 2023 7:11 pm

These blokes have been absolutely brilliant. They got so many out of their homes and access to food and health care.

**********

Sparks and Blokes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA8TTjbeiyY&t

No comments on Newsom….hold that thought, a clip for him coming up. I’ll give it a day.

cohenite
March 15, 2023 7:16 pm

Really tough girl.

Any woman would be stupid to get in the ring with him.

That’s Gabi Garcia head prefect; apparently she is a real woman and not a trannie.

bons
bons
March 15, 2023 7:19 pm

The only means by which Australia can transition to nuclear power is if the union super funds can be convinced that it will provide a more bountiful trough than Bowen’s current scam.

mem
mem
March 15, 2023 7:22 pm

H B Bearsays:
March 15, 2023 at 6:37 pm
A reminder that the ALP right sees itself as introducing communism only slightly slower than the Greenfilth.

Most of the Liars are paid up Fabians.

I don’t know how you become a Fabian or join a club called The Fabians? Does anyone have experience on this I would love to know.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 15, 2023 7:23 pm

That’s Gabi Garcia head prefect; apparently she is a real woman and not a trannie

Ordinarily, I would assert that Gabi Whoever is a dead set dude. However, she hits like a girl so the jury’s out.

Frank
Frank
March 15, 2023 7:33 pm

She is a real woman that pigged out on the male hormones, apparently.

Before and After.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
March 15, 2023 7:33 pm

H B Bearsays:

March 15, 2023 at 5:21 pm

All this AI stuff has got the Grigbot malfunctioning. Mother should turn him off and on.

Frank
Frank
March 15, 2023 7:36 pm

Maybe a bolt protruding from either side of her throat might help to soften the facial features.

Eyrie
Eyrie
March 15, 2023 7:38 pm

Keating may or may not be in the pay of the CCP but I think he’s right for the wrong reasons. If we were to merely buy the required number of Virginias OK but then tacking on the build them here? Bat guano insane.

rickw
rickw
March 15, 2023 7:41 pm

“Tall Man”, the biggest dude the CCP has on site turned up this morning. Lifted old motor out by ourselves, but he reckons he twinged his knee, so got a swarm of Bangla’s to help lift the new one in. Just finished aligning it, some dumb luck, finished the vertical. Started on horizontal, found it almost spot on so left it.

cohenite
March 15, 2023 7:42 pm

Ordinarily, I would assert that Gabi Whoever is a dead set dude. However, she hits like a girl so the jury’s out.

and

She is a real woman that pigged out on the male hormones, apparently.

Before and After.

Forget the male hormones. The lady is on the growth hormones big time; just look at the jutting jaw and the frigging deltoids and lats. The lady is 6’2″ and 220lbs. She’s almost as big as me and I only take liquorice injections.

Anyway since the usual pansies are flipping out about the lady by way of contrast a cute owl. No jutting jaw there.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
March 15, 2023 7:44 pm

CrazyOldRangasays:

March 15, 2023 at 6:26 pm

Talk of hydrogen above. Yesterday I spotted a Toyota Mirai …

A Toyota wut?
I used to wonder who would run out of product brand-names first.
Big Auto or Big Pharma.
But after the Qashqai, the Tiida and now the Mirai, my money is firmly on the Auto boys.

Gabor
Gabor
March 15, 2023 7:44 pm

mem says:
March 15, 2023 at 7:22 pm

H B Bearsays:
March 15, 2023 at 6:37 pm
Most of the Liars are paid up Fabians.

I don’t know how you become a Fabian or join a club called The Fabians? Does anyone have experience on this I would love to know.

Same as the masons, invitation only and that, after approval by the top guys.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
March 15, 2023 7:52 pm

Keating is such a lying limp prick.
He had the gall to say Modi had muslims walled up in Kashmir as the smarmy cockroach attempted to run a Chinese squirrel up the Uyghur tree.
Millions upon millions of muslims walk the streets and lead normal lives in mainly Hindu India.

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 7:52 pm

The only means by which Australia can transition to nuclear power is if the union super funds can be convinced that it will provide a more bountiful trough than Bowen’s current scam.

I get what you’re trying to say, but it’s wrong.

The Union Funds are all very small, have large fees, don’t make much money.
The Industry Funds are the big ones.
Yeah, there are Union Drones on the Boards, but they’re matched in number by Industry Representatives who are unlikely to throw money at an Industry with a 25 year build time.

That said, the Queensland Investment Corporation [a Future Fund for Qld Public Servants], has many Billion$$ invested in the U.S. Nuclear Power Industry.

Shy Ted
Shy Ted
March 15, 2023 7:57 pm

Ah yes, Indigenous leader Mervyn Eades
He’s just grifted elsewhere

Roger
Roger
March 15, 2023 8:05 pm

The elevated tone of Keating’s invective is best attributed to the fact that Albanese didn’t return his calls.

Imagine a former Labor PM being snubbed by Elbow.

Roger
Roger
March 15, 2023 8:12 pm

Now off for a pain killer and a gnt.

Hang in there, mem. It will pass.

cohenite
March 15, 2023 8:16 pm

Kenny was superb in eviscerating the pompous old poofta keating and that tingle slag; and also good about ruinables tonight. What a pity he has such a blind spot about the fu.king voice.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
March 15, 2023 8:19 pm

Anybody know anything about the Qld Qovax study onto long Covid and Vax.

Craig Kelly on Twitter suggesting the study being interfered with in some way by Qld Health due to unfavorable results.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
March 15, 2023 8:20 pm

What % increase and how many blackouts are required to wake up Australia?

Spacechook has shown me ads from the WA government telling “us” to not use air cons/power as much around the time of the solar eclipse (20th next month) or the elektrickery will go off.

Nothing to do with crippling and shutting down the Collie power station and coal mines.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
March 15, 2023 8:22 pm

Dear me, The Undertaker has certainly undertaken open warfare on what is laughably called the Albanese government – Greg Sheridan appeared on Credlin and seem in somewhat high dudgeon that Keating was treating Richard Marles and Penny Wong in contemptuous terms — on that point it is right and fitting for Paul Keating to do so.

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 15, 2023 8:35 pm

Albanese has got to back Wong regardless, since she’s an icon.

I’d say Albanese has got to return home, not get Covid anymore, and start acting like he GsAF, or else the Party will hafta turn to PeanutHead.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 15, 2023 8:36 pm

Richard Cranium

The Industry Funds are the big ones.
Yeah, there are Union Drones on the Boards, but they’re matched in number by Industry Representatives who are unlikely to throw money at an Industry with a 25 year build time.

Can you provide us with an estimate of how long it will take to construct sufficient solar and wind generators, and adequate firming arrangements, be they batteries or something else, to provide reliable and cointinuous electricity supply to support a modern civilisation. Then add in the cost of the necessary new transmission lines to connect all of these generators to their markets?

And toss in a rough financial cost also.

And a note about the expected service lives of all of the above, so we can judge wen the entire process has to start again.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 15, 2023 8:51 pm

Watching pugilism on Focks from Liverpool.

No chicks. No blokes dressed as chicks.

No cute owls either.

rosie
rosie
March 15, 2023 8:51 pm

PJW made some good points about sartorial splendour, still it takes a lot of time and effort to dress as for Ascot Races every day and perhaps skimped a little on how expensive clothes used to be and how infrequently they might have been changed and washed.
What surprises me most is failure to dress appropriately for occasions, watching those European documentaries, jeans to funerals, going to the trial of your murdered daughter in street clothes and a parka.
My mother only ever had one dress (no jeans or tshirts etc) at a time growing up and said at one point she so sick of wearing the same thing every day she ripped her current dress. Later she thought how difficult it must have been for her mother to buy fabric and make her another.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
March 15, 2023 8:52 pm

Tintarella di Lunasays:

March 15, 2023 at 8:22 pm

Dear me, The Undertaker has certainly undertaken open warfare on what is laughably called the Albanese government

I’ve been wukkin’ today.
Trooble at mill?

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 8:54 pm

HMAS Hyperbowl
HMAS Madgwick
HMAS Whiteboard
HMAS Mal Colston
HMAS Orkopoulous
HMAS Obeid
HMAS Nifty Nev
HMAS Supply Blocked
HMAS Working Class Toff
HMAS Handbag Hitsquad

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 8:56 pm

The Union Funds are all very small, have large fees, don’t make much money.
The Industry Funds are the big ones.
Yeah, there are Union Drones on the Boards, but they’re matched in number by Industry Representatives who are unlikely to throw money at an Industry with a 25 year build time.

You lying shithead.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 15, 2023 8:57 pm

HMAS Ed October.

But only if it’s white.

calli
calli
March 15, 2023 8:58 pm

I’ve been thinking about that PJW piece today rosie.

Took extra care with my outfit for Aldi shopping. Felt good, but no smart hat. That was a bridge too far. 😀

rosie
rosie
March 15, 2023 8:59 pm

When I was in Malta there was a shoe store around the corner that had obviously been closed a long time, the shoes in the window were thick with dust and the prices too low.
I just walked past a haberdashery, everything still on the shelves behind the counter, a hanging display of zippers, rolls of fabric etc but the steel grill has been locked so long a pigeon has died and disintegrated in the doorway.
I don’t understand the economics of not clearing things out and re-leasing the premises.
Maybe the owners had the freehold and just abandoned when they got too old to keep opening
It looks like the little trams are running truncated routes, if I get a chance I should catch one.

Robert Sewell
Robert Sewell
March 15, 2023 8:59 pm

Your Internet speed is
25 Mbps
Latency Unloaded 25 ms

Loaded 52 ms
Upload Speed 4.5 Mbps
The internet seems a bit slow today – are these numbers OK?

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 15, 2023 9:00 pm

HMAS Bleating Keating

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 15, 2023 9:02 pm

Capt. Vasili Borodin: I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck… maybe even a “recreational vehicle.” And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?
Captain Ramius: I suppose.

Capt. Vasili Borodin: No papers?
Captain Ramius: No papers, state to state.

Captain Borodin would have been awfully disappointed, had he lobbed up in Sydney Harbour three years ago.

cohenite
March 15, 2023 9:09 pm

Alan Jones slumming at some Gosford FM outfit. The comments are not favourable and when I went on there to politely tell the lefties sprouting hatred for Jones to piss off my comments got scrubbed.

https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2023/03/alan-jones-to-join-local-radio-station/#comment-8854

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 15, 2023 9:15 pm

We can’t call any of them HMAS Sam Neil since he’s a Kiwi.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 15, 2023 9:16 pm

Albanese has got to back Wong regardless, since she’s an icon.

Luigi will certainly have a problem saving both remaining Mean Girls.

Gabor
Gabor
March 15, 2023 9:19 pm

Robert Sewell says:
March 15, 2023 at 8:59 pm

Your Internet speed is
25 Mbps

Upload Speed 4.5 Mbps
The internet seems a bit slow today – are these numbers OK?

No expert here, checked mine it’s 20 download and 12 up, which is unusual 4 to 6 would be more likely for upload, but I am running a VPN, maybe that is the cause?

The net is not slow for me, but the Cat loads very slowly.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 15, 2023 9:28 pm

JC at 6:51

When my son was at university, he was a member of the liberal-conservative club. He reckoned that the liars on the right and left hated each other more than the Libs

There can be no doubt that some members of the Liar right wing are more free market (not labour) than some Lieboral “moderates”. The Left/Right label is not much use beyond the barest shorthand.

Gabor
Gabor
March 15, 2023 9:29 pm

cohenite says:
March 15, 2023 at 9:09 pm

Posted this, awaiting moderation.

He is not on all day, have you thought about that, or does your hatred of everything different to your ideology blinds you??

Incidentally, you can join the Fabians as a foot soldier, for about $30 a year less for pensioners, but not the decision-making elites, the inner circle is invitation only.

cohenite
March 15, 2023 9:32 pm

Posted this, awaiting moderation.

My comments just disappeared, no moderation. And on the posted program Jones doesn’t appear anywhere. What a waste.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
March 15, 2023 9:33 pm

Adoption fight as children’s Aboriginal heritage discovered
The Supreme Court must decide whether the children can be adopted by their foster parents, or should honour the pleas of their mother that they not be permanently placed with a ‘non-Aboriginal family (who) wouldn’t understand the Aboriginal culture’.

EXCLUSIVE
By Ellie Dudley
Reporter
@EllieDudley_
9:13PM March 15, 2023

Two young siblings could be barred from adoption by their long-term foster family after they discovered, five years after first being placed in the family’s care, they were Aboriginal.

Mary and Michael, whose names have been changed to preserve anonymity, have been living with their non-Aboriginal foster parents since 2015. The children share a mother, Audrey, whose name has also been changed, but different fathers.

In January 2020, a Department of Communities and Justice caseworker discovered records which revealed the whereabouts of Mary and Michael’s grandmother, who confirmed she identified as an Aboriginal woman.

Now, the Supreme Court must decide whether the children can be adopted by their foster parents, or should honour the pleas of Audrey that her children not be permanently placed with a “non-Aboriginal family (who) wouldn’t understand the Aboriginal culture”.

Laws governing adoption in Australia require, as a first preference, an Aboriginal child to be adopted by someone of the Aboriginal community to which their birth parent belongs. If not practicable, the child can be placed with an adoptive parent from another Aboriginal community. Only if that is not feasible may the child be adopted by non-Aboriginal parents.

Upon learning of the children’s Aboriginal heritage, the Secretary of the Communities and Justice Department said he found himself in “the increasingly common and procedurally challenging position” of having become aware of the children’s Aboriginal heritage years after they were physically placed with their prospective adoptive parents.

Justice James Stevenson said last month in a preliminary judgment: “The relevant provisions of the Adoption Act 2000 (NSW) appear to have been drafted on the assumption that a child’s Aboriginality will be detected at an early stage, and before the child is placed with persons who ultimately seek to adopt the child. As this case demonstrates, that does not always occur.”

Audrey submitted to the court a statement claiming there was “no proof (the prospective adoptive parents) understand Aboriginal beliefs and culture so that they have the ability to pass on to my children”.

Justice Stevenson said he was satisfied it was “in the best interest of the children” for them to remain with their foster family and not be moved to a new home.

“The evidence shows that the children are happy and settled with the prospective adoptive parents,” he said.

“I cannot see how it would be practicable or in the best interests of the children that they now be placed with different prospective adoptive parents.”

But he was not yet convinced they could be adopted due to a clause in the Adoption Act which requires non-Aboriginal parents who are adopting Aboriginal children to do so in consultation with a person nominated by their blood relatives and recognised by the child’s Aboriginal community. The department must also consult a local, relevant Aboriginal organisation before going forward with the adoption.

But when the department contacted the Burrun Dalai Aboriginal Corporation for consultation, as requested by the children’s extended family, it was told the organisation does not support the adoption of Aboriginal children.

“Burrun Dalai will not support adoption for Aboriginal children in any way, shape or form,” it replied. “Please do not email me any more requests that relate to the adoption of Aboriginal children and young people nor ask us to do side supports/connections that you can add to any of your court work saying they will be connected to an Aboriginal organisation.”

The department made a similar request to the Ngabu Bingayi Aboriginal Corporation, to which there was no reply.

The prospective adoptive mother told the court she would make regular visits to a regional town “to help the children to learn more about Dunghutti culture” and would also “facilitate … contact with their maternal family”. Her partner said: “Both kids are aware of and speak about their cultural heritage at school and home.” He said they had weekly Aboriginal culture classes and had been introduced to rituals such as smoking ceremony and welcome to country. The case returns to court next month.

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 9:34 pm

Don’t worry, locals are starting to support AJ.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
March 15, 2023 9:40 pm

Finished the last of the 3 day SES manage casualties and vehicle extraction course.
Excellent trainers as well.
But a bit on the warm side today.
Surprising how small a space you need to get a person out of a wreck.

Dot
Dot
March 15, 2023 9:46 pm

Hilarious, I got censored as well making token support of AJ.

cohenite
March 15, 2023 9:50 pm

Hilarious, I got censored as well making token support of AJ.

The question is, apart from the dim little outfit being run by John Singleton, why would Jones be wasting his time at this leftie kindergarten?

Frank
Frank
March 15, 2023 10:10 pm

Cocaine Bear. Retro eighties splat vaudeville presented in a family friendly format which jars with the subject material. The odd chuckle.

Davey Boy
Davey Boy
March 15, 2023 10:28 pm

another union official goes klepto

A prominent ?South Australian figure has been captured on CCTV taking a handbag and jumper. Leah York, ?the Australian Education Union state branch secretary, can be seen picking up a $280 handbag and walking out of the door with it in CCTV footage released by the store.

York’s team said she meant to pay for the bag, and she did so after the footage was posted to the store’s social media.

Leah York has been accused of taking a $280 handbag from an Adelaide store.
But three minutes before the bag was taken, she could be seen adding a jumper to the bag, which is still visible on CCTV under the handbag when she leaves the shop.

The Education Union said in a statement it was concerned by the videos and would hold an urgent meeting on Thursday night to discuss its response.
York, who reportedly earns more than $200,000 a year, told 9News she had taken leave for health reasons and resigned from her position on the board of Funds South Australia.

why do so many union officials pinch stuff? Is it part and parcel of leftist ideology?

MatrixTransform
March 15, 2023 10:33 pm

Is it part and parcel of leftist ideology?

correct

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
March 15, 2023 10:46 pm

Is it part and parcel of leftist ideology?

Yes. What’s yours is mine, what’s mine stays that way!

rosie
rosie
March 15, 2023 11:34 pm

I saw some very nice new high end apartments, only three floors, not far from the river at Belém, in the square beside them was a tsunami warning sign.
Not sure that would be my dream home location.

Pedro the Loafer
Pedro the Loafer
March 15, 2023 11:35 pm

Goldbugs will be happy campers this week.
Spot price has jumped A$162 per ounce in two weeks to $2890.

rosie
rosie
March 16, 2023 12:17 am

Jumped on a 28 tram going up to Estrela, the down ones are jam packed, don’t know how that works.
Hopped off two stops past the Basilica, there is a nice square, found a cafe that serves local food, you can order a dose or a half dose.
It’s the sort of place frail old ladies come to get takeaways and elderly people eat lunch on their own, so I fit right in.
I ordered ‘what that lady is having’ and orange juice (in Spanish because it’s near enough).
Whatever I have ordered includes cabbage.
It’s good for you.

rosie
rosie
March 16, 2023 12:21 am

Also black pudding and what looks suspiciously like tripe.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 16, 2023 12:42 am

Keating and Waffleworth on the 7:30 Report. Still need KRuddy, the Slapper and SloMo for a full house. Has there ever been such a depressing parade of PMs in history?

Alamak!
Alamak!
March 16, 2023 12:52 am

Was a fabulous treat seeing Keating on the box. Bile and Fantasy mixed in equal portions … such a nice change from sleazy Albanese who always seems to be telling lies even when he is (sometimes) not. The only thing better would be having the Kitching abusers & Tennis Elbow on a stage with crazy Keating. Would pay $$$$ to see that.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
March 16, 2023 1:49 am

Do not try this at home with a standard record player and your cherished vinyl collection.

Don’t!

**********

Mix Master Mike, Drumming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkH6itxRgig

Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:13 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:14 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:15 am
Tom
Tom
March 16, 2023 4:16 am
Rossini
Rossini
March 16, 2023 4:26 am

Thanks Tom

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 16, 2023 4:27 am

Thanks Tom. The David Rowe Keating Mine is a ‘blast’………………..

Crossie
Crossie
March 16, 2023 6:17 am

Thank you Tom. Where is Johannes Leak?

Anchor What
Anchor What
March 16, 2023 6:20 am

“ While US banks fail and the world teeters on the brink of WW III, the criminal Biden Regime is embarking on a series of regime change “color revolutions” around the world, seeking to destablize conservative governments and install Washington-controlled puppets to do their bidding.”
Again it’s Israel that they are targeting.
Gateway Pundit

Ed Case
Ed Case
March 16, 2023 6:26 am

… why do so many union officials pinch stuff? Is it part and parcel of leftist ideology?

They get used to accepting slings of various types and the lines between what’s acceptable and what’s not become blurred.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 16, 2023 6:40 am

H/T JR, Rowe was excellent. Thanks Tom. That’s the first time I’ve looked at Rowe in over a year.

Cassie of Sydney
March 16, 2023 6:43 am

““ While US banks fail and the world teeters on the brink of WW III, the criminal Biden Regime is embarking on a series of regime change “color revolutions” around the world, seeking to destablize conservative governments and install Washington-controlled puppets to do their bidding.”
Again it’s Israel that they are targeting.”

Yep, Israel + Hungary + Georgia. Obama and Biden’s warmongering whore, Samantha Power, has lately been conducting a tour of duty, so as to foment protest.

The Sniffer and his regime, the most corrupt, venal, dishonest, and untrustworthy US administration in history.

Gabor
Gabor
March 16, 2023 7:20 am

Cassie of Sydney says:
March 16, 2023 at 6:43 am

Yep, Israel + Hungary + Georgia. Obama and Biden’s warmongering whore, Samantha Power, has lately been conducting a tour of duty, so as to foment protest.

I hope this time they are trying it on, on the wrong countries.
Hate say it, but the biggest impact so far seems to be in Israel, In Hungary recently they had hardly a 1000 demonstrators according to some news on Twitter.
Georgia (Grúzia) to distinguish, I don’t know if anyone apart from the PM is in favour? They actually had counter protests.

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