Landscape with a Hunter – Valaam Island, Ivan Shishkin, 1867
Open Thread – Weekend 18 March 2023
1,548 responses to “Open Thread – Weekend 18 March 2023”
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Has the world gone mad?
Reparation to blacks with millions of dollars, in a state that never had slaves, not to mention slavery had been abolished 150 years prior.https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/san-francisco-decide-black-reparations-plan-5m-person-rcna74873
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The kolkhozniks are revolting.
BBC facing revolt from ‘p***ed off’ staff furious at ‘hypocrisy’ over highest-paid talent (17 Mar)
I think guys you need to step up your industrial action. Shut down all broadcasting for a month until your demands are met! And if they aren’t then escalate by keeping the shutdown going indefinitely.
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It is now revealed that, at the stage in Lehrmann’s trial where Higgins was refusing to continue cross-examination, McCallum CJ told Whybrow KC that if Lehrmann pleaded guilty he would get a discount on sentence. It is clear that, in the evidence to that point, the CJ thought that he would be found guilty. And clear too that a reasonable person would apprehend that from this point there was a strong risk that the CJ would, at the many points where she would make rulings, and in particular make her summing up to the jury, bias her behaviour in favour of Higgins.
Lehrmann has had enough and is fighting back. More power to him. -
Tie ending well above the belt of course.
Ties were originally meant to be worn with jackets, so extending them all the way to the belt-buckle and most of the tie hidden was absurd. Everyone knew that was how long ties actually were so it was natural to wear them that length.
The tie-to-the-buckle fashion came later as a separate fashion.
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And clear too that a reasonable person would apprehend that from this point there was a strong risk that the CJ would, at the many points where she would make rulings, and in particular make her summing up to the jury, bias her behaviour in favour of Higgins.
Is it fair to say the CJ is in a “show cause” situation?
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McCallum CJ told Whybrow KC that if Lehrmann pleaded guilty he would get a discount on sentence
Everyone that pleads guilty either before a trial, or in the very early stages of a trial gets a discount. Absolutely everyone. It’s a well-known and accepted practice in the legal (note: not justice) system, and used because – apparently – it both saves the cost of having or extending a trial, and of witnesses being traumatised by reliving their experiences and being cross-examined at length by thousands-a-day silks.
The CJ shouldn’t have had to tell the KC that this was the case, because he would have been well aware of it. It forms part of every criminal pre-trial negotiation between the DPP and defence counsel.
I suspect some journo has breathlessly reported it, believing that it was akin to discovering plutonium.
I’m not saying it’s right. I’m saying it’s how it’s been for decades.
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Knuckle Draggersays:
March 18, 2023 at 7:48 am
For additional clarity, and as I may have mentioned previously, I hope Lehrmann gets millions and moves into Mr and Mrs Poirate’s Sydney mansion as well.
I don’t think Bruce boarding with the Poirate’s is a good idea.
Things might get a bit tense given what’s gone on. -
Tiny whiff of fear coming from the Democrats today:
Trump Family Ran Afoul of Foreign Gift Law: Democrats (17 Mar)
Hunter Biden Files Suit Against Laptop Repair Shop Owner (17 Mar)
These two stories suggest the defensive wall on the Biden business dealings is in danger of being breached, due to a build up of political and public pressure. The strategies seem to be discredit the poor computer repairman and to say “but Trump did it too!” The latter is laughable since if Trump did anything illegal Muller and Letitia James would’ve been all over it before you could say “eureka!” Keep an eye out for more stories like this, it’s squirrel season.
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Farmer Gezsays:
March 18, 2023 at 7:56 am
The story hinges around why McCallum would bother or feel the need to say this to Whybrow.
The journos believe there’s a possibility that a railroading was taking place.It was about the time Brittnah retired to the fainting couch.
It was either an attempt to spare Britnah the ordeal of having to tell the truth under oath and/or a none-too-subtle warning to Whybrow to throttle back on the cross-examination. -
For additional clarity, and as I may have mentioned previously, I hope Lehrmann gets millions and moves into Mr and Mrs Poirate’s Sydney mansion as well.
Not happening, Joffa.
Lehrmann’s first time ever CrossExamination on Thursday was a trainwreck, he’s not going back for seconds.If Lisa hadn’t hired her own lawyers at the last minute, yeah, Channel 10 were going to roll over, for sure.
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Mixed sporting news overnight.
The Geelong Cats fell in a heap after half-time, and some of their “evergreen” older brigade looked a tad geriatric*.
Unfortunately this loss was at the hands of the toothless Thomastown car thieves.
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* D’Arcy Moore executed some apparently dashing intercepts. However, whilst he was doing so, his opponent Mr Thomas Hawkins was nowhere to be seen on my 96″ screen.
(D’Arcy wears an Alice Band in his hair. During a break in play for an injury I saw him reach over and adjust the head-band of a teammate.
Hard men.) -
“It was either an attempt to spare Britnah the ordeal of having to tell the truth under oath and/or a none-too-subtle warning to Whybrow to throttle back on the cross-examination.
I reckon both.
The stench in this Higgins/Lehmann imbroglio, shows just how bad things are in this country when it comes to the left weaponising the judicial system.
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Michael Smith has a post up re aboriginal cannibalism.
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So sad, I really liked him.
Excellent actor. -
Get down and dirty.
Loyola Professor Claims ‘Cleanliness’ Is ‘Racist’ (17 Mar)
Cleanliness has historically been used as a cultural gatekeeping mechanism to reinforce status distinctions based on a vague understanding of “niceness”: nice people, with nice yards, in nice houses, make for nice neighborhoods.
What lies beneath the surface of this anti-messiness, pro-niceness stance is a history of classist, racist and sexist social structures.
Live in filthy slums for Gaia!
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Reparation to blacks with millions of dollars, in a state that never had slaves, not to mention slavery had been abolished 150 years prior.
What gets me is that it is this generation that deserves to receive reparations. Obviously earlier generations cannot receive anything, but what about the next generation of black people? They get nothing because this generation has cashed in their victim-chips.
There will likely be a claim that the benefits of these reparations such as financial security, better home environments, the opportunity to go to college or create businesses etc will wrench them free from their current dysfunctional cycles and establish new norms.
And that might work if there was the predisposition and temperament – and an existing knowledge among the people in running businesses, managing savings and investments, the sorts of discipline and sacrifices that foster education, controlling children, respecting property and law when not convenient etc.
Instead I foresee there will be countless spivs descending like vultures, they will have golden tongues singing of brilliant, and lucrative, prospects – “just sign here”.
There will be many unaccustomed to thinking in terms of hundreds of thousands of dollars and will spend it like it can never run out – $100,000 is much the same as $1,000,000 which is 100,000,000.
Many will buy silly things like expensive cars and bling, many move out of their black neighbourhoods into nicer ones where they won’t fit in especially as they will bring with them their incompatible ‘black culture’ – and I expect they will be targeted by black gangs who already see other blacks as something to exploit and prey upon.
And a new family corroding dynamic as kids watch their parents squander money before they get a chance to spend it the way they want.
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Interesting story, Bruce. One of the good professor’s “interests” is Identity Development.
As for “cleanliness is next to Godliness” – a quick look at a few Bible passages will confirm just that. Keeping clean, healthy, orderly homes was not only encouraged, it was the law.
No wonder a modern day Jezebel wants to push against it.
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From the Oz….
In the two trial days immediately before the comment by the Chief Justice, on Thursday, October 6, and Friday, October 7, 2022, a number of discrepancies had arisen during Ms Higgins’ cross-examination by Mr Whybrow. Among them:? Ms Higgins said she put the white dress she had worn under her bed and it sat there for six months, unwashed, but later admitted she wore it in Perth seven weeks later during an election campaign dinner with her boss, minister Linda Reynolds, after being shown a photo;
? Ms Higgins suggested she was in a bathroom suffering a panic attack for possibly some hours when in fact she was at farewell celebrations for her former boss, Liberal MP Steve Ciobo;
? Ms Higgins suggested that she asked her father to come to Canberra after the alleged rape but texts revealed his visit had been prearranged;
? Ms Higgins made multiple statements to various people and police that she had made or been to doctors’ appointments but had not been to any, and there was no evidence they were made;
? Ms Higgins admitted deleting phone messages before going to police, including text exchanges with a Parliament House security guard on the afternoon of the alleged rape, and deleting a single message from a text thread with her former boyfriend Ben Dillaway where she said “Not interested in pursuing, but it’s all beyond strange”;
? Ms Higgins acknowledged refusing to hand her phone to police and of making appointments with police that she didn’t turn up to, texting boyfriend David Sharaz: “I’m clearing out my phone ahead of the police”;
? Ms Higgins drafted chapter headings and an outline for a book before The Project TV interview and before going to police, and on March 16, 2021, received confirmation from columnist Peter FitzSimons that there was a publisher’s offer of $325,000.
After the weekend break, on the morning of Monday, October 10, it became apparent that Ms Higgins had not arrived at court to continue her cross-examination.”
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callisays:
March 18, 2023 at 8:26 am
A mild heatwave is the one you have in Autumn.Shakespeare would describe it as lovely and temperate. A Claytons Summer’s Day.
In England we called summer weather in Autumn an ‘Indian Summer’. I remember as a boy in 1959 there was a glorious ‘Indian Summer’ that went right through to late October. Nice.
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Cassie at 8:36.
Quite so.
Not only was this a “he said – she said” trial with zero corroborating or forensic evidence, the “evidence” of the complainant was as watertight as a colander.
For a judge to canvass a guilty plea at that point is totally out of order and shows clear bias.
She simply did not want to face the prospect of presiding over a Not Guilty verdict. No more Canbra cocktail party invites for her if that happens. -
Loyola flack Jenna Drenten is a gatekeeper and propagandist:
Here’s 56 seconds of her explaining how to be an LGBTIA+ Ally.
YouTube. -
rickw
Naturally hasn’t offered up any ideas on significantly improving Aus defence deterrence within a mere 4 years.
In four years, a significant number of formally enlisted reserves could receive sufficient training in weapons use and minor tactics to cause a lot of trouble for any potential invading force. They don’t have to be trained to full regular standards, just be significantly better than untrained enthusiasts learning on the job (ie, learning by seeing their comrades killed or wounded making silly mistakes that would have been drilled out of them very early in their training).
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Bourne, it’s still on the website under the ‘Commentary’ section.
Andrews more puppet than puppetmaster
Instead of sound medical reasoning, our lives were devastated on the strength of opinion polling and focus groups, populated largely, I suspect, by public servants on extended tea breaks at home on full pay.By STEVE WATERSON
From Inquirer
March 18, 2023Halfway into our three years of pandemic gaiety I took my dog for a stroll up to the Pacific Highway in Artarmon to observe the thin blue line in action.
A dozen police cars blocked side roads and funnelled southbound motorists towards a checkpoint where officers monitored where they had come from and where they were heading, ordering them not to enter central Sydney, where anti-lockdown protests were rumoured to be fermenting.
I must have stared too intrusively at this pseudo-paramilitary operation because a young constable approached me and asked where I was going.
“I’m afraid we haven’t decided yet,” I told her, nodding at the dog. “Well, no more than 5km from home,” she said.
“And why is that?” I asked, with the simple-minded look that is never far from my face.
“To keep everyone safe,” she said. “It’s the medical advice. Just do it.”
But it wasn’t medical advice, was it? Many of us questioned that claim from the start, wondering what part of a medical degree teaches you the maximum range of personal travel in an epidemic, or explains how to control infection when driving alone in your car or playing golf in a howling gale, or defines the epidemiological distinction between standing up and sitting on a barstool as a vector in viral transmission. But the carefully curated invisibility of that “advice” made it impossible to scrutinise or challenge, which was precisely the point.
What the jumped-up mandarins were in fact relying on has recently been exposed, thanks to this newspaper’s Damon Johnston and his relentless efforts to discover what guided Victoria’s world-champion lockdown.
American media magnate William Randolph Hearst (or sometimes George Orwell, sometimes Lord Northcliffe) is reputed to have described news as “something someone doesn’t want printed”, and Johnston’s two-year Freedom of Information battle and subsequent reporting is a glorious example of the kind of work neglected by so many of our jejune, incurious journalists, who turned themselves into shameful megaphones to amplify government propaganda. And to no one’s surprise, they continue to ignore or dismiss these revelations.
So instead of sound medical reasoning – and I will eat my old face mask if anyone who participated in the daily Covid scaremongering cares to produce that compelling “advice” – our lives were devastated on the strength of opinion polling and focus groups, populated largely, I suspect, by public servants on extended tea breaks at home on full pay.
An early enthusiast for China’s Belt and Road servility training, Victoria’s Premier adopted Xi Jinping’s brutal response to the first signs of the pandemic and continued it long after other regimes had abandoned lockdowns as ineffective and fantastically destructive.
Dan Andrews’ taxpayer-funded polling was about his ‘own standing’
The Daniel Andrews government’s taxpayer-funded polling on COVID-19 lockdown measures was about the… Premier’s “own standing”, says Victorian Shadow Finance Minister Jess Wilson. Her comments come after a shock revelation showed polling was used by the Victorian government throughout the pandemic years, which sought to monitor the public’s reaction More
Some commentators and cartoonists painted him as a ruthless dictator, a few grudgingly acknowledging that he was at least resolute in following his path. “Leadership is doing what is right,” he said. “Whether I’m criticised or praised, that is not my concern.” That’s true leadership, all right, and he made no apologies for it.Those noble sentiments are now revealed to be – oh, what’s the word? – absolute bollocks. The fearsome dictator turns out to have been a puppet, dancing on the strings manipulated by pollsters to protect his livelihood, while forcing thousands into the misery of unemployment, or worse.
But let’s not concentrate on one man, however egregious his performance. For leadership as we once understood it has vanished almost entirely from our polity, all over the land and at all levels. It’s likely fair to conclude that the other premiers, chief ministers and senior federal politicians were equally reliant on focus groups to underwrite and shape their lunacy, sharing the results and patting each other on the back in solidarity as they were locking us up. Perhaps that’s what they were doing in the national cabinet, for it seemed to achieve nothing else.
History is strewn with examples of the irrationality of crowds, which is why we look to men and women of great character and vision for leadership, to guide the masses away from the folly they incline towards in difficult times.
But politics, confirming its modern characterisation as show business for ugly people, is increasingly driven by popularity, not wisdom or integrity.
A once honourable calling, a gift of service to your community, has mutated into an unedifying dash to board the gravy train. Politicians’ salaries here are now among the highest in the world, as are those of the bureaucrats who pander to them. Generous expenses, living away from home allowances, chauffeurs, secretarial staff, and a fawning coterie of aides lining up, snouts twitching, for their turn at the trough; yes, it’s a wonderful life indeed.
No wonder the mediocrities will say or do anything to secure, cement and prolong their tenure. And given they lack an adequate moral compass, we shouldn’t be amazed to find them navigating by public opinion. They dissemble their way into office and reward the lobbyists and assorted vested interests who help install them, while betraying the voters who fall for their promises. Out of office, ex-politicians are parachuted into lucrative sinecures, prestigious positions filled before anyone else learns they’re vacant.
None of this, while disappointing, is news to anyone who has tracked the decline in quality and corresponding rise in malfeasance of our representatives.
More alarming is what the secret polling reveals about the respondents. If it’s accurate, then despair is the appropriate response, for it suggests a citizenry malleable and terrified, ready to hand over their childlike trust to the charlatans who offer the illusion of safety.
Fear paralyses rational thought processes; it’s why so few cool heads appear during a crisis. (Masks seem to have the same effect, judging by the sorry souls who still scuttle around our shopping centres glaring at the barefaced cheek of the unmasked.) Couple that to decades of damage to our education system, from kindy to university, and duping the ignorant becomes a worryingly simple task.
There’s no reason to believe Victorians are more gullible than the rest of their compatriots (although the standard of brainwashing they were subjected to was undoubtedly best on ground); so if similar research was conducted on the populations of other states, similar results must have been generated, which explains (and almost justifies) the condescension of our leaders.
Perhaps arrogantly, certainly foolishly, when the Covid panic began I imagined my objections to the sustained, unprecedented assault on our civil liberties reflected a sizeable proportion of mainstream opinion, bolstered by the Australian Human Rights Commission bravely speaking out in defence of our freedoms (sorry, needed a little joke there to lighten the mood).
But the Victorian polling has slapped the scales from my eyes.
Amid all the previously unimaginable outrages I can’t forget the people sleeping in their cars at state borders, banned from returning to their homes; others (I was one of them) were forbidden to visit dying parents or children; this newspaper published pitiful photographs of elderly couples, separated for their own good, pressing their hands together each side of a care-home window. Does any of that still sound reasonable to anyone? Should we just forget about it all until next time?
The truly frightening, and profoundly depressing, thing is that even as the evidence accumulates to show the futility of lockdowns, curfews, social distancing, QR codes, contact tracing and other contrived mechanisms to “keep us safe”; even as the cost of shutting so many businesses, paying people to hide at home, building unnecessary quarantine facilities and ramping up brutal police tactics nears half a trillion dollars; even after enforced isolation shattered mental health, particularly among children who lost vital years of schooling and socialisation; yes, even after all this suffering, you know the politicians would do it again in a heartbeat, confident that many of us would vote them back in just as eagerly.
It’s heartening to hear the growing number of voices demanding a royal commission, but so long as those complicit in this authoritarian, self-aggrandising deception remain in power, the chance of any worthwhile investigation into the horrors of our pandemic response remains remote, for they know full well what even the most cursory examination would uncover.
The establishment of a thorough, impartial inquiry would require those craven politicians to be honest, or as shortsighted as the Christmas-loving turkeys who continue to elect them. My own tiny focus group says they’re far too cunning to let that happen.
STEVE WATERSON SENIOR WRITER
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Crossiesays:
March 17, 2023 at 10:29 pm
Watched Vikki Campion on Peta Credlin tonight and thought she sounded exactly like Barnaby, even had his verbal idiosyncrasies. Sky could save a sone money and just employ the prettier of the couple. By the way, Vikki was wrong about abolishing the states, we should abolish local councils, too much corruption goes on there under the radar.Double the number of states, halve the number of senators from each state to keep the Senate/Reps balance correct, and have Tasmania retain its Constitutional minimum of six senators. Reduce the powers of councils by state law. Rubbish, roads, water, adequate but not gold-plated ports and community facilities. No sports cathedrals or “yartz centres”. No international “twin cities” or “learning trips”.
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A farmer stopped by the local mechanics shop to have his truck fixed. They couldn’t do it while he waited, so he said he didn’t live far and would walk home.
On the way home he stopped at the hardware store and bought a bucket and a gallon of paint. He then stopped by the feed store and picked up a couple of chickens and a goose. However, struggling outside the store he now had a problem – how to carry all his purchases home.
While he was scratching his head, he was approached by a little old lady who told him she was lost. She asked “Can you tell me how to get to 1603 Mockingbird Lane?” The farmer said “Well, as a matter of fact, my farm is very close to that house. I would walk you there but I can’t carry this lot”.
The old lady suggested “Why don’t you put the can of paint in the bucket. Carry the bucket in one hand, put a chicken under each arm and carry the goose in the other hand?” “Why thank you very much” he said and he proceeded to walk the old girl home.
On the way he says “Let’s take my short cut and go down this alley. We’ll be there in no time!”
The little old lady looked over cautiously then said “I am a lonely widow without a husband to defend me. How do I know that when we get in the alley you won’t hold me up against the wall, pull up my skirt, and have your way with me?” The farmer said “Holy smokes, lady! I’m carrying a bucket, a gallon of paint, two chickens and a goose. How could I possibly hold you up against the wall and do that?”
The old lady replied “Set the goose down, cover him with the bucket, put the paint on top of the bucket, and I’ll hold the chickens”.
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“It’s perjury season!”
Perjury is the go to tool on the left to use against conservatives. The left love perjury and perjurers. Perjury worked against Pell until the HC verdict, however in between Pell had to spend 405 days in gaol, despite being completely innocent of all allegations.
And it’s worked here against Lehmann.
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duncanmsays:
March 18, 2023 at 8:59 am
Can a cat who knows something of US banking explain to me why the Dodd Frank act didn’t prevent Biden bailing out SVB ?
I mentioned here the other day – and it is hair-splitting for all practical purposes – but maybe there is a difference between “reimbursing depositors” and “bailing out a bank”.
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Sancho Panzersays:
March 18, 2023 at 7:47 am
Bizarre that a judge would canvass a guilty plea in a “he said – she said” trial with zero corroborating or forensic evidence.
But let’s see what Googlery KC has to say.Richard Cranium seems to be completely committed to the cause of Mizzzz Knickerless, to the extent that there seems to be a personal connection between them.
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Farmer Gezsays:
March 18, 2023 at 9:03 am
Why did Higgins go with Lehmann in the first place?
That’s a question that wants an answer but it was not “empowering” to ask.All a bit murky.
She claims he diverted the Uber on the way home.
But, given they had a free night on the piss (courtesy of Defence Contractors), paying $15 for an extra Uber wasn’t a big ask.
I reckon they were both headed back there to get stuck into Linda’s booze cabinet but Britnah was to pissed to party on. -
Farmer Gezsays:
March 18, 2023 at 8:44 am
including text exchanges with a Parliament House security guard on the afternoon of the alleged rapewhat what what?
indeed! This is new news to me.. and reeks of planning and scullduggery.
Cassie of Sydney says:
March 18, 2023 at 8:36 am
From the Oz….when laid out like this, its no wonder Higgins bailed — her statements were more holes than actual cheese.
I do so hope McCallum gets dragged into the inquiry… sounds like she has some items to address.
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Ed Casesays:
March 18, 2023 at 8:03 am
The story hinges around why McCallum would bother or feel the need to say this to Whybrow.
It was obvious that he was guilty.No apprehended bias here. Is the evidence hidden away with the evidence of Curtin’s WW II treachery? Have you tried the Shedden Papers? Mizzzz Knickerless might have hidden the CCTV footage there.
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In England we called summer weather in Autumn an ‘Indian Summer’. I remember as a boy in 1959 there was a glorious ‘Indian Summer’ that went right through to late October. Nice.
I remember a childhood summer from growing up in the County Durham coalfields ..
August 23 1961 between 8.30am & 11.34 am .. the sun shone without any interference from the gale force, North Sea, wind and not a single rain squall said “hello” during in those 3, glorious, hours ..
Life was bliss as we thru our donkey jackets off with gay abandon and basked contentedly in the freedom of only wearing a jumper, shirt, singlet,jeans and lace up boots ….. LOL! -
Richard Cranium seems to be completely committed to the cause of Mizzzz Knickerless, to the extent that there seems to be a personal connection between them.
Googlery KC also got fixated on the case of burglar and kiddy fiddler Ricky Slater, who died trying to run from the scene of one of his numerous crimes.
He got that one spectacularly wrong too. -
I mentioned here the other day – and it is hair-splitting for all practical purposes – but maybe there is a difference between “reimbursing depositors” and “bailing out a bank”.
As it appears, the depositor bail out hasn’t stopped the rout, maybe slowed it for the Regionals. Naturally, the biggest shareholders of the Fed are the major beneficiaries of the depositor flight to (too big to fail) safety.
It’s looking ugly for the Fed now. If they keep pushing rates up, more at risk banks will suffer. Every tightening cycle has ended with a financial crisis of some kind so we could be there now. Which means inflation will be around a while yet with the Fed now in a straight jacket – of it’s own making. PM’s and BTC behaving accordingly.
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CommunitySomebody’s guidelines.I am an elected member of the UK Parliament. The speech was given in the Chamber of the House of Commons and responded to by a Government Minister…
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Matt Taibbi
1.TWITTER FILES #19
The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine
Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of “True Stories”
Who are Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss and why did Elon Musk choose them for Twitter Files?
Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss were some of the few who were given intimate access to the Twitter Files and subsequently made public on the micro-blogging site, things that were hitherto unknown
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callisays:
March 18, 2023 at 8:23 am
the left weaponising the judicial systemI’m stunned that they would go after the laptop guy in the States. He’s been ruined already.
The fascist leftards will not be content until , not just those who oppose them, but everyone who does not actively and enthusiastically support them, is ground to dust. See m0nty=fa and his slogan “you lot”, a clear demonstration that he considers “us lot” to be less than human.
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On the subject of an organised militia versus the individual free enterprise model proposed by rickw.
Outside the major centres is the place for the organised militia, where organised groups can operate together against groups of enemy soldiers. In the large towns and cities is the place for the individual entrepreneurs, taking out selected lone individuals, secret police and administrators.
Embrace the healing power of “and”. It is not an “either-or” situation. Both systems have their place, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
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1.TWITTER FILES #19
The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine
Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of “True Stories” -
That mother towards the end talking about how her 8 year old is trans. My goodness. This whole video is a mental health crisis.
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“Caludon Castle insisted its unisex toilets were supervised at break time and fitted with locks.”
Someone is lying their arse off. -
I posted this on the old thread late last night but seeing that it was actually on CNN thought it might be worth repeating here.
Deplorable4trump2024
@PTRUMPFORTX2020Kevin O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank, calls out the insanity of the Democrats.
This clip is absolute for all the CNN viewers watching. He explains that the leftist policies are destroying blue states and says they have become “uninvestable.”
“California? Out of business… no business there. You can’t do business there. I don’t know what that place is gonna turn into… Imagine San Francisco. You can’t even walk at night out in the street. Sorry!”
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Trudeau is like a C19 shot:
A prick that doesn’t work, is not needed, and can seriously cause harm.
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Albrechtsen points out that McCallum’s conduct won’t be investigated by the inquiry. It might be a Judicial Council (or something like that), of which McCallum is the Chair. Maybe that body could commission an out-of-ACT judge or ex-judge to do the work.
I doubt it will come to this. Judges are very averse to findings other Judges have misbehaved; such findings undermine the respect and standing of all judges.
I hope that someone has been compiling a dossier of this travesty. It requires a thorough exposure. -
That message to PH security. Why was it “disappeared”? It must have been detrimental to the case.
I shall put on my Clousseau hat and mac and…mais non! I must employ ze leetle grey cells instead. If it had anything to do with “see you later this evening”, or “I’ll be back for a short while”, then she already knew she’d be going back to PH, not innocently sharing an Über home and being sidetracked on the way.
Zis derg may not hunt, but it’s not barking in ze night either.
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1. Didn’t want the favourite white dress crumpled, so took it off?
She was too drunk to put her shoes on.
No way could she have removed that dress by herself.2. No idea what the two of them were doing in that same office – for 75 minutes.
Higgins was too drunk to scratch herself.
The question remains:
What was Lehrmann doing for 75 minutes, apart from ignoring 6 calls from his [then] girlfriend?BTW, that girlfriend might have an interesting story to tell, if the AFP had bothered talking to her.
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calli says:
March 18, 2023 at 8:23 am
the left weaponising the judicial system
I’m stunned that they would go after the laptop guy in the States. He’s been ruined already.Not ruined enough. I think they are going after a jail term where he will be joining the J6 prisoners. On the other hand, as someone already suggested, it’s a squirrel attempt – look over there, not here where the Bidens are revealed to be completely corrupted and treasonous to boot.
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A disorganised militia has it’s role in that it is unpredictable and you cannot break a non existent chain of command.
You could have a full spectrum of responses. What can add to what we have now is nukes, mines, drones and militias.
Nuclear arms
Conventional military platforms
Special forces, rapid deployment & task forces
SF/CT in conjunction with civilian forces
Drones
Large scale mining
Defensive fighting by conventional forces
Organised militia
Disorganised & independent militias broken off defeated conventional forces and organised militiasLike I said the other day, there is a large component of reserve and former military and police personnel as well as competent civilian shooters.
The full spectrum of responses finishing with 200k organised militia and 100-200k disorganised militia would make invasion a headache for any party that can still invade after they’ve been nuked.
The idea is to deter anyone of thinking twice about doing such a thing.
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GreyRangasays:
March 18, 2023 at 9:37 amNut Case I’ll send you a matchbox and a sharp pencil to write down all the things you’ve got right. On second thoughts make that a crayon so you don’t injure yourself.
I know where you live so I’ll leave it in your letterbox.
That sounds like a threat, old boy?
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No way could she have removed that dress by herself.
Except when she put it on again after she refused for it to be medically examined.
What was Lehrmann doing
We’re not taking the word of PH security who seem to have deceived us over their communication with Higgins, nor Higgins herself re “we need a sex scandal like Barnaby’s but without the baby tee hee”.
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The judge hearing Lehrmann’s aplicatio to exte d time to sue has a very wide discretion to choose the result. The relevant law cannot dictate the result, so that, consciously or not, the judge will consider the merits of whether Lehrmann should have a forum in which he can test Higgins’ allegations.
The revelations about McCallum might tip the scales Lehrmann’s way. -
That sounds like a threat, old boy?
Under your old pseudonym (Grigory) you bragged about your career to the point where you were virtually begging people to work out your real identity, as a form of argument from authority.
Not that we’d break the blog rules mentioning your real name, but since you did that, you can’t cry victim over this.
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The mass narrative of COVID-19 vaccine injuries across the developed world may be under some more pressure with recent comments from Germany’s Ministry of Health, Karl Lauterbach. While Lauterbach was a champion for the mass COVID-19 vaccine strategy in Germany, as was much of the centrist and liberal governing class, elements on the right (AfD) and left such as Sahra Wagenknecht opposed Lauterbach’s policies due to concerns of mass side effects associated with the novel mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Doubling down in his response to those critics, Lauterbach not only tweeted, but also declared on talk shows that the COVID-19 vaccines were associated with no side effects! But how could he make such a claim when Germany’s own Ministry of Health reported serious adverse events in every one in 5,000 vaccinations? Now he has changed his tune, an abrupt ‘U-Turn’ which must make other health ministers nervous.
Karl Lauterbach
The proverbial crap hits the fan, as the Health Minister went on television recently making what Thomas Fazi writing for British opinion media Unherd calls a “spectacular U-turn.” The recent interview was presented on ZDF heute. The Minister of Health admitted that vaccine-induced injuries are now a serious issue, and that the government would initiate a serious investigation into the adverse outcomes associated with the mass vaccination program, part of a bid to improve care as quickly as possible.
Interestingly, Lauterbach also went on the record asking pharmaceutical companies to set up compensation schemes. He noted, “That’s because the profits have been exorbitant.” As has been the case, he continued to contradict himself as just a year prior, he communicated that “The pharmaceutical companies will not get rich with vaccines.”
As reported in Unherd, more than 300,000 cases of vaccine side effects have accumulated in the Ministry’s own system over the past couple years. There are more and more people claiming to be vaccine injured, lodging compensation claims against the state—which, based on the contracts signed by the EU with vaccine manufacturers, is liable for any vaccine-related damage.
As TrialSite has reported across the Anglo-American world, in the German-speaking world as well, the subject of vaccine injuries has begun to be openly discussed in the German mainstream media.
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Dr. Robert Malone on Fauci Blocking Early Treatment to Secure His Vaccine Legacy
“What we had is basically three years of suffering [and] unnecessary loss of life as a consequence of Tony Fauci’s cognitive bias towards the vaccine industry…He’s now at the end of his career and there are virtually no successful vaccines that he’s created”
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US media has little to do with news, and a lot to do with dividing the people and controlling ours minds. To avoid the traps and maintain sanity, check out this excerpt from Plandemic 2.
Please share if you care!
-Mikki Willis
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Rogersays:
March 18, 2023 at 9:43 am
The security detail on duty the night of the alleged rape should have termination letters given to them on the Monday. Why not?
Their job is to protect parliamentarians and staffers from the public, not themselves.
Correct.
And any guard who refused entry to someone with legit ID and a “do you know who I am?” attitude ran the risk of of being sacked or being re-assigned to to security at a dusty cold National Archives warehouse in the outer suburbs. -
.. the judge will consider the merits of whether Lehrmann should have a forum in which he can test Higgins’ allegations.
Lehrman confessed to lying to his [then] girlfriend about conversations with his lawyer that never happened.
That’s a White Flag.The game changer was Lisa Wilkinson dropping Ten’s legal team and hiring her own gunnies.
Someone obviously gave her a heads up that Ten [and NewsCorp] were going to roll over and pay Lehrmann.
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Chairman Xi Heading to Russia Next Week For State Visit with President Putin – NATO, Ukraine and U.S. Going Bananas
March 17, 2023 – Sundance
In the background of the Ukraine conflict, smiling Panda has been happy to see distracted western nations bleeding their resources and treasury in support of Ukraine. Meanwhile happy Panda negotiates and brokers increased relationships between Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India and China.
There is no downside to Chairman Xi visiting Russia and advancing a position that ‘peaceful negotiations’ should begin between Russia and Ukraine, unless a resolution to the conflict is against the geopolitical usefulness of the war; which appears to be the unfortunate current status.
“The U.S. on Friday said it would oppose any effort by China at the meeting to propose a ceasefire in Ukraine“…
Think about that. Remember, Ukraine is to Washington DC as North Korea is to Beijing.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Moscow next week, offering a major diplomatic boost to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the same day the International Criminal Court announced it wants to put the Russian leader on trial for alleged war crimes.
Xi’s visit was the latest sign of Beijing’s emboldened diplomatic ambitions, and came amid sharpening East-West tensions over the war in Ukraine, now in its 13th month. The U.S. on Friday said it would oppose any effort by China at the meeting to propose a ceasefire in Ukraine as the “ratification of Russian conquest.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby encouraged Xi to reach out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to get his country’s perspective on the war and avoid any “one-sided” proposals.
China has sought to project itself as neutral in the conflict, even while it has refused to condemn Moscow’s aggression and declared last year that it had a “no-limits” friendship with Russia. Beijing has denounced Western sanctions against Moscow, and accused NATO and the United States of provoking Putin’s military action.
Throughout the conflict, China has said the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected. It remains unclear, however, whether it sympathizes with Moscow’s claims to seized Ukrainian territory.
[…] Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Putin and Xi would have a one-on-one meeting over an informal dinner Monday. Broader talks involving officials from both countries on a range of subjects are scheduled for Tuesday.
Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, suggested the talks could yield new approaches to the fighting in Ukraine. “I’m sure that our leader and the Chinese leader will exchange their assessments of the situation” there, he said. “We shall see what ideas will emerge after that.” (read more)
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Lehrman confessed to lying to his [then] girlfriend about conversations with his lawyer that never happened.
It proves nothing you halfwit, moreso given the above is a partial fabrication by you.
The game changer was Lisa Wilkinson dropping Ten’s legal team and hiring her own gunnies.
Channel 10 were and are prepared to throw her under the next bus that comes along.
Brittany Higgins could be indicted with multiple counts of perjury.
Who else knew about the plans she discussed by text message re a sex scandal?
They should be indicted ex officio for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
If that means beloved senior labor figures must be sacrificed for justice to prevail, that is a sacrifice Australia needs to make.
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I am off to bathe in the glory of not having a convicted kiddy-fiddler as President of our cheer squad.
Whoa, whoa, whoa there.
He was booted over two years ago by the club, and now lives – naturally enough – very close to Ed October, in Brisbane where the jacarandas bloom forever.
The Thommo Commo Thieves have standards too.
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Nolte: Janet Yellen Admits Government Choosing Bank Bailout Winners and Losers
Treasure Secretary Janet Yellen admitted to the U.S. Senate Thursday that the government is choosing winners and losers in the rigged bank bailout lottery. And wouldn’t you know it, the losers sure look like the smaller community banks the big banks (and Democrats) would love to see eliminated.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford asked Yellen a very simple question:
Will the deposits in every community bank in Oklahoma, regardless of their size, be fully insured now? Are they fully covered, every bank, every community bank in Oklahoma, regardless of the size of the deposit? Will they get the same treatment that SVBP [Silicon Valley Bank] just got or Signature Bank just got?
Please look very closely at Yellen’s terrifying answer:
A bank only gets that treatment if a majority of the FDIC board, a super majority of the Fed board and I, in consultation with the president, determine that the failure to protect uninsured depositors, would create systemic risk and significant economic and financial consequences.
In other words, if the FDIC likes your bank, the depositors are insured. If not, the depositors are not insured over $250,000, which means what?
It means that people will withdraw their money from community banks and hand those deposits over to a handful of fascist giant banks that not only own almost all the banking but will refuse to do business with you if you hold certain political opinions they find offensive… Oh, and you can bet those political opinions they find offensive will always-always-always be conservative opinions.
Lankford understands what these corrupt crony capitalists are up to and follows up with this:
“So what is your plan to keep large depositors from moving their funds out of community banks into the big banks?” Lankford asked. “We have seen the mergers of banks over the past decade, and I’m concerned you’re about to accelerate that by encouraging anyone who has a large deposit in a community bank to say, ‘We’re not gonna make you whole, but if you go to one of our preferred banks, we will make you whole at that point.’
Now that Yellen had been exposed and busted, she chose to answer this important question by playing stupid…
“Look, I mean, that’s certainly not something that we’re encouraging,” she said.
Lankford responded with the obvious: “That is happening right now!”
Yellen’s idiot act continued:
That is happening because depositors are concerned about the bank failures that have happened and whether or not other banks could also fail…
Lankford again tried to get her to answer the only question that mattered…
No, it’s happening because you’re fully insured no matter what the amount is if you’re in a big bank. You’re not fully insured if you’re in a community bank.
Watch the full testimony below. It’s only a few minutes…
I hope everyone understands what’s happening here…
By informing the public that their money is only safe in those big banks the Democrat party favors, everyone will deposit their money in the big banks and effectively bankrupt community banks or force them to give up the ghost to the big banks.
That’s just step one.
Step two is worse.
Once the big banks control all the money, they will also control everything else, including what kind of business you can run, what you can and cannot say on social media, and what opinions you can hold…
How would you like to live in a world where a gun store has no place to bank or run a credit card payment?
How would you like to live in a world where a mall owner cannot rent to a gun store?
How would you like to live in a world where your accounts are closed if you tweet a biological fact like, “Trans women are men?”
You might not want to live in that world, but that is the world the Democrat party seeks, so they are in the process of deliberately undermining faith in community banks.
It is always about control through centralized power.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
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Ed Casesays:
March 18, 2023 at 9:09 am
The security detail on duty the night of the alleged rape should have termination letters given to them on the Monday.
Why not?What for, if nothing happened?
As you have been told many times before, but always ignore, for permitting a serious breach of security in the minister’s office. Drunks should NOT be given free out-of-hours access to secure areas.
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Who else knew about the plans she discussed by text message re a sex scandal?
Indeedy my wordy lordy yes. Wanted to ‘drop’ the story right before critical Parliamentary dates, as I recall. Seems the influence and power she felt had dropped into her lap turned out to be just her own spew.
The stunning and brave rags-to-riches Girl That Could ended up becoming just the fat chick that couldn’t.
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It’s Official!! Brisbane is on Time’s list of THE WORLD’S GREATEST PLACES OF 2023
Up there with Vienna, Barcelona, and St Moritz. People from all over the world flock to marvel at our late blooming jacarandas.
Eat dust, Sydney, Perth, and Khartoum-on-Yarra.
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I am also sensing a pattern in the Porter, Pell and Lehrmann witch hunts.
Is three data points enough for a regression?
Why do I keep on seeing a middle aged Chinese women when I wear this hat and put my mail to my forehead?
Does anyone running DFAT understand my comment before about the Utah Data Centre?
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Sancho Panzersays:
March 18, 2023 at 8:59 am
BJ at 8:50.
As others have noted here previously, Zelensky’s declaration that “every Ukrainian is a soldier” opened it up for the Wussians to justify eliminating everyone and everything in their path.Formally enlisted reserves, as with permanent force members, have at least the fig-leaf of the Geneva Conventions. Others, like SOE operators in WW II, take their chances and accept the risks.
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In Well, That’s Awkward news:
ICC issues arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine war crimes
ICC President Piotr Hofmanski said in a video statement on Friday that while the court’s judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them.
Sure Buddy.
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America has Fallen- Rule of Law No Longer Exists!
Team Biden’s charging 1,000 more with Jan. 6 crimes to perpetuate a fake political emergency
The Biden administration is planning to charge another thousand Trump supporters with crimes related to the Jan. 6 Capitol clash.
This will perpetuate an atmosphere of political emergency that justifies President Joe Biden’s war on domestic extremism.
But a change in federal judges has turned the Jan. 6 trials into a kangaroo court and makes a mockery of sending nonviolent Trump supporters to prison for threatening American democracy.
More than a thousand people have already been charged with Jan. 6 offenses.
That is equal to almost half of the total number of protesters who entered the Capitol that day.
A corrupt numbers game is at the heart of the Biden propaganda-prosecution campaign.
The more people indicted for Jan. 6, the easier it becomes for the Biden reelection campaign to portray the president as the savior against right-wing tyranny.
Jan. 6 is also Biden’s primary proof America is in grave danger from white supremacy.
The Biden White House has already exploited the Capitol clash to sanctify federal censorship.
Biden White House Digital Director Robert Flaherty invoked Jan. 6 to browbeat Facebook into increasing its suppression of true criticisms of COVID policies and vaccines.
Most of the Jan. 6 protesters who violently attacked police or wantonly destroyed public property have already been justifiably charged by the feds.
But Biden prosecutors are ruining people’s lives for “parading without a permit” near the Capitol that day.
With another thousand cases in the works, will they vilify anyone who allegedly had seditious thoughts within a mile of the Capitol?
Pro-Trump groups had official permits to protest Jan. 6 near the Capitol.
Video from that day shows police and perhaps undercover agents or informants dismantling barriers that blocked protesters from entering prohibited areas.
The full role of undercover federal agents or operatives on Jan. 6 remains secret.
Regardless, collective guilt was speedily attached to all protesters.
Capitol Police Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman told Congress that Jan. 6 involved “a terrorist attack by tens of thousands of insurrectionists.”
Pittman’s statement sounded deranged in 2021 but has since morphed into Team Biden conventional wisdom.
The FBI classifies all Jan. 6 defendants as “domestic terrorists” — even though only a small percentage of the Trump protesters engaged in violence that day, and most have only been convicted on misdemeanor charges.
FBI whistleblowers reveal that FBI bosses “have pressured agents to move cases into the [domestic violence and extremism] category to hit self-created performance metrics,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) recounted.
FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle said that “the FBI made him divide one domestic terrorism case into ‘four different cases,’” Fox News reported, “to show Congress an influx of domestic-terrorism cases.”
If the Jan. 6 court cases were heard by juries of the defendants’ peers, federal prosecutors would likely be striking out far and wide.
Instead, all the cases are being heard in Washington with juries stocked with government employees who believe everything they hear on NPR.
At least one judge is blocking Jan. 6 defendants from access to Capitol security footage Tucker Carlson already aired recently.
As of Friday, the new chief judge for the DC federal circuit overseeing all Jan. 6 prosecutions is James Boasberg.
Boasberg was the guardian angel for a corrupt FBI official whose actions helped open the floodgates to political chaos and pervasive distrust.
Former FBI Assistant General Counsel Kevin Clinesmith confessed in 2020 to falsifying key evidence to get a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to spy on the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.
That investigation spurred a torrent of leaks of classified information by the FBI (including by chief James Comey) and the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.
His investigation roiled national politics for two years before Mueller admitted there was no evidence to prosecute Trump or his campaign officials for colluding with Russia in the 2016 campaign.
Federal prosecutors wanted the disgraced FBI lawyer sent to prison because his crime’s “resulting harm is immeasurable.”
But Boasberg gushed with sympathy for the confessed criminal: “Mr. Clinesmith has lost his job in government service — what has given his life much of its meaning.” Boasberg gave Clinesmith a wrist slap — 400 hours of community service and 12 months of probation.
The Justice Department inspector general documented many abuses of power and deceit by FBI officials in the Trump investigation, but not a single FBI official has spent a day behind bars.
Does Boasberg believe federal agents have a right to subvert our democracy?
Videos Tucker Carlson released show legions of protestors walking peacefully through the Capitol Jan. 6.
How can federal prosecutors hound citizens who committed no violence after the chief federal judge practically absolved the FBI official whose crime helped open a political Pandora’s box?
We still don’t know all that happened inside the Capitol Jan. 6, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy promises to “slowly roll out” the 40,000 hours of surveillance footage to every news agency.
But Team Biden’s plan to sacrifice another thousand Americans on the Jan. 6 altar is a travesty of justice and due process.
From the Comments
– People are beginning to see what our government has become. It is no longer democrat and republican, nor conservative or liberal it is free people and a tyrannical government that no longer works on behalf of the people but only works for themselves and those elites who support them.
– $150 BILLION to Ukraine while our banks fail? Say it aint so
– The problem is the weaponization of Geo-Fencing whereas the Federal Govt obtains cellphone location data and have marked out if you were within a certain distance from the event then you too were involved without any other proof of actual involvement… Merely walking by and WHAM!
Moral of the story is get a phone you can remove the battery, get a throw away phone for the day, or a signal blocking bag… Or don’t bring your phone at all!
Interesting though how they haven’t even tried using the same tech on all those BLM protestors that burnt Govt buildings and rioted!
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Had this scenario ever played out previously?
As in:
Lehrmann leaves his Security Pass at home, signs in to PH with an extremely drunk staffer, Staffer gets the sack from the Minister on the next Business Day?The AFP weren’t interested in that, though they did fine tooth comb 32,000 Text messages and 5,000 calls on Higgins Phone.
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He had deliberately left his Security Pass at home
Complete BS.
signs in to PH with an extremely drunk staffer
It’s not a RSL club you mong.
they did fine tooth comb 32,000 Text messages and 5,000 calls on Higgins Phone
Which also point to a flippant attitude to the creation of a “sex scandal” discussed before the night of the allegations. Metadata would also assert and confirm her admissions about lying about getting the morning after pill.
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While Yellen Assures, Banks Run
The Treasury Secretary’s claim that all is well are belied by the reality at First Republic Bank.
By The WSJ Editorial Board
Janet Yellen offered more assurances Thursday that U.S. banks are safe and sound—and we doubt even the Treasury Secretary believes it. Certainly no one else does. The biggest American banks had to commit $30 billion on Thursday to rescue First Republic Bank—15 years to the day since Bear Stearns’s collapse. Happy anniversary!
The San Francisco-based bank’s shares have lost 70% since last Wednesday, and its credit rating has been downgraded to junk. First Republic investors and depositors haven’t been soothed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s guarantee of uninsured deposits at Silicon Valley (SVB) and Signature banks, or the Federal Reserve’s new emergency lending facility.
More troubling, a $70 billion liquidity lifeline offered by J.P. Morgan and others over the weekend appears to have been insufficient. If First Republic’s problems go deeper than liquidity, the risks in the U.S. banking system may be bigger than regulators recognized and could grow if the economy slows.
First Republic caters to the affluent in California’s Bay Area, Los Angeles, Boston and New York. About two-thirds of its deposits are uninsured and thus susceptible to a run if customers lose confidence. Wealthy customers were pulling deposits even before SVB failed.
The SVB blowup accelerated the flight, and the Fed’s emergency lending facility was intended to help banks ride out a run. At the same time the FDIC guarantee of uninsured SVB and Signature deposits under its “systemic risk exception” was supposed to prevent contagion by creating an implicit backstop at other banks.
Fed data show banks borrowed $164.8 billion from two Fed backstop facilities in the most recent week, but the panic is still on.
One reason is that only 15% of First Republic’s $212.6 billion in assets are investment securities, mostly made up of municipal bonds. By contrast, most of SVB’s assets consisted of U.S. government or mortgage-backed securities, which bear a duration risk if interest rates rise, but can also easily be liquidated in a crunch.
Muni bonds have the advantage of being tax-exempt and bear a low-risk weighting for the purposes of calculating capital to meet regulatory standards. Regulators also deem muni bonds “high-quality liquid assets”—except they’re really not. Most muni bonds are held by households and mutual funds and are thinly traded on the secondary market.
Muni bonds have a similar duration risk to other long-dated government securities but can’t be rapidly sold to redeem deposits. The Fed’s emergency lending facility also doesn’t accept most muni bonds as collateral, and First Republic holds few securities that it can borrow against at the central bank’s new super-duper discount window.
Most of the bank’s assets consist of commercial and residential real-estate loans. “Our loan portfolio is concentrated in single family residential mortgage loans, including non-conforming, adjustable-rate, initial interest-only period and jumbo mortgages,” its investor report warns, adding these may be vulnerable to defaults as interest rates rise. Uh-oh.
Defaults on commercial real-estate loans have been increasing, especially in First Republic’s chief lending markets. Housing prices have crashed in California’s Bay Area to near pre-pandemic levels, and tech layoffs raise another credit risk. The risk of loan losses could explain the government’s rush to shore up First Republic with a capital infusion.
Like SVB, First Republic benefited from the Federal Reserve’s zero-interest rates and quantitative easing, which caused deposits from its wealthy customers to soar. It used these deposits to fund loans that appeared safe at the time but now look much less so. Markets today are enforcing more discipline.
This is another illustration of how the Dodd-Frank regulatory apparatus has failed. Democrats blame the 2018 bipartisan banking reform, which freed regional banks from many burdensome regulations applied to the big banks. But First Republic’s Tier 1 leverage ratio is greater than that of most big banks, though it still may not be enough to absorb losses.
The underlying problem is that the Fed’s modern monetary experiment and Dodd-Frank regulation distorted bank balance sheets. Vulnerabilities are emerging as the Fed corrects its inflationary mistakes. The more the Biden Administration insists the economy and banking system are A-ok when they’re manifestly not, the more markets get nervous.
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