US tripling it’s nuclear power generation capacity, while we run the nation into the ground with mirrors and windmills. We…
Open Thread – Weekend 25 March 2023
- Open Thread – Weekend 18 May 2024
- Bumtree #15
- Bumtree #14
- Open Thread – Thurs 16 May 2024
- Bumtree #13
I agree with you, Craig Foster has to go. I usually record Danica’s program and watch it later so when…
I remember bus conductors being called clippies for punching the passengers’ bus tickets.
Hey bern Sound like Sydney is having only a moderately bad day. On the coast of NSW, we can beat…
Case in point. A ‘friend’, a 60+ woman, PhD, independently wealthy, travelled the world, no lasting relationships, no children. Her…
John H, you are as full of it as mUnty
look at you trying to weld your observation to your theory.
if you really want it to stick … try using an even thicker layer of bullshit
look at you floating your newspaper boat
Yep, the West is reliant on Russia. Which is why the sanctions have crippled the West. No that didn’t happen did it?
NSW Liberal primary vote:
“The libs have lost because they have given up any pretence of supporting conservative values:”
Correct…..and not even just “conservative values”, they’ve given any pretence of supporting religious freedom, individual liberty, fiscal responsibility, free speech and so on.
You reap what you sow.
Wasn’t there an attempt to start his own blog?
“Wasn’t there an attempt to start his own blog?”
LOL, I suspect now only frequented by fellow pervert apologists. Like attracts like.
Labor still has a stranglehold on the working class vote, that won’t change any time soon.
Close, but no.
Labor still has a stranglehold on the Lumpen Proletariat vote, that won’t change any time soon.
Fixed.
Yes, thanks for last nite, Rabz. Hairy still sleeping it off! Sorry Cass for driving you home at 40 kph or less. Had to be careful myself. 🙂
Very nice to meet IRL one of our medico contributors last nite; much to chat about.
Rabz keeps the email list for Sydney meet-ups, something like fifteen Cats and some partners on it already. If interested, it’s very informal, attendance is variable, get in touch with Rabz. Interstate visitors welcome.
On that note, Vic Cats should know Mater is planning a meet-up in Bendigo on Easter Saturday for any locals. We will be there for the Ring Cycle Opera marathon by the Melbourne Opera so look forward also to some Cat pub chat for light relief. Mater has details.
Dover is agreeably doing what Sinc did – putting people in touch with each other’s emails if requested.
IRL networks of like-minded people emailing came into their own when Sinc’s Cat ended. A useful emergency measure to stay in touch.
Boasting Taliban share images of repaired military vehicles left by the West
EXCLUSIVE: Photographs shared by the official Ministry of National Defence, Afghanistan, showed line upon line of military vehicles the regime said were now ready for use.
The Taliban have shared pictures showing off over “300 military vehicles” they claim to have restored after they were left behind in the humiliating Allied withdrawal in 2021. In photographs shared on the official Twitter account of the of Ministry of National Defence, Afghanistan, rows upon rows of military support and attack units can be seen.
Alongside a video and pictures posted on Saturday, the Islamic fundamentalist regime said “41 types” of military vehicle had been repaired for service with the 203 Mansoori Army Corps, part of the Afghan National Army formed in October 2021.
According to the Taliban ministry, the haul of hardware includes over 150 types of Humvee in different configurations, as well as two “tanks”, hospital and supply trucks.
It’s estimated the US alone left $7 billion of military gear – including 78 aircraft, 12,000 Humvees and thousands of air-to-ground weapons, according to a report from the Pentagon last year.
In the photographs released by the Taliban Humvee-like vehicles can be seen with firing turrets mounted on top, as well as scores of support trucks lined up outside a dusty barracks.
Overall, it says as many as 300 vehicles that had been “destroyed” by Western forces leaving the country had been repaired.
m0nty – what’s missing are conservative leaders who can explain and sell the message. Latham’s heart is in the right spot, but he’s a brawler.
Someone like John Anderson does a much better job at – but he’s bailed out of the cut and thrust of politics.
Unfortunately, it’ll take a few years of rack and ruin (blackouts, rising taxes and prices, falling services, rising crime, etc) before the pendulum swings… and the real concern is that the longer it takes, history tells us the swing will be more pronounced and/or violent.
NSW has had strange electoral results the last two cycles. Starting with that useluess boob Carr, we leave parties in for about 2-3 cycles (8-12 yrs) until we get of them. The incumbent gets lazy and takes the electorate for granted, and we decide to give the other guy a crack at it.
as for mUnty
the same bloke who says to your face that men can actually be women if they pretend hard enough
also seriously believes of himself that, every thing he says next is even more truthy that his original gibberish
fap, fap, fap all day long
Coalition Primary Vote.
The Liberal Primary Vote [they don’t contest National Party Seats] is 25.7%.
1. If he was a Democrat, you would have loved him.
2. His policies are not that different from Bill Clinton’s.
3. There were widespread tax cuts and many regulations were repealed.
4. What he could pass in legislation was dictated by establishment Republicans.
5. “Health entitlements” alone crippled the Detroit manufacturing base and now the UAW have very little power because they abused it. The uninsured were nearly always young male workers. Before Obamacare, health insurance including hospitals cover was affordable even to the indigent – $25 pm with Blue Shield, and it could be subsidised with Medicare or Medicaid. You don’t mention FICA taxes at all because you’re shallow as a puddle of piss.
I don’t feel so great today.
I blame too much cake at the post-election party.
When real life catches up with a meme.
https://twitter.com/Culture_Crit/status/1639683622138511363
Tanya gives lie to the trope that the Liberals need to be more progressive to be relevant.
Which shows true leadership potential.
What time does the FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2023 start?
27/03/23
Formula 1® returns to Melbourne with F2® and F3® also on the schedule.
TRACK TIME
31 MAR – Practice 1 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
31 MAR – Practice 2 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
1 APR – Practice 3 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
1 APR – Qualifying 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
2 APR – Race 3:00 PM
Where is the FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2023 held and how many laps is it?
The race takes place at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, located in Melbourne.
Drivers will race 58 laps covering a total distance of 306.124 kilometres.
What TV channel is the FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2023 on in Australia?
All live F1® television coverage in Australia is on Fox Sports, available via Foxtel.
Live HD streaming is also available for compatible devices through Kayo Sports.
For free-to-air viewers, 10 Bold and 10 Play will also show the race. Check local guides for more details.
Nothing unexpected really about last night’s result. Kean is in but with some resistance shown.
Waiting to see if ON can provide some sort of bulwark in the Upper House.
Walter Wall is going to take some defeating though. It won’t be an easy time for us.
Hatches battened (to continue with the nautical imagery – a lot of English comes from seafaring).
Some day, some time, we’ll once again hear the cry from the crows nest – Land Ahoy!! Relief will be in sight, so these times in today’s sea of perils will surely end. As plenty here have already said.
And at that time, joy of joys, our albatross called M0nty will be nowhere in sight.
“I blame too much cake at the post-election party.”
I made a ginger sponge and took it to Rabz. Very nice too.
Someone like John Anderson does a much better job at – but he’s bailed out of the cut and thrust of politics.
Anderson was a failure in Federal Politics, so he quit.
Tried for a comeback as a Senator, rejected.
Mark Latham is a galah, NSW voters rejected him as Labor Leader, how did One Nation go in the Upper House?
1 seat, so no change.
I want One!
OYSTER 745
A crewed 75 foot cruising yacht designed for very big adventures.
A top night.
Especially the cake!
so – 2PP swing to her of 1.5%, but a swing away from both ALP (-2) and Lib (-2.7) to ONP (+6%) on first preference.
And onward the Good Ship Catallaxy plows through the toughs and peaks of another political storm.
She went down once but rose again from the deep to continue flying freedom’s flag.
Good health and an extra tot of rum to all who sail in her.
Breaking news for Kerry Chicarovski.
Mark Latham is from a competing party.
It’s his job to attract voters away.
She gives away her true attitude that minor parties on the right should be simply preference harvesting outfits for the Libs.
troughs. Anglo-Saxon spelling is quite a chore sometimes. Toughs of course will do as well.
I’m finished waxing lyrical now. Off for some coffee. 🙂
I’m not surprised, he does not come across as a pleasant person one would want to be friends with.
Ah but duncan… what if you’re wrong, and the ruin never comes? Labor’s brand now is technocratic competency, boring but effective. That’s the promise. Of course that may turn out to be a crock as well, they may get dragged down by unions/greens or overrun by global events… but what if they don’t, and they actually are competent? A decade later and you could still be waiting, while the evangelicals complete their takeover and turn the party into Family First II.
It would be nice to see a Liberal Party that actually cleaned itself up and tried to compete on competency.
I love it how the restaurant patrons and passers-by are completely unconcerned it’s the fire on the footpath. Are they that common in Paris?
Here’s another cluebat for monty.
The Greens and ALP actually hate each other. NSW Labor governments tend to be right wing as well.
“Leftist parties”, make Kean an MLC and put him in the pile.
Brandon Sanderson finished off WOT series on demise of Robert Jordan, with his blessing as Jordan knew he was dying and worked with Sanderson plotting out the last books of the series.
Successful author in his own right too.
WoT now serialised on Prime.
US bank trouble heralds end of dollar reserve system
Bank crisis not a credit quality problem but stems instead from now-impossible task of financing America’s ever-expanding foreign debt
By DAVID P. GOLDMAN
MARCH 25, 2023
NEW YORK – The US banking system is broken. That doesn’t portend more high-profile failures like Credit Suisse. The central banks will keep moribund institutions on life support.
But the era of dollar-based reserves and floating exchange rates that began on August 15, 1971, when the US severed the link between the dollar and gold, is coming to an end. The pain will be transferred from the banks to the real economy, which will starve for credit.
And the geopolitical consequences will be enormous. The seize-up of dollar credit will accelerate the shift to a multipolar reserve system, with advantage to China’s RMB as a competitor to the dollar.
Gold, the “barbarous relic” abhorred by John Maynard Keynes, will play a bigger role because the dollar banking system is dysfunctional, and no other currency—surely not the tightly-controlled RMB—can replace it. Now at an all-time record price of US$2,000 an ounce, gold is likely to rise further.
The greatest danger to dollar hegemony and the strategic power that it imparts to Washington is not China’s ambition to expand the international role of the RMB.
The danger comes from the exhaustion of the financial mechanism that made it possible for the US to run up a negative $18 trillion net foreign asset position during the past 30 years.
Germany’s flagship institution, Deutsche Bank, hit an all-time low of 8 euros on the morning of March 24, before recovering to 8.69 euros at the end of that day’s trading, and its credit default swap premium—the cost of insurance on its subordinated debt—spiked to about 380 basis points above LIBOR, or 3.8%.
That’s as much as during the 2008 banking crisis and the 2015 European financial crisis, although not quite as much as during the March 2020 Covid lockdown, when the premium exceeded 5%. Deutsche Bank won’t fail, but it may need official support. It may have received such support already.
This crisis is utterly unlike 2008, when banks levered up trillions of dollars of dodgy assets based on “liar’s loans” to homeowners. Fifteen years ago, the credit quality of the banking system was rotten and leverage was out of control. Bank credit quality today is the best in a generation.
The crisis stems from the now-impossible task of financing America’s ever-expanding foreign debt.
It’s also the most anticipated financial crisis in history. In 2018, the Bank for International Settlements (a sort of central bank for central banks) warned that $14 trillion of short-term dollar borrowings of European and Japanese banks used to hedge foreign exchange risk were a time bomb waiting to explode (“Has the derivatives volcano already begun to erupt?”, October 9, 2018).
In March 2020, dollar credit seized up in a run for liquidity when the Covid lockdowns began, provoking a sudden dearth of bank financing. The Federal Reserve put out the fire by opening multi-billion-dollar swap lines to foreign central banks. It expanded those swap lines on March 19.
Correspondingly, the dollar balance sheet of the world banking system exploded, as gauged by the volume of overseas claims in the global banking system. This opened up a new vulnerability, namely counterparty risk, or the exposure of banks to enormous amounts of short-term loans to other banks.
America’s chronic current account deficits of the past 30 years amount to an exchange of goods for paper: America buys more goods than it sells, and sells assets (stocks, bonds, real estate, and so on) to foreigners to make up the difference.
America now owes a net $18 trillion to foreigners, roughly equal to the cumulative sum of these deficits over 30 years. The trouble is that the foreigners who own US assets receive cash flows in dollars, but need to spend money in their own currencies.
With floating exchange rates, the value of dollar cash flows in euro, Japanese yen or Chinese RMB is uncertain. Foreign investors need to hedge their dollar income, that is, sell US dollars short against their own currencies.
That’s why the size of the foreign exchange derivatives market ballooned along with America’s liabilities to foreigners. The mechanism is simple: If you are receiving dollars but pay in euros, you sell dollars against euros to hedge your foreign exchange risk.
But your bank has to borrow the dollars and lend them to you before you can sell them. Foreign banks borrowed perhaps $18 trillion from US banks to fund these hedges. That creates a gigantic vulnerability: If a bank looks dodgy, as did Credit Suisse earlier this month, banks will pull credit lines in a global run.
Before 1971, when central banks maintained exchange rates at a fixed level and the United States covered its relatively small current account deficit by transferring gold to foreign central banks at a fixed price of $35 an ounce, none of this was necessary.
The end of the gold link to the dollar and the new regime of floating exchange rates allowed the United States to run massive current account deficits by selling its assets to the world.
The population of Europe and Japan was aging faster than the US, and had a correspondingly greater need for retirement assets.
That arrangement is now coming to a messy end.
Would you want to live at White Cliffs?
90% of teachers get nothing other than their wage.
Wow your pay hasn’t gone up in 60 years?
Comparing apples with apples in 1966 the average wage was around $3000 or 1500 pounds. This was 57 a week, in inflation adjusted numbers that is @ 760.
You’re right, of course.
Whenever I see Elbow/Palaszczuk/Andrews on the telly I think, “competent technocrats.”
“NSW Labor governments tend to be right wing as well.”
Quite so, I suspect the Minns’ government will make the Parrothead government, where Kean pulled the strings, look positively “left-wing”.
Even the dumbest bloke I ran into at the pub knew Shorten’s EV plan was dead in the water without nuclear or coal.
“Technocratic conpetency”
Yes, which is we have brown outs now coupled with the most expensive electricity ever, the budget deficit never goes to zero and we have more legislation and regulation than ever.
Which is what people need and love when they want to build a home or start a business.
Ed Casesays:
March 25, 2023 at 10:35 am
Yeah, the Allied propaganda machine.
Errr…no… but you knew that you disengenuos LID :
Der Untermensch
Anti-Semitic, anti-Soviet pamphlet
Publisher: Reichsfuhrer SS
Printing and publishing: Nordland-Verlag GmbH
Berlin, 1942
© German Historical Museum, Berlin
Inventory no.: Do 56/685
Gloomy coloring makes the Soviet “subhuman” appear particularly brutal. It was intended to fuel the feeling of being threatened by the “Bolshevik threat from the East” and to justify the racial-ideological war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. The National Socialist racial fanaticism was directed against the Slavic population of Eastern Europe as a whole. She had to mourn the loss of many millions of people through mass murder, starvation or epidemics.
and
Der Untermensch
“The subhuman”
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team has faithfully translated this infamous Nazi text from the original versions printed in both the German and Russian language. The purpose of this translation is for readers to understand the methods in which the Nazi propaganda machine would seek to dehumanize the victims of its genocidal actions.
I have never read anything that EVER said Publisher: Reichsfuhrer SS was instrumental in the Allied war effort.
You pillock LID.
I live in hope that’s the case — but I suspect the hard left of the ALP will inevitably drag it down the progressive path of moral ruin and union nepotism.
I am in trouble with Hairy for my confession (in my cups) last nite that while I voted LDP in the reps I did blot my own declared copybook by putting a second preference in for the Liberals. I couldn’t, I said to assembled company, just couldn’t, bear the thought of a Teal getting up in Vaucluse (part of Federal Wentworth). I also to the Libs on the booth that Matt Kean was destroying the Party, which was why I was voting LDP. They need to hear that from a Vaucluse voter. When we got home Hairy poured over the Vaucluse results and scornfully said it looks as though the Lib sheila is going to have to rely on LDP preferences to get over the line. So you’ve voted in a Lib, he says accusingly, before stumbling off to bed.
Can I redeem myself in his probably still bleary eyes with my single ON vote in the Upper House?
Monday will tell.
Gold, the “barbarous relic” abhorred by John Maynard Keynes, will play a bigger role because the dollar banking system is dysfunctional, and no other currency—surely not the tightly-controlled RMB—can replace it. Now at an all-time record price of US$2,000 an ounce, gold is likely to rise further.
Interesting listening to the Pre Lead Up to President Trumps arrival in Waco – one of the RSBN presenters pitched a Gold Fund for listeners to move some of their 401s funds out of Shares- giving a Trump Address to send for a Free Brochure
What an truly excellent comment.
Thanks Dotster. It’s comments like this that makes it worthwhile wading through the crap.
Labor is now the party of the machine, the political class who recruit candidates from their staff and stay in their Parliamentary bubble. That’s not an unviable way to run a modern political party, but there’s only really room for one of those parties lest you run into Uniparty-style problems with differentiation. Labor now owns that niche, for better or worse.
An obvious option for the Liberals is to be the outsider alternative, a party made up of people with real-life backgrounds in the private sector outside the political scene. The Teals and other independents have shown them the way in this regard. The Libs could learn a lot from watching how they have been beaten by these grass roots campaigns – yes, funded by Climate 200 cashola, but also connected to their communities in a way that both Labor and Liberal are not. That seems to be what former Liberal voters want, so the Libs would be well advised to find a way to incorporate this movement into their own. Bloody hard to prise the carpet strollers’ noses from the trough, admittedly.
‘
Hello.
There was nothing in the Libs’ policies to attract conservatives or young families. Home buyers were even given a choice of paying high stamp duties now or pay them for ever. They thought instituting a property tax was going to be a vote winner. Idiots.
The fire is metaphor for western society. The sheep will just watch it all burn, passively and stupidly.
KANYE WEST
SAYS HE’S NO LONGER AN ANTISEMITE …
Thanks To Jonah Hill
Here
American banks face a looming credit risk
As consumer behaviour changes, the business model of small and medium-sized lenders is under threat
As Jay Powell, Federal Reserve chair, faced the media on Wednesday after a 25 basis point rate hike, he tried to put a brave face on his country’s bank turmoil. “Our banking system is sound and resilient, with strong capital and liquidity,” he declared, promising that the Fed, Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation would do everything to quell the panic unleashed by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.
Maybe so. The Fed supplied an eye-popping $152bn of liquidity to banks last week.
But investors remain decidedly unimpressed — shortly after Powell spoke, bank stocks slid, with particular declines in weaker groups such as First Republic.
It might be tempting to blame the malaise on the Fed’s hike, but that is only a small(ish) part of the tale.
The bigger issue is that America’s small and medium-sized banks are grappling with three interrelated problems: a deposit flight; an eroding business model; and a credit crunch.
Take the deposit problem.
This has arisen because the FDIC’s mandate only protects deposits up to $250,000 if a bank fails, unless there is a “systemically important” reason to extend wider coverage.
Before SVB collapsed it seemed that “systemic” meant big banks. Hence when SVB and Signature wobbled, customers moved funds to the too-big-to-fail giants. However, the FDIC then subtly reinterpreted this mandate, and protected all deposits at SVB and Signature, supposedly because of systemic contagion risks. As Powell noted on Wednesday, “history has shown that isolated banking problems, if left unaddressed, can undermine confidence in healthy banks and threaten the ability of the banking system as a whole”.
But Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, also revealed on Wednesday that the Treasury and FDIC do not plan to offer blanket guarantees for depositors in advance, without Congressional support. Ambiguity still reigns. This will almost certainly spark more outflows from smaller banks.
The next issue is the banks’ business models.
During the past decade banks enjoyed abundant cheap funding because their customers left their money in low-yielding bank accounts due to a lack of better alternatives. The banks then made profits by extending loans at slightly higher rates and buying long duration assets such as treasuries.
But customer behaviour is shifting. Not only is there a flight from smaller banks to larger ones, but deposits overall are moving into money market funds. And the loss of cheap funding hurts since banks still have loans on their books extended at low rates. Worse still, rate swings have created unrealised losses in banks’ securities portfolios, totalling $620bn across the industry at the end of 2022, according to the FDIC.
Thankfully these do not usually need to be booked, unless a bank fails. And most banks are less likely to fail than SVB, because they have fewer uninsured depositors. But even if SVB-style dramas can be avoided, the pattern is creating “a long tail of zombie banks”, as the hedge fund Bridgewater says. “Policymakers can stop a bank run but unless the Fed cuts rates they can’t stop the repricing in banks funding costs.”
That feeds into a third issue: a credit crunch.
As funding costs rise, banks will cut loans. In some senses this is what Fed officials want, since slower credit creation will curb inflation. But the rub is that it is extremely hard to predict the impact of a credit squeeze since it can create a self-reinforcing downward spiral of recession and defaults. So while the crisis in American banks was initially sparked by interest rate (and liquidity) risks, it could now slowly morph into a problem of credit risk too.
The $5.6tn commercial real estate lending market illustrates the problem. At present 70 per cent of these loans comes from small and medium-sized groups. “Small banks’ absolute dollar exposure to CRE lending has grown at an accelerating rate over the past ten years,” notes Morgan Stanley;
Even before the interest rate cycle turned, CRE values were starting to come under pressure because the rise of internet shopping and homeworking hurt retail and office space. But with rates rising, “all of a sudden those assets become very hard to roll over” as Rick Rieder of BlackRock says. Since $2.5tn of loans are due to be refinanced in the next five years, this will eventually create pain for borrowers — and banks.
You shake your head in wonderment at how deep and wide the stupid has spread. Lede par of a just-moved AAP report:
Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has warned his party against chasing the “margins” and lurching further to the extreme end of politics following the Coalition’s loss at the NSW election.
No wonder the country is now red from Sydney to Subiaco.
“There was nothing in the Libs’ policies to attract conservatives or young families. “
Yep.
I don’t think you need to be a von Manstein to realise the Ukies will require firm ground
if they want to punch through Vlad the Terrible’s lines at the run.
Tank terror isn’t just a name given to a Kraut rocket launcher.
Lizzie beat yourself up if they win by one vote!
Relax. They bled votes everywhere from Vaucluse, The Hills, Penrith and out west over the hills and along the way. They are either going to learn or give way to the competition.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bearesays:
March 26, 2023 at 10:53 am
Oh dear…’dissention in the ranks’…you could cop a weekend of extras in the mess, Digger Lizzie. 😉
Ye
2024?
Australia and New Zealand are now regarded as jokes. The disturbing and very “unseemly” footage of Kellie-Jay being assaulted in NZ has gone viral.
The way the apostate ‘Pope’ rolls these dayz.
Hmm. Linky didnt work.
https://twitter.com/singareddynm/status/1639655045875507201
Related to Dot’s comment.
I go three times a week to a geezers gym (mostly, though not all). Keiser for geezers, I call it. Most times I’m there, I see some handicapped person with a carer beside him or her. The carer hands over the handicapped to an “exercise scientist” and then proceeds to sit down for 30 minutes while the impaired is taken for a ride around the machines. The carers are funded by the NDIS at 45 bucks an hour. I’m also fairly certain that the NDIS covers the gym membership fees.
Meanwhile, state and federal governments are drowning in freaking debt. That’s where we are. And never forget, Abbott supported this abortion.
This is anecdotal, but one thing is for sure, when money is involved everyone has a IQ of 180, so NDIS would be milked for what it’s worth by countless folks.
The Twitter Files reveal an elite at war with the truth
Even established facts can be branded as ‘misinformation’ if they upset the official narrative.
The Twitter Files reporting rumbles on. Last week, journalist Matt Taibbi published a lengthy Twitter thread about the ties between Stanford University’s Virality Project and Twitter executives. The Virality Project was established to detect and counter ‘false and misleading narratives’ in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 45-tweet thread shines a light on how this extensive collaboration attempted to censor legitimate information in the Covid debate.
These latest revelations are particularly important because they prove beyond any doubt what many independent observers already suspected throughout the lockdowns – that the political elite and Big Tech were trying to block true information.
In an ideal world, this would dismantle, once and for all, any notion that our supposed betters were merely acting to protect a world under threat. They were not. They were acting to protect their own power.
Taibbi posted screenshots showing that the Virality Project categorised different types of content that it thought should be stopped on Twitter. This included ‘standard vaccine misinformation’, ‘well-known repeat offenders’ (for example, anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr) and ‘true content, which might promote vaccine hesitancy’ (my emphasis). The latter category covered ‘stories of true vaccine side-effects’.
There are a couple of Discord groups as well.
A typical example of a tired government (from either branch of the UniParty) in need of a change. Years of making fundamentally political appointments and people past their point of usefulness seeking to maintain their patronage.
This is valid observation.
For what purpose is the hyperbole?
Apart from feeding the self righteousness of the converted.
Libs will probably win Vaucluse on preferences from the woke ‘independent’ in Teal colours.
Except for the LDP all other candidates were seriously woke. The Libs should be glad of my preference and take note of where it came from. I did give the booth workers a piece of my mind.
This electorate was once the pride of the Liberal Party. Shows just what a climate money pit, the SMH, the ABC (the favoured media around here) and a university miseducation can do to destroy Australia.
“I made a ginger sponge and took it to Rabz. Very nice too.”
Cassie, did it have a Honey Cream filling and topping?
From The Oz below.
Thought ON would do better than 1.8% of the vote. Looks like still only Latham in NSW. Also thought Craig Kelly in with a chance for upper house. However he was still running his Twitter as UAP when supposed to run as Independent. Shows Clive given up on NSW. Hopefully does not run in Qld either but unfortunately his ego will probably make him run. His party is not grassroots enough and just pops up shortly before elections. He only ran in VIC state election due to Ralph Babet. Having said Babet is a good Senator forming a good working group with Antic, Rennick, Canavan and Malcolm Roberts.
Not going to happen but I would like to see Pauline step down at next election and Rennick switch to ON. Rennick might have a problem getting 3rd spot nomination next time despite being such a hard worker (see his Dr John Campbell interview).
Too many Independents wasting time and effort. Am a big fan of Dr Phillip Altman but he only decided to run very late and got around 550 votes in Manly.
“As Simon Holmes-a-Court suffers a similar fate he saw at the Victorian election – where no teals were elected – the One Nation party, led by Mark Latham, may also be licking their wounds.
As of Sunday morning, the party appears to have only secured 1.8 per cent of the vote.
Mark Latham was determined to drag votes away from Matt Kean’s electorate of Hornsby at the tip of the north shore, however the former Treasurer retained his seat with an 8 per cent margin
Dot & JC are retards. Still blaming Abbott for NDIS. If he hadn’t supported the proposal put up by the worst arsehole in the world he would have been labelled heartless. BTW he was not to know it would be scammed by every immigrant arriving in Australia.
Would a ‘Wealth Tax’ Work?
Facing a national debt of over $31 trillion, the Biden administration’s FY 2024 budget plan is looking for a gusher of new revenue in a “wealth tax” of 25% on wealth exceeding $100 million. This would tax not just personal income but gains in the value of assets, regardless of whether that gain actually arrives as cash in hand.
The Biden administration’s proposal is not exactly new. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren made wealth taxes part of their 2020 bids for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sen. Ron Wyden, the current chair of the Senate’s Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation, called for a wealth tax in 2021. Wyden’s plan, the “Billionaire’s Income Tax,” would tax billionaires (or anyone who earns more than $100 million in three consecutive years) at 20%. The Biden administration’s tax proposal is similar to Wyden’s, treating taxation of asset appreciation as a kind of “prepayment” of income taxes.
The appeal of a wealth tax has three faces. First, the tax is variously estimated to capture $360 billion in revenue over the next ten years. It also appeals to popular anxieties over income inequality in America, since so much of the wealth of the “One Percent” is tied up in asset appreciation rather than actual income. Finally, there is a political dividend. As the Biden administration tries to gin up enthusiasm for a possible reelection campaign in 2024, promoting a wealth tax is at least one way to rally the Democrats’ progressive base.
But the appeal of the wealth tax also has some major liabilities. The first is the staggering difficulty of determining the appreciation of value. For instance: Should an asset’s appreciation be figured on its “fair market value”? Who determines that? Should it be on whatever the market price might be on a given day? Which day? The variations within those possibilities should make heads spin, which is one reason why Janet Yellen has expressed skepticism about the difficulties in levying a wealth tax. None of that even begins to deal with the question of what is due an asset owner if an asset actually loses value.
Another ominous liability concerns who, exactly, would be paying such a tax. Advocates of wealth taxes have assured critics that the tax would affect only 700 uber-wealthy households – or, as President Biden explained, “One-hundredth of one percent of the Americans will pay this tax.” But new taxes tend not to be respecters of persons. There is no guarantee that the original targets of a wealth tax wouldn’t simply divert wealth into more difficult-to-value assets, or simply offshore their assets, and perhaps themselves as well.
When François Mitterand introduced a wealth tax in France in the 1980s, more than 60,000 millionaires left France, and saddled the government with a net loss from what would have been their income taxes and value-added taxes.
If that flight were to be repeated in the U.S., Congress would be forced to drive the liability limit downward into the middle class, just to keep up revenues. It would not be difficult – in fact, it might be unavoidable – to find middle-income Americans paying the wealth tax on their cars, their homes, even their 401(k)s.
Launched into Wordle.
Got it in three.
Gloating.
Mrs P got it in two.
Counter-gloating has begun.
Good news! My safety guy from Cote D’ivoire was accepted into Polytechnic Montreal for a Masters Degree in Mining!
He was trying for Industrial Safety but got accepted into Mining, which I think is actually some very good luck.
Any pre 0800 text from my little Sis is a Wordle gloat.
I’m in full agreement with you.
Yes, blaming the prick for telling us we had a budget emergency of catastrophic proportions then going ahead and signing onto the biggest fraud in history that will eventually break us. How could we be so restarted.
That statement makes me feel very emotional and I’m about the cry.
True. How would he have known seeing he’s a retarded, gutless swine.
Sancho Panzer says:
March 26, 2023 at 10:39 am
A top night.
Especially the cake!
LOL
Dozzen madda. I have purchased an air fryer recipe book from K-Mart. I will have the air fryer all to myself in that case for a whole week. Hairy loves it.
Yah boo sucks to him, etc. I might let him clean it if he asks nicely. 🙂
Feeling dusty this morning you Liberal Party maggot?
Abbott also got Pauline Hanson gaoled.
I don’t give a shit about Tony Abbott.
Guess what, the NDIS gets rorted a lot, and it isn’t limited to people called Habib. There’s a few Chloes and Baileys in there as well, champ. Everyone with a NDIS provider ACN or NDIA/NDIS APS job isn’t a new Australian, dickhead!
Hairy does that one where you have to recognise countries by shape.
I can only do Australia.
Economists were ‘invented’ in order to make Astrologers look professional.
– J K Galbraith (or someone like that)
Xi’s Win-Win-Win Visit To Moscow
Xi positions China to become a counterweight to the West, regardless of the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
TIPPINSIGHTS EDITORIAL BOARD
Much has been discussed about Xi’s recent visit to Moscow. State media organizations in both China and Russia expectedly hyped up the relationship. Russian commentators on social media observed the two leaders’ body language at every public moment. Did Putin hold Xi’s hands more warmly and with a tighter clasp than Xi? Was the no-limits partnership one between equals?
In the West, the reaction ranged from one of concern to that of dismissal. American Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized Xi’s visit as giving diplomatic cover to Putin days after the ICC cited him for war crimes. Never mind that America, Russia, and China do not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, so Blinken’s comments were hollow.
He would not have followed the ICC’s decision had an American been in its crosshairs.
Only NATO’s chief Jen Stoltenberg’s statement was based on some sense of reality. He expressed dismay that China’s visit would embolden Russia and present the greatest threat to NATO since the Soviet Union. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a steadfast Ukraine supporter who has driven America closer to nuclear war, testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee that the growing alliance between China and Russia is “troubling,” in what amounted to be the understatement of the year.
A closer examination reveals Xi’s visit was more of a win-win-win for China with no undersides. The Chinese leader, a shrewd tactician, would not have undertaken to travel to Moscow otherwise.
If Russia wins in Ukraine,
China could count on Russia’s help for generations, including in any hostilities in the South China Sea. On top of the diplomatic victory of bringing erstwhile rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran together, China can claim that Xi Jinping neutralized American hegemony. Global South countries, other than India, will likely warm to an alternate superpower vision where China’s vaunted principle of non-interference would dictate future partnerships.
If the war grinds out to a stalemate,
Xi would be happy that without expending any Chinese blood or weapons, he has pushed America and the West to their limits – militarily, financially, and diplomatically – to defend Ukraine. Each day of destruction increases the cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction, already estimated to be $1 trillion, with nearly $700 billion to be borne by America. A distracted and overwhelmed America, already facing a $31.4 trillion deficit rising at a rate of $2 trillion annually because of the increased cost of servicing the debt as the Fed raises interest rates, will be more restrained in defending Taiwan. Fed Chairman Powell increased the Feds Funds rate again this week by 25 basis points, with future increases likely as America and the West scramble to quell a banking crisis that has raised its ugly head from nowhere.
If Russia cannot confront an expected Ukrainian counter-offensive and reluctantly agrees to peace talks,
or Ukraine, sensing decreasing support in the West, does the same, China can bask in glory as the only country that put forth a peace plan. While deliberately vague, Xi’s plan includes broad principles around which other nations could rally. Since the start of the war, America has failed to engage diplomatically with Russia, a fact that Global South countries have consistently noted. Remember, it was Turkey, working with the United Nations, Ukraine, and Russia, that devised the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has allowed nearly 25 million metric tonnes of foodstuff from Ukraine to reach global markets. America and the West were not even at the table.
“I don’t give a shit about Tony Abbott.”
Nor do I. He started the rot.
I can handle the Russia shilling but China is a bridge too far.
Wodney
Of all people, should you be posting the JKG comment about economists, after you’ve been graffitiing the site with the Leavenworth graduate’s bilge, you useless degraded slimeball.
Howard, actually.
Avalanche of security chiefs warn Netanyahu: Israel on brink of the abyss
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems deaf to warnings by Israeli security chiefs that the growing rift within Israeli society could end up in a strategic disaster.
TEL AVIV — Hundreds of Israelis living in London demonstrated Friday against the judicial overhaul plan, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. If Netanyahu thought he could leave behind him in Israel, at least for the weekend, the ongoing political turmoil, demonstrations in the British capital proved him wrong.
The series of dramatic upheavals shaking Israel at breakneck speed this week would have been considered outlandish apocalyptic scenarios just a few short months ago.
Israel has skillfully created a bubble of normalcy and routine over the years to cushion the adverse social, economic and security impacts of the many challenges it has faced. Israelis had looked in amazement at the social and political upheavals shocking their Arab neighbors — the 2011 Tahrir Square uprising in Egypt and Arab Spring protests — and sighed in relief at the relative stability and democracy they enjoy despite periodic political turmoil and major security threats. Clearly, that reality of internal calm is now gone.
Heads of Israel’s strategic-security agencies have issued stark warnings in recent days to Netanyahu about the disastrous effects of the deep constitutional changes he is spearheading, especially legislation giving the government control over Supreme Court appointments. After midnight on Friday, Israel air force commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar received hundreds of messages from reserve pilots who form the backbone of Israel’s aerial deterrence, informing him of the immediate termination of their volunteer service and explaining that they would not risk their lives to serve a dictatorship.
Military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi reported to Netanyahu that an increasing number of reservists, including special forces and intelligence and cyber personnel, are declining to show up for duty, and expressed fear that the disobedience would spread to the regular army.
Shin Bet domestic security chief Ronen Bar also voiced severe warnings in conversations with Netanyahu of threats to Israel’s social fabric and the encouragement Israel’s enemies derive from this domestic unraveling, fueled by the violent potential of the month of Ramadan. Netanyahu heard similar dire warnings from Mossad Director David Barnea.
Events appeared to come to a head on Thursday, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announcing he would hold a news conference at 7:30 p.m. Aides told reporters that the defense chief would call on Netanyahu to halt the judicial overhaul juggernaut in order to defend state security, and urge him to enter into dialogue with the opposition that has been mounting furious countrywide protests to the legislative blitz.
Gallant has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks, exposed to signs of rebellion in the ranks, as well as dire warnings of the heavy economic and social impact on the country. He has held several secret meetings with former colleagues, including previous chiefs of staff and current Knesset opposition members Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot.
But as Gallant was putting the final touches to his planned statement, the Netanyahu family stepped in. The prime minister’s son Yair Netanyahu, considered the most radical element in Netanyahu’s circle, sent his own troops into action. The group of outspoken Likud Knesset members over which he is said to hold sway, as well as the radical nationalist Jewish Power party allied with the Likud, immediately issued statements demanding that Netanyahu fire Gallant and stating that the latter was no longer part of the political right wing.
Netanyahu himself then summoned Gallant from his Tel Aviv office to Jerusalem and in typical Machiavellian fashion talked him out of going public with his warnings. There is no need for you to put yourself out there, Netanyahu reportedly told Gallant. I will address the nation, propose dialogue and put a stop to this madness.
Earlier rumors that Netanyahu was about to issue a public address and make things right sent the stock market and shekel value soaring just before the close of trading. But hopes were dashed when he stepped up to the mike just before 9 p.m. with a jumble of conciliatory platitudes and deceptions that the smokescreen he spread failed to disguise.
The only real and clear message Netanyahu delivered Thursday night was that he would wade into the judicial appointments’ crisis, violating the conflict of interest pledge he had made to the High Court and the attorney general to stay out of the fray given his ongoing trial on corruption charges, which is expected to face a Supreme Court appeal.
“Cassie, did it have a Honey Cream filling and topping?”
Yesterday, in a rush I went to my local IGA (quite a good IGA too). They didn’t have any double cream and so I bought the “Bulla Cream Thick”, my intention was to serve the ginger sponge with a dollop of cream and to which I would add some finely cut up stem ginger. My God did I get a shock. I’ve never tasted anything so revolting as the “Bulla thick cream”….it was slimy and you could taste the oil and God knows what else was in it.
The sponge will still nice on its own but normally I do serve it with nice double cream or creme fraiche (which I like). But I didn’t buy creme fraiche because not everyone likes it.
I
Morrison’s PEP-11 decision was not made properly as the Resources Minister (chuckle).
https://www.9news.com.au/national/scott-morrison-pep11-veto-federal-court-decision/39a0b856-cb81-4e31-bf99-baca29058533
They couldn’t even competently pander to Teal voters.
That’s really not true. Howard did some good things.
1. He cleared up the mess with sales tax and import duties etc bundling it all up into the GST and then attempted to pass on the GST receipts to the states in proportion.
2. He paid down the debt.
3. He tried to deregulate the labor market.
These had a massive impact on the country.
Wodney, I’d rate you in the top three most useless commenters here, including Trans and Debbie’s sister, angry Karen Downer. Absolutely useless.
Dot says:
March 26, 2023 at 11:25 am
I can handle the Russia shilling but China is a bridge too far.
American Perspective
About tippinsights
tippinsights site provides its readers with original, premium content on a wide range of relevant and unique topics, based on our famous TIPP Poll and surveys.
The TIPP Poll has been around for 30 years. We have conducted surveys on diverse topics and issues – from economic outlook to customer satisfaction, from concept testing to market trends – which are of deep interest to the layperson and the experts. The TIPP Poll has the much-coveted distinction as the most accurate poll of this century, being the only poll to accurately predict the winner of the last five U.S. presidential elections.
tippinsights articles will tell a story – often rooted in data.
These statistics generated by comprehensive, statistically sound surveys convey what the average American thinks. We aim to provide objective information and thoughts. We stand for principles and policies – free-market capitalism, limited government, low taxes, and a strong national security agenda – and not by political parties.
tippinsights articles summarize insights and data collected by us, representing the public’s sentiments on various matters from current affairs to the latest tech. They are authored by analysts, experts, industry leaders, and other contributors who bring a deep understanding of their domain to the topics at hand. Consequently, each article intends to fill the information gap with data-driven stories and other insights.
When interpretation is needed, it will be labeled as such.
We will even touch upon those uneasy topics that most tend to ignore or avoid.
Yeah, like shilling for China.
m0nty, I agree.
This model is not only working for the Teals, but also the regional independents who have taken seats from the Nats.
If only pro Russian and pro Chinese shills, “critics of the west” were as critical of their paymasters. They never, ever criticise China or Russia. It’s freakin’ absurd.
Logically I can’t see how you can be someone who is pro-Russia ( supporting the Ukraine invasion) but against China’s claim and potential military action to gain Taiwan. It doesn’t work.
M0nty:
Revitalisation at the grass roots is certainly needed and actually occurs when good Liberal candidates are in office. Such revitalisation could occur if Liberals ran more local discussion groups that would attract younger voters in areas such as the economy, climate change and the limits of renewables.
They have to have the guts to start to talk honestly about these issues to the voters, not just parrotet Labour. They also need to provide some literature of their own that counters the woke zeitgeist. Currently all of that heavy lifting is being left to the IPA, which is a small ginger group without the authority a Liberal campaign of renewal would carry.
Guess what, the NDIS gets rorted a lot, and it isn’t limited to people called Habib.
That’s right.
Vinoo is in there for his chop, along with Habib.
The main issue of course is that the Libs are still captured by the woke greens. Nothing will change until this changes, for in the local community any Lib activity would simply complement that of others.
The Uniparty aspect has to change first.
I am surprised at how little attention has been focussed on inflation. Minns has promised some financial relief, but noone has said how they will end it. Enter … discussion on fake climate change?
The fact that Minns promised to keep Lidell going most likely worked very in his favour for those worried about a domestic power crisis.
We live in its head.
Rent free.
Day in.
Day out.
How sad to be so obsessed.
Thank God he did something positive with all that tax he was collecting and not spending on social services.
JCsays:
March 26, 2023 at 11:25 am
Wodney
Of all people, should you be posting the JKG comment about economists, after you’ve been graffitiing the site with the Leavenworth graduate’s bilge, you useless degraded slimeball.
J Erk Off Cretin and always good to see you at your ineffectual best in the morning. Keep taking those tablets. You need all of them.
Cassia, Dot & JC, you are all brainless idiots. Always blaming Abbott or some other Conservative for today’s problems. Most of you loved Malcolm & his cult until the shit hit the fan. All of you offer no solutions or alternative leaders. So what if I’m shitted off. I’m not shitted off with the loss only the fact that you fools would not know a decent leader if you ever met one. All leaders have problems but it will take a special one to get Aust out of the shit. Any leader we get you lot won’t be happy with.
Advanced Russian technology in huge demand.
US National Debt – A Different Perspective
In 2010, Barron’s wrote a piece on me effectively laughing at my forecast that the share market would rally to new highs. What seems to inevitably unfold is this notion that whatever the event might be in motion, the mere thought of a reversal in trend appears impossible. When the press disagrees with Socrates, I know it will be the press who is wrong. And because they end up being wrong, of course, they cannot print a retraction so they will just pretend you do not exist rather than admit – Sorry, we were wrong. The Dow made that new high above 2007 by February 2013. That was 64 months from the October 2007 high.
I have been in the game for many years. With each event, it appears to be like Groundhog Day. They pop their heads out and declare they do not see their shadow, so the entire world will disintegrate and that is always based upon opinion. It is never backed by real analysis. Just the standard human trait of assuming whatever trend is in motion will remain in motion.
Being an institutional adviser, I have never had that luxury. We have had to deal with some of the biggest portfolios in the world, not to mention financial crises. Clients expect accurate forecasting, and it has to be long-term – not day trading. They are not interested in the typical headlines of doom and gloom that the press love to print with every financial event simply to get readership. That is all they care about. It has been the financial version of the fake news.
When we step back and look at this favorite fundamental that people beat to death to predict the end of the world, it always comes down to the national debt and the collapse of the dollar. Little did they know that the increase in National Debt during the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis was supposed to bring down the sky and end the existence of the dollar.
It was that previous 1985 Financial Crisis that set in motion the Plaza Accord which brought together the central banks creating what was then the G5 – now G20. Of course, like every government intervention, the side effect was the 1987 Crash and their attempt to reverse their directive at the Plaza Accord became the Louve Accord. When the traders saw their efforts to support the dollar failed, the collapse in confidence led to the 1987 Crash.
It has always been a CONFIDENCE game as I pointed out with the 1933 Banking Holiday previously. In this case, the failure of the Louvre Accord, when they came out and said the dollar had fallen enough, once new lows in the dollar unfolded traders realized the central banks could not stop the decline. That led to financial panic by 1987 which manifested in the 1987 Crash.
This chart shows the quarterly change in the National Debt since 1966, Here you can see the 1985 and 2008 Financial Crises were on par. We can see the sharp rise in debt in 2008 simply made a double top with the Financial Crisis of 1985. Neither one ended the dollar no less the world economy. So when I warned the share market would rally and make new highs in 2010 and Barron’s laughed, I said the same thing after the 1987 Crash and people laughed then too.
In fact, on the very day of the low, I said this was it and that we would rally back to new highs by 1989. That was perfect and the market responded to the Economic Confidence Model (ECM) which had been published back in 1979. This was more than simply forecasting the 1987 Crash and the very day of the low. It clearly established that the ECM had revealed that there was a secret cycle behind the appearance of chaos even in economics.
Larry Edelson was actually a competitor at the time. But Larry respected that the forecast from the model was far beyond what people would ever expect. If we are ever going to advance as a society, we have to stop the bullshit and understand HOW markets actually trade and WHY. Larry did that. He understood that the model was something larger than just personal opinion.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/understanding-cycles/us-national-debt-a-different-perspective/
Cassie of Sydney says:
March 26, 2023 at 11:06 am
Australia and New Zealand are now regarded as jokes. The disturbing and very “unseemly” footage of Kellie-Jay being assaulted in NZ has gone viral.
Quite right. And here’s an example:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ChYcwh19csE/
Like Liz.
& so what about Hanson. Another useless idiot.
Those in power in the Liberal Party despise the grass roots and do everything they can to thwart any influence they may have on candidate selection & policy. In the meantime their proportion of the primary vote has been decreasing for a decade or more. Their only answer it to move further left. Anyone who questions that direction is lambasted as a fringe dweller. Anyone considering putting their time and energy into revitalising the Liberal Party should first ask themselves if starting over anew or joining the LDP would not be a better use of their talents.
Famous quotes by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” “The unexamined life is not worth living.” “There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.” “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
There once was a man who owned a sausage factory, and he was showing his arrogant preppy son around his factory. Try as he might to impress his snobbish son, his son would just sneer. They approached the heart of the factory, where the father thought “This should impress him!” He showed his son a machine and said “Son, this is the heart of the factory. With this machine here we can put in a pig, and out come sausages”. The prudish son, unimpressed, said “Yes, but do you have a machine where you can put in a sausage and out comes a pig?” The father, furious, thought and said “Yes son, we named it after you”.
You’re new here, aren’t you?
Andy Ngo has uploaded this today. It isn’t pretty. Basically, the putrid NZ media fomented this witch burning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sd1kdBTrHA
Keen is lucky to have escaped with her life.
Dastardly Dan is off to China, it seems. How extraordinary!
Daniel Andrews is set to visit China for the first time since his government’s controversial infrastructure deal with Beijing was torn up.
The four-day visit, slated for this week, will involve the Victorian Premier meeting with senior officials from the Ministry of Education and Beijing Government.
https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/politics/daniel-andrews-confirms-surprise-fourday-trip-to-china/news-story/88c63406e6c6b7d22f1fba9338f75beb
MT I prefer critiques that are discrete. OCEAN isn’t a theory. Catastrophism is part of political rhetoric. Political rhetoric should not be confused with reality. My mistake was to fail to recognize that conservatives are in big trouble. Not only now but well into the future. Much of that has to do with climate change. In a Rogan interview Lindzen stated that many climate scientists do not believe that a 1.5 degree rise is a catastrophe but of course not being engaged in catastrophism they don’t get any attention. Don’t worry, be happy, the end of the world is not nigh.
Trump Goes to Jail
The most quoted phrase from Matt Kean for the next couple of years is tipped to be “what he said”.
JMHsays:
March 26, 2023 at 12:09 pm
Dastardly Dan is off to China, it seems. How extraordinary!
Daniel Andrews is set to visit China for the first time since his government’s controversial infrastructure deal with Beijing was torn up.
The four-day visit, slated for this week, will involve the Victorian Premier meeting with senior officials from the Ministry of Education and Beijing Government.
https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/politics/daniel-andrews-confirms-surprise-fourday-trip-to-china/news-story/88c63406e6c6b7d22f1fba9338f75beb
Please keep him there.
Please, the collective noun is you lot.
m0ntysays:
March 26, 2023 at 9:59 am
Pubic serpents get wage and conditions far above anyone in the ptivate sector
No.
Citation needed.
Translating what is in these personality type tests into the political arenas of Marxist-influenced culture is where the whole thing takes a topple, John H. People vote with what is on their minds, not on the basis of some dubious collectivity nominated as their personalities. The intervening variables are huge and untested in the simplistic associations made: they are called ‘culture’ and ‘circumstance’.
I will allow you ‘age’ as a useful correlation with voting patterns, which is an expression of experience over time. So also is ‘family origin’, which can mould preferences to some degree by ethnicity or religion. But ‘personality type’? Nup.
Bye Tony.
Here are some solutions:
https://www.ldp.org.au/nsw_freedom
Bye now, no one here wants to vote Liberal ever again.
“I was murdered…”
Every culture war battle is lost by the Tories in our diverse, multicultural, secular modern population. The conservative message has run out of currency.
Still got your “Mission Accomplished” banner up, Dubya m0nty=fa?
Socio-economic factors can also correlate well with voting patterns, John H. A broad rubric in itself and part of the even broader ones of ‘circumstance’ and ‘culture’.
Well the end of the world as we have known it for about 70 years IS here now. Being happy with high inflation, intermittent energy supply, politicians who don’t even try to keep election promises and the slow but certain move to socialism, and not worrying is difficult at best.
Once again the pervert apologist is mocking violence against women, whose views he does not like.
Now that is “unseemly”.
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
March 26, 2023 at 10:24 am
When things aren’t going well for your side, you rack off often enough.
Wasn’t there an attempt to start his own blog?
Phat Pussy is still operating. Last time I looked, the comments were a three-way monologue between m0nty=fa, Steve from Brisbane and Homer the Idiot.
Not sure where the quote came from, but apart from the first few years of Hawke/Keating – and similar with Howard/Costello + possibly Kennett – no Australian government over the past 40 years has shown any sign of “technocratic competency” – and certainly not Labor.
Lagging, but in line with the Western world more generally, the whole nature of Australian government has shifted – particularly over the past 20 years. Strong (or fairly strong) institutions and the role of government as ‘provider of essential social infrastructure’ have been firmly replaced by ‘government by Bread and Circuses*’.
When you have a large proportion of the voteherd to some extent dependent on government for income and nice things, the traditional conservative philosophies of self-reliance, frugality, and personal/family responsibility have no political cut through. Quite the reverse – they are now hallmarks of Right-Wing extremism.
In the result, the centre of Australia’s politics has shifted Left – and treated us to the sight of nominally conservative Coalition governments dissolving in a mess of contradictions as they try to follow.
It no longer pays to be a good technocratic manager in politics. And there is no penalty – none – for being absolutely shite.
* ‘Circuses’ incorporates purchases of Olympic and Commonwealth games, but also political trials, unplanned renewables, cocks in frocks, the Voice – moral outrage at every turn.
monty
What’s the vibe on transgenderism in Lakemba?
Most people are naturally conservative.
Thay’s why progressive propaganda has to be so relentless and strident.
The left also now uses fear of ostracism to silence support for dissent.
That would be monty.
Cassie of Sydneysays:
March 26, 2023 at 10:27 am
“Wasn’t there an attempt to start his own blog?”
LOL, I suspect now only frequented by fellow pervert apologists. Like attracts like.
Not sure about Steve from Brissy, but when Homer was appearing on CL’s blog, he did not seem to share m0nty=fa’s obsession with the weird and the outrageous.
My mother was a member of the local Lieboral branch when we were in primary school and the local member was Andrew Mensaros. I don’t remember much about it but they did have one of the Kalis fishing family as a member so she would always say how good the food was. The only other person vaguely connected to politics was a mates old man who was a Lieboral powerbroker during the 80s and ended up with a board posting on a national household name GOE. I played junior footy with a guy who’s father was a WA senator.
The idea that either branch of the UniParty is in any way a reflection of its members is a quaint, anachronistic myth. It may have been true at some point. It is certainly not true today. I’m not sure it really matters because at the end of the day you still have to collect the votes from the man in the street. As the Lieborals are finding out.
Not to mention the threat of mob violence.
They voted ALP.
M0nty, watch this please and then repeat your approval of this left-constructed violent mayhem.
If this brave WOMAN had died, would you still approve?
How can you say you support free speech yet stand in favour of this demonization of it?
The One Nation party, led by Mark Latham, may also be licking their wounds.
As of Sunday morning, the party appears to have only secured 1.8 per cent of the vote.
Mark Latham was determined to drag votes away from Matt Kean’s electorate of Hornsby at the tip of the north shore, however the former Treasurer retained his seat with an 8 per cent margin
From their abc election site:
Q – One Nation 102,423 5.9 -1.0 1.23
Down 1%, 1.23 quotas. That and kean being returned are the real fu.kups of this shit-show election.
Reading Ian Toll’s masterful work on the Pacific War.
Japanese soldiers, defending Saipan, were told that recruits to the United States Marine Corps were required to murder both parents, to prove their allegiance……….
Culture, not science or skepticism, will fulfil us
By Dr Kevin Donnelly – March 25, 2023
For a good geography quiz, try Statdle.
Socio-economic factors also correlate with the suicide rate and excess deaths. It’s the economy, stupid! You’re right Lizzie, a serious economic downturn could see the Libs back in power.
What do you think of this? In the past governments determined policy and then asked the PR people how to sell that policy. In the 21st. century government policy is increasingly determined by what PR people tell them is sellable. Is that a real trend?
And when genuine dissent is publicly expressed they use stand over intimidation and real violence.
Straight out of the 1930’s fascist playbook.
What say you, M0nty?
That wasn’t the question.
They actually have a good local member who wasn’t a union hack in his previous life.
Both Liberal and Labor robbed us of our civil rights during the fake covid crisis, and hid behind “Da Health Advice”. But ViCLaB took the big prize for extreme totalitarianism.
Entertaining what the AI photoshop can do.
I did watch it, it was just close-ups of her monogrammed Spanx as she was jostled. No violence detected.
A bit of harsh language was all she suffered. She dishes that stuff out daily and did so on the day in question as well, so if she can’t take it then that is on her.
Posie Parker was not demonised. Counter-protestors have free speech as well. They told her to rack off, as is their right. She racked off.
Free speech does not mean forcing people to shut up and listen.
I was looking at it recently but wasn’t sure I’d make it through three volumes (he writes, looking at his “to read” pile).
I did purchase Borneman’s The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King – The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea. Should arrive soon.
Yes, it absolutely is.
And one that Margaret Thatcher would have quite correctly despised.
Leaders assess many sources and lead, they don’t cravenly follow every fad and fashion.
You can leave that sort of manipulative populist polling stuff to Daniel Andrews.
It’s kept him in power.
He’s busy now practicing his kow-tow.
Lizzie, Vaucluse is also an electorate where money is no object so the voters here will never have to worry how they are going to pay their electricity bill.
Aha. The Kraken Wakes.
Not before time. Waddya want for lunch? Apart from a Berocca?
From the Oz
NSW Premier-elect Chris Minns says his government’s first priority will be lifting the public service wage cap and addressing issues around staffing in emergency services.
No violence detected.
Goebbels.
It is the point though, Roger.
No one actually changes their vote on the trans issue. It’s the economy, stupid. Culture wars are dumb and useless.
Lakemba will continue to vote ALP no matter how many rights trans people have or don’t have. They don’t really care.
That’s also well worth reading.
Forcing people to shut up and listen is the progressive modus operandi.
Ah but duncan… what if you’re wrong, and the ruin never comes? Labor’s brand now is technocratic competency, boring but effective.
Technocratic competency, LOL. We now know the daily Liars talking point.
But really? Technocratic? And they think that a modern economy can be run on sun, wind and unicorn farts? More realistically, the Liars are a bit like Microsoft. Sometimes work OK, but subject to random drop-outs and needing very regular updates.
Tell the drafter of the taking points to try again, m0nty=fa.
I hope the ALP believe that, I really do.
“Cassie of Sydneysays:
March 26, 2023 at 12:06 pm
Andy Ngo has uploaded this today. It isn’t pretty. Basically, the putrid NZ media fomented this witch burning.”
Cassie,
it is literally what the left want.
Shedding vaccine material? – Investigation Part 2: exosomes in vaxxed, exosome vaccines
Merogenomics
If this brave WOMAN had died, would you still approve?
Of course he would:
“She brought it on herself, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
Just look at Monty go.
If only someone had wandered past with a ‘Ditch the Witch’ sign, he’d be throthing.
And since when was men ‘jostling’ women acceptable behaviour?
Whatever you do,
Don’t Let Women Speak!
Immune System Suppression at Population Level – What does it mean for you?
Vejon Health
Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has warned his party against chasing the “margins” and lurching further to the extreme end of politics following the Coalition’s loss at the NSW election.
When the SFLs lose, it’s their weakest links – the so-called moderates – who come out first with the prescription for how the party will win in the future. If these people were right, Malcolm Turnbull should have romped it in in 2016 and increased Abbott’s majority. The same could be said of Morrison at the last federal election with his nett zero announcement and government (taxpayer) largess. But down the gurgler, he went.
This morning on Outsiders, James Morrow challenged right-of-centre voters to get involved with the party. Why would anyone want to do that when low value politicians like Bragg (and the dishwater that is the “moderate” camp of the Libs in NSW) are quite clear that conservatives are not needed or welcome.
By reasserting that the party’s current manifesto is the legitimate path back to power, even before the party has announced its post election review process, Bragg seeks at the outset to dispel any anxiety among what’s left of the base from the NSW loss. It’s like a cheap conjuring trick – a “look into my eyes” moment – but with no production of the actual rabbit.
The base should know that this simply is him following Jack Lang’s famous dictum of backing self-interest in order to be re-endorsed for 2025, and the election after that and then 2031, and the next one and so on; all the way until he finally puts his feet up after a long political career drinking from the taxpayer trough. Perhaps, we’ve just found that rabbit.
Iran-backed forces ramp up strikes on US bases in Syria
fox
m0ntysays:
March 26, 2023 at 10:57 am
Labor is now the party of the machine, the political class who recruit candidates from their staff and stay in their Parliamentary bubble. That’s not an unviable way to run a modern political party,
LOL. As well as trannies, drag queens and assorted other perversions, m0nty=fa now “comes out” in favour of political incest.
As my mother said this morning, people with decent savings and high incomes will weather the coming storm of soaring energy prices, others, not so much.
As for reliability of supply, well see.
As for sacrifice LOL, not going to happen.
Few willing to change lifestyle to save the planet, climate survey finds, guardian 2019.
At least PNG are going all in on LPG exploration and production.
A major party like the Liberals and/or Nationals must provide the leadership and put real info on their website. The longer they let the economic crisis due to power costs continue the more voters will blame them and punish them at the polls. If you are the Opposition then oppose.
Lizzie, I agree with you that Liberals providing clear scientific literature on global warming and lowering carbon dioxide emissions will not happen as long as the current people are in charge. Well then they can remain in opposition while their vote wanes further.
Please Shoot Me and Put Me out of My Misery
No they didn’t TELL her. They assaulted her. A very big difference.
So you are saying that because I disagree with everything you say you are a Nazi, and therefore I have every right to come to your house and spray you with red liquid and vandalise /DDOS your fantasy football site(ithink this is what you said you did) and call it free speech.
And he was justly rewarded for this promise. What is horrendous is that Liberals could not even offer so little. But of course, they were targeting the teals in moderate* electorates and everybody else can go hang.
*There is nothing moderate about Lib MP is those electorates, from what they were saying last night they are outright green.
Governments controlled by ideologues will make the sacrifices mandatory through regulatory and legislative measures. Nobody, excepting the super rich or those who go comepltely off grid, is going to escape the pain.
Bacha b?z?
Lakemba, yes. Muslims know who’s got their back. The Lebanese Christian suburbs will not vote for Labor but I think they are outnumbered.
m0ntysays:
March 26, 2023 at 12:39 pm
What’s the vibe on transgenderism in Lakemba?
They voted ALP.
Support for tranniedom might be up for the chop.
I did watch it, it was just close-ups of her monogrammed Spanx as she was jostled. No violence detected.
A bit of harsh language was all she suffered. She dishes that stuff out daily and did so on the day in question as well, so if she can’t take it then that is on her.
Posie Parker was not demonised. Counter-protestors have free speech as well. They told her to rack off, as is their right. She racked off.
Free speech does not mean forcing people to shut up and listen.
How did you watch it with your head stuck up your rectum?
It looks like the upticking upgrade is doing its job.
If the writer upticks their own comment, it resets to zero.
If a non writer double ticks a comment it cancels the first uptick.
Let’s see.
Exactly
m0nty=fa
No one actually changes their vote on the trans issue. It’s the economy, stupid. Culture wars are dumb and useless.
So why is the fascist left perpetually fighting culture wars?
No. That didn’t work.
I had to double tick to get a zero.
It stayed at one for the first tick.
At least it’s flushing out those who are upticking their own work.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned but the other (massive) perk teachers get is 12 weeks of paid annual leave a year.
And very decent work hours. I realise it requires long hours at times, but for much of the semester it does not. A huge chunk of teachers get by doing the bare minimum and they would work well under 76 hours a fortnight on average.
Good teachers work long hours when needed, and in some positions it’s more needed than others. In my experience, there are fewer good teachers than those doing the bare minimum.
Yet teachers are endlessly moaning about how underpaid and overworked they are. Assuming they wish to keep their white collars, they should work in an office-based profession some time. It’s not uncommon to get in at 8.30 and put in 10-12 hours because the work needs to be done.
The problem with extending special rights to minorities is that it subverts the common good and often challenges existing individual and community rights.
Muslims in Lakemba may not be able to articulate this, but they’ll recognise the challenge when it comes at them with the endrosement of an ALP that takes their vote for granted.
Mostly true. There are some unit blocks over on the ocean side, still quite expensive, where overstretched mortgage holders may be more feeling the pinch, but in Vaucluse harbourside noone is cutting back on luxuries yet, let alone essentials. If you have to cut back on luxuries harbourside, you know you have to sell up.
Apartments on this side tend to be rare, strongly held and in the boutique category, well able to match the lifestyle spending of the surrounding homes although not in the same capital league, for prices a stone’s throw away from us have risen as high as the $100 million mark for a truly prestige property. Six to ten million dollars is the land value entry price here lately. I mentioned that next door, purchased for six million, is now being completely gutted and dug out for what amounts to a total rebuild. This is happening all over the suburb with house and land sales. These rebuilds are for private homes, rarely for apartments this side.
I suspect Vaucluse harbourside, with its old money, has fewer tech and renewables millionaires than Mosman on the other side of the harbour, although the big woke earners (think Atlassian billionaires) want to end up in the East.
We live here because, as JC said, it is one of the most pleasant places in the world to live.
We have been lucky in life, although I didn’t start off so well. We’ve both worked hard.
There are many places in Australia where wealthy people live. They are here too on the Cat.
Vaucluse attracts wealth simply because it intensifies the imagery of wealth. I’m not arguing.
The Muslims will take to the streets if the ALP goes too rainbow and starts pushing that shit on their kids, like they did in the UK. And the ALP will fold. Ultimately, Islam trumps Rainbow in the minority hierarchy.
I can’t praise myself? My life is meaningless.
BJ, the media will certainly spruik them as such to the voters but nobody is buying. The only trouble with updates is that you can only do it every four years, a long time to run a compromised program.
The fact that Minns promised to keep Lidell going most likely worked very in his favour for those worried about a domestic power crisis.
Minns will close Liddell for sure.
Our area is having one of its regular get-togethers today, which I had forgotten about.
Didn’t say we would attend anyway, because the post-election discussions might be a strain.
I definitely don’t feel up to it right now. I think it was for lunch. They are a neighbourly lot.
They are not stupid like the uni-educated West who believe everything that appears on TikTok.
Zipster says:
March 26, 2023 at 1:06 pm
“Zipster says: March 26, 2023 at 1:06 pm
Iran-backed forces ramp up strikes on US bases in Syria
fox
From the Comments
How come we’ve been attacked 78 times by Iran in Syria & Iraq since Biden took Office, and nobody’s ever heard this on the news
So you are saying that because I disagree with everything you say you are a Nazi, and therefore I have every right to come to your house and spray you with red liquid and vandalise /DDOS your fantasy football site(ithink this is what you said you did) and call it free speech.
You need to lay off the Brown Muski, granddad.
Minshull would be looking 5 years jail if she pulled that stunt where she comes from.
She incites a riot, then says
Those people rioted, I’m a victim?
For those who enjoy travel, or reading about it. A dedicated website.
How come we’ve been attacked 78 times by Iran in Syria & Iraq since Biden took Office, and nobody’s ever heard this on the news
Because The U.S. is occupying parts of Iraq and Syria illegally, but Defense wants to keep it on the DownLow?
Hunter Biden Reportedly Fears White House Will Throw Him Under the Bus to Protect Biden Administration
In this episode of As the Screw Turns…
Oh, this is getting good, sports fans. Hunter Biden and his allies reportedly don’t trust the “paranoid” White House to defend Joe Biden’s crackhead son and the family’s business associates from the troubling revelations uncovered by the Republican-majority House Oversight Committee.
According to Puck News’ Tara Palmeri, the White House’s public relations strategy, which is led by Biden Senior Advisor Anita Dunn, is geared towards protecting the Biden administration over the Biden Family Business.
Palmeri further said the White House’s focus is contrary to Hunter’s interests, which should go without saying, but the question is, given Joe Biden’s propensity to lose his crap whenever Hunter’s business dealings are broached by a reporter, is Joe on board with his own administration’s strategy?
A source involved in Hunter’s legal defense said, in reference to Joe Biden’s classified document scandal:
Judging by how they handled the communications and P.R. effort during and after the documents scandal and the drip-drip-drip of endless cycles, it’s no wonder Hunter has no faith in them. Their response was baffling and flatfooted.
It makes sense that Hunter would want his own press apparatus when the White House can barely react to their own crisis without pissing off the press and donors and Democratic members of Congress.
See what I meant about the turning of the screw? If you want to grab some popcorn, we’ll wait.
Did you learn journalism from Julius Streicher?
Crossiesays:
March 26, 2023 at 1:17 pm
The fact that Minns promised to keep Lidell going most likely worked very in his favour for those worried about a domestic power crisis.
He said Eraring not Liddell.
The other issue is the Kurri gas plant. Will Minns let it use LNG and not hydrogen as turtle wants.
Did you learn journalism from Ilya Ehrenburg?
Rosie:
That wasn’t jostling, rosie – if those perverts had managed to get their hands on her, she’d have been beaten to death.
That’s the outcome of the SSM vote. It emboldens the lunatics into going for the next perversion in the agenda. My money is on lowering the age of consent to 10.
Watch this space.
I give it 3 years.
This old furphy!
No we get 4 weeks annual leave just like everybody else. Two weeks are public holidays , and the other, in Qld, 5 weeks are directed flex days, adding up to 11 weeks.
My payslip says I am being paid for 35 hours a week. I normally do a minimum 40, the department recognises we do more than the minimum, so we get that time as flex, in a block.
In contrast, according to the CFMEU, builders are paid for 36 hours, and they get 10 weeks paid “annual leave” using your definition, a year. Builders are also entitled to overtime, whereas teachers just have to suck up parent teacher & award nights, and enrichment activities such as coaching sports, supervision of musical events, supervision of things like chess clubs, stem clubs and weekends taking students to competitions etc etc.
Bowen.
If they didn’t want to listen they could have stayed away!
Damn.
No, it accepted my second uptick.
Daily Mail.
Last moral panic: OMG the Muslims are all terrorists, lock them up!
This moral panic: OMG the trannies are all rock spiders, get the Muslims to bash them!
The good people of Lakemba would see through that rubbish.
I time my shopping trips to avoid the brats streaming out of the school and into the mall. Spending my entire working life in front of children would drive me postal. The problem now compounded by cantankerous parents confronting teachers with trivial complaints. Teachers should be entitled to a stupid parent’s holiday or have a room where mannequins of those parents are there for a beating.