Open Thread – Easter Weekend 8 April 2023
1,622 responses to “Open Thread – Easter Weekend 8 April 2023”
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“Farmer Gezsays:
April 9, 2023 at 7:56 amWell said Gez. The problem with the rise of the full burqa is that it’s a political statement. It isn’t anything to do with religion. Also, if you support Modi and you understand why his democratically elected government is trying to curb the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, then you’re smeared by the left as a Hindu Nationalist.
Hassan’s prejudices are well known. He’s been caught before making anti-Semitic and anti-Hindu statements. He’s a Muslim bigot.
Forget Putin and Xi, the Western left now openly agitates for the removal of governments and leaders, I might add democratically elected governments, whose nationalist and populist policies they don’t like, be it in Israel, Hungary, India, Poland. That’s why that war mongering whore, Samantha Power, has been doing the rounds of these countries, fomenting and agitating protest, some of it violent. Will it work, I doubt it.
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I was just watching Justin Jones, the Tennessee Angela Davis haired, lawmaker expelled from the legislature.
Sadly, he is a man with a future. He has obviously comitted an enormous amount of time studying and practicing MLK speech style and gestures combined with Obama style hate disguised by soaring rhetoric.
And, he is well presented, looking as he does like a Starsky and Hutch extra.
He will do well in Michelle’s cabinet. -
Crossie
Parliament is like an expensive holiday paid by someone else so when they get back home pollies should return to their prior job or profession. Anything more I consider as corruption.
Hmmm. Let’s think this through. The path up is uni student, uni political club, minor lackey in party or trade union (administration only, not actual hands on work), junior adviser to backbencher, then to a minister/opposition spokes idiot, senior adviser, couple of runs at unwinnable seat, winnable seat, front bencher, then “not enough left in the tank to go on”(see Horseface Ardern).
Not exactly a great career path on the way down, but probably better than most of them deserve. Given the number behind them climbing the greasy pole, they should probably go straight back to uni student/political club, and stay there forever.
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Forget Putin and Xi…
If only we could.
That’s why that war mongering whore, Samantha Power, has been doing the rounds of these countries, fomenting and agitating protest, some of it violent.
I sense an isolationist turn is coming in the US post-2024.
Let’s hope they honour their Pacific commitments.
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That’s because the ladeeees failed to recognise the ‘transition’ from a one-off, tokenistic ‘aren’t you a bit sweet, trying so hard with your obvious problems’ bloke in a skirt, to Lia Thomas, Hannah Mouncey and MMA blokes cage fighting girls and fracturing their skulls.
Like I said yesterday. It’s easier for women to retreat into the feminist collective for protection than to call out BS and be singled out by groups the collective refuses to criticise for ideological reasons.
So now it has become intolerable and come to a head.
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The harmony, can’t you just feel it? Piers Akerman:
Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has thrown the Liberal Party a lifeline with his blind support for the racial discrimination enshrined in the Voice referendum proposal.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton needed a standout policy difference and he has now been gifted one.
Voice supporters went nuts, particularly Noel Pearson, who lacked civility with unprincipled attacks on Dutton.
No depths appear to be too low for the Yes leaders who claim to take the moral high road.
A bare minimum of Australians back the current proposal to lock the Indigenous-only body into the Constitution without telling how it would work. Dutton has now ensured a wider examination of this pig-in-a-poke referendum.
One who has undertaken a serious study of this is Terence Cole, a former NSW Court of Appeal judge, later appointed royal commissioner by the Commonwealth into the building and construction industry and then the UN Oil-for Food Program, and who also conducted a federal inquiry into the loss of HMAS Sydney.
Space doesn’t permit presentation of his full findings so I shall summarise them. He thoroughly examined the three demands of the Uluru Statement which Albanese has accepted entirely – the Voice, a Makarrata Commission, and “truth telling about our history”.
When voting to amend the Constitution to incorporate the Voice, Australians must understand that they’re being asked to support demands for recognition of co-existing sovereignty, a Makarrata Commission designed to produce a treaty and monetary compensation, as well as a rewriting of Australian history.
Cole begins with an expert analysis of the constant claim that Aboriginal “ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty” based on prior occupation, “has never been ceded or extinguished and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown”.
But this Indigenous sovereignty is not sovereignty as normally understood, he writes.
According to the Uluru Statement, it is a spiritual notion: “The ancestral tie between Aboriginals and the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.”
He notes with regret that the quoted passage was plagiarised without acknowledgement from a 1975 ruling of the International Court of Justice that concerned the people of the Western Sahara.
Australian courts have consistently rejected the existence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait sovereignty, he says, citing High Court Justice Stephen Gageler in the case of Love v Commonwealth.
Cole also dissects and disagrees with a recent opinion of former High Court Chief Justice Robert French who argued that two different “sovereignties” can exist. The Indigenous concept of “sovereignty” can, in reality, have no effect or application in Australian law, Cole writes.
The statement’s second claim for a Makarrata Commission and a treaty, he says, are based solely on race and split Australians into two groups – on a permanent basis. The first group comprises those identifying as Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. The remaining 97 per cent of Australians are the second.
Despite Chief Justice French’s view that the Voice “does not depend on race”, Cole stresses that it only represents Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, and those who elect the representatives who will become the Voice are exclusively of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait races.
“Unless you are of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander race, Australians can play no part in any aspect of the Voice. Those who would benefit from the proposed Voice are exclusively Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders,” he states.
“To my mind, it departs from reality to contend that the Voice does not rest upon race. It addresses only people of those races.”
He suspects the clue to the push for a Yes vote may lie in the fifth objective, the concluding of agreements with governments, which may have significant monetary consequences.
His conclusion: It is difficult to contemplate a process more designed to cause dissent and disunity within the Australian community.
This is certainly not the minimal change that Albanese claims, it is an attempt to install a race-based clause in the Constitution which will make those identifying as Indigenous permanent victims of past injustices with access to limitless reparation claims.
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Cassie of Sydneysays:
April 9, 2023 at 7:17 am
Oh look, the pervert apologist is here, up early in the morning. Yesterday he rudely described us here as a bunch of “cranks, losers in life whose chickens are now coming home to roost electorally.” And there was more! He described us as “irrelevant“.It is odd, though, how he likes to spend a lot of time among us “cranks and losers in life“.
Go look at Phat Pussy. Unless it has changed markedly since the last time that I dropped by, I can understand why m0nty=fa doesn’t want to waste too much of his miserable life at his own blog.
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Crossiesays:
April 9, 2023 at 8:05 am
Victorian ALP knows their goose is cooked at the next election.
They also know how unemployable they are.
Their value on the open market is about half minimum wage. (i.e. they’d be about half as good as a backpacker at pushing a broom in a coffee shop)Corporate boards are full of former politicians who have friends there, particularly industry super funds. It is likely to get worse as corporations become more woke.
Cause or effect of corporate wokeness? And declining corporate effectiveness and profitability?
See also Bud Light as a very recent example.
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Smells like desperation. Daily Telegraph:
A cavalcade of Indigenous superstars is set to be recruited by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to sell Australians on a Yes vote for a Voice to parliament.
At the top of his wishlist is expected to be NBA star Patty Mills, Olympic sprinter Cathy Freeman, and footballers Johnathan Thurston and Adam Goodes.
The Government also hopes to deploy tennis legends Evonne Goolagong-Cawley and Ash Barty.
It comes as Qantas is considering Yes signs on the sides of its planes to urge Australians to back the proposal.
Political sources say the emphasis will be on enlisting beloved superstars to lead the campaign.
With a referendum on the Voice to parliament set to take place weeks after the AFL and NRL seasons, this year’s grand finals of the two codes are also set to feature appeals to fans to vote Yes.
The Government and Yes campaign organisers are preparing a blitz that will see corporate Australia join forces with the nation’s sporting codes to urge support.
Earlier this year Ash Barty and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley appeared together at Melbourne Park during the Australian Open’s First Nations round, at which Tennis Australia publicly supported the Voice.
They are expected to be joined by long-time Voice supporters Cathy Freeman and Adam Goodes.
Goodes, a former Australian of the Year, has been working behind the scenes building support for several months.
In the past Freeman, who rarely makes public comments, has come out in support of the Uluru Statement from the Heart calling for a change to the constitution calling on Australians to support “what is right and fair”.
Rugby league legend Johnathan Thurston has also thrown his support behind the Uluru Statement from the Heart, saying its implementation would be “another giant step forward for our people”.
Patty Mills, who at Tokyo became the first indigenous Australian Olympic flag bearer is also a strong supporter.
Yes Campaign Alliance director Dean Parkin said they had active supporters right across the community.
“Some of the Yes campaign’s supporters have platforms and public profiles and they include cultural and sporting figures,” he said.
“Naturally we have been speaking to them about their potential involvement in helping to bring the country together around the cause and create a moment of unity for the country.”
Mr Parkin said the campaign had been “delighted” with their engagement and the interest from all Australians who support the Voice.
“Famous people have just one vote like everybody else and our focus will be on ensuring every single Australian is welcomed into a warm conversation that leads to a resounding Yes,” he said.
A Qantas source said the airline was considering putting support for the Yes campaign on the side of its planes.
Speaking at Qantas’s gala dinner in Sydney, Mr Albanese praised the airline for its decision nine years ago to put “R” on some planes in support of constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians.
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Cassie
Hassan’s prejudices are well known. He’s been caught before making anti-Semitic and anti-Hindu statements. He’s a Muslim bigot.
Why am I not surprised to read this description of the “j’ismist” whom m0nty=fa was praising yesterday for supposedly destroying the basis for the Twatter Files? You know, those “nothingburger” files that were only about Hunter’s “nine-inch hog”?
Oddly, the apologist for everything bad had said nothing for weeks on around 20 separate issues of those files, before yesterday proclaiming their return to “nothingburger” status.
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Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) terminated a Catholic pastoral care contract with a community of Franciscan Catholic priests and friars during Holy Week, barring them from providing religious services to the faithful throughout the most sacred days of the Christian calendar. In a statement Friday, the Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) decried the move as a violation of First Amendment Right to Free Exercise of Religion.
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“Unless you are of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander race, Australians can play no part in any aspect of the Voice.
Rubbish.
He’s seriously suggesting that the army of lawyers pulling the strings behind the scenes will be Aborigines?
<em>Those who would benefit from the proposed Voice are exclusively Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders,” he states.
He’s havin’ a lend now.
Led the Inquiry into HMAS Sydney, eh?
He’s a jobsworth. -
A cavalcade of Indigenous superstars is set to be recruited by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to sell Australians on a Yes vote for a Voice to parliament.
By the time the referendum rolls around Australians are going to be thoroughly sick of hearing about it.
I’m not sure if that augurs well for the No vote, however.
It may be a case of “vote Yes to make it go away.”
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Via Black Ball
Political sources say the emphasis will be on enlisting beloved superstars to lead the campaign.
LOL, “beloved”? Goodes?
A Qantas source said the airline was considering putting support for the Yes campaign on the side of its planes.
Because the SSM campaign didn’t detract sufficiently from their public image?
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NBA star Patty Mills, Olympic sprinter Cathy Freeman, and footballers Johnathan Thurston and Adam Goodes.
The Government also hopes to deploy tennis legends Evonne Goolagong-Cawley and Ash Barty
‘Deploy’ a pile of multi-millionaire sporty types who’ve never been near a town camp. Snork.
I am unsure that this will have the intended effect, given that the Voice’s apparent intent is to further enrich this demographic while leaving the desert and saltwater countrymen untouched.
This has pony-tail PR consultant written all over it.
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Indictment
Donald J Trump -
I read this blog every day because it is peopled with wise men and women from all walks of life. I find I have learnt so much, been challenged in many areas and have received countless nuggets of wisdom. Most of all, I feel as if I am part of a conversation that ebbs and flows, goes in multiple directions, occasionally derails but always entertains and often edifies.
If this is what it is to be a bunch of cranks and losers in life, it doesn’t seem all that bad. Indeed, I would be honoured to be counted as one. From proud deplorable to proud crank and loser in life just like that! Thanks, Monty!
Counting flowers on the wall
That don’t bother me at all
Playing Solitaire till dawn
With a pack of fifty one
Smokin’ cigarettes and watchin’
Captain Kangaroo
Well, don’t tell me
I got nothin’ to doYep, we have all kinds here. I am quite a bit in the above category. Having busted my gut in the working world, I am unashamedly idle, and I love it. Not a shred of guilt.
Of course, there are people who want to work till they drop – good for them, but it’s not for me.
What brings us together is curiosity, healthy scepticism and often (but not always) a sense of humour. 🙂
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Speaking at Qantas’s gala dinner in Sydney, Mr Albanese praised the airline for its decision nine years ago to put “R” on some planes in support of constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians.
Yes, because it filled up business class seats at inflated prices with feelgood government-funded troughers as a result.
Joyce may be an insufferable mincing light-on-his-loafers ponce, but he’s an astute businessman.
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PRO TIP: Soros DAs are there to turn violent criminals loose and arrest the political opposition. That is their mission. They’ve done this twice in just the past week.
So please stop being SHOCKED when it happens. Come up with a way to dissuade them or this ramps up from here.
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Criminality out front and naked and why not, when there are never any consequences.
The Daniel Perry case just took a crazy turn.
The lead detective, David Fugitt just filed an affidavit claiming the Soros backed DA had him remove over 100 pages of exculpatory evidence…
The grand jury NEVER got to see it.
This is criminal.
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We need more ‘modern day’ feminists
This just means we need more people who are willing to publicly acknowledge 1) there are only 2 sexes 2) you cannot change your sex, and 3) women deserve respect and equal opportunities
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JCsays:
April 9, 2023 at 8:53 am
rosie says:
April 9, 2023 at 7:34 amHe is risen!
Yeah, I just got up a short while ago, had coffee and now thinking if I should go fishing.
You aren’t developing a Messiah complex by any chance?
Tell me.
Do people suddenly become incontinent when you walk into a room? -
Sadly, had the usual intergenerational failure to agree yesterday at Easter gathering.
The Voice arose in discussion. Granddaughter, who is totally Woke, believes that, as a result of the “Stolen Generations”, our indigenous population have lost their culture! Where do you start? I thought I was fairly circumspect, but she suddenly burst into tears and fled to her room.
Grandson, on the other hand, agreed with us and pried her from her room to bid us goodbye when we left. I told her parents that their generation (except grandson – who has a great “bullshit detector”) was brainwashed in their classrooms. What could they say – it was my husband and I who were always there at “parents’ days” while the both worked. They didn’t see, for example, the climate change crap plastered on the walls of every classroom over the years.
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Greasy Luigi and his Marxist mafia are deliberately attempting to remove the obligation of the government to put both sides of the referendum to voters.
The “reform” bill that is set to pass before the vote will remove requirement that voters be sent Yes and No case pamphlets.
Luigi says that modern media gives politicians and the population plenty of chance to hear both sides of the case.
This is why Luigi is unashamedly pushing one side and the elites in the community are bombarding us with the Yes case to drown out the opposition.
It’s a good thing Luigi isn’t setting the handicap distances for the Stawell Gift.
A one legged transgender woman would be odds on. -
Philip Lowe has conceded that the RBA’s attempts to curb inflation through the blunt instrument of interest rate hikes will be hampered by an immigration driven housing supply and demand crisis, energy price inflation of 27% in 2022/23 (and likely to get worse) and declining productivity (down to 2019/20 levels).
Yet we have a government whose policies will exacerbate each of these three problems.
Australia, your luck has run out.
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A perfectly reasonable attitude by an agent of the Global American Empire.
Do you understand now, Americans, why the rest of the world is happy to see you go down the toilet?
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What narcissists prefer is a system without predictable, stable rules & expectations, because a system with stable rules & expectations & consequences for your behavior is not one in which they win. They want chaos & dysfunction, within which they can manipulate & abuse people
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Indolent says:
April 9, 2023 at 9:09 amThe Exact Moment the United States Congress Took A Knee…and all Americans Became Threats
Indolent – was just abut to post same Sundance has excelled himself here, in a very detailed assesment on how America has reached their Current Position – Gurgling around the Sewer Drain
The Exact Moment the United States Congress Took a Knee
April 8, 2023 | Sundance | 283 Comments
Read this as many times as needed to contemplate the nature of our problem.
Former FBI Director James Comey openly admitted to Congress on March 20, 2017, how the FBI, FBI Counterintelligence Division, DOJ and DOJ-National Security Division, together with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the CIA, had been conducting independent investigations of Donald Trump for over a year without informing Congress [the Gang of Eight]. When asked the question, Comey winced, then justified the lack of informing Go8 oversight by saying, “um, because of the sensitivity of the matter?”
Stupidly, Congress never pressed James Comey on that issue. The arrogance of Comey was astounding, and the acceptance by Congress was infuriating. However, that specific example highlighted just how politically corrupt the system had become. In essence, Team Obama usurped the entire design of congressional oversight…. and Congress just brushed it off.
This event, and everything in the background as outlined within the James Comey admission, factually happened. It is on the record, admitted and nothing about the reality of what took place is subject to conjecture or refute.
Yet somehow, we, specifically our Congress, just moved on as if what FBI Director James Comey outlined and admitted wasn’t a total usurpation of the U.S. Constitution and a collapse in the structure of our coequal branches of government.
We cannot fight our way through the issues until we first realize what lies at the root of the problem.
Barack Obama and Eric Holder did not create a weaponized DOJ and FBI; the institutions were already weaponized by the Patriot Act. What Obama and Holder did was take the preexisting system and retool it, so the weapons of government only targeted one side of the political continuum.
This point is where many people understandably get confused.
Elevator Speech:
(1) The Patriot Act turned the intel surveillance radar from foreign searches for terrorists to domestic searches for terrorists.
(2) Obama/Biden then redefined what is a “terrorist” to include their political opposition.We begin….
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Yet we have a government whose policies will exacerbate each of these three problems.
It’s a feature worldwide. And Govts will eventually win this battle, because punters will always support handouts of OPM either from benefits or spending. Inflation will remain very sticky to up , interest rates won’t come down and in fact will step jump higher over time- with long lags in between perhaps.
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I told her parents that their generation (except grandson – who has a great “bullshit detector”) was brainwashed in their classrooms
Once again. This is merely uninterested parents.
There is no excuse – none whatsoever – for a parent to squeal about ‘kids being brainwashed by Marxist Fabian agrarian socialists in schools’ because parents are far more influential than some noncy noodle-armer with elbow patches* will ever be.
Long working hours are also no excuse. That just means you go without all the sleep you want, to ensure YOU raise your child rather than a mid-twenties twerp who went to uni for three years.
It is abject and utter parental failure. Nothing less.
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Roger, I still don’t know what you see in tenth rate don like Horn. You seem to forget his disdain for politicians did not extent to Whitlam. He and fellow Marxist Elaine Thomson wrote Death of a Lucky Country in 1975. Horn wrote a lot muck praising Whitlam- ‘mr Whitlam will make Australia a republic. Good.’ ls one bit of muck I recall. I still haven’t found that mid 80s article about horn in Quadrant but will have another look. I don’t recall doing anything to make Australia better other than belly ache and draw a perfesser’s salary.
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It’s a feature worldwide. And Govts will eventually win this battle, because punters will always support handouts of OPM either from benefits or spending.
While Albanese is preoccupied with the Voice, I reckon Chalmers is getting very nervous looking at the projections.
A government that presides over mass mortgage defaults and rising unemployment after 30 years of rising prosperity will not get re-elected.
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People who judge Modi based on simplistic and ‘woke’ lenses have NFI.
As I have said before, the average Australian politician would not even get to first base in a country like India or Indonesia. These dolts have trouble managing their preselection in a stable and mostly homogenous environment, not to mention one which is rich enough that almost everyone has a roof over their head and enough to eat.
Anyone who has the smarts to run countries like these has at least 50 IQ points over your average Aussie drone MP, not to mention an acutely honed sense of self preservation.
Simply keeping these countries together is a task that maybe Bob Hawke could achieve. I can’t think of anyone else.
Viewing other countries through our lens is the source of endless policy failures.
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Long working hours are also no excuse. That just means you go without all the sleep you want, to ensure YOU raise your child rather than a mid-twenties twerp who went to uni for three years.
The son of a guy I used to work with is Exhibit A.
His old man was renowned for calling out bullshit no matter who it was coming from.
The boy (about 14) was in class one day when the teacher hijacked the class into a discussion of the forecast “rain bomb” and Climate Armageddon.
Boy: “Excuse me, teacher. Is it possible it’s just a rainy day?” -
Can someone explain today’s liberty quote for me?
Modern systematic politics, whether liberal, conservative, radical, or socialist, simply has to be rejected from a standpoint that owes genuine allegiance to the tradition of the virtues; for modern politics itself expresses in its institutional forms a systematic rejection of that tradition.— Alasdair MacIntyre
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Black Ball
Smells like desperation. Daily Telegraph:
A cavalcade of Indigenous superstars is set to be recruited by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to sell Australians on a Yes vote for a Voice to parliament.Might work if you’re selling washing powder. Albo can smell his place in history going round the S bend.
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A government that presides over mass mortgage defaults and rising unemployment after 30 years of rising prosperity will not get re-elected.
Albo will sheet the defaults home to the RBA and Scommo’s policies. The average ocker will buy that, because good old Albo will be doling out OPM as the mortgage carnage sweeps through. Albo will also pressure the banks to be uber lenient. He’ll take a hit on the UE front but I expect we’ll see Jobseeker payments adjust upwards to take away some of the pain.
End result- caring Labor will skate. Based mainly on the “At least you don’t have Big End of Town in charge during this terrible time” that punters will lap up.
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Savannan says:
April 9, 2023 at 9:37 amCan someone explain today’s liberty quote for me?
Modern systematic politics, whether liberal, conservative, radical, or socialist, simply has to be rejected from a standpoint that owes genuine allegiance to the tradition of the virtues; for modern politics itself expresses in its institutional forms a systematic rejection of that tradition.— Alasdair MacIntyre
Phew.. at least I am not the only one.
MacIntyre’s “quotes” are impenetrable word salads devoid of any persuasive power.
If they are seen as beacons of conservative thought, conservatives are truly f@cked. -
Christ the Lord is risen today
From the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Washington d.c. April 9, 2023 -
I saw this at BB’s link:
While Australians are facing the squeeze from cost of living increases and interest rate rises, the federal government is also looking for ways to make ends meet.
With these increases in tax – as with every new impost from government, the people have had to respond by cutting back on their spending. And they never have a choice.
Maybe Elbow and Charmless might try trimming expenditure just once.
Perhaps Elbow could splutter his way up to a podium and declare that one of his great initiatives to rein in spending will be not funding a ‘No’ case for the Voice.
And if the stupid Voice gets up, do you think they will be funding the consequences from their existing spending, or are they going to nick another one of our arteries to siphon off more blood.
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MAJOR: Nato Plans for Ukraine Leaked
Simplicius The Thinker
22 hr agoAs many of you have likely heard, a major leak from U.S. DOD headquarters has just occurred the day before yesterday.
Initially, I wasn’t going to cover it because there was a strong chance it could be fake, and it’s not worth the effort of a full deep-dive for a document of questionable origin/validity.
However, now the Pentagram has confirmed the validity of the documents, as they’re now panickedly trying to scrub the internet of them. From NYTimes:
I won’t post the leaks directly here because apparently the accounts of people who are posting the direct screenshots on other sites have been ‘disappearing’. In particular, the account who first posted it on Twitter is now shown as nonexistent and presumably banned.
Also, here are some of the top Twitter breakdowns, here, here, and here.
As you know, we like to deep-dive into important leaks here, as I did for the big Delta Leaks which exposed U.S.’s C4ISR operations in Ukraine:
But before we dive in, a few contextualizing words. Firstly, despite the absolute authenticity of the documents at first glance, several things should be said as a precursor.
The initial copies which circulated all over Telegram were altered by [presumably] a Russian source who changed (photoshopped) the ‘Losses’ data, however original versions have now been found. (more on this later)
One obvious consideration is that this leak could be a mass deliberate maskirovka campaign by NATO/U.S. to fool Russia with seemingly authentic information on the offensive, which would intentionally steer Russian defenses in the wrong direction, etc.
So bear these considerations in mind. Yes, there is still a possibility that it is basically disinfo.
Particularly because the timing of the leaked release so ‘conveniently’ falls right on the eve of the big AFU offensive.
Reuters claims the following:
Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak of several classified US military documents posted on social media, Reuters reported.
However, there are certain extenuating circumstances that heavily point to the leaks being real. Which are namely that: there is apparently a much larger trove of leaked data that is floating around, in fact most of it is not even related to Russia / Ukraine and is in fact much more serious and ‘sensitive’ as per U.S. sources, as it pertains to highly secretive internal transmissions regarding China, the Middle East, and more. You can read about it on this new NYTimes article.
And secondly, there are a lot of pieces of info in the leaks which wouldn’t make logical sense in revealing if it was simple disinfo.
For instance, revealing how many NATO/Western spy/intel assets are operating in Ukraine, etc. Such things only serve as evidence for Russia of U.S./West’s collusion an secret provocations/escalations, and serve as future legal proof of the West being the antagonist and initiator in the conflict, which gives Russia major legal and geopolitical advantages. That to me is too big of an oversight.
Also, the fact that much of it paints Russia in a favorable light, in terms of the pure numbers. If it was a deliberate leak, one would think they would sneak in some embarrassing or discrediting info about the Russian military, to paint it unfavorably, at least to some extent. Why let the world know how low Russia’s losses really are, for instance?
I’m partial to believing the flipside of the coin, which is that it was leaked on the eve of the offensive by disgruntled internal NATO employees wishing to sabotage the operation. Although it could be ‘part of the plan’, I don’t think the Biden admin would go so hard in trying to scrub the data off the internet if it were a real disinfo campaign.
And lastly, very little in the leak is actually ‘surprising’ or unknown information
So, let’s begin with the breakdown. I will start with what I believe to be the most important, and ‘biggest’ stories of the leaks and work on down from there.
The biggest to me is the internal casualty count. As I said the first circulated document appeared to be doctored to show fewer Russian casualties and more Ukrainian ones. However the original document shows the internal losses as follows:
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Roger says:
April 9, 2023 at 9:15 amPhilip Lowe has conceded that the RBA’s attempts to curb inflation through the blunt instrument of interest rate hikes will be hampered by an immigration driven housing supply and demand crisis, energy price inflation of 27% in 2022/23 (and likely to get worse) and declining productivity (down to 2019/20 levels).
Yet we have a government whose policies will exacerbate each of these three problems.
Australia, your luck has run out.
Arguing for or against a large and sudden increase in immigration is a different discussion. However, suggesting this stokes inflation isn’t correct in my view. If there is a spike in real estate related prices, such as land, materials and rent, etc., that’s the price signal doing its job in a market economy, telling us to produce more. Price stasis is bullshit. I think Lowe is correct on that score, if that’s the only time he’s ever been correct.
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Just been given some Easter eggs by a friend of the supermarket variety – hardly any real chocolate, tastes awful.
Binned.
Appreciate the gesture, but binned.
My mainstay is the Cadbury Old Gold 70% bars. A couple of squares and I am good for dessert. Now and then I buy some of the boutique offerings, like Lindt, but have not found them to be worth the price.
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Long working hours are also no excuse. That just means you go without all the sleep you want, to ensure YOU raise your child rather than a mid-twenties twerp who went to uni for three years.
Preach it!
The “long march though the institutions” didn’t happen by force. That space was voltaraly given up in preference to bitching on the sidelines.
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If there is a spike in real estate related prices, such as land, materials and rent, etc., that’s the price signal doing its job in a market economy, telling us to produce more.
The problem is the delay involved, which i what Lowe concerns Lowe in the conext of getting inflation down. He predicts 5 years or more before demand catches up with supply.
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Haighs chocolate is really good. I got a pack this morning for Easter from wifey. I recall hearing or reading Haighs founders went to Belgium or someplace and learned to make nice chocolate.
Note, the worst chocolate in the entire world has to be American. I cannot for the life of me understand how Hershey’s ever became so big over there. It tastes and smells like vomit.
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Can someone explain today’s liberty quote for me?
Modern systematic politics, whether liberal, conservative, radical, or socialist, simply has to be rejected from a standpoint that owes genuine allegiance to the tradition of the virtues; for modern politics itself expresses in its institutional forms a systematic rejection of that tradition.— Alasdair MacIntyre
Modern politics is contrary to reason and nature. It may use terms and ideas inherited from the classical tradition, whether from Athens, Rome, or Jerusalem, but it has gutted them and wears them as a skinsuit.
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Can someone explain today’s liberty quote for me?
Modern systematic politics, whether liberal, conservative, radical, or socialist, simply has to be rejected from a standpoint that owes genuine allegiance to the tradition of the virtues; for modern politics itself expresses in its institutional forms a systematic rejection of that tradition.
— Alasdair MacIntyre
Piece of piss.
He’s saying the Perfect is the enemy of the good, therefore the good isn’t legit and should be discarded.
A BumBoy for The Elitists, Popper was another one. -
The CIA seems to have really stuffed up – yet again:
In a rare moment of agreement between Russian and Ukrainian state media organisations emerged over the authenticity of a cache of allegedly leaked U.S. intelligence documents.
Alleged U.S. Joint Staff briefing documents claiming to discuss casualty numbers and logistics including the provision of military materiel to Ukraine were published on Russian social media on Friday, as reported by Breitbart News, representing a major breach of U.S. security by Russian actors if true. Yet the 100-plus documents, which seemed to suggest that Ukraine was fielding fewer troops than thought and had sustained considerably more casualties than Russia, were instantly called into question, and nowhere more stridently than by Ukraine itself.
Russia’s intelligence agents are now so ineffective, said President Zelensky advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, they have been reduced to “photoshop & ‘virtual fake leaks’,” which he insisted is what the documents were. These papers were an effort to “disrupt the Ukrainian counteroffensive” but would not be effective, he said. Publishing these papers was a “bluff” because it would be counterproductive for a real intelligence officer to burn a source by making a potentially rich seam of information exposed to discovery by going public.
Making the point explicitly, the Ukrainian state news service Ukrinform explained: “The documents published by Russian sources may have been partially doctored to cover up the real situation of Russia’s losses and exaggerate Ukrainian casualties.”
West Must Prepare for Total ‘Collapse’ and Fragmentation of Russia, Warns Ukrainian Security Chief https://t.co/CXbjQzOyST
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 5, 2023
The Ukrainians aren’t the only people who suspect the alleged Pentagon leaks might be fakes, though. Pro-Russian front organisation organiser Vladimir Rogov warned, in comments elevated by Russian state media group TASS, that the documents could be forgeries intended to lull Russian forces into a sense of false security. He said: “I think this is a classical disinformation operation, being conducted to mislead us, to make us think [the Ukrainian counter-offensive] is not ready yet and we can relax… Part of what is said there may be true, but as far as the timing is concerned, it’s definitely not so.”
It’s not just the FBI that needs a cleanout.
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By the time the referendum rolls around Australians are going to be thoroughly sick of hearing about it.
I suspect this is by design.
Uncle Luigi has been steadfast with the emotional “generous offer” schtick – backed up by ‘years of consultation’ claims by the Indig Industry (which has been consulting with itself for years), and ‘no legal consequences’ claims by Experts.Arguing the No position is necessarily detailed, and for most punters abstract by comparison. It will also suffer from a celebrity deficit and by being portrayed as raaacist.
Ripe for switch off – and a whatevs vote.
Line ball at the moment, I’d say – but still plenty of time favouring the No case.
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Roger,
Yes, that’s a demand shock, but it’s not inflation. It’s a sector of the economy sending out the price signal. Actually, all things being equal, it’s a fall in living standards as folks have to contend with higher prices is the real estate sector and therefore having to rearrange their spending habits.
Lowe seems to be aware that tightening monetary policy because of an increase in demand in RE would cause the economy to tank just like what happened in the GFC.
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I suspect it will eventually dawn on Elbow that it might be better for him if the Voice vote fails.
He might get it over the line with lots of pretty words and high profile endorsements, but the reality that ensues will be messy – unintended (well, previously unmentioned) consequences, unseemly jostling for power, patronage, and funds, and a constant refrain that mainstream Australia ‘deserves’ any hardship that accrues from the great zero-sum, will be remembered as his, and Labor’s, doing.
If it fails, on the other hand, he will have given his all only to be finally thwarted by racist white supremacists. And the Voice he was prevented from delivering will not be the unholy mess that reality would make of it, but the enlightened paradise of its current marketing – that will be what Elbow is remembered for – the beautiful dream.
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telling us to produce more.
Councils, state Govts and the Feds (of all stripes) are doing their utmost to restrict supply of available residential and have been doing so for decades. This will continue while hundreds of thousands more immigrants are waved in by Albo. As sure as night follows day, RE remains well supported and will no doubt spike. That’s the plan.
The system is gamed, everyone knows it. The population Ponzi is alive and well.
But is the one area where Albo could come unstuck with his beloved millennials.
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Tom says:
April 9, 2023 at 10:07 amJohanna, I have a dark chocolate Cherry Ripe every morning after breakfast. Great innovation for an old favourite. Strongly recommend them.
From another Dark Chocolate Cherry Ripe lover,
having had the Easter Egg hunt in the front Yard by 6 out 9 Gradnchildren, even the Nuerotic Female (now 2 yr old) Beagle, joined in the hunt, sniffing out small cadburys Easter eggs in Lawn and Garden, Family gave me Big Dark Chocolate Cherry Ripe Easter Egg and Rocky Road Easter Bunny.
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Councils, state Govts and the Feds (of all stripes) are doing their utmost to restrict supply of available residential and have been doing so for decades.
Yes, we’re on the California model demand and supply is calibrates through prices moving up. The other is the Texas model. Real estate demand is sated with more supply and much less regulation.
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The normal Sunday morning 4BC radio guy, Spencer Howson, has Covid so a fill in on the show.
Howson called in and they had a discussion about whether he should have just gone into work and told the others he was positive. His boss told him to stay home.
The nature of the discussion clearly indicated little concern for having Covid.
Pretty sure he would be quadruple jabbed and possibly had 5th.
Then again they will argue jabs prevented serious case and death.
SAY NO to the Voice and all future jabs.
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Chairman Dan has certainly run hard up against this traditional Liar constraint. Now to share the pain.
I received notification of almost 100% land tax increase on a vacation home. They’re freaking evil how they pull this crap. They raised the marginal rate from about 1.5% to 2.5% if the property is owned either by a company or trust. Regular folks are unlikely to use corps or trusts so he doesn’t hit his own constituency as hard.
The amount of infrastructure work still going on is amazing and the state debt is around $150 billion.
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9:07 am · 8 Apr 2023
Don’t want to get too far ahead of events but the rumors right now are that the Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut are attempting to flee. Panic from Ukrainian channels.
Specific claims are that groupings of personnel are trying to break out to get to Chasiv Yar and that the AFU is destroying equipment.
“Advances have been made in a western direction” – translation: AFU retreating.
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