Bed. —— Mark Dice: Based John Fetterman Returns and Acknowledges Trump’s Super Power
Open Thread – Tues 8 May 2023
- Open Thread – Thurs 14 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Remembrance Day 2024
- The Sweetest Victory
- Open Thread – Weekend 9 November 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 7 Nov 2024
Dating too far up the hot- crazy matrix.
Some sports are heroic. Rally driving. Boxing. Running for US president.
World peace. But you should wait until after the bikini round to say so.
My accountant informs me that I have made an obscene amount of money during the year, No amount of money…
Well, these will be the frauds who infest ‘Da Voice’.
If you think people find it tempting enough to fake Indigenous art, how many more will be drawn to the rather more lucrative offices of ‘Da Voice’?
JC 9/5/23 10.00am
I don’t think temp has increased. Since 2019 I cannot recall having the one week of temps over 37.8c in Adelaide.
The summers have been milder and shorter.
BTW – I do not believe ACC.
GWGB news, doubling down edition.
Disney Tumbles Below $100 After Paying Subs Slide Following Sharp Price Increase (11 May)
Disney introduced a new ad-supported tier for Disney+ in December, hiking the cost of the ad-free version by 38% to $11 a month in the process.
…
CEO Bob Iger has been working to achieve profitability in streaming by 2024. As part of a wider plan to put Disney on a better financial footing, he’s cutting $5.5 billion in annual costs and culling 7,000 jobs from the entertainment giant’s workforce. The recent cost cutting led to the departure of streaming chief Michael Paull and most of the product and technology teams that supervised the rollout of Disney+ in 2019.
…
Judging by the plunge in the stock price, which slid below $100 after hours… and is now down more than 50% from its all time high… we somehow doubt he is all that “pleased.”
Disney Invites Drag Queen Nina West to ‘The Little Mermaid’ World Premiere (9 May)
As it continues to aggressively push LGBTQ ideology in its entertainment for children, the Walt Disney Co. invited drag queen Nina West to the world premiere of its live-action The Little Mermaid on Monday at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
During the blue-carpet festivities, Nina West — whose real name is Andrew Levitt — cavorted with actress Melissa McCarthy, who plays Ursula the Sea Witch and has stated her performance was inspired by drag queens.
Well yes, I can see why drag queens might inspire that. But doing the tranny thing for a children’s movie doesn’t seem to me to be an altogether good idea for maximizing the box office take. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes when it opens on May 26.
And probably by now in a safe of a lefty billionaire.
Sounds like your mum studied ‘woke physics’ at school.
Remember in the debates between Obama and Romney they were asked who America’s greatest enemy was? And when Romney said ‘Russia’ Obama laughed and said “Hi, it’s the ’80’s calling. They want their foreign policy back.”?
The USA’s greatest enemy is internal. It is it’s own Feral Guv’ment. The same here in the Land of OZ.
There’s your problem right there, the region is a wealth creator and therefore it needs to be punished. Besides, they probably don’t vote for Palacechook’s party so they get nothing.
The Biden FAMILY
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Catturd ™
@catturd2
22 million video views – 104 million Twitter views.
Matt Walsh
@MattWalshBlog
Fox continues to promote radical left wing gender ideology by referring to men as “she.” This is not even a remotely conservative media outlet. They have long since adopted the most extreme and absurd positions of the left.
Anchor Whatsays:
May 11, 2023 at 8:02 am
Listening to Chalmers doing a number on Dutton – how long will it be before Dutton is branded as an extreme right wing domestic terrorist?
About the same time that Tennis Elbow, Blackout Bowen and Chalmers are called “Left Wing Nut Jobs’
Oh, they already are?
Nice.
So why doesn’t Dutton do a number on Chalmers? We don’t need nice politicians on our side, we need mongooses who will go after the snakes.
The Californication of Australia continues…
‘A plunge in new home building to a 10-year low will collide with the arrival of a record 1.5 million migrants*, worsening housing shortages, driving up rents and inflating real estate prices, say property executives.’
– Financial Review
* over the next five years
Biden admin’s plan for mass release of migrants into US outlined in internal 2022 memo
So much for Congressional oversight.
FBI refuses to give Congress informant file alleging Biden took bribes as vice president
meanwhile, QLD hits lowest May temperature ever recorded, and its only the 10th !
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-09/queensland-cold-weather-oakey-record/102319966
Apparently, Britain has a Fertility Regulator.
1st babies born in Britain using DNA from 3 people
I found this an interesting approach to analyzing the climate movement. I have tried to summarize what it is saying in a single sentence but couldn’t do it this early in the day. Maybe someone else here can do so ? https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/05/the_ipcc_radical_climate_change_agenda_is_a_neomarxist_postmodern_value_narrative.html
George Soros is funding almost all of Matt Dugan’s campaign for Allegheny County DA
Crossie that’s exactly right. Give as good as you get plus more.
In Major Reversal, Biden Resurrects Trump Border Policy Ahead Of Title 42 Repeal
Aussie driver exposes huge problem with electric vehicles as he is forced to order a tow truck for his $128k Mercedes after breakdown
In the US and here the Democrats and Labor will be planning on all the new arrivals voting for them. Otherwise they would not do it.
Outraged mother sues school she claims lured sixth-graders into secret gender and sexuality club
Put it in a box next to the Ark of the Covenant in that big warehouse.
FBI Denies Request For Nashville Shooter’s Manifesto, Writings (11 May)
Must be exceptionally damaging to the qwerty cause if they’ve decided to bury it this deep. Unenlightened voters might get the idea that trannies are dangerous people or something.
New Oversight Report on Biden Inc: ‘Joe Biden Has No Business Except His Position in Politics’
And boy, did it pay well when he was VP, bank records show.
m0ntysays:
May 11, 2023 at 12:07 am
MT, you are too thick to be a spook but if you try hard enough you can be a flamer. That would be the first interesting thing about you.
LOL, m0nty=fa was rejected by ASIO, and is now going Flamer. And even that will not make his babble interesting.
KanekoaTheGreat
@KanekoaTheGreat
NEW – House Oversight reveals the nine Biden family members that received wire transfers from foreign nationals via shell companies.
1. Hunter Biden
2. James Biden
3. Sara Biden
4. Hallie Biden
5. Kathleen Biden
6. Melissa Biden
7. Niece/nephew
8. Niece/nephew
9. Grandchild
So, in the Feral Budget of May 2023 on Tuesday, where is there any money or effort for promoting Australian Manufacturing Industries of the future. Didn’t Tennis Elbow go on and on about Australian Manufacturing being vital as part of his 2022 Genewal Erection blah blah?
Seems like a lot of taxing of those Mining money earners of the present.
The Land of OZ. The Clever Country. Led by Donkeys.
Albrechtsen on Justice With Australian Characteristics:
Drowning, not waving.
Tom Fitton
@TomFitton
Trump is being harassed while DOJ protects Biden crime family. Devastating chart detailing Chinese communist corrupt ties.
Erm…Dutton is not on “our side.”
Neither was John Howard.
Politicians act in their own interest and use public sentiment as leverage towards that end.
This includes a link to the full Oversight Committee Report.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
@RepMTG
Here’s the evidence from @GOPoversight
The Biden family received millions of dollars in payments from foreign nationals in an elaborate pay-to-play influence peddling scheme.
Including during Joe Biden’s vice presidency and payments from China.
Once you understand that’s how it works it frees you from putting your trust and faith in politicians and opens up ways to influence their decision making in your favour.
New World Odor™
@hugh_mankind
Facebook confirms that if the Liberal-NDP coalition does not change course with online censorship, they will start blocking Canadian publishers.
As predicted by ALL content creators that warned of this but were ignored and labeled conspiracy theorists.
As Mark Textor inadvertently revealed, the Liberal Party will ditch conservatives without a second thought if they think it will boost their electoral fortunes.
Dont forget rising energy costs and closure of reliable power stations…..
The problem: no spare wheel
well, sacrifices have to made when you are packing a 700kg battery!
Republicans are so astonishingly dumb.
If they don’t make completely defunding the FBI the number one stipulation for raising the debt ceiling then every last one of them will be in prison within the next five years.
If they’re too weak to do that then pass a bill in the House that says all federal politicians accused of a crime or sued get to choose the jurisdiction that they are trialled in.
And the difficulties in getting new dams built or existing dam walls raised.
Ten years ago, I would not have imagined feeling as cynical & bitter as I do now. It’s not a happy feeling, nor conducive to balanced mental health. Is this the plan, to alternately milk & grind the ‘normals’ in order to satisfy & salivate upon the .5 percenters, the only ones who now ‘matter.’
Note to Simon: It’s people like me you need to watch. The quiet, brooding, restless, bitter ones.
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
May 10, 2023 at 8:47 pm
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2023/05/what-a-message-for-kids-celebrating-morbid-deadly-obesity-.html
Zulu,
The Really Fat African American Ladies are summed by some of the Comments
– A mass of gyrating blubber. The new ‘beautiful’?
– Notice the camera appear to sway from side to side NO mini earthquake caused by the foot stomping.
– I do not want to point out the obvious but most of these exceptionally large young women are African American. It has to be their diet of rubbish surely?
– The Porky-Pig Marching Band bringing home the bacon – what a bunch of hams
But the Winner is – Back to the jungle we go
Watch & Enjoy!
Could be why Twiggy Forrest is spruiking hydrogen power to get his taxes back in subsidies.
Japan: Preparing for War | ARTE.tv Documentary
Yes.
It was also Trump’s huge error. The FBI and CIA have a history of infamy and there are good reasons to shut both down; rampant criminality exposed by the Church Commission, J Edgar Hoover’s blatant corruption, war crimes and bizarre polka dancing human experimentation monsters, domestic spying, blackmail; Daniel Patrick Moynihan had a good article on why the CIA shouldn’t exist.
Where was he expecting to get the new voters? Labor and Greens may tell him at dinner parties that they would vote for his party if they ditch the conservatives and then laugh at him when he goes home. People that stupid are dangerous when they occupy important positions.
Korn is straight thuggin’. Based.
I feel like Mr Drumgold imagines he is the real victim, being bullied by police who erred caution at possible reasonable doubt.
Advice is bullying, advice is violence! Do not tolerate advice!
For its biting-satire-as-truth, last week’s Please Explain is already shaping up as a comedy classic. Go to the 1m20s mark in the Jim Chalmers stand-up comedy routine.
Boambee John:
Nor will it make him STFU.
Duk, I driven on non-flat tyres for well over a decade. They’re terrible tyres because they can’t be repaired, but you can drive on them for 300 k and there’s no issue. Why then did the driver have to call for assistance?
They hate themselves so much they can not FATHOM how I love myself
I can hazard a guess at the fathomage of your self love.
A 2014 study used satellite-linked tags to follow the dives of eight beaked whales off the southern California coast. The deepest recorded dive was 2,992 metres, breaking the record for diving mammals.
Covert 2992m into fathoms is 1636.045 fathoms of self love.
Of course they do. Migrants are practical and rational otherwise they wouldn’t be here where life is better than in the old country. They know who brung them and so they dance with Labor. They also know that LNP voters are not on board and so that party doesn’t get their vote until some years down the road when they need a party to be pro business and protect what they have started.
The Liberals are moving leftwards to attract new voters.
Just consider the performance of your state party, whichever state you happen to be in.
Are they representative of your views?
So we have Dickhead Dan in Victoriastan ruining the viability of Vic offshore gas and oil as a business (and wages for new jobs there have plummeted, surprise surprise) by banning new residential connections and my correspondents tell me even in regional NSW, bored housewife shire councillors want to ban new residential connections to gas.
If these people had the flu I just had, with a family of kids the same, in the middle of winter, by the face of Lucca I hope the reality sets in that these actions are downright misanthropic.
Let’s not use gas, to have gas fired electricity when it’s too still and there’s no sun and it’s -5 degrees at 3 AM and the family is up sick as dogs!
It’ll be interesting to see how it (The Little Mermaid) goes when it opens on May 26.
The Critical Drinker has opined upon this very thing. He gets into The Little Mermaid specifically at 3:30.
I must say I reckon he is bang on.
I suspected that for some time as I observed him in informal settings where he gravitates to groups who don’t really want him and are antagonistic to his party and voters. He craves their approval, not ours.
Hydrogen – renewable wind & solar.
Storage?
Firming energy is the de facto storage the renewable energy investment relies upon.
I can’t find any mention of controls for renewable projects being put in place.
It’s a speculative rush, saturating the system with big pulses of electricity all at the same time that cannot be taken up merely by creating new transmission capacity – at an extraordinary cost.
I think it’s entirely likely that AEMO is going to use transmission as a stop gap measure to try and eek out a couple of more hours of sun and wind through geographical dispersal.
AEMO talk about the wind blowing in one place and not another or the sun in the north compensating for cloud in the south or the coastal east. I’m afraid it’s no more complex thinking than that.
A boondoggle is being crafted by the big end of town without the general public being remotely aware that their plans involve putting big swathes of rural Australia under steel, plastic, glass and cement.
Our governments have never attempted to discuss or get the consent of the general community for this renewable energy vision. Saving the Franklin doesn’t compare to the environmental destruction this mob is slipping past to the keeper.
Milk is murder.
Leftists Outraged over Aubrey Plaza Commercial Mocking Plant-Based Milk: ‘So Disappointed’ (10 May)
Vegans are humorless as well as being thick as soy milk double lattes. I think Ms Plaza has hit an especially rich seam of Dunning-Kruger with this effort.
I’ve tried that Nutty Bruce stuff and it is foul. Almond milk. Right. Very astringent.
I’ve had other stuff (oats?) in coffee and whilst edible it doesn’t taste like actual coffee.
LOL
Which is why everyone else disagrees with you, normal vegetarians are fine and much healthier.
Which shows over and over again that Labor and Greens have those votes sewn up, there are none that will cross over to Liberals. Yet, these smart people are not able to see it.
Like Dutton, these idiots just want to be in the cool club. They may be told so in private but in public will always be humiliated. I don’t want politicians for whom I voted to go to parliament to make friends. I want them to fight for my rights. Labor and Greens always protect their voters, they know how it works.
Muddy:
Like in the Saxon learning to hate?
THE WRATH OF THE AWAKENED SAXON
by Rudyard Kipling
It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Saxon began to hate.
They were not easily moved,
They were icy — willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the Saxon began to hate.
Their voices were even and low.
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show
When the Saxon began to hate.
It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Saxon began to hate.
It was not suddently bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate.
Once you as a politician, have received someone’s vote, that voter can be forgotten about & discarded until just prior to the next election.* There is no contract that says you owe them something, thus no repercussions for not delivering what you may have promised or intimated prior to receiving their vote. If you don’t need to think about something for a 2 1/2 year period, why would you?
*The exception being an individual who possess influence beyond their own immediate social or family circle. Everyone else is a sideshow alley ride: You hang on for a limited time period, then everything returns to normal.
To quote another blowhard former politician Rob Oakeshott, it will be beautiful in its ugliness.
This Genius Airplane consumes Less Fuel than SUV – 5 mins 26 Secs
Meet the Celera 500L, a bullet-shaped airplane from Otto Aviation aiming to revolutionize traveling forever by cutting fuel consumption 8 times and bringing emission-free electric aviation incredibly closer.
The egg-shaped design of the aircraft helps achieve laminar flow on the plane’s surface, reducing drag by 59% compared to similarly sized aircraft.
As a result, the plane gets fuel economy figures between incredible 18-25 miles per gallon, which is better than a large SUV and an average pickup truck. The efficiency will be further improved once Celera is equipped with Hydrogen-electric powertrain in cooperation with Zero Avia later on.
Gez
AEMO talk about the wind blowing in one place and not another or the sun in the north compensating for cloud in the south or the coastal east. I’m afraid it’s no more complex thinking than that.
One of Homer the Idiot’s favourite sayings on ruinables was “The sun is always shining somewhere, and the wind is always blowing somewhere”.
Put aside that Australia is around three time zones (three hours) from east to west, and that even in summer the nights are longer than that, Rafe C has provided good information on wind droughts. The statement is as ludicrous as anything else that the gerbil worming alarmists say.
If AEMO truly thinks that the solution lies with more transmission lines (with associated transmission losses), then the staff there are beyond redemption.
You are right Roger. Just think of Dutton’s comments re the hecklers at CPAC.
Looks like we are going to get another window into ACT lyf – this time via the DPP. Proving, yet again, Canberra might be the greatest mistake in Australia since Federation.
Lieborals betraying their supporters goes back to Fraser and even McMahon.
Spot on Bear.
Leaving the nation’s capital in Victoriastan under Chairman Dan might not have worked out too well either I’ll concede.
Robert:
Yes sirree. I don’t envision an uprising of any sort, as I’ve lost belief in my fellow humans also, but if we are headed for a type of feudalism as I’ve previously mused (in terms of access to affordable, reliable energy, at least), the brooding Saxon might find a purpose.
Crossie
To quote another blowhard former politician Rob Oakeshott, it will be beautiful in its ugliness.
You spelled “Oakesnott” incorrectly.
QLD is investing in a lot of new transmission lines as part of Palaszczuk’s “super grid.”
Don’t imagine there’ll be much extra capacity flowing through the interconnectors once it’s all up and running and we’re reliant on emergency gas & pumped hyrdo from north QLD during Dunkelflaute* conditions.
The eastern grid is being decentralised.
* the dark doldrums when teh sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing
Building crash, migration surge to inflame housing crisis
John Kehoe, Nila Sweeney and Michael Read
A plunge in new home building to a 10-year low will collide with the arrival of a record 1.5 million migrants, worsening housing shortages, driving up rents and inflating real estate prices, say property executives.
The new figures, revealed in the federal budget, forecast a widening gap between home construction and population growth over five years. The failure by state and local governments to approve enough new homes has exacerbated the housing supply problem.
Property Council chief executive Mike Zorbas said the federal government must match its targeted approach to migration with the same focus on housing investment and better planning.
“The population growth outlined in this budget highlights the need for faster and better housing delivery and planning across our cities,” he said.
Housing Industry Association figures show starts on multi-unit dwellings – chiefly apartments – have fallen from a peak of 118,000 in 2015-16 to about 70,000 in 2022-23.
State planning ministers and the Australian Local Government Association are developing a proposal for national cabinet to increase housing supply and affordability, and to better plan for services and infrastructure to cope with immigration.
Sydney home builder and property valuer Adam Cingiloglu said there was a lack of new homes in the pipeline because “builders are going bust” due to the high cost of materials, labour and interest rates.
“It’s not worth building because I don’t know if the price is going to go up or down,” he said.
“We can’t get tradesmen, and they don’t get up out of bed for less than $600 a day, whereas before it was $250, $300.”
Treasury’s housing investment forecasts show the value of annual construction activity will fall for three straight years, implying a decline to a 10-year low of $102.9 billion by 2024-25, according to analysis by The Australian Financial Review.
The figure represents a 7.3 per cent fall on 2021-22 levels, when pandemic-era incentives like HomeBuilder pushed real dwelling investment to $111 billion.
Dwelling investment is tipped by Treasury to fall 2.5 per cent this financial year, 3.5 per cent in 2023-24, and 1.5 per cent in 2024-25.
At the same time, net overseas migration is forecast to rise from 184,000 people in 2021-22, to 400,000 in 2022-23, to 315,000 in 2023-24 and ease back to 260,000 a year through to 2026–27.
‘We’ve got a housing crisis’
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said: “We’ve got a housing crisis, we’ve got a rental crisis, and they’re bringing in one and a half million people over a five-year period.”
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil unveiled a major revamp of the migration system last month to better target skilled migrants, and said over time Australia would likely have a slightly smaller migration intake.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has set a target for the private and public sectors to build 1 million new homes over five years, including by encouraging superannuation funds to invest in social and affordable housing.
On Wednesday in his post-budget address, Dr Chalmers urged the Senate to pass the proposed $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund.
The fund’s expected investment returns of about 5 per cent or $500 million a year would be used in future years to build more social and affordable housing.
The budget also granted international investors a tax break for build-to-rent apartments.
Dr Chalmers said net overseas migration forecasts were not government policy or targets, but rather the result of a demand-driven migration program.
Rental vacancy rates fell to a record low of 1 per cent nationwide in March, due to rental supply dwindling and increased demand following the return of international students and workers, data from Domain show.
Housing Industry Association chief economist Tim Reardon said a sharp fall in apartment building was caused by the high cost of cement, steel and labour, penal taxes on foreign investors, and delays and red tape in state and local government home building approvals.
“This rental crisis will deteriorate further and quite significantly over the next year or two,” he said.
“Local councils have failed to appreciate what their role is in increasing housing supply, so as a first step we need state governments to take away responsibilities from local councils for planning approvals.”
Punitive stamp duty rates for foreign investors of about $100,000 extra on a $750,000 apartment in Sydney had also deterred foreigners investing in new homes, he said.
‘Construction costs at all-time highs’
Capio Property Group chief executive Mark Bainey said there was little incentive for developers because interest rates were “through the roof”.
“The cost of construction is at all-time highs, and you’ve got falling sales prices at the end of the project,” he said.
“However, with these predicted record migration numbers coming to Sydney in a market which is drastically under-supplied, it’s looking like we’re heading towards a boom in the medium to long term.
“We don’t have any product to sell to these buyers.
“The costs of new homes will rise, and will lift house prices in the process.”
Property analyst Louis Christopher of SQM Research said too many construction projects were being cancelled. “Overall, building approvals are very concerning,” he said.
“I’m not sure how Labor can be that confident that they’re going to achieve their goal of a million dwellings being completed by 2029.
“The government needs to manage migration numbers. New home building catering for that population expansion will not be there. This has significant ramifications for the ongoing rental crisis.
“So, despite the rise in interest rates, given the increase in underlying demand relative to supply, it’s likely we will see housing prices rise over the medium term.”
HIA’s Mr Reardon said migration boosted the budget, stabilised economic growth and helped reduce the ageing of the population, so cutting immigration was not the solution.
The concerns come as the Senate standoff between the government and the Greens over the $10 billion housing fund escalates. Determined to put the bill to a vote, with or without the Greens’ support, the government instigated a motion designed to force a vote at 1pm on Thursday, but it was defeated.
If there is a vote and the bill goes down, the government will be halfway towards having a trigger for a double dissolution election. To get the trigger, the bill, in the same form, would have to be defeated again after a minimum of three months.
The budget said the building sector had a significant pipeline of projects under way and it was supporting dwelling investment, “working through the tail end of recent strong demand, supply chain delays and disruption due to floods in 2022”.
“As work is completed and the impact of earlier interest rate hikes and house price declines flow through the system, activity is expected to contract,” the budget report said.
“The ongoing rebound in net overseas migration, strong rental yields, expected lower interest rates and a reduction in building input costs are expected to drive the recovery, particularly in medium and high-density housing.
“There is some downside risk to the near-term outlook associated with the weak financial position of a number of builders, due to elevated construction and financing costs.”
While wandering around aimlessly, dazed and confused in the rain. In Scamberra.
Stunning and bwave.
The green left (which includes the Liberals) want to ban everything but solar, wind, hydrogen and pumped storage hydroelectricity.
No wood fires. No gas, no coal, oil, no nukes. Well gas is okay if the electrical grid is going to fritz.
There will be a move to eliminate concrete too in residential homes soon.
This is going to be very interesting with planned increased immigration to pay for long term debt and social security & welfare.
Meanwhile – 1 hr ago – 8.35AM –
Chalmers hits back at Dutton’s ‘ridiculous’ campaign against migration
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has hit back at comments made by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton yesterday that overseas migration will soar under the Albanese government amid a housing crisis.
Budget papers expect record levels of migration this financial year and next, with net overseas migration rising from 184,000 people in 2021-22, to 400,000 in 2022-23, to 315,000 in 2023-24.
Chalmers attributed much of the increase in migration to the return of international students and tourists to the country, following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Even with this rebound in students and tourists, we still haven’t caught up with what the previous government was forecasting in their budgets,” he told ABC Radio.
“On our current forecast in the budget, net overseas migration will still be cumulatively 315,000 people lower than the pre-pandemic forecasts by the middle of this year and 215,000 people lower by the middle of next year.”
“That completely torpedoes this ridiculous campaign from Peter Dutton and others about migration.”
On that housing stuff, a well to do (eastern suburbs) friend of mine said he WFH the other day, waiting for a plumber to sort out a blocked drain; waited all day, plumber refused to quote him, turned up at 7:30 PM, did job in under half an hour and charged $900. Likely he won’t pay and I don’t blame him.
BoN – Aubrey Plaza was hilarious in Parks and Recreation. The perfect foil for the Swanson.
ALL CAPS
ROUGHLY 45% OF THE COST OF A NEW HOME IS DIRECT, INDIRECT AND HIDDEN TAXES; REMEMBER YOU PAY YOUR MORTGAGE OFF AFTER YOU HAVE PAID INCOME TAX AS WELL!
Chalmers’ projected surplus is tiny and will have literally no effect on interest rates given the debt to GDP ratio is 63% and we’ve seen Wayne Swan’s epic pronouncements of budget surpluses that never eventuated.
The eastern grid is being decentralised.
Mmm…perhaps ‘deconstructed’ would be the better term?
If cheap, reliable electricity was a modernist project, ruinables are certainly po-mo.
With a few apartment blocks going up around me and a change in zoning on our side of the street I am taking more of an interest in the economics of property development. Not sure anything will come of it but at least gain some basic understanding. Everything carved up into strata townhouses around here, you suspect there should be some opportunity. Much more 3br stuff in the DA stuff put out for comment now.
I suffered through a plumbing disaster last Thursday and Friday. Cracked underground water pipe in the back garden (to the external laundry and dunny), leaking mains tap at the front of the house. Fixed on the Friday, wallet now significantly lighter. The joys of home ownership.
More than entirely likely.
Massive public investment in transmission infrastructure, as a means of achieving the benefits of diversity from essentially random source loads, forms the backbone of AEMO’s Integrated System Plan.
When you hear the words “low cost generation”, always remember that a large part of the full economic costs of that generation have been transferred away to the public balance sheet.
And you, Gez, get to wear the indirect economic and social costs – for free.
That can’t possibly be right.
A key part of the ISP is for AEMO (or an unspecified someone) to: “Engage with landholders and regional communities to co-design solutions that will earn a lasting social licence…” as part of the ongoing “…significant, concurrent and accelerated collaboration between the energy sector and its regulators, governments and communities.”
An afterthought, it seems.
Top Men.
Too cheap to meter.
Thank you for the social licence.
The grid and generation are completely linked. While you had a few large coal plants chugging away 24/7 you knew more or less how much and where your electricity was coming from. Now it’s a will o’ the wisp. A few people seemed to have trigged this will cost $$$.
What hubris! How does this person think other people thin?
“Are you? Wow! I had better mend my ways.”
How arrogant. How vegan.
Whereas Paul Keating boasted of having his hands on the levers of the economy, Dim Chalmers gives the appearance of just being along for the ride.
FBI Used Congressional Staff as Confidential Informants and Human Assets to Build Case Against Congressman George Santos
May 10, 2023 – Sundance
Congressman George Santos was indicted on thirteen counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying on financial disclosure forms during his short period in Congress. He was taken into custody Wednesday in New York [DETAILS].
By most accounts and even his own words, Santos is a generally sketchy person, and I doubt there will be too many defenders of his character or the issues at stake. However, all of that said, this Tweet from a staffer in his office is wild:
The casual nature of this is quite alarming. It was not that long ago when the EXECUTIVE branch, using confidential human sources to investigate the LEGISLATIVE branch, would have been a matter of incredible controversy reserved for only the most serious of criminal possibilities.
An FBI informant penetrating the congressional office to relay information back to the FBI is quite remarkable. However, it appears we are in an era of justice administration where anything is just flippantly asserted inside the mechanisms of government.
In the big picture, beyond the selfish issues of George Santos, when we consider the Fourth Branch of Government operating to protect itself against sunlight and scrutiny, this example of the FBI operating in the shadows of congress should start to make everyone uncomfortable. How can there be “checks” and balances, when the enforcement mechanisms can be deployed against any entity who threatens the system itself?
Extend this approach to legislative committee oversight, and you start to see how the system protects itself. A reminder below of what they are ultimately protecting.
Read this as many times as needed to contemplate the nature of our problem.
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.
Trump Town Hall via Crowder:
LIVE COVERAGE: TRUMP CNN TOWN HALL!
Well put Faustus.
They’ll never far a pass on the Social Licence requirement.
No doubt this will be brushed aside or legislated out of the way like Victoria removed the right to a planning appeal.
Chairman James Comer Holds Press Conference Outlining Payments to Biden Family from Foreign Governments
May 10, 2023 – Sundance
Led by Chairman James Comer, Republican members of the House Oversight Committee hold a press briefing on alleged new information they’ve discovered about the Biden family’s business deals.
The committee alleges Joe Biden and members of his family received payments from foreign nationals and businesses through a complex structure of limited liability corporations (LLC) in order to purchase assistance in the form of influence from the United States government for their financial interests.
In the press conference, the committee members outlined how Romanian and Chinese individuals paid shell corporations controlled by Biden associates. The Biden associate LLC’s (shell corporations) then transferred funds to other companies, who then transferred the funds to the Biden family members. Each step in the process was created to hide the originating source of the payments. WATCH:
In addition to the China money ties, we are adding a new country to our growing list of places the Bidens received money from:
Romania.
The Biden family and associates’ activities in Romania reveal an influence peddling scheme from 2015 to 2017.
While VP Biden was lecturing Romania on anti-corruption policies, he served as a walking billboard for his son & family to collect money.
Hunter & his associates capitalized on a lucrative financial relationship with a Romanian national who was later convicted of corruption.
The Bidens received over $1 million for the Romania deal, with 16 of the 17 payments made during Biden’s VP term.
The money stops flowing from Romania soon after Joe Biden leaves office, establishing a pattern of influence peddling.
Due to the info we are releasing today and further developments our committee is aware of, the investigation will enter a new phase.
Representative James Comer will soon issue more subpoenas to banks for specific, targeted information.
In addition, he will provide one more opportunity for certain Biden associates—including his art gallerist and Rob Walker—to cooperate willingly with this investigation.
Additionally, James Comer is publicly releasing this Second Bank Records Memo to the American people so they can see for themselves the activities the Biden family has engaged in, despite the President’s statements to the contrary. (source)
You will learn to know your place in the neo-fuedal order, serf.
According to Premier Qld the state could be negotiating and having treaties with up to 100 Aboriginal groups.
If they are supposed to be “Nations” where are they based and what are their populations. I am guessing most will only have a few thousand people. Where would the largest be ?
Just insane. How did MP’s even think this was a good idea or is it proof that unelected civil servants pull the strings.
Once again, Jimbob has shat all over his idol’s legacy.
Doh…feudal.
Excellent thread:
Sorry if posted but people aren’t happy. Hun:
Watching Skah. Drumgold’s on, and having the acid put on him yet again.
To reprise the classic line from Trainspotting, Drumgold looks like he’s watching a video of his entire life with only the shit bits left in.
Wind turbines turn generation into a probability. If you just stick it all on red 23 you will lose. You have to cover the board (and the countryside).
Amazed that conservatives continually reference the middle ages pejoratively and yet they are surprised that liberals gain ascendancy as they adopt their priors.
Well, as was stated in their policy platform document before the last election…
Oh, wait…I can’t see it.
Rogersays:
at 7:31 pm
Since nice Mr Duranty in 1932 he’s been doing a lot of rotations.
Duranty was grievously mistaken, but afaik he wasn’t a deviant pervert advocating for the reversal of the natural – i.e. God-given – biological order of creation.
That’s on a whole other level of metaphysical subversion.
This comment doesn’t make any sense.
Walter Duranty was a deviant pervert, that was well known.
The point is it isn’t much fun being a serf, dover.
That is all.
The climate movement is a post modernist inspired death cult.
If you say so; it wasn’t known to me.
Dr Chalmers said net overseas migration forecasts were not government policy or targets, but rather the result of a demand-driven migration program.
Yeah, the demand for new leftard voters.
Bridge for sale, cheep!
The Illusion of Progress: Unmasking the Dark Side of Agenda 2030
Hmmm … just like there were no pull factors with the boats last time the Liars were on the government benches. Might want to take that with a grain of salt.
The bald faced audacity of AEMO is exposed by their treatment of landholders along the Western Link from Ballarat to the Bulgana wind farm.
They signed contracts with the line builders before the landholders were informed that they were part the route.
Letters were then sent to landholders stating they were possibly in the path. This only happened to some families who then got together and discovered that the receivers of the letters were all on a line. They asked why this was so and we’re told it was by chance and no definitive path had been established.
You will not be surprised to learn that when the actual path was announced, it precisely matched the letter recipients mail out route.
Catch the bargain before it flies away! 😀
This is by Anne Coulter, someone I have nothing but contempt for. However, the point being made here is, unfortunately, absolutely correct.
No Biggie, Just the End of Civilization
‘The Times’ says “Antivaxers are a menace who must be defeated” among other FALSE claims but the truth is the Triple Vaccinated account for 94% of Covid-19 Deaths
Archbishop ‘shocked’ by hospital move
ACT Health Minister says religion not a factor in Calvary Hospital takeover plans
ABC Radio Canberra – Broadcast 18h ago
ABC News Posted Wed 19 Apr 2023
Inquiry into Canberra abortion access scathing of Catholic-run hospital’s limited reproductive healthcare, delivers 18 recommendations
Exclusion zones at ACT abortion services to be expanded from 50 to 150 metres
More Canberra general practitioners and pharmacists to be trained in medical abortions to address a shortage
Investment in services to allow for abortions post 16 weeks gestation in the ACT
Urgent action on a “critical” lack of ultrasound equipment that is used ahead of abortions
More reproductive healthcare support and resources for those experiencing domestic violence and other forms of hardship and marginalisation
A legal requirement that would see conscientious objectors have to provide referrals to other services
Subsidised long acting contraceptives, including a trial of subsidised vasectomies
A trial of reproductive healthcare leave for ACT government employees
Driven by a skills shortage that shows that a) our education system is failing us & b) our migration system isn’t fit for purpose.
So the demand has been created by government ineptitude that has been coming down the pipeline for some time.
Still not convinced either that the reference is apt or rhetorically useful.
That is often the case in things put out for public comment. We are currently in the midst of traffic chaos every Saturday around a State sports facility (take that down Groogs) following a major redevelopment with the inevitable traffic report as Appendix D that made no real difference. A particularly shitty apartment block on a nearby arterial road didn’t get the nod though.
Hahaha!
Burger lovers rejoice! Lab-grown meat is up to 25 times WORSE for the climate than beef, study claims (10 May, via Instapundit)
You don’t have to purify grass, the cow does it for you.
But we are told that this never happens.
Further down:
Absolutely stunning how the doctor here discusses the treatment of the child born-alive and yet this is the attitude abortion habituates in those that do it every day.
It’s a one liner that most people would get, not a critique of medieval life.
Are you medieval appreciators or enjoyers? By the holy face of Lucca no one will be Archbishop here in England except myself!
An exceptionally clear analogy explaining Australia’s current energy policy.
The Censorship Industrial Complex in one Diagram
From
The Censorship-Industrial Complex: Top 50 Organizations To Know
Introduction by Matt Taibbi
On January 17, 1960, outgoing President and former Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower gave one of the most consequential speeches in American history. Eisenhower for eight years had been a popular president, whose appeal drew upon a reputation as a person of great personal fortitude, who’d guided the United States to victory in an existential fight for survival in World War II. Nonetheless, as he prepared to vacate the Oval Office for handsome young John F. Kennedy, he warned the country it was now at the mercy of a power eve he could not overcome.
Until World War II, America had no permanent arms manufacturing industry. Now it did, and this new sector, Eisenhower said, was building up around itself a cultural, financial, and political support system accruing enormous power. This “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience,” he said, adding:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes… Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
This was the direst of warnings, but the address has tended in the popular press to be ignored. After sixty-plus years, most of America – including most of the American left, which traditionally focused the most on this issue – has lost its fear that our arms industry might conquer democracy from within.
Now, however, we’ve unfortunately found cause to reconsider Eisenhower’s warning.
While the civilian population only in recent years began haggling over “de-platforming” incidents involving figures like Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos, government agencies had already long been advancing a new theory of international conflict, in which the informational landscape is more importantly understood as a battlefield than a forum for exchanging ideas. In this view, “spammy” ads, “junk” news, and the sharing of work from “disinformation agents” like Jones aren’t inevitable features of a free Internet, but sorties in a new form of conflict called “hybrid warfare.”
In 1996, just the Internet was becoming part of daily life in America, the U.S. Army published “Field Manual 100-6,” which spoke of “an expanding information domain termed the Global Information Environment” that contains “information processes and systems that are beyond the direct influence of the military.” Military commanders needed to understand that “information dominance” in the “GIE” would henceforth be a crucial element for “operating effectively.”
You’ll often see it implied that “information operations” are only practiced by America’s enemies, because only America’s enemies are low enough, and deprived enough of real firepower, to require the use of such tactics, needing as they do to “overcome military limitations.” We rarely hear about America’s own lengthy history with “active measures” and “information operations,” but popular media gives us space to read about the desperate tactics of the Asiatic enemy, perennially described as something like an incurable trans-continental golf cheat.
Indeed, part of the new mania surrounding “hybrid warfare” is the idea that while the American human being is accustomed to living in clear states of “war” or “peace,” the Russian, Chinese, or Iranian citizen is born into a state of constant conflict, where war is always ongoing, whether declared or not. In the face of such adversaries, America’s “open” information landscape is little more than military weakness.
Who are the leaders of these messaging campaigns? If you care to ask, the groups below are a good place to start.
“The Top 50 List” is intended as a resource for reporters and researchers beginning their journey toward learning the scale and ambition of the “Censorship-Industrial Complex.” Written like a magazine feature, it tries to answer a few basic questions about funding, organization type, history, and especially, methodology. Many anti-disinformation groups adhere to the same formulaic approach to research, often using the same “hate-mapping,” guilt-by-association-type analysis to identify wrong-thinkers and suppressive persons. There is even a tendency to use what one Twitter Files source described as the same “hairball” graphs.
Without further ado, an introduction to the main players in this “CIC”: Links incuded on each number reference
?1.? Information Futures Lab (IFL) at Brown University (formerly, First Draft):
Type: A university institute, housed within the School of Public Health, to combat “misinformation” and “outdated communications practices.” The successor to First Draft, one of the earliest and more prominent “anti-disinformation” outfits.
You may have read about them when: You first heard the terms Mis-, dis-, and malinformation. The term was coined by FD Director Claire Wardle. IFL/FD are also the only academic/non-profit organization involved in the Trusted News Initiative, a large-scale legacy media consortium established to control debate around the pandemic response. Wardle was Twitter executives’ first pick for a signal group of anti-misinformation advisors it put together. She also participated in the Aspen Institute’s Hunter Biden laptop tabletop in August 2020 (before the laptop story broke). IFL’s co-founder Stefanie Friedhoff serves on the White House Covid-19 Response Team. First Draft staffers were also revealed in the #TwitterFiles to be frequent and trusted partners to a leading public face of the Censorship-Industrial Complex, Renee DiResta, now of Stanford University.
2.? Meedan
Type: Medium-sized non-profit specializing in technology and countering “disinformation.”
3.? Harvard Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy (Technology and Social Change Project)
Type: An elite academic project once regarded as one of the leading centers in the “anti-disinformation” field.
4.? The Public Good Projects
Type: Non-profit consultancy, specializing in health communications, marketing, technology and “disinformation.”
?5.? Graphika
Type: For-profit firm with defense connections specializing in “digital marketing and disinformation & analysis.”
6.? Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLabs) of the Atlantic Council
Type: Public-facing disinformation research arm of highly influential, extravagantly funded, NATO-aligned think tank, the Atlantic Council.
?7.? Stanford Internet Observatory
Type: Academic research institution
?8.? Poynter Institute / International Fact-Checking Network
Type: Private think tank, once known as a media advocacy operation, now known more for the IFCN, which is essentially the in-house fact-checking arm of Facebook/Meta, as well as the fact-checking hub Politifact. Also produces the reporter-friendly widget MediaWise.
?9.? Integrity Initiative / Institute for Statecraft
link to Integrity Initiative documents leaked by Anonymous here.
Type: Shady-as-F spookworld surveillance and information control plan that will send you voiding in terror
?10.? National Conference on Citizenship / Algorithmic Transparency Institute
Type: A post-WWII, congressionally chartered civic organization that bizarrely has turned its attention to the cause of “anti-disinformation” and censorship. The Algorithmic Transparency Institute (ATI) is a sub-initiative of the NCoC.
?11.? Park Advisors
Type: For-profit firm funded by the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) specializing in “solutions to pressing issues such as Disinformation, Terrorism, Violent Extremism, Hate Speech, Human Trafficking, and Money Laundering.”
?12.? New Knowledge AI, rebranded as Yonder AI, acquired by Primer
Type: For-profit internet company that worked for brands and national security entities searching platforms for narrative control, along with detecting narrative manipulation from malign actors.
?13.? Moonshot CVE
Type: For-profit tech company working with public and private industry partners to detect and prevent online hate.
?14.? Annenberg Public Policy Center (home of Factcheck.org)
Type: Privately funded Public Policy Research Center affiliated with the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
?15.? German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy
Type: Public Policy Think Tank/ Grant-making institution.
?16.? Ad Council
Type: Nonprofit/Media
You may have read about them when: They started the drunk driving prevention campaign “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk,” and also created the Smokey the Bear character.
?17.? Clemson University Media Forensics Hub
Type: Public-Private Research Institute
You may have read about them when: They were formed in 2020 “in order to build upon the nationally recognized research performed by Clemson University faculty who were among the first to identify the organized campaign of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.” Clemson University Media Forensics hub scholars published “The Real Target of Authoritarian Disinformation” in Foreign Affairs about Russia’s “Internet Research Agency”; they’ve worked with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Law Enforcement agencies and the U.S. Army Cyber Command.
?18.? Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Type: Government agency; a division within the Department of Homeland Security that is the “operational lead for federal cybersecurity and the national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience.” Founded in 2018, it quickly took on a role in election security, declaring the electoral process critical national infrastructure.
You may have read about them when: Their inaugural director, Christopher Krebs, was fired by President Donald Trump via tweet after CISA released a statement, saying on November 12, 2020, “The November 3rd Election was the most secure in American history.”
?19.? Bellingcat
Type: For-profit Netherlands based investigative journalism organization that seems mostly to investigate and/or denouonce the practitioners of journalism.
20.? Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA)
Type: CEPA is a nonprofit public policy institution based in Washington, D.C. with the mission “to ensure a strong and enduring transatlantic alliance rooted in democratic values and principles.”
You may have read about them when: CEPA employees are frequently quoted in the news about European affairs and on the Russia-Ukraine war. It said “US complicity” in the sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines was “disinformation.” On March 29, 2023 CEPA published an article concluding “Russia remains the likeliest culprit” of the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines.
?21.? Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington
Type: An academic “multidisciplinary research center” with the mission to “resist strategic misinformation, promote an informed society and strengthen democratic discourse.”
?22.? Aspen Institute
Type: The Aspen Institute is a neoliberal global nonprofit ostensibly “committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society” that has the rep (and the geographical profile) of an American Davos.
You may have read about them when: The Aspen Institute holds its annual “Ideas Festival” and summits featuring state leaders and elected officials of both parties, notable bureaucrats, journalists and professors, executives and “thought leaders.” Highlights from Aspen include:
?23.? Trusted News Initiative
Institution: Trusted News Initiative
Type: Trusted News Initiative is a partnership “founded by the BBC” that includes media and technology organizations from around the world, including Google and YouTube, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, The CBC, The Washington Post, AP, Thomson Reuters, the Information Futures Lab/First Draft, and several more. Its members collaborate “to build audience trust and to find solutions to tackle challenges of disinformation.”
?24.? Automated Controversy Detection
Type: An tech startup focused on “misinformation and controversy” emerging out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. AuCoDe was awarded a $1 million National Science Foundation grant in November 2020 to tackle “disinformation” using artificial intelligence. They are a core partner on Meedan’s NSF-funded Fact Champ initiative to “increase collaboration between fact-checkers, academics, and community leaders to counter misinformation online.” </em
?25.? Center for Countering Digital Hate
Type: An NGO cut-out engaged in brazen smearing, attacking of dissenting views, deplatforming, censoring and pro-active shrinkage of the Overton window.
You may have read about them when: They issued a report called the “Disinformation Dozen” which sought to “deplatform” dissident Covid thinkers from Substack, including RFK Jr, smearing them as “anti-vaxxers.” CCHD are experts in strategically conflating serious voices with the fringes, mixing them together to isolate genuine actors and squash dissent. What is unique about CCHD is its blatant distortions, vicious tone, and cynical appropriation of anti-racist, anti-sexist, and public health rhetoric. The group promotes explicitly pro-censorship and deplatforming positions, and pushes the boundaries of the new normal. Founder Imran Ahmed is connected to senior UK Labor Party figures. Current campaign work focuses on pressuring advertisers to leave Twitter due to Musk making it a “safe haven for hate and intolerance.”
26.? Craig Newmark Philanthropies
Type: A large philanthropy founded by the inventor of Craigslist, with a special focus on journalism and disinformation.
You may have read about them when: Along with Omidyar and the Knight Foundation, Craig Newmark is perhaps the most prolific private funder of projects combating “disinformation.” He provided foundational grants to a wide range of institutes including the Stanford Internet Observatory, Columbia University’s Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security, the Institute for Rebooting Social Media at Harvard University, Poynter’s Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, and The Markup.
?27.? Omidyar Group
Type: A series of foundations from the founder of eBay providing a huge amount of funding to the Censorship-Industrial complex.
You may have read about them when: You heard of almost any “anti-disinformation” initiative. Omidyar funded projects include the incredibly creepy CryptoChat, which peers into private and encrypted messaging systems to weed out misinformation. Omidyar also funded the Algorithmic Transparency Institute which conducts “civic listening” and “automated collection of data” from “closed messaging apps” in order to combat “problematic content.”
28.? The Knight Foundation
Type: The third in the trifecta of private foundations leading the funding of the “anti-disinformation” industry.
You may have read about them when: The Foundation was born from the Knight Ridder company, once the largest publisher of newspapers in the United States. In 2005 it began a major course change toward digital journalism initiatives, and over the past several years made disinformation a major focus.
29.? Google Jigsaw
Type: A “think/do tank” developing technical solutions to disinformation, censorship, and violent extremism.
You may have read about them when: Jigsaw was founded in 2010 as Google Ideas under the leadership of Jared Cohen, who worked both under Condoleezza Rice and Hilary Clinton at the State Department. Cohen was seen as a rising star who could help leverage the geo-political potential of emerging digital technologies. Cohen co-wrote the book “The New Digital Age” with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and pioneered the transformation of Google into a State Department regime change proxy. Cohen is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
?30.? Full Fact
Type: A leading UK “fact-checking” “NGO” with mountains of money from Big Tech.
You may have read about them when: Founded by Michael John Samuel, the son of an aristocrat, Full Fact epitomizes the elitism and down-talking of the “fact-checking” industry. Full Fact has been explicit about collaborating with Big Tech and government, stating in a #TwitterFiles email “Full Fact has been working with a variety of organizations including Facebook, Google, Twitter, First Draft and the UK and Canadian governments to create a Framework for Information Incidents.”
HONORABLE MENTIONS: 31-50
Not surprisingly, having failed to secure a DA the property soon appeared on the market. It’s a funny little block surrounded by a much larger site that a Singapore based group have been sitting on for ages. I expect the owner is kidding himself.
https://www.cjsinquiry.act.gov.au/public-hearings/livestream
on Shane Drumgold SC
Note you can pause and watch later – still playing yesterday’s hearings and have today paused
You didn’t hear a lot about work/life balance during the Middle Ages. If it got out of hand, you died.
Time off for an abortion at our expense. That’s nice.
Does the father get non-paternity leave too?
When the Russian serfs were freed in 1861, their former owners were monetarily compensated by the Tsar’s government…paid for with extra taxes levied upon the newly freed serfs!
Drumgold appears to be imitating that video/tiktok of the Chinese motor scooter rider who takes off from the lights, crashes into a truck, then a car, then another motor bike. Is helped up and then rides into an open sewer.
Faustus – anyone who’s done any sailing will know the wind is often stronger where you don’t need it. Every few weeks heading miles off course pays dividends, a lot of the time you just get written off as weirdos.
Drumgold is not in trouble at all if you watch MSM. It’s all about shady players behind the scenes trying to stop our brave girl from obtaining justice.
The ACT police seemingly part of this giant conspiracy by sinister right wing forces.
Marvel movies needs a man like Drumgold.
The Dark Reynolds Rises.
Two whole seasons? You’re a late adopter then, but obviously you’re now addicted. It happens.
A couple of hints (you’ve probably already discovered) but no spoilers here for you:
Firstly, keep the sound up as the Cinema Verite style flits around so quickly it’s easy to miss certain revealing actions done quickly or asides muttered very low that can be either devastatingly funny (cue Roman’s throwaway observations) and/or informative of character (old man Roy tapping indolently on a glass while Shiv’s just been devastated by him, for instance, or Tom Wambsgan’s back-story face, an acting miracle). In that regard, we’ve enjoyed watching various episodes twice each week, to pick up an extra nuance, discussing it with each other, clarifying what we think is going on, with Hairy on the remote’s stop and go button while we exchange views on it before resuming the show.
Secondly, while there is some attempt at verisimilitude in matters of high finance and media deals, don’t worry too much about it making genuine sense (though it tries), it’s backdrop. It’s how the kids and the various spivs and mentors manoeuvre and fight about it that matters. You no doubt have got that by now anyway, but worth remembering as the deals get made and shot down.
Thirdly, you can selectively browse reviews on the internet up to the stage you’ve reached. It’s a further sharing of perspectives. So, happy viewing. Oh – and chose your fave character. 🙂
Free beer!
Clay Travis’ free beer experiment shows people ‘don’t want to be seen’ with Bud Light (9 May, via Instapundit)
OutKick founder and sports media personality Clay Travis conducted an experiment over the weekend where he offered various cans of free beer at a concert, concluding that drinking Bud Light is now taboo in public.
…
The first video he posted from 6:45 p.m. showed his cooler full of multiple kinds of beer, including Michelob Ultra, Yuengling, and Bud Light.
He posted a second video towards the end of the evening at 10:15 p.m. where the cooler only appeared to have cans of Bud Light remaining, indicating that those who took free beer would only choose the other brands.
“I’m not a marketing expert, but the only beer left” he said, is “Bud Light,” adding that this is “not ideal, not good” for the brand.
Meanwhile Mr Mulvaney is suffering, horrifically.
Dylan Mulvaney admits to ‘having trouble sleeping’ since Bud Light backlash erupted (10 May)
Maybe it has taken on too much, and should return to doing nice peaceful drag queen story hours.
Haha, I got a 500 Internal Server error for that last comment. I got around it by replacing the Fox News link with a tinyurl version of the same link. That was the only change I made and it worked.
So WordPress doesn’t like Fox News now…?
THE HUNTER BIDEN STATEMENT: HOW SENIOR INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY
OFFICIALS AND THE BIDEN CAMPAIGN WORKED TO MISLEAD AMERICAN
VOTERS – 65 Page PDF
Interim Joint Staff Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
U.S. House of Representatives
May 10, 2023
Here’s a site about the U.S. Media Networks, looking at Walter Duranty.
The New York Times needed a Moscow correspondent prepared to be a mouthpiece for the Lenin/Stalin/Trotsky regime.
Duranty volunteered.
Justice was eventually done on the personal level, the NYT flicked him after 18 years in Moscow, during a cost cutting drive and he died in poverty.
Bottom line is, the American Media were already corrupt to the core 100 years ago.
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/walter-duranty/
What was so good about it, Dover?
Succession Opening Theme.
Never miss the opening theme, say dedicated viewers. Variations on this theme are a rising and falling musical undercurrent throughout the drama.
Like any good drama there are plenty of subplots. I’m sure you could hear the same observations from lawyers and police outside any court in Australia. Ditto engineers and tradesmen and …
Executive Summary
“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have
six ways from Sunday to getting back at you.”
– Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), January 3, 2017.1
In the heated days shortly before the 2020 presidential election, a news story appeared in
the New York Post detailing how Hunter Biden used the position and influence of his father,
now-President Joe Biden, for personal gain with President Biden’s awareness.2 This article,
based on materials obtained from an abandoned laptop once owned by Hunter Biden, called into
question statements made by President Biden denying awareness of the international business
dealings of his son, Hunter.3
Five days after the Post story, 51 former intelligence community officials, using their official titles and citing their national security credentials, released a public statement suggesting the story “ha[d] all the classic earmarks” of Russian disinformation.4
Three days after that, Vice President Biden used this public statement in a nationally televised
presidential debate to rebut President Trump’s criticisms, asserting “there are 50 former national
intelligence folks who said that what this, he’s accusing me of is a Russian plan.”5
Much has been written about how social media companies and news outlets improperly
censored or ignored allegations on the flimsy basis that it was “hacked” materials;6 and “can’t be
verified”;7
or, in the inspired words of National Public Radio, a “waste of time” and a “pure
distraction.”8
These censorship decisions were wrong then, but they look even more egregious with the passage of time.
The contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop have since been authenticated and the Post’s reporting has been verified by several other news outlets.9
What has not been examined, until now, is how 51 former federal employees with
intelligence and national security credentials came together to insert themselves into the thick of
the presidential campaign.
Beginning in April 2022—and renewed earlier this year when Republicans resumed control of the House of Representatives—the Committee on the Judiciary and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence have been conducting oversight into the origins of this statement.10 The Committees wrote to all 51 former officials requesting relevant documents and testimony. Consistent with the obligation to keep the House apprised of investigative activities,11
this interim report summarizes the key information learned to date.
• The public statement by 51 former intelligence officials was a political operation to
help elect Vice President Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Contemporaneous
emails show the organizers’ intent in drafting and releasing the statement: “[W]e think
Trump will attack Biden on the issue at this week’s debate and we want to offer
perspectives on this from Russia watchers and other seasoned experts,”12 and “we want to
give the [Vice President] a talking point to use in response.”13
• The Biden campaign took active measures to discredit the allegations about Hunter
Biden by exploiting the national security credentials of former intelligence officials.
On October 17, 2020, Biden campaign advisor—now Secretary of State—Antony
Blinken contacted former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Acting Director Michael
Morell to discuss the Post’s reporting. Morell told Blinken that he was not familiar with
the reporting and Blinken later emailed Morell a USA Today article alleging the FBI was
investigating whether it was Russian disinformation.14 At the bottom of the email was the
signature block of Andrew Bates, then-director of rapid response for the Biden
campaign.15 Following this outreach from the Biden campaign, Morell began the process
of drafting the statement—something Morell testified would not have happened but for
Blinken’s communication. In addition, following the October 22 presidential debate—
during which Vice President Biden used the public statement to rebut President Trump’s
criticisms—Biden campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti called Morell to thank him for the
statement. 4, 2023, via counsel, Secretary Blinken responded.25 Although he denied asking Morell to write the statement, Secretary Blinken did not dispute that his communication was the impetus for the
statement.26
Secretary Blinken provided none of the documents that Committee requested. The
Committees will continue to pursue additional information about the actions and events
described in this report.
Americans deserve to have confidence that their government, particularly its premier
intelligence agency, is free from politicization. The infusion of bare-knuckle partisan politics into
America’s intelligence agencies is cause for grave concern. Former federal employees have a
right to engage in the political process—a fundamental right that the Committees do not dispute.
Here, however, the signers of the Hunter Biden laptop statement relied on their national security
credentials and used their official titles to lend heft to their statement and to insinuate access to
secretive information unavailable to other Americans. And these signers did so in coordination
with a political campaign for the explicit purpose of giving a candidate for office a “talking
point” to dismiss legitimate criticism of his family’s business practices.
Consistent with the Committees’ obligations to keep the House of Representatives
informed of its oversight, this interim report presents what the Committees have learned to date
about the origins of the public statement signed by 51 former intelligence officials that falsely
discredited public allegations about the Biden family.
Although more work remains, this report presents the Committees’ findings to date.
When the Russian serfs were freed in 1861, their former owners were monetarily compensated by the Tsar’s government…paid for with extra taxes levied upon the newly freed serfs!
That was fair enough, since the Serfs were allotted farmland.
Contrast that to the freeing of the slaves in the West Indies.
The slaves went on working the sugar cane, just under different conditions that favoured their former owners anyway.
Meanwhile, the British Government borrowed 25 million Pounds [in gold, an unimaginable sum today] in Paris at Interest Rates that were never disclosed, to pay off the Plantation owners.
The British public paid that Loan off over 178 years.
The later medieval period, from 1100 on, took place during a period of climatic warming, which allowed the development of a steady grain surplus, the growth of mercantilism and the wool trade, and a high culture that saw the flowering of the Arthurian legends, a theological renaissance (Dover’s domain not mine), and a growth of scientific and technological understanding and application which led to the great cathedral building we so admire today.
Politicisation of the alphabet agencies is nothing new. Remember Barry and the IRS?
According to Drumgold there are no winners or losers in this case, only losers and losers.
In this idiot’s opinion a bloke getting his name cleared after being falsely accused is not considered to have had “a win”.
Real Dealsays:
May 11, 2023 at 11:11 am
Drumgold appears to be imitating that video/tiktok of the Chinese motor scooter rider who takes off from the lights, crashes into a truck, then a car, then another motor bike. Is helped up and then rides into an open sewer.
Sorry, can’t be true. Grandpa Ed Simpson-Case assured us yesterday that Sofronoff hadn’t laid a finger on Dumbgold.
OldOzzie says:
May 11, 2023 at 10:52 am
This is one of the reasons why I repeatedly question if the conservative reactive-defensive approach is doomed to continue failing. Our opponents view their task as a mission; how do we perceive it?
Was that Grooglery MD KC professional opinion?
Drumgold is not in trouble at all if you watch MSM. It’s all about shady players behind the scenes trying to stop our brave girl from obtaining justice.
Yeah, that’s the non-Clown take on events.
The ACT police seemingly part of this giant conspiracy by sinister right wing forces.
Giant conspiracy?
All it needed to move forward was perhaps a half dozen well placed people in the Morrison Government and similar in the AFP.
Party’s over Finnish prime minister, husband to divorce – months after clubbing scandal
Finland’s outgoing prime minister announced Wednesday that she is divorcing her husband — just a few months after she came under fire for partying on the job and dancing “intimately” with another man.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin, 37, and her husband of three years, Markus Raikkonen, shared on Instagram Stories that they had jointly filed for divorce.
“We are grateful for the 19 years together and our beloved daughter. We will remain best friends,” they wrote.
The former couple married in August 2020, when Finland was grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have lived our youth together, entered adulthood together and grown into parents for our dear daughter together,” Marin wrote on Instagram at the time.
Marin, who was the world’s youngest prime minister when she was elected at age 34 in 2019, was forced to defend her work ethic last August when videos leaked of her partying raucously — including footage of her grinding against an unknown man.
“[Marin] acted like a single 20-something. It was hard to believe that she is married,” one witness told the Finnish media of the top pol’s wild night out.
She conceded last month after her Social Democratic Party came up short in Finland’s parliamentary election.
She is expected to step down as party leader when the new parliament begins in the fall.
The ACT police seemingly part of this giant conspiracy by sinister right wing forces.
Giant conspiracy?
All it needed to move forward was perhaps a half dozen well placed people in the Morrison Government and similar in the AFP.
Name names, Grandpa Ed.
Sure, Cletus.
When you name those who in your opinion conspired to bring Bruce Lehrmann down.
Go for your life, you know you want to.
Three whole years. Is “I want more time to party, yer honour” legal grounds for divorce in Finland?
In this idiot’s opinion a bloke getting his name cleared after being falsely accused is not considered to have had “a win”.
Did Lehrmann sign anything agreeing not to sue for malicious prosecution etc. in return for not being prosecuted again?
Well, he hasn’t taken any action in that regard, so whaddya think?
What did the Biden family DO for all the millions they tried to hide?
By Post Editorial Board
Move over, Gambinos: The Biden family racket puts you to shame.
“We’ve never seen a presidential family receive these sums of money” from foreigners, including US “adversaries,” marveled House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) as he released a memo Wednesday highlighting some $10 million from foreign nationals that went to nine members of President Joe Biden’s family.
Text messages suggest Hunter Biden regularly shifted funds directly to his dad, but Joe also plainly benefited just from having the whole clan taken care of.
After reviewing bank statements, the committee warned that some of the fund-transfers from overseas may be signs of “influence-peddling,” flagging “the Biden family’s pattern of courting business in regions of the world in which the then Vice President had an outsize role and influenced U.S. policy.”
Crucially, the committee exposed evidence suggesting a deliberate effort to “conceal the source” and “amount” that came from abroad: The family and its associates created a “complicated, suspicious network of over 20 companies,” mostly LLCs formed while Joe was veep.
“Significant deposits from foreign sources” would go to Biden associates, who’d then “transfer smaller, incremental payments to Biden bank accounts.”
As many 12 banks may have been involved, though Comer & Co. haven’t reviewed records from all of them yet.
It’s the kind of “financial gymnastics,” as one pol put it, straight out of crime films.
The president denies any wrongdoing by him or his son — that is, when he’s willing to take questions on the subject.
Yet the evidence that he not only knew about the family business but participated in it is growing.
How, after all, does the president think his son and brother and other family members were making their living?
Look, Biden can deny the truth ’til the cows come home (“a bunch of garbage,” he grumbled of The Post’s October 2020 “laptop” scoops, now universally verified) but the evidence is already plain: The president was a direct beneficiary of millions in dubious foreign payments.
If this was a Republican family, you can bet the media would already be full of calls for impeachment and criminal investigations. Instead, they spent Wednesday on wall-to-wall coverage of the (inevitable) arrest of Rep. George Santos, somehow a much bigger scandal.
Again, there’s no clear sign of exactly what Beijing (or the Bidens’ Romanian, Ukrainian etc. benefactors ) thought they were buying, other than “friendship” and face time.
“It would be hard for me to believe that Hunter Biden was so charismatic that he could convince foreign nationals to wire millions of dollars into not just his account but eight of his family members’ accounts,” smirked Comer.
Certainly, it’s not clear what — besides having his dad as veep — Hunter brought to the table, and the elaborate efforts to hide where the family windfalls were coming from certainly suggests Hunter, James Biden and their partners didn’t want to explain.
Now that they can no longer wave the whole thing off as Russian disinformation, maybe Biden’s defenders want to claim all these foreign actors were just investing in a promising young artist?
The White House even denies the family got money from China, despite screenshots of banks transfers.
Ed Casesays:
May 11, 2023 at 11:57 am
Sure, Cletus.
When you name those who in your opinion conspired to bring Bruce Lehrmann down.
Go for your life, you know you want to.
So, you’ve got nothing except the fevered ramblings of what passes for your brain.
And that’s Cletus the Illustrious to you.
What do you think, Bear?
Did Shano get Lehrmann’s signature before he announced that he wasn’t proceeding with a 2nd prosecution?
My passing mentions of a potential future feudalism are based: socially on the fragmentation of national identities (in the west), and economically on cost of living concerns, including access to affordable (domestic) energy.
I may be letting my imagination run away with me here, but I wonder if electricity (and petrol for private transport, perhaps even access to non-essential consumer items/travel) may be rationed, based on a social credit score by another name, but available in greater quantity to those who can afford to pledge something (I have no idea what; fealty of some type?).
Apologies if I am misusing the feudal reference, but essentially I mean that a class of people in a particular geographic area (or demographic category), are beholden to another, smaller class, in multiple facets of daily life.
Sofronoff seems quite happy to ask questions of the witness directly. That is rarely a good sign if you are looking for a particular outcome from an inquiry. Can’t imagine it happening in Victoriastan.
The medieval period was certainly interesting and a lot of important things happened in the world of ideas, many of which dover approves. As do I.
On the other hand it was dirty, unhygienic and tough going, particularly for the underclass. If you weren’t a lord or a philosopher, you had a short life expectancy and you got bossed around a lot.
Should you ask your Junior Groogs? Most improper.
I think Roger has tried to ejamuhkayt me on feudal structures previously, but the filament in my brainbulb is broken. No glow for Muddy.
Cheers DrBG.
Silence of the Lambies.
‘Couldn’t have said it better’: Lambie gatecrashes Chalmers’ press conference (11 May)
‘Crying like little babies’: Jacqui Lambie hits out at the Greens’ ‘disgraceful behaviour’ (11 May)
‘Biggest threat’ facing Australian Defence Force is its ‘leadership’: Jacqui Lambie (11 May)
Labor are ‘gods’ at negotiating compared to former government: Lambie (11 May)
Popcorn futures are up!
“However, with these predicted record migration numbers coming to Sydney in a market which is drastically under-supplied, it’s looking like we’re heading towards a boom in the medium to long term.
Given that the vast majority of home buyers require finance how do all these “migrants” qualify for home loans? ..
I might be guessing but I’m fairly sure that 95% of these “migrants” won’t be in the position to pay cash for properties ..
Why would you emigrate anywhere if you’ve the sort of money needed to make a “new” start which includes buying a home .. your doing quite well where you are without venturing into the unknown ..!
US House Committee presentation on the Biden Crime Family’s Corruption
Thursday, 11 May 2023
About 27.30 in.
demand-driven migration program
here am I living in a drug addled south west Sydney “houso” estate surrounded by boat folk from the 1980s influx most of whom have never worked or bothered to learn English but Jim sez , “We needz more, lotz more” ..
They had festivals galore. This isn’t to say that it was all milk and honey but the idea of medieval life that most people have is laughably inaccurate.
Why would you emigrate anywhere if you’ve the sort of money needed to make a “new” start which includes buying a home .. your doing quite well where you are without venturing into the unknown ..!
Indians: Put 20 beds in a 3 bedroom house and sublet each bed to 3 people
filling “skills shortages”.
In <3 years, voila, you own a house.
Chinese do something similar.
Arabs have their own Banking system based on trust, money is moved from A to B in Australia, back in the home country, similar money or property is moved from B to A.
Anyway, Albanese is going to inflate away the debts, a godsend for mortgagees with a Government job.
Whitlam did something similar.
Chuckle!
Standing golf clap for this. You have me wheezing like Muttley.
Meanwhile, the British Government borrowed 25 million Pounds [in gold, an unimaginable sum today] in Paris at Interest Rates that were never disclosed, to pay off the Plantation owners.
The British public paid that Loan off over 178 years.
Ed-Mong pining for a slavery caused English civil War…
Again.
What was the bill for the USAs fracaus?
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/kids/history/history_civilwar.htm#:~:text=In%201860%2C%20the%20year%20before,pay%20for%20this%20expensive%20war.
The Civil War (1861-1865)
In 1860, the year before the American Civil War started, the U.S. Government debt was $64.8 million. Once the war began, debt grew quickly. The financial cost of the war was significant, totaling an estimated $5.2 billion.
…
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties
The Civil War was America’s bloodiest conflict. The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike. Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as were killed in the whole of the Vietnam War. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. Roughly 2% of the population, an estimated 620,000 men, lost their lives in the line of duty. Taken as a percentage of today’s population, the toll would have risen as high as 6 million souls.
And in tough guy status display news, an enormous new fashion hit: the castle. From about 1100 to 1350, a collossal building boom in stone castles took place.
While cathedrals have been preserved for good reasons, the ebb and flow of power and money meant that these castles that are so apparently durable, may have fallen out of use in a few decades or be built and/or demolished as they change hands, rebuilt and modified as they prove fit for purpose or new purposes are added to their function.
The improvements in artillery and gunpowder around 1490 meant that the old style high walled ‘knightly’ castles we see in the movies (Read Tom Lewis’s book ‘Medieval Military Combat’ for the view on the ground ) were badly vulnerable, and if still strategically significant had to be heavily modified for the new reality; or completely superseded by ‘Device Forts’ of Henry VIII and the ‘Trace Italienne’, the star forts brought to their highest development by Vauban.
Many were ‘slighted’ by orders of the King to prevent too much security for powerful lords; after the English Civil War for example, a very large number of key fortifications were reduced to prevent anyone getting cocky.
Maybe everyone else has seen this.
Waaahhh…
Homeless Vlogger Complains About FREE Hot Meal, DEMANDS Eco-Friendly Containers
Memeology 101 (102), five days ago…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Pzpo9JvUg
Peasants [present day equivalent: Tradies] worked maybe 4 months of the year, if they couldn’t pay Tax then they had to do Corvee Labour for the Palace for a coupla months.
10% Tax was considered oppression, today a Peasant will work 4 months just to pay the Income Tax.
By the Holy Face of Lucaa, maybe the King or Baron made them participate, Kim regime style?
How do we know otherwise?
Why? Your attitude to medieval life is no different to left-liberals and ‘the 50s’. The reference to festivals, etc. simply addressed Bear’s question re work/life balance, and its accurate. They got plenty of days off, and half-days, to celebrate this or that holiday or festival. Compared to the typical work-day and year of mid-19th century English worker it would have been far less taxing.
Put down the (medieval) bong, Grandpa Ed.
Remember this: For the average riff-raff, you cease to exist in the eyes of the politician you voted for, as soon as your vote has been counted.
AEMO fails to impress local government with their consultation and transparency.
Buloke shire has written to Vic Minister Lily D’Ambrosio requesting that any approval of VNI West be postponed until better information is provided to the community.
This follows a meeting between councils and the AEMO this week. Councillors said the response to questions raised by their communities was underwhelming.
Watching a series, A FRENCH VILLAGE, a French production on the, fictional, WW2 years of life under German rule .. takes a season or so to get into it but very well dun .. given that it is French, with French writers, actors and the whole worx I’m assuming it is a pretty close look at how life was back then ..
Apparently, for the 1st couple of years the ‘resistance” wasn’t so much about the Germans as it was about in-fighting .. the communists were more intent on being in control by fighting everyone other
than the Germans so there wasn’t too much happening on the “kick-the Nazis-out” front ..
the level of collaboration by French “gummint” folk is quite an eye-opener …
Season 4 and it getz into the “Holocaust” issues .. never realised that (according to this script) that most French folk just didn’t care what was happening, that the overriding attitude was, “They’re just Jews,moove along , pleeeze .. nuttin’ to see ‘ere” ..
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1288631/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_a%2520french%2520village
Controlling the population via cat videos:
When a cat video elicits more than warm fuzzies: Examining human responses to ‘cuteness’ in social media (Phys.org, 10 May)
It’s part of UMD’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security’s (ARLIS) Emotions in Social Media Project, a multidisciplinary research effort to examine how different emotions influence the spread of information campaigns.
I’m creeped out by what that lab is called.
“It’s fun, but it’s not frivolous,” said Susannah Paletz, associate professor in the College of Information Studies and principal investigator. “As enjoyable as it is to discover in your Twitter feed, we know cuteness is also used to deliberately manipulate your feelings. And it works.”
Yep…
We know that individuals and organizations draw on cute content to persuade: for example, to buy products, convey public service announcements, donate money by creating empathy and compassion, even reduce meat consumption.
Reduce meat consumption? I think I’m seeing a thread here…
More recently, animals have made their way into anti-Russian social posts out of Ukraine, including cats dressed in military uniforms.
Russians hate cats so we must send weapons to Ukraine immediately!
What is your favorite example of an organization using ‘cuteness’ to forward an agenda?
Paletz: In 2021, a Reddit thread went viral about an “office” cat named Jorts and attempts to train him by employees. He was portrayed as this lovable but not terribly smart cat who was constantly getting into scrapes, and who ultimately was at the center of a workplace incident that involved Human Resources.
Eventually, the person behind the thread launched a Twitter account for Jorts that’s told from the cat’s perspective. But what’s happened over time is it’s become this great mix of cute cat tweets and a powerful platform for labor activism. It’s amazing.
Labor activism? Hmmm. Cats are communists?
Paletz: One of the big takeaways from our work is that there is a lot of really toxic discourse and a lot of anger and hate on social media; so even if cuteness is used deliberately to manipulate—like when ISIS poses with kittens—it’s nicer than the alternative.
ISIS loves kittens, which is nicer than rude righty discourse? Um, yeah. Sure. Anything you say lady.
(When I read this sort of stuff in the science news all those conspiracy theories start to look a whole lot more plausible…)
Dot:
Factcheck: False.
Why? Your attitude to medieval life is no different to left-liberals and ‘the 50s’.
Tey talking to a 20 year old about the 80’s.
Apparently a desolate wasteland of intolerance and wrong pronouns.
Dover
The Norman Kings still operated a Fyrd, which helped put down one of the last Baronial rebellions against their dynasty (and commanded by Saxon Bishop Wulfstan, holding a strategic river crossing).
How do you get 1/2 of the year off if 1/3 is served in the militia?
ABC Fake News Report:
“Farmers ditch diesel for electric tractors to reduce environmental footprint”.
Yeah, sure.
Wait until they work out that Sofronoff is ethnically Russian.
And that his actual Christian name is…Vladimir!
😀
No I have a balanced understanding of the medieval life, Dover. Good and bad. Just think historians in few hundred years only interested in the achievements of silicon valley. Chuckle!
Well this bloke seems well credentialed and we should listen to him a lot.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-11/dbca-prescribed-burns-targets-questioned-air-fire-forum/102327200
Dr Zylstra said his research found forests reduced their own bushfire risk if they were left alone.
…
Dr Zylstra, who worked in fire management for many years in the Southern Ranges branch of NSW National Parks, said the weight of fuel in forests had no relationship to the rate of fire spread.??
…
Seems like just the sort of chap who should be listend to then.
New South Wales, July 2019 – March 2020
Bushfires – Black Summer
“It’s the density, the cover and the height of the understorey that drives fire, not fuel load,” Dr Zylstra said.
“Hazard reduction burning may actually enhance the propagation of wildfire by promoting shrub regeneration.”?
…
Followed by unscientific woo-woo from the past.
Dr Zylstra said it was an “invasion myth” that current fire management practices adopted ancient Indigenous knowledge.??
“A review of Western Australian fire scars says there was a dramatic change in the frequency of intense forest fires in south-western Australia following European colonisation,” he said.
“We’ve heard elders today say ‘fire is life’.
“And so what’s happened is that in Australian culture, we’ve said ‘well, if fire is life, then more fire is more life’.?
“And it’s like, if two Panadol can fix your headache, imagine how much a box of it can do.”?
Dot:
Where did you hear that?
Eddles – when are you releasing the CCTV footage taken inside Reynolds’ office on the infamous early morning in question?
Chop, chop, you obnoxious contrarian dunderhead.
LOL
Just ignore physics and chemistry.
I am making a prediction, Bob.
Below is an actual quote from the latest Oz update from the Higgins enquiry. The spelling of his name is as appears in the report:-
Mr Dumgold also spoke to the fact Ms Higgins went to the media before giving her evidence in chief to police, saying the evidence had unfairly inferred this would impact her credibility as a witness.
Freudian slip, no doubt.
Fries with that?
Wendy’s turns to AI-powered chatbots for drive-thru orders (10 May)
Tipping Has Come for Self-Serve Checkout (9 May)
Ironic that the first real job AI gets is to work at Maccas. I doubt that the punters are going to tip ChatGPT when it fills their order though.
you obnoxious contrarian dunderhead.
You have a brilliant way with words, Rabz. Short, concise and 100% accurate.
LOL
Just ignore physics and chemistry.
Awesome isnt it.
Considering he should have been exposed to reports that show the joules of energy per hectare of various ages of forest.
https://assets-global.website-files.com/61de5d84c5a92d75c52a9ca6/61efa92bb6bd52cb496dd335_FESA-VFLG_EspPlains.pdf
It seems another greenie mong parroting greenie approved platitudes vs people who fight the stuff for a living.
Drumgold now renounces his political interference reference of two weeks ago.
Keeping it classy ACT.
Ron Paul Says Forget Ukraine, DC Hawks Dragging NATO Into Taiwan War
As NATO’s disastrous proxy war in Ukraine continues to sputter, many in DC seem to be losing interest in “Project Ukraine.”
Instead of admitting the folly of interventionism, however, they are looking for bigger fish to fry. Like…war with China!
NATO’s post-Cold War history is that of an organization far past its “sell-by” date. Desperate for a mission after the end of the Warsaw Pact, NATO in the late 1990s decided that it would become the muscle behind the militarization of “human rights” under the Clinton Administration.
The test run for NATO as human rights superheroes was Yugoslavia in 1999.
To everybody but NATO and its neocon handlers in DC and many European capitals, it was a horrific, unjustified disaster. Seventy-eight days of bombing a country that did not threaten NATO left many hundreds of civilians dead, the infrastructure destroyed, and a legacy of uranium-tipped ammunition to poison the landscape for generations to come.
Just last week tennis legend Novak Djokovic recalled what it felt like to flee his grandfather’s home in the middle of the night as NATO bombs fell and destroyed it. What a horror!
Then NATO got behind the overthrow of the Gaddafi government in Libya. The corporate press regurgitated the neocon lies that bombing the country, killing its people, and overthrowing its government would solve all of Libya’s human rights problems.
As could be predicted, NATO bombs did not solve Libya’s problems but made everything worse. Chaos, civil war, terrorism, slave markets, crushing poverty –
no wonder Hillary Clinton, Obama, and the neocons don’t want to talk about Libya these days.
After a series of failures longer than we have space for here, DC-controlled NATO in 2014 decided to go all-in and target Russia itself for “regime change.”
First step was overthrowing the democratically elected Ukrainian government, which Victoria Nuland and the rest of the neocons took care of.
Next was the eight years of massive NATO military assistance to Ukraine’s coup government with the intent of fighting Russia.
Finally, it was the 2022 rejection of Russia’s request to negotiate a European security agreement that would prevent NATO armies circling its border.
Despite the mainstream media and US government propaganda, NATO has been about as successful in Ukraine as it was in Libya.
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been flushed away, with massive corruption documented by journalists like Seymour Hersh and others.
The only difference this time is that NATO’s target – Russia – has nuclear weapons and views this proxy war as vital to its very existence.
So now despite its legacy of failure, NATO has decided to start a conflict with China, perhaps to take attention off its disaster in Ukraine.
Last week NATO announced that it will open its first-ever Asia office in Japan.
What next, NATO membership for Taiwan?
Will Taiwan willingly serve as NATO’s newest “Ukraine” – sacrificing itself to China in the name of blundering NATO’s seemingly endless appetite for conflict?
We can only hope that America will elect a president in 2024 who will finally end NATO’s deadly world tour.