Open Thread – Weekend 13 May 2023
1,524 responses to “Open Thread – Weekend 13 May 2023”
-
The Kanye … 🙂
-
Jeepers, a piece in the American Conservative argues there’s overwhelming evidence that Belgian King, Leopold, wasn’t a genocidal maniac at all. In fact the opposite.
For the past 25 years, the idea of the Congo has been closely linked in the Western imagination to the 1998 book King Leopold’s Ghost by the American journalist Adam Hochschild. The book is widely assigned in high schools and colleges, and it regularly tops best-seller lists in colonial, African, and Western history. Hochschild has become a sort of king of the Congo, or at least of its history. The book is reflexively cited by reputable scholars in their footnotes any time they wish to assert that it is “well known” and “beyond doubt” that sinister men in Europe wrought havoc in Africa over a century ago. Any discussion of the Congo, or of European colonialism more generally, invariably begins with the question: “Have you read King Leopold’s Ghost?”
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/king-hochschilds-hoax/
-
-
Orica Green Edge tried hard to call me maybe
-
talking heads talking about slippery people and also a great track from remain in light – born under punches
-
-
Today in “no evidence of voter fraud”:
Maricopa County Election Official spills beans to O’Keefe Media journo on how to vote multiple times.
Link here -
To put it bluntly, she’s a WEF drone.
Watch: Elon Musk Spars With His Twitter CEO Pick Yaccarino Over Free Speech
-
Some here maybe interested in the badge.
https://twitter.com/GoldingBF/status/1657362615679549440 -
Protecting yourself and others is the crime now.
-
Former Marine Daniel Penny has now been charged with 2nd degree manslaughter in the NYC subway incident where serial violent felon Neely lost his life. Penny was filmed restraining Neely, who had an active arrest warrant for assault and battery of a 67 year old woman and was threatening passengers in the subway with physical harm.
Penny won’t be there alone though as he has a good legal team and donations to his givesendgo defense fund have topped $1.2 million as of this moment. Who knows if that will be enough to overcome the inherently biased and corrupt NY “legal” system but he’d certainly have been screwed without it.
Semper Fi Sgt Penney.
-
The Tassie stadium thing is becoming popcornworthy!
‘Had a bloody gutful’: Senator Jacqui Lambie joins thousands of protesters in Hobart to oppose new stadium (Sky News, 14 May)
Senator Jacqui Lambie joined thousands of Tasmanians on Saturday to protest the development of a new stadium in Hobart.
Tasmania will officially be home to the AFL’s 19th team after a joint announcement to build the $750 million Macquarie Point stadium precinct.
However, the long anticipated announcement has been slammed as a “scandalous con-job” and a waste for taxpayers facing a health and housing crisis.
People could be heard chanting various slogans while holding signs such as “team yes, Stadium No. Tell the AFL where to go!”
“We can’t eat stadiums or submarines,” others said, in reference to the $368 billion AUKUS deal.
Ms Lambie, who has been a vocal critic of the proposal for some time, addressed the thousands of people in attendance.
“Tasmanians have had a bloody gutful over your stadium and you can stick it up your bum,” she told the crowd gathered in Hobart.
I wonder if the MSM will clutch their pearls about Jacqui’s language like they did with Mark Latham? More seriously I don’t like the chances of the last remaining Lib government in Australia. They look to be goners after this fiasco.
-
-
Twitter Begins Censoring Content Ahead of National Elections
In response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today. We have informed the account holders of this action in line with our policy. This content will remain available in the rest of the world” – Twitter Office of Global Government Affairs
Sunday’s elections are considered a challenge for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His main challenger is Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party.
Not a good look Elon. Yeah, Erdogan could have cut off access to Twitter in Turkey, but that would have kind of proven the point against him to the world wouldn’t it? Oh, and what to stop you doing it anywhere else as well?
-
Muddysays:
May 13, 2023 at 9:52 pm
Huh.
Watching Megyn Kelly on YouTube, and up comes a Greenfleece ad about a whale ‘super highway’ that is apparently soon to be decimated by sonic booms from gas exploration, leading to permanent deafness for retired whales towing motorhomes who have already been horribly marginalised, underrepresented in social welfare programs, discriminated against in employment, and ridiculed by being compared to obese humans. Greenfleece is demanding $10B in reparations per whale, and an end to the genocidal fostering and adoption of young whales by non-wet animals. I’m pretty sure I’ve got that right.No mention of the whales that will be adversely affected by the construction and operation of offshore wind factoties?
-
“Exactly what our Founding Fathers feared the most. They worried that a future president might violate his sacred oath of office by secretly conspiring with malign foreign actors to betray our nation for self-enrichment.”
Why is this being ignored?
-
Classic Cloward-Piven communist strategy: overburden capitalist societies until they collapse. Then reinstitute a globalist “government” that destroys all national boundaries and restricts all freedoms.
They hate the individual man. Freedom is their enemy.
Communism is ours.
-
If the Nipponese don’t strategise their alphabet people conformity
a visit by Samantha Powers and Victoria Nuland will be on the cards. -
Piers Akerman:
Treasurer Jim Chalmers couldn’t restrain his crowing about the meagre surplus in his second Budget.
Hubris isn’t in his vocabulary.
One of my old mates, Billy Joe Shaver, now sitting in some heavenly honky-tonk with other heroes, wrote the song I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday) about his salvation experience in Tennessee.
Chalmers should learn the words because Australian coal (and gas, and iron ore) were the diamonds which underwrote his unicorn surplus.
But he didn’t have the balls to mention them in his pitiful self-congratulatory speech.
Instead, he used the weasel term “high prices for the things we sell overseas” because those “things” he was too cowardly to mention need trigger warnings when named in the presence of the Greens and Teals, upon whom this Left-leaning Labor government relies on to govern.
Gutless is too insipid a word to describe Chalmers.
How Labor mocked the last Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison when he held an old chunk of coal up on the floor of Parliament, how they slapped their thighs and roared.
Yet that chunk of old carbon was a major factor in pulling the Budget into surplus for the first time in 15 years.
This is not a contractionary budget by any means. When policies worsen the deficit, as the policies announced in this one have, then they contribute a potentially inflationary effect.
Energy remains a killer for Labor, largely because Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen doesn’t understand the simple mathematics of power supply and is wedded to the climate catastrophe narrative despite the serial failures of the prophesies of imminent doom.
What he can’t see is that as the proportion of renewables in the power mix increases, the cost to users increases exponentially. When the mix contains 10-20 per cent renewable, nuclear appears expensive but, as the renewable input increases to 40-50 per cent, nuclear becomes less expensive than the renewables.
This is where the ideological blinkers blind Labor to reality.
Labor can no more bring itself to utter the “c” word (that’s “c” for coal) than it can admit that nuclear is a clean, emission-free option for base load power.
Only a True Believer could possibly swallow the optimistic guff coming from Chalmers about the cost of the NDIS and the fantasy that this runaway wreck can become sustainable, any more than the Snowy 2.0 will meet the energy shortfall if it is ever completed at whatever cost, or the NBN ever made sense.
If you’re prepared to suspend disbelief, then anything can become whatever you want – and that’s why there was so much nodding by those mindless dummies seated in camera shot during Chalmers’ speech.
Like its coverage of the coronation, our ABC let its rusted-on Leftist commentators spin their propaganda, but while a change in the monarch doesn’t alter our system of government one iota, the ABC’s unbalanced budget coverage affects those seeking honest information.
When the cost of electricity in the eastern states continues to rise, despite the handouts to low-income earners, small businesses will suffer and the average householder will have to make a difficult choice – heat or eat this winter.
The cost of medical care, transport, farm products, the housing crisis, increased migration, and the list goes on.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton offered support for many of Labor’s plans but wisely demanded the details before committing blanket approval.
He’s actually more in touch with people who are faced with soaring mortgage repayments, skyrocketing electricity prices and the weekly grocery bills than are those in the Canberra bubble who support the woke ACT government, the most deluded in the nation.
Most importantly, he has now shown again that he is willing to stand up to the vibe, to oppose the populist view that supports the radical change to the Constitution to favour one section of the population, and further, to support lifting the ban on the development of nuclear energy for domestic base load power.
Billy Joe reached rock bottom before he had his Jesus revelation in a cheap motel but he turned his life around (shooting a man in a bar carpark later was found to be an act of self-defence).
Labor may drag us all down to rock bottom before it realises the economic damage of its wicked ways.
The trick surplus which has received so much kudos will be gone in a blink but the power solution supported by Dutton is probably the best policy to be aired in Canberra throughout the long week.
-
You go girl..
Deeming promises supporters she’ll never quit
Moira Deeming has described feeling ‘completely betrayed’ after she was expelled from the parliamentary Liberal Party in Victoria but has promised supporters she will “never quit”.
“If they want to get me out of the party, then it’s going to be another public round of beating me up for doing nothing wrong,” she told the Herald Sun.
“And if they want to have another go, they are welcome to it, but I know how much support I’ve got amongst party members because thousands and thousands of them have contacted my office since March.
“I will never resign. I will never quit. I will not do their dirty work for them, I have much too much dignity for that.
“And I am not going to help them to smear, or label as extremist, a whole movement of women who just want their ordinary and reasonable, rights protected.”
Ms Deeming’s expulsion from the parliamentary Liberal Party in Victoria failed to defuse the internal chaos engulfing John Pesutto, with more than a third of MPs voting against their leader and a defamation action now in the wings.
The Opposition Leader sought to depict the success, by 19 votes to 11, of his second attempt to expel Ms Deeming as a “turning point” for the Victorian Liberals, claiming it showed they were committed to being a “disciplined, united and focused team”.
But Ms Deeming is pressing ahead with her defamation action against Mr Pesutto, which is set to be filed in the Federal Court on June 8.
“I feel completely betrayed. I honoured the terms of my suspension, but John Pesutto did not,” Ms Deeming said.
Critics of Mr Pesutto cited the refusal of more than a third of the partyroom to back the motion, the ongoing public legal battle, and the fact Ms Deeming remains an organisational Liberal Party member despite her expulsion from the parliamentary party as evidence divisions and dysfunction are likely to continue.
In her only public statements on Friday, Ms Deeming tweeted: “I’m grateful to him (a lone supporter on the steps of parliament) and my other supporters” and in a second tweet defended her actions on the day of the Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashedby neo-Nazi supporters. “We closed our rally early & we all condemned them both on the day & afterwards.’’
Ms Deeming’s attendance at the rally triggered the party dispute.
A second motion to sack newly elected MP Renee Heath as party secretary following a public spat regarding the minutes of the March 27 partyroom meeting at which Mr Pesutto first attempted to expel Ms Deeming also passed 19 votes to 11.
Multiple Liberal sources told The Weekend Australian a third motion, seeking to replace Ms Heath’s March 27 minutes with Mr Pesutto’s own version, passed with a smaller majority, with many contesting the accuracy of the leader’s minutes and several MPs abstaining from voting on the issue.
-
-
H B Bear says:
May 13, 2023 at 11:14 pm
Have been listening to a lot of early Blondie on Spotify. So good.True. She always struck me as a girl who just wanted to stay home and drink wine and her friends dragged her to a Karaoke bar and made her get up on stage. And she just killed it! The rest is history.
-
By the way, anyone know where Dutton is? His silence is deafening. I can only draw the conclusion he supports Moira Deeming being gagged. Worth remembering that Moira is a voter winner, unlike the Liberal candidate for Aston, picked by Liberal HQ, who was a voter dud.
Further to Dutton’s silence, as C.L. has mentioned, we have the sinister situation of the Canberra Catholic hospital, where a far-left government is planning to take over a Catholic hospital. Now apart from the legality of this, which is questionable, and it should be fought in the courts, all the way up to the HC, if this takeover successful, it will set a sinister and dangerous precedent for the state to take over of private religious schools, and make no mistake, that’ll be the far-left’s next target when private schools refuse to teach queer pervert theory, forget about euthanasia and abortion up to just before birth, soon five year old boys and girls will be taught how expertly fellate an adult male and if parents or schools dare protest, then such bigotry will not be tolerated and the government will shut you down and take you over. But has Peter Dutton said anything about the Canberra hospital? Nope, nothing, nada, zilcho.
Yesterday the Oz had a piece on Sleazy the Word Slusher, the member for Grayndler, who, when he’s not blubbering and strumming an out of tune harp for ever and a day about his lurvely single mother and growing up in “deprived circumstances” (a lie, and given his properly portfolio as an adult, he’s done quite well for the bastard offspring of a Sydney woman and her one night dalliance with Giovanni, the Italian waiter, on a cruise ship), well Sleazy is now talking, quite openly, about “changing Australia”. To what? Some Marxist paradise? Well, given government take overs of religious hospitals we’re definitely on the way……..yay, yay, yay! But who voted for this? I can guarantee you that most of those who voted last year to change government didn’t vote to change the country.
But for all of this, we can thank the stupid effing Liberals, state and federal. A big special shout out to the smirking grub from the electorate of Cook. He deserves a special thanks, for his complete incompetence as PM. Thank you Scumbag, thank you Liberals, oh and I ask again, where’s Dutton?
-
Rosie:
what really happened at South Elementary School in Texas.
The Hale Country District Attorney and FBI Crimes Against Children Agents are in the possession of all investigatory statements, videos, electronic devices, and timelines of an incident at South Elementary School (Plainview ISD).
The FBI is involved – as far as I’m concerned, their credibility left port when Obama put his own men in charge.
-
Two detailed articles in Daily Mail about UK Vax injuries and legal cases regarding compensation.
Of course they have to have the obligatory “I’m not an anti-vaxer” disclaimer – handing over all rhetorical power to the vaccine commies before they even start their case.
You’re telling all the people who tried to warn you and would still try and stick up for you that you don’t want our help.
What’s more you tell vaccine commies that you still love them and have no interest in seeing them punished for what they’ve done. Why would they compensate you? You’re still a willing slave to the vaccine machine.
Language matters.
Like saying Democrats are “soft on crime”. No they’re not. They’re brutal and merciless. It’s just that they only consider undermining communism to be a crime, they don’t consider murder or rape a crime unless it’s against a leftist (ht Jesse Kelly).
-
his lurvely single mother and growing up in “deprived circumstances” (a lie, and given his properly portfolio as an adult, he’s done quite well for the bastard offspring of a Sydney woman and her one night dalliance with Giovanni, the Italian waiter, on a cruise ship),
I still reckon the Eyetie was the scapegoat for the bloke with the tie when it comes to “Daddy” ……!
-
Have tissues at the ready. Or not. Daily Telegraph:
For 42 years, Lisa Wilkinson has excelled in every job she held.
Hers has been in every sense an exceptional media career.
From her role as editor of publishing house ACP’s national teen-advice magazine Dolly, bestowed upon her in 1980 at 21, to her tenure as editor of sister title Cleo and later, from 1999, editor-at-large of the nation’s biggest selling magazine, The Australian Women’s Weekly, the Campbelltown-raised Wilkinson distinguished herself.
She is intelligent, hardworking, respected, astute, mannered, telegenic and a champion of women.
Television opportunities presented themselves through the years — notably Foxtel’s Beauty and the Beast, Seven’s The Morning Shift and Weekend Sunrise — but it wasn’t until 2007 that she became a household name when she landed one of Australian television’s most coveted jobs, as co-host of Nine’s Today show.
In 2017, after 10 years at the helm — a record for a woman on that program — Wilkinson left Nine following a contract dispute that could not be resolved; she wanted pay parity with her male co-host Karl Stefanovic and Nine refused to yield it, this despite the fact the pair had helped Today to a rare win in the ratings over Seven’s Sunrise in 2016.
Within hours Wilkinson signed with rival network Ten in a deal that would see her join the panel of The Project, a role she held until 2022, the year the media turned on Wilkinson and, as her lawyer Sue Chrysanthou recounted to an ACT Board of Inquiry on Friday, “destroyed” her client.
That that “destruction” took place just days after Wilkinson was recognised with a Logie win — something that would normally confirm its recipient is celebrating a career pinnacle, enjoying a finest moment — says as much about the Australian media’s propensity to tear down high achievers as it does the conduct of the ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold.
Drumgold is now being put through the wringer over his unproven claims of government interference and police mishandling of the 2022 trial of Bruce Lehrmann into the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.
Lehrmann denied the allegations and the charge was dropped late last year.
The inquiry into the ACT’s criminal justice system has been the first opportunity Wilkinson has had to put her side of the story of what took place during a meeting on June 15 with Drumgold and Ten’s senior litigation counsel Tasha Smithies.
At the meeting, held to prepare Wilkinson as a witness for the prosecution —– and coincidentally four days before the Logies — Wilkinson, who was nominated for an interview with Higgins, attempted to gain clearance for a speech she had prepared in the event she won the Logie.
The inquiry has heard Drumgold cut Wilkinson off while she was reading the speech telling her “we are not speech editors”.
He repeatedly told the inquiry he warned The Project star that further media attention could give rise to a delay in Lehrmann’s trial.
Wilkinson recalled the meeting differently and stated in a submission to the inquiry that Drumgold did not warn her not to give her speech.
“If Mr Drumgold had told me not to give the speech, I would have followed that advice,’’ she said, confirming Ten had also reviewed the speech.
After winning and delivering her speech, unaltered except for a deletion, the Lehmann trial was postponed and Wilkinson criticised by chief justice Lucy McCallum.
Emboldened by McCallum’s comments, the media immediately rounded on Wilkinson, blaming her for the mistrial.
Battered by the media’s coverage, Wilkinson left The Project at the end of last year.
Inquiry Chairman Walter Sofronoff, probing Drumgold, postured if it wasn’t his “duty” “to protect the integrity of imminent court proceedings … by telling a witness your opinion is that this (speech) would likely endanger the trial?”
On Friday Chrysanthou described the ensuing media frenzy as “the utter destruction of my client”.
As Wilkinson, who remains contracted to Ten, has hardly been seen on air seen on since stepping down from The Project, it seems a fair summation.
Ed, tear down your poster of Wilkinson on your bedroom wall.
-
Maximum Leader pours oil on troubled water:
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, accused the Liberal party of expelling Deeming only after she threatened legal action against their leader, rather than for her views on transgender people.
“The moment she threatened to sue Mr Pesutto, she has to go. That tells you all you need to know,” Andrews said.
Victorian women need to know: learn to love cocks in frocks, they are a same but better version of you.
-
Deeming promises supporters she’ll never quit
Front-page splash in the mass circulation Sunday Herald Sun this morning, while the Green-left activists’ instruction bible, The Age, relegates Victoria’s biggest political story to a minor down-page polemic taking the side of the Stupid Frigging Liberals and the trans movement against Moira Deeming, who’s now alone in the Victorian parliament in standing up for women.
Remember when the left was all for feminism? Lefty women have been put in their place. They’re now just the ladies auxiliary for the male homosexuals running the trans movement.
-
The Battle of Bakhmut
What do the recent Ukrainian gains mean?MICK RYAN, AM
13 MAY 2023Over the past 48 hours, there have been a succession of reports about Ukrainian advances in the areas north of the city of Bakhmut. Multiple reports indicate that Russian forces have withdrawn to positions further to the north of the city in the vicinity of the Berkhivs’ke Reservoir.
There has been almost a year of fighting over the city and the region immediately to its north, east and south. It is a battle that seeks to control a small city, with minimal strategic value, but which has attained high political value because of several visits by the Ukrainian president. It also gained political value because it offered one of the few areas of possible success for the rushed and poorly conceived Russian 2023 eastern offensives. And of course, the Wager versus Russian Army aspects of the battle have also played a part in Bakhmut gaining attention, as well as absorbing far more military forces than pure military prudence might dictate.
I have previously examined the possible legacy of this battle, and you can listen to that here.
The Ukrainian assaults, resulting in about 17 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory liberated from the Russians, are some of the most significant observed in 2023. With reports describing around 1000 Ukrainian troops and 40 tanks involved, it is likely that a couple of battlegroups, or even an entire Ukrainian brigade, were involved. Of course, there would have been artillery, EW and other forms of support as well.
What Are We Seeing Around Bakhmut?
The question, then, is what does this all mean?
There are several explanations for the recent Ukrainian attacks north of Bakhmut and their success in seizing back ground around the city. I will explore each of them below and then provide an overall assessment of what we have seen (noting we only see a partial picture) and how it might impact on Russian and Ukrainian operations in the coming weeks and months.
I. It is just a local counterattack. This is one possible explanation for the events of the last couple of days. The Ukrainians have demonstrated the ability to learn and exploit opportunities in a much better fashion than the Russians have throughout the war. And certainly, the gains made in the past 48 hours will have required a keen tactical eye by several commanders on the spot. Ukrainian commanders have probably identified weaknesses in the Russian forces in this area in the last few days (or even weeks) and selected the optimal time to strike.
Adding to the case that this is just a local counterattack is that the northern Ukrainian assault was not accompanied by other large attacks in other sectors of the city. While according to the most recent ISW update, Russian milbloggers have reported Ukrainian troops attacking towards Khromove (3km west of Bakhmut), and the 3rd Brigade has attacked south of Bakhmut, I don’t think that this offers any real evidence of a much broader operational push. These are more likely to be counterattacks that are part of the normal conduct of a larger defensive operation, where local commanders are given the authority to attack where the opportunity presents.
II. The Russians have culminated. Military doctrine defines culmination as “the point at which continuing the attack is no longer possible and the force must consider reverting to a defensive posture or attempting an operational pause”. It has been clear for some weeks now that the 2023 offensive overseen by Gerasimov, which is almost a template of his 2022 invasion model (4-5 axes of advance, none of which with decisive force), has been a failure. It has not captured any significant objective of military or strategic value and has occupied a very small additional part of Ukraine. It has also squandered massive amounts of manpower and material which Russia needs to defend those parts of Ukraine it occupies.
So, with this as background, are the Russian losses north of Bakhmut the initial signs that the Russian forces in this area have culminated and are unable to sustain offensive operations? Possibly. But, at the same time as Russian forces were withdrawing under pressure from the Ukrainian assault, they continued to make small gains in fighting through the central and western parts of Bakhmut. Multiple sources report that the Russians still continue to conduct attack in these areas. For reference, I have included the maps from @War_Mapper and @MilitaryLandNet below.
Consequently, while the Russians many be close to culminating in their attack on Bkehmut, they retain some tactical momentum. However, the overall Russian offensive in the east – an operational level campaign – probably has culminated.
III. The Ukrainian counter offensive has begun. If I had a dollar for every time I was asked where and when the Ukrainian counter offensive is starting, I would already be living on a private island somewhere! The only real certainties about the Ukrainian offensives to come are that they will occur somewhere in Ukraine, probably in multiple locations and that they will probably surprise us (and the Russians) in one way or another.
The reality is that it will only be in retrospect that we will fully understand when the official ‘Preliminary Phase’ of their offensive operations has begun. Strategic planning, preparation and shaping began back in 2022. The Ukrainian requests for more equipment, training, and stockpiling had clearly commenced before Christmas last year. Commander in Chief, General Zaluznhy was quite clear in telegraphing the offensives to come when he stated in a Decemeber 2022 interview with The Economist that:
So, for all the reports of strikes and ‘shaping’ activities being undertaken by the Ukrainians over the past few weeks, the reality is that the Ukrainians have been conducting strategic shaping for six months in preparation for their next major series of offensives. Part of this is probably a massive deception campaign to ensure the Russians do not appreciate where the main effort for the Ukrainian might fall and when it actually starts.
As to whether these attacks in Bakhmut are indicative that the Ukrainian offensive has begun, my inclination is that does not indicate that. However, the ongoing defence of Bakhmut could be a key element of the Ukrainian preparations for their offensive because of how it has fixed Russian attention and drawn in Russian forces that could have been used more wisely elsewhere.
A final, and possibly related, point on the Ukrainian offensives to come. In the past 24 hours, President Zelensky has released these two tweets. They are very different to his normal social media products, and could portend major events in the short term.
Or not.
Only Time Will Tell
-
“The odds that the United States will fall into a recession at some point over the next 12 months have risen to a 40-year high, according to a probability model from the New York Federal Reserve.”
https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/capital_markets/ycfaq#/interactive
-
From Toms Memes….
Remember how Germany lost a war because it threw out the people who made the technology that won wars? -
As Jim Hoft of The Gateway Pundit reported, “The ERIC database is comprehensive and would be one of the most coveted by bad actors looking to influence an election.”
Originally funded by the Soros Open Society, it is now responsible for cleaning the voter rolls in a majority of states, plus D.C. A top election official from each member State is appointed a seat on the ERIC Board or as an Officer, all unpaid positions.
Additionally, ERIC does NOT want to know who is voting illegally. Their rules explain that “Under no circumstances shall the members transmit any record indicating an individual is a non-citizen of the U.S.,” as stated in Exhibit A, 2b. If ERIC hears no evil, then they see no evil.
This is the first time an elections official has admitted that the system can be abused and illegal voters can go undetected.
-
It’s all good then;
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is backing the contentious Indigenous Voice to Parliament to change Australia’s Constitution to better reflect Aboriginal interests.
Pfizer is the latest corporate entity to throw its support behind the proposal that will set up an almost-parallel layer of government exclusively for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Anne Harris, managing director of Pfizer Australia and New Zealand, said The Voice aligned with Pfizer’s commitment to equity and improving health outcomes for all.
“To improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people we must overcome barriers to medicines access and ensure the delivery of culturally appropriate care,” Harris said in a statement (pdf) on May 11.
When it comes to the Indigenous Australians (other people’s) money is NEVER a barrier.
-
By the White House’s own admission Joe Biden is only in the Oval office between the hours of 10:00am and 4:00pm, and sometimes not even that.
He has spent 331 days of his presidency – 40% of it in total – on vacation.
I suppose we should be grateful he’s a part time president given the damage he’s managed to inflict on the US and the world when he’s at work.
-
After winning and delivering her speech, unaltered except for a deletion, the Lehmann trial was postponed and Wilkinson criticised by chief justice Lucy McCallum.
McCallum CJ was scathing of Wilkinson, who had effectively dropped Heronner in the judicial shite. Only two months previously McCallum refused Lehrmann’s application to control press commentary on the case – or stay proceedings because of apprehended influence on a jury.
Presumably Mz Wilkinson took that earlier laissez faire judicial position (along with Drumgold’s fluffing) as a green light to talk as she saw fit – despite clearly having guilty knowledge that she was driving a bus over Lehrmann’s presumption of innocence.
Emboldened by McCallum’s comments, the media immediately rounded on Wilkinson, blaming her for the mistrial.
A delay, not a ‘mistrial’, but hardly an unfair criticism, given that was exactly what McCallum had said.
It appears that nobody is going to come out of this legal train wreck with an undamaged reputation.
-
I think the answer is yes.
-
Happy Mothers Day to all the mums!
I have just read a cross post (of Malone) to an interesting sub stack concerning the censorship of the media that has arisen to an astonishing degree over the period of the pandemic. Worth reading.
-
May I remind everyone that the Victorian Shadow Minister for Women, one Cindy McLeish was one of the signatories to the motion to expel Moira Deeming.
When it comes to the level of both hypocrisy and sheer cowardice, the LNP is in a (under) class of it’s own. Both Labor and the Greens – and others – leave the LNP far far behind in the conviction stakes. The LNP is now a cohort of yellow bellies, not worth my consideration.
-
Our opponents (this is a competition) were never advocates for ALL women. Their support was only for a select group of women.
Returning to the gang culture analogy I’ve been harping about recently: They were protecting their ‘own’ and ONLY thier own, females; those who passed the tests required for gang membership & had demonstrated their allegiance to the gang’s culture & internal rules: the insiders. Females who were NOT gang members, were & still are, ‘fair game.’
Females in politics & the media who share the shame socio-cultural beliefs are protected. Those who are categorised as outsiders, including both defined political enemies & the ‘invisible’ girls & women who do not have a public voice or the ability to actively contribute to the survival & domination of the ‘gang’ (indigenous & overseas ‘low status’ females subjected to FGM, child marriage, honour killings, restriction of educational opportunities, etc.), are left to fend for themselves & take their chances.Whatever name is applied to this type of ‘feminism’ (3rd or 4th wave?), has been – as has been the pattern – appropriated & redefined.
It is a selective, first-world advocacy for the elite who are already comparatively privileged. The goal is to extend those privileges & restrict them to maintain their value.
I would argue that this type of ‘feminism’ is deeply & unashamedly misogynistic.
-
The Age, relegates Victoria’s biggest political story to a minor down-page polemic taking the side of the Stupid Frigging Liberals and the trans movement against Moira Deeming, who’s now alone in the Victorian parliament in standing up for women.
Victorian Libs have finally cracked the code for getting The Age’s approval. It seems all they have to do is get rid of their popular female parliamentarians. Are there any other women left in Vic Parliamentary party they can sack to get even more approval from The Age?
-
Here’s how you do advertising. No not trannies, instead ask random kids on the street…
Tennessee Titans Goes Viral With Unforgettable Release Of Upcoming NFL Schedule (13 May)
Works perfectly! It almost makes me want to watch NFL again, which I haven’t done since Kaepernick went nuts and Cris Collinsworth slagged off Trump in the middle of a game. *Click* went the television.
-
Indolent:
A crowdfunding effort for the ex-Marine charged with second-degree manslaughter over the death of a homeless schizophrenic on a New York City subway has soared past $1million.
The fund, set up by Daniel Penny’s attorneys, says it will be used to pay for 24-year-old Long Island native’s legal fees and for ‘any future civil lawsuits that may arise, as well as expenses related to his defense.’
Worthy cause.
Link. -
Remember when the left was all for feminism? Lefty women have been put in their place. They’re now just the ladies auxiliary for the male homosexuals running the trans movement.
Funny how we are back where we started. Most people forget that women got the vote because male MPs voted on the laws to enable it. And now we will lose a lot of those rights because “trans women” with perfectly trimmed moustaches and beards will decide what we are permitted to do and say. Has anyone heard anything lately from Gloria Steinem?
-
More white supremacy:
Two black male suspects, Tahj Matthews, 23 and Maurice Holmes, 25, admitted to their role in killing Lawrence Herr while he was repairing a mailbox last month.
One of the suspects told police he “just wanted to kill a white guy.”
-
Monty down there to punch them in the face no doubt. Deary me, Hun:
Victoria Police has condemned the appalling behaviour of protesters who faced off at CBD rally, declaring ‘hate and prejudice has no place in our society’.
Heated scenes erupted outside state parliament as neo-Nazis and anti-racism protesters clashed over new immigration laws.
“Like the community, police were appalled at the acts displayed in Melbourne today,” the statement read.
“Everyone has the right to feel safe in our community regardless of who they are.
“We understand incidents of anti-Semitism can leave communities feeling targeted, threatened and vulnerable. Hate and prejudice has no place in our society.”
Police arrested two people during the ordeal.
A Doreen man, 30, was pepper-sprayed and arrested for assaulting police and stealing a body-worn camera.
A 20-year-old Werribee man was also arrested for firing a missile and assaulting police.
Both men are assisting police with their inquiries.
One officer was treated at the scene after being exposed to OC spray.
The anti-immigration rally, organised on encrypted messaging app Telegram on Friday, began earlier than expected when counter protesters arrived outside Parliament House about 11.30am.
Controversial media identity Avi Yemini attended the protest with his own personal security, who failed to stop him from being “bonked” on the head with a metal pole.
Yemini was also taunted by a group of masked and black-clothing clad protesters, as his personal security interjected.
Counter protesters blamed federal opposition leader Peter Dutton for enticing neo-Nazis.
Omar Hassan, a spokesperson for the organisers of the counter protest, Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, blamed rhetoric in Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech for emboldening the neo-Nazi demonstrators.
“Blaming immigrants is classic diversionary tactics by Dutton and the far right”, he said.
“The truth is that the cost of living crisis has nothing to do with immigration, and everything to do with the bankers, corporations and landlords who’ve been getting rich while the rest of us struggle.”
“Our demonstration outnumbered them thirty to one, proving yet again that racism and fascism is not welcome in Melbourne, from Dutton or these goons.”
Meanwhile, about 20 neo-Nazis protesters faced-off with anti-racist supporters.
The masked group hoisted an Australian flag into the air and formed a line as counter protesters hurled abuse at them.
The neo-Nazis then moved south along Spring St, before the counter protesters followed and police intervened.
Police swiftly arrested two protesters, while pepper spray was deployed on others.
Social media vision shows neo-Nazis clashing with police as tensions flared before 11am.
The neo-Nazis made their way through Treasury Gardens as counter protesters closed in on the group.
neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell, of the European Australian Movement, appeared to be leading the protest to the northern end of Fitzroy Gardens.
Sewell, who avoided jail over a brutal attack on a Channel 9 security guard, remained silent as the group walked past young families enjoying the sunny day.
Counter protesters were kept at a distance by police, but continued to chant “f*ck racists” at the neo-Nazis as the protest moved along Lansdowne St.
Police temporarily blocked access southbound along Lansdowne St, but sources told the Herald Sun they aimed to keep traffic moving through the area.
A heavy police presence remains outside parliament amid concerns the groups will return.
Earlier, plain-clothed officers were seen stationed along Exhibition St, while police vehicles blocked public transport moving through the eastern end of Spring St.
It is understood the protesters arrived early to crash an another planned CBD protest.
-
hzhousewife says:
May 14, 2023 at 9:49 am
By the way, anyone know where Dutton is? His silence is deafening.
Gotta remember the media won’t report anything he says much.The media would report it if he said something inflammatory and yet true. We dare him but he is not the man for our times.
Would he ever appear at a rally a la John Howard in a bullet proof jacket when he spoke against gun possession? Yes I know, wrong cause and the media loved it but can you imagine Dutton doing the same for any cause?
-
“To improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people we must overcome barriers to medicines access and ensure the delivery of culturally appropriate care,” Harris said in a statement
It makes it difficult to improve indigenous health when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people use culturally appropriate threats and assaults against the medical staff. The said nurses and doctors then leave in order to protect life and limb. Much like the difficulty in recruiting police officers in NT.
-
Black Day for Russian VVS as ‘Special Air Group’ Destroyed in Ambush
SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER
14 MAY 2023A quick note on acronyms: some people have used RuAF to describe the airforce, though that more accurately describes Russian Armed Forces. Others call the airforce VKS, but in Russian transliteration that actually stands for Russian Aerospace Forces, under which the Airforce does operate, but includes the umbrella of the missile and space forces as well. The Airforce alone is just the VVS.
Today Russia lost two Mi-8s, and Su-34, and reportedly an Su-35. All nine pilots were killed. This is likely three in the Mi-8, three in the Mi-8MTPR1 (pilot, copilot and EW suite operator), two in Su-34, and one in Su-35.
These four aerial assets comprised what’s called a ‘special air group’ as they operated together as one unit on a coordinated mission objective. One of the Mi-8s was likely in a recovery role, specifically sent as a craft to recover downed pilots as a precaution, the other was an advanced Mi-8MTPR1, which is an electronics / EW platform. The role of the Mi-8MTPR1 is to provide electronic jamming and cover for the Su-34, whose role was to launch airstrikes, likely in the form of the new FAB-500M-62 UMPC ‘planning’ or glide-bombs. The Su-35’s role in this special air group is to provide air cover against potential hostile air threats, i.e. enemy fighter jets.
The Mi-8MTPR1 is armed with the famous Russian Rychag-AV electronic suite which I’ve reported on before. It’s one of the two main suites, along with Vitebsk L-370 or ‘President-S’ system that Russian Ka-52s typically use. The Vitebsk system is more of an active countermeasure which detects AD missiles or ‘lock on’ threats and automatically attempts to electronically jam (via laser and radio methods) them and send flare/chaff decoys at the same time to divert the threat.
The Rychag on the other hand is more of a longer range EMF jamming suite. You can see one of the Rychag L187A jammer modules circled in red here:
So, in summary: they fly together, the Mi-8MTPR1 jams enemy air defenses from a distance, the Su-34 launches bombs, the Su-35 patrols to make sure no hostile craft approach, and the rear Mi-8 simply loiters as precaution to exfiltrate any downed pilots swiftly should a shoot down occur.
This incident in fact gave us the first such indepth look into how Russia is launching its long range strikes. It’s more sophisticated than many people thought, and doesn’t boil down to just Su-34s randomly winging bombs on their own, but in fact there is an entire system of cover in place.
So, the big question is, what went wrong? If these Rychag units are supposed to jam AD, then what exactly happened?
No one knows. Of course one possibility is that the chopper was hit first, which would obviously open the rest of them up to be much easier targets. But first let’s clear a few things up.
As to people wondering why they were flying so high, when the name of the game these days is fly low beneath radar coverage. As per the mission requirements, this mission calls to fly high as obviously for the Mi-8MTPR1 to jam enemy AD, it has to be high enough to detect those AD systems, which in turn can detect it also and then it’s a matter of who gets off first. Jamming systems are not perfect. No system on the planet is completely failsafe or foolproof. We’ve seen numerous times the Vitebsk system on Ka-52s successfully fended off Manpads, some videos even showing a Ka-52 losing several Manpads in this way.
But no system is perfect because it all comes down to the specific conditions of an encounter. There are small “blind spots” and other such things in every system depending on its orientation and the various parameters of its height, distance, etc.
As for the other planes, obviously they too had to be up high because if the Su-34’s job was to launch glide bombs, these can only be launched from a high altitude so that they can have a lot of room to ‘glide down’ while they stretch their legs to 30-50km, or whatever their max range might be. Clearly, this was an operation in an area where Russia often operates and felt that the long range AD was suppressed or nonexistent.
First let’s establish where these craft were shot down:
So, what was it that actually hit the craft? My first reaction—as was many people’s—was that these were Manpad-armed DRG saboteurs that had infiltrated the Russian border region near Bryansk, due to the fact that the craft all fell deep in Russian territory. However, after more facts came to light, this appears a fairly classic hit of a medium/long range system, most likely a Ukrainian BUK. Although, there are some major problems for the BUK possibility I’ll mention afterwards. First, a few key pieces of evidence:
And lastly, we have the photo of one of the Mi-8 rotors, perforated with fragmentation shrapnel. Most AD systems do use fragmentation, although the size of those frag hits seems to point more to BUK than smaller Manpad frags:
So what appears to have happened, is Ukraine somehow snuck an AD system much closer to the Russian border under cover, kept it offline while learning of the Russian strike group’s routine and routes by way of observation or help from U.S. C4ISR systems. Then once the strike group took off and was headed their way, they would need to only fire up their radar system very briefly to designate the target and launch at them.
This is one explanation for how they could have gotten past the Mi-8MTPR1’s Rychag jamming systems.
This is just one possibility/theory. It could be wrong, and there are a number of other ways it could have happened.
For instance, one theory being promulgated is that Ukraine “ambushed” this group with Mig-29s armed with new American long range Aim-120 Amraam missiles. These missiles are fancy and advanced, but the problem is, it doesn’t matter how powerful your missiles are if your aircraft’s radar is the weak bottleneck. The Mig-29’s radar is infamously lackluster compared to the Russian Su-35 that was in the air. Many comparison videos have previously been made but the disparity is something along the lines of: the Su-35 with its famed Irbis-E radar can detect the Mig-29 at something like 250-400km while the Mig can only detect the Su-35 at maybe 60-120km at the most, give or take.
But some have rebutted by saying: “But American AWACs probably provided the target designation for the Amraam-armed Mig!”
Problem is, as I explained many times before, the AWACs radar’s max range is 450km, and maybe 600km+ for gigantic high flying targets like Tu-95 bears. This is due to the simple science of radar horizons and earth curvature.
In the end, it is an unprecedented strike because it is the downing of an entire air group in Russian territory. And fairly deep in their territory to boot. As one analyst wrote, “next they will just be shooting them down straight in Sheremetyevo airport.”
The official FighterBomber channel (linked to Russian airforce) wrote on Telegram:
There have been no such losses of our aviation as today since March of last year.
Ukrainian journalist Anatoly Shariy writes:
Anatoly Shariy: “I have absolutely accurate information that what is happening with Russian aircraft in the very near future will begin to happen with sea vessels.”
Ultimately, an air to air ambush does make the most sense simply because it’s hardest to believe that a BUK/S-300/etc. was smuggled right up to the Russian border. And even then, a BUK can likely not reach that deep as explained before.
As of this writing, Russian strategic aviation (bombers) are taking off for what is likely to be retaliatory strikes. We’ll update next time as more information becomes known.
-
The e-bike exploded in her hallway. She couldn’t get out
Faulty batteries sold by foreign websites are causing blazes and deaths. The vehicles spark fires every two days
Sofia Duarte died in a fire caused by a faulty e-bike
Nicholas Hellen
and
Emanuele Midolo
Saturday May 13 2023, 6.00pm BST, The Sunday TimesEarly on New Year’s Day, Sofia Duarte was asleep when a modified electric bike in her flat exploded into flames.
Her five flatmates jumped from the second-floor flat’s windows to the street, but Duarte, 21, who had returned home late from a night shift, was disorientated and tried to escape down the staircase.
A family friend, Alda Simoes, 45, said: “Sofia was confused and instead of going through the window she went through the door.”
Weeping, she added: “The fire brigade were there within a couple of minutes but there was nothing they could do.
“The bikes were at the entrance. Some of the neighbours were trying to break down the door because they knew that Sofia was inside but they couldn’t go past the fire. She was there for I don’t know how long.”
Footage from a passer-by shows fireballs exploding from a window, while bystanders in the Old Kent Road, south London, scream. The last message Sofia sent from her phone was to her mother, Maria Frasquilho Macarro, at six minutes past midnight. It said: ‘happy new year mummy’ along with a heart emoji.
Faulty e-bikes and e-scooters have caused a fire in the capital every two days since the start of the year. The London Fire Brigade says it has had to attend 158 e-bike and e-scooter fires since the start of last year.
Across the UK, they have injured at least 190 people and killed eight since 2020. In January, Gary Shearer, 23, tried to save his father Rab, 60, from a house in Merseyside from a blaze started when an e-bike battery that had been charging caught fire. Both men died.
Last September, Abdul Jabar Oryakhel, from Afghanistan, died falling from the top floor of a Bristol tower block after an e-bike started a blaze.
Last month, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service issued a video of an e-bike exploding in a house. It warned: “The fire can be ferocious and keep reigniting. Burning battery vapours are toxic, can spread quickly and cut off escape routes.”
Now there are concerns that the government and landlords are not taking seriously the risk posed by faulty e-bike batteries, usually imported from Asia and sold cheaply online.
-
But for all of this, we can thank the stupid effing Liberals, state and federal. A big special shout out to the smirking grub from the electorate of Cook. He deserves a special thanks, for his complete incompetence as PM. Thank you Scumbag, thank you Liberals, oh and I ask again, where’s Dutton?
Cassie, you are on fire! Absolutely right. Libs have not merely lost their way, they appear to have lost all understanding of the basic principles of their political philosophy.
I especially harbour a grievance against Morrison – for many reasons. He was an immense disappointment. I heard him speak many years ago (around 2010?) at the Sydney Institute when he spoke about Australian “values” in the wake of the escapades of the Middle Eastern louts on Cronulla beaches. He was at that time one of the few to do this.
But as PM he abandoned all such frippery. Too bad about the farmers in the worst drought in several generations….and the fires which ripped through what was left in some areas. I often look back at a photograph husband took of me in the ute with a ventilator on my moosh because of the smoke in the valley. Desperately putting out in the bare paddocks what little hay we were about to purchase at the time. Where was Morrison? No idea….but Tony Abbott appeared to help our local brigades. I will never forget that & had the opportunity recently to thank him.
Leave a Reply