1,660 thoughts on “Open Thread – Weekend 20 May 2023”

  1. Rogersays:
    May 22, 2023 at 6:26 pm
    “From the beginning of time” was cited in one W.A. Tourism advertisement.

    This will become unquetionable, else the whole narrative of indigenous presence on the continent upon which the Uluru Statement from the Heart bases its rationale for a special status for aboriginal people dissolves.

    They need to think it through. Wouldn’t this make aboriginals pre-Neanderthal? Is that the message they want to send?

    And when Australia was part of Gondwana, wasn’t it located near the South Pole? How did they survive under all that ice? Frozen kangaroo steaks?

    10
  2. I saw 170,000+ years in a Board of Studies sanctioned high school assessment once. That was over 20 years ago now.

    The real question is not how long (40,000? 60,000? 65,000?) but whether being first is the point.

    Nature champions the cause of conquest – any species may displace another merely by being more effective in occupying it.

    I have no doubt Aboriginal tribes would happily drive off other tribes to secure better hunting grounds – conquest again.

    11
  3. Cassie of Sydney:

    Just like Shane Drumgold’s position is untenable, the ACT Victims of Crime Commisssioner, Heidi Yates’ position, is now also untenable.

    I dips my lid to you, Cassie.
    You initially said this was going to take scalps a long way up the chain and not going to stop at the young studlings imprisonment. I wonder how far up the ladder this one will go?

    13
  4. I really don’t need another useless bin around the house and am thinking of taking it to the council offices and leaving it there with a letter stating that it is not needed and that I am not paying for it.

    I thought it was for recycling batteries and used sump oil.

    1
  5. Watching SBS Food and laughing out at the descendants of the Nimbin hippies using their bully pulpit to preach the animist religion of climate change.

    These dummies actually believe all the anti-scientific climate nonsense, apparently because it confirms to them just how evil is the human race (which also tells them how evil nature is, unless it can be used to reduce humans to the primitive past).

    There is no room for progress in modern Green communism, just struggle and self-induced poverty.

    Of course, no-one will ever vote to reduce their standard of living, which is why the communists are resorting to the censorship of ideas to convince the proletariat they can be happy owning nothing and being poor.

    16
  6. Robert S

    How far to go? At least to one or more of the Mean Girls would be my hope.

    9
  7. They need to think it through. Wouldn’t this make aboriginals pre-Neanderthal? Is that the message they want to send?

    The reason they never settled in one place is because when they first arrived in the Hadean the surface of the earth was too hot to sit on. Just 10’s of millions of years shifting from one foot to the other.

    11
  8. Those council bins are a bit of a scam. They charge you to deliver the household food scraps to them and then presumably also pay for the cost of turning it into compost which they then sell back to you. Pretty good business plan which they will still manage to screw up.

    9
  9. How far to go? At least to one or more of the Mean Girls would be my hope.

    Wouldn’t be surprised to see Gallagher turfed from Cabinet. Don’t think the Liars would be prepared to lose kd wrong, the elder statesman.

    11
  10. Watching SBS Food and laughing out at the descendants of the Nimbin hippies

    It’s ironic that the area is turning into a sort of country NSW version of Beverley Hills.

    Notoriously private couple Margot Robbie and husband Tom Ackerley enjoy a fun day in Byron Bay before going house hunting (14 May)

    Margot Robbie and her husband Tom Ackerley are on the hunt for a home in Byron Bay.

    And on Friday, the Hollywood star, 32, and British film producer, 33, enjoyed a fun day in Byron Bay before inspecting a stunning property.

    Long way from the old days of a tin pot village full of stoners.

    9
  11. They need to think it through. Wouldn’t this make aboriginals pre-Neanderthal? Is that the message they want to send?

    A good portion of the public will opt for emotions over reason on any given day.

    That’s where they appear to be pinning their hopes.

    Such is democracy.

    7
  12. It’s pretty hard to make good compost in a home garden. Most bins just do not get hot enough. A worm farm works pretty well for most vegetable food scraps but requires more diligence than most people would be prepared to give it and even then can run off the rails from time to time.

    5
  13. Given sTan Grant’s chequered broadcast history and perhaps a realisation of talent deficit. Nothing like grasping an immutable characteristic as a last straw and then quitting the Q&A gig – perchance using racism as the excuse for the self-sabotage lest slipping ratings tell the real story?

    13
  14. Some pillock complained in that DM article that Margot Robie got her start in Hollywood because she’s “conventionally pretty”.

    That’s normally how it works, champ.

    10
  15. Long way from the old days of a tin pot village full of stoners.

    You mean superannuated old Boomers like Red Kezza?

    3
  16. I have no doubt Aboriginal tribes would happily drive off other tribes to secure better hunting grounds – conquest again.

    Happened just over a century ago – the OG crew around Mutitjulu (Ayers Rock) were killed off during the Spanish Flu, so the tribe next door got sick of eating lizards and went for their waterholes, the roos that were drawn to them and so on.

    In this day and age, ‘better hunting’ refers to tribes excluding others from fat Gummint paychecks. Think ATSIC.

    9
  17. Had an interesting experience today. Was all set to watch the Inquiry in Canberra having cleared the deck of other household duties. Sitting back watched opening statements involving rap over knuckles by Head Honcho of Inquiry for Drumgold’s brief on use of inflammatory language, big smack for media doing paparazzi’s on Drumgold and also for media impugning of persons yet to take stand. Then phone rang and had to leg it to hairdresser as tomorrow’s appointment cancelled, but could do it now. Different hairdresser. Well, thought she was blond bimbo but no, totally on the ball and has fingered Climate Change as nonsense, thinks renewables are devastating landscape and will tie herself to her gas stove if they come for it. She then asked me for my take on nuclear energy which I gave plus references that she plans to look up. Went away buoyed that there is still life and common sense in the Melbourne suburbs.

    35
  18. They need to think it through. Wouldn’t this make aboriginals pre-Neanderthal? Is that the message they want to send?

    “Since time began” goes back to pre-Pangea. Tethans?

    I’m reminded of that movie, “Altered States” starring William Hurt.

    3
  19. It’s pretty hard to make good compost in a home garden. Most bins just do not get hot enough.

    Put a human arm in it. The temperature goes through the roof. Best compost ever.

    Oh wait. Forget I said anything.

    12
  20. So another waste story: WA has implemented the 10c container deposit. Seems to apply to drinks that are drunk in public places; for instance not wine bottles – or turps.
    So we fill up the bag they gave us.
    Then what? We have to go in business hours to their stupid receival point, lug the things in and claim the money? My beloved assiduously collected the things, then tossed the whole sack in the recycle bin.
    She will drive 20km to use the $2.23 discount vouchers for guzzoline, and just throws double that in the bin!
    And then I go to my club to empty the bins. A woolpack full of containers,maybe 1500, and I am told we have to feed them one at a time into the recycle unit to get the credit! Is this the greatest rort for Government since stamp and coin collecting?

    13
  21. QandA was certainly a sinking ship. Even before Snowcone became a house husband. The nightly late night current affairs program with Snowcone had already hit the rocks.

    3
  22. Tinta – I think Stan has caught the Colin Kaepernick disease. Both talented guys whose brains exploded due to imaginary racism. It’s sad. Adam Goodes was another one, and Noel Pearson is going down the same rabbithole lately. Fallout from making absolutely everything about race: susceptible people then see racism everywhere. It’s a type of clinical paranoia I think.

    22
  23. We couldn’t even parody it in the end.

    Once Gillard was skewered it lapsed into tragedy.

    3
  24. Each week Ol’ Leathery would lead an empassioned cry for clear air. So much raw material.

    3
  25. Robert Sewell, the Aircraft Spruce website has all sorts of aircraft bits including nuts, bolts etc.
    http://www.aircraftspruce.com
    Do you have an aircraft maintenance organisation at the local airport? Dunno about a couple of kilos but you should be able to get odds and sods bits from them. Do offer to pay, they hate people trying to get stuff for free.
    What do you need the bits for? The car racing/hot rod/dragster type people also extensively use aircraft hardware and hose fittings. See Speedflow in Taree.

    1
  26. Just wow. So I assume this couple worked hard for their retirement. Hun:

    A pair of entitled Boomers are going viral after contacting a newspaper column with some truly outrageous money “problems”.

    The retirees – both worth millions – separately wrote to the Sun Herald’s George Cochrane seeking financial advice that revealed they were shockingly out of touch with the financial struggles most younger Australians currently faced.

    The first featured a 78-year-old man and his 79-year-old wife who receive an account-based pension from their self-managed super fund (SMSF).

    As of July 2017, his holding was $1,599,956 and his wife’s $675,590 – a combined total of almost $2.3 million.

    Their combined super funds are invested in Australian shares and give a “healthy return” – however, in the years since 2017, some of their shareholdings have “more than doubled in value”, meaning the husband’s part of the SMSF was now “well over the $3 million limit which the government intends to bring in”.

    “What will be the tax implications if my SMSF reaches $4 million and my wife’s $1.8 million? Should we sell some of our shares to stay below the $3 million threshold?” he asked. (a fairly benign question I would think?

    And in a second letter sent to the paper’s Money page, a 60-year-old recently-retired woman revealed she and her 50-year-old husband – who have a property valued at $4 million and who accessed the wife’s super to pay down the $300,000 mortgage, while the husband has half a million in super – are planning to relocate to Europe “to a less expensive property so we can travel”.

    The couple “prefer not to work” and have no children, so “intend to spend all our money”. “What would be a good strategy?” the woman asked.

    The column was shared on Twitter by The Guardian’s deputy news editor Josephine Tovey, who hit out at the “generational inequality” it represented.

    “Honestly if you want to get your blood up about generational inequality in Australia may I recommended the letters on the Money page of the Sun Herald? What problems to have,” she wrote.

    The post struck a chord with Aussies, attracting hundreds of likes, comments and retweets and with Twitter users variously describing the Boomers’ attitudes as “entitled” and “greedy”.

    “Bloody heck the dilemma! Sickens me, not what super was intended for,” one person wrote. (then what the phuck is it for numbnuts?)

    “What baffling capitalist greed …” another said.

    “I’ve always found this column loaded with whinging people who have too much money a real insult to general society. All they want to do is get free advice on how to rort the system when they can easily afford a financial advisor. Vile people,” yet another commented.

    It comes as new YouGov research commissioned by Findex has revealed two out of three Australians aged 35 to 65 are now worried they won’t have enough money to retire.

    The majority (52 per cent) of Baby Boomers and 38 per cent of Gen X noted they were “not confident” of having the money needed to retire compared to 31 per cent of Millennials.

    “This paints the picture that most Aussies have adopted a ‘kick it down the road’ mentality to retirement. But when the time eventually comes, they’re faced with the reality that their existing savings and superannuation balance are insufficient in this economic climate,” Findex co-CEO Matt Games said.

    According to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Retirement Standard, a retiree today needs upwards of $500,000 in their super balance.

    This sits well above the national average of $356,000 and $288,000 respectively for men and women in their early 60s.

    The mewling quim is strong in this article. FMD

    8
  27. Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
    May 22, 2023 at 5:15 pm
    We have now reached the 65,000 years mark. Had been on 60,000 for quite a while. Must have discovered some new historical evidence proving the new 5,000 years.

    I’m remembering when it was 20,000 years.

    Robert, when I was in high school in the seventies, we were told it was ten thousand years. I still have my Social Studies textbook from then. It had a picture of Neville, the Aboriginal on the blue cover. I will try to dig it out when I have time. I still haven’t unpacked all my boxes of books since the Big Move.

    7
  28. It’s a type of clinical paranoia I think.

    Or he’s just seeking publicity to promote his book.

    3
  29. So another waste story: WA has implemented the 10c container deposit

    My local R.S.L. has made some thousands of dollars from the scheme, but we tried putting out bins, only to have the swampies dump dirty nappies and half eaten junk food…

    5
  30. “Wouldn’t this make aboriginals pre-Neanderthal? “

    Not just that, if so, doesn’t this make them “unrelated” to other human beings. It’s almost as though they think they evolved here. Are they not part of the human story? Australian Aborigines have Denisovan DNA

    I reckon they’ve been here no longer than 50,000 years, if that.

    5
  31. “Wouldn’t this make aboriginals pre-Neanderthal? “

    Not just that, if so, doesn’t this make them “unrelated” to other human beings. It’s almost as though they think they evolved here. Are they not part of the human story? Australian Aborigines have Denisovan DNA

    I reckon they’ve been here no longer than 50,000 years, if that.

    2
  32. The current canbra shitshow and the ABC tantrum just show what horrible, spoilt people the pollimuppet-meja class are.

    7
  33. I may have enough money to retire.

    I am sure a future government, however, will expropriate it from me, *legally*.

    10
  34. Don’t think the Liars would be prepared to lose kd wrong, the elder statesman.

    Another contender for interwebs winner. Elder statesman indeed

    5
  35. oops, sorry Zulu for placing the wrong name to my comment. I have had too many sherbets with my chilli tonight. hic.

  36. Twitter users variously describing the Boomers’ attitudes as “entitled” and “greedy”

    ‘Boomers! Casting this country into the volcano! Give it to me! All to me!’

    Ah, that takes me back.

    3
  37. Robert, when I was in high school in the seventies, we were told it was ten thousand years.

    My grandfather claimed that, in the early 1920’s, he was told that Aborigines had been for a few hundred years ..

    2
  38. A lot of Boomers are still having to tow their caravans with 200 series Landcruisers. A little sympathy wouldn’t hurt.

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  39. Jim Betts, who appeared before a senate estimates hearing in Canberra today where he was asked about why he wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the far-left black power fist in the colours of the Aboriginal flag was, less than two years ago, hand-picked by a so called Liberal premier by the name of Gladys Berejiklian to run the Department of Premier and Cabinet here in NSW. To his credit, one of the first things Perrottet did when he became premier was to flick the far-left Betts. And now Betts ends up in Canberra.

    9
  40. Tomsays:

    May 22, 2023 at 3:19 pm

    Country golf courses have their own charm.

    I would nominate Port Fairy golf club (west of Warrnambool), with its dunes and coastal cliffs, as Australia’s best country course

    Only played there once with my brother.
    Pre-booked weeks in advance.
    Come the day it was blowing a gale straight off the sea. Even the holes with a tail wind were really hard to play.
    I’m sure it is great on a still, sunny spring day, but not in Sco’ish weather thanks.

    1
  41. Pretty tough to do anything about the warehousing and recycling of Liars staff between the States and Canberra. Gillard was the classic case in point.

    2
  42. Split the Met into ‘Hillside’ and ‘Bayside’ trains. Cribbing Major’s disastrous privatization of British Rail.

  43. Black Ballsays:
    May 22, 2023 at 7:15 pm
    Just wow. So I assume this couple worked hard for their retirement. Hun:

    My guess is that the “terrible plight” of these battlers is all made up including their financials. Phony, phony, phony, but gets click bait and pushes the political cause of hate the rich. All faux.

    11
  44. Chrissays

    If yours is anything like the NSW & Qld scheme you will actually pay around 12c per container. You get 10c back but the 2c is an admin charge to run the scheme. I tried researching the company that oversees the collection in NSW when living there but found nothing of substance.

    At least in NSW businesses were lumped with the burden of collecting this tax, accounting and passing up to the state under threat of fines. Also from what I can tell if said container isn’t cashed state keeps the money too. Feds also refused to GST exempt the 12c so add another 1.2c on top for Canberra.

    Nice shonky new tax that is dressed up as saving Gaia.

    4
  45. Dotsays:
    May 22, 2023 at 7:18 pm
    I may have enough money to retire.

    I am sure a future government, however, will expropriate it from me, *legally*.

    See the legal changes in Canberra to get around the 1994 legislation on acquiring property.

    4
  46. Robert Sewellsays:
    May 22, 2023 at 7:39 pm
    Frank:

    Stan Grant claque. Sometimes they must despair at the quality of their own side. Note the numpty at left with his fist in the air, total spud.

    Lots holding up “We reject racism” signs. I wonder how many also bleat about “white privilege” with absolutely no self-awareness?

    7
  47. Indolentsays:
    May 22, 2023 at 7:42 pm
    Neil Oliver: There’s nothing green about the green agenda…just plain old greed!

    The Greed Agenda, I like it!

    7
  48. Isn’t Stan hosting Q&A tonight, for the last time?

    Presumably therefore he’ll be burning the studio to the ground in a final act of defiance, while the striking ABC staff stand around and applaud.

    C’mon Stan, double down!

    10
  49. Chris:

    I am holding off buying a good quality repro Brown Bess with bayonet and scabbard for $1K.
    Technology has advanced; I want to build a matchlock and a German cheek-stock wheellock.

    Let me know when they put out a Sturmgewher

  50. P:

    “They’re 44 years into (the lease) and the government’s saying, we’re going to compulsorily acquire the land, the buildings and rip up the service contract,” Fr Percy said.

    That means we can just tear up the leases the Chinese have on our ports.
    Good oh!

    11
  51. Boambee John:

    That ACT suspension of previous laws on acquiring on just terms sounds very like an Enabling Act.

    It does, doesn’t it?
    In fact, the ability to just suspend a law they don’t like, whenever they feel like it doesn’t suit their agenda is almost identical to the Enabling Act.

    5
  52. Perhaps- probably I think – that what Drumgold meant was that from the fact that Higgins was undressed a jury would infer that sexual activity had taken place. Perhaps they did; who knows?

    Bloody hell! .. Drumgold must be on a good wicket or have ahell of an imagination ! ..
    I undress every, bloody, night and still end up sleeping on my own …. LOL!

    15
  53. what Drumgold meant was that from the fact that Higgins was undressed a jury would infer that sexual activity had taken place

    Would infer? Try may infer.

    Unless that jury were to be properly instructed by the judge. Which they almost certainly would be, to limit the possibility of appeals. And which also means – yeah nah yeah but nah. The prosecution can raise the possibility of the jury drawing that inference, but it would be smacked out of the park by Hizzoner in his remarks to them prior to deliberations.

    A shit barrister, elevated only due to the Canberra greenhouse of networking and political leanings.

    12
  54. Suddenly, after a week of contemplation, the call is out: The ABC is more racist than the Gay Grampians and needs Struggle Sessions to put things right:

    ABC Asia-Pacific newsroom presenter and journalist Jordan Fennell also shared her support.

    “Backing Stan and all my indigenous, first nations, and POC colleagues who face horrid racism both inside the ABC and outside of it. The ABC must do better, and it has to be more than reactionary emails and lip service. #IstandwithStan #WeRejectRacism,” she tweeted.

    Q+A social media producer Neryssa Azlan directed a tweet at non-Indigenous journalists.

    “On my way to work since I start and finish late on show nights … but I hope non-Indigenous journos who are out supporting Stan in any capacity take this time to self-reflect and figure out ways how we ourselves have been complicit and how we can be better,” she wrote.

    A horrid cynic might think this has all been coordinated to maximise their ABC ‘s contribution to getting the Voice over the line. A preemptive strike on the Hate Media daring to voice No opinions.

    8
  55. Large scale Solar is the Agent Orange of renewables – it’s a defoliant.

    13
  56. Triple premiership coach Damien Hardwick has sensationally quit Richmond with one-and-a-half years remaining on his contract.

    Hardwick is expected to inform players and staff of the shock decision at Punt Rd on Tuesday morning. He will coach his final game against Port Adelaide on Sunday at the MCG.

    This is what happens when you do your nuts over Wife #2 while having a midlife crisis at the same time.

    2
  57. Obviously, this allows the real Richmond coach to take over the reins publicly.

    Put your hand up, Brooke Cotchin.

    2
  58. Boambee John:

    They need to think it through. Wouldn’t this make aboriginals pre-Neanderthal? Is that the message they want to send?
    And when Australia was part of Gondwana, wasn’t it located near the South Pole? How did they survive under all that ice? Frozen kangaroo steaks?

    I have tried to make this Neanderthal connection here on a couple of previous occasions but it’s gotten bogged down in irrelevancies each time.
    There doesn’t seem to be any haste by the Universities to try for genetic connections either.
    It’s a bit like the Christmas? Islands gene history – it got quickly and quietly shelved when it became obvious some of the genealogical links were a bit ‘factual’ on who had fathered who.

    2
  59. How solar farms took over the California desert: ‘An oasis has become a dead sea’

    And after that a junkyard.

    Recycling ‘end-of-life’ solar panels, wind turbines, is about to be climate tech’s big waste business (13 May, via Climate Depot)

    A wind turbine is recyclable, from the steel tower to the composite blades, typically 170 feet long, but most ends up being thrown away, a waste total that will reach a cumulative mass of 2.2 million metric tons by 2050.

    Currently, about 90% of end-of-life or defective solar panels also end up in landfills, largely because it costs far less to dump them than to recycle them.

    “We have done a phenomenal job making solar efficient and cost-effective, but really have not done anything yet on making it circular and dealing with the end-of-life,” says Solarcycle CEO Suvi Sharma.

    The trouble with “making it circular and dealing with the end-of-life” is that costs a huge amount of money, which if added onto the life cycle cost of the renewables installation would make them even more uneconomic than they are now. So everyone is currently sweeping the mess under the carpet and hope no one notices the millions of tonnes of dead panels and wind turbine blades.

    Hypocrisy on steroids from the clean ‘n’ green.

    12
  60. Mme Zulu has discovered a couple of bottles of “Suckfizzle” – it’s a West Australian white wine. She thought she had run out months ago.

    2
  61. Bugatti Chiron Super Sport vs Rimac Nevera

    I test drove a Tesla YP. good grief, the acceleration, for whats effectively a normal road car is just unbelievable. it’s totally addictive.

    2
  62. KD at 8:11.
    “Infer”.
    A very, very strange word to use in a criminal law context.
    What with, you know, all that “beyond reasonable doubt” kinda stuff.
    Yes, prosecutors can try to “infer” with a bit of dot-joining on circumstantials, but a good judge will yank the chain if they get a bit too “inferency”.
    And, yes, the judge will definitely warn a jury about getting too inferency.
    Or, as we prefer to call it, stitching up an accused.

    9
  63. It’s pretty hard to make good compost in a home garden

    being one of those fortunate gardeners with 10 green thumbs and a 96% success rate with plants .. a garden the size of a small park and in the beginning very little cash I worked out a novel mulch creation scheme ..
    half fill the individual pot(s) big/small/whatever with the food waste/garden weeds .. cover with several pages of newprint (papers/catalogues/letters) top off with soil and either plant whatever in the pots or just leave ’em .. 3 months later or when plant calls it quits/needs bigger surroundings empty it all out and you’ve got 100% soil … and start again …..!
    Using the newsprint to split the garbage half from the soil ensures the weeds/food scraps die off before they can penetrate the paper … and allows the plant keep on keepin’ on …!
    Same with leaves .. half fill bin/wheelbarrow but no paper just top up with soil/dirt doubles the breakdown time & produces excellent mulch/soil …..
    But if your really keen and don’t mind spending a few bob head out to a mushroom farm and buy mushroom manure .. I used to go out to Richmond, NSW and pick-up 10/20 50kg bags at a time for a $1 each .. probably, a bit dearer nowadays, been 5 years since I last bought any, but still a lot cheaper than commercial potting mix/soil …

    8
  64. Eyrie:
    “Oh wait. Forget I said anything.”

    Do you have an aircraft maintenance organisation at the local airport? Dunno about a couple of kilos but you should be able to get odds and sods bits from them. Do offer to pay, they hate people trying to get stuff for free.
    What do you need the bits for? The car racing/hot rod/dragster type people also extensively use aircraft hardware and hose fittings. See Speedflow in Taree.

    No, no, I was just wondering what alloy they were made of.

    (I think I got away with it.)

  65. “The overwhelming message from our Town Hall meeting was that senior doctors and other staff have been ignored by the ACT Government and given no opportunity for consultation or to warn against the mistakes the Government is making,” Professor Walter Abhayaratna, AMA ACT president, said.

    Whilst I in no way condone the appropriation that the ACT Town Council is attempting, perhaps the good doctor might care to reflect upon his words as they apply to certain other medical situations over the past few years?

    Perhaps having it shoved down your throat isn’t quite as much fun when you’re the shovee not the shover?

    And “mistakes the government is making”??? Surely that never happens…

    10
  66. Robert Sewell says: May 22, 2023 at 7:52 pm

    Let me know when they put out a Sturmgewher

    We spent the last 5 years trying to shake off the undeserved Garage Nasties smearing and then you go and say something like that. Sheesh.

    2
  67. Think I only ever got one load of mushroom compost over the years. I thought there was a pH issue with extended use? Calli might know. I never get too wound up over pH issues.

    1
  68. It comes as new YouGov research commissioned by Findex has revealed two out of three Australians aged 35 to 65 are now worried they won’t have enough money to retire.

    I luvs reading these 1st world problems from, us, oldies .. here’s me (75) living in a drug infested Western Sydney “houso” estate wiv nuttin’ but me OAP to get by on and there’s folks out there wiv $millions worrying if they can survive another few years ….. I’m on normal OAP rate, just under $1100 a fortnight (nuttin’ else coming in) and most fortnights spend less than half .. I’m cash richer now than I’ve ever been in my life and it just keeps mounting up week in, week out ..
    By the time I callz it quits the grandees (8 of ’em) might, actually, be pleasantly surprised ….

    8
  69. I note Googlery hasn’t been doing much inferencing of late.
    Inferencing has consequences.

    3
  70. Roger says:
    May 22, 2023 at 6:48 pm

    A good portion of the public will opt for emotions over reason on any given day.

    Emotions work because they entail both an actual (brain chemical) and a perceived (belonging, acceptance in the popular crowd), reward.

    Similarly, people are being conditioned to equate happiness or self-acceptance with external acclamation. To wit: Indigenous Round, Trans day this, Gay Pride that, etc. When the affirmation of others suddenly stops, and the spotlight moves on to the latest ‘it,’ the absence of constant acknowledgement will be interpreted as ‘hate.’ Then the dysfunction REALLY starts. A whole new genus of our species is being psychologically moulded.

    5
  71. No, no, I was just wondering what alloy they were made of.

    Metal.
    Specific alloys of aluminium.
    Titanium.
    Some stainless steel.
    All coated in iodine.
    Of course.
    Now go put a kink in an IV.

    2
  72. I note Googlery hasn’t been doing much inferencing of late.
    Inferencing has consequences.

    Weren’t he and Top Ender co operating on a revisionist history of Japan, during World War Two? The Japanese trying to negotiate a surrender in 1943?

    2
  73. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
    May 22, 2023 at 8:27 pm

    Mme Zulu has discovered a couple of bottles of “Suckfizzle”

    Sounds like the name of a Year Zero (Gr**ns) pollie.
    Or the title of a documentary about the Liberal Party.
    Then you exchange the ‘s’ with the ‘f’ and you gotta whole lot of options.
    If youse’ll pardon my Fenech.

    3
  74. Police ‘acted hour after boyfriend’s call’

    By KRISTIN SHORTEN
    Investigative Journalist
    and Remy Varga
    NSW Reporter
    @RemyVarga
    8:53PM May 22, 2023

    The police officer in charge of the investigation into Brittany Higgins’s rape allegations has revealed the immense pressure investigators were under to charge Bruce Lehrmann, culminating in a direct phone call from her boyfriend, David Sharaz, to a senior detective threatening to publicly condemn the time being taken.

    Detective Superintendent Scott Moller gave evidence to the Sofronoff inquiry on Monday that within an hour of Mr Sharaz calling Detective Inspector Marcus Boorman, he was given ­instruct­ions to serve a summons on Mr Lehrmann for one count of sexual intercourse without consent.

    Superintendent Moller agreed that at the time the decision was made by his boss, Commander Michael Chew, investigators were faced with “the potential threat of Ms Higgins going public about the delay”.
    Read Next

    Detectives were under so much pressure to progress the case against their professional beliefs that many went on stress leave, Superintendent Moller said.

    He confirmed that as The Australian reported last year, police did not believe there was enough evidence to charge Mr Lehrmann but agreed to do so after receiving advice from ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold.

    Superintendent Moller said his investigators did not believe they had met the evidentiary threshold to charge Mr Lehrmann so he signed the summons himself.

    “I swore the summons because I did not want to put any of my staff in the position where they had to do something they didn’t want to do, didn’t believe in, so I did it,” he said.

    “I didn’t think there was enough evidence and then I received the director’s advice and certainly from his advice, I decided to go ahead.”

    Superintendent Moller also revealed Ms Higgins was allowed to watch CCTV footage of herself and Mr Lehrmann at Parliament House because she was “so keen to see it” – even though it could have corrupted her evidence – as police felt obliged under their ­“victim-centric” approach to show it to her.

    Superintendent Moller said Ms Higgins “continually asked” to see the footage, which showed the pair exiting and entering Parliament House on the night Ms Higgins claims Mr Lehrmann raped her on a sofa in senator Linda Reynolds’s office.

    “In a normal investigation, we would never show somebody evidence like that because it might influence their evidence later in court,” he said.

    Superintendent Moller agreed to a suggestion by counsel assisting, Joshua Jones, that Ms Higgins had expressed to police that “her memory had been corrupted” by speaking with journalists.

    7
  75. And in, terribly, sad GeordieLand news .. I mentioned the other day my hometown fitba team, GATESHEAD, playing at Wembley in their 1st ever CUP final ..
    they got beat 1-0 .. according to the reports they were the better team but, unfortunately, in fitba it’s not how good you look/play but how many goals you score ……!

    3
  76. Chris Kenny just admitted on air that Stan Grant is a friend. His spruiking of the voice now makes sense.

    19
  77. Detective Superintendent Scott Moller gave evidence to the Sofronoff inquiry on Monday that within an hour of Mr Sharaz calling Detective Inspector Marcus Boorman, he was given ­instruct­ions to serve a summons on Mr Lehrmann for one count of sexual intercourse without consent.

    Superintendent Moller agreed that at the time the decision was made by his boss, Commander Michael Chew, investigators were faced with “the potential threat of Ms Higgins going public about the delay”.

    One may be forgiven for having the impression that Moller and Boorman put their nuts in a vice from the get-go, knew they were doing it, and showed far more fortitude than the ‘investigators’ in other politically-motivated prosecutions in recent years.

    One hour. One single hour. No statements. No investigation whatsoever. Instructed to ‘serve a summons’.

    Piss off.

    12
  78. Knuckle Draggersays:

    May 22, 2023 at 8:24 pm

    Obviously, this allows the real Richmond coach to take over the reins publicly.

    Put your hand up, Brooke Cotchin.

    Funny.
    Just chatting to a bloke today who was a reasonable footier back in the day and more recently a coach.
    I mentioned that I found it strange that Hardwick was making excuses for #9 and Revoldt, talking about playing them injured but he needs them because of more serious injuries to other players.
    His take?
    “Bullshit. He’s actually making excuses for himself. He didn’t cull them when he should have, so now he has to play them or explain why he has $1 million worth of cattle kicking the frost off the grass in the twos. As for playing injured players? How many coaches pick a different side and adjust the game plan if tall forwards are injured?
    He won’t be there next year.”

    I have a toldya so coming up.

    4
  79. Matthew Goodwin is a British professor who lectures in Politics at the University of Kent. Goodwin doesn’t flinch. I urge everyone to please listen to this, Goodwin gave this talk at the UK National Conservatism conference last week. He doesn’t flinch in his analysis. Whilst he’s speaking about the UK Conservative Party, his words apply equally to the Liberal Party here in this country. You can hear the anger, the despair, the frustration and the bitterness in Goodwin’s voice when he’s talking about the UK Conservative Party, and that frustration, despair, anger and bitterness is something I also feel towards the Liberal Party in this country…..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRasyYVYyjI&list=WL&index=1

    I also urge everyone to listen to the other speakers at this conference. It’s a rich smorgasbord of conservative and right-wing thinkers and speakers, among them Louise Perry, Douglas Murray, Yoram Hazony, Juliet Samuel, Melanie Phillips, Mary Harrington, Theodore Dalrymple and others.

    6
  80. Chris Kenny just admitted on air that Stan Grant is a friend. His spruiking of the voice now makes sense

    Whatever one of my friends might think, I’m obliged to think also??? Tarred with the same brush, one might say??

    I’m going to out myself. I have friends who think “bad things” (one was even for Gay marriage… or was that one was against, and the rest for? I forget.). I’m sure some even flirt with “the left”. Banned for life is probably too good for me.

    3
  81. Mark from Melbourne

    proposing Biden as lesser evil than Trump will get a pile-on going here. Its possible to have “derangement syndrome” on all sides of politics these days …

    1
  82. Indolent says:
    May 22, 2023 at 7:52 pm
    British intelligence found FBI Russia collusion probe so absurd it stopped helping

    And yet Alexander Downer was happy to contribute. Says a lot about his intelligence.

    17
  83. “proposing Biden as lesser evil than Trump will get a pile-on going here.”

    Nup, not a pile on, if a person writes rubbish such as “Biden is a “lesser evil than Trump” that person will simply incur a forceful rebuttal for posting such utter bullshit.

    18
  84. Am I to understand that criticising Stan Grant on his poor performance is racism?

    Another thought, if we can criticise King Chuck but not Stan then who is the monarch?

    16
  85. Paging Mr Googlery LLB, KC to reception.
    A load of chicken shit has just turned up.
    And we’ve got it all on CCTV.

    3
  86. What happens when people determine that justice will never be delivered to evil doers? Eg the Hunchback

    9
  87. A horrid cynic might think this has all been coordinated to maximise their ABC ‘s contribution to getting the Voice over the line. A preemptive strike on the Hate Media daring to voice No opinions.



    Inside the ABC bubble they think there are millions out there just waiting for a chance to show support for ABC “stars” like Stan. Outside the bubble nobody much cares about a part-time Q&A presenter with excessive tanning.

    He will accept a payoff of millions due to a “hostile workplace” and lack of “(white) management support” by ABC.

    7
  88. Mark from Melbourne says:
    May 22, 2023 at 9:18 pm
    Chris Kenny just admitted on air that Stan Grant is a friend. His spruiking of the voice now makes sense
    Whatever one of my friends might think, I’m obliged to think also??? Tarred with the same brush, one might say??

    It’s much more common to choose friends with similar worldviews.

    5
  89. proposing Biden as lesser evil than Trump will get a pile-on going here. Its possible to have “derangement syndrome” on all sides of politics these days …

    Long bow to draw (and deliberately so), but I’ll bite!

    Yes, yes it is. and it is never good. One must, however, consider a bit of nuance. It is one thing to suggest guilt by association. It is quite another to demand deliberate ignorance of what look for all the World like objective facts.

    I can confidently say that your (reversed) namesake would be a better result than an old man who ought to be enjoying his twilight years. It doesn’t mean I think that Kamala! would be anything approximating useful. That also doesn’t mean I am “piling on” for Trump.

    Nor did I see Crossie “piling on”. I just thought that enthusiasm might have temporarily overcome common sense. Happens to all of us, in my experience.

    1
  90. It’s much more common to choose friends with similar worldviews.

    Yes, it most certainly is. I do so all the time.

    It’s excluding those who don’t share views, or those who are friends with those who don’t share views, I was having what I hope was a mild crack at.

    No offence intended.

    3
  91. I await Commander Michael Chew’s evidence with interest. Who lean’t on him?

    8
  92. One must, however, consider a bit of nuance. It is one thing to suggest guilt by association. It is quite another to demand deliberate ignorance of what look for all the World like objective facts.

    Agree 100%.

    I just thought that enthusiasm might have temporarily overcome common sense. Happens to all of us, in my experience.

    True! Thats a very good way of viewing stuff written late at night or under some kind of influence.

    Oh, and the name is nothing to do with Kamala … unless she was born in Malaysia.

  93. Chris Kenny
    Worked for the ABC 7.30, Downer and Turnbull.
    A political chameleon who blends in with his surroundings but every so often you can see the old colours.

    12
  94. proposing Biden as lesser evil than Trump will get a pile-on going here. Its possible to have “derangement syndrome” on all sides of politics these days …

    Trump isn’t evil and anyone who makes that comparison is a retard. Biden is a demented, corrupt, treasonous POS who is the sock puppet of the swamp and who has literally brought the world to the brink of war and stuffed the US. Everything these vermin accuse Trump of they are themselves.

    26
  95. Cohenite> Don’t hold back – tell us what you really feel … BDS can be cured, also.

    2
  96. Oh, and the name is nothing to do with Kamala … unless she was born in Malaysia.

    Objectively, bollocks. Subjectively, who cares? At least you’re a better quality of stirrer.

    3
  97. They give up on a society which has very clearly given up on them.

    From Cassie’s link above.
    I’m only 8 minutes in, but he’s describing Australia too, and in some ways, describing me.

    2
  98. You can celebrate every identity, culture and history around the world, so long as it’s not your own.

    Boom!
    Holy smokes.

    7
  99. To say that diversity is the entire basis of who we are, is like saying we have no identity of our own.

    Apologies for the multiple quotes (see Cassie’s link above), but they need to be emphasized.

    (I have no idea who this bloke is, by the way. I’m only responding to his words).

    6
  100. I note Googlery hasn’t been doing much inferencing of late.
    Inferencing has consequences.

    He’s just got a call from the AFP about the Brittany tapes. He may be offline for a couple of days.

    5
  101. The University of Sydney has started offering tampons and sanitary products in male bathrooms.

    The products are available in wall-hung dispensers, alongside a note endorsed by the University of Sydney Union.

    It reads: ‘Respecting and supporting our gender-diverse community with free sanitary products for those who need them.’

    The products are available in wall-hung dispensers, alongside a note endorsed by University of Sydney Union

    The products are available in wall-hung dispensers, alongside a note endorsed by University of Sydney Union

    The Student Services and Amenities Fee logo is also included on the note, indicating the sanitary products are actually funded by fees that all students pay each semester.

    Daily Mail

    4
  102. So much quality stuff dropped into my inbox overnight.
    The Gates funded Pro Publica has a puff piece on using bats in research (winged ones, not Gray Nicolls).
    TikTok have named their project to Americanfy their servers Project Texas.
    And according to the big brains, Bakhmut was a trap to bog the Russians down & to get ready for the biggest summer counter offensive from Ukraine ever.

    1
  103. And Ray Stevenson is brown bread.
    Rome was one of my favourite shows, a delightful romp.
    Only 58 years old.

    2
  104. It is almost comical the coverage of the US debt ceiling talks.
    As usual the coverage always comes back to either raising income taxes or cutting entitlements (social security).
    It is so moronic.

    3
  105. One of the benefits of the increased focus on all things Aboriginal is that we may be prompted to test some of what we are told to see if it is actually true.

    Regrettably, even a cursory examination reveals that much of what we are told about the ‘oldest continuous living culture on earth’ seems to not be as accurate as others would have us believe.

    That’s not to denigrate the history of Aboriginal tribes, it’s just that I wonder why some groups need to make things up if there is already so much to be proud of.

    We’ve previously discussed the ubiquitous welcome to country ceremony.

    It was invented in the 1970’s by Ernie Dingo to appease some performing Pacific Islanders.

    Now it’s become an ancient ritual that only gets performed when someone woke corporate or government agency seems to be paying for it.

    But that’s just the start of the myth-making.

    DNA research suggests that Aboriginal people are descendants of the first people to leave Africa up to 75,000 years ago.

    Australian Geographic reports:

    A century-old lock of hair, given by a West Australian indigenous man to an anthropologist, has led to the discovery that ancestors of Aboriginal Australians reached Asia at least 24,000 years before another wave of migration that populated Europe and Asia.

    Experts from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Murdoch University were part of an international team that analysed DNA from the hair, and found no hereditary material from European immigrants to Australia. This made the man’s DNA a perfect candidate for looking at the history of Aboriginal migration.

    Another study from the American Journal of Human Genetics found that when these ancestors of Aboriginals crossed through Asia, they may have interbred with Siberian people.

    For that study, DNA was extracted from a finger bone excavated in the freezing temperatures of Siberia to analyse the migration of people to tropical parts of Asia and Australia more than 40,000 years ago.

    Examining DNA from the finger, researchers from the Harvard Medical School in the US and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany concluded that the Denisovans – a primitive group of humans descended from Neanderthals – migrated from Siberia to tropical parts of Asia. They contributed DNA to Aborigines along with present-day New Guineans and an indigenous tribe in the Philippines known as Mamanwa.

    History is certainly fascinating and these studies seem to confirm that everyone in Australia actually migrated here from somewhere else.

    It also suggests that the cultures that didn’t leave Africa can lay claim to the title of oldest continuous living culture on Earth.

    One of those cultures is the San people, also known as Bushmen. They are among the indigenous people of Southern Africa.

    A DNA study of fully sequenced genomes, published in September 2016, showed that the ancestors of today’s San hunter-gatherers began to diverge from other human populations in Africa about 200,000 years ago and were fully isolated by 100,000 years ago.

    That’s just one example of human history that doesn’t conform with the narrative we are being fed about our earliest migrants.

    Here’s another one.

    You’re likely forgiven for thinking that ‘dot painting’ is traditional Aboriginal art. I mean, that’s how it has been presented to us for as long as I can remember.

    Imagine my surprise to learn from Creative Spirits that:

    “dot painting on canvas emerged in central Australia only in the early 1970s as a result of Aboriginal people working together with a white art school teacher, Geoffrey Bardon.”

    The ‘dots’ were apparently added to disguise the original art which reportedly depicted secrets. It’s a fascinating tale but one I feel few would be aware of.

    I don’t doubt there are many more historic inaccuracies in the legend of our first migrants.

    Maybe it really is time to support the ‘truth telling’ but somehow, I don’t think these inconvenient truths are the telling that the indigenous lobby is demanding.

    Until tomorrow.

    Cory

    11
  106. Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of the Truth Social platform, has taken legal action against The Washington Post, filing a defamation lawsuit seeking a staggering $3.78 billion in damages.
    The case was filed late Saturday night in Sarasota County, Florida, which alleges that far-left WaPo published false and defamatory statements about the Truth Social platform, its CEO, Devin Nunes, and former President Trump, damaging its reputation and causing significant financial harm.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/trumps-truth-social-media-firm-files-3-78/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=2023-05-22

    7
  107. Muddy:

    From Cassie’s link above.
    I’m only 8 minutes in, but he’s describing Australia too, and in some ways, describing me.

    Same here. The Mathew Goodwin speech didn’t quite say it, but I will. If the voting system becomes a sham – which it seems to have become in the US, Australia and Great Britain, – then those who promise things to get votes and completely ignore those things after they gain power, then they should not be dismayed when the masses who have been grievously abused, take their revenge not by the ballot box but by more direct means.

    1
  108. No, no, I was just wondering what alloy they were made of.
    4130 chrome moly steel. Various levels of heat treatment are possible. Bolts usually cadmium plated.

    1
  109. Excellent Quadrant piece already linked above re a growing movement against the gender madness. Says it all. I’ve added a summary of the embedded long video, if you haven’t time to watch it, here’s my summary which might attract you to watch it:

    Just watched the video. Excellent view our schools are teaching an emotional fragility combined with gender ideology that biological sex is mutable, and that this is producing a cohort of mentally ill teens. Her metaphors are good, such as how confusing it would be if an air vs water breathers conundrum was presented to kids, for ‘gender’ is similarly confusing. I do like it too that as a mathematician she recognises that a small error inserted somewhere can have widespread effects, and that is how this fringe ideology has morphed into the mainstream. She offers a useful critique of subjectivism that is taken to extremes in gender ideology, where objective reality is dismissed as oppressive via a ‘rights’ argument. She quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes on this bringing rights back to a societal argument: “Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins”. If everyone is ‘an authority on themselves’ then chaos must reign when perceived rights begin to conflict. A ‘cuckoo’ has been placed in the nest of human rights and this has now been situated into the medical field with gender ‘transitioning’, where evidence-based medicine gives way to patient affirmation as the basis of ‘treatment’. There are no evidence-based studies because patient performativity is the yardstick within and never beyond the closed system of the clinic, In other words, it’s all theatre. Very thoughtful in her analysis, and yes, worth a watch.

    3
  110. It reads: ‘Respecting and supporting our gender-diverse community with free sanitary products for those who need them.’

    The products are available in wall-hung dispensers, alongside a note endorsed by University of Sydney Union

    The products are available in wall-hung dispensers, alongside a note endorsed by University of Sydney Union

    Who could blame female students for ducking into the mens room when, as often happens, the machines in the womens toilets have run out. They won’t be much used in the mens otherwise.

    What a ridiculous piece of social engineering, mainly catering to a few of the staff in the Arts Faculty, most of whom in their ‘masculinity’ are past their female menopause anyway. Those still menstruating hovering over the loo in the mens stalls and leaving little bloody reminders on the seat would luckily be few and far between.

    Much worse are the poor female students who have to suffer ‘ladies’ with male equipment splattering smelly male urine all over the floor and leaving the lid up.

    2
  111. Are the sanitary products also free in the womens toilets? If not, there will be a rush on the mens for some freebies as these things are expensive for impecunious students. Also, if not, whatever happened to equality in the Student Union? Meanwhile, evesdroppers at the sink or stalls in the womens toilets will be busy getting excited if any woman gets a tampon, let alone if she’s talking to her friends about ‘the curse’, because these autogynophiliacs get off on menstruation talk.

    2
  112. If you don’t want to go into the mens to get the freebies you can always ask your boyfriend to do it for you. During a quiet time obviously, as the poor chap doesn’t want to be seen at those machines in there.

  113. The Saturday Paper is anxious regarding the right wing plot to undermine the rule of law that is the Lehrman enquiry.
    If anything done by the Canberra Village Council is considered to be right wing motivated, we are indeed in extremis.

  114. Eyrie:

    No, no, I was just wondering what alloy they were made of.
    4130 chrome moly steel. Various levels of heat treatment are possible. Bolts usually cadmium plated.

    Fair enough. I had a feeling they were made of titanium alloys to reduce weight. Ta.

  115. Lizzie:

    Much worse are the poor female students who have to suffer ‘ladies’ with male equipment splattering smelly male urine all over the floor and leaving the lid up.

    I’ve never noticed any difference between male and female as far as smell goes. It’s more a function of time between the act and the disposal more than anything else.

  116. Lizzie:

    If you don’t want to go into the mens to get the freebies you can always ask your boyfriend to do it for you. During a quiet time obviously, as the poor chap doesn’t want to be seen at those machines in there.

    That was one of my initial thoughts – the blokes would be plundering the machines to get freebies for their girlfriends…
    But they wouldn’t be self conscious about it – there’d be ‘thumbs up’ for the blokes doing a favour for the girlfriends. A favour with benefits, so to speak.

    1
  117. Just finished watching the excellent Clint Eastwood produced and directed movie, Jersey Boys, on SBS, about the Four Seasons.

    Before I start, here is the unforgettable hit that made Frankie Valli a star:

    You’re just too good to be true.

    Very few versions available, this is probably not particularly good considering what a wonderful song it is.

    When wogs like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin started to become popular in the late 50s/early 60s, young Italian guys began to get into the music industry. For example, there were Dion (Di Mucci) with his I’m a Wanderer, Ruby Baby etc, and The Young Rascals, later known as The Rascals. Groovin’ and Good lovin’. Big hits.

    The Italians quickly joined the mainsteam, now they are judges and governors and so on. Being based in Western civilisation, it didn’t take long. RIP Justice Scalia.

  118. Just finished watching the excellent Clint Eastwood produced and directed movie, Jersey Boys, on SBS, about the Four Seasons.

    I saw the stage version on Braodway back in 2013 whilst in New York ……

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