Open Thread – Tues 23 May 2023
2,081 responses to “Open Thread – Tues 23 May 2023”
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For anyone who ever gets to visit HMAS Cerberus, south of Melbourne, where RAN sailors have always been trained, there are two very charming English-looking stone churches, next to each other, one for the Catholics, and one for the Protestants.
The Roman Catholic Chapel, Our Lady Star of the Sea, was opened in 1948, followed by St Mark’s Chapel in 1954.
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Sweden wasn’t it that banned domestic flights last year?
Not exactly.
The government withdrew subsidies from some air routes when it deemed there were suitable alternatives by air or train. Their rule of thumb is that any town should be accessible from Stockholm within 4 hours, thus enabling same day business travel in theory.
The Swedes aren’t entirely crazy. Yet.
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A day is a long time in woke.
Target Partners with Satanist Brand to Create Items for ‘PRIDE’ Collection (22 May)
You’d’ve thought they’d learn quicker than this.
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Legend holds that their ancestors arrived in the subcontinent shortly after the First Temple was destroyed in 587 BCE. Their claim to be the oldest Jewish community outside the Middle East is contested by another Indian group, the Mumbai Jews.
..
https://www.jns.org/ancient-indian-jewish-community-holds-on-to-customs-despite-shrinking-numbers/ -
If they put disgusting photos onto the label I’m never going to buy Guinness again.
Ireland becomes first nation to require cancer warning labels on alcohol (23 May)
Lefties are such killjoys. Sheesh. In deference to Rabz: Cigarettes & Alcohol
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I’m just learning that Daniel Andrews this week spent $1.5 million to give every Victorian child a ‘free’ fishing rod. AFR reporters were dumbfounded:
“Can’t parents buy their kid a fishing rod if they want to fish? Why do taxpayers need to foot the bill?” we asked.
Andrews shrugged the question off in his inimitable style. “Well if you’re opposed to little kids getting fishing rods that’s fine, I’m not.”
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Bear
A couple of agents I’m friendly with and have franchises in the holiday spots reckon there’s a bulging interest in selling. My tax went up over a 100% because of the category changes with regards to holding in personal names vs trusts and corps. The hunchback is a freaking disgrace to humanity.
I was just talking about it earlier. Wall to wall liars party – taxes are going to hit the roof.
On the Fed side those loons hit super and now oil&gas. That’s just small potatoes to their long term intentions.
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C.L. says:
May 24, 2023 at 11:22 am
I’m just learning that Daniel Andrews this week spent $1.5 million to give every Victorian child a ‘free’ fishing rod. AFR reporters were dumbfounded:“Can’t parents buy their kid a fishing rod if they want to fish? Why do taxpayers need to foot the bill?” we asked.
Andrews shrugged the question off in his inimitable style. “Well if you’re opposed to little kids getting fishing rods that’s fine, I’m not.”
Hahahahahahaha
You need a fishing license payable annually or they fine you.
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The real world and indeed politics, is absurd and ridiculous. A tale of two smears.
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Axios tries to smear Trump as a radical, libertarian, conservative lunatic; his agenda seems pretty good. “Army vs criminals” is really about assistance to civil authorities with “mostly peaceful” violent, flammable riots.
(He’s not perfect but who is (?); some policies like the baby bonus might be to get results quickly; I trust Trump understands housing costs and “gender *equality*” funded by male taxpayers, family law as it is and so on are some of the deeper causes which ruins family formation).
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/21/trump-2025-vision
(It’s very good, make up your own mind…)
Former President Trump’s second-term governing plans are coming into clearer focus, as he lays out a vision for a dramatic expansion of federal power — particularly the presidency.
Why it matters: In public statements, videos and posts on his campaign’s website, Trump complains about Washington’s “swamp” — but lays out a plan that would give him, as president, more control of virtually every facet of life in America.
Zoom in: Trump’s plans go well beyond the provocative promises he made during his recent CNN town hall — to pardon nearly all of the convicted Jan. 6 rioters (there have been about 500), and to immediately broker an end the war in Ukraine.
Such pardons would effectively nullify what Attorney General Merrick Garland has called the Justice Department’s most far-reaching and important investigation in its history.
Trump’s comments on Ukraine were in line with his opposition to continued military aide to help that nation resist Russia’s invasion.
Those moves would be extremely controversial, but generally within a president’s authority. Much of Trump’s agenda, however, would represent an unprecedented power grab by the executive branch — driven by far-right conservatism and Trump’s grievances.
Federal workforce: He wants to give the president the authority to hire and fire federal workers at will — not a new idea, but now part of a broad effort to “clean out” investigators and officials he sees as disloyal or who have questioned his conduct.
Education: As part of a sweeping plan for the federal government to exert more control of education, Trump wants to fire “radical left” officials who accredit universities, reward schools that abolish tenure for teachers, eliminate many college administrators and remove diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Law enforcement/intelligence: Trump — who’s facing a range of criminal charges — said after he was indicted in New York that he wanted to “defund” the Justice Department and the FBI. That might have been an exaggeration, but Trump does want his brand of politics to reshape the Justice Department and U.S. intelligence.
He’s vowing to get rid of “Marxist prosecutors ” and create an auditing system to monitor U.S. intelligence agencies “to ensure they are not spying on our citizens.”
Gender issues: He wants DOJ to investigate Big Pharma and the big hospital networks to determine whether they have “deliberately covered up the long-term side-effects of ‘sex transitions.’” He also wants to boot hospitals or providers from Medicaid and Medicare if they offer gender-affirming care.
Crime: Trump wants to use the U.S. military to go after drug cartels and street crime.
Housing: He wants to eliminate an Obama-era rule that requires cities and local governments to address residential segregation and poverty in order to receive federal housing grants.
Cities/housing: His “quantum leap to revolutionize the American standard of living” includes baby bonuses to create a new baby boom and the design of 10 new “Freedom Cities” in the U.S.
Guns: Trump wants national concealed carry reciprocity, which would allow people with a concealed carry permit in their home state to have that privilege in any other state.
The intrigue: Trump has taken credit for the Supreme Court overturning abortion rights under Roe v. Wade, a decision made possible by three Trump-appointed justices.
But he hasn’t said whether he’d sign a federal abortion ban — as many conservatives want — or embrace a law like Florida’s ban after six weeks of pregnancy, one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws. It was pushed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s chief rival for the GOP nomination.
Trump has said abortion is a “losing issue” for conservative Republicans — but he still wants their votes.
Reality check: Many of Trump’s ideas are outlined in broad strokes, without details of how they’d be implemented or funded.
What they’re saying: “What Trump is proposing for 2025 … is the trappings of a democracy. … But it’s a Potemkin village,” said Norman Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Then we have Claire MacAskill saying…Trump is a literal communist.
Per “Memology *102*”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWQZ3Wnrnpo
“Politician and now MSNBC political analyst Claire McCaskill claims Trump is actually the one that loves the hammer and sickle, not the democrats.”
He already has them running scared!
I hope he blasts through the next election with all electoral votes.
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Wicked witch of the West news.
Hillary Gives Us Another Hint That Her Pointy Black Hat Is In the Ring for 2024 (23 May)
Hillary Clinton Tries to Subtly Remind Everyone She’s 5 Years Younger Than Biden (23 May)
I wonder if she and Chelsea will have a cat fight about which of them should run for President.
Memo to both: never wear red shoes. -
Andrews shrugged the question off in his inimitable style. “Well if you’re opposed to little kids getting fishing rods that’s fine, I’m not.”
A few years ago I was talking to a mum and her son (probably 12 – 13 years old).
The kid was really excited about setting up a little business selling yabbies from the farm dam.
Ran into them a few weeks later and asked how it was going. Little bloke was downcast and mum explained that the number of licences and fees required meant he just couldn’t do it.
Almost as if Big Yabbie had a hand in writing the regs. -
Tan me hide when I’m dead, Fred
Tan me hide when I’m dead
So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde
And that’s it hangin’ on the shed!Altogether now!
lol. Hairy stood butt naked by our bed last night and sang me this jolly verse to cheer me up.
I love that man so much and thankfully it’s reciprocated. We slept in each others arms.
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Ran into them a few weeks later and asked how it was going. Little bloke was downcast and mum explained that the number of licences and fees required meant he just couldn’t do it.
Almost as if Big Yabbie had a hand in writing the regs.It is very difficult to fish for allowed freshwater fish species, even carp, redfin and yabbies, legally in NSW.
It’s not impossible, but the requirements are bluddee absurd, if you want to use a powered boat of any kind you need a coxswain rating after working on another fishing boat for six months and there are yet more regs to keep up with.
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Is Saxon Davidson a junior Doomlord?
Andrews Government’s ‘astonishing’ financial mismanagement has come back to bite them – and it’s hard-working Victorians who will foot the bill (Sky News, 24 May)
Tuesday’s Budget is yet another missed opportunity in the task of restoring Victoria by eliminating the toxic culture of spending, borrowing, and higher taxation, writes Saxon Davidson.
“If the Victorian Government does not address the budget deficit and rising debt levels, Victoria could face a debt trap in which even more drastic action is required.”
That was the key warning from research the Institute of Public Affairs released in October 2022, which found structural budget deficits, cost blowouts, rising debt levels, and low business confidence would lead Victoria into an economic crisis from which there was no escape.
Eight months later, this prediction has proven true – and to an even greater extent than most economists predicted.
He’s doing fine work, and if family he’s taking after dad quite well!
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Yevgeny Viktorovich released a statement on the losses suffered by the orchestra in Bakhmut. I will elaborate:
– Of the 50,000 prisoners recruited, 10,000 died in combat.
– Overall, the Ukrainian forces suffered roughly 3.2 deaths for every musician killed.Good thread.
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Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
May 24, 2023 at 11:28 am
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2023/05/the-last-of-the-special-air-service-regiment-iranian-embassy-balcony-men-dies-lest-we-forget.htmlZK2A, I thought Rusty Firmin was still alive (the man with no gloves)? Or did he go in from a different balcony? I read once that if you believe all the stolen valour stories there would have been about 200 men on the balcony.
PS. The article was a nice tribute. Well worth the read. Those men would probably stand trial today for ‘executing’ a terrorist.
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Education head says new tax will hit more than 25 Catholic schools
24 May 2023Private schools in Victoria will be stripped of their long-held exemption to payroll tax next year, netting the state more than $420 million in revenue over three years. Source: The Age.
The head of Victoria’s Catholic school sector attacked the new tax, saying it had been announced without consultation, and would hit more than 25 Catholic schools, potentially costing them more than $1 million each.
“Our families already contribute significantly to the cost of their children’s education, and unlike government schools, this payroll tax is real money, which will have to be found somewhere,” Catholic Education Commission Victoria executive director Jim Miles said.
The Education Minister and Treasurer will have the discretion to exempt schools from the change, which is forecast to increase revenue by $134.8 million in 2024-25, rising to $140.3 million in 2025-26 and $147.1 million in 2026-27.
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Andrews is now beyond satire.
He’s an authoritarian autocrat in bed with the Chinese Communist Party, who the little people in his own parliamentary party are scared of, but he’s figured out how to control democratic retail politics — with the help of 99% of the news media, who are in his pocket and openly barrack for him.
You need a topline political opposition to take him on. Instead, we have the Stupid Frigging Liberals, who want to be like Daniel Andrews and are running on ALP policies because they believe in nothing and are in the process of expelling everyone who believes in anything.
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A swampy starts behind me “Huh, you can afford to pay that much for alcohol. You obviously have too much money – you should pay more, in tax, so I don’t have to battle so hard to raise my kids!”
“why are you drinking if you’re so skint?”
or my favourite in almost any situation.
“Learn how to code”
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Just watching the proceedings on Fox.
I don’t think Dr Peggy is doing much as counsel for that Yates bloke.
And the business of taking on/off of the glasses is a bit too much. Waving them at plod in the witness box as a theatrical pro.p Do they teach that at ANU Law?
Turnbull used to do that and he was a dead set seahunt.
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Andrews is now beyond satire.
He’s an authoritarian autocrat in bed with the Chinese Communist Party, who the little people in his own parliamentary party are scared of, but he’s figured out how to control democratic retail politics — with the help of 99% of the news media, who are in his pocket and openly barrack for him.Andrews is the product of the modern Australian Left which masquerades as defenders of the poor and helpless, but is inevitably corrupted and deceived by the exercise of political power.
Indeed, Andrews represents the extreme result of this political process. He is arrogant, merciless, and totally deceived by his position of power. He will not be easy to depose. Many have tried.
This may seem naive, but I believe it will necessitate the opposition of a total “cleanskin” – a rarity in today’s world – an idealist who actually believes in the validity of the ideals of freedom and personal responsibility. Whether such a creature still exists and is capable of withstanding the putrid nature of contemporary politics, is an unknown.
One can dream.
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Well put:
There is a new kind of cultural mafia in town, one that styles itself as kind and caring and compassionate and socially sophisticated — but which is, in fact, just as ruthless, just as determined, to bend us to its will.
Every day, in all sorts of ways, they make us offers we can’t refuse, and we find ourselves being asked to say and think things that are manifestly not true.
And so we agree that women can have penises (Lib Dem leader Ed Davey maintained in a radio interview on LBC today that this was ‘quite clear’). And that men can give birth. We applaud as people with thighs like tree-trunks and Adam’s apples accept first prize in female sporting competitions, dwarfing their exhausted and bemused rivals.
We do our best not to flinch as biological males get paid untold sums to advertise tampons and sports bras. We stand back as children are given puberty-blocking hormones and encouraged to mutilate their bodies. We allow convicted rapists to inveigle themselves into women’s prisons.
We watch in silence as those whose views or behaviours don’t comply with the dogma of the impeccably woke are defenestrated, their words and actions twisted out of all proportion.
We nod as our books and plays and comedy sketches are re-written, excised of nuance, purged of meaningful, thoughtful, original or — God forbid — humorous content. We accept our history being re-written out of context and time, sacrifice our heroes to the modern cult of victimhood and blame.
They will undermine your reputation, cast you as a monster, unleash the mob
They will undermine your reputation, cast you as a monster, unleash the mob
Home Secretary Suella Braverman, Dominic Raab, the late Queen¿s lady-in-waiting Susan Hussey (pictured), JK Rowling… the list is endless
What else can we do? We see the threat, take the hint, keep our heads down. We play the game. Not because we want to, but because we have to. We’ve seen what happens to those who don’t, and it’s not pretty. Most people can’t afford to lose their jobs, their livelihoods, their reputations.
When the woke mafia comes for you, they mean business, helped by the fact that they have skilfully infiltrated pretty much every institution in the land. Schools, universities, arts organisations, public bodies, the civil service, the law, medicine, certain sectors of the media. You name it, they own it. Or if they don’t, they know someone who does.
And you never quite know who they are, which one of your colleagues or friends is going to be the one taking notes, recording your mistakes, totting up your infractions. They are the smiling assassins, the ones who cry discrimination, all the while singling out their targets for elimination.
Daily Mail – the beginning paragraphs, not shown here, are especially interesting…
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H B Bearsays:
May 24, 2023 at 11:47 am
Almost as if Big Yabbie had a hand in writing the regs.
……
Or Wesfarmers and the ShoppiesYeah.
A licence to take yabbies from your own dam for your own use wasn’t too expensive (setting aside the fact that you shouldn’t need a licence for that anyway).
But if you sell them (or possibly even give them away) you needed commercial licences and food certification etc.
The commercial licence wasn’t scalable so it was the same whether or not I sold 10 kgs or 10 tonnes.
So, yeah, a barrier to entry. -
What was the Doomlord doing at a Storm match?
In the AFL, he an Essendon barracker so, in true contrarian libertarian fashion, he has likely switched codes as Essendon aren’t travelling so well.
Except that Essendon beat Richmond by a point on Saturday night, triggering the resignation of the Tigers’ triple premiership coach Damien Hardwick.
I suspect his Doomlordship is now back on the Dons bandwagon.
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I’ve just had a comment to the Australian rejected on the basis that it is in breach of ‘community standards’. I must be very naive but I cannot for the life of me see how this is. Could someone more experienced in the ways of the media enlighten me?
Comment as follows:
Is this cry of ABC racism just an avoidance technique for sidestepping the issue of Grant’s commentary on the coronation? Somehow all the complaints to the ABC about the coronation coverage have been ‘forgotten’ in the rush to investigate supposed internal racism towards Grant. Once it is determined that the ABC is not internally racist, as is the inevitable finding, the furore over Grant’s actual comments will have been forgotten and can be ignored by the ABC. Deflection 101.
whatshot0reactionsreply0replies
Story: Q+A host’s treatment another management fiasco
Your comment is in breach of our community standards and cannot be published at this time. Please refer to our comment guidelines for further information. -
Shock as ABC News Breakfast host suddenly announces he’s ‘taking a break’ from TV show after having a crack at his own network over its handling of Stan Grant’s trolling ordeal
Do employees in private enterprise get to take a (fully paid) ‘break’ for an indeterminate period if their feelings are hurt?
Paying people for doing nothing seems to be an artform in the public sector.
No wonder productivity is in the toilet.
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I’ve just had a comment to the Australian rejected on the basis that it is in breach of ‘community standards’. I must be very naive but I cannot for the life of me see how this is. Could someone more experienced in the ways of the media enlighten me?
Charlie, I suspect there are now mechanisms at the Oz that are triggered by certain words (eg racism & the ABC !). It is the only way to explain many innocuous comments that are rejected because of “community standards”.
If you had told me a few years ago that this sort of censorship would apply in our national newspaper, I would not have believed it. We live in perilous times.
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I’ve just had a comment to the Australian rejected on the basis that it is in breach of ‘community standards’. I must be very naive but I cannot for the life of me see how this is. Could someone more experienced in the ways of the media enlighten me?
CharlieP, for the past half-century, a degree in journalism has been virtually compulsory in Australia as a condition of entry to the journalism profession (replacing the old system of on-the-job learning in a cadetship). Ninety-nine per cent of Australian journalists, therefore, are university-brainwashed Marxists who hate Australia and its democratic tradition and therefore vote for the green-left parties devoted to destroying it – NOT how people out in the suburbs vote.
I can virtually guarantee that The Australian’s “community standards” were originaly written by a university academic to effectively ban anyone from commenting if it dissents from current Greens party policy.
If you want a comment published at The Australian, you have to assume you’re the political enemy of the J-school graduate reading it and therefore have to work out a way of tricking him/her into publishing it.
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Am watching primary school groups at the museum, some schools are very diverse, some are very mono.
One blazered private girls was Chinese with a couple of anglos, another private school anglos with a single sub continental.
Another primary school group in a much more casual outfit (from an inner expensive labor royalty heartland suburb) was also vast majority anglo.Little girls still seem to prefer to wear dresses to school.
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A national Indigenous voice to parliament is the first step towards a better future as equals
Marcus Stewart12:00AM May 24, 2023
84 CommentsAs a proud Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung Nation, I want to see the Yes vote get up, and I will campaign my hardest to make sure it has the best possible chance at the ballot box.
I do this because I envision a future where First Nations people determine their own futures. We have the knowledge and experience to better our lives. Yet in 2023 we lack the tools to shape the policies that affect our communities, our culture and our lands.
For the past few years I have been a co-chairman of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, the democratically elected voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the journey to treaty. We’ve made great progress.
Marcus Stewart’s claim to be a proud “Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung Nation” is based on an Aboriginal great – great grandfather. The rest of his ancestry is Scots nobility. (H/T “Dark Emu Exposed.) Leaving aside the matter of any entitlement to “Compensation” and “reparations” based on such a tenuous claim, the Noongars of Western Australia used to get quite scornful over anyone of such origins claiming “Aboriginal” status. “His mother bin eatem white bread” was the most polite expression..
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The two faces of sTan ……!
https://ibb.co/6b2f34Z -
Holy cow this is scary and hilarious.
I asked ai to make a Donald trump orange juice commercial
“Your mother definitely won’t think you are an embarrassment”
“Each orange is hand squeezed by myself” -
I’ve just had a comment to the Australian rejected on the basis that it is in breach of ‘community standards’. I must be very naive but I cannot for the life of me see how this is..
I think I have worked it out – a comment by my significant other writing on the same account had been rejected on the same grounds earlier today. Nothing offensive I could read into that comment either so the work experience moderators are likely on duty, shying at shadows. And punishing by cancelling later comments. What a world we live in where every word has the potential to incriminate and cancel us.
But if anyone does note anything they find actually offensive in what I wrote, do let me know.
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