Some of the twats at Nein newspapers are blaming T20* for demise of Australian test batting. Righto. I guess India…
Open Thread – Tues 20 June 2023
- Open Thread – Mon 25 Nov 2024
- The more you gets the less you eats
- Open Thread – Weekend 23 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 21 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 18 Nov 2024
Joe Rogan blasts Biden, Zelensky for trying to ‘start World War III’ as Biden exits presidency
@ezralevant I was arrested two hours ago, handcuffed, searched and jailed for “causing a disturbance”. I was just released moments…
Why the Cotswolds is bracing itself for an American invasion
Rand Paul Drops the Hammer: Denver Mayor May Be REMOVED FROM OFFICE Over Defiance of Trump’s Deportation — ‘It’s a…
The fact that Russia controlled the dam and the magnitude of explosives required to blow it would not have been able to be smuggled in by the Ukes to place it at a dangerous enough spot is the sealer.
In a clapped out lada.
With a hole in the roof.
With “Bomb” written in large letters in Cyrillic.
Im not saying it wasnt them, but that silly “look we caught them” picture doesnt inspire confidence.
Wanna know how bad the UKR offensive is going? This bad:
You suspect Albo’s Dad may be better at the art of persuasion than he is.
Geoff Clark
Not described in glowing terms amongst the everyday Aboriginals. Would love to see his bank balance during his tenure as ATSIC chairman.
Still Bowen and daylight second in the Most Resembles the Whitlam Cabinet stakes.
TheirABC’s belief in the socialist imperatives driving the Chicoms never misses a beat:
Their objective is to ‘bridge the wealth gap’? Speaking of bridges …
Just another combination of PR and purging a few enemies. Business as usual.
Courtesy of Reuters, which is about as reliable as AP these days, and uncritically regurgitated as the budget doesn’t allow for real reporting while all those hungry EID mouths are squawking to be fed.
mole
Basically he said because compo had been paid so abruptly and it was so high tpeople had a right to ask questions about it.
Apparently, there was also a comment to the effect that being found asleep naked on the office couch was not a career enhancing move.
“…our daily lives abound with ridiculous or superfluous safety warnings. “
Not just safety warnings:
On a box of salt:
“Mined from 200 million year old salt deposits.
…
Best before: Dec,2024”
“PS: Is it legal to write comments on a ballot paper?” What makes you think you’ll be given one?
Rogersays:
June 20, 2023 at 11:11 am
Someone have a summary of the Rundle situation?
The World Socialist Web Site’s take (no, really…worth a look.)
Seems Crikey readers didn’t like Rundle’s “tone.”
It’s an interesting development when the World Socialist Web Site has a more balanced view than the so-called “quality” media.
Kieran Rooney has some news south of the Murray:
As for Hidea ranting about how her projected lifespan was eight years less than the whiteys, as has been pointed out, being a habitue of strip clubs at 3 am is not going to help. That includes the whiteys who were there, BTW.
More broadly, Hidea didn’t get born into a dysfunctional hellhole or shanty near a town where her mother was drunk throughout the pregnancy, maternal nutrition was appalling, hygiene was appalling, her parents (if she had two on site) were drunk, drugged and/or absent … need I go on?
It was the cheapest of cheap shots, completely dishonest, and if I were making an amateur diagnosis – based on real cases I have known – she is a strong candidate for the thing that the Federal judge mentioned when talking about dodgy rape cases being brought before the court.
m0ntysays:
June 20, 2023 at 11:52 am
I was initially dubious about Uke claims that it was Russia who blew that dam, but the evidence seems to be piling up that it was indeed the Russians. The fact that Russia controlled the dam and the magnitude of explosives required to blow it would not have been able to be smuggled in by the Ukes to place it at a dangerous enough spot is the sealer.
Sure, the Ukes might have had motive, but they didn’t really have opportunity.
Has the fat fascist fool finally read the Geneva Conventions? He is now walking (or perhaps running) back his earlier suggestion that the Ukies were the military geniuses who did the job.
Expired 200 million-year-old salt will be the ruination of us all.
I foretold this! I waaarned you!
Rolled gold, Kneel. Someone who knows how should send it to Instapundit, WIP and numerous others on the sidebar.
I completely ignore those dates, and eagerly snap up bargains at the supermarket when things are about to ‘expire’.
Except mince. Other meat – sure. But while I survived a lot of dodgy mince in my student days, I’m not so sure now.
US black activist, Communist long marcher & reparations advocate Angela Davis has discovered she is descended from slave owners.
So this was what Andrews was up to when he went to China. I wonder how many other big deals he did with the CCP
Andrews crucifies our own industry with huge energy bills, red and green tape and then spends our money with the Chinese!
Quenthland news (the Courier-Mail):
Bucket hats. This country’s greatest failing.
At this point the piano in the corner went silent.
‘Uh huh. You done ripped your hat off my thieving wahf’s head too rough.’
Traditional Quenthland bar fight then ensues, over the Quenthland traditional things. Bucket hats and teeth, or lack thereof.
The Last Holdout’s spinning along nicely. For a change, there was no mention of Sovereign Citizenry.
Dr. Peter Hotez is slowly getting cooked. All the BS from his mouth is now coming back to haunt him.
Skip to 5:20. Anyone listening to this bloke for health advice is a retard.
—–
Kim Iverson Show:
The Kim Iversen Show LIVE | June 19, 2023
Controversy ignites after Dr. Peter Hotez is invited to debate Robert F Kennedy Jr on the Joe Rogan Podcast.
It’s Juneteenth! South Carolina Congressional Candidate Gregg Marcel Dixon joins the show to debate reparations for descendants of slaves. Donate to his campaign at
The FBI Groomed a 16-Year-Old With Brain Development Issues To Become A Terrorist by Murtaza Hussain
Masks OFF! Dr. Peter Hotez and Joe Rogan Clash Over Invitation To Debate RFK Jr. on Rogan’s Podcast
War. War never changes…
Study suggests warfare was responsible for the boom-bust cycles of Neolithic societies (Phys.org, 19 Jun)
A new study out of the Complexity Science Hub concludes that social disintegration and violent conflict played a crucial role in shaping the population dynamics of early farming societies in Neolithic Europe
Complexity scientist Peter Turchin and his team at CSH, working as part of an international and interdisciplinary collaboration, may have added a meaningful piece to a long-standing puzzle in archaeology.
…
“Our study shows that periodic outbreaks of warfare—and not climate fluctuations—can account for the observed boom-bust patterns in the data,” argues Turchin, who’s a project leader at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH).
Well that lets Stone Age SUVs off the hook then. Dr Turchin, though, is probably a flint flake away from being cancelled for climate heresy.
Definitely worth reading and sharing…lets expose this
Apparently astronomy is in big demand for criminal court cases.
Where was the Sun? Here’s why astronomers are more useful in court cases than you’d think (19 Jun)
Over the past eight years, I have been asked to submit astronomical evidence for court cases all over Australia.
Normally when we think of evidence in court, we think of eyewitnesses, DNA or police reports. Often, this evidence requires an expert to explain it – to be able to communicate the findings and data to the members of the court to make an informed decision. These experts are typically in medicine, engineering, psychology, or other fields.
Expert astronomers usually are not what one pictures in court, but that is exactly what I do.
The first time I was asked by police to do it came as a bit of a surprise. I had never thought about applying astronomy to the courtroom. Once the first group knew I can do it, more and more requests came in, from colleagues in the same police force or division, or investigators having seen my evidence elsewhere.
Now, I’m asked to submit evidence for roughly 1–2 cases per week. Usually this requires submitting a statement of evidence to the court. But sometimes I am asked to attend court and explain what the evidence means.
…
Working as an expert witness has given me hope, because I see the extent to which the justice system will sometimes go to get all the details right – like taking into account the phase of the Moon or the position of the Sun. It is also the perfect example of the importance of experts in our society.
Here’s who he is:
This guy is being called one or two times a week in court cases for astronomy expertise. That’s an eye opener! Although the article pretty much describes why that might be. I disagree with him, though, about the value of “experts”.
I got an email from AGL with the new charges from July 1 .. why would the supply charge go up?
Regardless of the price of electricity shirley the supply costs shouldn’t be affected ….. same stuff may be dearer but it comes thru the same wires as before ………!
Old ..Supply charge c/day 92.82000 .. 102.102000
New .. Supply charge c/day98.51000 .. 108.361000
That was a pretty smart line for a drunk guy. Hell I’d be doing well to think of that one sober.
A clear case of ‘get a room’ surely?
Or, on the bulk peanuts label in Woolies –
“May contain traces of nuts…”
No duff
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc:
Only idiots are still wearing face masks
17TH JUNE 2023
The mainstream media has reported that face masks may raise the risk of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction and cognitive decline due to the build-up of carbon dioxide.
They didn’t mention all the other problems proven to be associated with mask use.
Amazingly, there are still some very stupid doctors around who are wearing face masks all day long and who are telling patients and the public to wear face masks. I suspect that these doctors are still promoting the use of face masks because their brains have been adversely affected.
The UK Government has at last admitted that there is no evidence that masks stop any bugs spreading. And the fact is that anyone who has ever worn a mask because they thought it would keep them safe from covid was misled, lied to, falsely reassured and behaving irrationally. Many people in power continue to insist that people wear them and they do this to remind people that nothing is normal –nor ever will be.
We are entering the Great Reset and masks are there to remind us of our slavery. The greens don’t seem to care that more plastic is used to make the billions of masks than the plastic bags they hated so much. They don’t care about the birds and other wildlife being harmed by discarded masks.
Moreover, anyone who wears a mask today is suffering from a new disease which I have identified called chronic maskitis.
Sufferers from chronic maskitis still insist on wearing their masks whenever they are at risk of coming into contact with other human beings. They believe that their mask will help stop them inhaling a virus which may kill them.
Chronic maskitis sufferers will have almost certainly believed everything they’ve been told by their government, by the media and by the small army of media doctors forever repeating the officially inspired lies.
Individuals with chronic maskitis will have almost certainly been jabbed – at least twice and probably more often – with a toxic, experimental substance which is now proven does far more harm than good and is, as I predicted, now certain to kill far more people than the rebranded flu known as covid-19. And for those of us trying to win a war and save lives, it really doesn’t matter a toss whether you believe the alleged disease is caused by a virus, an exosome, a 5G mast or eating too much yoghurt.
Way back in the early summer of 2020 I published material proving that masks were useless and certain to do more harm than good. At that time Fauci and Whitty agreed with me that mask wearing was a pointless and dangerous thing to do. Fauci referred to mask wearing as virtue signalling.
In March 2020, Dr Jenny Harries, Deputy Chief Medical Officer in the UK, warned that it is possible to trap the virus in a mask and start breathing it in. She said that wearing a mask was not a good idea. Professor Chris Whitty, the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, said that wearing a face mask had almost no effect on reducing the risk of contracting covid-19, and that the Government did not advise healthy individuals to wear masks.
But then, for no good reason that I could see, the official line changed – virtually overnight. People were told that they should wear masks. Children in school were forced to wear masks all day long. Shop assistants and medical staff wore them with their visors, their goggles, their plastic gowns and their rubber gloves.
In June 2021 I was becoming so worried by the madness that I made a video entitled ‘Most Mask Wearers will be dead or demented in ten years’.
I now worry that many of those suffering from chronic maskitis won’t last that long.
Not surprisingly, vital evidence outlining the dangers and ineffectiveness of mask wearing has been banned, hidden or deleted from the internet. Public discussion and debate about the value of face masks has for 18 months now been suppressed by politicians and the media. The people at Google and YouTube will be directly responsible for millions of death. So will media doctors and crooked fact-checkers who’ve supported their government’s lies.
I’ve spent a long time digging out the real science on masks. In 2020 I wrote a new book entitled Proof that Masks Do More Harm than Good. The book contains scientific references explaining precisely why masks are dangerous and don’t do what people are told they will do. The book was banned, of course.
But I’m pleased to report that my book on masks has now been updated and published in paperback. It’s called Proof that Masks Do More Harm than Good and it is available via the bookshop on this website or direct from the publisher at http://www.korsgaardpublishing.com.
It’s worth remembering that thousands of years ago, it was discovered that forcing people to wear masks covering much of their faces broke their will and made them subservient. Masks depersonalised the wearers and dehumanised them. More recently, CIA torture techniques include forcing people to wear masks.
Mask wearers have been encouraged by the psy-op specialists to show their hatred for non-mask wearers. This loathsome ploy seems designed to make those who cannot or do not wear masks feel guilty and ashamed. The mentally and physically disabled will, therefore, be harassed and abused if they dare to go out of their homes. Maybe we should start a counter psy op movement and spread the word that only ugly people wear masks.
The big problem with masks is that the reduced oxygen intake is accompanied by an increase in carbon dioxide intake. The tighter a mask fits the more likely it is to reduce blood oxygen levels and to increase the amount of carbon dioxide being inhaled. In my book I’ve quoted research proving that this is a real hazard.
I’ve also explained that lower oxygen levels and increased levels of carbon dioxide stimulate greater inspiratory flow – leading to a greater risk that loose fibres from the facemask will be inhaled.
Then there is the fact that face masks don’t work. Between 2004 and 2016, at least twelve articles appeared in medical and scientific journals showing that face masks do not prevent the transmission of infection. And those tests were with approved masks rather than masks made out of old dish cloths, bras and bits of unwanted dress material.
Cloth masks fail to impede or stop flu virus transmissions, and the number of layers of fabric required to prevent pathogen penetration would require a suffocating number of layers and could not be used.
The World Health Organisation, which originally opposed face masks, now recommends that disposable masks should be worn and discarded after one use. And the evidence shows that they should be changed every two hours. Few people can afford to buy six masks a day and so masks are frequently worn more than once. This massively increases the risk of a chest infection developing.
There are lots of other specific risks.
Way back in September 2020, a group of 70 doctors pointed out that children are badly affected by having to wear face masks. ‘Mandatory face masks in schools are a major threat to their development,’ they wrote. Teachers don’t seem to care.
Dentists in New York reported seeing a number of patients with inflamed gums and other problems due to masks.
Sufferers from chronic maskitis are more likely to develop infection than non-mask wearers. This may be due to the fact that masks reduce blood oxygen levels and adversely affect natural immunity. It is likely that anyone who wears a face mask for long periods will have a damaged immune system – and be more susceptible to infection. Studies have shown that hypoxia can inhibit immune cells used to fight viral infections. Wearing a mask may make the wearer more likely to develop an infection – and if an infection develops it is likely to be worse. Low oxygen levels reduce T cells and therefore reduce immunity levels.
Moreover, while the mask wearer thinks that they are becoming accustomed to re-breathing exhaled air, the problems within the brain are growing as the oxygen deprivation continues. Brain cells which die, because of a shortage of oxygen, will never be replaced. They are gone forever. A leading neurologist has pointed out that children and teenagers must never wear masks, partly because they have extremely active and adaptive immune systems but also because their brains are especially active and vulnerable. The more active an organ is the more oxygen it needs. And so the damage to children’s brains is huge and irreversible. She warns that dementia is going to increase in ten years, and the younger generation will not be able to reach their potential because of the mask wearing.
Chronic maskitis sufferers are likely to suffer skin problems too.
A dermatologist has warned that face masks traps warm moisture that is produced when we exhale. For those with acne, this can lead to acne flares. For many others, this warm, moist environment surrounding skin creates the perfect condition for naturally occurring yeast and bacteria to flourish and grow more abundant. This overgrowth of yeast and bacteria can produce cracking and sores at the corners of the mouth.
And here’s another very real worry.
Studies have shown that loose fibres are seen on all types of masks and may be inhaled causing serious lung damage. One risk is pulmonary fibrosis – a disease which cannot be cured and has a poor survival rate.
It has also been reported that mask wearers may develop a sore throat. An infectious disease specialist reports that humidity will let bacteria continue to grow inside the mask so if you were growing bacteria in that area and you were breathing that inside, you can potentially get an infection, especially strep or any other bacteria that can cause infection.
Cancer patients who are in remission are more likely to find their cancer coming back if they wear a mask – because of the low oxygen levels.
The available medical evidence proves overwhelmingly that masks do no good in preventing the spread of infection but do a great deal of harm to those wearing them.
Sadly it is clear that mask wearing has become an ingrained habit with many. I know of one optician who still insists on staff and customers wearing masks. Even doctors and nurses in hospitals and general practice are routinely wearing masks, though routinely wearing a face mask in a health care setting is pointless and dangerous.
Only idiots are still wearing face masks
Not any more, now it’s hysterical untestable claims, physical impossibilities (e.g. defendants gifted with three hands), “the vibe” and statements from high profile braindead lamestream meeja amphibians.
Evidence, shmevidence. An outmoded concept.
Or a kennel.
Laugh of the day!
All-electric homes are better for your hip pocket and the planet. Here’s how governments can help us get off gas (19 Jun)
That headline and the article are just the usual fantasy boilerplate. The laugh came when I looked at who wrote this tripe:
LOL. An expert she is! Grattan is lately exceeding even the Ponds Institute for garbage studies.
Dont forget to factor in the declining purchasing power of your money, which went down~8% over the last year, even by government figures – twice that is probably closer to the mark.
The peanut is a legume not a nut.
Not many people know that.
You mean it’s not a pea?
Very much agreed on that one, mole. That story has whiskers on it. I’ve seen more believable pics on Midjourney. That does undermine the Ukes’ other claims, but the facts are that Russia was the only mob who could actually places charges in the sub-surface areas that could get the job done.
As for db quoting international laughing stock ISW, if they are your primary source you really are flailing.
That was the question in the paper quiz yesterday Hazelnut Chest nut peanut Which one isn’t a nut?
You’ll get full details on the Voice … AFTER voting Yes: Indigenous elder claims Australia has ‘never’ gone to a referendum with details before and asks for a vote on principle – despite reparations fears
By BRITTANY CHAIN, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
An Indigenous elder who helped the government carve out the Voice to Parliament referendum question has urged the Australian public to vote on principle – claiming further details won’t be made public until after a ‘Yes’ vote.
Aunty Pat Anderson, co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue and Alyawrre elder, told ABC News Breakfast Australia has ‘never gone to a referenda with all the details’ and that this will be no different.
Daily Mail – plus another poll you can vote in
monty.
I think it goes back to “who benefits”.
IF the Ukies original offensive was to have been to the south, and the Russkies learned of it, then the dam destruction makes sense as a spoiler operation.
Would sort of explain the apparent lack of the leopards/Chieftains in any numbers and the slow advance.
Im fairly agnostic on who blew the dam.
A shitty thing to do though.
I mean, look at how weak that is. What the hell would Estonia know about anything more complex than a potato crop.
All I am hearing that is confirmed by Russia is the Ukes claiming to have taken over a few remote villages per day, which means bugger all in the wider scheme of things. Wake me up when the fighting is over a major strategic location. Right now there is precious little believable info, which is frustrating but predictable.
Like I said, both sides had motives. I seriously doubt frogmen managed to lug upwards of 500kg of explosives into place to blow it up from the inside, which is the only way the Ukes could have done it since Russia controlled the ground above. Dams are a lot harder to destroy than oil pipelines.
Is this ‘aunty’ and ‘uncle’ thing meant to sound homely and twee? On one level it’s patronising. It’s also irritating and sounds like something out of a hand book that only a pube in Canbra could produce. They’re also European words.
Is that because they don’t charge you during black-outs?
a Mr Fisk
I wondered how long it would take….
Who the f8ck is this bloke?
—–
Rukshan Fernando:
Campaigning for the Voice Referendum is well and truly under way now. I look at a campaign put out by Fair Australia, that focuses on who they call the Architect of the Voice, Thomas Mayo.
Is The Voice to Parliament Linked to Communists? Thomas Mayo in the Spotlight
All-electric homes are better for your hip pocket and the planet
Ban onshore gas.
“Look everyone, renew-balls is cheaper than gas”….
Mongs.
https://imgflip.com/i/7pxcnc
thanks for the link Roger, a very good article.
Its a concern when you start agreeing with the Trots.. but I’m telling myself they’re just running their usual campaign of lying until they have power, when all that talk of justice and fairness goes out the window.
That may explain why only 8 out of 44 have passed.
By BRITTANY CHAIN, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
An Indigenous elder who helped the government carve out the Voice to Parliament referendum question has urged the Australian public to vote on principle – claiming further details won’t be made public until after a ‘Yes’ vote.
Quite happy to vote on principle. The principle that apartheid is bad in principle.
Linda Burney sounds like a trained hypnotist: ‘….. will make a practical difference … extraordinarily clear …. taking forward …. one step closer …. uniting …. unifying …’
Her sound grabs are played with no questions asked.
They should come with a voice from above saying ‘When you awake you will vote yes.’
I mean, look at how weak that is. What the hell would Estonia know about anything more complex than a potato crop.
I dunno. What the hell would a fantasy football operator know about anything more complex than Economics 1?
.
.. a typical crikey reader.
Whatever you do, don’t expose them to an alternative viewpoint.
Mother Lodesays:
June 20, 2023 at 1:37 pm
All-electric homes are better for your hip pocket and the planet.
Is that because they don’t charge you during black-outs?
You still pay the supply charge, even if there is no supply.
Close…she’s a Dip Ed.
Biden treated Ukraine ‘as his private property’, says purged prosecutor Shokin on Burisma scandal – UkraineGate documentary
Meanwhile
GOP asks: Where did Joe Biden’s $10 million windfall in 2017 actually come from?
Fatboy
Everything, every example, every metaphor, everything has to go back to food for you in some twisted way.
Fixed supply charge / network connection fee going up possibly because retailers expect more blackouts? Gotta cover those costs somehow.
“We do not support the independence of Taiwan,” – US Secretary of State Blinken during the talks in Beijing
Meanwhile
Exactly! Compare Macron’s China reception versus Blinken’s. Yeah, this administration commands ZERO respect…
https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1670471508354027520?s=20
Australians must now hear in Mayo’s own words his plan to divide the nation. (1:25)
Opinions may vary on that.
Crikey has a 50% discount on subs atm
Just a coincidence, I’m sure.
China Has A Simple Solution To Its Soaring Youth Unemployment
What are the policy solutions?
Here, the answer is two-fold, with the distinction being drawn between the politically correct (if largely irrelevant), and that which is less socially acceptable, yet bears far more profound consequences for the real world.
Starting with the former, Goldman writes that China’s youth unemployment suggest promoting services activity growth to offset the recent surge. “A complete closure of service sector output gap from current level could reduce youth unemployment rate by up to 7% according to the bank’s estimate, although this could overestimate the potential improvement if some of the weakness in sectors such as education and information technology may have become structural on regulatory tightening.”
Blah Blah Blah: China is the world’s most advanced authoritarian economy (although under Biden, the US has been doing everything in its power to dethrone China): if it had an on-off switch to flip as per Goldman’s reco, it would have done so long ago instead of opening up its economic omnipotence to global skepticism and criticism, something which further weakens Beijing’s control at a time when the economy is clearly stalling.
Instead, a more practical and realistic solution comes from Jeffrey Landsberg over at Commodore Research, who writes that in recent months he has often received questions from clients regarding if and when to expect a war will break out between China and Taiwan. In response, Landsberg writes that
“it is very difficult to make such a prediction, but lately a depressing thought has been stuck in our mind: War Creates A Lot Of Employment For A Country’s Youth.”
Commodore further notes that “it is becoming increasingly uncomfortable that the world’s concerns of a coming war in Taiwan are intensifying at the very same time that China’s youth unemployment is surging.” And while caveating its prediction, the firm cautions that
“the record level of China’s youth unemployment, concerns over Taiwan, and countless Ukrainian and Russian youth already engaged in a European land war all continue to weigh heavily on our mind.”
Thomas Mayo – full link:
https://youtu.be/655mzGRmkZw
Sooky Mc-Ex-Captain Cheat news:
This, of course, references SandpaperGate in South Africa not all that long ago. Expected nothing less from the Barmy Army. Glorious.
Breaking faith with their subscribers by jumping aboard the
#SlanderHiggins bandwagon sounds like BudLight level stupidity.
Same with the Liberal Party.
An alternative to https://openai.com/chatgpt
https://bard.google.com/
Many of its erstwhile readers are now profoundly disgrundled.
Just a coincidence, I’m sure.
You expect the Barmy Army on Rolf Harris won’t age well over an Aussie summer and a few beers.
Good work chief.
Again, good work chief.
Good work once again, I’m the living embodiment of the Vince McMahon meme right now.
I think today is a good day.
Once again, Jimmy Saville sends His Majesty, his regards.
WSJ – Why Ukraine’s Offensive Will Likely Be a Slow, Costly Grind
Kyiv and Moscow have spent months preparing for fighting along a vast front line
Military orthodoxy says that an army on the offensive that is hitting entrenched enemies should start with airborne barrages, followed by an overwhelming ground assault advancing beneath flying gunships blasting open a path.
Ukraine hasn’t had that option.
Lacking a robust air force, Kyiv’s troops are attempting a feat few modern militaries would dare: dislodge Russian troops that have spent months digging themselves in and readying for Ukraine’s long telegraphed onslaught.
Ukrainians’ early setbacks are a sign that their offensive will be a long, deadly grind, and not a repeat of their rout of Russian troops in the northeast region of Kharkiv late last summer.
“It was always going to be difficult,” said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Russian forces “have been preparing for a long time. They learned from their mistakes in Kharkiv.”
The fight unfolding now, a slugfest on the battlefield, is more fundamentally a battle of readiness. Both sides since the middle of last year have been mustering weapons, troops and defensive positions for what they knew would be a pivotal moment.
Ukraine has garnered billions of dollars worth of advanced arms and armor from its Western allies. Moscow, meanwhile, has called up more than 200,000 soldiers, dug trenches and prepared firing positions to stop the Ukrainians. Most significant, Russian troops have spread potentially millions of land mines, some emplaced by mine-spewing rockets fired from mobile launchers.
A Ukrainian unit driving advanced U.S. and European equipment earlier this month drove into one of those minefields, which incapacitated several tanks and armored fighting vehicles. Other units have faced aerial attacks from Russian helicopter gunships and missiles, launched from both air and the ground.
Faced with setbacks in probing attacks, Ukrainian commanders over recent days have in many places paused advances to reassess tactics. At least some of the damaged vehicles were recovered, officials said.
Lacking air superiority, Ukraine has sought to degrade Russian forces’ capacity to fight by hitting their supplies and centers of command and control with long-range strikes, most recently using British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Kyiv employed the tactic with great success last year, using shorter-range U.S.-made Himars truck-based rocket launchers to hit Russian nodes and undermine troops’ fighting strength.
Ukraine late last year retook the southern city of Kherson after methodically destroying Russian supply lines and support to its fighters, who could be reinforced only across vulnerable bridges. Kherson was uniquely vulnerable because of its position at the confluence of two rivers, which hemmed in Russian forces there. Even so, the siege took months to succeed. Today’s Ukrainian targets aren’t as prone to assault as Kherson was, which increases complexities for Kyiv.
Ukrainian attackers can succeed in breaking through Russian lines only if they first wear out its forces, said Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “Because they don’t have the air supremacy, they can’t blast their way through, protecting their armored spearheads,” he said. “It’s a very brutal phase.”
To boost its chances of success, Ukraine has been working to stretch and test Russian responses. Over recent weeks Kyiv’s forces have staged attacks at points along the length of the front line, from the Russian city of Belgorod across the Ukraine border in the north, to near Tokmak, a vital rail nexus for occupying Russian troops in Ukraine’s south. Ukrainian commanders said Sunday they destroyed a large Russian ammunition depot in occupied territory near the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine also has hit Russian forces in Bakhmut, a city near the center of the 900-mile-long front line that Moscow spent almost 10 months fighting to capture. As Russian troops claimed the city center several weeks ago, Ukrainian troops who had withdrawn to surrounding high ground began pounding them. The continuing battle has drawn in more Russian soldiers, who might otherwise hold defensive lines. Analysts at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization estimate Russia has suffered roughly 100,000 casualties around Bakhmut.
“The Russian side in Bakhmut looks very, very tired, if not exhausted,” said a senior NATO official.
In other places, Ukrainian troops including commandos are seeking weak points in Russian defenses. Even advances that don’t breach Russian lines can help Ukrainian tacticians because they draw Russian responses. By observing how Russian troops react and seeing where responding troops emerge from, Ukrainian commanders can locate new targets to hit with long-range weaponry. Radio communications among Russians can also help Ukraine find targets and potentially gain battlefield intelligence, say Western military officials.
Still, any edge Ukraine gains against Russian defenders in terms of human factors, such as exhaustion or motivation, can be offset by Russian strengths in physical defenses, air power or other tools such as electronic-warfare gear, where Moscow is strong, say Western officials. And land mines may prove particularly effective for Russia.
Russia’s land mines are lethal precisely because they require no human intervention, so remain regardless of local circumstances or troop morale. They are difficult to detect and compel attacking troops to slow to a crawl, leaving soldiers and equipment exposed to attack. Many of Russia’s mines pack more explosive force than Ukraine and its allies had expected, meaning they do more damage than predicted.
“You need pretty detailed intelligence to know where every minefield is,” said the senior NATO official. “It’s not that hard to go out and lay a minefield.”
Ultimately the coming battles will boil down to which side’s preparations prevail, say strategists. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, compared the current situation to the World War II Battle of Kursk, a Russian city near eastern Ukraine. In the spring of 1943, attacking Nazis and defending Soviets knew they would square off somewhere in the region and both sides prepared.
When Germany launched its offensive, it became clear that they had waited too long and the Soviets had been strengthening faster, Cancian said. Moscow won the ensuing fight, which was the largest tank battle in history.
Similarly, Kyiv and Moscow have both been improving their positions over recent months, so the looming fight will test “who is getting stronger at a faster rate,” Cancian said. While the advantage probably goes to Kyiv, he said, “I worry about Kursk.”
Make Thomas Mayo a household name as his type is the reason why we don’t want the Voice.
As always – detailed assessments from SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER 19 JUN 2023
AFU Suffers Horror Breakdowns as Russian Forces Repel New Advance
and
SITREP 6/15/23: Kakhovka Powerplay Heats Up as AFU Readies For Round 2
SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER – 16 JUN 2023
Plus
Putin Invites Top Russian Correspondents For Candid War Q&A + SitRep Updates
SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER – 14 JUN 2023
Great take on ADF’s bodyworn camera idea for battlefield soldiers from Long Tan Platoon Commander Dave Sabben MG
Bourne1879 says:
June 20, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Make Thomas Mayo a household name as his type is the reason why we don’t want the Voice.
Professional, hard-hitting & unforgettable video on The Architect Behind The Voice – 1 Min 26 Secs
Tuesday, 20 June 2023
Great work from the team at Advance Australia.
Magnificent work.
https://www.advanceaustralia.org.au
Send this to your friends.
A short digital walk with Rodriguez.
Rodriguez – I Wonder (Lyric Video)
No long comments
Time to fire the formatting sub Roger.
Payoffs to farmers ‘doubled’ to secure clean energy shift
Ben Potter Senior writer
Transgrid chief executive Brett Redman says one way to overcome community opposition to big electricity transmission projects in the regions is to offer larger payoffs to farmers, but still more transparency and consultation is required to ease hostility.
Compensation paid to landowners, for building the poles and wires on their property that are needed to connect new wind and solar projects to the electricity grid, has doubled to about $400,000 a kilometre, Mr Redman told an energy conference in Melbourne.
“So that helps,” he said. “At another level though, it’s a very emotional confronting change, particularly when you’re looking at multi-generational farming, multi-generational ownership of land.”
Slow progress in building the transmission links is holding up investments in new generation needed to fill the gap as coal power exits, threatening to undermine the shift to clean energy.
One of the biggest hold-ups comes from dealing with local opposition to the essential infrastructure.
Transgrid owns and operates the high-voltage electricity transmission network in NSW and the ACT, and is part-way through building EnergyConnect, which aims to link up NSW and South Australia by 2024, and HumeLink, which aims to connect Snowy 2.0 to the grid by 2026.
Mr Redman said a lot of mystery often surrounds major transmission projects but fully explaining a route’s rationale can solve problems along the way.
“If we can share why we’ve selected the route … at the end of the day, most people can see the logic of it,” he said.
“Even if we all struggle with the emotion of this, we don’t like it, but whatever we can do [to ease concerns] in this way can make a difference.”
He said the EnergyConnect transmission had managed to strike 95 per cent of landowner deals by agreement, with only six landowners requiring compulsion.
Humelink – connecting Snowy 2.0 to the NSW grid – is still in the development phase and facing a lot of opposition, but still has 40 per cent of agreements signed or in principle with landowners, which at this stage of the project is “really good”.
“I don’t say that in a way to say that landowners are always happy with what’s going on,” Mr Redman said. “I’m really sympathetic but [we] also demonstrate our commitment to getting there by agreement wherever we can, and by being sympathetic about the impact. ”
Stephanie Unwin, chief executive of Horizon Power, regional Western Australia’s integrated power utility, said the number one thing on her list that needed to be solved to facilitate the energy transition was deep, long-duration storage.
“In order for us to really integrate renewables and have the [firm power sources] that provide 24/7 green energy we’ve got to solve those long duration time periods.”
Ms Unwin said lithium ion – the dominant battery technology today – probably would not be Horizon’s storage technology of choice because it can be unstable in the extreme heat of regional WA.
“We need to look for something that for us probably won’t be lithium ion, so probably vanadium flow or something else.”
Vanadium batteries have lagged far behind lithium ion batteries in commercialisation and are consequently more costly, but there are grid scale deployments in China and Japan, and ASX-listed Tivan aims to develop a huge vanadium deposit in WA and develop a battery manufacturing facility near Darwin.
Foreigners. Who knows what they’ll do next?
Opinion
How to turn stamp duty into a land tax overnight
There is a way that Australia’s most inefficient tax could be phased out without states losing a lot of revenue upfront.
Robert Breunig – Tax expert
Stamp duty is Australia’s most inefficient tax. It punishes people who move, makes down-sizing and up-sizing difficult, decreases labour mobility, and, since it is only imposed when people move, is incredibly poorly targeted with respect to wealth and the opportunity cost of land.
A land tax, ideally an annual impost on the unimproved value of land, is far more efficient and equitable. In addition to resolving the social and economic problems raised above, it adds consistency to governments’ property tax receipts and in so doing improves their ability to plan for the future.
Governments, economists and business leaders agree that land tax is the way to go. The largely youthful cohort of Australians who’ve missed out on decades of unprecedented and untaxed capital gains on privately held land tend to concur. Land tax is the way to go.
The problem is implementation. It is brought on by the implicit understanding drawn from long-standing practice that once stamp duty is paid on taking possession of land, no further property taxes will be charged against ownership of it.
This implicit understanding is strongest with respect to owner-occupied housing. The Victorian government’s recent property tax tinkering is a case in point. In dire financial straits, the Andrews government has implemented land tax for commercial/investment property but remains loath to impose it on the too-politically-powerful-to-mess-with cohort of owner-occupiers.
In NSW, Chris Minns is backpedalling from moves to transition to a land tax base, despite readily acknowledging the social and economic benefits the shift will bring.
The political problem of owner-occupiers creates a dilemma for government – one that typically triggers an appeal by state governments for federal funding to cover the cost of any proposed transition.
If state governments concede to owner-occupiers’ advocacy for exemption from land tax, and charge it only after property next changes hands, then property tax receipts will collapse. State governments’ biggest revenue stream will recover only as properties change hands and new owners enter the land tax regime.
Transition period
Most land tax policies propose that all properties be liable for land tax after 10 to 20 years. But that’s still 10 to 20 years of substantially lower revenues and another 10 to 20 years of all the negative lock-in effects of stamp duty.
The solution to this dilemma is to implement land tax universally from day one, and give property owners an option to defer payment of land tax accrued during a “transition period” until the property changes hands. A transition period of 20 years seems equitable, practical and politically palatable.
During that period, deferred land tax will accrue interest at the RBA 90-day bank bill rate.
After that period concludes, all property owners must pay land tax as it is incurred. While payment for land tax deferred over the transition period may continue to be deferred until the property changes hands, after the transition period it accrues interest at the mean variable mortgage interest rate.
In addition, property owners get credit against land tax for stamp duty previously paid, less whatever land tax would have been on the property were it retrospectively applied from the date of purchase. That is, properties purchased more recently will get a large credit while those purchased long ago will probably receive none.
For example, if Jane Smith bought a house for $500,000 in Brisbane in mid-2018, it is worth about $700,000 now (the time at which we’ll assume land tax begins), having grown in value about 7 per cent a year. She paid $16,000 in stamp duty in 2018. A retrospective land tax (set at 0.2 per cent) would have cost her about $6000 between 2018 and 2023, leaving her with a $10,000 land tax credit. If house values continue to climb at 7 per cent a year, then that credit will be exhausted by early 2029. After which she accrues land tax as per normal.
The solution we propose addresses the issues that implementing a universal land tax raises:
It addresses concerns typically raised by advocates for property owners: that they have already paid stamp duty. For this, they get a credit. And that they have limited income and no means to pay more tax.
Instead, payment is deferred until they are flush with cash.
It addresses the funding issue facing governments and alleviates the collapse of property tax receipts that other options trigger. “Deferred” land tax becomes an asset against which governments can raise credit.
It removes the harmful market distortions of other transition schemes (some of which, such as first home buyer subsidies, have contradicted their intended aim and actually inflated property prices).
The federal government has the constitutional capacity to impose a universal land tax – and did so for a significant part of the 20th century. We recommend it does so again as soon as possible, immediately returning receipts raised (together with deferred land tax credits) to the states in which they accrue.
Action at the federal level will ensure a rapid and universal transition to land tax. Simultaneously, it will address the inconsistent rates, overly progressive regimes and high tax-free thresholds that currently apply across the states.
States will relish a politically pain-free opportunity to drop their inefficient, inequitable, market-distorting and often clumsy regimes and transition plans, to the immediate and enduring benefit of all Australians.
Robert Breunig is director of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Australian National University.
On thin ice, Bear.
Old Ozzie! Yay! You were missed & some were a bit worried about your health.
Roger, good job on finding this. I’m posting the whole thing because we all know honesty has a habit of disappearing from the internet. Bold are my highlights.
Transgrid chief executive Brett Redman says one way to overcome community opposition to big electricity transmission projects in the regions is to offer larger payoffs to farmers, but still more transparency and consultation is required to ease hostility.
As the house owner from “The Castle” said so eloquently:
“In ya dreams!”
Recently Crikey’s subscription base grew when the online publication was being sued by Lachlan Murdoch, but now it’s suffering a reversal of fortune, all because a writer, Guy Rundle, wrote a piece where he called for the “full story” around Knickerless’ taxpayer-funded settlement to be revealed. Crikey, they’ve even pulled Rundle’s piece.
I bet those same subscribers, who are now so upset and indignant at Rundle’s piece, were all, prior to last year’s election, shouting, howling and yelling for more government transparency, more government honesty, the need for a federal ICAC and so on. However, it appears that at the end of the day, such quaint notions such as “transparency and honesty” only ever depend on the political side.
At least Rundle is consistent and for that I give him some praise. In the meantime I’ll just laugh, because nobody does hypocrisy like the left.
Malcolm Roberts:
Where is the Accountability for War Criminal Politicians and Generals
I keep an eye on that site, Buc.
Takes me back to my Trot days.
Vanadium batteries have lagged far behind lithium ion batteries in commercialisation and are consequently more costly, but there are grid scale deployments in China and Japan, and ASX-listed Tivan aims to develop a huge vanadium deposit in WA and develop a battery manufacturing facility near Darwin.
Over twenty years ago my husband was involved with an idea to supply vanadium battery powered buses for the Sydney Olympics. At the time, as I recall, scientists involved with NSW University were actively trying to develop battery technology using Australian supplies of Vanadium. No one here seemed interested, but I believe vanadium powered batteries were developed for commercial use in Japan.
I hope that bag of nuts contained more than just traces!
I already pay land tax on the unimproved value of my land – and it’s about to increase by some ridiculous amount in the new financial year. Yes, it’s rolled into my council rates, but it is definitely there as the state revenue office sends a letter advising me of the inevitable exorbitant increase in it every three years.
Yet another tax increase in other words, so our beloved new labore government in NSW can piss it away on useless crap and equally useless overpaid bureaucrats. Just bloody wonderful.
Yeah.
Tell him he’s dreaming.
Vanadium batteries are hopeless for anything mobile, and not great even for static batteries. Their energy density is ridiculously low. A vanadium battery bus would be silly, almost as silly as a hydrogen bus!
Labour’s Hydrogen Bus Breaks Down on Way to Green Event, Replaced by Diesel (19 Jun)
“Nothing green ever works” is becoming more than a cliche.
Colonel Crispin Berkasays:
June 20, 2023 at 2:04 pm
ML: Is that because they don’t charge you during black-outs?
BJ: You still pay the supply charge, even if there is no supply.
Fixed supply charge / network connection fee going up possibly because retailers expect more blackouts? Gotta cover those costs somehow.
Wait until the 10,000 kms of extra transmission lines gets added to the supply charge.
And there is no power for 12 or more hours a day.
And more transmission losses to be covered by the supply charge.
BREAKING NEWS: Trump Praises Tucker Carlson In Fiery Rant Against ‘Globalists And Deep-Staters’
A motorcycle in this clip reminds me of Chips.
We only got to watch that show when visiting Oma on a trip from Carnarvon to Perth.
Cash!
—-
woof bark growl:
Cash 2.0 Great Dane at the LAPD Car Show 2023 (2 of 5)
Now They Tell Us: New Report Reveals ‘Critical Vulnerabilities’ in Dominion Voting Machines
I wish a virus would find him!
Rand Paul: “Bill Gates Is Largest Funder Of Trying To Find Viruses In Caves And Bring Them To Big Cities”
Looks like World Socialist Website has been a fake all along.
The Liberal Party didn’t ask any Higgins related questions today, so it looks like they’ve worked out it’s not a winner.
They did finally ask Linda Burney a few questions.
She sounds like she’s on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Backlash: Support for same-sex relationships drop — among Republicans and Democrats
Bruce – you are right about vanadium pentoxide batteries in buses, as they discovered. However, the Japanese (& I think in the US) bought the technology and have used it successfully commercially for energy storage.
Even Europe Warns ‘Outlier’ U.S. About Body-Altering Drugs and Irreversible Mutilation of ‘Trans’ Children
Ed Casesays:
June 20, 2023 at 2:16 pm
Breaking faith with their subscribers by jumping aboard the
#SlanderHiggins bandwagon sounds like BudLight level stupidity.
Same with the Liberal Party.
Turd Case shills for both his favourite niece and the Labor Party.
Two for the price of one!
ADF leadership referred to International Criminal Court
If Lambie does nothing else, she’s justified her presence in parliament with this.
God bless her, and all who sail in her.
You write someone off and then they go and do something spot on like this.
FOX NEWS IS GONE: Bret Baier Attacks Trump on Classified Documents But Defends Pence After He Lied About Holding the Documents Illegally at His Home
That’s not what she said at all.
What she said was:
Compensation paid to landowners, for building the poles and wires on their property that are needed to connect new wind and solar projects to the electricity grid, has doubled to about $400,000 a kilometre, Mr Redman told an energy conference in Melbourne.
Hmmm. Plans for 10,000 kms, admittedly not all over farming land (the rest over national parks, wilderness areas etc). At $400,000 per km, for say 5,000 kms comes to $2,000,000,000. Put that on your supply charge and pay it.
The Liberals shoulda gone after Burney weeks ago, rather than waste time and lose votes over who knew what and when about Higgins.
She’s got a hectoring manner, Labor are going to have to put her in Witness Protection sooner or later.
Dr. John Campbell
Party time
London mayor’s climate crackdowns are about ‘controlling our lives,’ says Nigel Farage
Raining here is Shropshire this morning…and we are off to [drumroll] Port Sunlight up on the Mersey.
I’ve been told the Lady Lever Gallery, and the entire model estate, is worth a look. The place has a remarkable history and encapsulates the type of philanthropy that blossomed along with the Industrial Revolution in Victorian and Edwardian England.
Hopefully our GPS recharging issues are resolved by a new converter bought yesterday. I’ll do a little description of both Shrewsbury and our adventures in Cheshire a bit later. Hoping to visit the Roman amphitheatre in Chester on the way back.
Robert Breunig is director of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Australian National University.
Robert Breunig is a tax hoover at the Australian National University.
Robert Breunig knows to play the exact tune his paymasters wish him to.
Robert Breunig Knows less tax = less opportunity for a wage increase for uni/gov catamites
Burney
“I can tell you what the Voice will not be giving advice on. It … won’t be giving advice on changing Australia Day, i
Tell ‘er she’s dreaming. Australia Day will be one of the first issues raised by the InVoice.
Ed Casesays:
June 20, 2023 at 3:43 pm
The Liberals shoulda gone after Burney weeks ago, rather than waste time and lose votes over who knew what and when about Higgins.
I thought that the great Liberal supporter Turd Case woulda thought that his beloved Lieborals could walk and chew gum at the same time, but apparently Labor can.
Boambee…
the rest over national parks, wilderness areas etc
Guess who owns the parks etc in WA?
400,000 per km, come in sucker.
“Rabzsays:
June 20, 2023 at 2:17 pm
Crikey has a 50% discount on subs atm
Many of its erstwhile readers are now profoundly disgrundled.
Just a coincidence, I’m sure.”
hehe, I saw what you did there Rabz. 😀
Ed Case, to the left of Guy Rundle, who I’m guessing also thinks the parliament should debate actual issues not just the ones they think they will win, unlike Ed, the resident alp shill and purveyor of distraction squirrels.
Even Rundle can see that a government elected on a platform of transparency, but that participates in cover ups like this is a sham, not our Ed. Anyone got a bag of hammers?
Conquered peoples don’t get much say in the matter.
No faith in the ICC at all. People referring to it as bastion of justice are retards. Yielding sovereignty is in play here.
Lambie is a nutcase and Roberts joined in. That’s a big f-up!
What’s next? The UN giving advice on climate change … oh wait
Don’t forget to show your workings Special. Don’t just pull stuff out your arse. That’s where the real LOLs are.
Steve T
The WHO taking control of “pandemic” management?
Didn’t albo say they’d only have a voice on stuff concerning them?
Obviously Labor thinks simple ignorant tribesmen wouldn’t care or understand about high falutin matters like defence or foreign policy.
After all, why would they care if they got invaded?
Standard Labor racism.
Is Thorpey declaring war?
Good luck with that.
For all her grandstanding she’s only get what those just awful colonialists decide she’ll get.
Too much already.
When did ISW become a international laughing stock for the UKR side?
Vicki says:
June 20, 2023 at 2:57 pm
Old Ozzie! Yay! You were missed & some were a bit worried about your health.
Vicki,
have been taken up with Grandkids, and 16 Enjoyable Days with Wife, visiting Son & Eldest GrandDaughter in Milan & Zuoz where Eldest Grandson has completed IB. and is in Mexico with Girlfriend and Eldest GrandDaughter is starting final year IB at Zuoz Intl School
Completed a number of Bucket List items with Son
His rented apartment in Milan – Via Amerigo Vespucci, 12, Milan – excellent near Grand Station (amazing place) and Tallest Building – easy walk to Duomo – Had breakfast on Obicà Mozzarella Bar – Duomo on top floor Rinascentre Department store overlooking Cathederal – another sight is the Starbucks in the Old Post Office – sitting in Bar upstairs overlooking floor –
Spent 2 nights in Venice in https://www.hotelaquariusvenice.com/ onto quiet little square to eat Gelati from nearby shop
Then drove via Padua, Vicenza, Verona to Zuoz – Whilst in Zuoz in my son’s house, changed cars from BMW X5 to Toyota Yaris GR Rallye and, he and I drove to HK Engineering in Polling near Munich – https://www.hk-engineering.com/en – Our Host Hans Kleissl treated us to lunch in their restaurant and he asked me what sort of food did I like -“Meat” – after entre the, what I thought was the main, meat pizza came – excellent with puff pastry outer -then an 800g Prime Rib appeared – absolutely melted, but coukd only get through half – Son ate rest.
HK-ENGINEERING is the only company worldwide that is dedicated to the restoration and maintenance of Mercedes-Benz 300 SL cars. That is why the company is now regarded, not only, as a forerunner and pioneer in the industry worldwide but also as the embodiment of exceptional expertise in the 300 SL.
Wife stayed with GrandDaughter and they went shopping to St Moritz
Wife’s bucket list was Bernina Express, so son dropped us at St Moritz Station amd picked us up at the end in Tirano and then back to Milan
Next day Father & Son to Ferrari Museum in Maranello – Wife went sightseeing around Milan
Then another Father & Son day to HK Enginnering Track Day at Prosche Experience Track in Brescia – amazing 300SL Guulwings including Le Mans one – Yaris GR was 15 Secs faster around the Track and a really beautiful Alfa R0meo 1948 6C Convertible plus many others – The number of Porsches in Garages and on Truck Loaders was amazing – aiming to get back for Porsche Track Experience day
We then went to Casa Di Langhe Hotel in Piedmont for 2 nights, and used as a base to go to Turin – having watched Netflix Lydia Poet Series set in Turin, Turin was probably my favourite Italian City – lot more peaceful than Milan, Rome & Naples and then visited hill top towns. We went to the FIAT Lingotto Factory which has been reimagined as a shopping mall by Renzo Piano who converted the factory into offices and a shopping mall – and obviously up to the top to the this distinctive Fiat test track on top of the building from a scene in the 1969 film ‘The Italian Job’ with Michael Caine, which was filmed in Turin. One of the shooting locations for the chase scene with the Minis near the end was the Turin Fiat factory.
Having stayed with Son & Family in Villas in Tuscanny, I actually liked Piedmont and it’s hilltop towns better.
Italy, food amazing and cheap – Coffee Euro 1.50 if standing, 2.50 if seated – restaurants were excellent
Milan area we were in appeared prosperous with loads of young people, kids and Women & Men elegantly dressed – Traffic Milan – what lanes – Vespas, Motorbikes, E-Bikes, E-Scooters all around you as you drove – Chaotic
Switzerland, Austria & Bavaria all show signs of prosperity
Drove from Casa Di Langhe Hotel via towns to Malpensa and Emirates A380 – Economy Milan to Dubai – no premium economy but same zone F as next leg Dubai to Sydney in Premium Economy 2 seats to side – excellent
Great Trip – good to restart overseas travel
Tucker Carlson’s Interview With Elon Musk
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
June 20, 2023 at 4:01 pm
4 hours ago
We never agreed to be governed, says Thorpe
Remy Varga
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe says Indigenous Australians never agreed to be governed by the “colonial Australian government” as she rejected the proposed voice to Parliament.
As the first step towards taking up your “sovereignty”, please return, with interest, all funding provided since Federation.
A truly sovereign nation would always pay back its debts, as a matter of honour.
dover0beachsays:
June 20, 2023 at 4:08 pm
As for db quoting international laughing stock ISW, if they are your primary source you really are flailing.
When did ISW become a international laughing stock for the UKR side?
When it stopped slavishly repeating Ukie propaganda?
Obviously Labor thinks simple ignorant tribesmen wouldn’t care or understand about high falutin matters like defence or foreign policy.
After all, why would they care if they got invaded?
Standard Labor racism.
In your haste to find a lame PC angle, you completely missed that Albanese was lying.
Titanic tourists missing: Situation ‘very critical’ says Oceanographer
In response to another question, Burney said the Voice to parliament was about “doing things differently so that we can move the dial on a national shame in this country.”
“What we have in this nation is a group of people that are poorer, sicker, more incarcerated and die earlier than anyone else. The Voice and referendum is about doing things differently to change those things,” she said.
“If anyone wants to have a discussion with me about this issue, I have been available.”
Well, if 39 Billion Australian Dollars for the last year cannot do it, then what will? A louder Voice or a bigger Invoice hoisted onto the Australian Taxpayer.
Vote NO farking way to the Voice and vote for an Annual Audit on every Aboriginal ‘Charity’ (over 3,000 such Groups at the last count) funded by the Australian Taxpayer to see just where that money is being spent. That should shake up the Scammers and Grifters in the Aboriginal ‘Sit Down Money’ Industry.
I wonder what would happen if the voice said the ALP are a pack of racists that instituted the white australia policy and should disband their political party immediately, would the parliament have to listen? Would they have an argument in the high court?
We all know it will never happen though, because although it’s factually correct, the whole edifice is not built on a foundation of actual indigenous control, just the ones approved by the left.
As the second step to taking up your ‘sovereignty” fund your own police, medical, welfare and housing.
The White Australia Policy didn’t concern Aborigines at all.
It’s purpose was to exclude cheap Asian labour, which also served to provide employment for urban Aborigines.
It was the Policy that made Australia a great place to live.
BTW, the Immigration Minister announced that he just issued 7,900
Visas to Afghans, and he sees that figure as ‘a floor, not a ceiling’.
“This is not an invitation. We are the first peoples of these lands. These are our lands and our lives. The black sovereign movement.”
https://imgflip.com/i/7pxme1
https://imgflip.com/i/7pxn32
Buy local.
One raw garlic clove a day.
As the first step towards taking up your “sovereignty”, please return, with interest, all funding provided since Federation.
Don’t even joke about “Sovereignty.” Next thing they will be claiming sovereignty over everything under ground currently called “Crown” land – namely iron ore, coal, uranium, gold….need I go on?
Well, if 39 Billion Australian Dollars for the last year cannot do it, …
The $39 Billion is mostly wages for White professionals and knock off $200,000 grants to people like Warren Entsch’s wife.
What’s the cost to Australia of keeping a Ten Pound ingrate like you out of the ground?
About the same as Ukraine.
How would you know what a ‘major strategic location’ was? You think only population centres are strategically significant; they largely aren’t. But set your ignorance aside. If two weeks in and all they have are remote villages still within RUS screening line, the offensive is a busted flush unless something miraculous occurs. If they are being bled white before the get even 10km to the main defensive positions how difficult do you imagine crossing that distance is going to be before they even have to negotiate them, and in some areas they have a further one to two lines with further kill zones.
ha! That’d be land under the influence of Aboriginal corporations.
Try putting power lines over some ancient songline. We couldn’t even get Warragamba dam enlarged, due to the risk of their possibly being some scratching or cave paintings that no-one can cite or see.
$400k? Tell ’em they’re dreaming!
Yet another example of the ABC acting as the mouthpiece for Lee Rhiannon’s Stalinist poodle and senatorial successor David Shoebridge:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-20/nsw-cemeteries-audit-catholic-trust/102500746
BTW, the Immigration Minister announced that he just issued 7,900
Visas to Afghans, and he sees that figure as ‘a floor, not a ceiling’.
And Europe is starting to be concerned about a revival of Islamic terrorism because of the large scale entry of so many from the Middle East.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/06/is-isis-preparing-to-exploit-europes-open-borders/?
This one’s for military type Cats.
Ed Case
Well, Duh!
Energy Industry
Bill Hero Update – July 1 Price Changes
The annual July 1 price reset has started early this year. Here’s our summary on what’s happening, and what you should do.
Many Bill Hero subscribers have received price change notices from their retailers over the past week or two and, understandably, are keen to get ahead of the July 1 price changes by switching to the best-priced plan available.
Here’s our summary of what’s happening and why you should wait before making any switch decision.
Our advice, for now, is to sit tight and wait until the end of the first week in July for the price changes to settle. We’ll help you find the best-priced plan when the new pricing landscape is clear.
Why do prices change in July?
Retail prices change across the NEM from July 1 every year, triggered by the annual regulated price change event for the electricity distributors, which update their rates for the carriage of electrons across their networks on 1 July every year.
Retailers are free to change their market offers anytime, but they all converge at this time of year — not because they’re obliged to change their pricing simultaneously in July, but because they are obliged to pay the network operators the new rates for the carriage of the electrons their customers consume, so they use this network price change as a trigger to review and reset their own retail prices.
The motivation for this is pretty obvious. Retailers bundle up all the underlying price elements for electricity supply — connection charges, consumption charges, and environmental scheme charges — into a single bill price, so when the cost of one of those underlying elements changes, they will ensure that their pricing accommodates the change.
Unfortunately, this year, we’re all facing dramatic price increases due to the continuing impact of the wholesale price shocks over the past year.
Many retailers have leapt out of the gates early, issuing price change notices well before July 1. Our experience from previous years is that additional knock-on price changes continue to occur after July 1 as the retailers adjust their pricing in response to competitor plans and prices as they become visible.
How to respond?
Every retailer will update their plans between now and week 1 of July, and we’re already seeing daily changes to the prices and plans in the market, and some retailers already issuing their price change notices.
It’s a tricky time to decide about switching, because a plan that looks good today may well announce new pricing tomorrow, making it much less attractive. So our advice is to wait until the dust settles.
Our advice to energy consumers is to sit tight until the end of the first week in July before making a switch decision.
It’s always hard to do nothing when you receive a price change notice warning of a major price uplift. Unfortunately, those price uplifts will impact every plan from every retailer, so there’s little benefit in switching early before the pricing landscape is clearly visible.
Better to wait until all the price changes are complete, then move to the best available plan.
As always, Bill Hero will help you find that best-priced plan once the dust has settled across the market. Things will become much clearer after the first week of July.
If Lydia Thorpe was a piece of music.
This would be her.
https://youtu.be/g0Q5JFHrGNk
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
June 20, 2023 at 4:19 pm
As the first step towards taking up your “sovereignty”, please return, with interest, all funding provided since Federation.
As the second step to taking up your ‘sovereignty” fund your own police, medical, welfare and housing.
Lots of munni already flows to indigenous groups from mining companies.
This is what constitutes “art” at Dark Mofo in Hobart.
It was at Night Mass, inside the Red Room around 1am Sunday, that performance artist and self-described “sex clown” Betty Grumble jumped on a small stage before 100 or so people.
To the soundtrack of a Prince classic, she cut off her clothes with scissors, lathered herself in soap suds, shaved her pubic hair and concluded by holding a handstand pose stark naked, legs akimbo – flowers protruding from inside her – while reciting a lengthy, moving poem. It was a freakish display of vulnerability and stamina, all conducted metres from unruffled bar staff who continued nonchalantly to mix cocktails. I’ll never hear Purple Rain the same way again.
The rest of the review contains even more descriptions of similar rubbish.
Oz
Aborigines didn’t mine the ground either, neither did they have a welfare system. Not stopping them from wanting to have a say on those things.
Mole, if RUS had advanced notice of a major effort below the dam they would have just opened the sluices and flooded the area downstream either before or after the crossing. Why destroy the dam and remove that power? Further, if they did have notice you would simply allow them to fall into that trap, let them cross, and then isolate and destroy whatever crossed since RUS would still have the air and artillery advantage even if their troops were more sparse here.
Red tape became green tape. Green tape soon to become blak tape.
The Russian offensive went for many, many months, and you were still crowing about it right up until it ended in miserable failure. Two weeks is hardly decisive.
As for ISW, they have been consistently wrong in their analysis and get basic facts wrong all the time. They are part of the Establishment neocon Blob, which I have been led to believe is the enemy of the MAGAdonians, so we should really be uniting to shun these sort of old school Kissingerite shills for the military-industrial complex.
Chuckle snort!
Top Ender – that explains why my recent Australia Council grant applications have been unsuccessful.
Further, if they did have notice you would simply allow them to fall into that trap, let them cross, and then isolate and destroy whatever crossed since RUS would still have the air and artillery advantage even if their troops were more sparse here.
Good points.
That would be a hell of a trap.
I do struggle to see a clear reason for the ukies to have blown it unless they were just going a rather belated scorched earth.
Then another Father & Son day to HK Enginnering Track Day at Prosche Experience Track in Brescia – amazing 300SL Guulwings including Le Mans one – Yaris GR was 15 Secs faster around the Track and a really beautiful Alfa R0meo 1948 6C Convertible plus many others – The number of Porsches in Garages and on Truck Loaders was amazing – aiming to get back for Porsche Track Experience day
OMG!!! I am showing this post to my car mad husband – after he finishes rewatching one of his favourite movies – Gran Torino!
He will be very interested in HK Engineering. He visited Ferrari at Maranello years ago with a friend. But his greatest (life!) experience was being invited to the 3rd annual Pagani Zondo “rally” in 2007 from Milan to Monte Carlo, in which he actually got to drive a Zondo! He will be very envious of your visit to Brescia with the Porsches.
What a fabulous trip! We love Italy. Haven’t been for quite a few years now – but think we may look at renting a house again maybe next year, if the world is still in one piece. Last time it was in Tuscany, but think maybe down south or in Sicily this time.
Am so happy for you and your wife. A very, very special trip with family. Can’t ask for more, can we?
Lydias mob…
https://youtu.be/MAT5vEueL24
If anyone wants to see the full Dark Mofo review just say. Amazing catalogue of gross idiocy.
Apparently funded by $7.5m from the Tasmanian government, cos it brings in lotsa visitors.
Well, so would a Coliseum event of lions tearing apart criminals, but we don’t fund that.
Who knows what sort of funding it attracts from the feds.
What Russian offensive? Surovikin never said anything about an offensive; precisely the opposite in October. He put RUS on a defensive posture everywhere outside of Soledar/ Bahkmut theatre and used Wagner troops there while preparing the mainline of Russian army. Further, two weeks is quite enough to judge the future prospects of this offensive. As I said previously, if they Allies were D+14 still on or near the beaches and only captured this or that small village, as opposed to having already captured Bayeux, surrounded Cherbourg and come to the outskirts of Caen, it would have been considered a disaster.
You mean to say they are pretty much like most sources on the pro-UKR side like UK MoD, etc. The only good MoD sources of info at the moment are the French and Austrians.
A lot of people aren’t familiar with the law around endorsement of cheques.
Silly deluded beady eyed mole. She is a dangerous nut trying to stir up confuntation like BLM mob does in the US.
EXCLUSIVE: Banky panky! Hunter Biden gave his passport details and income statements to Burisma executives to set up ACCOUNT with a ‘corrupt’ foreign bank that was shut down for breaking money laundering rules
. Ukrainian gas firm Burisma worked with Hunter Biden to set up an account in Malta at Satabank, emails from the First Son’s laptop reveal
. Satabank was shut down in 2018 after an investigation found ‘gross deficiencies’ in its adherence to the country’s anti-laundering and terror financing laws
. Emails show Hunter gave income statements, passport details and utility bills to a Burisma executive to set up an account at the now-defunct bank in 2016
Never change gruiniad…
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jun/20/rise-women-freezing-eggs-uk
There has been a dramatic rise in the number of women freezing their eggs in the UK, while more single people are opting for IVF, figures show.
A report from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HEFA) found that more people than ever are undergoing procedures, with egg- and embryo-freezing the fastest-growing fertility treatments in Britain.
Egg-freezing and storage increased from 2,576 cycles in 2019 to 4,215 in 2021 (a 64% rise), while embryo storage also rose.
Some experts have said the Covid pandemic had a big impact on the numbers of women wanting to freeze their eggs in the hope of preserving their fertility.
Sarah Norcross, the director of the Progress Educational Trust, said: “The dramatic rise in the number of egg-freezing cycles could be linked to the pandemic. Restrictions on socialising may have prompted some women to think more about their fertile window and decide to try to increase their reproductive choices.”
The HFEA data shows there was a 10% rise in IVF and donor-insemination cycles between 2019 and 2021 (about 7,000 more cycles).
Meanwhile, the average age at which women have fertility treatment with IVF has risen to 36. This compares with an average age of almost 31 for women who conceive naturally.
They tried so hard to not say woman…
Well, it was a freakish display of something. Possibly a human vase. Nothing a high pressure hose wouldn’t fix on account of wilting flowers.
One gets the impression that the bar staff have seen it all. Jaded sods.
In other weirdo news, a day away from mid summer and a massive rain front has swept through south west England. Damp druids and hippies and fire eaters looks like the way of Glastonbury yet again. Sad.
Probably the same people sneer at people who go to live shows in Thailand.
It’s all ‘art’.
1. It takes any chance of a RUS crossing downstream off the table for a month or two if their offensive goes tits up. 2. It allows to bring those units across to Zaporizhzhia. 3. It opens up the possibility of a crossing upstream of dam a month or so later, possibly to capture ZNNP. 4. It’s a distraction for RUS forces on left bank. 5. It basically admits without such a move zero chance of retaking Kherson below Dniper so who cares if it destroys the yield of the farmers on the southern steppe. 6. FU to Crimean population and the North Crimea canal. I think that’s enough.
Tactical Nuclear Weapons: latest news from Russia
gilbertdoctorow Uncategorized June 19, 2023 21 Minutes
What I am about to say is surely known and under analysis in the American intelligence agencies. It is being used by the Pentagon to quietly change its nuclear force posture in Europe. However, we hear not a word about it in the media, not in mainstream, and not yet in alternative news.
I maintain that it is very important for it to be heard and reflected upon by the general public in the United States and in Europe, disagreeable though it may be at the start of a new week. So here goes…
Last Friday when I published my selective account of the Q&A session with President Vladimir Putin at the culmination point of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum I omitted one important issue: how Russia will respond to the dispatch of “Ukrainian” F-16s from some air base in a NATO country into the war zone in Ukraine. I was considering remedying that oversight on Saturday morning when a comment from one reader forced my hand. She wrote in that Italy’s daily newspaper La Repubblica quoted Putin as saying on Friday Russia will destroy such a base in response. I responded on Saturday in the Comments section that the Russian President had in fact been evasive in his comment, saying only that Russia could destroy such a base and was now taking the issue under advisement.
However, yesterday evening’s edition of the Vladimir Solovyov talk show indicates that the Republicca reporter was closer to the truth than I.
A patient and knowledgeable Russian colonel in retirement who is a frequent guest on the talk show explained that the Kremlin is now considering exactly with what means to destroy such a NATO air base, not whether to do it.
And the likely means will be use of tactical nuclear weapons on a Ramstein or whatever NATO base is involved. We may say that Germany is placing itself in the bulls-eye of any escalation in the Ukraine war if it proceeds with the F-16s to Ukraine program.
Why all the fuss over the F-16s, you may ask. After all, Putin has said loud and clear that Russia will destroy the F-16s in the air just as it has been destroying the Leopard tanks and America’s Bradley armored personnel carriers while pushing back the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive. To understand better, we have to thank the good colonel once again. He alerted us to an important detail that you will not find mentioned in The New York Times: the first F-16s scheduled to be supplied to the Ukrainian Air Force are from Belgium and Denmark, and are all nuclear-capable, which is not a necessary feature of these planes. Since the Russians are unable to determine what kind of munitions the “Ukrainian” F-16s will actually be delivering to the war zone, they must assume that they are carrying tactical nuclear bombs intended to be dropped on the Russian Army troop concentrations. The effect of such an attack could be devastating, hence the Russian threat to the air bases from which such planes are launched.
The next important revelation made during the Solovyov show came with respect to the first delivery of tactical nuclear weapons to Minsk which was marked by a visit to Belarus and interview with Lukashenko by the co-host of the Sixty Minutes news and discussion show Olga Skabeyeva. In answer to her question about where the nuclear warheads are being stored, Lukashenko said ‘everywhere.’ The meaning of this was kindly deciphered for us laymen by the colonel in retirement on the Solovyov program: this signifies a cardinal shift in the Russian handling of tactical nuclear arms away from their traditional separation of the warheads kept in a central storage far from the delivery carriers to the method used by the U.S. military with respect to its tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. The Americans, he said stored the nukes just under the jets that would be used to deliver them. Now in Belarus, the warheads will also be just next to the planes and Iskander missiles that will carry them. This means that the time to launch will depend only on the time for approval from the Boss. And with respect to that, Lukashenko told Skabeyeva that he had just to make a phone call to Vladimir Vladimirovich and approval would be instantaneous.
Why such a hair-trigger mechanism for unleashing nuclear weapons to defend Belarus? For an answer to that, go to today’s article in The Financial Times on how Poland is now preparing hundreds of Belarus fighters to go across the border and overthrow Lukashenko. To which I can only say: Warsaw, watch out! Lukashenko is one bold and decisive defender of his country, as his standing on the streets with a Kalashnikov in his hands when there were Western financed and promoted street demonstrations in Minsk aiming to overthrow him.
I got swooped twice by a wattle bird from car in drive to front door this afternoon.
Didn’t know they were snoopers.
Must have build a nest in my front garden.
Why can’t we just be friends?
..
The “gweat big winter battle of encirclement to destroy the Ukrainian army in the field”. Remember?
dover0beachsays:
June 20, 2023 at 5:21 pm
All those moves are suggesting spoiling moves or admissions of defeat/lost territory.
A field of study with rapidly declining interest, given that Australia will phase out cheques by 2030.
Here’s why women should not be in combat situations.
H/t Michael Smith News
I think a frequent visitor to Japan (not Razey-san) told me you need a suburban rail pass for the subway and another for inter-city travel.
Is this right?
(I may not have been paying full attention at the time).
We are going to several cities … Tokyo-Kyoto-Hiroshima-Kanazawa-Takayama … so will be doing a fair bit of train travel.
Some bullet train.
Some not bullet train.
..
I’m not saying you’re wrong about the final outcome. I just don’t know.
But I do know you are into about your fourth iteration of completely wrong predictions on this the various phases so far in this war.
Seems the good Thomas Mayo was as red as an Indian’s bum.
Starting early! I believe you: today I had a noisy at my office window collecting spider webs to line her nest. Spider webs are hard to come by at the Cafe since the noisies have eaten almost all the spiders. But one danger-defying house spider does have a precarious existence on the outside of my office window. It was fun watching her carefully grab up the strands, then after she’d gotten enough of them she took off to do a bit of nest engineering.
First Tangible Sign that NATO “Exercise” May Go to LIVE WAR with Russia in 4 Days
HAL TURNER – 19 JUNE 2023
The first tangible sign that the ongoing NATO “exercise” dubbed “Air Defender 2023” will go “live” to direct war with Russia, has come out: British mass-media outlet SKY NEWS is running a piece calling for Western Air Power to directly enter the Ukraine war and bomb Russians.
On Sky News, an Op-Ed piece lays it out. The piece is titled:
Western intervention is the only credible way to protect Ukraine’s counteroffensive from Russian air power
It lays out all the pertinent facts as to why Ukraine stands NO CHANCE AT ALL of defeating Russia, and concludes “Kyiv needs modern air power, not a squadron or so of second-hand F-16 platforms that are neither supportable nor credible, against modern, stealthy Russian fighters.”
Written by Sky News “Military Analyst” Sean Bell, the piece introduces to readers the notion that the West entering the Ukraine Conflict with air power is “needed.”
(HT REMARK: Folks, Western Media Outlets do not — E V E R — print things like this unless they have been told to do so by government
. As you might guess, government plants stories like this to begin to mold and manipulate public opinion, because not only does government WANT to do something, it INTENDS to do it. They want to prime the public to have this in their minds.)
What I see going on here is a coming media blitz, to manipulate the general public into preparing for, or expecting, Western air power intervention into the conflict.
That a UK Media Outlet is the first step in this process is no surprise; the UK has been at the forefront of every step of the escalation in Ukraine.
Conspicuously absent from the Sky News piece are the exact, precise CONSEQUENCES of such a move: World War 3, that will go nuclear.
Today is June 19. NATO’s ongoing air exercise “Air Defender 2023” is scheduled to be completed THIS FRIDAY, June 23.
I have been warning for weeks that I think NATO and the collective West will either find an excuse — or make one — to convert that air “exercise” into a LIVE war with Russia.
My logic was simple; governments of NATO did not move three-hundred-thousand troops, and with “Air Defender 23” 225 war planes and air crews consisting of ten-thousand men, over to Europe, just two small countries away from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as an “exercise.”
When governments move that many troops, tanks, artillery guns, armored personnel carriers, planes, and air crews, THEY INTEND TO USE THEM.
I even reported to you last week, that NATO created a temporary refueling station in Wunstorf, Germany, loaded with 2.4 MILLION Liters of aviation fuel! For an “exercise?????” Uhhhhhh, no.
Now we see a major piece in a major British media outlet, Sky News, taking the first step to putting in the public mind, the idea of NATO Air Power entering the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
That Sky News Op-Ed piece can be read at its source, HERE.
Make no mistake, Russia has long anticipated something like this and they explicitly told us “If Article 5 Collective Self Defense is activated against Russia, and NATO conventional troops enter the conflict, Russia will have no choice but to use its nuclear weapons.”
They’ve told us this over, and over, and over again.
Right now, NATO has at least 225 aircraft taking part in the largest air drill in its history, in Germany; just two small countries away from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. NATO has also positioned three-hundred-thousand (300,000) troops near Russia’s border. You don’t move those numbers of troops and planes, then not use them.
NATO has supported Ukraine, but is losing, badly. Ukraine’s __only__ hope is if NATO becomes directly involved in the conflict, and if that happens, Russia has already made clear, it will use nuclear weapons to defend itself. Those weapons will not merely be used in Ukraine, they will be sent to NATO countries . . . . including the USA.
Some people erroneously believe Russia would never hit the US because of mutually assured destruction, but that notion is no longer true.
Russia has hypersonic missiles, the USA does not.
Russia’s hypersonic missiles can avoid our missile defenses.
You will need to check each sector, Sancho because different companies. Tokyo is a case in point, as you may need a couple if different tickets to get where you want to go if you need to change lines.
Just in case of another GPS failure, I have taken a series of screen shots of our route today. Tempted to take emergency rations in case we’re stranded in the inhospitable English countryside. 😀
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says: June 20, 2023 at 5:33 pm
All consistent with information uncovered last year, and which I commented this morning (link for the evening shift Cats), that points to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit Agenda 21 as being the prime mover behind the ATSIVtP aka InVoice.
Biden Doesn’t Know What Year It Is, Has to Be Led Around by the Hand
Joe Biden was again at his beach house in Delaware for more vacation over the weekend.
He then left there on Monday and flew to Santa Clara County, California, to deliver remarks about climate change and the environment. He’s later scheduled to go to a campaign reception. At his climate remarks were Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (who some think may be pushing something of a shadow campaign to take over if Biden can’t continue his campaign).
But the time in Delaware doesn’t seem to have rejuvenated him. What he said prompted more calls for him to step aside and for people to invoke the 25th Amendment.
“And maybe most important,” Biden said, “I’m committed that by 2020, we will have conserved 30 percent of all the lands and waters the United States has jurisdiction over, and simultaneously reduce emissions to blunt climate impact.”
What year is it? He doesn’t even seem to know. But hey, he’s going to conserve 30 percent by then.
It got worse. He couldn’t even complete whatever sentence and point he was trying to make here.
“A couple of businesses are suing banks because they wanna consider whether or not you’re environmentally— anyway, I won’t get into all that,” Biden says. That’s his tell, for whenever he can’t complete his sentence, either because he doesn’t remember what he was supposed to say or he knows he was about to say something bad. He fills in with, “Anyway, I won’t get into that,” or “Anyway, I’m talking too long.”
He repeated something that he seems to be concentrating on lately, claiming that climate change is “THE existential threat to humanity. THE existential threat to humanity.”
I guess we can just forget about nuclear weapons and white supremacy now. When he’s pandering to a climate audience, those other threats he talks about when he panders to other audiences don’t exist.
Then Rep. Anna Eshoo physically pulled Biden across the stage like a three-year-old child who needed to be led to meet with attendees after his remarks.
“We Do Not Support Taiwan Independence” – Tony Blinken Gives Green Light to Chicoms to Invade Taiwan (VIDEO)
Some people erroneously believe Russia would never hit the US because of mutually assured destruction, but that notion is no longer true.
Russia has hypersonic missiles, the USA does not.
Awesome, the Russians would have 20 minutes to celebrate before the counterstrike hit….
I feel like Im stuck in a bad Dredd knockoff.
I can remember when Crikey! was the brave new world of innernets and was going to rule the world.
How is that working out?
Why Nepalis Are Fighting on Both Sides of the Russia-Ukraine War
A long tradition of serving in foreign militaries – and a lack of options at home – has drawn young Nepalis into the conflict.
Almost one month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reports emerged that a Nepali youth named Pratap Basnet was fighting for Ukraine. His story was widely noticed in Nepal. Nepal’s stated foreign policy is neutrality and non-alignment. However, on the Ukraine issue, Nepal’s government sided with the United States and the Western world to criticize Russia’s military attack on Ukraine’s territory.
Recently, evidence has emerged of Nepali youths joining Russian forces. On May 16, Russia authorities made it easy to access Russian citizenship after one year of military service in Russia. Since then, hundreds of Nepali youths have joined Russian forces as contract soldiers. Some of them are retired from the Nepal Army.
One Nepal Army retiree said he was working as a security guard in Dubai when he was lured to Russia by the more attractive offers. He traveled to Moscow as a tourist and joined the army at a Russian recruitment center. He noted that lowered standards made it possible for him to enlist. “Previously they would look for Russian language proficiency. Now English is also okay for it,” the retiree told me over Telegram. (He later blocked me after deciding against further contact with a journalist).
He is now in a military training camp in Russia. “Training is not hard for me as I have gone through similar training in Nepal Army also,” he said. “But weapons here are more modern than what I would get in Nepal Army training.”
There is no publicly available data on the number of Nepali youths joining Russian forces. But it is an open secret that Nepali youths are enlisting as private citizens.
Hahahaha, you clown. How many times did you post word “pincer” during the last six months. You have been doing a premature victory dance all the way through the northern winter.
It took Russia what, ten months to take Bakhmut and they don’t even control all of that. You want to declare the Uke offensive dead after a fortnight? LOL.
The Dems are big on elder abuse at the moment.
Feinstein looks more out of it than even Senator Uncle Fester. I don’t think she knows what day it is let alone what year. Not surprising that Dem voters want Biden for their 2024 candidate: he’s a perfect puppet, if his body holds together long enough.
My prediction back when, in May or June wasn’t about a winter offensive. I’m happy to admit I got that post wrong. I completely underestimated how difficult modern warfare using combined arms was given current day intelligence and surveillance. Still, they’ve destroyed almost several UKR armies now but they’ve been reconstituted by repeated waves of NATO inventory and mobilisations.
Into my fourth, wow. I know that is false because I’ve been reluctant to predict any future operation since that post, particularly since events in Kharkov. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a left field prediction at the time.
If you are going to Osaka I can direct you to my favourite restaurant. In Amerika-mura amazingly.
I haven’t said anything of the sort in the last six months.
LOL. Bakhmut mentally destroyed UKR supporters.
Why Europe’s falling power, wealth may be irreversible
From technology to energy to capital markets and universities, the European Union cannot compete with the United States.
Gideon Rachman Columnist
The Ukraine war has revived the transatlantic alliance. But the relationship between the US and its European allies is increasingly lopsided.
The US economy is now considerably richer and more dynamic than the EU or Britain – and the gap is growing. That will have an impact well beyond relative living standards. Europe’s dependence on the US for technology, energy, capital and military protection is steadily undermining any aspirations the EU might have for “strategic autonomy”.
In 2008, the EU and the US economies were roughly the same size. But since the global financial crisis, their economic fortunes have dramatically diverged. As Jeremy Shapiro and Jana Puglierin of the European Council on Foreign Relations point out: “In 2008 the EU’s economy was somewhat larger than America’s: $US16.2 trillion versus $US14.7 trillion.
By 2022, the US economy had grown to $US25 trillion, whereas the EU and the UK together had only reached $US19.8 trillion. America’s economy is now nearly one-third bigger. It is more than 50 per cent larger than the EU without the UK.”
The aggregate figures are shocking. Underpinning them is a picture of a Europe that has fallen behind – sector by sector.
The European technology landscape is dominated by US companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Apple. The seven largest tech companies in the world, by market capitalisation, are all American. There are only two European companies in the top 20 – ASML and SAP.
Whereas China has developed domestic tech giants of its own, European champions are often acquired by American companies. Skype was bought by Microsoft in 2011; DeepMind was bought by Google in 2014. The development of AI is also likely to be dominated by US and Chinese companies.
The leading universities that feed the pipeline of tech start-ups in the US are lacking in the EU. The Shanghai and THE rankings of the world’s top universities both have only one EU institution in the top 30. (Britain does better – courtesy of Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial and others.)
In 1990, Europe made 44 per cent of the world’s semiconductors. That figure is now 9 per cent; compared with 12 per cent for the US. Both the EU and the US are rushing to build up their capabilities.
But while the US is expected to have 14 new semiconductor plants come on stream by 2025, Europe and the Middle East will add just 10 – compared with 43 new facilities in China and Taiwan.
Both the US and the EU are looking to turn this situation around with ambitious industrial policies that provide public finance and incentives for chip manufacturers and producers of electric vehicles.
But the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency gives the Americans the ability to finance their ambitions, without spooking the markets.
As one European industrialist puts it: “They can just swipe the credit card.” The EU, by contrast, has a much smaller budget and has only just begun issuing common debt.
Private capital is also much more readily available in the US. Paul Achleitner, chairman of Deutsche Bank’s global advisory board, says that Europe is now “almost totally dependent on US capital markets”.
He tells me that Europe has very few of the large pension funds that give depth to the US capital markets, adding that: “If you want to get anything sizeable done – whether it is an acquisition or an IPO – you always go back to American investors.”
The EU has spoken a lot about creating a “capital markets union” to give Europe some of the scale of the US. But progress has been feeble.
Unlike Europe, the US also has plentiful and cheap domestic supplies of energy. The shale revolution means the US is now the world’s largest producer of oil and gas.
Meanwhile, energy prices in Europe have soared.
The Ukraine war and the loss of cheap Russian gas mean that European industry typically pays three or four times as much for energy as their US competitors. Gloomy European bosses say this is already leading to factory closures in Europe.
Some in Britain may be tempted to see all this as proof that, inside the EU, Britain was “shackled to a corpse” and that Brexit was a good move.
But, outside the European single market, Britain suffers from an exaggerated version of the problems of scale that are hobbling the EU itself. British industry is already falling behind, as a result.
So, are there really no areas where Europe is a world leader? Some point proudly to the fact that the size of the EU single market means that companies all over the world have had to adopt European regulations – the so-called “Brussels effect”. But it would clearly be better to lead the world in creating wealth, rather than regulating it.
Europe does outperform in “lifestyle” industries. Almost two-thirds of the world’s tourist arrivals are into Europe. The luxury goods market is dominated by European companies. Football, the world’s most popular sport, is dominated by European teams – although many of the biggest clubs are now owned by Middle Eastern, US or Asian investors.
Europe’s dominance of lifestyle industries underlines that life in the old continent is still attractive for many.
But perhaps that is part of the problem. Without a greater sense of threat, Europe may never summon the will to reverse its inexorable decline in power, influence and wealth.
KD earlier:-
Nice.
Very nice.
I also like (to the tune of “Whole World in His Hands”) …
“He’s got sandpaper, in his hands”
..
April ‘22:
..
Sept ‘22:
..
Oct ‘22:
..
Making the current predictions either your fifth or sixth probably. I don’t read your blog much anymore to know.
The Voice is a Trojan Horse!
Our country and our Future are under threat. We must fight the ‘Voice’!
GEORGE CHRISTENSEN
JUN 17, 2023
Feinstein looks more out of it than even Senator Uncle Fester.
https://imgflip.com/i/7pxv7r
In all seriousness look at the hands.
There is no flesh left between the bones.
That things on a turbo express to the same embalmers as Ginsberg.
Let me tell you a secret about intelligence, db. Personal intelligence, not the military tautology.
You have to respect your own ignorance. If you are arrogant enough to gloss over the holes in your own knowledge, you may sometimes get lucky when things fall your way, but more often you will look like a goose.
You are pretending that garbled reports from partisans are definitive proof of military victory for your mob. This makes you look supremely wrong-headed, even before you are proven right or wrong by subsequent events. Your mind is full of bad processes. You want things to be true, jumping in bum first to the fog of war without knowing if you’re going to land in a pool or on a land mine.
A bit of circumspection is in order, lest you be considered a credulous fool.
Steve, I doubt that anyone with an ounce of common sense has any faith in the ICC. That isn’t the point.
Like all “international institutions” the ICC is revered by the left. See above.
The referral is thus a simple, and possibly effective, Alinsky play. There’s zero chance the ICC will take it on, and less than that of some “sovereignty in play” outcome.
Just good politics. And them’s words I never thought I’d say about Lambie. Strange times.
Opinion
Traditional landowners won’t tolerate wind and solar ‘carpeting’
Alan Finkel’s unrealistic energy transition vision should jolt the country into common-sense solutions such as gas and nuclear power.
Nyunggai Warren Mundine – Indigenous advocate
Former Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel has written a new book outlining how Australia can transition to a wind and solar-powered future.
In the introduction he outlines his vision of Australia’s future as follows: “Think forests of wind farms carpeting hills and cliffs from sea to sky. Think endless arrays of solar panels disappearing like a mirage into the desert.
“What we have now has to be scaled up by a factor of 20 … It will take untold miles of high-voltage transmission lines to carry the electricity to power the mines and factories and the 24-hour buzz of civilisation. It will take engagement with and support for affected communities; financing at an unprecedented scale.”
Finkel’s vision leaves many questions. And it’s one I don’t believe will be acceptable to most Australians or to the traditional owners of much of the land and sea to be carpeted over.
Finkel rejects nuclear power, believing it’s not realistic in Australia before 2040, by which time he’s confident we won’t need it.
I believe this confidence is misplaced. A key factor in the timing of transitioning to wind and solar is building new transmission lines.
In a recent interview on 3AW, former Australian Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said Australia had already used up the existing grid infrastructure’s capacity for new renewables and needed to build out the grid with 10,000 kilometres of new transmission lines into remote Australia. This will connect the wind and solar carpet in Finkel’s vision to the grid.
But Warren also said we could only build 500-600 kilometres of transmission lines a year and that it’s not simple or realistic to speed this up. This takes us to 2040 to 2043 at the earliest.
People promoting this future seem to look at Australia’s remote country the same way the colonists looked at it in the 1800s.
The fact is it will likely take much longer than expected.
One factor in the delay of Snowy 2.0 is the considerable opposition to new overhead transmission lines through Kosciuszko National Park.
I believe there’ll be objections across the entirety of the 10,000 kilometres of new lines and demands to put them underground, where feasible, but at four to 10 times greater cost.
By contrast, nuclear plants could be built on the sites of decommissioned coal plants already connected to the grid.
Finkel has cited the International Energy Agency’s estimate that reaching net zero by 2050 requires annual investment globally to more than triple by 2030 to $US4 trillion ($6.1 trillion) a year, for a total of $US100 trillion by 2050, but he dismisses this as capital investment that will generate returns and reduce annual expenditure on fossil fuels.
But much of the capital invested into carpeting Australia with wind turbine forests and solar power arrays will need to be found again and again because wind and solar plants have a much shorter lifespan than baseload power alternatives, and their lifespan in practice tends to be shorter than promised.
No sooner than the carpet is laid, we’ll be scrambling to extract no less than 24 separate minerals required to build its replacement (including 220 tonnes of coal required to build each new wind turbine).
We’ll need even more electricity to manufacture this new carpet or, more likely, will import it from countries with cheaper, abundant electricity not produced by wind and solar.
When politicians say renewables are the cheapest form of electricity, they ignore most of the costs of new transmission lines, decommissioning and replacement.
But someone has to pay them or there’s no return on capital invested. That someone will be electricity consumers and taxpayers.
This wind and solar carpet will be made up of steel, concrete, plastics, resins, chemicals and other materials, many of which are hazardous (including when broken up on decommissioning).
Decommissioning presents significant additional costs and logistical headaches, assuming the plant owner actually does it.
Exactly where will these country-sized carpets of hazardous waste be disposed of? Recycling and reuse is costly and unviable.
And it’s not good enough to assume future innovation will make it viable just because we want it to.
Nuclear waste has three advantages. Firstly, unlike other industrial waste, radioactivity reduces over time. After 40 years, the radioactivity of high level waste decreases to one-thousandth of the original levels and low and intermediate waste (about 97 per cent of the waste) ceases to be hazardous at all.
Secondly, nuclear energy produces a tiny volume of waste which is all solid. All the spent fuel rods from US commercial reactors since the 1950s could be stacked together less than 10 metres high on a single football field. And spent rods can be stored at the plant.
Thirdly, there’s proven technology to reuse spent fuel rods as an energy source in itself.
It’s therefore completely irrational that cost and waste is used to reject nuclear power out of hand.
But the real problem with Finkel’s vision is most Australians won’t tolerate it.
They won’t tolerate ongoing skyrocketing costs and winters of blackouts while they wait for some theoretically cheaper (but only if you ignore a lot of the costs that have to be paid for) electricity in decades to come.
And they won’t tolerate a country carpeted with wind farms and solar panels filled with hazardous materials. They’ll regard this as environmental desecration and destruction on a grand scale. Because it is.
I especially don’t believe the Aboriginal traditional owners who have rights over, and are custodians of, much of the land and sea that will be carpeted over will tolerate it either.
People promoting this future seem to look at Australia’s remote country the same way the colonists looked at it in the 1800s: a vast expanse of nothing that’s available for their own pet projects. It’s not.
People have been living in a fantasy world for too long. Politicians and industry leaders haven’t been honest with people. And they’ve been ignoring, and too often demonising, the reliable low and no-emission energy sources of gas and nuclear which have a proven ability to provide abundant electricity within the existing grid, with known costs profiles and a track record of safety and cradle-to-grave management.
Had Australia’s leadership already taken steps to move to gas and nuclear, we’d be well on the way to net zero, energy independence and abundant electricity and, we wouldn’t have lost so many high energy consuming industries offshore.
We can’t make up that lost time. But perhaps Finkel’s vision will jolt this country into some sense.
Seems the “Yes” campaign are distancing themselves from Mr Mayo and his comments, as fast as they can.