Open Thread – Tues 27 June 2023


The Gleaners, Jean-François Millet,1857

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Dot
Dot
June 30, 2023 7:24 pm

Early colonial America had an “access to justice” scheme.

Hey I’m not your enemy, it just wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.

…more weight!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 30, 2023 7:24 pm

Joke around Pretoria, South Africa, was that Australia exported three things – Australian Rules football, gum trees and “Breaker Morant.”

Rosie
Rosie
June 30, 2023 7:26 pm

I’m pretty sure most of the Eucalyptus in Portugal is owned by Swedish or Swiss companies who grow it to make some sort of wood pulp.
Not much money in Portugal, Salazar then socialism.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
June 30, 2023 7:29 pm

Fun fact, gums outside Oz don’t have the leaf miners, boras, fungal infections and fauna like cockatoos stripping shoots bare like what is happening here in NQ at the moment.

Hardy and without the pests they are essentially weeds especially in warmer arid parts of the world.

LOL our payback to the world.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 30, 2023 7:31 pm

“Not much money in Portugal” – Fighting a long war, in an attempt to retain your colonial empire wouldn’t have helped.

JC
JC
June 30, 2023 7:33 pm

Rosie says:
June 30, 2023 at 7:26 pm

I’m pretty sure most of the Eucalyptus in Portugal is owned

There’s a park in Porto. There were lyrebirds and Eucalyptus. Had to go half way around the world to sniff the scent of Eucalyptus leaves.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
June 30, 2023 7:34 pm

Who says we don’t export nafink?
100 million gum trees can’t be wrong.

Dot
Dot
June 30, 2023 7:36 pm

Sanford & Son

“Fred Sanford, Legal Eagle” would not be made anymore.

Tis’ a pity.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
June 30, 2023 7:36 pm

Who says we don’t export nafink?

You’re not taking the supply chains into account.

Tom
Tom
June 30, 2023 7:38 pm

Not much money in Portugal…

Not much capitalist free market in Europe. Hence, despite its history of spreading hispanic culture throughout the world via its navy, Portugal remains one of the poorest countries in Europe.

If only Portugal believed in freedom, it could make its people rich. But it doesn’t. Portugal believes in the tyranny of socialism.

Rosie
Rosie
June 30, 2023 7:39 pm

You should try catching the train from Lisbon to Vigo in Spain.
All gum trees, all the time.

JC
JC
June 30, 2023 7:40 pm

Oh yeah, the colonies. The Museums are no replete with mod art film displaying colonial guilt. I had to laugh. We waded through the contemporary art museum for which we paid 20 euros apiece to see absolute crap. There was one very funny exhibit. A Brazilian indig was boating on a river … I honestly don’t know how best to explain this… the boat was an upside down kitchen table (seriously) with a motor at the back . It was supposed to demonstrate something evil about colonialism.

Rosie
Rosie
June 30, 2023 7:42 pm

The communist party is still a major party in Portugal.
Currently campaigning fir a minimum wage of €10,000 pa.
I call it a second world country.

Rosie
Rosie
June 30, 2023 7:45 pm

The old art museum in Lisbon has some nice pieces including a triptych by Bosch. It’s on the river in Sants.
Doesn’t everyone have to wallow in colonial guilt?

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
June 30, 2023 7:47 pm

Hey, BBS, you forgot my first line where I mentioned my observations re Gladys were separate from the policy and probity issues.

I was making some general reflections on how Gladys and then public figures in general could be perceived, not saying this was how I personally perceived them.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
June 30, 2023 7:47 pm

From Politico in 2017:

a lightning strike is believed to have ignited vegetation, bone dry after a drought and heat wave that pushed temperatures over 40C. Gusting crosswinds fanned the flames which roared through the forests killing at least 63 people, many trapped in their cars on EN236-1.

Black Saturday in 2009 revisited. The Portuguese greenies want the gums out:

“The eucalyptus is more dangerous than other trees,” said João Branco, president of Quercus, an environmental campaign group.

“The leaves and the bark are very flammable, strips of bark hang off the trunks and are carried by the wind, spreading the flames,” Branco, a forestry engineer, added. “Large parts of the center and north of the country are almost completely covered by eucalyptus and it contributes to this type of fire.”

And:

A native of Australia, the eucalyptus was first introduced in Europe as an ornamental plant in the 18th century. It thrived in Portugal, where the fast-growing species was later used in reforestation and to prevent erosion.

It really took off from the mid-20th century to provide raw material for the paper and paper pulp industry.

But:

Now the Aussie import is Portugal’s most common tree.

It covers over 900,000 hectares, a quarter of total forest land, displacing native oaks, laurels and chestnuts. Forests of the tall, slender tree fill up vast tracts of the country, from the hills around the site of this week’s disaster to lowland forests stretching southeast from Porto.

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
June 30, 2023 7:48 pm

War Gamers appears to be on Binge in my part of the world, not Netflix, unless it is called something else.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
June 30, 2023 7:55 pm

Eucalypts should be gradually phased out over large areas of Australia too.

They are an environmental disaster caused by aboriginal burning practices.

Tell that to the Voice.

Rosie
Rosie
June 30, 2023 7:55 pm

The cork industry in Portugal was decimated by the introduction of plastic.
Also the demise of the platform shoe.

Cassie of Sydney
June 30, 2023 8:02 pm

I like Chris Kenny, he’s hopelessly wrong on two things, canines (for some reason he thinks all canines are homicidal maniacs) and the Voice, but Kenny is 100% right on most others things. In today’s Oz, Mavis Bramston has a scurrilous piece on Gladys. Kenny’s been unwell but he posted a comment under Mavis’ shit, which reads…

“so says the former president of Young Labor. Imagine if the Left applied these same risible standards to, you know, the Left.”

It seems that Mavis’ piece probably elicited too much censure and opprobrium, including the above comment from Kenny, and comments have been closed.

As I wrote above, I recommend C.L’s piece on his blog about Gladys. It’s superb. Also, further to the targeting and smearing of Liberals and conservatives by the left, and how it is now quite apparent that the left will stop at nothing to destroy those on the right, be it with a rape allegation, or the lunatic ravings of a dead women, or a consensual affair, and so on, one of the grubbiest recent episodes was the citizenship saga around Josh Frydenberg’s mother. The Oz has a piece on it. The Frydenberg citizenship saga was vicious and ‘low point’ in Australian politics’, a saga aided and abetted by some unsavoury individuals on the left, one of whom was a millionaire donor behind the Teals, and we all know his name. He’d long made it clear he was out to destroy Frydenberg politically. And he did, thanks to moronic voters in Kooyong. They tossed out a fairly decent man and replaced him with a lard arse hypocrite. Oh and further on the lard arse hypocrite, it seems that the imperious and very hypocritical lard arse has an aversion to flying economy from Melbourne to Canberra, a flight that is only one hour in duration, and apparently, the lard arse of Kooyong, in her first year in office, has billed the taxpayer for 27 flights, which equates to a about $28,000.

Ahhhh the Teals, we can only hope that they’re gone in two years, and they’re remembered for what they are…..a shit stain on Australian political history. I wonder if we could put them all in a submersive and send it down the Marinas Trench, mind you, with Lard Arse Ryan on board there’d be no room for any of the other teals.

Ed Case
Ed Case
June 30, 2023 8:03 pm

Stokes.
Out!

H B Bear
H B Bear
June 30, 2023 8:03 pm

I threw out my platform shoes with my squash racquet.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
June 30, 2023 8:05 pm

“75% of all U boat crews were lost in World War Two – the highest casualty rate of the German Armed Forces.”

I am learning quite a lot from this TV series, and will check up on some of it later for the truth value.

We are only on episode 4 and I hope it keeps up the standard and the non-wokeness. If they launch into a feminist tirade or do something else similarly woke at the end it will be disappointing. At the moment it’s got the balance right.

Roger
Roger
June 30, 2023 8:05 pm

“Eucalypts should be gradually phased out over large areas of Australia too.”

In which case we’d lose a lot of native fauna that depend on the habitat they provide, and give introduced ferals a hand up.

Sound conservation principles (which are not the same as ideologically driven green looneyism and do not exclude human interaction) should be applied to the management of eucalyptus forests.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
June 30, 2023 8:06 pm

A Brazilian indig was boating on a river … I honestly don’t know how best to explain this… the boat was an upside down kitchen table (seriously) with a motor at the back . It was supposed to demonstrate something evil about colonialism.

It’s meant to represent the oppressed turning the tables on the colonialists.
Obviously.

H B Bear
H B Bear
June 30, 2023 8:07 pm

Much interest in the Ashes in Peshawar Groogs?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 30, 2023 8:08 pm

Fun fact, gums outside Oz don’t have the leaf miners, boras, fungal infections and fauna like cockatoos stripping shoots bare

I like the idea of infecting Portugal with cockies.

I had a bunch of them turn up yesterday, so I took out a bowl full of dry bread bits. Put it on lawn. Whereupon it was like being in the middle of a snowstorm with 1 kg snowflakes.

They get hungry in winter and the local ones have several kind people in my suburb that they go and panhandle from.

Rosie
Rosie
June 30, 2023 8:09 pm

The average flight time Melbourne to Canberra is 47 minutes.
Virgin business class is 4 seats and they have three rows of ‘economy x’.
The only difference it makes, other than a free drink and snack, which you could bearly need, is getting off first.
She must be flying Qantas to be paying $1000 return.
I usually pay around $220.

Lee
Lee
June 30, 2023 8:12 pm

“Ahhhh the Teals, we can only hope that they’re gone in two years, and they’re remembered for what they are…..a shit stain on Australian political history.”

Cassie, I think it’s the massive hypocrisy of the silvertail Teals that angers me the most about them.

Roger
Roger
June 30, 2023 8:19 pm

John Anderson in conversation with Nigel Biggar:

https://johnanderson.net.au/conversations-nigel-biggar-ii/

Biggar’s books on colonialism, rights & war are well worth a read.

shatterzzz
June 30, 2023 8:19 pm

“She must be flying Qantas to be paying $1000 return.”

That should read WE are paying not she is paying …….
troughers only use the best that “our” money can buy …….!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
June 30, 2023 8:23 pm

Prigozhin’s Folly: The Russian ‘Revolt’ That Wasn’t Strengthens Putin’s Hand

Seymour Hersh – seymourhersh.substack.com
Thu, 29 Jun 2023

The Biden administration had a glorious few days last weekend. The ongoing disaster in Ukraine slipped from the headlines to be replaced by the “revolt,” as a New York Times headline put it, of Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the mercenary Wagner Group.

The focus slipped from Ukraine’s failing counter-offensive to Prigozhin’s threat to Putin’s control. As one headline in the Times put it, “Revolt Raises Searing Question: Could Putin Lose Power?” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius posed this assessment: “Putin looked into the abyss Saturday — and blinked.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken — the administration’s go-to wartime flack, who weeks ago spoke proudly of his commitment not to seek a ceasefire in Ukraine — appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation with his own version of reality: “Sixteen months ago, Russian forces were . . . thinking they would erase Ukraine from the map as an independent country,” Blinken said. “Now, over the weekend they’ve had to defend Moscow, Russia’s capital, against mercenaries of Putin’s own making. . . . It was a direct challenge to Putin’s authority. . . . It shows real cracks.”

Blinken, unchallenged by his interviewer, Margaret Brennan, as he knew he would not be — why else would he appear on the show? — went on to suggest that the defection of the crazed Wagner leader would be a boon for Ukraine’s forces, whose slaughter by Russian troops was ongoing as he spoke. “To the extent that it presents a real distraction for Putin, and for Russian authorities, that they have to look at — sort of mind their rear as they’re trying to deal with the counter offensive in Ukraine, I think that creates even greater openings for the Ukrainians to do well on the ground.”

At this point was Blinken speaking for Joe Biden? Are we to understand that this is what the man in charge believes?

We now know that the chronically unstable Prigozhin’s revolt fizzled out within a day, as he fled to Belarus, with a no-prosecution guarantee, and his mercenary army was mingled into the Russian army. There was no march on Moscow, nor was there a significant threat to Putin’s rule.

Pity the Washington columnists and national security correspondents who seem to rely heavily on official backgrounders with White House and State Department officials. Given the published results of such briefings, those officials seem unable to look at the reality of the past few weeks, or the total disaster that has befallen the Ukraine military’s counter-offensive.

So, below is a look at what is really going that was provided to me by a knowledgeable source in the American intelligence community: “I thought I might clear some of the smoke.

First and most importantly, Putin is now in a much stronger position. We realized as early as January of 2023 that a showdown between the generals, backed by Putin, and Prigo, backed by ultra-nationalist extremists, was inevitable. The age-old conflict between the ‘special’ war fighters and a large, slow, clumsy, unimaginative regular army. The army always wins because they own the peripheral assets that make victory, either offensive or defensive, possible. Most importantly, they control logistics. Special forces see themselves as the premier offensive asset. When the overall strategy is offensive, big army tolerates their hubris and public chest thumping because SF are willing to take high risk and pay a high price. Successful offense requires a large expenditure of men and equipment. Successful defense, on the other hand, requires husbanding these assets.

“Wagner members were the spearhead of the original Russian Ukraine offensive. They were the ‘little green men’. When the offensive grew into an all-out attack by the regular army, Wagner continued to assist but reluctantly had to take a back seat in the period of instability and readjustment that followed. Prigo, no shy violet, took the initiative to grow his forces and stabilize his sector.

“The regular army welcomed the help. Prigo and Wagner, as is the wont of special forces, took the limelight and took the credit for stopping the hated Ukrainians. The press gobbled it up. Meanwhile, the big army and Putin slowly changed their strategy from offensive conquest of greater Ukraine to defense of what they already had. Prigo refused to accept the change and continued on the offensive against Bakhmut. Therein lies the rub. Rather than create a public crisis and court-martial the asshole [Prigozhin], Moscow simply withheld the resources and let Prigo use up his manpower and firepower reserves, dooming him to a stand-down. He is, after all, no matter how cunning financially, an ex-hot dog cart owner with no political or military accomplishments.

“What we never heard is three months ago Wagner was cycled out of the Bakhmut front and sent to an abandoned barracks north of Rostov-on-Don [in southern Russia] for demobilization. The heavy equipment was mostly redistributed, and the force was reduced to about 8,000, 2,000 of which left for Rostov escorted by local police.

“Putin fully backed the army who let Prigo make a fool of himself and now disappear into ignominy. All without raising a sweat militarily or causing Putin to face a political standoff with the fundamentalists, who were ardent Prigo admirers. Pretty shrewd.”
There is an enormous gap between the way the professionals in the American intelligence community assess the situation and what the White House and the supine Washington press project to the public by uncritically reproducing the statements of Blinken and his hawkish cohorts.

The current battlefield statistics that were shared with me suggest that the Biden administration’s overall foreign policy may be at risk in Ukraine.

They also raise questions about the involvement of the NATO alliance, which has been providing the Ukrainian forces with training and weapons for the current lagging counter-offensive. I learned that in the first two weeks of the operation, the Ukraine military seized only 44 square miles of territory previously held by the Russian army, much of it open land. In contrast, Russia is now in control of 40,000 square miles of Ukrainian territory.

I have been told that in the past ten days Ukrainian forces have not fought their way through the Russian defenses in any significant way. They have recovered only two more square miles of Russian-seized territory.

At that pace, one informed official said, waggishly, it would take Zelensky’s military 117 years to rid the country of Russian occupation.

The Washington press in recent days seems to be slowly coming to grips with the enormity of the disaster, but there is no public evidence that President Biden and his senior aides in the White House and State Department aides understand the situation.

Meanwhile

Ukrainian generals killed in Russian strike – MOD

Moscow had earlier reported hitting a temporary brigade base in the Donbass city of Kramatorsk

Two Ukrainian generals were killed in a Russian high-precision strike on the Donbass city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Thursday, citing “updated data.”

The ministry had earlier claimed that the strike targeted the temporary base of the Ukrainian Armed Forces 56th Motorized Infantry Brigade. Since then, the ministry has added that the base was hosting a “staff meeting” involving dozens of Ukrainian officers and foreign advisers.

The attack resulted in the deaths of “two generals, up to 50 officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as up to 20 foreign mercenaries and military advisers,” according to the Russian Defense Ministry’s daily briefing.

Baba
Baba
June 30, 2023 8:24 pm

Large areas of the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe are choked with wattle trees originally introduced to support the tanning industry.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
June 30, 2023 8:27 pm

$1K business return MEL-CBR on a QF tag, yeah na try 4 times* that.

* Source quick internet search and senior government types generally book seats at a fully flex rate so that is likely higher.

Cassie of Sydney
June 30, 2023 8:30 pm

You all know I work with woke women. Today I went to lunch with a group of them. It was a pleasant lunch, delicious food and I had two glasses of very nice Reisling. Anyway, we’re all chatting amicably, and then one of them started talking about the “unhoused”. I asked “what and who are the unhoused”? She replied that it’s a new word for the “homeless”, because the word “homeless” is dehumanising and derogatory. I looked at her, laughed and said that’s ridiculous. She was quite taken aback at my contempt and she then said I was being cruel. I then told her that since she’s so concerned about the “unhoused”, perhaps she should offer up her own house to help “house” those who are “unhoused” and until she does, she’s the cruel one, not me.

jupes
jupes
June 30, 2023 8:33 pm

From OldOzzie’s comment above about Prigozhin:

“He is, after all, no matter how cunning financially, an ex-hot dog cart owner with no political or military accomplishments”.

Yeah, nah. The victory in Bakhmut is probably the biggest military accomplishment of this century, certainly it is in the SMO.

132andBush
132andBush
June 30, 2023 8:43 pm

” She replied that it’s a new word for the “homeless”, because the word “homeless” is dehumanising and derogatory.”

Playing semantic games with the lingo is a good way to signal virtue for some people.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
June 30, 2023 8:46 pm

“Eucalypts should be gradually phased out over large areas of Australia too.”

“In which case we’d lose a lot of native fauna that depend on the habitat they provide, and give introduced ferals a hand up.”

Roger, it could be done selectively and fairly slowly. But it would usefully vary the Australian landscape and its biodiversity. And reduce bushfire impact.

Things don’t have to stay the way they are into eternity. Homeostasis is a myth anyway in biological terms. Human beings have affected the planet’s biocover for many thousands of years. Why stop now? If we can see a useful improvement then we should make it. New ecologies can arise.

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
June 30, 2023 8:47 pm

testing

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
June 30, 2023 8:49 pm

Fish is done, spice salmon, the air fryer noise has gone off. I think dinner is ready, Hairy making noises to that effect, and we’ll watch Rita Panahi for general information and then James Morrow on the US.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
June 30, 2023 8:52 pm

I keep a special lot of gold dollar and two dollar coins in my handbag and in the car now to give out to people in need. There is a lot of misery out there. We shouldn’t deny that just fact because some people and groups can rort a system meant to help all – as happens.

Some people just fall through the cracks. Kindness to them is important.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 30, 2023 8:56 pm

There’s an upcoming “Bush Summit” kicking off, to be addressed by Gina Rinehart. I’ll bet good money Albanese wont show his face.

Oh, and for Western Australian Cats, the new Aboriginal Heritage Legislation comes into force tomorrow…

My grandfather was one of the pioneers of the Eastern Wheatbelt. He wrote, in his diary, when he “selected” the property

“Nothing. No campsites, no fireplaces, no middens, no cave paintings, no skeletons, nothing. Nothing to suggest that mine weren’t the first footprints, ever, on this stretch of Earth.

Lee
Lee
June 30, 2023 8:56 pm

“She replied that it’s a new word for the “homeless”, because the word “homeless” is dehumanising and derogatory. I looked at her, laughed and said that’s ridiculous. She was quite taken aback at my contempt and she then said I was being cruel. I then told her that since she’s so concerned about the “unhoused”, perhaps she should offer up her own house to help “house” those who are “unhoused” and until she does, she’s the cruel one, not me.”

“Homeless” and “unhoused” are not the same thing IMO.

In fact, I would suggest that “unhoused” greatly underplays the desperate situation of the homeless.

“Unhoused” sounds like they are on some sort of waiting list for accommodation, when they are not.

chrisl
chrisl
June 30, 2023 9:01 pm

Peru had a lot of Sydney blue gums . Very fast growing, they would cut them for firewood and let them shoot and grow again . Sustainable!

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
June 30, 2023 9:04 pm

” She replied that it’s a new word for the “homeless”, because the word “homeless” is dehumanising and derogatory.”

You have to be inordinately stupid, or unhinged, to suppose that using derogatory language will hurt people who aren’t even present, not to mention the idea that changing the word you use to describe a group of people will change their world.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
June 30, 2023 9:09 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
June 30, 2023 at 6:53 pm
75% of all U boat crews were lost in World War Two – the highest casualty rate of the German Armed Forces.

Das boot – Klaus Doldinger Soundtrack[HD]

Rabz
June 30, 2023 9:12 pm

engie – whoever the f*ck they are, they just had an ad in a break during the ashes* – this is what they’re purveying:

Zero electrickery
Zero fossil fuels
Zero quality of life

Aimed directly at the most ignorant illiterate innumerate anti-scientific ahistorical imbeciles to have existed in human history.

Like Pol Pot man, gettin’ us all back to gaia …

*Such a debased spectacle nowadays it does not even deserve capitalising

flyingduk
flyingduk
June 30, 2023 9:12 pm

“75% of all U boat crews were lost in World War Two – the highest casualty rate of the German Armed Forces”

And, given there were no ‘tours’, I would think most of the survivors were relatively late graduates – there would have been very very few who survived the whole war if they got in early. This is in contrast to the Luftwaffe Aces, quite a few of whom flew from the Spanish Civil war in the late 1930s until 1945.

Numbers vary by source, but the highest scoring ace on the allied side was the Soviet Kozhedub, with 64, the highest US was Dick Bong on 40 , and the highest Commonwealth score was Pattle, also on 40.

In contrast, the Luftwaffe’s top scorer was Hartman, who survived the war (and a further 10y in Soviet captivity) with 352. All told, the Luftwaffe had over a hundred aces with a hundred kills.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
June 30, 2023 9:16 pm

Changing the language you use to talk about the homeless may not be very efficacious in reducing their misery, but it has the great merit of being very cheap.

flyingduk
flyingduk
June 30, 2023 9:17 pm

“Australia seems to be spreading a global menace via its highly flammable gum trees.

Australia. California. Portugal.”

You can add Iraq to that list, our hospital in Balad (just N of Baghdad) also had hundres of Aussie eucalypts – apparently a legacy of some sort of aid program in the 1970s.

Linky: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2078055

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
June 30, 2023 9:17 pm

 Rosie says:

June 30, 2023 at 8:09 pm

The average flight time Melbourne to Canberra is 47 minutes.
Virgin business class is 4 seats and they have three rows of ‘economy x’.
The only difference it makes, other than a free drink and snack, which you could bearly need, is getting off first.
She must be flying Qantas to be paying $1000 return.

It would be Q, without doubt.
Chairman’s Lounge and all that.
And the fares would be fully flexible Business Class.
Because important.

Ed Case
Ed Case
June 30, 2023 9:17 pm

In fact, I would suggest that “unhoused” greatly underplays the desperate situation of the homeless.

“Unhoused” sounds like they are on some sort of waiting list for accommodation, when they are not.

It’s more realistic than ‘homeless’, since homeless includes anyone living in accomodation without a Lease as well as people who live outdoors by choice.

flyingduk
flyingduk
June 30, 2023 9:20 pm

“Fun fact, gums outside Oz don’t have the leaf miners, boras, fungal infections and fauna like cockatoos stripping shoots bare”

I regularly have flocks of 500-1000 land in my paddocks in W Victoria – they spend an hour digging up an acre or 2, apparently going after small bulbs in the pasture.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
June 30, 2023 9:21 pm

Tom says: June 30, 2023 at 7:03 pm

The real political power resides in the unelected public service deep state.

From personal experience, I know what you are saying is true.

Roger says: June 30, 2023 at 7:18 pm

the lack of access to justice for the average person of relatively modest means.

I expect that will become part of my personal experience in due course.

flyingduk
flyingduk
June 30, 2023 9:22 pm

“She replied that it’s a new word for the “homeless”, because the word “homeless” is dehumanising and derogatory”

(Puts on best Kath n Kim) I think you will find its ‘people experiencing homelessness” now.

Indolent
Indolent
June 30, 2023 9:23 pm

World Now Wasting $1 Trillion Or More Per Year Investing In Useless “Renewables”

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2023-6-29-world-now-wasting-more-than-1-trillion-per-year-on-investing-in-useless-renewables

I’m surprised it’s not more. And, naturally, all that money is going into the most deserving pockets.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
June 30, 2023 9:24 pm

 Rabz says:

June 30, 2023 at 9:12 pm

engie – whoever the f*ck they are, they just had an ad in a break during the ashes* – this is what they’re purveying:

Zero electrickery
Zero fossil fuels
Zero quality of life

Those adverts aren’t going to age well when the lights start going out.

Rabz
June 30, 2023 9:26 pm

the Luftwaffe’s top scorer was Hartmann

Dashing as it gets, Cats. No cliched Hollyweird abomination could kill him, let alone the real event and the soviet attempts to grind him down afterwards.

In any ideal Universe, he’s living large in the afterlife with a magnifique Français brunette

Indolent
Indolent
June 30, 2023 9:27 pm

After Ordering Agencies To Track Emissions, Biden Admin Doesn’t Know How Much Fossil Fuel Its UN Climate Trips Burned

https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/29/after-ordering-agencies-to-track-emissions-biden-admin-doesnt-know-how-much-fossil-fuel-its-un-climate-trips-burned/

Hypocrites-are-us

Indolent
Indolent
June 30, 2023 9:28 pm

Michigan residents could be charged with a felony, face up to five years in prison and get a $10,000 fine for using the wrong pronouns under ‘unconstitutional’ new bill

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12249661/Michigan-residents-charged-felony-face-five-years-prison-using-wrong-pronouns.html

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 30, 2023 9:32 pm

Reading an article over on “The Age” it seems John Howard introduced franking credits as his gift to the boomers. Words fail me, they honestly do.!

Ed Case
Ed Case
June 30, 2023 9:33 pm

Poms all out 325.
Short pitched bowling did the trick.

Mark from Melbourne
Mark from Melbourne
June 30, 2023 9:36 pm

That World-renowned spinner (spins both ways with equal dexterity!) Travis Head did the trick.

Never mind… 6/50-odd in 90 minutes is “bazball”!

Rabz
June 30, 2023 9:37 pm

Locations outside of this continent blessed with good ol’ (transplanted) eucalypts:
California
Portugal
Iraq
Israel
Sef Efrika

No doubt there are many more – anyone know of a transplant program in South America, for example?

Meanwhile, we can always marvel at the ever spreading toxic wonder that are cane toads.

Imported into this country as they were, by “visionary bureaucrats”.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 30, 2023 9:39 pm

Curse you, Rabz, why is “two piglets fighting under a chaff bag” an image that springs to mind?

flyingduk
flyingduk
June 30, 2023 9:41 pm

Re our eucalyptic diaspora:

“While eucalypts owe their distinctive characteristics to the evolutionary isolation of Australia, since the 1800s Southern Blue Gums have been transplanted to dozens of cities and countries around the world. They have been street trees in Kyoto and Addis Ababa, and have been cultivated in California, the Mediterranean fringe and South America”

https://news.flinders.edu.au/blog/2014/11/17/australian-to-its-roots-the-gum-tree-at-home-and-abroad/

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
June 30, 2023 9:43 pm
Louis
Louis
June 30, 2023 9:43 pm

Surfing between the Aussie rules and the cricket – Geelong has the ugliest collection of males I have ever seen – Myers’s Holmes blicsavs kolajaznie

Louis Litt
Louis Litt
June 30, 2023 9:46 pm

Re Miami Vice – Crakett Tubs and later Harvey Specture are all fags – Louis Litt he is da man

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
June 30, 2023 9:59 pm

Baldy was demoted very quickly.

‘Now is the Time’ Scene | Rambo (2008)

Rabz
June 30, 2023 9:59 pm

Me thinking of you thinking of me thinking of you thinking of me thinking of you … 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE9pNNY6rFo&list=RDMM&index=13

bons
bons
June 30, 2023 10:00 pm

I just saw a sign outside our local seafood joint (sorry, providore).
“Local caught parrot”.

Rabz
June 30, 2023 10:01 pm

Well, that went down a treat … 😕

Louis Litt
Louis Litt
June 30, 2023 10:03 pm

JC 30/6 @ 7:40
Shit art museum – go to the Brisbane Shiiart Gallery – fist wall hanging one side is painted black the other white – it gets worse.
There was 2 or 3 portraits which were such a relief which made them look better than what they are.

Brislurker
Brislurker
June 30, 2023 10:04 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:
June 30, 2023 at 2:17 pm

Very good news! The relief when decisions made are successful is immense.
Hairdresser is very important for a lady, boosts one’s ego ?.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 30, 2023 10:11 pm

There really was a “John Rambo”, killed in action in Vietnam. His family were quite angry when his name was used in the series of films, particularly when it emerged that Sylvester Stallone had been exempted from the draft on medical grounds.

MatrixTransform
June 30, 2023 10:11 pm

engie – whoever the f*ck they are

one of the the world’s biggest subsidy sinks

largest shareholder is Blackrock

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 30, 2023 10:15 pm

Thank you, Brislurker.

One positive thing that is emerging from the whole saga, is just how much money is saved by giving up cigarettes…

cohenite
June 30, 2023 10:17 pm

Watters interviewed DeSantis; he seems like a regular guy. RFK jr seems an interesting guy too despite some alarmist tendencies. If Trump or either of these 2 guys are not POTUS and that disgusting grub biden gets back in the world is fu.ked.

Mark from Melbourne
Mark from Melbourne
June 30, 2023 10:25 pm

Hairdresser is very important for a lady, boosts one’s ego

Mum is 92. Twice a week to the hairdresser (that helmet doesn’t create itself!) is an absolute essential. And I do mean absolute.

Rabz
June 30, 2023 10:33 pm

that disgusting grub biden gets back in

Cronkite, he’s barely animate now, FFS.

That sleazy slimebag newsome* will be the dumbocrat candidate for ’24 – RFK is not a possibility. Or, Cats, the Kackling Kamel. 🙁

*After his magnificent efforts transforming California into the world’s largest open air free range toilet

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
June 30, 2023 10:44 pm

Well, this is shit (the Hun):

Allan Border, among the greatest captains to lead the Australian men’s cricket team, has revealed he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

In an emotional article penned by Fox Sports’ executive director in The Australian, Border disclosed he was informed of his Parkinson’s seven years ago.

Seven years ago. Geez, he kept that quiet. If it was the current Australian skipper – or worse, Cheaty McSook – it would have been all over Instagram in ten minutes.

“I get the feeling I’m a hell of a lot better off than most,” Border said. “At the moment I’m not scared, not about the immediate future anyway. I’m 68. If I make 80 that’ll be a miracle.”

Kick it’s arse, AB, you uncouth rude hold-people-to-account magnificent bastard.

Louis Litt
Louis Litt
June 30, 2023 10:44 pm

Lizzie 30/6 @ 6.55
Your comment regarding the Eucalypt tree being an environmental disaster due to Aboriginal burning.
Coul please explain fully please

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
June 30, 2023 10:45 pm

it’s

*its*

Geez. Border would never stand for poor punctuation.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
June 30, 2023 10:48 pm
Rabz
June 30, 2023 10:57 pm

Gil Scott-Heron, 1984

Rephrasing the cold war and lighting a fire under the hot one …
Banging on the war drums

It’s a re-Biden – we’re off to see the Uke-Nayzees, off to see the Uke-Nayzees … 😕

Bruce in WA
June 30, 2023 11:00 pm

Everything old is new again.

Funny how this doing the rounds on radio again. And it’s oddly hypnotic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsGjFh1ke44

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
June 30, 2023 11:02 pm

Supposed to be going to bed and this drops.

Have fun.

Moreno J Mix Vol 02 – Moreno J Remixes (The Re-edited)

cohenite
June 30, 2023 11:10 pm

“Cronkite, he’s barely animate now, FFS.

That sleazy slimebag newsome* will be the dumbocrat candidate for ’24 – RFK is not a possibility. Or, Cats, the Kackling Kamel. ?”

Obama is the actual POTUS now, in his 3rd term. He wants a 4th term and he and his swamp own the old pervert. Newsome, a serious shithead, still doesn’t fit the bill of a walking corpse. So it will be biden again.

Bruce in WA
June 30, 2023 11:34 pm

Just settling in to rewatch “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi”. One of the most harrowing movies I’ve seen. Honestly leaves you exhausted after watching it.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
July 1, 2023 12:05 am

Subs. Fascinating and awful.
Up till the reintroduction of the convoy system they were strangling the Poms.
Same in WW1.
Same result when they started convoys, the seas emptied of targets and when a mob of ships were found there were escorts to worry about.
There is a passage I. “ business in great waters” where one very clever pilot who was shot down attacking a sub spun the story their passive radar detectors on the u boats were how they were being found.
Was convincing enough that many sub commanders switched theirs off.

Again, it’s incredible that in both wars the boxheads had 100% belief their codes were unbroken.

calli
calli
July 1, 2023 12:25 am

The Cobb at Lyme Regis was closed today, so we could only walk halfway out. In the bay, off Lucy’s Ledge, a world championship regatta was in progress – OK dinghy class. Many tiny sails bobbing about in the rather blustery weather.

Decided to walk up the shingle beach to the ammonite pavement. Dark grey, stratified cliffs indicate an ancient mudslide which took many creatures with it. A link to a nice panorama of the cliff below.

https://www.360panoramas.co.uk/lymeregis/landslip.php

Saw some excellent fossils an picked up a couple of milky geodes. Idiots were way too close to the face taking selfies.

Visited Mary Anning’s final resting place beside the Church of St Michael the Archangel. The church itself is one of those cobbled together places displaying an array of architectural styles and materials, including the usual arts and crafts factory windows. The outside, however is far more interesting…weathered and crouching with a shoulder against the southern gales that punish the coast. The stone is pitted and encrusted with lichen, blotched like the skin of an ancient sailor.

The mizzling rain sent us scuttling into the Royal Lion hotel for a beer and a G&T. It featured in The French Lieutenant’s Woman all those years ago. Back again tonight for a highly recommended pie n peas.

Johnny Rotten
July 1, 2023 12:30 am

I just saw a sign outside our local seafood joint (sorry, providore).
“Local caught parrot”.

Local caught parrot fish maybe…………………………….Otherwise, there maybe some feathers in the fish and chips.

Gabor
Gabor
July 1, 2023 12:39 am

P says:
June 30, 2023 at 6:26 pm

The font used is this edition of newcatallaxy makes it a dream for me to read.
So thanks, even if it is only for a day or so.

You can change the font and size of font locally, you know. All PCs and phones tablets let you do it. On a PC just press CTR and up-scroll to increase the size of fonts. In your browser you can set the type of font as well as size.

calli
calli
July 1, 2023 12:56 am

I was content to peer in through Twitter’s murky windows for an entertaining view of “those people” and their mindless brain farts.

Having now been effectively shut out as I refuse to give them any information about myself is strangely freeing. Life is full of encounters with weirdo carnie folk without actively seeking them out.

And it’s too short to have my eyes brutalised by naked Canadian perverts flashing their junk at little children.

Johnny Rotten
July 1, 2023 3:51 am

comment image

shatterzzz
July 2, 2023 4:08 pm

How ridiculous is the NRL getting ..
Cowboys run up 76 points to nil yesterday &
newcastle 66 to nil today ..
Not forgetting that most of these “stars” on the losing teams are on between $150 000 to $500 000 a year ..

shatterzzz
July 2, 2023 4:12 pm

An entire page of comments has disappeared! ..

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  4. I have noticed something curious in US politics with this Trump election win that is different from the first one.…

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