Yes please, I’ve just spent half an hour in the garden watering before it gets too hot and Zero-ing weeds…
Open Thread – Tues 4 July 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
Trouble at mill. Marles’ chief of staff launches legal action amid workplace dispute (Tele, not paywalled) Richard Marles’ chief of…
I can see a future for “Jims Mowing & Laser Weed Destruction” business.
JC Are these North Korean soldiers in the room with you now? The whole world has seen on X captured…
My fear is his newly discovered voice will be stifled in the Liberal party room by the time-serving careerists who…
lol
Thought I would lighten things up a little.
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Having to live in Canberra I have to make the most of it. The level of incompetence is astronomical. My wife is probably the leading authority in her field. She is now working for another department. They didn’t know what to do even though the work is low level. She’d given them advice 9 years ago that they took no notice of. 3 people are taking money under false pretences. A friend does AI as a hobby, IT people hate him. He reckons 90% of the APS would be out of work if implemented. Its a make work scheme for highly paid slow learners. The SES band spend all their time schmoozing for the next job. There is no responsibility. The buck stops nowhere.
Leaving Portuqal today. Fell is love with this place. The only downside is that the north Atlantic is really cold. They should’ve grabbed a lick of land off the Spanish heading into the Med for warmer seawater. 🙂
Hey Zulu,
Booktopia has it. Must get a copy of Blott on the Landscape also. Someone never returned mine years ago.
Barking Toad it could have been worse, he could have been lefthanded like myself.
On what basis are people in the APS and other government agencies promoted?
Pogria, 7:16 pm. Link failure.
The level of incompetence is astronomical.
not just incompetence, malicious incompetence
Ms this and Dr that
Hope this works.
nope. not tonight. 🙁
Lysander
Jul 5, 2023 3:27 PM
And I see Ukraine reporting Russia has placed “devices” at Zaphoria Nuke plant…. I don’t have a source except a random on Twitter… sorry..
Lysander,
SITREP 7/4/23: Final Hour of Zelensky’s Terror Ploy
SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER
5 JUL 2023
Gives a good outline & update
How furious? He invited the Piss Christ artist to the Vatican last week.
Opinion
Victoria must wake up from Stockholm syndrome
All Australian taxpayers should be concerned about the nepotism, financial recklessness and disregard for good government in the state.
John Kehoe – Economics editor
Jul 5, 2023 – 1.04pm
All Victorians and Australians – present and future generations – should be deeply concerned about the fiefdom Premier Daniel Andrews is running.
As a once-proud Victorian for the first 23 years of my life, and with family and friends living there, I am seriously worried about the state’s finances, governance and probity.
We could all end up paying for decades because Victoria’s projected $220 billion gross debt is out of control and implicitly underwritten by Commonwealth taxpayers.
In what appears to be a severe case of Stockholm syndrome, many Victorians seem blind to the nepotism, financial recklessness and disregard for good government.
The cronyism became nakedly brazen last week when Andrews appointed his former deputy premier, James Merlino, as chairman of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority.
It follows the Labor government’s appointment in June of former health minister Martin Foley and ex-police and emergency services minister Lisa Neville as chairs of Alfred Health and Barwon Health.
Despite ostensibly exiting politics, it seems some ex-ministers remain wedded to living off taxpayers.
Public service bypassed
The state’s budget watchdog has already warned the proposed $125 billion suburban rail loop could blow out to $200 billion – just for the first two of three phases.
The project was developed in secret by the premier’s office, reportedly in partnership with a handful of PwC consultants, in the lead-up to the 2018 election.
Andrews bypassed the public service. No rigorous cost-benefit analysis has ever been publicly presented.
One former Victorian senior public servant close to the project describes it as Andrews’ “vanity project”.
Surprisingly, federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King has offered $2 billion for the rail loop and excused it from an audit of projects because it was promised by Labor at the election.
It is a highly political project that will cut through a swag of suburbs in key electorates, from Werribee, in Melbourne’s south-west, to Cheltenham, in the city’s south-east.
Fiscal albatross
The kicker is Andrews has appointed his former right-hand man Merlino less than a year after he supposedly resigned from politics.
Much of the media attention focused on the “jobs for mates” angle and the up to $140,000 Merlino could potentially earn from taxpayers.
The bigger concern is that a political confidant of the premier will be in charge of a dubious and massively expensive project that will become a fiscal albatross around the neck of Victorians.
In overseeing the project, will Merlino strive to deliver value for taxpayers, or political value for government mates?
Victoria’s exploding debt has it on track to pay $8 billion a year in interest expenses. It has the worst credit rating of the states, after a double-notch downgrade during the pandemic.
Victoria’s finances have not been in such a perilous state since the early 1990s when the stricken State Bank of Victoria, its merchant banking arm Tricontinental and the collapsed Pyramid Building Society rendered the state almost bankrupt under the Labor government of John Cain and Joan Kirner.
Debt burden
Luckily for Andrews, most voters aged under 45 and recent migrants won’t remember the consequences of financial mismanagement.
Unaffordable and dubious projects like the rail loop will inevitably come at the expense of other necessary investments for Victorians, lead to more tax increases and add to the state’s massive debt burden.
Moreover, the Merlino appointment last week coincided with former chief health officer Brett Sutton being named Victorian of the year for his efforts during the pandemic.
Sutton no doubt tried his best during the difficult circumstances of COVID-19. But basic facts should not be ignored when judging the merits of award recipients.
Under Sutton’s reign, Victorians were locked in their homes longer than anyone else during COVID-19, robbing them of freedom, exercise, mental health and socialisation. The long-term social consequences are only just starting to be realised.
Despite confining Victorians to their homes for 23 hours a day, Victoria had more COVID-19 deaths than any other state, in absolute and per capita terms.
The draconian restrictions largely delayed, but did not necessarily prevent, deaths. Excess deaths are now way up. Nationally, excess deaths were 20,200 higher last year, with sharp rises in deaths from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, dementia and cancer.
Delays to routine health check-ups and emergency care were chief causes. It turns out terrifying people into not visiting their doctor and forcing the cancellation of surgeries was deadly.
Victorian school students lost more days of face-to-face learning than peers interstate.
Spending splurge
Partly as a result of imposing the world’s longest lockdown, Victoria has easily the highest debt of all states on any metric.
The state’s spending splurge is directly contributing to the inflation problem.
Yet, Andrews has the chutzpah to blame Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe for “smashing” households with interest rate rises in response to the inflation problem the premier has helped fuel.
Lowe is one of the smartest, most decent and well-meaning public servants you will meet.
Andrews is a masterful political communicator. Perhaps the best I’ve even seen. But at a time of high inflation, labour shortages in construction and cost blowouts for building materials, putting the foot to the floor on dubious infrastructure projects is counterproductive.
New NSW Labor treasurer Daniel Mookhey has wisely recognised this and will cut spending to help the RBA fight inflation. He sees it as a responsibility to help the RBA, given states are some of the biggest employers and spenders on goods, services and infrastructure.
In contrast, Andrews prefers to blame Lowe and wash his hands of responsibility.
Andrews enthusiastically embraced Lowe’s advice to borrow at cheap rates during the pandemic to spend on pet projects, but now belittles Lowe for political gain.
ICAC irony
Andrews should now listen to Lowe on lifting productivity and improving people’s living standards.
Gross household disposable income per person in Victoria ranked seventh out of the eight states and territories in 2021-22, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
It is ironic that in the same week former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian was rightly condemned for her links to corruption, Andrews was appointing a Labor mate to a taxpayer-funded position.
Andrews’ government escaped lightly after the state’s corruption watchdog last year slammed a “catalogue of unethical and inappropriate behaviour and concerning practices” inside the state Labor Party.
The probe centred on allegations of industrial-scale branch stacking and misuse of taxpayer-funded electoral staff to perform factional work. It followed an ombudsman finding in 2018 – known as the red shirts rort – that the party misused $388,000 in taxpayer funds for its 2014 election campaign.
But as legal commentators noted, Victoria’s corruption watchdog has much weaker powers than its NSW equivalent and has to meet a higher threshold before starting an investigation.
In Victoria, if a Berejiklian scenario played out, politicians may never be investigated and the public would never know.
Combined with an impotent Liberal opposition, Andrews appears to be untouchable.
Comment box far too large.
Site loading well.
Well spotted, Johanna. I own my mistake. However, I stand by my comment whether or not you are capable of accepting same. I am most often correct when it comes to simple gut feelings. A talent you may lack, of course.
free association and free people
Imagine Dying For This
Death In Kramatorsk
Last week in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, a restaurant frequented by foreign military volunteers was hit by Russian missiles. Video from the aftermath showed young men with American accents and other indications of being former American servicemen (U.S. military tattoos, American flag decals) tending to the wounded. One of the Americans lamented that many of his fellow soldiers were under the rubble.
Over the weekend, we got confirmation that at least one American military volunteer had been killed in the strike.
What Were They Fighting For?
Presumably, these young men had good, idealistic reasons for volunteering in the Ukraine War. Perhaps they felt they were defending democracy, or defending a smaller country against a larger one. But Ukraine isn’t currently much of a democracy,
And while Russia is certainly larger than Ukraine, Ukraine has been backed to the hilt by the strongest and wealthiest military alliance in the world, NATO. The U.S. alone has sent aid to Ukraine totaling more than Russia’s annual military budget.
What Does NATO Stand For?
Since NATO has turned what was essentially a civil war between cousins in Eastern Ukraine into a proxy war against Russia, it’s worth asking what NATO stands for. It clearly doesn’t stand for democracy, as it tolerates its proxy Ukraine’s antidemocratic moves, and it includes autocratic Turkey as one of its members.
So what are NATO’s current core principles? One way to think about core principles is what you stand for, even if it costs you. What does NATO’s largest military organization stand for?
Zelensky has banned opposition political parties
He arrested political opponents
He banned all unfriendly media
He shut down Orthodox churches
And now there will be no Presidential election next year
At what point we call him what he is?
A dictator
Dr. John Campbell
Dramatic increase in Diabetes
Had your fill of Portugese tarts?
Judge Delivers Major Blow to Biden Admin in Social Media Censorship Case
JMH, perhaps watching ‘reality’ shows improves political acumen?
Otherwise, how do you explain declining support for Da Voice?
Disclaimer: The writer watches reality shows, current favourites are the Million Dollar Listing shows from NYC and LA.
🙂
PS – good to see the hamsters are coming off their WEB. For a while there, I thought they were employed by TheirABC.
EXCLUSIVE: Cross-dressing gunman behind July 4 Philly bloodbath that left five dead is BLM supporter who made chilling Facebook posts about ‘black massacres’ and ‘evil spirits’
I describe this to family and friends as the umpteen billion dollar rail line which goes nowhere.
Meanwhile, hospitals in Victoria are badly run down under Andrews and waiting times are totally unacceptable.
Sutton (and Andrews) are also key figures in the Sluggate Scandal, which framed and destroyed an innocent, thriving business and for which no one has been called to account.
The aboriginal problem will not be addressed or solved until aboriginals themselves accept that they are living in a first world society. “Acknowledgement of country” and smoking ceremonies won’t do. The academic elite have shown that education works, far better than demanding more ‘sit-down’ money.
Nazaré would be good to see with ones own eyes.
Challenging the Pandemic Treaty: Andrew Bridgen Speech at EU Parliament 04.07.23
It’s taken to series 3 of The Witcher to have a fight scene that resembles the gameplay.
GB News launches ‘Don’t Kill Cash’ campaign.
The Gates Effect: How One Man’s Wealth and Influence Are Changing the World – Dr Robert Malone
What an absolute joke.
“Otherwise, how do you explain declining support for Da Voice?”
I am one who puts zero faith into polls. I suspect rural and regional Australia are likely vote NO but the metro populations are another matter. They are most unlikely, as a whole, to undertake their own education as to what is at stake where our Constitution is concerned and as to how a Yes vote will change their lives in the most unpleasant and obnoxious way.
Like Putin then. Seems to go with the territory since Lukashenko is the same species of critter.
The antisemitism stuff is fun since he’s Jewish. On the other hand Russia has just accused the former Moscovite chief rabbi of being a foreign agent. He in turn has told Russian Jews to vamoose as fast as they can.
Jews should leave Russia ‘before it’s too late,’ says former chief rabbi of Moscow (3 Jul)
I think the main problem is Mr Z wants Iron Dome and Israel is valiantly trying to sit on the fence, since they have a large number of Russian Jewish emigres who migrated after the fall of the commies. Plus a working relationship with Russia rather helps the situation with Syria and Iran, to some extent. I respect Israel highly for that. They’ve been playing geopolitics for for all the marbles a long time longer than Zelenskyy has.
Ukraine military briefing\
Military briefing: Ukraine provides ideal ‘testing ground’ for western weaponry
Kyiv’s defence minister says allies are gaining priceless intelligence about the performance of their munitions
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov was meeting US officials when he took a phone call from his top commander. Turning to his American visitors, Reznikov said: “I have good news for you. We downed a Kinzhal.”
The Kinzhal was supposedly a fearsome Russian hypersonic missile which, Vladimir Putin boasted, flew so fast it could not be intercepted. But on that day in May, Ukrainian forces fired a newly acquired Patriot air defence system, one of the most advanced pieces of weaponry supplied so far by the US, proving Putin wrong.
“Fantastic!” Reznikov recalled a US official responding.
The war in Ukraine is the first time that Nato weaponry is being used on a large scale against Russia’s army — after pleas for assistance from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — and it is giving western militaries invaluable insights into the performance of their kit.
Experts had long suspected the Patriot was capable of shooting down a Kinzhal, but it took the Ukrainian military to demonstrate it. They have since intercepted more than a dozen.
Kyiv’s western allies “can actually see if their weapons work, how efficiently they work and if they need to be upgraded”, Reznikov said in an interview.
“For the military industry of the world, you can’t invent a better testing ground,” he added.
To protect its skies from Russian missiles, Ukraine has also received US-Norwegian Nasams air defences as well as Germany’s newly developed Iris-T. It is the first time all the different Nato-grade systems have been put to the test together.
“The systems work together?.?.?. It’s also very important for them to know,” Reznikov said.
Artillery including US M777 howitzers, German Panzerhaubitze 2000s, French Caesars and Polish Krabs that are more accurate than Russian canon, have been softening the ground for Ukraine’s infantry and repelling Russian advances.
A western artillery system is like a “Mercedes-Benz” compared with a Russian Soviet-era car, but Nato-grade weaponry has also shown its own shortcomings, according to Petro Pyatakov, an arms industry consultant and retired colonel.
“It has become apparent during operations that these systems were not intended for such intense warfare” in which Russia’s artillery machine fires nonstop and indiscriminately.
“All of them require a break?.?.?.?after two or three minutes of firing at maximum speed, which is not the case with Soviet guns,” Pyatakov said.
Pyatakov confirmed that there was an “active interest from western artillery manufacturers in receiving feedback from Ukrainian gunners?.?.?.?to eliminate shortcomings”.
“It’s not just the Ukrainians who are learning how to fight a modern, high-intensity war. The Russians are as well,” said a western defence adviser.
“There is a risk that [the west] will get left behind when it comes to battlefield tactics unless we absorb the lessons to be learnt with some urgency,” the adviser said.
GPS-guided munitions for artillery, as well as multiple-launch rocket systems such as the US Himars, were “highly accurate.” But, Reznikov added, Russia’s strong radio-electronic systems were finding ways to jam them.
“The Russians come up with a countermeasure, we inform our partners and they make a new countermeasure against this countermeasure,” Reznikov said.
The same approach is deployed to improve the performance of surveillance and strike drones, which are being used on an unprecedented scale but are also frequently jammed.
“It’s like a constant pendulum. This is a war of technology,” Reznikov said.
Jack Watling, an expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think-tank, said the west had learnt a great deal about how Russian systems operated “at a tactical level, and they have observed the impact of [drones] and other systems on broad-scale combat operations”.
“On the other hand, the west has exposed a lot of its own capabilities to Russia and China, and therefore will have to change the ways that some of its equipment work in order to retain competitive advantage,” Watling said.
A German defence contractor said they had learnt “really a lot from the soldiers in Ukraine” who once they notice something, “suggest it and our software engineers sit down so that they can have an update”.
The contractor noted that at the beginning of the invasion, the perception was that Ukraine would have to defend itself against huge Russian air raids. But the reality on the ground has been very different.
“It becomes a question of economics — [the Russians] send over a €25,000 drone and you fire a half-a-million defence missile, so it becomes economically untenable, especially when you don’t have an unlimited supply.”
To make do with scarce supplies, Ukraine and its allies have been innovative. They have mounted missiles originally designed for Nato aircraft on Ukraine’s Soviet fighter jets. UK Harpoon anti-ship missiles, normally fired from vessels, have been fitted to jeeps to more easily evade Russian strikes.
Aiding this improvisation is an easy exchange of information. Top Ukrainian defence officials can call up their contacts in western governments or arms contractors while Ukrainian soldiers can contact the foreign instructors who trained them to use foreign weapons.
Watling, who is involved in the feedback process, said that in addition to the “formalised process?.?.?.?you’ve got lots of those informal loops”.
“The problem is that a lot of the lessons that come from those individual sort of conversations don’t give you data,” he said, adding that Ukraine’s command needed to be more systematic in data collection.
Reznikov said maintenance contracts had recently been inked with the UK defence company Babcock International, France’s Nexter Systems which produces artillery, and Germany’s Rheinmetall — best known for making the Leopard tanks that Ukraine’s forces have recently started using.
Last autumn, Ukraine adopted Nato’s computerised Logfas database. It gives Kyiv and its allies data on what weaponry is operational, what needs repairs and what has to be replaced completely.
“This is all additional proof that we are powerful partners who are de facto a Nato country,” Reznikov said.
“Everyone is watching closely. And not only India. China too?.?.?.?Everyone, even those who bought weapons from [Russia], will watch carefully,” Reznikov said.
Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, was visiting Kyiv in mid-May, by which time Ukraine had allegedly downed several Kinzhals.
However, Ukrainian diplomats said the Chinese envoy did not believe that US-made Patriots had intercepted Russia’s hypersonic missiles.
“I proposed that if there are doubts, we are ready to provide proof,” Reznikov said.
Li left Kyiv without viewing the evidence, Reznikov added.
The Chinese embassy in Kyiv did not respond to a request for comment.
“For the military industry of the world, you can’t invent a better testing ground,” he added.
Pity about the Ukrainian Soldiers Lives Lost!
The link I was trying to upload was a meme that stated, “University of Texas offering an entire class on the music of Taylor Swift”.
underneath,
This is Why nobody should have to pay your Student Debt.
The Regret of Non Compliant People
Brenden Dilley
@WarlordDilley
If you’ve wondered what an actual case of clinically diagnosed narcissistic personality disorder looks like, this is it…
‘Smallville’ actor Allison Mack is quietly released from prison a year early after being jailed for three years for brainwashing and recruiting sex slaves for NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere who is serving 120 years
‘Sound of Freedom’ Eyes Stunning $20 Million Debut
White House Cocaine Story Takes Another Bizarre Twist as It Changes Again
I listened ages ago to an audio book performance of this by Simon Callow.
His Sth Efrican accent sounded amazingly good to me – I wonder if anyone here from South Africa has ever heard it and can report on his accuracy or otherwise?
Incredibly funny book btw.
Perhaps western volunteers assisting Ukraine should be called the Condor Legion?
Joe Biden EVISCERATED in scathing attack – ‘Most ANTI-BRITISH president in living memory’
Scrolling back after several hours absence it seems from the times & frequency of posts other folk aren’t having my log on problems .. most of the morning attempts ended in time-outs or I just got fed-up ..
quit trying around 1-ish this afternoon until now .. this took 2 minutes for front page & 3 minutes for comments to load …..
so that’ll do for the night .. see what the morning brings ……!
“This Is Way More Serious Than You Think” | Jordan Peterson (2023)
Latest on the $576,000 payout to Rochelle Miller.
Miller wanted to go public, but Scotty nixed that.
Tudgey in the clear.
Kangaroo Court of Australia
The U.N. Is Planning To Seize Global ‘Emergency’ Powers With Biden’s Support
China is in default on a trillion dollars in debt to US bondholders. Will the US force repayment?
Jeffrey Epstein Files: Emails, Calendars Reveals Pedophile’s Network of Power, Influence, Includes Presidents, Prime Ministers, Royalty
There are plenty of ‘Jewish’ anti-Semites. The US Democrats are chockers with them. Fringe parties in Israel, ditto.
Roger an example. An accountant made an SES of a specialist branch of which he had no knowledge because the boss and him shared the same style of clothing which they chatted about often. A bloke not promoted because he starts early and leaves early. Very good at his job. A bloke being mde in charge then not giving staff work to do that know more than him and have been doing his job before he was appointed. Jealousy of ability, surrounding themselves with sycophants. Not giving good references so they don’t loose good staff. The SES go on course after course to get the next job. Its nothing to do with doing the job you’ve got. My daughter spent 75% of her time explaining what she was doing to her boss coz the boss didn’t have a clue. My daughter is now 3 levels higher equivilent in private enterprise doing the same work for the same department. There are too many levels and no accountability. I think thats a feature. A mate was in a ministers office. He wrote a press release why they were doing something before an election to then writing another after the election why they were’nt. Most of the APS work seems to be churning. Report writing that nobody reads past the first 2 pages.
Shame on the cretins in Delaware who elected the old thief for decades giving the grub a spring board to the WH.
shatterzzz
I found that clearing history and the cache, things speeded up.
Or it might just have been a coincidence!
shatterzz, site has been rubbish in terms of access for the last couple of days. It’s not just you.
Dover has the hamsters in an attitude retraining camp and is resetting the power source to windmills. According to our betters, all will be well. 🙂
Umm, that the world is moving into the twenty first century, and a Stone age, Hunter gatherer culture has little, if any place in such a world…
Zulu
To what extent do the San Bushmen live the old life, and to what extent have they adapted to modernity?
I’m glad you liked Portugal JC.
Boambee John
Jul 5, 2023 8:56 PM
shatterzzz
Pure coincidence, I tried all of the above and different browsers too.
No improvement.
With Edge I got on quick once and been presented with weeks old posts.
Weird.
Well said, Joh! I LOl’ed. Though I suspect it is more altitude than attitude… probably a CO2 issue.
What ought to happen is that some government somewhere ought to legislate, which would obviously cure the problem instantly. Sadly, on Planet Dover, I suspect more mundane matters are being taken in hand.
Some patience required.
More broadly, why on earth does the age of ‘cultures’ which have allegedly been unchanged for tens of thousands of years (and how can that assertion be proved) matter? If Culture X dates back 65,000 years, and Culture Y only dates back 62,500 years, does that make X superior?
The problem with these issues is that conservatives, or just people who believe in seeking the facts, keep accepting the leftist premises, like that some dodgy archaelogical estimates (which seem to keep shifting) are objective truth.
Then, they take the next steep, which is that the older a culture is, the worthier.
What BS. Tell it to the Griks and the Romans.
There is absolutely nothing that you can do from your end that will make any difference. Humans being very good a pattern-matching, that may not appear to be the case, but it kinda is.
Dover has lured the hamsters from the collectivist model, bypassed a reversion to slavery and is working on something better. If there were enough hamsters, perhaps a supply–side solution would become obvious.
Linda Burney is visiting West Australia, and wants to be known as an “honorary Sandgroper.”
Tarred and feathered, and ridden down St Georges Terrace on a rail…
There are probably about 100,000 San Bushmen left – they are being forced away from their hunter – gatherer lifestyle, and into raising cattle and agriculture.
Now not so much, Rosie. 🙂
We have a 5 hour delay because of the American airline taking us back is late. US airlines are woeful these days. We’re actually lucky they just didn’t cancel it.
But yes, it was great. Our pals took to really nice places like Sintra (?,) which was a great town.
Dover Beach attempts to get more 225 lb shaved “hamsters” in his infernal mills driving the AC generator powering the server:
My peaches, what a lovely office you have yourself here…
Why Humphrey Bogart was a lucky SOB: the end scene from To Have and To Have Not
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUA_XOuCKZw
For what it’s worth, the local businessman, who was being prosecuted under the old Aboriginal heritage Act for putting a culvert on his property, to stop the creek flooding and dividing his property – he upset the mythical Aboriginal ‘Rainbow serpent”, and was facing a $20,000 fine and nine months in tronk – is back before the Courts on Monday. He says he is utterly blown away by the level of popular support, and there is a rumour that the neighbor who “dobbed him in” is selling up and leaving town…
I agree, Sinatra is gorgeous.
Both the town itself and the former monastery and gardens up the hill.
Last time I went there we ubered up and walked down, it’s a bit like the Dandenongs.
I’m definitely planning to visit again, I want to get up to the north west corner and finally get around to catching the ferry to the other side of the Tagus in Lisbon.
Hanging around Lisbon airport not much fun, especially if it is terminal 2.
In response to Tom Sharpe his characterisation of Afrikaners was so true. We used to joke that the regte Dutchmen used to attend kerk on a Sunday morning, drink brandewyn at lunch time and then nail the maid in the khaya in the evening. Swaziland was an ever popular spot to meet up with the non fairer sex. Head across the border to the legal casino and what was on tour stayed on tour.
Any dealings with government employees was as portrayed by Sharpe. No sense of humour combined with inefficiency. Note the entire public service was cleared out of sout pele or another term was rooinecks. You had to be bilingual which meant speak Afrikaans but really meant if you were English you had no job.
I had some really amusing interactions when I worked as a fireman for a year saving up to pay my way through uni. I was reasonably fluent in Afrikaans by then having been screamed at enough during national service. As virtually the only English person on the footplate and who refused to speak Afrikaans, note the bilingual rule, I was questioned about all sorts of things in broken English. My favourite was the driver who wanted to know if I’d let my sister marry a black. When I said fine if she loved him he spent the day singing hyms. Under no circumstances did he want to talk to me but was somewhat compromised as all signals had to be repeated and as a hangover from the past they were referred to in English. He had to break off his singing and for example “Outer home signal at caution” did not really fit! Anyway I was never rostered with him again.
Can anyone figure what Angry Karen is trying to say? She doesn’t believe thems polls but because of superior intellect (or something), is able to divine that more rural voters will vote no compared to city folks. Also, city folk aren’t capable of figuring out what The Voice means in terms of the constitution. FMD, he’s stupider than Trans and that’s saying a lot.
I don’t believe we could have a majority vote either way (voters and states) without the assistance of city voters. The nasty innumerate doesn’t realize this.
Are blog wreckers at work?
If so, who are they?
Good to see you back, Tekweni.
Well, I tried a cashless day today. Ok for morning coffee after dance class, and for dance class monthly payment. Cash donation for someone’s birthday. Then bought some jeans and jackets in sales for my two older sons, had to credit card them. My lunch in a food court, cash again. Cash for chicken kiev at the chicken shop. Cash for some new sox for me. Out of cash for picking up two month’s supply of blood pressure and oestrogen gel medication for me so on card. New toothbrush, battery sort, also on card. To bank for more cash.
What I noticed was that for small things cash was less trouble, more convenient, as long as I had approximately the right amount. But handing over cash felt really strange, I realised how much I have got used to using cards for all, even minor, purchases. Cash also seems more ‘real’. I would buy fewer ‘bargains’ if I had to use cash.
Regarding the reliability of polling, recent history suggests that polls are fairly accurate, but when they fail, they err towards the left.
The most notable examples are Trump 2016, Brexit and ScoMo 2019.
If the polling for da Voice is in error, it will be overstating the Yes vote, IMHO.
Honestly – she can FOAD. Do morons like this think their pronouncements from on-high actually help the case ?
that’s a bit harsh
… it’s only 75 Billion
Hey JC,
how’d you get so good?
was it lived experience or were you just born that way?
I have accepted an invitation to hear Peter Dutton speak to the IPA on Friday morning, business attire required. Will have to dust something off for that. Hairy refuses to attend. His only suit that fits is now strictly for weddings and funerals and he can see the point of getting up early any more. He did buy two smart new jackets last week though, for when dining ‘informally’ on cruise ships. I said he could wear one of those but he thought not.
We were both going to share an excursion to see Donald Trump Jnr this weekend but that marital conviviality has been stymied by our lax-on-getting-out-the-visa Department of Immigration. Working from home, probably. What other reason could there be?
he can’t see the point.
My keyboard must be feeling my age.
This fast moving blog must have a rainbow serpent stuffing up the works.
Dover should get in an abo heritage fixer to smoke it out.
We’ll all chip in for the cost.
(seriously Dover, if you need some funds let us know)
Clay Travis
@ClayTravis
Joe Biden’s federal government engaged in the most direct attack on the first amendment in US history through social media censorship. This is one of the most important district court opinions ever written. Holy hell, what a takedown & defense of free speech.
Link to the Judgment itself
Detransitioner: Genital Surgery ‘Destroyed My Life’ — ‘You Need to Be Insane’ to Think This Helps Patients
Expert Pilot Fired By OceanGate Warned CEO Would Kill Himself, Others ‘To Boost His Ego‘: Report
Driving around in circles is not a walk in the park … when everyone gangs up on you, it’s on!
Relive the final laps from Dale Earnhardt’s 76th and final win | NASCAR
Reposted for excellence – johanna’s smackdown of the angry uncle who just knows better at 7.03:
Ahaha. Haha. Oh yes.
Watching the Blues Brothers.
Enjoying some Illinois Nazi action.
Says it all doesn’t it.
I was going to add apply that to the renewaballz
Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.
– Aristotle
Just lobbing in from somewhere off the Outer Hebrides. Had to pay for a day of innernet access for business so thought I’d check up on you.
I see you are whining about the site. Just be done with it and use smoke signals! Or sacrifice a chook and examine its entrails. 😀
Yesterday I rode the Glasgow Clockwork Orange over to Kelvingrove Museum. As Zoolander would say, “Is this a Subway for ants?”. The Beloved clobbered his head in and out.
The museum had some excellent exhibits, a permanent one being Dali’s Christ. Also a ton of Scottish colourists, a Rembrandt, a Van Gogh and many others. Plus a MacIntosh furniture display. A special exhibition of Mary Quant too. Naturally, being Glasgow, it poured after leaking indeterminately all day. Sailing down the Clyde estuary (I think they call them Firths north of the border) was an eye opener – beautiful countryside.
Stornaway tomorrow, followed by Kirkwall. The weather forecast was dire for tenders into Lerwick, so I get to see the wonderful St Magnus for the second time in a year.
I’ll probably send something descriptive after Iceland. Sailing between the Inner and Outer Hebrides is rather special – on the port side, grey and mist filled hills in the distance, to starboard the sunshine glancing on greenest of green fields and little whitewashed houses. The sea is slatey, with an occasional white horse. Rounding Land’s End was another story – very rough and himself got seasick and curled up in bed for the duration. As for me, I could easily have stood on the bow and done a Kate Winslet…I have an excellent constitution when it comes to the swell, this one was four metres.
That’s enough from me now. Looks like I have the place to myself anyway.
Hey Calli,
sounds like your having an extraordinary time. I would love to have seen the Mary Quant display.
Have you received the volcano warnings for Iceland? Quite a few of the clued up worldwise cats here were hoping to pass on the message to you.
Hope the beloved’s head is better. 😀
Refresh time – 45 seconds
Comment time – 15 seconds
Not bad, perhaps the hamsters are reinvigorated.
Reading back…Voice tanking, NoKnickers whining. Tragic stuff. 🙂
Meanwhile, we are taking great care not to mention the cricket.
Gunman arrested for Philadelphia mass shooting that left 5 dead is BLM activist who wore women’s clothes
Better read this one while you can. Reports on a black tranny BLM activist committing a mass shooting won’t last long in the media.
Well, landed in Ireland on an Air Qatar flight – excellent – to find the air bridge at Dublin International would not connect with the Dreamliner.
After a bit everyone got told to sit down again and wait.
About 20 minutes later airport management managed to connect two flights of ramp stairs to the plane.
Welcome to Ireland!
A Day in Doha
Just leaving Doha, where the government have done great things in the 17 years since I was there. It’s still basically a huge sand-state, much reclaimed from the sea, and now concreted over, but still the sea is visible almost everywhere. Apart from the air-conditioned stadiums for the FIFA World Cup last year, everything has been cleaned up – even saw a bloke mopping the sidewalks at the local souk. The whole city is clean and people obliging. Very hot, 42 degrees and windy while we were here. Maybe no pets – did not see a dog, 1 small cat.
Managed to catch the local police horses at Souq Waqif (market); another of police riding camels and visited a falconry. The tenants were tearing into their evening meal, which looked like chicken wings and legs. Apparently, a falcon sells for $1-3k, depending on its age and how much training it has had. A man in the corner was making hoods for the birds. You could buy all the accessories: gauntlets, bells, perches etc.
Walked around the rest of the souk for a bit. If you buy too much, a wheelbarrow man can be engaged to push. Saw the scarf headgear shop, pets for sale by the hundred; mainly birds and rabbits; carpets, spices and seeds, etc.
We ate at restaurant complete with plastic tablecloth – majboos (national dish) lamb shanks, with yellow rice and tomato sauce. Largest flatbread ever seen!
Hamad International Airport may be now the world’s biggest – it’s spotless and very efficient. Doha seems to have become the Singapore of the Middle East (no plants).
Fun fact: lowest female population in world – just 25% – due to vast number of male migrant workers. Also 99.2% people live in the city – basically it’s a city-state rather than a country in some ways.
John Spooner.
Brett Lethbridge.
Peter Brookes.
Michael Ramirez.
A.F. Branco.
Tom Stiglich.
Berenson has unlocked his column on mRNA & fertility.
Previously, he questioned invermectin studies based on how small they were.
But in this column he quotes an Israeli study that looked at the sperm of 37 Israeli’s post jab.
Curious.
Andrew Bolt:
I love Dublin! TE, make it all go away with a trip up to the Tart With the Cart and give her very polished boobies a rub. 🙂
At least you’ll get to visit some genuine Irish pubs and not the manufactured horrors.
dover, I think Calli’s been hacked.
The fact that Aussies are rejecting The Voice is not that they’re racists.
The rejection is the exact opposite – division by race is anathema to decent people. We want to help the unfortunate, but draw the line at parasites. The more the parasites try to feed off heir own people’s misery, the stronger the spotlight they find themselves under.
Watch them squirm.
The Supreme Court and the End of Punitive Liberalism
I’d call that an excellent start.
It’s me Bern. The glasses, fake nose and moustachios are there to speed up the hamsters.
Fear me, rodents!
Getting on quick and fast refresh?
Must be the location joining in from, for me it’s 2 minutes minimum to get the page up and refresh? Forget it, times out.
Internet is a strange beast.
Glad we have nerds who can tame it, eeeeventually.
People are claiming that Blanchette is not the Turds love child.
I am yet to be convinced.
Gabor, I’ve been energised by the skirl of the pipes…we were piped out of Glennoch last night be a suite of stirring music from the local band. These Scots are a hardy bunch…it was freezing (to me) outside but they were all wearing short sleeved shirts, along with the mandatory kilt.
Here’s one of the paintings I viewed yesterday at Kelvingrove. You can look up the story of the betrayal and massacre.
That’s one of the joys of travel – art galleries. The other, for me at least, are neolithic sites. Tomorrow I get to view another stone ring, aligned to the sun and stars. Great stuff.
Anyway, that’s it from me. Good luck Dover with those hamsters.
Even if they are slow, they’re worth far more than instant Lefty sh*t.
I love the ‘Time Team’ with Phil and co.
Closest I get to British archeology I’m afraid.
Thanks again Tom. Apparently a duplicate comment according to the ‘upgraded’ Cat. ???????
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
– Aristotle
Surely it cannot be constitutional to have a Referendum to make an addition/change to the Australian Constitution without the wording being explicitly specified at the time of the Referendum. After all, the wording to any Section/Sub-Section/Clause is LAW.
Trying to get a vote for a YES and then deciding on the wording after the event is surely a FRAUD and should never be allowed to happen.
The Bud Light people would do well to take note of how to market grog, as demonstrated by the bastard colonials (the Hun):
They’ve also printed off hundreds of ‘England Bitter’ T-shirts using the VB logo, and will be giving them away to Australian fans outside Headingley before the start of play.
Brilliant.
Bought the Range Rover in March.
Updated the insurance which was about a 10% increase.
Overnight, Suncorp emailed me a renewal.
50% increase on the March update.
Wow.
Just wow.
Calli – If you are still going to Iceland, the latest is that the geologists think an eruption is likely in the next several hours. Reykjavik has been shaking constantly for 24 hours with a dozen R4 to 4.5 tremors. Apparently they’ve upgraded the air warning code to Orange, which means flights may get shut down if the raise it another notch. The locus is still about 30 km SW of the city.
https://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/#view=map
“johanna
Jul 5, 2023 8:46 PM
The antisemitism stuff is fun since he’s Jewish.
There are plenty of ‘Jewish’ anti-Semites. T”
Correct.
Have the ‘French Generals’ risen up yet?
There were ‘reports’, you know. Very reputable sources, it was said.
Rise up they said.
It will be fun they said.
Re Tom Sharpe, some of the funniest stuff I’ve read. Here’s a link to some of his audiobooks for anyone interested.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tom+sharpe+audiobook
Still not getting there! .. front page came up instantly but comments timed out the 1st time & 3 minutes 2nd go ..!
IAEA issues results of probe into Kiev’s claim mines were laid at nuclear plant
The UN agency’s experts have found no mines at Zaporozhye power plant as situation there remains ‘tense’
Specialists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have found no signs of any mines at Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the UN agency said in a statement on Wednesday, following an inspection carried out by its staff at the site.
The experts checked some parts of the facility, including “sections of the perimeter of the large cooling pond,” over the past days and weeks, the statement said, adding that they also “conducted regular walkdowns across the site.”
So far, no “visible indications of mines or explosives” have been observed, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in the statement. The agency’s team requested additional access to certain parts of the facility, including the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4, as well as turbine halls and cooling system facilities, he added.
“Their independent and objective reporting would help clarify the current situation at the site,” he said, pointing to some “unconfirmed allegations” indicating some potential security risks at the site. The director general also confirmed that the team stationed at ZNPP had not reported any recent shelling or explosions near the site.
The facility, which is Europe’s largest, returned to the spotlight in recent weeks after senior officials in Kiev claimed that Russia was planning a nuclear incident at the facility. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky alleged that Moscow wanted to cause a “radiation leak” at the plant. A key aide to Vladimir Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, also accused the Russian military of laying mines at the plant’s cooling pond.
Moscow has rejected these claims as “yet another lie.” The UN nuclear watchdog previously denied the claims about mines in the cooling pond as well.
On Wednesday, the Kremlin warned about a “high threat of sabotage” at the plant in Kiev. Such an action could lead to “catastrophic” results, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that the situation around ZNPP remains “tense.”
On Tuesday, Renat Karchaa, a senior official at Russia’s nuclear power plant operator Rosenergoatom, warned that the Ukrainian military might strike the facility with long-range, high-precision weapons or kamikaze drones. He also claimed that Kiev might target the plant with a Soviet-made ballistic missile loaded with radioactive waste.
Moscow and Kiev have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the Zaporozhye plant throughout their conflict. The facility has been under Russian control since March 2022.
Bowen the dunce should take note and start building coal power.
In a move that gives the lie to years of propaganda claiming falling costs, the wind industry’s leading lobbyists have written to the Government, threatening to abandon the UK unless there are hugely increased subsidies for their companies (see RenewableUK press release).
The industry is claiming that unforeseen rising costs now necessitate and justify three actions:
1) A vast increase in the budget for the fifth auction (AR5) of Contracts for Difference subsidies, with an increase of two and half times the current levels for non-floating offshore wind alone;
2) Special new targets and thus market shares for floating offshore wind, one of the most expensive of all forms of generation, and, most importantly of all,
3) a revision to the auction rules so that the winners are not determined by lowest bids but by an administrative decision that weights bids according to their “value” in contributing towards the Net Zero targets.
This would in effect not only increase total subsidy to an industry that was until recently claiming to be so cheap that it no longer needed public support, but also provide it with protected market shares, all but entirely de-risking investors at the expense of consumers.
Absolutely true.
Caused by neglected sore throats in young children.
Take your children to the free clinic when they are unwell.
It’s not that hard.
You simply don’t need another layer of bureaucracy to fix problems like this.
I think lurking might be my best option .. duuuh!
my last comment timed out then came in as duplicate before timing out again .. this time the start came immediately but comments page took 3 minutes .. ……
ENUF! he sez .. sniffles off stage left ..
“houso” patience is not a forever thing ……!
National Press Club yesterday
Reminds of this scene from Blazing Saddles
i didn’t get a harumph out of that guy
DC_Draino
@DC_Draino
Still insane to me that they shut down Biden’s installation to the public, surrounded him with thousands of troops and barbed wire, booted President Trump of all social media, launched a “domestic terror” crackdown against MAGA, and said with a straight face this wasn’t a coup
Brenden Dilley
@WarlordDilley
Just to be clear, there are trillions of dollars at stake in the 2024 election. The “machine” or “deep state” recognizes that you’re waking up and are becoming ungovernable.
Your support of Trump after two indictments (and gaining momentum) is proof that America has had enough, and rightfully so.
Global trade, big pharma, military industrial complex, mainstream media, the WEF, and not to mention foreign adversaries are ALL panicking over Trump’s rising poll numbers.
This is YOUR 1776. This is YOUR revolution. This is YOUR chance to serve your country and save our great nation.
This one’s just for fun.
Petty Woman: Meghan Markle Waves Goodbye To Her Rom-Com Dreams
I’m still getting time-outs and the ticks don’t work for me.
I can’t post. First it times out and then when I try again I get a “duplicate” message but the original never appears.
Beer giant CUB has brewed a special beverage for England’s whinging cricket team in the wake of its sooky response to being beaten fair and square by the Aussies.
Lovely darts CUB. Beautiful.
Ah they’re not the DEMONrats for their decency – they allow evil to flourish — let’s never forget that the people of Massachusetts kept sending the vile Edward Kennedy to the Senate for 40 years —
A Federal judge in the US (not SCOTUS but) issuing an injunction against the WH contacting the Big Tech companies to censor lawful speech.
Will be useful before the next Presidential election. Only question is whether they can respond to instances quickly enough or whether investigations can be kicked down the road until it is too late. Remember how many people said they would not have voted for Biden had they known about the laptop.
One community had a swimming pool built, to improve standards of hygiene.
The “young fellas” “got bored”, stole a Toyota, and drove it into the swimming pool..
I fear the hamsters are on their last legs.
Heres another prime example of an evil thinker.
Australian witch who came up with the term “neurodivergent”, in effect a mentally ill person who used language to make her illness “normal”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/05/the-mother-of-neurodiversity-how-judy-singer-changed-the-world
“I knew what I was doing,” she tells me. “‘Neuro’ was a reference to the rise of neuroscience. ‘Diversity’ is a political term; it originated with the black American civil rights movement. ‘Biodiversity’ is really a political term, too. As a word, ‘neurodiversity’ describes the whole of humanity. But the neurodiversity movement is a political movement for people who want their human rights.”
Back in the 1990s, Singer could sense that movement stirring in some of the groups that had sprung up in the early days of the internet. What people were talking about chimed with her own history and experiences – her apparently neurodivergent mother, Singer’s autistic daughter, and a range of traits she recognised in herself. To some extent, what people were discussing online was centred on their own psychologies, but it was also about wider society: the ways that its organisations, institutions and attitudes made many people’s lives all but impossible, and how those things could be changed.
Singer well knew the potential importance of what she was trying to describe; in giving it a name, she hoped she might somehow speed up its growth into something unstoppable. “I thought, ‘We need an umbrella term for a movement.’ And I also perceived that this was going to be the last great identity politics movement to come out of the 20th century.”
There then comes an unexpected reference point. “It partly came to me when I saw that film Grease,” she says. “There was this character … what was his name? Eugene. The nerd. It was considered perfectly OK for him to be bullied and pushed downstairs and everything else, and I thought, ‘This is not OK. This is a movement that needs to happen.’”
She pauses. “I thought, ‘We’re no longer going to be fair game’ – in other words, we’re going to change this. And we have.”
…
“I also say that there’s a right to work and there’s a right not to work. The bottom line for a better world for neurodivergent people is a universal basic income. And more investment in social housing, and no punitive welfare systems, which are often about forcing the nearest square peg into the nearest round hole. Is that going to happen? Well, it should happen.”
….
Letting insane people into universities hasnt been a great idea.
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
I can’t access Open Thread through usual links. Had to piggyback in on Indolent’s post on the side bar.
Thanks for being there when I needed you, Indy.
Hooray! The Cat is back from the dead for the first time since I posted ‘toons at 0400. The little hamsters that could.
Good luck sorting it out, Dover.
Many, many timeouts. Not with other threads, just this one.
Oh well. Worse things happen at sea.
Or so they say.
Interesting to see how well the figures correlate for excess deaths, fertility declines and now juvenile diabetes in the high vax countries, all around 15-25%
Curious indeed.
I note economists are now saying the government must intervene to address inflation.
Interest rate hikes will not do it.
I’ve been saying this for three months.
Alas, this government is ideologically opposed to the supply side reforms needed.
Meanwhile, keep an eye out for a deflationary shock to the world economy.
This is a test post @ 10:15 am.
I’m using Brave Browser. Don’t know if that helps.
Tom
Jul 5, 2023 4:02 PM
The Minister for The Aboriginal Industry is a gift that keeps on giving!
Everytime Linda Burney opens her mouth, she increases the No vote. And, like all lefties, she doesn’t have a clue why.
I for one am looking forward to being called a ‘white’ racist despite my lovely non-aboriginal caramel skin.
Shannons, who have been excellent to me over the years, wanted a 20% increase in my Landcruiser premium (reduced it somewhat after some haggling) and a 36% increase in my house premium – the house they would not budge on and as a result, I did not renew.
Methinks a LOT of flood insurance losses are being socialised to the good side of the business.
Cue the government introducing ‘affordable’ insurance for those who built on flood plains and cannot buy insurance in the market. We are all in this together after all!
Have you considered buying Dover a cup of coffee?
Just want to take the chance to say a big thanks to the Doverlord for his ongoing ordeal wrangling with the website.
I am still getting the delays and timeouts, and how ever much they might be an annoyance to me they must be infinitely more annoying to him – he soldiers on to provide something I don’t have pay or do anything for.
So, three cheers for Dover:
Huzzah!
Huzzah!
Huzzah!
New page?
This page dedicated to teasing the English.
Reinsurers worldwide have the jitters over the risk of “climate change induced natural disasters” and are pricing the perceived risks into what they charge insurance companies, which means the latter have to hike premeums.
premeums? 😀
Since it would otherwise be lost on the previous page:
Just want to take the chance to say a big thanks to the Doverlord for his ongoing ordeal wrangling with the website.
I am still getting the delays and timeouts, and how ever much they might be an annoyance to me they must be infinitely more annoying to him – he soldiers on to provide something I don’t have pay or do anything for.
So, three cheers for Dover:
Huzzah!
Huzzah!
Huzzah!
Much won
Danger holiday
Deepest darkest Florida
Nothing happened.
Many such cases
Probably the most feeble “horror destination” sharticle produced evah!
Person goes on holiday trying to find things to be offended and alarmed by
sees a couple of statues.
The end.
‘Thanks for visiting Florida’: one Black family’s road trip to a ‘hostile’ tourist trap
Before my brother-in-law gave the boys one last squeeze and ducked into a cab, he told me about his long goodbye to the white regulars and staff at the pub – friends forever, apparently. “Thanks for coming to visit us,” one said, “despite … you know. Hopefully you felt welcome.”
And then everyone clapped.
read it and weep.
World-renowned epidemiologist, Professor Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, has made the point that the biggest source of disinformation during the two plus years of the Covid pandemic was government and its agencies. Around the democratic world, and certainly here in Australia, governments deliberately instilled fear that was in no proportion to the actual risk to anyone under 75. They pretended everyone faced the same risk when healthy young people faced effectively zero risk from Covid. (Take a look at some recent studies from overseas. In one country they could not find a single person under 30 who had died from Covid who didn’t have at least two seriously bad pre-existing medical conditions. Not one! The same results are coming out in other countries.)
Thanks Mother Lode for reminding me it was about time I kicked in another donation to the Cat Kitty.
Professor Patrick McArdle: Faith’s freedom narrows after Calvary
The Catholic Weekly – By Guest Contributor -July 5, 2023
Spot on Tintarella re voters in Massachusetts. I can’t recommend the movie Chappaquiddick highly enough.
It should be kept in mind that they do have some form for this.
Unlike almost every other western liberal democracy.
Shannons are expensive for insurance.
They tend to rely on that clubby “motoring enthusiast” patter to suck people into signing up and renewing.
They even use that line on people ringing the call centre to complain.
It’s a simple transactional financial product FFS.
I had a look at the article, frollicking – until my eyes started to glaze over like the staple of Monty’s 5th morning tea – the 10:45 am one.
That man was seriously primed to whinge. Every paragraph was spattered with internalised anti-Florida talking points as if he dropped a watermelon from the 6th storey onto a page below.
I especially loved the reference to the poor hapless Michael Jackson impersonator on NY who was choked to death – another victim of whitey!
I just had to give up. The narration of the actual holiday was just obliterated by what he must have thought was a literary tour de force.
Certainly forced, anyway.
Unsurprisingly, the New Censorship coming to us under the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 expressly excludes:
The bastards don’t care that we know what they do.
Goodness gracious me.
The thread’s gone BOOM into hyperdrive now. Whatever the back room dudes are doing seems to be working.
Huzzah! indeed.
the biggest source of disinformation during the two plus years of the Covid pandemic was government and its agencies.
Propaganda, lying dogs, driving people like frightened sheep.
And in more WWIII developments:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-fired-shots-oil-tanker-strait-of-hormuz-us-navy/
And I didn’t realise Ukraine had suicide bombers!!!
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-police-investigate-reported-explosion-kyiv-court-2023-07-05/
Premium Dude!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dceB3SKBw9w
I’ve seen some footage of a French armoured vehicle shooting at looters this AM:
https://twitter.com/NHPUKOfficial/status/1676578101113880577?s=20
Australias new anthem
https://youtu.be/hkTgYiMDRHY
A Shocking Analysis of 2020 Election Night Reporting And The Companies That Manufacture Election Results
US Election reporting is dependent on a few suspicious companies that provide results that are arguably manufactured.
The number of Americans who believe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 election has grown to 62 percent, with another 6 percent who say they don’t know if he won or not. An enormous mountain of evidence, including whistleblower testimony, expert analysis, or proven machine vulnerabilities has awakened a huge majority of American voters to the realization that our elections are largely rigged.
As independent analysts and auditors improve their understanding of the centralization of election system architecture, the evidence revealed during the initial aftermath of November 3, 2020, is taking on new and vital importance. Case in point, millions of Americans that watched election results witnessed impossible changes to their vote tallies. Millions saw the “F-Curves” demonstrating an inexplicable injection of hundreds of thousands of votes in key races across the country. The F-Curve has come to represent rigged elections and corruption.
A trusting public relies on “Election Night Reporting” or “ENR” to find out who won on election night. But ENR broadcast on election night is not a report of real tallies but a tool to shape perceptions about election results. What was reported on television was perceived as reality and races were called by the media – outcomes that that any political or judicial institution was loath to challenge after the fact for fear of media bullying.
Election Night Reporting is another smoking gun that proves our elections are centrally manipulated.
Sources of Election Night Reporting Data
There are several places to find ENR data. All secretaries of state (SOSs) report results on their websites and some counties join in reporting efforts. But the real powerhouse in election night reporting comes from a foreign owned, Spain-based company, called Scytl.
Scytl collects all state ENR data and provides it to Edison Research. Edison works in tandem with all the legacy news agencies that televise election results. The vote tracking features you see on the bottom of the screen during an election on Fox and CNN all come from Scytl-Edison. Two corporate entities with no Congressional oversight, one with foreign ownership — have a monopoly on what the public sees on election night.
This self-evident national security threat wasn’t lost on the media during the Trump administration. The Guardian warned of the threat posed by Scytl having total control of ENR, and Dominion Voting Systems possessing a near monopoly on tabulation. Those concerns, however, evaporated after Joe Biden was installed.
– The Fraud Curve
– ENR Exhibits Centralized Manipulation
– PID Control
– The Edison Zero
– More Proof of an Algorithm Reset
– Gaslighting About ENR
– Who is Responsible for Manipulated ENR Data?
Look to Georgia.
– The Rabbit Hole Goes Deeper
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Jul 5, 2023 9:57 PM
To what extent do the San Bushmen live the old life, and to what extent have they adapted to modernity?
There are probably about 100,000 San Bushmen left – they are being forced away from their hunter – gatherer lifestyle, and into raising cattle and agriculture.
No longer a “continuous living culture”, then?
Ukraine Counterattack Is Heavy Going, West Says, as Russia Resists
Despite Russia’s loss of half its combat effectiveness since last year
KYIV, Ukraine—Russian forces are badly depleted but Ukraine’s counteroffensive is off to a slow, grinding start, Western allies said, as stiffer-than-expected Russian resistance, including minefields and defensive fortifications, and a lack of aircover have dashed any hopes of a swift breakthrough.
“It’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody,” U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week.
The U.K.’s military commander, Admiral Tony Radakin, offered a similar assessment Tuesday, saying the counteroffensive: “Is going to be deliberate, methodical, there is nothing here that is going to be swift.”
The Western assessments of the counteroffensive, the first to be shared publicly, underscore the challenges facing Kyiv as it seeks to oust the Russian army from some of the nearly 20% of Ukraine still under occupation. Ukrainian battlefield successes are also important in maintaining support in the West, which has sent billions of dollars in military aid.
Russia’s military has been severely depleted by its 16-month invasion and is exhausted after a monthslong offensive of its own that notched only minor successes.
Since 2022 the Russians have lost around 50% of the combat effectiveness of their army, expending 10 million shells and losing over 2,000 tanks, Radakin said.
“Russia is so weak it does not have the strength for a significant counteroffensive,” he said.
But Russian forces have spent months preparing for a Ukrainian counteroffensive that is expected to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers trained and equipped by the West. Ukrainian officials say Russia is aiming to blunt Ukraine’s counteroffensive then seek a cease-fire to rearm and pursue its main goal of controlling its neighbor.
Progress has been grinding since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in June, as forces butt up against dense Russian defenses.
Ukraine, which still has most of its Western-trained forces in reserve, has advanced several miles in the southeast and seized several villages in pushes toward the Sea of Azov. Senior Ukrainian officials say forces are proceeding with caution in an effort to preserve lives and precious equipment and have complained that support from the West has been insufficient.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser, said on Twitter Wednesday that the West had hesitated and wasted time despite having “a golden lottery ticket” with Ukraine ready to degrade the military of the West’s main strategic opponent if provided with the right weapons.
Still, Ukrainian and Western officials say the counteroffensive is in its early stages.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine, said Ukraine is focusing on destroying Russian equipment and troops. “We are acting calmly, wisely step by step,” he wrote on Twitter.
A senior Ukrainian official noted that the Ukrainians are advancing faster than Russian forces did in their winter and spring offensive, which seized little more than the small eastern city of Bakhmut despite heavy losses.
But Ukrainian forces have to proceed cautiously, the official said, because its population is about a quarter of the size of Russia’s because of an exodus driven by the invasion.
Milley said the Ukrainian advances were small, with 500 to 2,000 meters taken a day. “This is going to take six, eight, 10 weeks,” he said at the National Press Club last week. “Sure if it goes a little slow, that is the nature of war.”
The Ukrainians are launching long range missiles to destroy Russian logistic hubs—such as fuel depots and command posts—while making probing attacks along multiple axes to test defensive lines, Radakin said. “I would describe it as a policy of starve, stretch and strike,” he said.
He noted that Ukrainian forces hadn’t yet reached Russia’s most formidable defensive positions.
The logistical challenge, meanwhile, is steep: Ukraine’s army has been augmented with donations of tanks and other equipment from around the world. It needs a lot of spares to keep its patchwork army going, which is in itself a huge complication. However, Radakin noted that several Western allies including the U.S. and U.K. have a pipeline of support coming to help Ukraine sustain the war.
Western officials don’t expect the mutiny by Russian paramilitary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to affect the Russian army’s defense of Ukraine. Many troops from his Wagner Group had already been withdrawn from Ukraine, they say. But Ukrainian officials celebrated the mutiny as a sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fragility, which undermines the Kremlin’s assumption that it holds the upper hand in a war of attrition.
Putin’s inability to control conflicts within his team showed his weakness both to potential domestic challengers and to foreign governments, like India and China, which have retained friendly relations with Moscow, the senior official said.
Avi in WA:
A group of officers from WA Police in Australia have joined forces to ensure ‘public health’ legislation is never abused again.
Brave police officers UNITE TO CHALLENGE the Covid tyrants
Fact Check: Is NATO Weaponry Superior to Russian Arms in Ukraine?
Ukraine provides a unique testing ground for NATO-grade weapons. According to Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov, they have by far proven better than Russia’s arms. Is this true?
The Financial Times’ latest piece claims that Western weapons delivered by the US and its NATO allies and partners to Kiev have been performing excellently on the battlefield.
By way of illustration, the op-ed compared NATO-grade weaponry to Mercedez-Benz, and Russia’s arms to an outdated Soviet-era car.
As if that were not enough the authors of the article included an already debunked claim that Ukraine’s MIM-104 Patriot, a US-made surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, managed to intercept the Kinzhal hypersonic missile. According to the newspaper, Kiev has already downed over a dozen of these.
The outlandish claims and the triumphant tone of the article demonstrate that it’s nothing but a PR stunt aimed at entertaining Western readers while Kiev’s well-advertised counteroffensive stalls, according to Russian military expert Viktor Litovkin.
“In reality, we see that the Patriot is destroyed,” Litovkin told Sputnik. “The vaunted air defense system is destroyed with a single blow of the Kinzhal. Five batteries were destroyed at once, the radar station was destroyed. [Many] Leopard tanks were destroyed by our gunners, our pilots, and helicopter pilots. The Americans are afraid to send their Abrams because they understand that they too will be destroyed by Russian artillery, Russian helicopters, and Russian troops. M777 howitzers are generally ‘crap’. They can’t handle the intensity of the gunfire. Well, and so on and so forth. One can enumerate many types of military equipment that have shown themselves, to put it mildly, not in the best way on the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
Litovkin is by no means surprised why Reznikov is hailing Western weapons: the Ukrainian defense minister needs more and more equipment, otherwise he would have nothing to fight with: “He has no other choice but to bend before the West and praise Western military equipment,” the Russian military expert noted. “However, the crux of the matter is that [Reznikov] cannot boast of any real victories on the battlefield.”
Have NASAMS Helped Ukrainians on the Front Lines?
Two NASAMS medium range air defense systems, were first delivered to Ukraine in October 2022. All in all, the Pentagon promised to provide Kiev with eight NASAMS systems and an unspecified amount of ammunition.
It was reported that the estimated completion date would be November 28, 2025. There is little evidence to suggest that the two NASAMS systems provided to Ukraine by the US have offered much of a boost on the battlefield, especially given that one of them was destroyed by Russia in early February.
With an effective firing range of about 30 km, the NASAMS is meant to primarily target enemy drones, aircraft and cruise missiles. According to Russian military experts, the limited number of NASAMS does not allow Ukrainians to shield their troops. Presumably, the air defense system was meant to provide cover for the other US-made weapons systems, such as the HIMARS battery.
Are British Storm Shadows and US HIMARS Invincible?
Reznikov is not the only minister exaggerating the successes of NATO-grade weaponry in Ukraine. Last week, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace asserted to British lawmakers that Storm Shadow missiles given to Kiev have had “a significant impact” on the battlefield. The Storm Shadow is a long-range cruise missile boasting a striking range in excess of 250 kilometers (155 miles).
However, as of yet, Storm Shadows have made some splash by hitting Russia’s Chongar bridge on the administrative border between the Kherson region and Crimea, but have failed to anyhow tip the balance in Kiev’s favor on the military theater. Following the Ukrainian military strike on the bridge, the Russian armed forces destroyed a depot with Storm Shadow cruise missiles in Ukraine’s Khmelnitsky region, as per the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to Sputnik’s interlocutors, the Russian military regularly shoots down the British wonder-weapon.
Likewise, Russian forces frequently intercept missiles launched by the US-made M142 HIMARS, light multiple rocket launchers. As per the Russian MoD, the Ukrainian forces often use HIMARS against civilian areas of the regions joining the Russian Federation last year.
Have Leopard Tanks and Bradley IFVs Proved Effective?
Ukraine’s losses in terms of military equipment caught the headlines after the beginning of the well-advertised counteroffensive. Russia destroyed 16 German-made Leopard tanks, i.e. 100% of the vehicles supplied to Kiev by Poland and Portugal, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced on July 3.
Earlier, on June 26, the New York Times admitted that at least 17 out of 113 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles had been damaged or destroyed in the fighting so far. All in all, Russian forces managed to destroy some 920 Ukrainian armored vehicles in Donbass and in Zaporozhye regions last month, as per Shoigu.
Commenting on the issue, Litovkin referred to the superiority of Russia’s tanks in the Eastern European battlefield.
“We have T-72, T-80, T-90 tanks, which are head and shoulders above any Western tanks,” the Russian military expert said. “For instance, we have three crew members and an automatic loader, while none of [Western tanks] have an automatic loader. And they have a loading fourth crew member, who has to load the gun during the battle, when the tank goes forward and sways on the uneven ground. Their tanks are 3 meters high, and ours are 2.2 meters high. Their tank weighs over 60 tons while ours is 46 tons, and so on. When it comes to the caliber: we have 125mm, and they have 120mm. On top of that our tank can fire not only shells, but also laser-guided anti-tank guided missiles.”
Note from FT Article
Military briefing: Ukraine provides ideal ‘testing ground’ for western weaponry
Kyiv’s defence minister says allies are gaining priceless intelligence about the performance of their munitions
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/8819b598-7595-47cc-a992-8897b86b57c6
<em>A western artillery system is like a “Mercedes-Benz” compared with a Russian Soviet-era car, but Nato-grade weaponry has also shown its own shortcomings, according to Petro Pyatakov, an arms industry consultant and retired colonel.
“It has become apparent during operations that these systems were not intended for such intense warfare” in which Russia’s artillery machine fires nonstop and indiscriminately. “All of them require a break?.?.?.?after two or three minutes of firing at maximum speed, which is not the case with Soviet guns,” Pyatakov said.
Fact Check: Is NATO Weaponry Superior to Russian Arms in Ukraine?
Ukraine provides a unique testing ground for NATO-grade weapons. According to Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov, they have by far proven better than Russia’s arms. Is this true?
The Financial Times’ latest piece claims that Western weapons delivered by the US and its NATO allies and partners to Kiev have been performing excellently on the battlefield.
By way of illustration, the op-ed compared NATO-grade weaponry to Mercedez-Benz, and Russia’s arms to an outdated Soviet-era car.
As if that were not enough the authors of the article included an already debunked claim that Ukraine’s MIM-104 Patriot, a US-made surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, managed to intercept the Kinzhal hypersonic missile. According to the newspaper, Kiev has already downed over a dozen of these.
The outlandish claims and the triumphant tone of the article demonstrate that it’s nothing but a PR stunt aimed at entertaining Western readers while Kiev’s well-advertised counteroffensive stalls, according to Russian military expert Viktor Litovkin.
“In reality, we see that the Patriot is destroyed,” Litovkin told Sputnik. “The vaunted air defense system is destroyed with a single blow of the Kinzhal. Five batteries were destroyed at once, the radar station was destroyed. [Many] Leopard tanks were destroyed by our gunners, our pilots, and helicopter pilots. The Americans are afraid to send their Abrams because they understand that they too will be destroyed by Russian artillery, Russian helicopters, and Russian troops. M777 howitzers are generally ‘cr@p’. They can’t handle the intensity of the gunfire. Well, and so on and so forth. One can enumerate many types of military equipment that have shown themselves, to put it mildly, not in the best way on the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
Litovkin is by no means surprised why Reznikov is hailing Western weapons: the Ukrainian defense minister needs more and more equipment, otherwise he would have nothing to fight with: “He has no other choice but to bend before the West and praise Western military equipment,” the Russian military expert noted. “However, the crux of the matter is that [Reznikov] cannot boast of any real victories on the battlefield.”
Have NASAMS Helped Ukrainians on the Front Lines?
Two NASAMS medium range air defense systems, were first delivered to Ukraine in October 2022. All in all, the Pentagon promised to provide Kiev with eight NASAMS systems and an unspecified amount of ammunition.
It was reported that the estimated completion date would be November 28, 2025. There is little evidence to suggest that the two NASAMS systems provided to Ukraine by the US have offered much of a boost on the battlefield, especially given that one of them was destroyed by Russia in early February.
With an effective firing range of about 30 km, the NASAMS is meant to primarily target enemy drones, aircraft and cruise missiles. According to Russian military experts, the limited number of NASAMS does not allow Ukrainians to shield their troops. Presumably, the air defense system was meant to provide cover for the other US-made weapons systems, such as the HIMARS battery.
Are British Storm Shadows and US HIMARS Invincible?
Reznikov is not the only minister exaggerating the successes of NATO-grade weaponry in Ukraine. Last week, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace asserted to British lawmakers that Storm Shadow missiles given to Kiev have had “a significant impact” on the battlefield. The Storm Shadow is a long-range cruise missile boasting a striking range in excess of 250 kilometers (155 miles).
However, as of yet, Storm Shadows have made some splash by hitting Russia’s Chongar bridge on the administrative border between the Kherson region and Crimea, but have failed to anyhow tip the balance in Kiev’s favor on the military theater. Following the Ukrainian military strike on the bridge, the Russian armed forces destroyed a depot with Storm Shadow cruise missiles in Ukraine’s Khmelnitsky region, as per the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to Sputnik’s interlocutors, the Russian military regularly shoots down the British wonder-weapon.
Likewise, Russian forces frequently intercept missiles launched by the US-made M142 HIMARS, light multiple rocket launchers. As per the Russian MoD, the Ukrainian forces often use HIMARS against civilian areas of the regions joining the Russian Federation last year.
Have Leopard Tanks and Bradley IFVs Proved Effective?
Ukraine’s losses in terms of military equipment caught the headlines after the beginning of the well-advertised counteroffensive. Russia destroyed 16 German-made Leopard tanks, i.e. 100% of the vehicles supplied to Kiev by Poland and Portugal, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced on July 3.
Earlier, on June 26, the New York Times admitted that at least 17 out of 113 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles had been damaged or destroyed in the fighting so far. All in all, Russian forces managed to destroy some 920 Ukrainian armored vehicles in Donbass and in Zaporozhye regions last month, as per Shoigu.
Commenting on the issue, Litovkin referred to the superiority of Russia’s tanks in the Eastern European battlefield.
“We have T-72, T-80, T-90 tanks, which are head and shoulders above any Western tanks,” the Russian military expert said. “For instance, we have three crew members and an automatic loader, while none of [Western tanks] have an automatic loader. And they have a loading fourth crew member, who has to load the gun during the battle, when the tank goes forward and sways on the uneven ground. Their tanks are 3 meters high, and ours are 2.2 meters high. Their tank weighs over 60 tons while ours is 46 tons, and so on. When it comes to the caliber: we have 125mm, and they have 120mm. On top of that our tank can fire not only shells, but also laser-guided anti-tank guided missiles.”
Note from FT Article
Military briefing: Ukraine provides ideal ‘testing ground’ for western weaponry
Kyiv’s defence minister says allies are gaining priceless intelligence about the performance of their munitions
<em>A western artillery system is like a “Mercedes-Benz” compared with a Russian Soviet-era car, but Nato-grade weaponry has also shown its own shortcomings, according to Petro Pyatakov, an arms industry consultant and retired colonel.
“It has become apparent during operations that these systems were not intended for such intense warfare” in which Russia’s artillery machine fires nonstop and indiscriminately. “All of them require a break?.?.?.?after two or three minutes of firing at maximum speed, which is not the case with Soviet guns,” Pyatakov said.
Another gift that keeps on giving:
Pascoe: “Any idiot can say no to voice”
Oz so no link.
Jedda is on SBS on Demand at the moment
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movie/jedda/612877891878
Jedda
Drama, Film
1h 27m1955 English Expires in 3 weeks
Raised by a white ranching family from infancy, an Aboriginal girl gives up her fiancé and a life of privilege when a tribesman seduces her with the lure of the wild.
Country:Australia
Director: Charles Chauvel
Cast: Ngarla Kunoth, Robert Tudawali, Betty Suttor, Paul Reynall, George Simpson-Lyttle, Tas Fitzer, Wason Byers, Willie Farrar, Margaret Dingle
Katherine Gorge, Nitmiluk, Kakadu, Northern Territory
Jedda’s death scene was originally filmed at Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk National Park).
Having been to the Rock where the death scene was filmed – brings back memories
I don’t have a reference, but there are about 20,000 still living their traditional lifestyle in Southern Africa.
Seems it wasn’t that Pascoe…
“Seems it wasn’t that Pascoe…”
Thanks Zulu for bringing the story to those who refuse to subscribe to the Oz.
I’d read the Oz if they sacked Troy… (and probably a couple of others actually)…
“It’s fine for Peter Dutton, it’s fine for Jacinta Price, Warren Mundine and the like to say no. Any fool, any idiot can say no. What are there alternatives?” he told Sky News on Thursday.
No need for any alternative whatsoever. The Minister and the latest Feral Guv’ment should just listen to the existing voices, address all known existing issues and fix them asap. Where did that 39 billion Australian dollars for the last year go? Into the back pockets of the scammers and grifters primarily? Certainly not where it was most needed.
And this goes for ALL previous Feral Guv’ments of all Political persuasions. You have not been doing your Jobs properly and have wasted billions upon billions of dollars of Taxpayer money.
Enough is Enough and NO. FFS.
And, in a masterpiece of Soviet design, the three man crew sit on top of the carousal that supplies the automatic loader, so crew survivabilty, in the event of a hit, is virtually NIL!
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Jul 6, 2023 12:28 PM
No longer a “continuous living culture”, then?
I don’t have a reference, but there are about 20,000 still living their traditional lifestyle in Southern Africa.
That would seem to be a higher percentage than the number of aborigines living anything resembling a “traditional” lifestyle here.
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Jul 6, 2023 12:51 PM
“For instance, we have three crew members and an automatic loader, while none of [Western tanks] have an automatic loader.
And, in a masterpiece of Soviet design, the three man crew sit on top of the carousal that supplies the automatic loader, so crew survivabilty, in the event of a hit, is virtually NIL!
Still an improvement on the earlier design, which would occasionally rip the arm off one of the turret crew (the gunner, from vague memory), and feed it into the breech.
Hardly anyone reads newspaper editorials – and almost no-one takes any notice of them. But the conclusion of today’s editorial in The Australian is on the money:
History is repeating itself. In 1999, many Australians supported having an Australian as head of state, but few supported politicising the new presidency by by making him/her the winner of a popular vote.
Now the same political radicals – in the trade union ALP government and the broader green-left — want to change the constitution again to give Aborigines more power than they already have through the one-vote-one-value democracy.
Once again, it will be rejected because Australians don’t trust the radicals behind it.
Western media prepping nuclear false flag… and thermonuclear war
Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture
Wed, 05 Jul 2023
Western media are conditioning the public for a false-flag attack on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP) to blame Russia. That would then provide the United States and NATO a pretext to directly intervene in their proxy war to support the Kiev regime.
The Kiev regime’s month-old counteroffensive is failing miserably to push back Russian defense lines. Indeed, if anything, it seems that Russian forces are turning the tables to gain more territory in eastern Ukraine. The military situation is becoming a fiasco for the NATO-backed regime in Kiev.
Months of much-hyped counteroffensive are delivering nothing but defeat for the Ukrainian forces despite massive supplies of weapons from the U.S. and its NATO allies. Western governments and media can barely hide the reality that NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is turning into a historic debacle. How long can the charade continue before the American and European public demand answers and accountability?
With a major NATO summit due to take place next week in Latvia on July 11-12, the battlefield disaster for the alliance’s Kiev proxy will be potentially an acute embarrassment. There will be severe political repercussions for Washington and the European Union which has funneled close to $200 billion in military support to the Kiev regime since the conflict erupted in February last year.
Blowing up the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant is one way of dramatically shifting the narrative – albeit an act of criminal desperation. The power station is Europe’s largest civilian nuclear installation. The radioactive fallout from a fatal missile strike on the ZNPP would engulf large swathes of Europe, including Russia, with potentially deadly contamination.
Russian forces took over the ZNPP last March, days after launching their special military operation in Ukraine on February 24. Since then, the power station has been routinely fired on by the Kiev regime using U.S. and NATO-supplied rockets. Moscow has presented categorical evidence of NATO missile fragments recovered from air strikes on the plant’s cooling ponds. The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has visited the ZNPP multiple times and will surely know from where the missiles are being fired, yet the IAEA is conspicuously reluctant to publicly identify the perpetrators. It confines itself to making vague statements expressing concern about security and public safety.
The Western media have shamelessly spun the Kiev regime’s narrative claiming that the ZNPP is being shelled by Russian forces despite the absurdity of such claims given that the Russian military controls the nuclear plant.
For Excellent Summary
SITREP 7/4/23: Final Hour of Zelensky’s Terror Ploy
Simplicius The Thinker
5 July 2023
The little legs on the Cat’s hamsters are now perambulating at maximum velocity again. Less than 10 seconds to post new comments. Well done (and fingers crossed), Dover!
How is today’s situation of Aborigines in any way a ‘continuous culture’?
Even in the remotest places, they wear Western clothes, use Western technology in dozens of ways. The kids revere American rap artists, the older ones prefer Bob Marley or perhaps C&W.
Dot painters use acrylics. Good for them, BTW, some of the art is superb, but it is not part of a ‘continuous culture.’ It is a discontinuous culture. It has been interrupted and changed.
That is the history of the entire world. There is no such thing as a pure culture anywhere. Attempts to freeze culture in the face of onslaughts from outside have never, ever succeeded.
I remember when the French tried to ban ”le weekend,’ We don’t hear much about that now, because it failed.
Repeating a lie doesn’t make it true. And, if you need to repeat a lie to make your case, you are on very shaky ground.
An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight… the truly wise person is colorblind.
– Albert Schweitzer
Just seen on the soshuls.
A picture of a crickit ground with extensive rain covers over the wicket area, and groundstaff in attendance.
Caption:-
“Groundstaff working hard to mop up English tears before the next Ashes Test”.
I can’t see all those Australians with crippling mortgages, two jobs and rising childcare fees sympathising with these parasites. If the economy doesn’t improve soon the next election will have the same outcome for Labor as WA Liberals suffered recently.
Albo could reverse some of the damage by stopping the renewables boondoggle in its tracks and stop immigration but he won’t. As for the Voice, it seems only the well off are for it, everybody else is preoccupied with just surviving.
THE COST OF COMMUNISM
by Colin Dueck
7 . 4 . 23
Only two blocks from the White House, a small museum in an elegant Beaux Arts mansion draws our attention to one of the deadliest ideologies of all time: communism. The Victims of Communism Museum opened only last year after decades of thoughtful planning, and the care that went into the project shows.
Visiting the Victims of Communism Museum is a remarkable experience; not only does the museum educate visitors on twentieth-century communist tyranny, but it reminds us that Marxist-Leninist dictatorships continue to survive, impacting the lives of over 1.5 billion people.
Tim Blair back on Monday, sorry if posted before:
Monty hardest hit
SCOTT RITTER: Biden’s 3am Moment in Ukraine
In June, Biden was confronted with the ultimate “3 a.m. phone call” moment. He could have made a call which would have helped reduce the threat of a nuclear crisis or worse.
Whatever one thinks of Trump, the idea that he was unable or unwilling to make the “3 a.m. call” is contradicted by the facts — especially when it comes to Russia.
In December 2017, Trump provided U.S. intelligence to Russia that helped Russian security forces prevent a terrorist bomb attack on an Orthodox Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Trump to personally thank him for the information, which allowed Russia to foil an attack which, according to U.S. officials, “could have killed large numbers of people.”
Trump’s decision to provide intelligence to Russia followed an earlier terrorist attack in Saint Petersburg in April 2017 which killed 11 people and wounded 45 others. Trump spoke with Putin after that attack, expressing his deepest condolences while offering the “full support” of the U.S. .
The December 2017 “3 a.m.” moment showed Trump followed through.
Two years later, in December 2019, Trump again greenlighted the provision of U.S. intelligence to Russia which enabled Russian authorities to stop another planned terrorist attack on Saint Petersburg timed to disrupt New Years celebrations. Putin again called Trump to thank him for the information, which reportedly saved many lives.
All of this seemed to be forgotten when, in September 2020, on the eve of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, 489 former national security officials signed an “Open Letter to the American People”, lambasting Trump as someone who was “not equal to the enormous responsibilities of his office,” declaring that “he cannot rise to meet challenges large or small.”
In contrast, these officials touted Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic challenger, as “the leader our nation needs”, emphasizing what they described as his “sound judgment, thorough understanding, and fundamental values.”
According to these former national security officials, Biden was better prepared than Donald Trump to meet the “3 a.m. phone call” challenge. Recent events in Russia, however, seem to suggest otherwise.
The one issue that Russia doesn’t need to investigate is the question of whether the U.S. intelligence community had advance notice of Prigozhn’s abortive coup.
According to U.S. media reports, U.S. intelligence officials briefed Biden, senior Biden administration national security officials, and the so-called “Gang of Eight” (the top congressional leaders in both the House and the Senate involved in national security issues) days in advance of Prigozhin’s precipitous actions.
U.S. intelligence provided U.S. policy makers with an “extremely detailed and accurate picture of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plans leading up to his short-lived rebellion, including where and how Wagner was planning to advance”, according to CNN.
The expectation of the U.S. intelligence community was that Prigozhin’s march on Moscow would be met with resistance from the Russian government which would result in very “bloody” fighting.
Based upon these assessments, Biden ordered his national security team to develop responses to various scenarios that could play out from the Prigozhin coup. What these scenarios involved remain closely held.
But a tweet by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, provides some insight into the thinking of those who followed the events surrounding Prigozhin’s rebellion.
“Either Prigozhin will be destroyed within 24 hours by a missile strike ordered by Putin,” Gerashenko tweeted, “or he will take over the Kremlin and declare himself as Russian military dictator. What comes next will be civil war and Russia’s disintegration.”
Gerashchenko then expressed concern about “what will happen to the thousands of nuclear warheads, on missiles and planes, if Prigozhin controls them.”
The potential loss of control of Russian nuclear weapons was a scenario broached by anti-Russian twitter accounts, including one that speculated that Prigozhin’s Wagner fighters had advanced in the direction of the village of Borisoglebsk “with the purpose to enter the territory of the military camp ‘Voronezh-45’, where the military unit 14254 (12th Main Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry (GUMO)) is located.”
This unit is responsible for the security of tactical nuclear weapons.
(According to more knowledgeable sources, the Voronezh-45 facility, which supported a nearby Russian air force base used for training, was likely empty of nuclear weapons.
In any event, given the fact that Russian nuclear weapons are disassembled while in storage, and that the various components and codes needed to make any weapons stored at the facility usable would have been unavailable to the Wagner fighters, mitigates against the idea of Wagner becoming a nuclear power simply by occupying the facility.)
Regardless of the reality surrounding any purported Wagner move on Voronezh-45, senior U.S. officials were concerned about Russia’s nuclear arsenal in relation to Prigozhin’s actions.
‘We Had Nothing to Do With It’
Biden, a day after Blinken spoke, gave his own public statement, declaring that he had been in constant contact with U.S. allies to coordinate their response regarding the Prigozhin insurrection. Biden’s priority, it seemed, was to make sure no one pointed any fingers at the U.S.
“{W]e had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse,” Biden said, “to blame this on the West, to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved, that we had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system.”
The man Biden tapped to send the signal to Russia and its leader was C.I.A. Director William Burns, who called Sergei Naryshkin, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, to make clear that the U.S. was not involved in the Prigozhin affair.
But Burns’ claims ring false. The U.S. intelligence community, by its own admission, had extremely detailed intelligence about what Prigozhin planned to do, including the scope and scale of the involvement of the Wagner mercenaries he commanded, where they intended to go, what they intended to do, and when they intended to do it.
Moreover, the Russians had to be wondering why Burns was informing them of this after the fact.
In 2017 and 2019, Trump had U.S. intelligence pass on to Russia information about possible terrorist attacks, which ended up saving scores, if not hundreds, of Russian lives.
In June of 2023, Biden had intelligence about a pending violent insurrection which could have put Russia’s nuclear weapons, and the world, at risk. Biden opted not to share this information with Russia.
America’s silence speaks volumes.
As Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian President who currently serves as the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia (Putin is chairman) noted,
“The development of events shows that the actions of those who organized the military rebellion [of Prigozhin and Wagner] fully fit into the scheme of a staged coup d’état. The world will be brought to the brink of destruction, if the nuclear weapons are in the hands of bandits, the crisis will not be limited to one country.”
In June, Biden was confronted with the ultimate “3 a.m. phone call” moment. He could have made a phone call which could have helped reduce the threat of a nuclear crisis or worse, a nuclear war.
He didn’t make the call.
While Russia and the world dodged a bullet regarding the Prigozhin revolt, the fact that a U.S. president remained mute at a time when his voice should have been seeking to forestall a potential global calamity should be of great concern not only to every American citizen, but every person in the world.
Biden failed his “3 a.m. phone call” test.
Fortunately, the world survived. But what happens next time?
Let’s be honest and say it’s a broken culture.
Unless you’re living the nomadic, hunter gatherer lifestyle many of its aspects are not relevant and hence were forgotten by indigenous people themselves when they became more or less settled. They’ve since had to be reinvented in the late 20th C., much like Morris Dancing was a late 19th C. attempt to revive a medieval cultural practice (“Welcome to country”/smoking ceremonies).
I’m always amused to hear identifiers proudly list the “nations” from which they descend. Such “inter-national” relations didn’t exist prior to white settlement, when who one could marry was strictly limited to two clans according to totemic lore.