Open Thread – Thurs 13 July 2023


The Hay Wain, John Constable,1821

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

722 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 13, 2023 1:07 pm

Using their own published numbers on retired coal and gas generation, battery capacity and the intermittent nature of renewball generation, you need nothing more than an A3 sheet of paper, pencil and calculator to know we are in strife.

A3?
The back of a beer coaster; in the space next to the NBN business plan.

You are a useful tool of Big Paper.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 1:10 pm

I was just wondering if Harry Garside could sue the lying bint for damage to his reputation.
It seems the video/audio is so conclusive that it not only vindicates Garside, but actually provides enough evidence to charge her.
He would have a pretty strong case I think.
A subsequent civil case, like the Clare Nowland case, might turn up some very interesting interactions within Plod-force and perhaps between Garside’s accuser and friendly hand-patter Plods.

Miltonf
Miltonf
July 13, 2023 1:16 pm

Spot on Aaron.

Rabz
July 13, 2023 1:16 pm

Back last night after two days in Scamberra – I’d forgotten how much I detest everything about the place.

JC
JC
July 13, 2023 1:16 pm

Another dude has spoken up at the Beeb about being harassed. There’s always a nest of cockroaches. Never one.

Miltonf
Miltonf
July 13, 2023 1:18 pm

A parasite robber state on fake lake full of soft handed eloi.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 1:23 pm

Worth noting is that Trioli’s latest ratings are continuing drop. No need to wonder why.

Apparently she is “a woman born with a uterus”.
I’m so old I can remember when that was a tautology.
And how is the condescending “we even let bigots on here” attitude?
Yes, I think her latest ratings have her at ninth, behind high-rotation Barnesy FM, and easy listening golden oldies.
Six (6) pussent audience share, down from 15 pussent when she took over.
I wonder if radio ratings should be viewed as a proxy for … social license?

johanna
johanna
July 13, 2023 1:27 pm

Interesting commentary on the plight of boys in school here:

Boys have lower grades than girls throughout their primary and secondary school years. They have more behavior problems. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder; to wind up in special-education classes; and to be held back, be suspended, or drop out. Hence, they’re less likely to graduate from high school. In fact, the high school graduation gap between girls and boys is within a hair of the gap between poor and middle-class kids. Along with their subpar overall college graduation numbers, boys now constitute a minority of M.A.s and Ph.D.s and of medical and law students.

This trend isn’t an example of some peculiar American dysfunction. Boys’ lagging school outcomes show up everywhere, from the enlightened Nordics to the hidebound Gulf States. An OECD survey, based on a Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measure of 64 countries, summarized the situation this way: boys “are less likely than girls to attain basic proficiency in core subjects, report investing less time and effort on schoolwork, and express more negative attitudes to school.” Boys get lower grades and attend university less often than girls across the developed world—and increasingly in developing countries, too: one 2019 survey cited studies confirming a gap in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, Qatar, and Oman, among other places. True, in parts of the Third World, girls often don’t complete elementary school, so it’s rare to see them eclipsing their brothers. But in every place where girls do have the opportunity, they’re doing exactly that.

and

Fatherlessness doesn’t seem to have the same impact on girls; the puzzling difference may help explain why the biggest gender gap of any demographic group is seen among black kids. Black boys’ school performance has lagged behind that of black girls for decades now; 66 percent of black college-degree recipients are women; they earn 70 percent of black master’s degrees and more than 60 percent of doctorates. So socioeconomic advantage improves boys’ performance relative to girls, just as disadvantage, whether racial or economic, does the opposite. But the puzzle remains: rich boys remain in the shadows of their female siblings the same way poor boys trail behind their poor sisters.

Lots more interesting stuff to follow.

One thing struck me – in a time when ‘the experts’ are trying to get tiny tots into school, there is evidence that delaying school until kids (especially boys) are ready is very beneficial. I think the Montessori schools prefer boys to be seven before they start school. There is no evidence that it does them any harm. They catch up quickly.

That reminded me of the stories of one of my favourite authors, L M Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables.

In a sequel, Anne and the two old ladies at Green Gables take on young twins, Davey and Dora. Dora is the model child, quiet and biddable. Davey is a ‘holy terror’ who chases the rooster to death, breaks things, truants from church to go fishing, relishes watching a pig get killed and butchered, and generally wreaks mayhem.

He and Dora are six years old.

When the subject of sending them to school (not least to get Davey under control) comes up, Marilla says something like:

‘My father always said that no child should go to school until they are seven years old, and I agree with that.’

Davey grew up to be a good farmer and a fine man.

Imagine what would have happened to him in today’s world.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 1:28 pm

A3?
The back of a beer coaster; in the space next to the NBN business plan.

You are a useful tool of Big Paper.

Yes, alright, I know you lot can do it with very elegant equations, all neatly summarised.
I need the Big Paper with unsharpened crayons and lots of explanatory notes.
Maybe you should try it on the bureaucrats.
They treat scribblings on butcher’s paper in staff training as something akin to the stone tablets brought down from Sinai.

Cassie of Sydney
July 13, 2023 1:28 pm

“Takes a special kind of prick to take the Government plane to a Billy Bragg concert.”

It takes a very biased, comprised and partisan media to not make a song and dance about it. Just imagine if Abbott or Morrison had used a government plane to take them to a concert.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
July 13, 2023 1:44 pm

7 July 2023Patrick Hodder | Committee SecretarySenate Finance and Public AdministrationReferences CommitteePO Box 6100Parliament HouseCanberra ACT 2600 35 Pages PDF

Dear Secretary

Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee WrittenQuestions on Notice, Consulting services inquiry

We refer to the questions on notice from Senator Barbara Pocock, in her role as a member of the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee, received by PwC Australia (PwC) by email on 28 June 2023 (32 questions) and 30 June 2023 (one question),with a due date of 7 July 2023.

We provide our responses below.Governance, structure ethics1. Please provide a copy of your partnership deed or agreement and any amendments or related documents that establish the rules under which your partnership operates.Please refer to Appendix A for the current version of our partnership agreement.

We respectfully request that the Committee not publish the Partnership Agreement.

The Partnership Agreement contains commercially sensitive information about the firm’s internal operations, including the approach to profit distribution, partner remuneration, admission to partnership, entitlements and payments following exit, and post-retirement restrictions. Disclosing this information could compromise PwC’s competitive advantage by providing insights to its competitors and weaken the firm’s position in negotiations with prospective employees.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, ABN 52 780 433 757One International Towers Sydney, Watermans Quay, BARANGAROO NSW 2000, GPO BOX 2650 SYDNEY NSW 2001T: +61 2 8266 0000, F: +61 2 8266 9999, http://www.pwc.com.auLiability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. pw

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 1:44 pm

Dr F. You are right when you note how Bearers of Facts can be so easily dismissed as “stodgy old white men lacking in vision”.
I can remember countless rounds of “blue sky” hockey-stick business planning where the rational types would gently remind the pom-pom wavers that the plan required us, for example, to move from 35% market share to 80% market share, with juicy upticks in margins, no change to operating cost base and our competitors quietly taking it up the arse sans vaseline.
You quickly become the reason goals can’t be achieved and they start stacking firewood around your feet.
Of course, everyone really knew deep down that the “stretch targets”* were bullshit and no-one blew up existing infrastructure in anticipation of the Cargo Cult actually getting a delivery. So, no real harm done, apart from the usual pissing away of marketing budgets pursuing moon-shot opportunities.

* I did put myself in the freezer at one organisation by suggesting that one particular “stretch target” would need the invention of a material with hitherto unknown elastic qualities.

Cassie of Sydney
July 13, 2023 1:45 pm

Just went to my podiatrist for a treatment. Bliss. Anyway, she resides in Wentworth and I told her about my stoushes last Saturday, and my polite exchange with the elderly couple yesterday. I described how I told the elderly couple that they do not speak for everyone living in Wentworth, and that there are many in Wentworth who, like me, will vote NO.

I feel reasonably comfortable discussing contentious stuff with her, she’s in her early 30s, anyway she smiled, and she said she doesn’t know anyone who plans to vote YES, she thinks that it will go down BIGLY, and like the 2019 election, like Brexit, like the Trump election, there is a huge shy vote out there just waiting for that day to vote NO.

She also said that whilst she hasn’t seen anyone in her part of Wentworth spruiking yes, next time I run into these yes spruikers, I should say to them that if they’re so convinced that Wentworth already says/votes YES, then they’re wasting their time here, and perhaps they should venture out further afield, past Parramatta, to Macquarie Fields, Campbelltown, Blacktown, St Marys, Mr Druitt, and to the south-western Sydney. I can see the looks on their faces already, looks of…….

Quelle Horreur!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
July 13, 2023 1:51 pm

PwC reveals partner pay, misconduct allegations

Edmund Tadros
Professional services editor

PwC Australia has revealed that former chief executive Tom Seymour was the highest-paid partner at the firm, taking home $4.6 million in 2021-22, and that the firm received dozens of misconduct complaints against partners during the past five years.

The firm also said, in a response to questions from a Senate inquiry published on Wednesday, that it had received more than 100 bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination complaints dating back to 2018-19 and that it had fined a partner for a conflict of interest issue in 2018.

The unprecedented detail provided by PwC in its response went well beyond scant information provided to the inquiry by rivals Deloitte, EY, KPMG and Boston Consulting Group.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock asked the questions as part of the upper house inquiry into the use of consultants. Public hearings are scheduled for next week, but PwC has not been asked to appear because of concerns that could impede an Australian Federal Police investigation into its tax leaks issue.

The inquiry was triggered by the PwC tax leaks scandal, exposed by The Australian Financial Review, and after a push by Senator Pocock. The scandal involved PwC partners using confidential government information to help clients sidestep tax laws.

PwC’s responses to Senator Pocock’s questions on notice also include a detailed breakdown of partner pay, partner distribution, its use of “separation arrangements” and other sensitive aspects of its partnership’s workings.

The detail provided by the embattled firm, which sets a new benchmark for transparency in a notoriously secretive sector, seeks to rehabilitate PwC’s public image amid the tax leaks scandal.

The firm has already forced multiple partners out over the leaks, replaced much of its leadership and announced it will no longer make political donations.

Conflict matter, partner pay

The conflict of interest matter is separate from the firm’s wide-ranging response to its ongoing tax leaks scandal, which it detailed in the response. The newly revealed conflict involved a partner entering into an “exclusivity undertaking” without getting approval from the firm. The partner was fined over the matter but remains at the firm.

“PwC, like other firms, was asked [by the Senate committee] about disciplinary actions and PwC confirmed it had taken discipline against a partner over an internal process oversight where the partner did not obtain approval for an exclusivity undertaking in an engagement,” a PwC spokesman said.

PwC was the only firm to provide a detailed breakdown of its partner pay, which ranged from $8046 for a partner who had worked for just one month at the firm in the 2021-22 financial year to Mr Seymour’s $4.6 million.

More than 40 per cent, or 371 of the firm’s 850 partners listed in the partner pay breakdown, earned between $500,000 and $1 million in financial year 2022. Almost 20 per cent, or 165 partners, earned between $1 million and $1.5 million; 90 earned between $1.5 million and $2 million; and 35 earned between $2 million and $4.5 million. The final 189 earned up to $500,000.

At the start of the month, the firm announced Mr Seymour, along with seven other veteran PwC partners, were being removed from the partnership because they were either involved in the firm’s tax leak scandal or did not adequately address matters.

In March 2022, the Financial Review published internal PwC figures showing the firm had targeted income ranges between $380,000 for junior partners through to $3.9 million for the most senior partners.

The firm also revealed it had paid partnership distributions ranging from $710 million in 2018-19 to $843 million in 2022-23. This is the first time any big four firm has publicly disclosed this figure in Australia.

PwC also disclosed that its public sector business, which has now been sold to private equity investor Allegro Funds and renamed Scyne, generated about $800 million in revenue in 2021-22.

The firm also outlined other matters that the Financial Review has previously reported on, including complaints about working conditions at its Western Sydney services hub, the forced retirement of a partner and the termination of three employers who violated the firm’s code of conduct in 2022, and racism allegations relating to a trivia event held at the firm in 2021.

In response to the trivia event matter, the firm fired “two employees, [issued] financial penalties for three partners and formal warnings for 13 partners who were either in leadership positions in the team that ran the event, managed the employees who were terminated, or who attended the event”.

Misconduct complaints

PwC recorded misconduct complaints related to 43 partners over the past four years.

The firm also recorded 42 bullying complaints, 101 sexual harassment complaints and 14 discrimination complaints between 2018-19 and 2022-23.

Two workplace discrimination matters were “heard by the Federal Circuit Court and Federal Court in the past five years. Of these two matters, one matter was determined by the Federal Circuit Court and the other matter was settled before determination”, the firm’s submission states.

PwC also provided never-before-published details of its use of 119 “separation arrangements” used when the firm forces an employee out due to their performance or conduct. The arrangements involved payments worth between $3287 and $331,282.

“PwC has over 10,000 partners and staff members across Australia,” the firm said.

“Based on our enquiries, we are aware of 119 separation [arrangements] that have been entered into in the past five years.”

‘Performance-related issues’

The vast majority of these arrangements were “performance-related issues”, the firm said. Two related to “incidents of sexual harassment”, six to “incidents of bullying” and five to “incidents of discrimination”.

“All of the arrangements involve a party exiting the firm, including circumstances where an individual has resigned of their own volition,” the firm said.

PwC provided its partnership agreement to the committee but asked that it not be published because it “contains commercially sensitive information” that would “compromise PwC’s competitive advantage”. The committee agreed to keep this aspect of the firm’s responses private.

Senator Pocock criticised PwC’s rivals for the lack of detail in their responses.

“We’ve raised some serious issues in the questions on notice that were sent to individual firms, and we expect that all of those participating in the inquiry will give full and frank responses either in their written submissions or in person when appearing at the public hearings,” she said.

“These are important matters for the Senate to consider on behalf of the Australian people, and we require all parties involved to give us their full co-operation and contribute openly and honestly.”

Johnny Rotten
July 13, 2023 1:52 pm

As you get older, the questions come down to about two or three. How long? And what do I do with the time I’ve got left?

– David Bowie

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 1:54 pm

JC

Jul 13, 2023 1:16 PM

Another dude has spoken up at the Beeb about being harassed. There’s always a nest of cockroaches. Never one.

Yes, the Spiked article linked to earlier says it all.
The Beeby-Sea does lots of hatchet jobs on conservatives (eg serious allegations against Ted Heath and Lord McAlpine which proved to be baseless) and similar accusations of unsavoury but not illegal behaviour against religious and conservative figures which it characterises as “investigative j’ism”.
But when a bit comes back the other way, it is suddenly “muck raking”.
I would have thought an organisation which harboured and enabled Jimmy Saville for decades might have the decency to STFU.

Black Ball
Black Ball
July 13, 2023 1:56 pm

Terry McCrann clipping Chalmers over Lowe’s replacement:

C’mon Jim, isn’t it time to lose the trainer wheels?

Wednesday, he was maintaining the charade that he had yet to make the decision on the next Reserve Bank governor.

And that further, his “recommendation” – when he arrived at it – would go to cabinet “soon”.

Actually, as anyone who actually knows about these appointments, it’s a decision not made by the treasurer all on his own, far less the broad rabble of cabinet, but by the treasurer in ‘consultation’ with the prime minister.

And not, I might add, after consultation with the shadow treasurer.

Unknowingly underwriting the utter charade he’s been embarked on, Chalmers told us that he had ‘consulted’ the shadow treasurer.

Oh right. Apart from giving Angus Taylor some sort of – totally unearned – credibility, for whatever bizarre reason Chalmers thought it worthwhile, any such ‘consultation’ would have been worth four-fifths of five-eighths of copulating all.

Right Angus, I’m thinking of choosing between these two, but you suggest a third name? Well, I really might, genuinely, cross-my-heart and hope-to-die, consider switching to your suggestion.

Yeah right, pull the other one Jim; it plays Jingle Bells; and in four-part harmony.

Two decisions have been made, by Chalmers, and I presume in cahoots with the PM. The first is not to extend RBA governor Philip Lowe.

That could have been, should have been, non-controversial.

RBA governors are appointed for seven years. Until the last two they served their seven years and departed. No expectation of any extension. No drama.

Pedalling furiously, Chalmers has made it an extended soap opera which has been grossly disrespectful of someone who has been a dedicated servant of the public; leaving him continually in an utterly unpleasant situation.

As evidenced by his response to questions at his speech in Brisbane on Wednesday. The best that you can say about Chalmers for that, is that he’s a grub.

The second decision that has been taken is the appointment of his successor. As I’ve written, I can’t say with certainty, but the raging favourite is the head of the finance department, Jenny Wilkinson. Anyone with an IQ north of 80 would understand that an appointment like this has been negotiated and locked in well before any ‘formal decision’ by the government or cabinet.

What, Chalmers wants us to seriously believe that he could ‘go to cabinet with a recommendation’ and have it rejected? And what then? Offer it to Number Two? And then, as necessary, Number Three? I would gently suggest that journalists – at her/his – first press conference, and backbenchers – at her/his first appearance before the Reps – ‘gently’ inquire as to when they were offered the job and when they accepted.

And, ‘gently’, not take “no comment’’ for an answer.

While he’s still governor, Lowe is going about his job.

Both his ‘day job’ of – largely, subject to a very real interrogation and then endorsement by his board – deciding interest rates.

And his ‘other’ job – responding to and implementing the (embarrassingly, undergraduate level) recommendations of the review into the RBA.

He suggested Wednesday that the last rate hike might have been the last.

If he proves correct, he will have departed an (unsung) hero.

Crossie
Crossie
July 13, 2023 2:00 pm

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Jul 13, 2023 9:59 AM
Deception Number 2 coming up surely with The Voice.

Let’s hope word of mouth can act as it did in the Soviet days.
Otherwise, we’re stuffed.

There used to be a lot of anti-government jokes in the USSR told person to person so that you couldn’t be jailed for them. As far as officials were concerned there was nothing funny there though I suspect even they indulged clandestinely.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 2:01 pm

As far as the new RBA head goes, we might temporarily get the right result for the wrong reasons.
That is, a brake on interest rate rises, but for political reasons.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 2:03 pm

With clenched teeth, and raised blood pressure, I’m dipping into George Williams book “Treaty.”

“The second reality underpinning the call for a treaty, is that Indigenous peoples , as the prior owners and occupiers of this country, feel a strong sense of exclusion from the Australian State, and for that reason believe it lacks legitimacy.”

“The final reality, particularly for Indigenous peoples, is that non- Indigenous Australians are here to stay. Whatever the sense of continuing and original injustice, there is no escaping the presence on this continent of the Australian people, and their nation State.”

Pogria
Pogria
July 13, 2023 2:04 pm

Who knew Marvel Comics had an Abo Super Hero? Seriously, anybody here heard of Manifold?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12293201/Australia-actor-reveals-Marvels-little-known-Aboriginal-superhero.html

Trying hard to stay relevant? Too late.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 2:06 pm

they should venture out further afield, past Parramatta, to Macquarie Fields, Campbelltown, Blacktown, St Marys, Mr Druitt, and to the south-western Sydney. I can see the looks on their faces already, looks of…….

They’d get a nosebleed if they went any further West than Glebe.

Ed Case
Ed Case
July 13, 2023 2:09 pm

The Beeby-Sea does lots of hatchet jobs on conservatives (eg serious allegations against Ted Heath and Lord McAlpine which proved to be baseless)

They were both boy rooters.
McAlpine sued a few people, then someone called his bluff and he folded.
His mother called him a pederast, in public.

Boambee John
Boambee John
July 13, 2023 2:10 pm

Cassie of Sydney
Jul 13, 2023 1:28 PM
“Takes a special kind of prick to take the Government plane to a Billy Bragg concert.”

It takes a very biased, comprised and partisan media to not make a song and dance about it. Just imagine if Abbott or Morrison had used a government plane to take them to a concert.

Cough! Bronny Bishop and a helicopter? Cough!

Bar Beach Swimmer
July 13, 2023 2:14 pm

Dunny Brush
Jul 13, 2023 12:34 PM

It starts and ends with the focus groups.

I realise it’s taken me a while to pick up on this. But covid well and truly shone the spotlight on this little aspect of pollie world.

As reasonable communication with the electorate has waned in favour of a shorthand world of gimmicky one-liner preferences – the much preferred route for electoral awareness of our representatives – government decision-making has become more and more radicalised.

If the focus groups shout “shut down the economy/create two classes of citizens/bring in nett zero/join…/spend…/save…” it’s a sure thing it’ll happen. It’s the only way a mediocre snaggle puss like Luigi would ever get in and more importantly manoeuvre to stay in.

Rabz
July 13, 2023 2:16 pm

Takes a special kind of prick to take the Government plane to a Billy Bragg concert

Takes a special kind of prick to be a billy bragg fan, the latter being one of the most infuriating excruciating and talentless hypocrites to have existed in human history.

Bar Beach Swimmer
July 13, 2023 2:18 pm

Takes a special kind of prick to be a billy bragg fan

Another focus group preference?

cohenite
July 13, 2023 2:21 pm

areff
Jul 13, 2023 12:59 PM
ABC’s Virginia Trioli defends breast-feeding trans ‘mums’

https://twitter.com/i/status/1678919245332357120

Trioli at 56 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr1R2o_yzXo

Fu.king abc.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 2:21 pm

the latter being one of the most infuriating excruciating and talentless hypocrites to have existed in human history.

I thought I had a low opinion of the man. Well said, Squire!

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 13, 2023 2:24 pm

Dr F. You are right when you note how Bearers of Facts can be so easily dismissed as “stodgy old white men lacking in vision”.

It’s a deeply dispiriting process.

Ultimately you are talking to a politician – who has somewhere between 0% and 10% grasp of the facts;

He’s (it usually is some sort of a ‘he’) advised by a Party apparatchik – who has somewhere between 5% and 20% grasp of the facts;

And they are both supported by a bureaucratic department and outside consultants – which may jointly have somewhere between 50% and 80% grasp of the facts.

In ‘But the Minister wants this‘ discussions, the final 20% of the facts often contain the Detail Devils that should provide the Danger, Will Robinson show stoppers. However, they can usually be ignored on the basis that they are (by definition, because nobody inside the tent has thought of them) arcane knowledge that might be wrong; or misleading because the ‘real context’ isn’t clear to the owner of the 20%; or be offset by future technology, or the Market; or something will come up.

NBN, Snowy 2.0, NDIS, the Great Covid Response, pretty much every State infrastructure debacle – the list tells me that the reckless political Turd Worlding of the electricity supply is not an isolated incident.

H B Bear
H B Bear
July 13, 2023 2:32 pm

Worth noting is that Trioli’s latest ratings are continuing drop.

Vitrioli is the ALPBC’s problems personified.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 2:32 pm

With clenched teeth, and raised blood pressure, I’m dipping into George Williams book “Treaty.”

Oh, and the issue of “compensation” and “reparations” is dealt with, in one sentence, on Page 304.

(Regarding the issue of land and economic settlements) “Compensation or reparations may also be included.” One lousy sentence.

Oh, and no mention of Thomas Mayo.

cohenite
July 13, 2023 2:37 pm

Federal Court rejects Aboriginal elder Dennis Fisher’s bid to access age pension early due to life expectancy gap

Continuation of the poor old aborigine syndrome where everything which goes wrong with them is someone else’s fault not their own.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 2:38 pm

What’s she smiling about? Christine Baumgartner grins as she leaves court after being awarded $129k-a-month child support from ex Kevin Costner – just half of what she wanted

The 49-year-old Baumgartner was all smiles while leaving the Santa Barbara Family Court on Wednesday
She filed for divorce from Costner, 68, back in May, after 18 years of marriage and sharing three children together, Cayden Wyatt, 15, Hayes Logan, 14, and Grace Avery, 13
The outing comes just a day after Baumgartner was awarded $129,755 a month in child support from Costner… which is half of what she requested… but more than double what Costner suggested

shatterzzz
July 13, 2023 2:42 pm

Definitely not offering YES incentives .. no we isn’t, I tellz ya! .. LOL!
https://ibb.co/HzxGG6M

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 13, 2023 2:43 pm

Not sure most families that migrated didn’t have extended family support. Would vary significantly on the country/ region you were from.

A lot of English-speakers from Britain had no immediate familial support, but they did tend to congregate as Pommies when in public housing, where my family were. That was one of the attractions of it for my father, apart from cheap rental while he was saving to start a business (which inevitably failed), for my mother was desperately miserable and homesick for Britain. They were married and never divorced, although separated in their later middle ages. They were both psychologically fragile and unable to keep the family together. She took us back to her family in Britain when I was eleven. If she had stayed there my life and that of my siblings would have been very different and she may have pulled round better. Can’t say for my father. He stayed in Australia, and promised her his vision of himself and his future, which didn’t happen, if she returned, which she did.

P
P
July 13, 2023 2:49 pm

Ewan Jones, 63,
R.I.P.

Vicki
Vicki
July 13, 2023 2:54 pm

Wow – we were very lucky to get to Sydney this morning from the country. Approaching Mt Victoria on the Great Western Hwy a radio broadcast warned that a police chase (with exchange of gunfire) was underway near Springwood on the NSW Blue Mountains. Announcer reported that over 30 police vehicles had been involved. So we proceeded with some trepidation!

Came to a sudden halt at Katooma, near the hospital, where some 50m up the road we could see a black Commodore crashed across the meridian strip, surrounded by police. We were amazingly fortunate to be so close, as it allowed us to do a U turn, proceed back into Katoomba, and access an alternate route through to Leura, and then back to the Great Western and on our way home! Feel sorry, especially for the big haul truck drivers, who will sit in that queue for a very long time.

rosie
rosie
July 13, 2023 2:55 pm

My Italian in-laws sent money home to pay for other family members to come out in the fifties, on the dad’s side six emigrated and only the two youngest stayed home with their parents, relying on remittances from their Aussie family.
Italians girls I went to school with had first cousins here, some even in our class.
My Dutch next door neighbour (long dead) emigrated with his three brothers.
I guess it all depended on where the better prospects were.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 13, 2023 2:55 pm

My father ended up with a major psychiatric breakdown, hospitalised, probably bipolar disorder, for he had grandiose highs and desperate and extremely angry lows. We kids would wait in terror to see what he was like each night. Mum would needle him with her miseries and he ended up staring at a knife saying he should do us all in, ‘petticoat government’ was his word for us three females, my little brother on the sidelines upset, because dad used to roar blue murder at him for not herding the cows well enough – ‘silly as a two-bob watch’ he’d yell at the kid.

Mum upped and left late one terrible evening with us three when he’d drunk a bottle of sherry after smashing his plate of dinner on the floor and was snoring. We went to a garage in town a friend had offered her, but she returned after his hospitalization, taking our young brother with her. When she finally left him she went completely downhill, in Broughton Hall Psych Centre for a whole year, schizoid, not even knowing at her worst who I was. Once happily in that garage, my sister and I, at just fourteen and fifteen, refused to go back.

We got jobs. We were on our way. You could do that in those days if you kept away from The Welfare.

rosie
rosie
July 13, 2023 3:02 pm

I see ed case is lying about Lord McAlpine, again.

Vicki
Vicki
July 13, 2023 3:03 pm

With clenched teeth, and raised blood pressure, I’m dipping into George Williams book “Treaty.”

Zulu, I heard Williiams speak on the prospect of “the Voice” at the Sydney Institute last year. He was trying a “softly, softly” approach emphasising that it was quite innocuous really!

He tried to argue that this was a new initiative. At question time I raised the previous attempt at an Aboriginal council – ATSIC – & the horrors it created. He sighed and gave me “the look”.

Suggest raising ATSIC with anyone who can remember.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 13, 2023 3:03 pm

a police chase (with exchange of gunfire)

And that’s how it happens. On a normal day out of normal life, suddenly the order of things is turned upside down. So lucky you could do a detour and avoid it, Vicki. I hope the highway was cleared asap for the truckies. If the chase occasioned a death, the wait might be longer. Wonder what it was about.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
July 13, 2023 3:04 pm

rosieJul 13, 2023 3:02 PM
I see ed case is lying … again.

FIFY

Ed Case
Ed Case
July 13, 2023 3:05 pm

Why are you defending McAlpine, rosie?
Did you know him?

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 3:07 pm

rosie

Jul 13, 2023 3:02 PM

I see ed case is lying about Lord McAlpine, again.

Relying on two tried and true legal maxims:-
1. Dead men don’t sue; and
2. No-one sues a basement-bound psycho whose only source of income is his deceased mother’s pension, having failed to tell anyone about her state of deceasedness.

shatterzzz
July 13, 2023 3:13 pm

She took us back to her family in Britain when I was eleven. If she had stayed there my life and that of my siblings would have been very different and she may have pulled round better.

Aunt, uncle & 3 kids emigrated to Melbourne as 10pound tourists early 1960s .. not short of a quid so no trouble settling in, getting a job & buying a house, car ect .. 9 months down the track Aunt getz homesick wantz to go home but everyone has to go so instead of her heading off for a holiday tester .. job quit, house sold ect 10pound fares for everyone have to be coughed up to gummint cos didn’t stay the, stipulated, 2 years ..
Back in County Durham 3 weeks .. “Too cold” sez Aunt want to go back to Oz .. re-apply .. no 10pound job this time full fare for all 5 and all back within 4 months .. Started all over again job, house ect ……. All-up it cost them around $30 000 .. not an amount to be sneezed at in the 1960s ..

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 13, 2023 3:16 pm

There used to be a lot of anti-government jokes in the USSR told person to person so that you couldn’t be jailed for them.

Yep. You know we are in trouble when someone says they want to start sitting around your kitchen table with a microphone to censor you. When Triggs said that, I was triggered.

Here in Vaucluse I used to be able to sit and watch her from my kitchen window, sitting on her verandah, always looking a sourpuss. Her wifi used to come up on my listing of those nearby. So close to the enemy, I used to think, so close.

Ed Case
Ed Case
July 13, 2023 3:18 pm

My Dutch next door neighbour (long dead) emigrated with his three brothers.
I guess it all depended on where the better prospects were.

The Dutch were lied to about Australia.
Plenty moved back to Europe or reemigrated to North America.
Southern Italians didn’t have high expectations to start with, most anywhere was better than the Sicilian bandit lands.
Plenty were functionaries of the Fascist regime too, and got here through the Vatican Ratlines.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 3:21 pm

That’s pretty much how the chain begins. One or two come out first.

There are several Italian families, in the eastern Wheatbelt, where the chain began with soldiers, captured in North Africa, sent to Australia as Prisoners of war, repatriated to Italy after the war, and deciding to emigrate to the new country – you could own land in Australia. Their grandchildren have fine old Italian names, and broad Australian accents….

Vicki
Vicki
July 13, 2023 3:25 pm

My Italian in-laws sent money home to pay for other family members to come out in the fifties, on the dad’s side six emigrated and only the two youngest stayed home with their parents, relying on remittances from their Aussie family.

We have Italian friends whose life should be on “Australian Story” – although similar stories no doubt are known by others. In Italy the wife was born into a poverty stricken family with whom she shared a 2 room shack. The father took a tremendous gamble and emigrated to Australia, leaving his wife and two children, hopefully to be supported by money he sent back to Italy. He worked for two years before he had sufficient money to bring them out to join them. My friend, who was about 6 years old, didn’t speak a word of English when she arrived here &. of course, hardly recognised her father. He eventually was able to establish a green grocer shop (of course!) in Mosman (of all places!) & the family lived in a flat above.

Her husband’s story was very similar. Together, when they married (not much older than teens) they worked many jobs for years to buy a run down motel. From that start, they began to buy property and today they live on a harbourside property and are probably among the wealthiest people we know in a suburb full of well off people. They are also the most generous people we know – proud of their struggles (and their health problems reflect their hard life) and proud to be Australians.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 3:26 pm

MatrixTransform

Jul 13, 2023 1:33 AM

some claims are consider this statement that ASD is caused by glyphosate

almost as stupid as roof inspections to be carried out by drones

You don’t say?
Let’s take a look into this brave new world of science fiction.
Well, would you look at that!
Someone right here in Melbourne doing just that.
And, wow!
There are also companies in the US using drones to inspect oil and gas assets.
But, hey, what would they know?
They’re not God Oracles or anyfink.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 13, 2023 3:32 pm

Came to a sudden halt at Katooma, near the hospital..

lol, Vicki. I came to a sudden halt at that spot in early 1975. I was in the Labour Ward, the window of which you can still see as the nearest one to the current highway, having my second child. It’s not the Labor Ward any more of course in this new modern hospital. In January 1975 it was a country hospital with about six women in the maternity wing at any time, and deliveries by local GP’s.

We were living in Blackheath, having purchased a small wooden mountain cottage for $4,500, with a $500 first home owners grant. I painted and renovated that place inside and outside (doing the outside on a ladder when pregnant), while my first husband ‘did the garden’ of nearly an acre. He spent most of his time reading catalogues and making arcane lists of related plants, an armchair gardener, who failed to collect from the station the plants he’d ordered, till I retrieved them, dead of course. He travelled to Sydney three days a week to teach, and pick up essay and exam papers for me to do some supply marking – our incomes at that time.

Oh dear, the fleshpots of Sydney. Another story.

rosie
rosie
July 13, 2023 3:32 pm

My uncle guarded Italian POWs in WWII, here in Australia, they were allowed out to work on farms, some were quite adamant they weren’t going home, and apparently, they didn’t.

Boambee John
Boambee John
July 13, 2023 3:35 pm

rosie
Jul 13, 2023 3:02 PM
I see ed case is lying about Lord McAlpine, again.

Pretty much everything that Turd Case posts is either a lie or some kind of deluded fantasy.

rosie
rosie
July 13, 2023 3:36 pm

My German American friend had a similar story of chain migration in the mid 19th century though in that case identification papers were posted home and other family members used them to emigrate.
Large numbers from their province emigrated to the same general area in the mid west.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
July 13, 2023 3:36 pm

My brother’s summing up of the Portland area.
“Wind turbines in every direction and potholes in every street.”

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 13, 2023 3:37 pm

Lovely story of Italian origins, Vicki. You should talk one day to Tinta. We share the distinction that neither of us owned toothbrushes until we bought our own; our parental generation expected to have false teeth by the time they were 21. In a glass by the bed at night. Key to the door, as it were, in traditional families coming from the depths of poverty.

Boambee John
Boambee John
July 13, 2023 3:38 pm

Ed Houses
Jul 13, 2023 3:05 PM
Why are you defending McAlpine, rosie?
Did you know him?

Truth should always be defended.

Are you a sock-puppet of Mad Ed Case?

rosie
rosie
July 13, 2023 3:39 pm

I run into these yes spruikers, I should say to them that if they’re so convinced that Wentworth already says/votes YES, then they’re wasting their time here,

Awesome!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 3:41 pm

they were allowed out to work on farms,

Italian prisoners of war were allowed out to work on farms, if they had had working on the land in Italy. One enterprising lad, who claimed farming experience, was subsequently unmasked as having run a barbershop in Florence. He wasn’t much as a farmhand, but the family and friends had the best haircuts in the district….

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 13, 2023 3:48 pm

Everyone has a story. Around our coffee table after dance class so much is shared, and people can be surprising in sharing some of what they have been through. You might think they’d never had a worry in their life. That’s what some of the girls say they thought about me at first – rich property, husband a good catch, expensively pretty, and maybe airheaded about dancing. No worries for her etc. Till, after years, they found out otherwise.

That group is amazingly cohesive, after so many shared years, with some inputs from newbies as others leave. We have a coffee club, a movie club, a book-sharing club, a garden club, and now some of them have started a travel club, especially the widows and singles, going off on cruises together.

Vicki
Vicki
July 13, 2023 3:48 pm

We were living in Blackheath, having purchased a small wooden mountain cottage for $4,500, with a $500 first home owners grant

The Blue Mountains would not be a bad place for young ones – even today – to settle. It is an easy run down to Sydney’s west – where I imagine there is still plenty of work. Less congested than the western suburbs, I suspect less crime, and beautiful scenery. I particularly like Wentworth Falls with its excellent cafes.

Boambee John
Boambee John
July 13, 2023 3:48 pm

I mentioned a while ago the young schoolgirl of Italian descent in the AWM on a school visit. She didn’t expect her family to have any records there, but a quick search brought up a man in the Hay PoW camp, playing in the prisoners’ band.

One look at the photo, and a squeal of delight: “That’s Poppy!”

No doubt at all that the family were happy here.

Johnny Rotten
July 13, 2023 3:52 pm

There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.

– Frank Lloyd Wright

rosie
rosie
July 13, 2023 3:53 pm

I remember meeting some other children of Italian migrants who’s parents had married by proxy, wife following out her new husband when funds allowed.
Great adventures but emigration stories are always tinged with element of sadness and loss.
The dad I knew emigrated when he was seventeen never to see his mother again.
Even one of my mates, when he finally visited his parent’s village in Italy burst out sobbing visiting the grave of a grandmother he never met.
And my great grandmother who emigrated in 1880 aged 20 with her seventeen year old sister who died just a few weeks after they arrived in Australia.
Her brother emigrated separately then re-emigrated to South Africa before returning to Australia in his old age, many years after she herself had died.

rosie
rosie
July 13, 2023 3:55 pm

I imagine after Italy surrendered Australian authorities weren’t too bothered about the Italians here.

Vicki
Vicki
July 13, 2023 3:57 pm

That group is amazingly cohesive, after so many shared years, with some inputs from newbies as others leave. We have a coffee club, a movie club, a book-sharing club, a garden club, and now some of them have started a travel club, especially the widows and singles, going off on cruises together.

Lizzie, isn’t it great when you develop such a strong group of friends? We are similarly fortunate in relation to a coffee shop at the harbour where we have developed friendships that have lasted for over twenty years. I thought we may lose those bonds when Covid and the vaccination regime arrived. That did not happen – partly because we decamped to the farm, and partly because they know that I am a nutty “researcher”. But it did happen to another friend who, like you, had what she thought were solid friendships at a dance group. Every one of them made her an outcast for two years during Covid. They have accepted her once again, but those relationships will never be quite the same. Fortunately, she and her husband joined an anti-vax group in our area (which is where we met them) & has made new friends.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 3:59 pm

Great adventures but emigration stories are always tinged with element of sadness and loss.

Cite you the Irish port, where, as the immigrant ships left, the priest would stand on the dock, saying “Mass” for the souls of the departed….

Cassie of Sydney
July 13, 2023 4:00 pm

What was done to Lord McAlpine, and the diseased Ted Heath, and Lord Brittan, and Harvey Proctor, and others, was disgraceful. Accusations that conjured up by sicko serial fantasists and conveniently peddled by the BBC (an organisation that for years had covered up Saville) and various Labour politicians. Why? Because the aforementioned names had been or were Conservative politicians, in the case of Ted Heath, a former Conservative PM.

Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP, who is still alive, had his life ruined. Proctor is a gay man. He’d been living in a grace and favour house on the Duke of Rutland’s estate, when the police and the media, particularly the BBC, made merry with the ridiculous allegations by the serial fantasist Beech. Proctor’s house on the estate was raided by police and he was evicted. It has taken him years to recover, he now occasionally appears on GB News.

But, like here in Oz, conservatives and right of centre politicians and commentators are regarded as “fair game”.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 4:05 pm

I imagine after Italy surrendered Australian authorities weren’t too bothered about the Italians here.

It was 1947 before they were repatriated.

Black Ball
Black Ball
July 13, 2023 4:05 pm
Vicki
Vicki
July 13, 2023 4:05 pm

My brother’s summing up of the Portland area.
“Wind turbines in every direction and potholes in every street.”

Gez – that must be a “Portland” in WA? The Portland in NSW – about a 40 minute drive from our farm – is a quite pretty and well kept country town. Many years ago it was known for its cement works (“Portland Cement”) and still has the industrial factory. The old smoke stacks have provided the base for magnificent murals of old-timers painted by that genius who paints old infrastructure across the country.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 13, 2023 4:10 pm

It’s a risky business, leaving your love at home to wait while you migrate.

Here’s The Youth of the Heart, tell that risky tale, from Ireland.

Boambee John
Boambee John
July 13, 2023 4:12 pm

rosie
Jul 13, 2023 3:55 PM
I imagine after Italy surrendered Australian authorities weren’t too bothered about the Italians here.

It has been claimed that some Italian prisoners working on farms near Cowra were quite prepared to defend the farmhouse with farm implements or kitchen knives should any stray escaped Japanese approach. After all, by that time they were allies!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 4:21 pm

Supposed to have been an incident where two Italian officers escaped from a P.O.W. camp, in New South Wales. Disguised as commercial travelers, they spoke perfect English, and their papers were in good order, but they were re-captured after one of them asked for a glass of wine, over the lunch table, of a “steak and eggs” rural cafe…

rosie
rosie
July 13, 2023 4:22 pm

Maybe Portland Victoria?

bons
bons
July 13, 2023 4:31 pm

The ‘happy little wog’ image much promoted by vested interests was certainly not shared by Australian servicemen who had had the misfortune to be POW’s under viscious Italian control.
I can’t imagine what would have happened if an Italian had sauntered onto my Uncle Rob’s property looking for work.
His district was a strong recruiting ground for both 9th Div and RAAF (3 Sqn) so perhaps word got around in the Italian community to stay clear.

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
July 13, 2023 4:39 pm

Portland Vic ha the wind turbines. We liked the town very much, quite an old port, my forbears walked through on the way from SA to Omeo. Will be interesting to see what happens in due course to the Aluminium smelter. They were loading wood chips galore heading to Asia when we were there, and the drive to Nelson is amazing, trees, trees, trees.

Black Ball
Black Ball
July 13, 2023 4:41 pm

I don’t think it’s from the No side of the referendum, rather the other side of the claim. John Masanauskas:

Actor Tasma Walton received threats to herself and her family after giving evidence in a dispute between Victorian Aboriginal groups, a court has been told.

Ms Walton’s barrister Chris Athanasiou told the Federal Court today that the “very distressed” actor, who claims Indigenous heritage, had been put up as “poster girl” of the No case for the upcoming Voice to parliament referendum.

“She fears for herself and her family, she fears that this will impact considerably on her work as an actor and her livelihood,” he said.

Ms Walton is among several people linked to the Bunurong Land Council who are responding to a big land claim by rival group the Boon Wurrung Land and Sea Council.

Ms Walton, who is married to TV personality Rove McManus, told the court on Monday that she “gradually realised” about her Aboriginal ancestry after moving to Melbourne to film Blue Heelers TV series in 1996.

Her Nanna had shared “unusual stories” about parts of Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula, including a theory on what happened to prime minister Harold Holt who drowned off Portsea in 1967.

“She said he shouldn’t have been swimming there, that it was mermaid country,” Ms Walton said.

Mr Athanasiou said Ms Walton was currently overseas, but had asked to withdraw from the court case.

“The position of Tasma Walton is that she has been the subject of a concerted campaign in the commercial and on social media, she has received threats to the family, to her children, some as young as nine,” he said.

Lawyer representing the Wurundjeri people Anne Sheehan said it had been brought to her attention that Ms Walton’s evidence had been “seized upon by numerous people and perhaps groups in terms of a political agenda in relation to the No campaign”.

Justice Bernard Murphy said he had been concerned about some of the mainstream media commentary on the case, but “I did not see anything. which I would have described as misleading”.

“I’m not on social media so I haven’t seen anything that’s been said,” he said.

“I found Ms Walton a truthful and a persuasive witness … I’m sorry that those things have happened to her, but as you know I have no control whatsoever over it.”

Justice Murphy said he wasn’t inclined to agree to a withdrawal application as “we are mid trial, the issues that Ms Walton raised are still going to be dealt with by this court”.

Earlier, the judge criticised Mr Athanasiou and the Bunurong case when pointing out that most Bunurong witnesses had recognised Boon Wurrung Council elder Carolyn Briggs and her family as descended from Bunurong ancestors.

“So I don’t know how you say that you had clear instructions when the witnesses you called said something expressly different to what was being put in your submissions,” he said.

Justice Murphy also criticised Mr Athanasiou for being late to court.

“Enough is enough, there will be no more indulgences, a court does not revolve around you and your clients.”

“The court expects more care, more accountability and more timeliness from the Bunurong respondents in the way they run their case,” he said.

The case continues.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 4:44 pm

Has the media suddenly gone silent over the Heston Russell dogfight?

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
July 13, 2023 4:57 pm

Just imagine if Abbott or Morrison had used a government plane to take them to a concert.

They would be asked to resign and they probably would (Choppergate).

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 4:59 pm

The ‘happy little wog’ image much promoted by vested interests was certainly not shared by Australian servicemen who had had the misfortune to be POW’s under viscious Italian control.

Lady here is the widow of a soldier, captured in North Africa by the Italians, and imprisoned in an Italian P.O.W. camp, and, later, a German camp. She says he remained angry for the rest of his life at any suggestion that being in an Italian P.O.W. camp was easier then a German camp.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
July 13, 2023 4:59 pm

Was Married With Children’s NO MAAM ahead of their time?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7LTzEmnyms

What is contended these days is not so much the division of labour but the division of pain.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 5:08 pm

Cite you the Irish port,

Cobh, originally named Queenstown, in Eire.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 13, 2023 5:10 pm

Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP, who is still alive, had his life ruined. Proctor is a gay man. He’d been living in a grace and favour house on the Duke of Rutland’s estate, when the police and the media, particularly the BBC, made merry with the ridiculous allegations by the serial fantasist Beech.

And by Labour MP Tom Watson – who used Privilege in the Coward’s Castle to spread shite and kickstart the 2012 Metropolitan Police investigation into Elm Guest House, which dragged down Leon Brittan and set the cops onto Harvey Proctor.

Karl Beech is in jail.
Tom Watson is now in the House of Lords.

…and the diseased Ted Heath…

Not sure if SpellCheck has helped you with ‘deceased’, but Heath was an unpleasant creature by all accounts.

Johnny Rotten
July 13, 2023 5:15 pm

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.

– Donald Rumsfeld

As written by George W Bush………lol

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 5:19 pm

Farmer Gez

Jul 13, 2023 3:36 PM

My brother’s summing up of the Portland area.
“Wind turbines in every direction and potholes in every street.”

Portland, Victoria?
Mmmyes.
Amazing that I wouldn’t be able to build a two story holiday house at Cape Bridgewater where they have wind turbines.
Which are falling foul of the salty air, I’m pleased to report.
Whenever we get a copy of the local rag we joke about “Portland man” (which is pretty much the equivalent of “Florida man”). There is invariably one, doing something ostentatiously stupid in his unregistered car under the influence of drugs. Drugs which will still be in the vehicle when he is inevitably pulled over.
It’s a shithole.
Being a port, it has a somewhat bigger drug problem than other areas.

cohenite
July 13, 2023 5:22 pm
Vicki
Vicki
July 13, 2023 5:22 pm

Has the media suddenly gone silent over the Heston Russell dogfight?

No – I heard on the car radio today that the ABC had withdrawn the material regarding Heston that he said defamed him. Not sure if that means he can continue the defamation case. But they should surely pay his defence outgoings.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 5:26 pm

Spain: Bare-breasted women welcome Muslim migrants as they arrive on beach

The Mooslimes will probably complain that said bare breasted ladies are showing their contempt for Izlam.

duncanm
duncanm
July 13, 2023 5:27 pm

shatterzzz
Jul 13, 2023 2:42 PM
Definitely not offering YES incentives .. no we isn’t, I tellz ya! .. LOL!
https://ibb.co/HzxGG6M

YES23: https://yes23.com.au/about

Directors
Michael Chaney
Andrew Fraser
Lachlan Harris
Tanya Hosch
Thomas Mayo
Karen Mundine
Anthony Nutt
Noel Pearson
Mark Textor
Catherine Tanna
Chloe Wighton

One wonders how they can offer grants worth thousands of dollars for advocacy, given that their stated income and expenses are exactly zero.

Tom
Tom
July 13, 2023 5:36 pm

If the media really was the ears and ears of the public, it would be in uproar against the Albanese regime’s proposed new censorship law that would allow unelected government bureaucrats to ban “misinformation”.

Instead, Sky’s Sharri Markson is a lone media voice against the proposed censorship law because 99% of Australian journalists will do whatever it takes to protect the power of its political tribe – the Labor-Greens coalition government.

The Australian Media Communications Authority (ACMA) would be empowered to ban content under the new law that it deems misinformation. Guess what? Just like journalists, 99% of federal government bureaucrats vote for Labor and the Greens.

So under the new censorship law, ACMA would end up banning media content the government doesn’t like – until Australian next elects an LNP government when the bureaucracy and the media switch their focus to their common enemy, the LNP government.

The Australian media is now the public’s tribal enemy, not its defender, and hasn’t been since the 1990s.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 5:49 pm

No – I heard on the car radio today that the ABC had withdrawn the material regarding Heston that he said defamed him. Not sure if that means he can continue the defamation case.

Yes.
He is suing them, remember.
If someone could merely weasle out of a defamation case by laying down and putting their fingers in their ears, everyone would do it.
The ABC barrister has basically conceded that they will be ruled against because they have abandoned both legs of their defence (“public interest” and “truth”).

But they should surely pay his defence outgoings.

There will be an award of costs, no doubt.
I anticipate a judicial bashing up of Aunty and her counsel, along the lines of “Why the fck did you waste everyone’s time when you could have established months ago that you weren’t going to disclose your source. I do hope you have not advised your client that there was even the remotest possibility that I would admit second-hand accounts into evidence without the possibility of cross-examination.”

Roger
Roger
July 13, 2023 5:54 pm

“The final reality, particularly for Indigenous peoples, is that non- Indigenous Australians are here to stay. Whatever the sense of continuing and original injustice, there is no escaping the presence on this continent of the Australian people, and their nation State.”

And their damned money.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 5:56 pm

They were loading wood chips galore heading to Asia when we were there, and the drive to Nelson is amazing, trees, trees, trees.

Anyone who cries “timber shortage” needs to take that drive.
Miles and miles of pinus radiata.
And if you are on that drive heading west you will meet a “short triple” road train carrying logs about every 5-10 minutes.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 5:58 pm

And their damned money.

Strange, there’s no mention of any of the benefits of colonialism. It’s not as though the indigenous are queuing up to resume the “hunter gatherer” lifestyle.

Roger
Roger
July 13, 2023 6:08 pm

Strange, there’s no mention of any of the benefits of colonialism.

Which reminds me, anyone interested in that topic generally should look at Nigel Biggar, Colonialism. John Anderson recently interviewed him, available on his You Tube channel.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 6:21 pm

Which reminds me, anyone interested in that topic generally should look at Nigel Biggar, Colonialism. John Anderson recently interviewed him, available on his You Tube channel.

Recommended reading – I’ve brought two copies – I’m reading one, while the other is doing the rounds of the unrepentant colonialists that live in this district.

Roger
Roger
July 13, 2023 6:21 pm

Sadly, George Williams’s mind has gone walkabout.

Black Ball
Black Ball
July 13, 2023 6:22 pm

One of Knuckle Dragger’s favourites:
“There’s no cash here. Here there’s no cash, alright? Cash *no*, Robbo?”
Hun:

Troubled Underbelly star Vince Colosimo has had $58,000 in unpaid fines withdrawn after a magistrate deemed him too mentally unwell to cough up the cash.

The award-winning actor was beamed into the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday via video-link where his Victorian Legal Aid lawyer Julia Munster argued he had failed to pay 169 traffic infringements over a 10-year period because of his “profound mental illness”.

Ms Munster said a forensic psychologist had found the “Wog Boy” actor has been suffering from a series of significant mental health issues, including major depressive disorder, PTSD, drug dependence and ADHD.

She told the court his mental disorders, for which he has been receiving weekly counselling, and his “financial predicament” meant he was unable to pay $61,858.60 in traffic infringements between 2013 and 2022.

“He’s living a meagre lifestyle, your honour, with very limited financial capacity,” she said.

Colosimo was facing time behind bars but Magistrate Guillaume Bailin ruled that out on Thursday, instead wiping all but $3,858.60 worth of the 56-year-old’s fines, which he was ordered to pay off through 101 hours of community service over 12 months.

Mr Bailin accepted Colosimo’s “inattention” to dealing with the hefty pile of fines was due to his “mental impairment, disorder or illness” and that he did not have the financial assets to pay the infringements.

The magistrate noted that the “overwhelming majority” of the fines related to Colosimo driving an unregistered vehicle on a toll road.

“There are no criminal charges … the most serious one in the speed matter,” he said.

The court heard the original fines, which also included failing to vote and failing to stop at a traffic light, amounted to about $30,000 but when they remained unpaid they more than doubled to $61,858.60.

Ms Munster, who stressed that “these are minor offences”, argued that community service “could have a detrimental impact” on Colosimo’s rehabilitation, telling the court that he’s done “everything he can to put his life on track”.

The defence lawyer said the father of two had been volunteering every week for the past six weeks at anti-bullying charity, Bully Zero.

“There is also a risk that obligations, also community work, might impede his ability to do his other work and to then get him out of the financial predicament he’s in,” she said.

“You ought not to set up Mr Colosimo to fail.”

Ms Munster told the court Colosimo was so broke that his only valuable possession was an old car worth $5,000, adding that he had been forced to borrow $6,025 to pay another series of fines earlier this week.

Mr Bailin accepted that the entertainer’s rental and work situations remain “precarious”, noting that he had a “lack of employment prospects beyond labouring jobs”

The magistrate warned Colosimo that if he failed to complete his community service jail time could still be a real possibility.

Ed Case
Ed Case
July 13, 2023 6:25 pm

She says he remained angry for the rest of his life at any suggestion that being in an Italian P.O.W. camp was easier then a German camp.

Bloke born in Slovenia in 1927 told me he was in an Italian prison for 8 months in 1945.
They didn’t feed their prisoners, so unless someone on the outside brought you food, you’d starve to death.
Germans treated Russian prisoners abominably because:
#1. There were so many of them
#2. Tit for Tat
By 1945 the German Economy had collapsed, so any prisoners in the system were lucky to survive Typhus and starvation.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
July 13, 2023 6:26 pm

Using their own published numbers on retired coal and gas generation, battery capacity and the intermittent nature of renewball generation, you need nothing more than an A3 sheet of paper, pencil and calculator to know we are in strife.

You need two other things which you can’t buy at the shops. 1. Enough brainpower to think critically, do sums, and see the need to do sums 2. A basic education which will give you at least a faint idea of how much you don’t know.
Our parasitic class has neither of these.

miltonf
miltonf
July 13, 2023 6:35 pm

The Australian media is now the public’s tribal enemy, not its defender, and hasn’t been since the 1990s.
I’d say back to the early 80s at least. Also the canbra pubic serpent establishment is the public’s tribal enemy and has been for many years.

Ed Case
Ed Case
July 13, 2023 6:36 pm

What was done to Lord McAlpine, and the diseased Ted Heath, and Lord Brittan,
All boy rooters.
… Accusations that conjured up by sicko serial fantasists and conveniently peddled by the BBC (an organisation that for years had covered up Saville) and various Labour politicians.
Savile was pretty quick to threaten Legal Action, he even threatened VIZ, who backed off. Savile also had some very heavy friends in the London Underworld.

Why? Because the aforementioned names had been or were Conservative politicians, in the case of Ted Heath, a former Conservative PM.

Crap.
Ever heard of Cyril Smith?
Labour MP, he was worse than any of them, apart from Sailor Ted.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
July 13, 2023 6:39 pm

Vince Colosimo may be too mentally unwell to pay his fines but the Daily Mail has another perspective:
“11 year addiction to ice sees him escape paying $62,000 in fines”.
The story is accompanied by photos of Vince enjoying a holiday in
Paris last year, at a time he was due in court.

Roger
Roger
July 13, 2023 6:44 pm

The story is accompanied by photos of Vince enjoying a holiday in
Paris last year, at a time he was due in court.

Mmm…

Magistrates these days are generally soft touches.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
July 13, 2023 6:48 pm

Ho Chi Minns has a fresh and fizzy announcement.
I love animals, but this is just buying votes from imbeciles, at the expense of what were once called private property rights.

cohenite
July 13, 2023 6:53 pm

The c.nt, Van Houten, who helped kill Sharon Tate has been released from jail. This is what should have happened to her and the rest of the bastards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6yd0Ko9X-M

Bill P
Bill P
July 13, 2023 6:58 pm

Black Ball
I’m sure JC will be here soon to thank you for the link to Andre Rieu.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 7:11 pm

You need two other things which you can’t buy at the shops. 1. Enough brainpower to think critically, do sums, and see the need to do sums 2. A basic education which will give you at least a faint idea of how much you don’t know.
Our parasitic class has neither of these

In addition to the brainpower, it requires the will to actually want to put it under the microscope.
The concepts and the maths (err, arithmetic, actually) are not complex.
But can you imagine someone from the Britnah-Bruce class of political advisers actually being able to say the words “You know what, Minister. This does not stack up”.
The point is that the numbers are so stark, that you could feed in really optimistic generation and cost assumptions and it would still not get a viable answer.
But no-one wants to ask the question.
We are sooo screwed.

Tom
Tom
July 13, 2023 7:19 pm

We are sooo screwed.

No, we’re not — not yet anyway.

The public is in the midst of discovering you cannot trust the government about anything and that is changing the way the public votes.

The only thing that hasn’t changed in the past century is that you should always assume politicians, being in the bullshit industry, should never be trusted about anything.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 7:22 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5vskCOPEeg

“I hate rude behavior in a man – I won’t tolerate it!”

Perplexed of Brisbane
Perplexed of Brisbane
July 13, 2023 7:26 pm

Perhaps Colossimo could sell his car to pay towards the debt. He clearly shouldn’t be driving.

Indolent
Indolent
July 13, 2023 7:32 pm

This is in the WSJ and paywalled so only a part can be read, but it’s clear enough.

‘They’re Coming for Your Cars’

Bar Beach Swimmer
July 13, 2023 7:35 pm

The proposed wind ”farm” off the NSW coast has been reduced in area by, as I understand it, a third, and pushed further out to sea to lessen the visual disturbance of residents at Norah Head on the Central Coast.

It seems that the nimby backlash has been too much for at least one swinging seat Labor mp to withstand. A very fast turnaround indeed.

The fact that changes have been made, shows that further changes are possible, if the community continues to “threaten” the re-election prospects of the member.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/video/news/central-coast-town-no-longer-included-in-zone-for-offshore-wind-farm/vi-AA1dMOVu?t=23

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 7:36 pm

Perplexed of Brisbane

Jul 13, 2023 7:26 PM

Perhaps Colossimo could sell his car to pay towards the debt. He clearly shouldn’t be driving.

Well, it must be difficult to drive with all those tickets stuck the the windscreen.

Alamak!
Alamak!
July 13, 2023 7:37 pm

Strange, there’s no mention of any of the benefits of colonialism.

Reminds me … was at the WA museum in Perth today to see the Egyptian exhibition (good ,even my 2 sons liked it) and viewed the “Connections” space which is dedicated to WA and its kinks to the World.

There is an area in the WA museum for British colonialism which repeats all the usual tired memes about the negative effects of colonising “invaders” but can’t seem to provide a single example of any thing positive which the Brits gave us.

BS propaganda pretending to be history in a museum funded by tax payers.

Megan
Megan
July 13, 2023 7:51 pm

I think the Montessori schools prefer boys to be seven before they start school. There is no evidence that it does them any harm. They catch up quickly.

You’re thinking of Steiner schools, Johanna. Montessori gets them started early and spends the first couple of years mainly focused on teaching them the basic life skills – setting the table, cutting up fruit, cleaning up after yourself, putting things back where you found them, hanging your coat up, etc.

I ran a Montessori based program in a ‘disadvantaged’ state primary school in the early 70’s. Best 4 years of my teaching career. It required a principal obsessed with getting the best results for the kids under his care, giving teachers enormous autonomy to put theory into practice, harder work than I’ve done before or since and a mostly non-English speaking cohort of migrant parents who set clear expectations for their kids and had huge respect for the school and teachers.

It was at the time, and remains to this day, a highly successful (measured by outcomes) and deeply missed educational unicorn.

Beertruk
July 13, 2023 7:54 pm

Roger
Jul 13, 2023 6:08 PM
Strange, there’s no mention of any of the benefits of colonialism.

Which reminds me, anyone interested in that topic generally should look at Nigel Biggar, Colonialism. John Anderson recently interviewed him, available on his You Tube channel.

Roder and Zulu, there are two articles called ‘Moral Reconckoning of the British Empire’ by Matthew White in May and ‘Moral Reconckoning of the British Empire (II) (Measuring the Elephant: The Morality of the British Empire) ‘ by Saul Kelly, in June issues of Quadrant magazine.
I have a standing order for Quadrant at me local newsagency. 😉
Already run foul of one of me wife’s cousins who we went to visit one day (me to read a coule of issues of Quadrant while the women played cards and boardgames), words to the effect ‘why are you reading that shit?…don’t bring it to this house…’
I still ignore her.

Both pieces are about what Nigel Biggar has written in his book Colonialisim: A Moral Reckoning

I have been thinking about getting Nigel Biggar’s book, but I think Zulu you have convinced me to get it sooner rather than later.
After I have finished reading (about 3/4 finished) Al Murray’s Command: How the Allies Learned to Win the Second World War.

Zatara
Zatara
July 13, 2023 8:01 pm

The proposed wind ”farm” off the NSW coast has been reduced in area by, as I understand it, a third, and pushed further out to sea to lessen the visual disturbance of residents at Norah Head on the Central Coast.

And 30 minutes with a decent bad guy demolitions team will turn the whole lot into a fishing reef.

Thinking strategically and remembering what being a nation under threat is like obviously isn’t the strong suit of the morons who make such decisions and the ones that do get paid to think about such things appear asleep at the wheel.

Yeah, I know that was a bit off topic but it bothers me that such things never seem to be considered.

Ed Case
Ed Case
July 13, 2023 8:02 pm

On May 18, 1994, during a speech before the Ohio County Treasurers Association, Schott commented that she did not want her players to wear earrings because “only fruits wear earrings.” She said, “I was raised to believe that men wearing earrings are fruity.”

During the same season, a former Oakland Athletics executive assistant, Sharon Jones, is quoted in The New York Times as having overheard Schott state: “I would never hire another nigger. I’d rather have a trained monkey working for me than a nigger,” before the start of an owners’ conference call.

That’s Marge Schott, she owned the Cincinnati Reds.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
July 13, 2023 8:04 pm

Magistrates these days are generally soft touches.

Unless one is the operator of a small business fronting on a strict liability matter.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
July 13, 2023 8:05 pm

P. Ed. O. Case, see how easy it is. No comment necessary. POS.

John H.
John H.
July 13, 2023 8:09 pm

Beertruk
Jul 13, 2023 7:54 PM
Roger
Jul 13, 2023 6:08 PM
Strange, there’s no mention of any of the benefits of colonialism.

The British were so bad that every 4 years colonised countries gather together to have some fun on fields. Colonialism had its problems but the British were by far the best and didn’t go in and rip the guts out of the place. Britain built better societies on what were formerly swamps, huts, and subsistence living. Britain bought technologies that made life so much more enjoyable and increased life expectancy. India, Hong Kong, Singapore etc didn’t go back to their old ways. The Maori recognised the benefits of British innovation and adopted British ways.

When indigenous activists complain about colonialism ask them if they would like to return to the pre-European way of life. If they say yes tell them to strip off their clothes, hand over the phones, and start walking.

Beertruk
July 13, 2023 8:11 pm

The proposed wind ”farm” off the NSW coast has been reduced in area by, as I understand it, a third, and pushed further out to sea to lessen the visual disturbance of residents at Norah Head on the Central Coast.

Wind farms are nothing more than visual pollution and White Elephants surrounded by dead birds.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
July 13, 2023 8:19 pm

The public is in the midst of discovering you cannot trust the government about anything and that is changing the way the public votes.
Really Tom? C.L. signed off a post on his blog recently with a similar assurance… I’m not so sure. Upcoming Elections A Chance To Send A Message is, after all, a constant state of the election-rich west…. and westerners are still plauged by the twin afflictions of being too reluctant to admit that they have been bollocked, and being too ready to forgive those what done it.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
July 13, 2023 8:23 pm

Panzer at 12.36:

Anyway, buying two pieces separately was going to cost nearly $60, and the bloke offered a 44 piece set for $180.
Case had been dropped and had a ding in it. Big deal.
Made in Taiwan, so only a bit Chinese.

TraiTor.

Bet they don’t fit Kenworths.

Beertruk
July 13, 2023 8:25 pm

John H.
Jul 13, 2023 8:09 PM

When indigenous activists complain about colonialism ask them if they would like to return to the pre-European way of life. If they say yes tell them to strip off their clothes, hand over the phones, and start walking.

I have said as much in the odd conversation.
Nigel Biggar looked at British Colonialism from on an ethics background and he found that the benifits of it far, far, outweighed the negatives.

Indolent
Indolent
July 13, 2023 8:25 pm
Bar Beach Swimmer
July 13, 2023 8:29 pm

And 30 minutes with a decent bad guy demolitions team will turn the whole lot into a fishing reef.

An interesting thought, Zatara. A possible first strike for a certain enemy airforce? Not an easy installation to defend under such circumstances.

But, on second thought, maybe they’d leave it alone as it probably would create mayhem for us if Newcastle does become the site for the new submarine base.

I realise that submarines are supposed to be out of base and on patrol, but given our luck with the Collins Class, they’d all be in dock the day the enemy arrived.

I can see it now, as the pride of our fleet try to get on the tail of the other side, they’d first have to negotiate a bunch of giant fans spread from the central coast to Port Stephens.

Well and truly, you can see the fingerprints of our “top” people all over this.

Indolent
Indolent
July 13, 2023 8:29 pm

He is actively working against the well being of his own nation. Don’t tell me he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

King Charles III And His Climate Doomsday Clock: The False Predictions Designed To Deceive

Indolent
Indolent
July 13, 2023 8:31 pm

Commercial real estate in America. I’m not sure if there’s a similar problem here.

One Bubble Is About to Pop…and No One Is Talking About It

Indolent
Indolent
July 13, 2023 8:33 pm
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 8:33 pm

TraiTor.

Bet they don’t fit Kenworths.

Should do.
A little bit metric, a little bit imperial, so you could say I’m bi-dimensional.
They might not fit the Kenworth, but they make a very satisfying clicky-clacky noise when I push the spannery thingies on to the handle whats-it.
Reminds me.
I wonder if all those furrin parts have been taken off the Kenworf.

Indolent
Indolent
July 13, 2023 8:34 pm
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 8:34 pm

And 30 minutes with a decent bad guy demolitions team will turn the whole lot into a fishing reef.

If anyone truly wanted to damage our economy they’d leave them alone.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
July 13, 2023 8:37 pm

My 2c worth the whole Qld Magistracy needs a clean out. Who and how it would be done is a mystery. Perhaps electing these people would be a step in the right direction, then you have to justify yourself to the community you live in. Not virtue signal with the knowledge of no repercussions.

Since 1989 the state has been under Conservative rule for just 5 years. Chrisifulli fills me with zero confidence if and big if he gets up.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 8:37 pm

When indigenous activists complain about colonialism ask them if they would like to return to the pre-European way of life. If they say yes tell them to strip off their clothes, hand over the phones, and start walking.

Can I use that one, the next time the “activists” here, start on about how all was paradise, before the dark days of colonialism? “Strip off your clothes, hand over your mobile phones, collect a dead kangaroo and two spears and start walking. There’s no return.”

Ed Case
Ed Case
July 13, 2023 8:37 pm

GreyRanga
Jul 13, 2023 8:05 PM
P. Ed. O. Case, see how easy it is. No comment necessary. POS.

Yeah.
You are obsessed by the notion that Pederasts be exempted from any responsibility for the destruction they cause.
I won’t speculate on the reasons for your odd fixation, but if others want to, that’s okay too.

Zatara
Zatara
July 13, 2023 8:43 pm

She told the court his mental disorders, for which he has been receiving weekly counselling, and his “financial predicament” meant he was unable to pay $61,858.60 in traffic infringements between 2013 and 2022.

So why wasn’t he declared incompetent to handle his financial affairs and had a guardian appointed? It would be difficult to provide a more clear-cut case especially now that it has been presented as evidence and accepted in court.

There should have been consequences for using that line of hooey to escape the fines.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 8:48 pm

Al Murray’s Command: How the Allies Learned to Win the Second World War.

Looks interesting – I’ve bagged a copy!

Boambee John
Boambee John
July 13, 2023 8:54 pm

miltonf
Jul 13, 2023 6:35 PM
The Australian media is now the public’s tribal enemy, not its defender, and hasn’t been since the 1990s.
I’d say back to the early 80s at least. Also the canbra pubic serpent establishment is the public’s tribal enemy and has been for many years.

As one who was there at the time, I suspect that the retirement of the last of the former WW II servicemen, who went through CRTS later joined the public service, and reached middle to senior levels, was the beginning of the present mess.

Alamak!
July 13, 2023 8:56 pm

If anyone truly wanted to damage our economy they’d leave them alone.

Or just cut the cables with a few grenades. Leaving a bunch of expensive windmills and power system tripping due to sudden failure.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
July 13, 2023 9:00 pm

OK I’ve had enough of TV.
The Drum on their ABC is chaired by some lisping queen who makes Bob Downe look relaxed and Margot Robbie look under-made-up. His nasal basso honko and ridiculously sssssssibillant S’s are a mess to listen to.
SBS- pronounced Eth Be Eth by Ricardo Gonsalves, who seems to be on screen for no other reason than to preen- falls over itself to Say “Fakaari-White Island off aotearoa-New Zealand”, but only pronounces Krungthepmahanakhon as “Bangkok” because double standards are for other people.

Boambee John
Boambee John
July 13, 2023 9:00 pm

Beertruk
Jul 13, 2023 8:11 PM
The proposed wind ”farm” off the NSW coast has been reduced in area by, as I understand it, a third, and pushed further out to sea to lessen the visual disturbance of residents at Norah Head on the Central Coast.

Wind farms are nothing more than visual pollution and White Elephants surrounded by dead birds.

And whales. And porpoises. And other sea creatures.

Boambee John
Boambee John
July 13, 2023 9:05 pm

Ed Case
Jul 13, 2023 8:37 PM
GreyRanga
Jul 13, 2023 8:05 PM
P. Ed. O. Case, see how easy it is. No comment necessary. POS.

Yeah.
You are obsessed by the notion that Pederasts be exempted from any responsibility for the destruction they cause.

No, Turd Case. The issue that alleged pederasts should be proven to be guilty before the media destroys the lives of those not actually guilty.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 9:10 pm

I have a standing order for Quadrant at me local newsagency.

As do I. I pass on my copies to a friend of mine, who has certain offspring who have have emerged from University as raving lefties. He finds “Quadrant” quite useful in counteracting the more extreme theories.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
July 13, 2023 9:11 pm

World’s top climate scientists told to ‘cover up’ the fact that the Earth’s temperature hasn’t risen for the last 15 years

More than 25 years from the data I see.

The temperature datasets are as fictitious as the new Barbie movie. But they don’t bother “adjusting” the lesser known ones like the above link.

We’re still bumping along the top of the 60 year cycle. It’ll be fun to watch the antics of the climate bedwetters when the cycle turns downwards.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
July 13, 2023 9:16 pm

Believe All Women news (the Courier-Mail):

The former girlfriend of Australian boxing star Harry Garside has been arrested and charged with domestic violence-related offences, just months after she accused the Olympian of assault in charges that were later dropped.

Ashley Ruscoe was arrested in Sydney’s east on Wednesday afternoon and taken to Waverley Police station where she was charged with common assault and stalking against Garside.

Whoopsie-doodle.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
July 13, 2023 9:24 pm

Commercial real estate in America. I’m not sure if there’s a similar problem here.

Yep, I suspect so.

Union challenges Commonwealth Bank rule that employees must spend half their hours a month in office (Grauniad, 12 Jul)

A Commonwealth Bank rule that employees must spend 50% of their monthly hours in the office is being challenged by a union in the Fair Work Commission.

The Finance Sector Union filed a dispute in the commission on Wednesday

The Commonwealth Bank mandate was announced in late May and is scheduled to start on 17 July. The FSU argues staff were not properly consulted on the change and many believed they were more productive at home.

Waahhh! We don’t want to wuk in a stinking CBD office with bad coffee (even if it’s free).

If not even CBA can get their wukkas to come into the office 3 days a week then that means half their CBD office space is unnecessary.

I love this existential fight between WFH keyboard warriors and ESG loving CEOs. It smells like popcorn.

Cassie of Sydney
July 13, 2023 9:34 pm

The c.nt, Van Houten, who helped kill Sharon Tate has been released from jail. This is what should have happened to her and the rest of the bastards:”

Van Houten wasn’t at the slaughter at Cielo Drive, however she willingly attended the slaughter the following night at the home of Rosemay and Leno LaBianca., where Van Houten eagerly helped to butcher Rosemary LaBianca.

“Van Houten and another woman held down Rosemary LaBianca as Watson stabbed Leno LaBianca. After stabbing Rosemary, he gave Van Houten a knife, and she stabbed the woman at least 14 more times. She testified in 1971, “And I took one of the knives, and Patricia Krenwinkel had one — a knife — and we started stabbing and cutting up the lady.”

Alas, there’s no parole for Rosemary LaBianca, or her husband Leno, their lives were extinguished on 10 August 1969, just like the lives of Sharon Tate, , her unborn son, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Steve Parish, and Wojciech Frykowski had been extinguished the night before by Van Houten’s fellow cult members.

A reminder, the Manson murderers, including Van Houten, were originally sentenced to death. The death penalty was abolished in California in 1972, and Van Houten and the other Manson murderers had their sentences commuted to life, which at the time meant life, but alas we no longer live in a society where life means life, everything has been degraded. So, Van Houten has now been released, she’s free, but there’s no release and no freedom for the families of the victims, even fifty-three years later, and there’s most certainly no parole for those lives taken on 9 and 10 August 1969. Here’s the truth, Van Houten and her fellow cult members should have been executed, that would have been justice. Her release is not justice.

Bar Beach Swimmer
July 13, 2023 9:50 pm

Manson murderers had their sentences commuted to life

Cassie, yesterday I read somewhere that when that was done, those in charge of it forgot to include “never to be released”.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 9:52 pm

Knuckle Dragger

Jul 13, 2023 9:16 PM

Believe All Women news (the Courier-Mail):

Mmmyes.
It appears there is video/audio evidence which not only clears Mr Garside, but allegedly puts Ms Ruscoe in the frame for the charges laid yesterday.
Now, a question I have is where did that video/audio come from? If it came from Garside’s phone, well maybe I’ll cut Plod a bit of slack. If it came from another source (eg CCTV from the apartment block) why hadn’t Plod sourced it as a routine follow up?
The other question is why the showy airport arrest? I mean, we are not talking about Ronnie Biggs or Charlie Manson here. So I get the impression that the initial phase (i.e. take one statement, get one warrant) was handled by the Go Grrrl Hand-patter Squad, but it has since been taken over by someone who gathers all evidence, not just convenient evidence.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 9:53 pm

I love this existential fight between WFH keyboard warriors and ESG loving CEOs. It smells like popcorn.

I haven’t worked in the corporate world since the mid 1990’s, but there were days when , either working from home, or, in an office with the door shut, you could achieve a great deal more then dealing with the endless, pointless interruptions, or the bullshot, badly organized meetings.

I had one boss, who had been an officer in the British Army, and was an admirer of Winston Churchill. If you got a memo that began “Pray, let me have, by tomorrow morning, on a single sheet of paper ” you dropped everything…

Cassie of Sydney
July 13, 2023 10:02 pm

There are no valid reasons for releasing Leslie Van Houten. I don’t care that she’s been a ‘model prisoner’ for decades. I don’t care that she’s been imprisoned for fifty-three years. So effing what! I don’t care that some might think I’m cruel. I’m tired of the tedious ramblings of those who say that “Van Houten (and others like her) have done their time”. Here’s the truth, not even an eternity will ever be enough time for the lives she and her cult comrades took over those awful nights. Van Houten forfeited her rights to freedom on the 10 August 1969 when she participated in the slaughter of Rosemary and Leno LoBianca. The barbarity of those crimes was and remains heinous.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 13, 2023 10:02 pm

Here’s the truth, Van Houten and her fellow cult members should have been executed, that would have been justice. Her release is not justice.

Well said, Cassie!

Mark from Melbourne
Mark from Melbourne
July 13, 2023 10:09 pm

Indolent
Jul 13, 2023 7:32 PM

This is in the WSJ and paywalled so only a part can be read, but it’s clear enough.

‘They’re Coming for Your Cars’

That WSJ article is pretty much just a wrapper for and article from the Manhattan Institute. The article is a nice, big, dose of reality on EVs, and is recommended…

https://manhattan.institute/article/electric-vehicles-for-everyone-the-impossible-dream?utm_source=wsj&utm_medium=feature

Cassie of Sydney
July 13, 2023 10:18 pm

“The other question is why the showy airport arrest? I mean, we are not talking about Ronnie Biggs or Charlie Manson here. So I get the impression that the initial phase (i.e. take one statement, get one warrant) was handled by the Go Grrrl Hand-patter Squad, but it has since been taken over by someone who gathers all evidence, not just convenient evidence.”

Ahhhh…yes. That same “Go Grrrl Hand-patter Squad” was behind the ludicrous Kyle Daniels allegations, which anyone with half a brain could see, from day one, were fabrications on a par with the Satanic Panic allegations from 1980s and 1990s.

Cassie of Sydney
July 13, 2023 10:20 pm

“Cassie, yesterday I read somewhere that when that was done, those in charge of it forgot to include “never to be released”.”

I suspect that in 1972, when the sentences were commuted to life, most assumed it would be life, and didn’t need to add the addendum “never to be released”.

Not that “never to be released” means anything more. Just words.

MatrixTransform
July 13, 2023 10:28 pm

Commercial real estate in America. I’m not sure if there’s a similar problem here

yields have been low for a decade and covid response has simply ripped the guts out of small business

retail and commercial vacancies are everywhere and now I’ve seen 3 Australian capital cities in the last few months … same everywhere

yields are worse now than ever and if yields are down, then valuations are down

tighten the sphincter

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 10:33 pm

if yields are down, then valuations are down

No shit, Sherlock?

MatrixTransform
July 13, 2023 10:37 pm

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
— William Shakespeare

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 13, 2023 10:41 pm

I suspect that in 1972, when the sentences were commuted to life, most assumed it would be life, and didn’t need to add the addendum “never to be released”.

Actually, that was a key feature of the campaign to abolish capital punishment world-wide.
The argument was that, if you were worried about public safety, you could impose life sentences.
Of course, the ink was barely dry on the abolition bills when they started screaming that life imprisonment was “inhumane” and “crushing” and we simply must set fixed minimum terms … which have progressively been diluted from 20-30 years to 10-15 years in a generation.

Indolent
Indolent
July 13, 2023 10:46 pm

Inside Ray Epps Lawsuit Against Fox News, Plaintiff Contends DOJ Notified Him in May They Would “Seek to Charge Him Criminally”

“They Would “Seek to Charge Him Criminally”. Ha ha. This more than two years after the event when he was one of the major players encouraging others to enter the building, literally ushering them in. While they were rotting in jail, the institution laughingly known as the Department of Justice is kindly warning him they may be laying charges against him. No 6:00 a.m. SWAT raid, mind you, just a polite notice of intention.

Pull the other one.

Top Ender
Top Ender
July 13, 2023 10:50 pm

Meanwhile in the Territory:

Taxpayer millions wasted on ‘near-useless’ Indigenous construction training

Millions of dollars in government funding have been spent on “near-useless” and “rushed” Indigenous construction training programs in which half the students have dropped out.

According to documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws, the completion rate for First Nations students ­enrolled in a government-­subsidised construction training course at Charles Darwin University is 50.65 per cent over the past eight years.

The program – which has been blasted by both unions and employers – is facilitated by the Northern Territory government, which pays Indigenous students to become qualified to work in construction.

The program is designed to train up Indigenous people at the university’s campus in Darwin to then take those skills back to rural communities and reduce the reliance on outsourced contractors.

Students of the program are expected to gain skills to work as a plant operator, construction worker, skilled operator, foreman or supervisor on a construction site.

Unions and employers say $10m in taxpayer funds is being wasted on classroom-based programs that don’t teach students practical skills like how to use big pieces of machinery.

An NT-based employer told The Australian that the university’s 10-week program was “rushed” and did not provide trainees enough time to learn how to safely operate big machinery used in construction.

By comparison, unions say construction training programs through specialist operators in remote towns go for about 18 months, have a completion rate of 95 per cent and ensure graduates are work-ready.

Traditional owners have also expressed concern that students travelling to Darwin to complete training courses are often exposed to alcohol and violence problems, and have urged the government to allow trainees to gain practical skills on-country.

CFMEU national president Zach Smith accused the NT government of having a “cosy” relationship with Charles Darwin University and branded the program a “disaster”.

NT News

Indolent
Indolent
July 13, 2023 10:52 pm
Indolent
Indolent
July 13, 2023 10:59 pm

Meme

This was well covered in the Andrew Tate interview.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
July 13, 2023 11:03 pm
Steve trickler
Steve trickler
July 13, 2023 11:25 pm
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:12 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:13 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:14 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:16 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:17 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:19 am
Tom
Tom
July 14, 2023 4:20 am
Johnny Rotten
July 14, 2023 4:36 am

Thanks Tom,

  1. I think the punters are stirring, getting ansty. Normally letting politics of either persuasion slide by as we just get…

  2. Great stuff from the past. Visuals and audio are great. —— F r. David – Words Don’t Come Easy

722
0
Oh, you think that, do you? Care to put it on record?x
()
x