You shouldn’t laff .. but ..! .. This one caught me off guard .. I had no idea the Taliban…
Open Thread – Wed 2 August 2023
- TULIP versus ruinous Labor
- Open Thread – Weekend 18 May 2024
- Bumtree #15
- Bumtree #14
- Open Thread – Thurs 16 May 2024
Gotta luv the optimism of “our” ABC .. full-on promotion for the latest series of DOCTOR WHO .. the series…
Protesters then forced their way past security into the building, prompting a major security alert with MPs locked inside the…
Gotta luv Labor & priorities ..! Oz folk stranded in New Caledonia amidst riots not as important as legal “advice”…
Russia could increase Ukraine attacks, says Zelensky Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia could increase its attacks in Ukraine’s north…
From the OOT:
They’re roughly 100K for the unit, the missile about 78K. A CSIS report in Sept ’22 had them already sending Ukraine 8500+ so by now its like over 10K easily. It will take the US about 5-10 years to replace what they’ve lost and its likely already well over half their inventory of Javelins.
A HIMARs launcher cost 5.1M in 2014. We are probably looking at closer to 10M at today’s prices. They were sending 16 as of Sept ’22. Each missile costs roughly 1M. Per the CSIS report the US had about 30K missiles left from a production run of 55K. They were supposedly sending 1/3 of their inventory around Sept ’22, so that has likely increase by 50-100% since then. So a little over 100M worth of equipment to fire between 10-20B worth of missiles. These are eye-watering totals by any stretch.
No, I’m being sensible. X was something paid for. It was wasted in Ukraine and now the US taxpayer is called upon again to replace it when the formerly existing item was fit for purpose.
Test
All your servers are belong to us .
Happy Birthday Horses .. or was that yesterday?
Early in the Morning
Alarmist ,Angry dictator and Bilionaire Andrew Forest not happy about Britain going back to fossil fuels .
Ammo has a shelf life and giving it away or selling it is a great way to clear the shelves and gives a hard to argue with excuse for buying a restock of fresh.
From zatara on the OOT.
The old stuff gets sent to Ukraine.
The new stuff fills the inventory goes to the US.
The problem is the US defence Primes are so reliant on brittle supply chains.
Chris Power & Hadrian have been talking about this for ages.
Caught up with someone yesterday who I hadn’t seen for a couple of years.
We didn’t really fall out but we stopped engaging with each other as he was all in on the COVID narrative and viewed anyone who wasn’t as a loon.
How times have changed.
He now is so bitter about everything, especially the lies the establishment told.
I said he was feeling like I was after the wikileaks & Snowden revelations back in 2010-2013.
He said a better example was how my views changed after the Iraq war which might be right.
I suppose that might be right.
Some people were still talking WMD’s when GWB left office.
Maybe it will take five or so years for a huge portion of the population to come around to the realisation about lies.
Time will tell.
Anyways, he’ll go through his bitter stage.
You have to go through that on your journey to enlightenment.
So is using it in training. In 9 years in the reserves(Infantry) I only ever fired the Gutsache once, the M66 LAW once, and placed and detonated claymore mines once, fired the M79 once, fired the pistol once. All of those were on my ROBC (IET for officers). 60 rounds 7.62 ammo per year to qualify on range days, and when still a grunt and machine gunner 200 rounds through the M60) and 1 live fire exercise, never fired the M16 I carried with anything other than blanks. All of these things were standard infantry weapons!
Bern, there will be a freshly minted set of lies to lure people in next time. And plenty of people will fall for it.
Net result, more centralisation of power, more diversion of money to the powerful and their cronies.
Not only do I not know what’s going on, I wouldn’t know what to do about it if I did.
– George Carlin
Top o’ the mornin’ to yas!
I came in late, so I claim this thread for orphans and widows.
Bern, there will be a freshly minted set of lies to lure people in next time. And plenty of people will fall for it.
Sure.
I still think it’s great that some people can come through whatever lies they’ve thoroughly believed.
It’s like leaving a cult.
Is it possible for the rotting edifice that is “The Bidency” to look any more decrepit and corrupt?
Everything, absolutely everything, they were accusing Trump of they were doing themselves.
Biden won’t be running in 2024, the question is who will they throw up as a candidate?
Mr/s Obama? (Please save us from the orange monster!)
Newsome?
Whoopi?
Interesting Apple iMac 2019 on Ventura 13.4.1 is blocking https://sputnikglobe.com/world/ but able to access on Apple iMac early 2009 with old MacOs Software
Since when has Apple become arbitrator of what you can access on Chrome, Firefox, Safatri, Brave?
For once I’d like to see what monty has to say about this.
Biden. Influence peddling/corruption or just calling up to talk about the “weather”.
Morning all, I really miss Tom’s cartoons. Hope he works out soon the problem with his new laptop.
In the past, it’s been easy enough to coerce people into going along with what the government dictates. The gun “buy-back” was a masterclass in gaslighting and guilt tripping normal, kindly Aussies into doing something “for the public good”.
We are, essentially, a well meaning bunch. Laid back to the point of supine stupor. Easily manipulated, easily controlled.
Covid taught a valuable lesson for anyone capable of independent thought. Our governments of either stripe are quite happy to use brute force to make people obey. They frightened, they mandated, they coerced. When that failed, they cancelled, attacked, imprisoned, humiliated. And they did it in lock step with other institutions, even the trade unions.
And now they are rewarding the bullies and useful idiots. Vast amounts of public money has found its way into private pockets. For some it has meant ruined livelihoods, others ruined health, family disintegration, mental malaise.
They now know they can do it and do it successfully, and they will. They have a workable template now.
The DC establishment is now telling the rest of the country “Yeah, we did it. So what are you going to do about it?”
The media are also in it to the hilt, as far as they are concerned there is no there there.
Sorry Mr Forrest but we mere ‘consumers’ can see the trees.
Blind Freddy could see that ‘renewables’ create a huge mismatch between supply and demand and whatever technology is available isn’t up to scratch.
Make your hollow threats.
China leads the way on emissions and reality is the planet will not obey the dictates of doomsayering henny pennyies.
That’s all you are.
Biden’s Ukraine Proxy War Created Ammo Shortage, Weakened US
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230801/bidens-ukraine-proxy-war-created-ammo-shortage-weakened-us-1112328831.html
The US has struck deals with Bulgaria and South Korea to supply 155 mm ammunition to Ukraine, and is holding talks with Japan to do the same, according to Western media reports. Could the US solve the ammunition shortage problem in the near future?
The Biden administration is struggling to solve the Ukrainian ammo shortage dilemma as the Kiev regime forces use 8,000 155 mm shells daily, as per the Western press. Washington has reportedly concluded an agreement with South Korea and Bulgaria to deliver the much-needed ammo to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In addition, the US is currently holding talks with Japan on more shell supplies. Besides increasing ammunition supplies to Kiev via its allies, Washington is also going to ramp up domestic production of ammo from 24,000 to 90,000 units over the next two years.
“The foolish decisions of the Biden administration to ship millions of heavy artillery rounds to Ukraine and encourage US allies to do the same has created this ammunition shortage and there is no possibility to avoid it,” David T. Pyne, an EMP Task Force scholar and former US Department of Defense officer, told Sputnik.
“NATO munition production capabilities are far lower than they were during the Cold War due to the much-reduced conventional threat posed to NATO by the Russian Federation until the outbreak of the [conflict] in Ukraine last year. Due to the ongoing ammunition shortage, the Biden administration has informed Ukraine that it will not be able to sustain this level of ammunition deliveries past the end of the summer and that they need to retake as much territory as possible from Russia in order to strengthen their negotiating position when they negotiate a peace settlement with Moscow later this year,” Pyne continued.
How Much Would It Take for US to Replenish Depleted Shell Inventories?
The US is currently ramping up its own 155 mm artillery shell production by building new factories and enlarging the existing ones. However, it will take at least five to seven years to replenish the US’ depleted 155 mm heavy artillery shell inventories which Washington has sent to Ukraine, according to the former Pentagon officer.
“The Biden administration continues to unilaterally disarm the US military of tens of thousands of critical heavy weapon systems and over 4.4 million missiles, rockets and heavy artillery shells according to the latest report I have seen,” Pyne said.
The military expert argued that prolonging the conflict in Ukraine is “in opposition to US national security interests which are to restore peace and stability to Europe and greatly improve relations with Moscow while averting the immediate threat of escalation to a broader conflict.”
I wish.
Labor and Liberal government’s actions on climate change ‘like night and day’ (Sky 1 Aug)
Labor and the Libs are nearly identical in climate rubbish, bringing a cold and miserable permanent night down onto us. As to saving the Reef with her stupid policies, if her ego inflates anymore she’ll float away. But saving a Reef that didn’t need saving is not unlike saving a Planet that doesn’t need saving, so there is that.
Money has been finding its way into pockets since forever.
The aboriginal industry.
Every green scheme ever devised since that crapola started.
The replacement of the Commonwealth employment service.
Defence contracts.
Social housing.
Child care subsidies.
If there is taxpayers money to be had, there’s grifters and charlatans diverting the rivers of gold.
I don’t see the covid response as a template, I see it as the natural progression of the nanny state where every problem has a government funded solution because that’s what most people expect.
Creeping socialism.
Well said, Calli.
I despair, & have despaired for some time now, that our trademark contempt for authority has disappeared. I attribute it to “affluenza” since the last World War. The importance of family has been superseded by the importance of clothes, appliances, new houses and so on.
The repercussions are huge. We have not only a nation of debt, but of transformed values. And now – with the discovery of hideous offences by a predator in child care centres – we are faced with the dangers of outsourcing the care of our children.
And well said, Rosie.
It could be both, rosie. Embrace the power of “and”. 😀
calli @7.01. Everything you said is spot on. For the world being a supposed violent place I have not seen one person responsible for this chaos taken out. Until that happens the elite scum will continue on their merry way.
Affluence, flippancy, distractedness, lack of purpose. Mix it with dependency on the state and you have an easily manipulated populace.
From the Old Fred,
cohenite
Aug 1, 2023 6:42 PM
According to our Pauline that pencil necked POS, birmingham, is leading the charge against our Pauline’s efforts to get legislation passed to reduce the number of young kids undergoing genital mutilation. As usual the real problem in the West and Australia are not the lunatic left but gutless and venal faux conservatives who have basically destroyed parties like the LNP.”
Correct, which is why I cannot, in good faith, vote for the Liberals. Bummingham et al have learnt NOTHING since May 2022. Further to LINOs, a few days ago, here in Wentworth, I opened my mailbox and there was a card/brochure from another LINO POS by the name of Andrew Bragg. Bragg is a close buddy of Bummingham, Sharma, Zimmerman, Kean and all the other failed Green Liberals who led the party over the Gap last year. It’s very clear the Liberals desperately want to win back Wentworth, which again shows their current priorities, being climate change, mutilating children*, and all the rest of the far-left agenda, rather than packing their bags here in Wentworth and heading out west to seek greener electoral pastures where working and middle Australia live, where working and middle Australia struggle to pay their exorbitant power bills, where parents want school choices, where parents want religious freedom, where parents don’t want to see their children instructed on how to unzip and fellate an adult male. But nah, instead we have scum like Bummingham blocking Hanson’s perfectly reasonable legislation. Just remember, last year in the lead up to the federal election, Bummingham, Kean, Bragg, Sharma, Zimmerman and others all SIDED with the left against Katherine Deves.
* As for Costa coffee, Lozza Fox is right. Further to “Costa Coffee” promoting child mutilation…
1. Costs produces and sells shit coffee.
2. Since Costa’s advertising gurus think that pictures of mutilating children sells coffee, why don’t they promote anorexia with a picture of a skeletal young woman? Or cutting, why don’t they promote cutting with a picture of a young adolescent who’s cut himself/herself? Actually, let’s go further, why don’t they promote pedophilia with a picture of a minor giving an adult male a head job, after all, that’s what coming!
3. Costa Coffee should be but lighted out of existence.
4. Until people get off their arses and start to protest this garbage, nothing will change.
I took yesterday off work, to go to the hospital with Mum, and I decided to try and distract her by taking her to to see Oppenheimer. It’s superb, just superb, every single minute of the film. All the actors are standouts, but Robert Downey Jnr is amazing, just amazing.
At the Guardian.
Victorian electricity transmission charges could more than double if Australia’s longest power line proceeds
Proposed 800km VNI West will be costlier than alternatives and won’t solve grid bottlenecks holding back new solar and wind, thinktank says
Now there’s a man who got serious about life. He’s fortunate to be still alive. Must see it.
Costa is the UKs Starbucks. Garbage but relatively cheap. Kill them with fire, they’re worthy.
Missing Tom’s cartoons also No laughs to start the day
However on the fight against greedy operators, dodgy builders , intimidation and threats from management I have uncovered conflict of interest , regulations broken on and on it goes. And Topped by elder abuse .
Luckily I keep finding supporters ,yesterday I contacted someone brought to my apartment to assess problems last November I had forgotten him until I found an old email
He spent 2 hours on phone with me going through all the issues I had to stop as my head was spinning. He has promised to help us ,he is CEO of Building disputes and faults assessor company.and discovered that 96 balconies in our complex not built to regulations but he was only assessing this . Faults galore have been found by others including Carpe ‘s help earlier on . But this is a problem throughout Victoria discovered when non compliant cladding became an issue. We are full of rotten Timbers bedpcause of leaks and mould..
It’s a line to nowhere.
Add in traditional owners and it’ll never be completed.
Not if every inch of soil has to be sieved by hand through 1mm netting to check for artefacts.
Money has been finding its way into pockets since forever.
The aboriginal industry.
3,278 Aboriginal corporations
• 243 Native title bodies
• 48 Land councils
• 35 Regional councils
• 122+ Aboriginal agencies
• 3 Advisory bodies
• 145 Health Organization’s
• 11 Indigenous Federal MPs
• 12 Culturally important Indigenous days
• Taxpayers give $33 BILLION annually for 984,000 people (3.8% of the population)
• Expenditure per person in 2012-13 was $43,449 on Indigenous Australian compared to $20,900 on other Australians a ratio of 2.08 to 1 and increase from 1.95 in 2009. Australian taxpayers spend at least $100 million a day on direct support for Indigenous Australians every year or $39.5 billion of direct government expenditure every single year.
The figures are based on the 2017 Indigenous Expenditure Report produced by the Productivity Commission. Source: Professor Matthew Bennett, spokesman for the Sovereign Court of International Justice (SCIJ) and International Barrister with a 25+ year legal career and an expert on international law.
Fun facts.
A modern 6MW wind turbine is likely to receive one million dollars annually through the Large-Scale Generation Certificate (LGC) scheme set up by the Feds to “incentivise” investment in renewables.
A million bucks of from your power bill on top of the generation revenue. They pay farmers between 20-40 grand per year for these bird choppers. The biggest rip-off of all time is right under our noses.
BTW
Gross revenue from such a turbine is about six million per year.
This country is inundated with dodgy trades, many on visas. This is the result of the drive to “work clean” via promotion of useless degrees rather than honest, hard work.
Naturally, supply and demand has meant that any locally trained trades can charge a bundle, and pick and choose their jobs. In addition, all these guys are getting old. Enter the visa guys, not necessarily shonks, but used to a level of finish that would have been completely unacceptable here until recently.
They don’t see the problem. This is what they’re used to.
Tilers are the worst I’ve come across. Possibly because plumbers and sparkies and other specialists need local accreditation to work.
Is that the situation specific version of ‘Thoughts and prayers’ when it is required to show compassion when showing leadership has not yet been run past a focus group?
Or ‘Nurses and teachers’ when preparing to further gouge private sector taxpayers?
“Now there’s a man who got serious about life. He’s fortunate to be still alive. “
Yes, I’ve always found him to be devastatingly attractive, which tells you about my taste in men. It’s gotta to be more than good looks, I need a brain and personality!
@ Rosie:
“Creeping socialism.”
It is up to a brisk canter, by now.
Check out our team on the ABC
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-02/calls-to-scrap-vni-west-transmission-line-730/102675146?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web
Bruce of Newcastle at 7:13 – as an introduction to PM Plibbers, that wasn’t very encouraging. More of the same but worse.
Maybe they should go into woke beer brewing instead.
Bank Bends the Knee to Farage: Cancels Closure of Account in Desperate Bid to End Growing Scandal (1 Aug)
Took him long enough. A weasel word apology doesn’t cut it, it was obvious that the accounts should’ve immediately been restored. Which they didn’t do.
The scandal has now gotten to the point that the Tories are being forced kicking and screaming to pass legislation to enforce fair banking. Whether that really happens or if they too weasel out of it remains to be seen. But it’s clear the voters do not trust woke bankers, with a rising level of fury. Good.
Site is playing up again.
My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. He said okay, you’re ugly too.
– Rodney Dangerfield
FMD Trump being indicted over trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Victorians getting done over again.
This Pro-Mask “Study” Is Why You Should Never “Trust The Science” (2 Aug)
Computer says wear a mask. Do what computer says or you will die. Computer is perfect. The Science is perfect! Dan is perfect. All hail Dan!
Victorians getting done over again.
This Pro-Mask “Study” Is Why You Should Never “Trust The Science” (2 Aug)
Computer says wear a mask. Do what computer says or you will die. Computer is perfect. The Science is perfect! Dan is perfect. All hail Dan!
Apology for the double post – due to the time outs I didn’t know if the comment uploaded or not, and it looked like it hadn’t. Ah well.
I can’t see that idiot idea about masks getting up in Victoria. Extremely unpopular I should think. But they just never ever give up do they?
Surprised they haven’t done Trump for wearing white after Labor Day.
He’s obviously not rich enough yet and wants to squeeze a bit more out of us.
The beginning of the end of Net Zero?
By Jo Nova
“The seismic shift in UK politics that started with the Uxbridge byelection continues apace. It’s the dawning realization that anyone who tries to gift wrap Climate Pain at the election is a sitting duck if their opponents only oppose it. As fast as Rishi Sunak backtracks on Green sacred promises, the Labor Party is working out that their green flank is exposed to election winning missives.
Writers in both The Telegraph and The Financial Times in the UK are suggesting it’s “the end” — the political collapse of the open support for a reckless race to NetZero from both sides of politics. CNN reports that Rishi Sunak is “stoking a culture war on Green policies”. Hallalujuh. Since Uxbridge, “leading Conservatives have gleefully picked up the anti-green baton.” They’re taking a “populist approach to the climate”. Glory be! How dare they, in a democracy, do something that’s popular?”
https://joannenova.com.au/2023/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-net-zero/#comments
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-02/calls-to-scrap-vni-west-transmission-line-730/102675146?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web
Gez – the ABC website keeps reporting an error.
When my kitchen was remodelled I had one such tiler and I had to be there almost the whole time to point out when tiles were not level and sticking up or not in line. Hard to know what you will get when businesses subcontract most of the jobs.
Vicki, I’m getting the abc link properly. However, lots of time- outs loading last night, and today, no image for the wonderful art at the top of the page.
Hallalujuh. Since Uxbridge, “leading Conservatives have gleefully picked up the anti-green baton.” They’re taking a “populist approach to the climate”. Glory be! How dare they, in a democracy, do something that’s popular?”
All Dutton has to do is to copy this and he is a ‘shoe in’ for the next ‘Feral Election’
T- shirts I’m too chicken to wear: “Vote Yes to Apartheid” and “Net Zero is a Fraud”.
Writers in both The Telegraph and The Financial Times in the UK are suggesting it’s “the end” — the political collapse of the open support for a reckless race to NetZero from both sides of politics.
Hallelujah!
2nd day in a row stuck at home .. copped myself a “Sam Kerr” calf .. no idea how but hurts like hell .. not used to no swimming, no riding …..!
Looking at the “park” that masquerades as a back garden and realising that my lack of interest/effort thru winter is gonna have to be sorted ….. shortly-ish … duuuh!
Daughter in Danistan msg last night, “Dad I’ve got Covid again” ..
My sympathetic response, ” What level idiot still gets tested for BAT FLU .. luv you! ”
Being stuck at home can be, bloody, boring …….. LOL!
J6
Julie Kelly ??
@julie_kelly2
BREAKING: Trump indicted on 4 counts
Cernovich says it the best
Cernovich
@Cernovich
It’s an assassination by other means. There’s no turning back from this moment. The ?? is officially occupied by a hostile, demonic regime. Shed all childish delusions and naivety. Comply when you must, resist when you can. The shadow of a new dark age is upon us.
Try this.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-02/calls-to-scrap-vni-west-transmission-line-730/102675146
BREAKING: Michigan Democrat AG Follows Lead of Biden’s DOJ and Indicts Her Former GOP Foe Matthew DePerno
Pilot CBDC Shows Central Bank Has Total Control
T- shirts I’m too chicken to wear: “Vote Yes to Apartheid” and “Net Zero is a Fraud”.
Also, “I like Tofu”………………………….
Robert Sewell
Aug 2, 2023 8:06 AM
Indolent:
Aug 1, 2023 10:42 PM
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/when-the-arbiters-of-truth-become?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
That’s a frightening picture painted there – especially the change in production methods to the SV40 Simian Tumor Virus.
FOI response proves Australian government is actively censoring citizens on social media
Horrible.
Dr. Robert Malone: COVID jabs were a CIA operation to depopulate the world
Talking to myself on the old thread!
Don’t be so hypersensitive. I simply discussed conditions as they were a couple of decades ago, and expressed surprise at the apparent decline.
At that time, every member of the ADF Trained Force was in the top 50% of full-time income earners in the nation. The housing provided by DHA was high quality, and subsidised at great expense, that expense being increased by the DHA habit of providing houses above the approved standard. As a simple example, everyone above the rank of corporal was entitled to a house with en-suite and double garage; actually, many below that rank received such houses, at an increased subsidy cost.
If all of this has declined, don’t blame me, I left the system more than 20 years ago.
PS, anyone who was familiar with my interactions with DHA in the 1990s would roll on the floor laughing at the idea that I would defend everything they were doing.
Meme
John H:
There’s a series of novels which explore the Loyal Wingman concept set in about 2030, which apart from the trashy ‘you go girl’ story line makes it reasonably clear about the tactics that are enabled from standoff low visibility missile platforms to aerial refuelling in hazardous airspace you wouldn’t send a crewed tanker into.
Available on Kindle – Australian Author – by FX Holden.
The Voice controversy is really causing division within our farming community. Some comments on our Facebook site caused a furore. Not surprisingly, the long term and income earning farmers are “No” voters, but the small blockies who are mostly Left leaning are “Yes” voters – although they are a small minority here.
Typically, these “Yes” voters have been erecting signs on private and public property and putting pamphlets in letterboxes. But last night they increased their incendiary campaign & graffitied a bridge with “Pay the rent. Vote Yes”.
These people are idiots.
Dr. Ben Tapper
@DrBenTapper1
If I told you that my CHILD was injured in a car accident, you would be compassionate and worried. If I told you it was because the BRAKES FAILED, you would be shocked and appalled. If I told you I found out the manufacturer decided not to bother testing the brakes, you would be mad and tell me to SUE. If I told you I found over 60 studies showing they knew they would fail and opted instead to cover it up, your HEAD WOULD SPIN. If I further told you that: The government KNEW ALL ALONG ABOUT THE DANGERS; that laws were passed to PREVENT ANYONE FROM SUING the manufacturers; that there were HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of killed/injured CHILDREN, you would be beyond yourself trying to work out how to help these kids.
But replace the word CAR with the word VACCINE and you would run a mile. Why? Think about it because this is the truth. Millions of parents are fighting each day JUST TO BE HEARD. The evidence is beyond question. Vaccines are not properly tested and hundreds of studies show the connection between vaccines and serious injuries, including seizures, neurological damage, Guillain Barre Syndrome and Death. This is besides the high rate of life- threatening allergies, asthma, cancer and chronic ailments amongst vaccinated children. Where are the recalls? Where is the demand for answers? Where is the public outrage? The alternative media is the only place where this information can be found because the truth is being suppressed.
So are you going to continue ignoring the warnings and the truth until YOUR child is injured or killed?
EDUCATE BEFORE YOU VACCINATE
Site mucking around big-time for me as well.
Yes.
Yes, I still feel as strongly about this as I did last night. So – reposted:
***
Reports in the media that the Poms refused to have a beer with the Australian team post-Ashes, despite several formal and informal requests being made.
Typical filthy English.
Hypocritical flogs who ignore their own unsportsmanlike behaviour but who cry, moan and cry foul again when the actual rules of the game are applied to them.
Apparently during the Blitz the English didn’t need air raid sirens. Someone just served up kippers and blood pudding slightly warmer than usual, and away they went.
A disgusting, insular island race of wannabe-French.
It’s back.
You just don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone!
And I raise me cup of coffee to our Doverlord, whose perseverance in this time of intermittency is an example to us all.
Seriously, thanks.
Dang. This morning’s thread contains an impressive collection of bang-on comments.
FeeltheBern:
Part of it, yes. The major issue is contract to contract runs where the plant is given a contract to fill then has to stop while the Senate decides to either sign another contract, and if political fortunes change, then the terms of the contract change from volumes to delivery times.
It’s chaotic and only acceptable to government and the defence contractors because they don’t give a damn beyond the profit margin. And yes, the issue has been complained about for decades.
Indolent
Aug 2, 2023 9:20 AM
FOI response proves Australian government is actively censoring citizens on social media
And quoted from the FOI response is this –
“New FOI release shows that in August 2021, when tens of thousands of Australians had been damaged by the experimental covid injections, the Government pressured Facebook to censor anyone posting about their injuries, by deeming them as “unsubstantiated.””
LOL. My injury was deemed “unsubstantiated”?
A. Well, I’m quite sure that I had an injury. Is that not good enough for you? FFS.
I’m loath to go into bat for the Poms but that is a terrible slur.
Reports in the media that the Poms refused to have a beer with the Australian team post-Ashes, despite several formal and informal requests being made.
As Jerk Off Cretin, the Sictorian short arse is always saying –
Citation prease. He has a lisp.
132andBush
Aug 2, 2023 6:48 AM
I wouldn’t mind having a look at the betting odds that say “Election in 2024” Yes or no?
The O’biden Administration appears to me to be pushing for a State of Emergency because they are in the position of having their dicks caught in a meat grinder – win or lose, it’s going to hurt.
A disgusting, insular island race of wannabe-French.
Maybe you would feel better if the British (and mainly English) had not settled on this lovely Continent then. You would then be speaking French, or Spanish, or Portuguese or Dutch or even Mandarin/Cantonese. Either way, you would not be following the lovely game of Cricket.
Here you go Dover.
Russian military death toll in Ukraine rises to 243,220 (2 Aug)
If you want luridly silly headlines then posting either Russian or Ukrainian propaganda is a great way to get luridly silly headlines.
The latest in a conga line of polls revealing at least two things:
1. Australians aren’t willing to sacrifice much for the climate
2. But they are also ignorant of just how much it has already cost them
The poll also revealed that Liberal & Labor voters wouldn’t give up meat for Net Zero, while for Greens voters the crunch came when they were asked if they’d forego their annual holiday in Europe. The horror!
I read what you wrote John, it looked like a go to me, I’m referring to your suggestion about what I should do.
What right do you think you have to ask for personal information like rank?
And if you don’t know the current situation re housing and conditions why bother to make patronising remarks about ‘service allowances’?
The army places huge burdens on members with young families and stinking hot in summer tiny townhouses with external stairs from the garage to the back door in addition to internal stairs for a mum with a toddler and a baby in arms is only part of it.
I say…that’s just not cricket.
Righto – Craddock in the Hun:
And:
It’s not just the Pom blokes who are into shit sportsmanship, though – whining just as loudly but a couple of octaves higher are the English socka chicks (the Tele):
The English. Striving just as hard as they can to be Eurotrash. Here’s a kipper. Wrap it in a croissant and pretend you’re sophisticated.
For God’s sake, Dover, give the hamsters some iodine.
I’d feel better if they just settled it and stopped moaning, and playing the victim card every chance they got.
Rosie
My initial comment stated clearly that I was talking about the period with which I was familiar.
As for “personal information like rank”, identifying any individual service member from a stated rank (unless he/she/xe is extremely senior) is pretty much impossible. It would give only basic information about the range of current military salary levels, but all non-commissioned ranks, for example, have multiple pay levels depending on specific qualifications and skills, so nothing specific could be discovered.
But I will take your advice, and ignore any future comments you make on the subject.
PS, it seems that DHA has now become so complacent about its functions that it is becoming what it replaced. What you describe would not have happened in earlier times. Sad.
You mean “the father of the nation” lied to his children?
Speaking of whom, did anyone else find Sky after dark’s recent nostalgic praise for John Howard’s “leadership” nauseating?
Understandable.
Warner had a carton of Woodie and Cola.
The English. Striving just as hard as they can to be Eurotrash. Here’s a kipper. Wrap it in a croissant and pretend you’re sophisticated.
LOL. And I give you ‘Sandpaper Gate’. Rub your cricket balls with that. Might give you a rash though.
I don’t see how a Ukrainian charity as reported by the WSJ, describing the incidence of amputations in Ukraine since Feb ’22, can be described as ‘luridly silly headlines’, or the judgement below that that such a number would be indicative of KIA of at least 200K given past conflicts must be “propaganda”.
“It’s an assassination by other means. There’s no turning back from this moment. The ?? is officially occupied by a hostile, demonic regime. Shed all childish delusions and naivety. Comply when you must, resist when you can. The shadow of a new dark age is upon us.””
I think Cernovich’s words apply here in Oz too, in fact they apply across the West.
I watched Oppenheimer yesterday, and parts of the movie focus on the American McCarthy witch hunts of the early 1950s, which snared Oppenheimer, in fact it snared many of the scientists who worked on the bomb. However, I was struck by how something very similar is happening across the West in 2023, to Christians, libertarians, conservatives and others on the right. We are witnessing a woke witch hunt against those who refuse to kowtow to woke progressivism, a recent example being the Farage bank deplatforming, but it’s been happening over the last few years, Farage is simply a major target, and by targeting Farage, it’s temporarily backfired on the woke witch hunters. The more corporations, companies, banks etc embrace ESG, which is a McCarthyism of the left, the more we are all targets, for deplatforming, cancelling, and silencing. They are coming for us.
I’d feel better if they just settled it and stopped moaning, and playing the victim card every chance they got.
being a 10pound tourist with over 50 years Oz residence , so slightly biased, when you read the whingeing & whining comments that the Oz sportz media puts out when things aren’t going Oz way in any sporting contest it ain’t hard to sympathize when someone doesn’t want to be cordial ………
Obvious question: Is the $43K on top of the $21K or assume it as the base?
Re site issues, planned maintenance is still ongoing so I can’t even get into my control panel until that is all over.
Best of luck dover, we are cheering for you!
FarmaGez:
It’s just a random thought, but couldn’t they build these lines near where the power is used? Like in the Cities? It would save an awful lot of money.
Or hasn’t that been thought of?
🙂
Bodyline.
Check. Mate.
I wasn’t gonna watch Oppenheimer cos not interested but after reading a few comments touching on the movie I’m tempted to download and give it a try .. also noticed a 7 part TV series so I’ll include that ……
currently reading “Midnight in Chernobyl” a 500 odd pages tome covering that nuclear disaster ..
How does one make a formal request to go for a beer? Send your man?
Ukrainian troops on front line admit Russians tougher than expected in ongoing counteroffensive
By Patrick Reilly
Ukrainian troops admitted that the Russians have put up a tougher fight than expected as they continue pushing into enemy-controlled territory.
Troops at the vanguard of Ukraine’s long-planned counteroffensive in the southeast region of the country said that a fierce battle last week revealed that the Russian troops are better prepared than originally anticipated.
“The Russians were waiting for us,” a 29-year-old soldier using the call-sign Bulat told Reuters in the Southern Donetsk Province.
“They fired anti-tank weapons and grenade launchers at us. My vehicle drove over an anti-tank mine, but everything was ok, the vehicle took the hit, and everyone was alive.”
Ukraine’s boldest counteroffensive yet is now in its third month. Last week’s battle of Staromaiorske gave an indication as to why the advance has been so slow — and bloody.
“Our mission was planned to take two days. But we couldn’t drive in during the darkness at the right time, for a few reasons. So we drove in later and lost the right moment,” Bulat said.
Kyiv, with billions of dollars worth of Western military equipment on hand, has admitted that the campaign has been going much slower than expected. Commanders said the deliberate pace is necessary to avoid high casualties.
The Russians have had months to dig in and fortify their defensive positions ahead of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which they had been expecting.
The Russian defenders had set up “pre-sighted zones” in anticipation of the attack, said a 24-year-old Ukrainian marine with the call-sign “Dub”.
“They methodically destroyed the roads. They made pits that prevented driving in and out of the village, even in dry weather. Even walking was quite hard. You can’t use flashlights at night, but you still have to advance,” he told Reuters.
Another soldier, using the call-sign Pikachu, said men in his unit “tried our best. We made it.”
“The dismount was not great,” the soldier acknowledged. “We advanced slowly but surely. They were shooting, everything was flying. It was scary, but we moved on. Nobody fell back. Everyone did a great job.
“Many of us who went will never return home.”
Shatterz> Do try to watch the Chernobyl series if you have’nt already done so. It’s really good and also really shocking.
In regard to QLD’s new “supergrid”, the former chief of the electricity distribution network made just that criticism recently.
But he’s just an engineer, so what would he know?
Indeed. When summarising in pithy form, remember to put a space between stupidity and and and and and cupidity.
Stupidity and cupidity!
Defenders Of Joe Biden’s Corrupt Phone Calls Sound Ridiculous
BY: DAVID HARSANYI
AUGUST 01, 2023
It’s a little-known fact that the Bidens are keen amateur meteorologists.
So much so that Hunter Biden will often call his dad out of the blue — sometimes even interrupting important business meetings in Dubai with execs of Eastern Europe energy interests — just to chit-chat about the weather. You know how it goes.
Joe’s love of the all-things climate meant regularly engaging in “casual conversation” and “niceties about the weather,” the always entertaining Daniel Goldman explained after Hunter’s business partner Devon Archer reportedly testified under oath that the patriarch of the family had talked to Biden Inc. clientele at least 20 times.
To be fair, others have theorized that it wasn’t really the barometric readings as much as Joe’s boundless love of his son that kept the two on the phone.
On MSNBC, Jonathan Lemire of Politico contends that we need to put the story into context; after all, “this is the time when Beau Biden, the president’s other son, was ill and dying and then passed away. So perhaps he wasn’t as attentive to what he should have been.”
“We know how important family is to the president,” added the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, the same week Joe recognized the existence of his four-year-old grandchild for the first time. “So, do you hang up on your son?”
These people think you’re a bunch of gullible nitwits.
And, yes, if your crack-addicted son puts you on speaker phone with executives from a company under investigation by Ukrainian authorities, and you have been named the point person in the Obama administration’s efforts to root out corruption in that country, you hang up and call your beloved son back later.
It’s not as if Hunter was difficult to get a hold of — he reportedly had 13 burner phones going, as one does when engaged in legitimate business.
Axios and other outlets tried a different tact,
reporting that Archer told Congress that Hunter sold “the illusion of access” by putting his father on speaker phone but that then-vice president “never talked shop.”
Of course, the reporting didn’t get it right. Archer reportedly testified that, though he didn’t hear the conversation, Burisma execs and Hunter called “D.C.” about the problem of prosecutor Viktor Shokin. And guess what also happened by complete happenstance soon after?
The “illusion of access” canard makes it sound like Joe was a hapless good-hearted dad roped into the family’s shady influence trading scheme.
And I can’t help but be reminded of the scene in “Casino,” in which Ace Rothstein fires an incompetent, possibly crooked, pit boss: “Listen, if you didn’t know you’re being scammed, you’re too f*cking dumb to keep this job. If you did know, you were in on it.”
The notion that Joe was completely in the dark about the family racket has been buried under mounds of convincing circumstantial evidence.
Either the then-vice president allowed himself to be used in creating the “illusion” that Burisma and others were obtaining something of great value in return for enriching his family, or he exerted the force of the U.S. government to enact policy that helped enrich his family. Both are corrupt.
“We all understand that a lot of these relationships operate in the gray areas intentionally, CNN’s Dana Bash said, offering perhaps the most honest justification. “Especially when you have somebody who is either related to a famous person or powerful person … you want your clients to know that you can get them on the phone.”
For sure. There is no business without Joe.
If Biden knew his son was working with Burisma execs and then still threatened to withhold American aid from Ukraine unless the government fired Shokin, it would be corrupt.
Biden could have recused himself from the task — there were already “concerns” about Biden within the Obama administration — but, instead, he bragged about it. Donald Trump was impeached for far less.
Still left unexplained is why Joe felt the need to spend years explicitly lying about these completely innocuous and perfect phone calls to his son.
Indeed, Biden has yet to explain what services his family provided to Romanians, ChiComs, and Ukrainians that were worth millions. And no amount of dissembling, deflection, spin, rationalization, or fantastical stories about family man Joe Biden will change that fact.
Trying to harness the will o’ the wisp has never been easy. Ask any yachtsman.
The VNI line may never be completed but it can still be successful … in paying off the right folks along the way.
It’s just a random thought, but couldn’t they build these lines near where the power is used? Like in the Cities? It would save an awful lot of money.
It’s called the AEC & VEC exclusion zone.
After what’s happened at NatWest/Coutts, I’d suggest corporate executives are taking a second look at ESG, if only out of a sense of self-preservation.
Incidentally, I’ve noticed the Coles in the centre where I normally shop has removed the posters promoting the Voice. Whether this is a local move in response to the prevailing sentiment, state-wide or national I can’t say, but I wouldn’t have thought this was an initiative a store manager would take upin himself.
A Nation cannot have a Treaty with itself. The Yes is a mess.
Tennis Elbow’s Voice/Treaty explained in 2 minutes.
Hanson at her best –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQc1_s7yXoA
Looks like the ship owners got lucky.
Dutch ministry says a fire that blazed for nearly a week on a cargo ship appears to have burnt out (1 Aug)
Basically if they tried to put it out the ship would capsize, so they just waited and hoped. Aren’t EV’s fun?
After what’s happened at NatWest/Coutts, I’d suggest corporate executives are taking a second look at ESG, if only out of a sense of self-preservation.
ESG is – Economic Suicide Guaranteed.
This dude is really stealing high octane. Man he’s good value.
Vivek
Re. the VNI line, AEMO, Andrews Inc and other leeches are already losing money hand over fist. This position may well have been avoided by electing to stick the stinking thing underground in the first place! Ignoring Mountain’s Plan B is also telling that the idiots are digging in for the long haul.
burnt itself out = nothing left to burn. Firemen as bystanders. Quite a common policy response these days.
If the articles figures are close to the mark, these are the two possibilities and possibly a third, incompetent medical care at or near the front, but I discount this to the extent that even this could not be worse than care provided in WW1.
Completely uneconomic beyond a couple of kilometres in the CBD. Transmission lines still used in the suburbs even with all local distribution undergrounded.
Err … the hint is in the name.
Transmission lines.
They transmit from the place of generation to the place of consumption.
If you don’t join up the generation to the consumption it doesn’t work as well.
I think you need to lay off the iodine.
Assuming an EV was at fault, it’s a thorny problem for insurers “going forward.”
Albanese on the back foot over Indigenous treaty
Tom McIlroy
Political correspondent
Anthony Albanese says his government will not pursue a treaty with Indigenous communities before the next election, despite draft changes to the Labor Party platform calling for action in this term of parliament.
This month’s Labor Party national conference will debate draft changes to the platform which say:
“Labor will take steps to implement all three elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart in this term of government.”
The statement calls for a Voice to parliament, and a Makarrata commission “to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history”.
Makarrata is a Yolngu word for a body that would supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations peoples, as well as a truth-telling process.
The government’s policy is for the development of a national framework for treaty-making, taking into account existing state and territory treaty processes.
In February, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said work was about to get underway on a treaty, promising announcements on a Makarrata commission and plans to advance a treaty “in the next couple of weeks”.
“We are staying true to what we’ve been asked to do,” she said at the time, but no announcements were made.
On Wednesday – as the opposition scaled up attacks on the Voice and demanded answers about a treaty in parliament – Mr Albanese said a treaty was a priority for state and territory governments, not the federal government.
Not a priority for federal parliament
Victoria, the Northern Territory and Queensland are among the states that have begun work on formal treaties with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
On ABC radio, Mr Albanese was asked: “In this term of parliament, if the Voice passes will you move to trying to negotiate a treaty or treaties?”
“No,” he said. “Because that’s occurring with the states … right now.
“What the No campaign want to do is to focus on everything that’s not happening and nothing that is. What is happening is a vote in the last quarter of this year for a Voice to parliament.
“What that is about is recognising First Nations people in our Constitution and then listening to Indigenous Australians, so as to get better results. That is what the focus is on.”
Nationals leader David Littleproud said Mr Albanese had made it clear the government’s agenda was to implement the full Uluru statement.
“[It] has three elements: Voice, truth and treaty,” he said.
“It should be an entire journey that the prime minister can lay in front of the Australian people, so we have confidence in where he wants to take this nation, and what are the elements of that.”
A problem for Vivek is his position on immigration.
i walked out after the movie and had to restrain myself from texting friends immediately about this superb film.
It was 11.30pm!
No. 1 grandson has no such qualms. He texted me two days later at 12.30am with his enthusiastic assessment.
I’m going back to see it again.
and
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/sustainability/handed-over-ten-victorian-councils-blindsided-by-sweeping-aboriginal-land-rights-deal/news-story/6760aea4ee5b59ea3572b0207fdd4df5
I warned a few months ago that this crap would consume Victoria.
FMD. Telstra just tried to charge me to fix its broken tech system, for which I pay north of $70 per month, before admitting its tech support has responsibility for delivering services it has been denying me for the past week.
Telstra still thinks it’s the Postmaster General’s Department and that, being from the government, they’re there to help.
Hopefully, I’m now finally out of internet prison and cartoon service can resume tomorrow. No promises — because I have absolutely no confidence.
Meantime, today’s John Spooner.
KD on Pom crickit.
Quite so.
The Brexit Remainers keep on about economic damage but, truth is, they detest their own heritage intensely and like to re-model themselves as passionate Italians or surly Fromage Consuming Surrender Primates.
Strange, but true.
For those who haven’t yet accessed it, here’s a link to the free Quadrant Edition on the Voice.
There is some excellent reading within it.
It’s pretty clear, and it was understood by others that have already responded, that he meant that the closer the place of generation to the place of consumption the better, and the longer the transmission lines the more inefficient the transfer of electricity becomes.
Which have traditionally been located close to each other.
“…the former CEO of Powerlink, Simon Bartlett, warned that the current plans would come at an exorbitant cost because Pioneer-Burdekin [pumped hydro] was so far away from the main population centre of South-East Queensland.
“A basic rule of planning is: build your generation, if you can, as close as you can to the load centre. That reduces what you spend on transmission, and it reduces the risk of long-distance transmission,” Professor [Elec. Eng. UQ] Bartlett said.
“But the plan doesn’t do that, the plan wants to build it 1,000 kilometres from the main load centre [Brisbane] – it just makes no logic to me, I’m afraid.”
Further…
“What they’re proposing is just a single transmission line, that’s a major flaw in the design because that can come down, and every half a kilometre there’s a tower, and all the wires are on the one tower. So that can come down and totally blackout a large part of the state.”
ABC 7:30, 29 June 2023.
Nice “supergrid” you’ve got here, said Mr. Cyclone.
The young Trot at work. Behold! Daily Telegraph with James Morrow:
I wish I could post the pics of the young Albanese accompanying the article.
Well, yes.
Of all the races which have migrated to this wide brown land, they have contributed the least.
In fact, they have been a discernible drag on this country’s advancement with their constant griping and misplaced superiority complex over the local populace.
It’s like William Bligh donated 44 gallons to the sperm bank and they’re still dishing it out.
As a migrant group I bracket them with South Sudanese car-jackers, Western Sydney Lebanese drug dealers and Saffie farmers.
LOL, Dover. You quoted and linked a Russian propaganda guy’s silly numbers, 210,000 I think it was, with wide innocent eyes. I was just pointing that out with equally silly Ukie propaganda.
In finding that story I did actually spot the source of the 2:1 ratio of Russian:Ukrainain KIA numbers that I’d forgotten about. It was US intelligence:
Ukraine war, already with up to 354,000 casualties, likely to last past 2023 – U.S. documents (13 Apr)
Now I trust US intelligence spox as little as you do, ie. not at all, but the recent independent analysis using excess deaths data supports the 35,500-43,000 Russian number. Indeed the data suggests a slightly higher number of 50,000. Which suggests the Ukie number of 15,500-17,500 killed in action is not far off. On the other hand we both know the US intel community are going to produce numbers which serve their political purposes. Distorted for effect but not so much as to be completely unbelieveable, which would discredit them. And they really really don’t want to discredit themselves, since that would undermine the neocons’ aims. So given those numbers I would expect the 1:1 WW1-style ratio, that I’ve been saying now for a long time, is likely to be fairly correct. Trench warfare with artillery is a great equalizer in misery.
Perth is a good city. 8/10.
The arse backwards public transport ticketing and rude airport security though, has made think unpatriotic thoughts.
But don’t worry, so have generations of our rulers, who acted on their impulses.
Hence you’ve been marked down to 6/10, which is still better than Walgett or Casula.
Yes.
But the siting of generation facilities is another question.
Betty was suggesting the transmission lines could be moved.
Christopher Jolliffe writes well in the free edition of Quadrant regarding ‘fake’ traditional culture, and he writes well too in the latest Spectator on how we are producing through our excess of multicultural zeal a society about which few now find enough enthusiasm to say they will protect it. Young people are lacking in such a desire. He draws in interesting ways on ancient history to look at the issue of foederati or mercenaries – i.e. the Roman response to a declining army, which was to hire barbarian warriors to fill the ranks of those who would protect Roman interests. Not all of them were true to Rome, quel surprise. Is further multiculturalism the way for us to go, he asks, for given current educational hatreds it will lead to the loss of any sense of patriotism or a country worth fighting for.
Not what was said.
Dover Beach/BoN:
Are we talking about amputations or soldiers limbs requiring amputation?
There could be a lot of partial amputations of 4 limbs/feet/arms from burns in armoured vehicles.
The 5 amputations of major appendages are usually dealt with by the Q Bloke.
(I’m leaving out spalling castrations as this is a family blog.)
Golly, what a coincidence!
Trump Jan 6 Case Assigned to Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama Appointee (1 Jul)
The old Trot has learned how to mask his true intentions.
Happily, a majority of Australians remain sceptical.
Going back to yesterday’s discussion, BB, this is another indicator of how heavily invested Albanese is in the Voice and why he won’t abandon it.
And the ship, and the whole cargo……
BTW, EV battery fires *always* have to burn themselves out, because damaged batteries short circuit and keep self igniting until all the charge is gone.
As John Cardogan said, it doesn’t matter what started the fire – EV’s catch alight easily and those fires cannot be put out.
His warning to not park near EV charging points in underground parking stations was valid, and ominously points towards major issues in the increasing numbers of applications for EV charging points in unit block car parks.
The next crisis caused by the Andrews Victorian state government: the broke and broken government Worksafe (workers compensation) insurance monopoly, which is know little more than an ideological crusade against employers with workplace insurance premiums up as much as 50% year-on-year.
Victoria is now the most hostile regime in Australia, which now holds employers and company directors liable for jail terms for work safety breaches.
Victoria is being abandoned in droves by employers who are able to relocate elsewhere.
Opening the Covid borders never made much sense to me. Basil as Lord Mayor must be worth a couple of points.
No he won’t abandon the referendum Roger but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. If he can’t get it over the line, he must go.
He’s unequivocally said he’d militarise the southern border and stop the flow. You disagree with stopping the flow?
Completely uneconomic beyond a couple of kilometres in the CBD. Transmission lines still used in the suburbs even with all local distribution undergrounded.
Domestic power is all underground in Fairfield, NSW but living on the edge of the Smithfield industrial estate (largest in the southern hemisphere) the industrial power is all carried above ground on massive pylons …….. there are also several fairly, new, large electric transmission/generation sites built/being built around the estate ……
Kids can ‘Dig It’ at Thunderbird Park with real excavators and wrecking balls
Australia’s first mini excavator park, ‘Dig It‘, opened at ThunderBird Park this year.
Located in the beautiful Tamborine Mountains in the Gold Coast Hinterlands, Thunderbird Park was already an amazing place to park your RV with the family for a few days…but this just tops it.
When I say Dig It at ThunderBird Park has ‘mini’ excavators, I’m not talking about toys here.
I’m talking about real excavating machinery and construction activities where kids get to actually be in the driver’s seat. Adults can join in the fun too and you definitely don’t need any experience. You don’t even need a driver’s license. All you need is the willingness to give it a go!
There are four different Dig It zones to challenge the young at heart at ThunderBird Park:
The Dig It Zone
This is where you get trained on using a 1.7-tonne excavator and get to dig around in the dirt.
The Demolition Zone
Swing the wrecking ball and try to knock over the Dig It towers at ThunderBird Park with a bang. Why? Because it’s fun to knock things over, that’s why!
The Claw and Croc Zone
Here, you’ll get to stack and move around tyres with a massive claw attachment, using a 1.7-tonne excavator.
The RC Zone
It’s remote control but better, because you get to control mini dozers, dump trucks, rear loaders and excavators just like a real work site. The remote control machines are a true 1:14 scale, fully hydraulic and weigh in at around 30+ kilograms. So basically, the RC’s at ThunderBird Park’s Dig It are way better than a K-Mart cheapy.
Anthony Albanese says surveys show between 80 and 90 per cent of Indigenous Australians support the Voice. Is that correct?
Mr Albanese on WSFM radio (vid 1:26):
“Australia I think needs to do this, and we’ll feel better about ourselves”
No he won’t abandon the referendum Roger but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. If he can’t get it over the line, he must go.
Methinx, he knows this .. hence the number of “freebie” OS “tourisms” he fitting in .. just in case .. LOL!
Using coal, generators are typically sited near the mine sites. Natural gas can be piped relatively long distances and once liquified shipped more or less anywhere. Wind resources are more remote, particularly if you are relying on geographic dispersion to reduce the risk of wind droughts.
As an observation of relevance to Jolliffe’s concerns, I noted that on our trip out to Kuala Lumpur via Malaysia airlines in Economy, the plane was between a half and two-thirds full. There was plenty of room to stretch out on vacant seats and snooze well and almost no children on board either. The passengers were predominantly Malaysian, Indian or Chinese, but with the faces European-heritage Australian holidaymakers also obvious.
On our return on the same ticket, same airline, what a difference. The plane was absolutely chockers, full to the last seat, and with quite a few children on board. And now, I am going to use terminology I might not usually use: we and a couple of other white faces were the only European-heritage people in a sea of darker and olive shadings. Hairy noted it immediately. This is the first time I’ve ever been on a plane back to Australia which had so few European people on it, he whispers to me. We both thought it said something about ‘immigration in’. I pointed out to him that trip we did once on Scoot from Singapore was similar, mainly used by Chinese passengers. This is the new Australia, whether of new arrivals or simply established immigrants coming back home to Australia from visiting in Malaysia or Singapore.
I was waiting in a corridor and struck up a conversation with a ‘letterbox’ woman, one of the few wearing full Muslim coverage on the plane. Most Malaysian women indicating their religion wore a simple and often pretty hijab. Have you been to Sydney before? I ask that lady. Oh yes, she replied, but I live in Newcastle. Oh, you’re going home too, I say, smiling back (her eyes were smiling, only way I could tell). Well, that was me, shades of Lady Susan Hussey at the Royal Garden Party!
I personally enjoy a lot of the variety in people and culture that immigration has brought to Australia, as well as the economic value of immigrants, and this woman in many ways could be an ideal citizen, but it does seem to me, as to Jolliffe, that we should also look more at when to call halt to too much cultural difference, especially when the original culture may be swamped out. France is an object lesson there.
“Australia I think needs to do this, and we’ll feel better about ourselves”
One thing is for certain with reviews like this Jodie should be confident enuf to open her own “rub ‘n tug” shop … afterwards …..!
No, Bruce and labeling people you don’t like ‘Russian propagandists’ is just lazy. Baron has been lowballing numbers since the beginning even after purported Pentagon leak were suggesting the number was thereabouts earlier in the year.
I’m sorry, Bruce, but if you really think that the number of UKR KIAs is below 20K and under half of RUS I can’t help you.
Using power HVDC lines either buried or overhead is the cheapest way to carry power long distances.
AC underground is a huge job and leaves a big ugly scar on the land, a similar DC line is about a roads width across. It could utilise road edges as a non-intrusive path.
It does require converters at 400 mill per unit but remember none of AEMO’s grand plan calculates the huge cost of removing high quality arable land from production and destroying the bush along the path.
DC has very little power loss over distance and is cheaper in all build aspects. It’s only converter cost that holds it back.
AEMO don’t like it as their green energy
company masters can’t then go prospecting around the nation hoping to get enough sucker’s land to justify a project and latch onto the power consumer’s tit.
There’s no reason whatsoever that you can’t build wind and solar in city hinterlands. The transmission cost would be a fraction of hooking up renewable projects to greenfield transmission out bush.
Portsea Wind
Sorrento Solar
No, we won’t. We’ll feel divided by race.
We’ll feel poorer, angry, very put upon, blindsided and completely gaslit.
Nearly forty billion a year already for the claimed ‘ancestral’ 3% of our population?
Plus ‘native title’ already bringing in Royalties over thousands of miles of Australia?
And aboriginal ‘heritage’ claims already causing havoc for farmers and householders?
We need a Royal Commission or an Audit, not a sovereignty-seeking Voice.
Get lost, Albo.
Tell him he’s dreaming.
European people on it, he whispers to me. We both thought it said something about ‘immigration in’. I pointed out to him that trip we did once on Scoot from Singapore was similar, mainly used by Chinese passengers.
This echoes my own experience on flights.
Out, almost empty, large proportion of Europeans.
In, bursting, almost no Europeans.
I wonder what the real immigration numbers are?
They’re on their final drive to push that knife deep into the heart of Australia.
PS: There is no real economic benefit to immigration when your selection criteria actively seeks the dumbest and to poorest.
Fitch Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating
The ratings agency said that the downgrade reflects an ‘erosion of governance’
Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating weeks after President Biden and congressional Republicans came to the brink of a historic default, warning about the growing debt burden and political dysfunction in Washington.
The downgrade, the first by a major ratings firm in more than a decade, is evidence that increasingly frequent political skirmishes over the U.S. government’s finances are clouding the outlook for the $25 trillion global market for Treasurys. Fitch’s rating on the U.S. now stands at “AA+”, or one notch below the top “AAA” grade.
America’s reputation for reliably making good on its IOUs has cast Treasury bonds in an indispensable role in global markets: a safe-haven security offering nearly risk-free returns. Treasurys serve as a critical benchmark for returns on stocks and other bonds, because investors generally demand greater yields on any other securities that they buy.
Few investors believe that Fitch’s downgrade will immediately challenge that role. Still, it is the first time a ratings firm lowered its headline assessment of the U.S. government’s propensity to pay its bills on time since Standard & Poor’s in 2011 lowered its rating one notch below the top grade. That decision followed another tense debt-ceiling standoff in Congress.
Moody’s, the other member of the three big U.S. ratings firms, continues to give the U.S. its strongest assessment.
Fitch said Tuesday that the downgrade reflects an “erosion of governance” in the U.S. relative to other top-tier economies over the last two decades.
“The repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions have eroded confidence in fiscal management,” the agency said.
Biden administration officials criticized Fitch’s decision, blaming governance problems on the Trump administration and arguing that the U.S. was not at risk of missing its debt payments.
“The change by Fitch Ratings announced today is arbitrary and based on outdated data,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
Administration officials said Fitch staff, in justifying their concerns over the U.S. political system, repeatedly raised the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the capital saying the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump was indicted Tuesday for his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden in that election. He has denied wrongdoing, and has repeatedly accused prosecutors of pursuing him for political reasons.
Congress passed legislation suspending the government’s borrowing limit in early June, just days before the deadline Yellen had given for when the government would become unable to pay all of its bills on time.
The eventual compromise, which set caps on federal spending and raised the debt limit for roughly two years, came after months of deadlock between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans had demanded spending cuts in an echo of previous clashes over government borrowing, which Democrats resisted for months. During the impasse, Fitch said it was considering downgrading the U.S.
Fitch said it expects the general government deficit to rise to 6.3% of gross domestic product in 2023 from 3.7% last year.
The expected deficit growth reflects cyclically weaker federal revenues, new spending initiatives and a higher interest burden, Fitch said. The firm expects the U.S. economy to slip into a recession later this year.
Institutional investors and day traders alike rely on credit ratings to assess the risk that major borrowers such as governments and corporations won’t make good on debt that they owe. Low-rated institutions typically must compensate investors with higher interest payments in exchange for the privilege of borrowing.
Presiding over the world’s largest economy and in charge of its most important currency, the U.S. government is typically treated as among the safest borrowers anywhere.
Banks and companies around the globe often think of U.S. Treasurys as if they are as reliable and liquid as cash—a premise that relies on sacrosanct confidence in the government’s ability to pay its bills.
On Wall Street, banks and investors are unlikely to step back abruptly from their reliance on Treasurys as a safe-haven benchmark following the actions of a single rating agency, said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust.
But moves such as Fitch’s incrementally degrade the confidence that global financial markets place in the U.S. government’s creditworthiness, he said.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it didn’t fall apart in a day either,” Tilley said in an interview in May, when the U.S. was facing an imminent default.
“But if the two parties in Washington are going to force investors to rethink whether the U.S. will pay its bills, investors will do exactly that.”
University of Birmingham:
Opinion: No leg to stand on—why the US must reconsider its stance on climate reparations (Phys.org, 1 Jul)
Also University of Birmingham:
‘Spirit mediums’ could help unlock tourism secrets, according to study (Phys.org, 1 Aug)
Sad. Prof Oliphant and my granddad worked on the British atomic bomb at the University of Birmingham. Now they’re into Gaia worship and spirit mediums.
Exactly so, ‘bern.
Son was a hard Left Greenie until he realised that we had all been deceived by media and govt after the 2015-16 New Year Eve’s mass sexual assaults in cologne. He was mad as hell for ages until he transitioned into a curmudgeonly old conservative.
Our visits are much more amiable these days.
In Ukraine, Amputations Already Evoke Scale of World War I
Tens of thousands estimated to have lost limbs since the start of the war, a toll not seen in recent armed conflicts in the West
Ruslana Danilkina is one of between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians who have lost one or more limbs since the start of the war with Russia.
In February, Ruslana Danilkina, a 19-year-old Ukrainian soldier, came under fire near the front line around Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine. Shrapnel tore her left leg off above the knee. She clutched her severed thigh bone and watched medics place her severed leg into the vehicle that took her to a hospital.
“I was holding the bone in my hands… there and then I realized that this was the end, that my life would never be the same again,” Danilkina said.
Danilkina is one of between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians who have lost one or more limbs since the start of the war, according to previously undisclosed estimates by prosthetics firms, doctors and charities.
The actual figure could be higher because it takes time to register patients after they undergo the procedure. Some are only amputated weeks or months after being wounded.
And with Kyiv’s counteroffensive under way, the war may be entering a more brutal phase.
By comparison, some 67,000 Germans and 41,000 Britons had to have amputations during the course of World War I, when the procedure was often the only one available to prevent death.
Fewer than 2,000 U.S. veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions had amputations.
Ukraine’s government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the figures. Kyiv has kept precise casualty statistics secret so as not to demoralize the population.
But even as a rough estimate, the number casts light on the staggering human cost of Russia’s 17-month onslaught—a cost that will linger for decades.
Germany’s Ottobock, the world’s largest prosthetics manufacturer, which is working with Kyiv to help amputees, estimates the number of amputees at about 50,000 based on data from the government and medical partners.
At the lower end, the Houp Foundation, a Kyiv-based charity, puts the number of serious injuries caused by the war at 200,000. About 10% of serious injuries typically require amputations, according to the foundation.
Such numbers reflect how Russia wages the war, with heavy use of mines and artillery, missile and drone attacks targeting soldiers and civilians alike.
“My grandfather founded our company in 1919 to help…German soldiers returning from World War I wounded by artillery fire, who lost their arms, legs or eyesight—this is exactly what we see in Ukraine,” said Hans Georg Näder, Ottobock’s chairman.
Danilkina had five operations before receiving an artificial leg from Ottobock with the help of Superhumans, a charitable foundation based in the western city of Lviv.
She has since turned 20 and has been documenting her recovery on social media under the nickname Unbreakable Rusya. On Monday, she received a more sophisticated leg called Genium X3 developed by Ottobock with the U.S. military that allows users to easily climb stairs or even walk backward.
Denys Kryvenko, a 24-year-old former steelworker from Kropyvnytskiy in central Ukraine, was drafted last year and lost both legs and his left arm in the battle for Bakhmut in January. Before the injury he was 6 feet 1 inch tall but now stands at 5 feet 6 inches on his artificial legs.
Both Kryvenko and Danilkina now work with Superhumans to help other amputees. Their social-network activism and media appearances have turned them into symbols of Ukrainian suffering and resilience.
Making enough artificial limbs, some of which cost over 50,000 euros, equivalent to around $55,000, isn’t the main challenge:
The bigger bottleneck is expert staff to care for amputees, each of whom needs a tailor-made prosthetic, Näder said. Kyiv pays up to €20,000 per military amputee but civilians often struggle to afford treatment.
Ottobock grants a discount for Ukrainians and provides free training for doctors and technicians there. Still, many patients must rely on charities to obtain prostheses.
Before the Russian invasion last year, Ukraine had several thousand amputations annually, but its healthcare system is now overwhelmed, according to Ukrainian doctors and specialist clinics, with many patients waiting more than a year for a new limb.
Doctors in Lviv alone performed over 53,000 surgeries in the past year, said Oleksandr Kobzarev, an executive with Unbroken, a network of medical rehabilitation centers.
Superhumans chief executive Olga Rudneva says her foundation only has the capacity to admit some 50 amputees each month.
She estimates the number of amputees as at least 20,000 since last year.
Patients should get new limbs at the latest 90 days after amputation to avoid atrophy and other problems, Rudneva said, but many have waited for over a year. Young children among the amputees are particularly difficult to care for, she said, because they must change several prostheses by the time they become adults.
Oleksandra Paskal, 7, lost her leg in a Russian missile attack near Odesa in May 2022. Her mother Maria, who partially lost her hearing in the explosion, says her daughter is woken at night by phantom pain in the lost limb—a frequent neurological condition in amputees.
Dr. Jennifer Ernst, head of the Innovative Amputation Medicine department at the Hannover University Hospital in Germany, specializes in bionic surgery involving connecting nerves to prosthetic limbs. She recently operated on a soldier who lost both legs in an attack that killed his entire unit.
Like many Ukrainian patients evacuated abroad after serious trauma, the soldier had an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection, forcing Ernst to remove significant pieces of leg tissue. Despite successes—one patient’s arm was saved by a 3D-printed bone implant—she says most have to be amputated because of advanced infections.
Last year, her clinic admitted a 16-year-old boy who lost an arm when a Russian missile hit a Kyiv metro station. The blast killed his younger sister but left their mother only lightly injured.
Out of 100 soldiers wounded within about 3 miles of the front line, 36% suffered very severe injuries, while between 5% and 10% of all deployed troops were killed, according to Ukrainian military estimates shared with a group of U.S. military surgeons. In comparison, only 1.3% to 2% of U.S. troops deployed in recent conflicts died in action.
Western military surgeons haven’t seen such injuries on this scale since World War II, said Dr. Aaron Epstein, head of the Global Surgical and Medical Support Group of former military surgeons who train Ukrainian military medics.
While artillery and missiles were the main causes of amputation early in the conflict, some of the worst casualties now come from mines laid along the 600-mile front line.
Between 40 and 80 patients report to hospitals in the city of Zaporizhzhia with traumas each day, including amputees coming from the front line some 25 miles away, said Dr. Kostyantyn Mylytsya, medical director of the private KSM Clinic.
Mylytsya focused on cosmetic surgery before the war. Now his clinic treats and rehabilitates amputees. Such centers, he says, are needed “in every town across Ukraine; they must be as common as dentists.”
A former British paratrooper serving in Ukraine’s armed forces lost his foot in a mine explosion in June. He had previously been wounded in April last year, a month after volunteering to fight, when a Russian cruise missile hit his unit’s headquarters. He spent five months in Ukrainian and British hospitals but returned to the southern front as soon as he could.
In June, his unit launched a nightly raid on Russian forces but suffered devastating losses. His team spent the night cowering in the basement of an abandoned school before attacking again. They drove past destroyed Western Leopard tanks, Humvees and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. The severed limbs of their comrades lay scattered on the ground.
The soldiers used broken sticks to tap their way forward to detect hidden mines. As he was setting up a machine gun near an abandoned Russian trench, the 28-year-old stepped on an antipersonnel mine.
“I screamed and fell in the direction of travel, and I was lucky not to hit another mine,” he said.
He was evacuated to a field hospital where doctors saved his leg but cut off most of his left foot. He said many in his unit were hospitalized after the raid. Most of the soldiers who accompanied them died.
Now, waiting for treatment in the U.S., he said he intends to return to his regiment—even if only as an instructor.
“This war is horrendous and now I, too, am crippled…But I don’t regret it,” he said.
Another aspect of this amputee story is why aren’t we seeing photo’s or videos of it.
You can’t hide 10k or 20k punters missing arms & legs forever.
That’s great but he wants the flow of skilled immigration to continue unabated.
That’s great but he wants the flow of skilled immigration to continue unabated.
That’s going to happen anyway.
Take what you can get.
RFK Jr on Jimmy Dore re migration would have exploded a few heads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-nL97vwU0
When the Never Trump industry profits, America loses
This Never Trump industry took root after then-candidate Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 with his wife, Melania.
There, Mr. Trump opened up with both populist barrels on a bevy of corporate interests responsible for offshoring American jobs to the sweatshops of China; importing cheap, illegal immigrant labor from a cartel-infested Mexico, and supporting the debilitating prosecution of endless wars sacrificing the lives and limbs of America’s bravest.
Once Mr. Trump’s gauntlet was thrown down, this bevy of corporate elites — from Silicon Valley and Wall Street to America’s biggest multinational corporations — went on high alert.
Mr. Trump’s Main Street policies would cost them hundreds of billions of profits annually, which could never be tolerated.
Today, these globalist elites form the financial bedrock of the Never Trump industry. They provide the massive campaign contributions that keep America’s elected politicians in uniparty line, the ad revenue that fuels the hate, venom and disinformation of the Never Trump corporate media, and the dark money funding of a mongrel horde of political consultants, pollsters and candidates working to ensure Mr. Trump will never again be president.
On the left, CNN and MSNBC are the most prominent faces of the Never Trump media — although ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS more than carry their vitriolic weight. Here, CNN best reveals the underlying business model.
Under Jeff Zucker, CNN made a profit-motivated decision early on to carpet-bomb Mr. Trump on a daily basis.
Sooner than most, Mr. Zucker understood Mr. Trump’s personality would whip the left into a frenzy. That would mean pure ratings gold and significantly higher ad revenue.
On the right, Fox News offers a similar profit-motivated story. The poster children — or sacrificial lambs — here are the ultra-MAGA former Fox News hosts Lou Dobbs and Tucker Carlson.
Messrs. Dobbs and Carlson had high ratings, but Rupert Murdoch’s network couldn’t fully cash in because of the ad boycotts of the Never Trump corporate world. So Lou and Tucker had to go.
Of course, in this new Never Trump makeover, a dwindling Fox audience is now saddled with a lineup of the over-the-hill Brian Kilmeade and Laura Ingraham and bland, blow-dried company men such as Brett Baier and John Roberts all too willing — nay, eager — to pimp the Never Trump line.
Today, the biggest Never Trump teat both CNN and Fox suck on — along with the mainstream media — is Big Pharma.
As the White House’s manufacturing czar, I worked hard at Mr. Trump’s direction to bring our perilously fragile pharmaceutical supply chains home.
At every turn, I would bump into recalcitrant pharmaceutical executives resisting long-overdue Trumpian changes.
Not for nothing, Big Pharma spent more money on Trump attack ads in the 2020 election than any other industry — and Pfizer in particular has been handsomely rewarded in return by the Biden regime.
Beyond the media, the Never Trump industry is also populated by a bevy of profit- and fame-seeking entrepreneurs in search of million-dollar book deals and lucrative TV news gigs.
These former Trump administration officials go by names like John Bolton, William Barr, Mick Mulvaney, Kayleigh McEnany, Alyssa Farah, Stephanie Grisham, Olivia Troye and Larry Kudlow.
Each is profiting in their grift as Trump bashers.
They are enabled not just by the Never Trump news channels but also by pinnacle publishers like Simon and Schuster and HarperCollins, whose executives know better than most how to make a Never Trump buck when the knives and claws come out.
As for the Never Trump kamikaze candidates — the Chris Christies, Nikki Haleys and Mike Pences of this Republican primary cycle — know they have zero chance of winning the presidential nomination.
Yet each understands their Never Trump screeds offer an express train to celebrity and fortune of a different kind.
Lastly, political consultants and pollsters are working overtime in their dens of skewed question iniquity to throw stink on Mr. Trump and misdirect voters into thinking he is vulnerable.
These mercenaries are always big winners because they win even if their candidate loses.
As a case in point, Guernsey cows have been milked far less than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Trump stalking mule, is being milked by this consultant/pollster class.
When the Never Trump industry profits, America loses.
Re transmission lines and aesthetics. One half of our street paid to have the lines put underground in order to gain line-free harbour views. On the other half of our street, where we are, the harbour views are not on the street front side but at the rear of the properties and they are not obstructed by any lines. No-one there, with or without views, was prepared to pay between ten and fifty thousand dollars a property for underground power lines to improve the streetscape as the people up top did in a community action. So the street remains half and half. It’s the views that do it. They add hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars to a property’s worth. This is why Council’s refusal to shift a leaf on any street causes so much grief.
feelthebern Avatar
feelthebern
Aug 2, 2023 12:28 PM
Another aspect of this amputee story is why aren’t we seeing photo’s or videos of it.
WSJ had Photos
Footage of the war is criminalised. I think that applies to the injured as well as to buildings hit, etc. They are clamping down on those videos taken of Ukrainian cemeteries with rows and rows of new plots.
The Judge Assigned to Trump’s January 6th Indictment Is Going to Be a Nightmare
Once again, the political world has been engulfed by another indictment of Donald Trump, this time surrounding his alleged actions involving January 6th.
The details include four different counts, including two counts of conspiracy and two counts of obstruction. Those four counts break down specifically to Trump allegedly attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, which has to do with January 6th, while the conspiracy charges appear to center on the supposed alternate electors scheme.
Obviously, arguments about selective prosecution and weaponization of the DOJ will be at the forefront for political circles, but even on legal grounds, this indictment appears to be far weaker than the one charging that Trump mishandled classified documents and conspired to obstruct the investigation into the matter. Specifically, counts two and three sure seem like “disinformation” is being criminalized.
Regardless, putting even the legal arguments aside, one thing is certain: The judge assigned to this case is going to be a nightmare.
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has handled dozens of cases related to January 6th, and she has built a reputation as being the harshest arbiter in the game. For example, she has given higher sentences than recommended by the government in nine different January 6th cases and has matched government recommendations in 14 others. She has handled 31 January 6th cases in total.
By comparison, around 80 percent of all January 6th defendants have received sentences below government recommendations. In other words, Chutkan gives elevated sentences at a far higher rate than other judges handling similar cases.
That points to a deeply personal and emotional investment by the judge in the events of January 6th. In 2022, the Associated Press even labeled her as the “toughest punisher” relating to how she was handling those specific cases. Chutkan appears to be on a revenge tour as a judge based in the nation’s capital, and there’s every reason to believe jailing Trump would be her ultimate prize.
Also concerning is what circles Chutkan ran in before assuming her position on a U.S. District Court. She once worked for Boies Schiller and Flexner. Take a wild guess who also used to work there?
Trump’s D.C. judge worked for Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP, the same law firm that employed Hunter Biden and whose former partner Heather King worked with Burisma alongside Hunter
@DailyCaller
Once again, the incestuousness of the Beltway is shown. This Obama appointee just so happens to have worked for the same law firm that once gave Hunter Biden a sweetheart employment deal that absolutely no one else would have gotten in the given timeframe.
Is that directly relevant to this latest Trump indictment? Not necessarily, but it provides more evidence of the school of thought that Chutkan comes from.
All that to say that there’s no reason to expect fairness in this situation. Chutkan is credibly expected to be on the warpath, and Trump’s legal team is going to have its work cut out for it.
In the end, the only hope may be getting this in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. How that happens and how long that could take is an open-ended question.
For now, though, Chutkan is in charge, and I would count on her trying to fast-track this trial before the general election.
If she’s as biased as it seems, and there’s every reason to think she is, she won’t want to risk Trump winning the election and having the power to pardon himself.
Surprise, Surprise Guess Who is Amish?
Trump Jan 6 Case Assigned to Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama Appointee
Dover – Why don’t you read what I wrote rather than misread it? Just a thought.
I am applying analysis to get as close as I can to the real data. With three* approaches: reasoning from history (ie. WW1), an independent dataset and also political analysis re the US claims (which you then misread). You have not addressed any of those approaches. Indeed you sound like a climate alarmist, rejecting that which you don’t want to hear. Well it’s your brain, I can’t do anything about it if you don’t want to use it. Believing what you want to hear is what got Putin into this mess in the first place.
The missing datum which I don’t have is any study of Ukrainian excess mortality 2022-3. I tried looking for that sort of data but got nothing useful, unfortunately. It’d be interesting if you can find such information.
(* Here is a fourth approach: by analogy. We Australians lost 27,073 dead in WW2 out of 727,703 service personnel. That is over 6 years of serious combat operations from the desert to the jungle. About one tenth of our population was in uniform. From Long V7, Appendix 7. You are saying Ukraine has had 210,000 KIA in 18 months out of a population of 44 million. No son, that is so beyond military reality as to be fantasyland stuff. Lord Haw Haw would be embarrassed to claim such rubbish.)
CNN named five of the co-conspirators tonight including Rudy Giuliani.
Rudy later went on with Eric Bolling to discuss today’s indictment. Rudy was in rare form. The former New York City Mayor screamed at corrupt Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Only in government can you fail your way to the top. That is Jack Smith’s story.
Rudy Giuliani:
If you don’t agree with the regime, they try to disbar you and they try to imprison you.
What does that sound like? Sounds like Communist China to me. Not the United States of America. Biden has ruined our country.
It’s a disgrace what he’s done. And I don’t care if you hate Donald Trump. This is a violation of his right of free speech.
You even have a right to lie under the First Amendment. Now, he (Trump) didn’t.
The strange thing here is the people lying are the people bringing this and this count they have here, conspiracy against rights.
They should be indicted for conspiracy against rights for bringing this indictment…
…I don’t have any information that he violated any law.
What I do have is I would seriously consider indicting them for 18 USC. Section 241. For indicting a man for exercising his right of free speech, that’s a conspiracy against rights. These people are dangerous.
On Joe Biden… Rudy Giuliani:
There’s no way this wasn’t rushed, because it’s also poorly written and has a lot of mistakes in it.
This was rushed for two reasons. One, yesterday, Biden got his head kicked in completely.
The false exculpatory statements that were revealed yesterday, 24 of which most lawyers would understand this, completely convict him.
Under the law, a false exculpatory statement is as powerful as a confession that comes right out of evidence, textbooks.
What Archer did is prove that for ten years, Biden has been lying completely. All of that can be used against him as evidence of guilt.
It’s very, very powerful. It’s much more damaging than, I think even a lot of the Congressmen realized.
And it makes him, like, probably not only the biggest crook in American history. The biggest liar.
Special Counsel Jack Smith Unseals Criminal Indictment of President Trump for Protesting Results of 2020 Election
August 1, 2023 | Sundance
Special Counsel Jack Smith held a press conference today following the unsealing of a federal criminal indictment alleging four counts against President Donald J Trump.
[Full Indictment pdf Link]
The four alleged criminal counts are: (1) Conspiracy to defraud the U.S Government; (2) Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding; (3) Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding; and (4) Conspiracy against Rights.
Interestingly, nowhere in the indictment is anything criminally alleged relating to the January 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington DC.
However, you will notice in the Lawfare delivery of the remarks, Special Counsel Jack Smith factually speaks almost exclusively of the January 6th events.
The absence of a criminal charge (ie. seditious conspiracy or insurrection) when contrast against the extreme verbal emphasis of the event as outlined by Smith in the presser, will be missed by most.
Speaking of the non-criminal event as the context for a fabricated/stretched criminal allegation, is Lawfare in action.
Why emphasize but not charge? Because the DOJ/FBI does not want the risk of litigated discovery and evidence of coordinated government activity therein, that’s why.
Jack Smith knows he is out on a limb with his Lawfare effort to criminalize the legal and constitutional challenge to an election outcome. He is nervous, WATCH:
Jonathan Turley and Andy McCarthy Rip Apart Flawed Nature of New Trump Indictment
As we reported earlier, Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped another indictment on former President Donald Trump, charging him with three counts of conspiracy and one count of obstruction on Tuesday.
At this point, it’s getting a little ridiculous and frankly, transparent, as to how hard the Biden administration seems to be working to try to take Trump out of the race with lawfare and indictments.
Fox News’ Bret Baier shared how Republicans are describing the indictment for what it is:
Democrats looking at a box of chocolates, trying to figure out what was the best box of chocolates to “prevent him from becoming president again.”
That’s hitting the nail on the head; that’s what it’s all about.
But George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley decimated how weak this latest effort was from Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Turley agreed with what Baier said, “I think that the indictment does not have this compelling level of evidence.”
Turley also ripped into Attorney General Merrick Garland and his statement on the matter, saying that he’s acting like a “pedestrian” rather than truly looking at the case, and saying “Wait, is this all you have?” Turley said this was stretching the law, and it was an indictment that didn’t say enough. He said he thought that this was going to “tarnish his [Garland’s] legacy”—and the legacy of the special counsel.
Turley also tweeted that it was an indictment essentially for alleged false information, which raises all kinds of concerns and First Amendment issues.
Special Counsel Jack Smith just issued the first criminal indictment of alleged disinformation in my view. If you take a red pen to all of the material presumptively protected by the First Amendment, you can reduce much of the indictment to haiku…
As we reported earlier, former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy ripped apart Smith’s statement, calling it “demagogic” and complaining that it was misleading the public about what was charged in this case.
He said anyone would think Trump was being charged with having carried out the Jan. 6 riot.
But then when you look at the indictment, it’s not that at all. McCarthy ripped apart the indictment.
He agreed with Turley that the indictment was flawed and said this was a way of stretching the law, trying to get Trump, when they couldn’t get him through impeachment.
Unless your name is Dan Andrews and you are ultimately responsible for the biggest workplace disaster (hotel quarantine non-security fiasco) in Victoria’s history which cost 800 lives.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe injured in car accident in Melbourne
Former Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has been injured in a car accident and won’t be seen in parliament as a result.
Former Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has been injured in a car accident and is expected to be absent from parliament for a week.
Ms Thorpe had been sitting in her car when she was rear-ended by another vehicle in Melbourne.
The incident, which occurred late last week, allegedly caused Ms Thorpe to suffer whiplash and bruising.
Ms Thorpe was told by her doctor not to travel to Canberra for at least one week following the midwinter break.
Ms Thorpe’s media team declined to make a statement about the accident but confirmed the details of the crash.
They said the car was stationary at the time and confirmed that Ms Thorpe was expected to return to parliament next week.
The former Green has garnered national attention in recent months due to her outspoken opposition to the Voice and claims of assault.
I’ll take this up at the time DB requested – Late evening.
Another thing to point out from our recent travels is that you have to be fit to walk long distances. Airports these days don’t make it e.asy and some (such as Hawaii) have you walking kms to another terminal along passages with only a few moving walkways. Gates are often in the far distance even within the one terminal. There are supposed to be helpful assistances for elderly or disabled passengers, which probably need booking, but you’d feel stupid taking these unless you are really incapacitated, and likely they wouldn’t turn up. Things so often go wrong.
You also need to be fit to carry a 10kg hand luggage up or down the steep steps in an across-the-tarmac entry or exit without halting the passengers behind you. Also arm muscles need to be able to put up and lift down that 10kg suitcase into an overhead locker. Don’t count on assistance with this these days, even in Business Class. You are on your own. Lucky if you have help travelling with you, such as one Hairy male. I helped a poor bewildered little Indian lady in a Sari with her case, which she was feebly trying to insert into a locker. She was travelling alone and we were further down the plane, so I asked the Chinese yoof sitting next to her to please assist her to get it down and he said he would.
The other peril, in Kuala Lumpur airport and no doubt elsewhere, was the lack of lifts. In KL to get to the transit bus from Domestic to International you had to take your luggage with you down a steep moving walkway. Unlike in a supermarket, where the trolley locks on, you are again on your own if you have a wheeled suitcase and a wheeled handcase. Hairy had the two old two-wheeled cases and I had the two new four-wheeled ones, which are excellent on the flat as the whizz along beautifully, but they are a serious danger as you try to stop them from rolling off on their own on the steep descent. You need strong arm muscles again for the savage grip needed to stop that with two cases under your control while maintaining your own balance. And when you reach the end of the moving slope you have to make sure your cases don’t stumble on the slight rise and that you don’t go a over t on top of them.
Glad to keep up fitness with Mr. Motivator online when away.
Returning to dance classes this week to ensure fitness for mid-September in Europe.
We are going to Brisbane Friday week to see our grandies, but driving up in stages.
Couldn’t face any more airports just yet.
(* Here is a fourth approach: by analogy. We Australians lost 27,073 dead in WW2 out of 727,703 service personnel
That is misleading, only a fraction of that was fighting personnel actually engaged on the frontline.
Hairy got really pissed off with Sydney Airport when we arrived. We were guided to baggage collection only to find that while 1-7 carrels were busy from 8-15 were all empty. And our flight was unloading on carrel 15, a long way down the building as part of the new improvements. There was also a shorter way to reach 15 but we were not directed to it earlier in our walk down.
So we dragged our four cases along to carrel 15, passing by the empty carrels 8 to 14 on the way. An official stood at 8 directly all people from our flight down to 15.
Sydney Airport, snarled Hairy at her as he passed by. It never fails to disappoint.
directing all people
There is something very suss about this childcare centre abuse story (I mean, apart from the stomach-churning abuse itself).
He is described as a “childcare worker” which implies that he was a direct employee working in the centres day-to-day.
The offences cover ten centres in Brisbane, one in NSW and one overseas.
The Oz perhaps hints at something with this wording:-
The use of the word “roamed” is peculiar. Not a word you would use to describe someone who perhaps moved through a series of jobs one after the other.
Was he not actually an employee of these centres but someone with an over-arching role covering several centres? It is inconceivable that, say, a maintenance guy or delivery driver visiting centres could get access to much time alone with one kid. Was it someone in a government role, with a level of authority? For example, someone who did audits for accreditation purposes, or a counsellor who could “identify troubled kids” for one-on-one “counselling”?
Something we are not being told.
They were incredibly quick to ring-fence it, saying “we have identified all of the victims”.
No.
You have identified all of the victims in the videos/photographs that you have found so far.
How they can possibly be so conclusive is beyond me.
We got the “move on, nothing more to see here” five minutes after the announcement.
The location of the overseas offending might tell us more.
Heavens.
So does Trump actually.
You can’t discuss your confusion over generation and transmission during daylight hours?
I could be wrong, but I think the reverse curfew was specifically in relation to the identity of the “Brian of Moorabbin” dibber-dobber thing, not all the other mistakes you might make.
Do Australian figures conform with those of Germany for instance in WW2? 27K/727K gives a number of 3% of total personnel KIA. German figures are roughly 4M/13.6M which gives 29%. That is a huge differential. What makes you think the Ukrainians are fighting in conditions comparable to the Australians and not the Germans? Further, do you even know the number of Ukrainians in the army in order to make the comparison above meaningful? If you take into account that Ukraine is a little over half the population of Germany during WW2 they are still suffering less than half the KIAs of Germany for the same length of time. Given this, there is no way that 200K KIA for Ukraine is “beyond military reality as to be fantasyland stuff”; quite the opposite in fact.
Gabor – I quoted exact numbers from the official history. Same table has our WW1 stats.
Total war service personnel: 416,809
Total dead: 53,993
The WW1 analogy is probably closer, but Ukraine has not had over two million in the front line, and our casualties were over 4 years of war from 1915 to 1918, not 18 months.
My point is you can use several ways of analysis to get past the propaganda, and all of them suggest around 50,000 KIA on either side of the current war, and that casualties are near to 1:1. Which is in keeping with WW1 style battlefields, which since air and armour tactics are pretty much negated by technology in this war, seems a reasonable rough number.
I don’t see anything much happening except stalemate, unless Putin kicks the bucket. Story today suggest the various powers think similarly.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Says EU Expects To Fund War In Ukraine For Another Four Years (2 Aug)
Which is what the USA has been built upon for more than two centuries.
Either skilled migration, or highly motivated, aspirational unskilled migration.
Keeping up with the blog’s becoming a Sisyphean task.. or maybe I’m just getting slow.
In any case, my contribution for this week (don’t know if anyone else has already mentioned this… see above):
Spoilers alertenings!
Have had the misfortune of attempting to watch Everything Everywhere, All at Once a 2022 American “Indie” shocker of a movie which is allegedly “THE MOST awarded film of all time” having won 7 (!!!) Academy Awards, multiple other awards and widespread critical acclaim.
After attempting to watch this garbage, reading the effusive compliments in the Wikipedia article was truly nauseating.
It has the most absurd, nonsensical, poorly directed, poorly scripted, poorly acted and badly constructed plot of anything I’ve ever watched, and that includes some “B Grade” horror shlockers from the 1970s, which you wouldn’t use to torture your worst enemy with.
Hoping it might eventually improve, as it couldn’t possibly get any worse, I only managed to get through to ~70 minutes (out of 140 minutes) of sheer agony.
Time I’ll never get back, but which other Cats may well save.
You can thank me later.
I suspect its critical “success” was manufactured by Hollywood and their oleaginous marketing machines because of its woke themes. Themes like racial diversity, identity, lesbianism, weak males, strong females and even homo glorification of anal dildos.
The so-called special effects were so ridiculously bad that they were comical. Suspension of disbelief was not what was required, a coma would have been better.
The totally demented martial combat scenes in this abortion made the ritualised violence of the John Wick movies look like a sedate documentary on pre-Reformation Christian Monasteries, or the measured visual mastery of the BBC’s Civilization series from the 1970s.
After seeing other excellent recent movies, eg. Banshees of Inisherin, I am convinced that this disgrace is definitely NOT even a minor peak of Western creativity, for if it was, then we are truly f@cked.
0/10 !
Big bonus for the YES campaign:
Moderator has closed down comments on our valley’s Facebook site re the defacement of road on 3 new bridges in the valley with pro-Yes vote for the Voice.
The response was fierce, as you can imagine. In fact some Yes voters have speculated it was the act of a No voter trying to stir up resentment! Actually, the graffiti was so outrageous I was initially suspicious of that. However, the claim in one scrawl on the road that “this was once our land” seems to suggest it may have been the product of an indigenous group in a local town. Sad if it is.
H1-B visa holders in the US aren’t cheap labour in absolute terms.
They are relatively cheap labour.
For 2-3 years, then they are no longer so cheap.
There are a few reasons for that.
If anyone thinks the with the hitting power of Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon etc that anything will change, I have a bridge to sell you.
Bruce of Newcastle
Aug 2, 2023 1:26 PM
BoN
I’m not a Hungarian, far from it, it was a stupid choice of a nick at the time when I joined, long story.
Not that I would be ashamed of it.
We need a spin-off blog …
“Dover After Dark”, where we can stoush about anything.
“Daytime Dover” is for fillem reviews, needlepoint, travelogues and recipes.
Oh, and cricket.
And Pom bashing.
Obviously.
That’s true. He’s not perfect.
Dover – And the Soviet numbers are…?
The WW1 numbers for the Russians are worse than for the Germans in absolute quantity, I know because I looked them up last week. I don’t from memory know what the numbers for Soviet Russia in WW2 are like, but I suspect they will not be at all helpful to your argument.
I’m still not seeing anything that says the casualty figures are much different from a 1:1 ratio, which fits with the lack of progress by either side. It makes sense: the usual rule of thumb is you need 3:1 superiority to make such progress, but dug in defenders have a 3:1 force multiplier, sometimes more. Russia has been doing most of the attacking. And because neither side has been able to use anything better than artillery they don’t have the support multipliers that you need to succeed. It took until Brusilov and Monash to find ways around such limitations, and that took years of trial and error.
If the spelling and grammar in the graffiti are above year 8 level, it is definitely a Grampians Nazi false-flag op.
Start sieving local councils.
Completely out of left field question.
The dark web child abuse thing triggered something.
Who was the poster on Sinc Cat who had a son or grandson OD on drugs bought on the dark web, and she was campaigning for legislation change to capture those drug sales?
The name “Kae” pops into my head but I don’t think that is correct.