Or as the Brits say: Slag tags.
Open Thread – Weekend 19 Aug 2023
- Open Thread – Thurs 14 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Remembrance Day 2024
- The Sweetest Victory
- Open Thread – Weekend 9 November 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 7 Nov 2024
Ben Garrison.
Gary Varvel.
Hilarious. Ta Matey. 🙂
Tom Stiglich.
Oh, golly! Frist?
this was their poll immediately before 2020 Presidential:
The result was Biden 2.8.
If they are polling Biden only +1 he is in fact losing Michigan and Trump is leading.
BTW, people that think Trafalgar, Insider Advantage or Baris polled the 2020 Presidential poorly should resurvey the field. Most polls had Biden in front in Michigan by 7 or more and many by double digits. Insider predicted Biden +2. Fox’s last poll of Michigan was Biden +12.
By the margin of fraud?
At the risk of it being played back to me a la the Young Turks 2016 coverage (which I’d welcome), this is Over.
Sound of silence tortures mushroom meal mum
There are no visitors for Erin Patterson, a shy, quirky, well-heeled and self-confessed liar. Nor anything yet to clear or convict her of killing her family with a beef Wellington pie. But for Tim Watson-Munro, there are red flags everywhere.
By JOHN FERGUSON
Three dead by toxic mushrooms but no lights, no sirens.
No police outside her home.
No helicopters whirring above the scene at Leongatha.
No detectives with clipboards, no technicians visibly hacking into the family’s computers and phones, looking for anything to clear or convict Ms Patterson of killing three elderly people with a beef Wellington pie.
Just silence.
Perhaps worst of all for her, the occasional media car aside, there are no visitors.
“This is unfair,’’ Ms Patterson told The Weekend Australian on Tuesday.
In a bright, late-morning conversation, she revealed another layer of a complex personality.
Yes, the 48-year-old police suspect and separated mother of two is shy, quirky, well-heeled and a self-confessed liar who doesn’t like her photograph being taken.
She is also smart, probably well read and forthright, lamenting at her front door how she he had been “painted as an evil witch’’.
Police still don’t know definitively whether Ms Patterson deliberately or accidentally poisoned her elderly former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson.
Forensic psychologist Tim Watson-Munro, who built the base of his career in the grime of the old school Parramatta Gaol in Sydney’s west, sees “red flags’’ everywhere in the case of the death cap mushrooms. “I’m not a big believer in coincidences,’’ he says.
Mr Watson-Munro, who has assessed some of Australia’s biggest criminal offenders including Carlton Crew gangster Alphonse Gangitano and corporate fraudster Alan Bond, is concerned about key aspects of the death cap mushrooms case.
The first “red flag’’ comes in the fact that Ms Patterson’s former husband almost died twice last year from gastric-related complications and also, according to Ms Patterson’s own police statement, has in turn questioned whether she poisoned his parents and aunt.
“Obviously he was either wilfully poisoned or it was just bad luck,’’ says Mr Watson-Munro of Simon Patterson’s 2022 illness.
He says the story of where Ms Patterson says she secured the mushrooms – including at an unnamed Asian supermarket – sounds “ludicrous’’ because death cap mushrooms are not commercial products: “People just don’t retail them. It’s not that loose.”
Mr Watson-Munro also feels it is “weird’’ the children were out of the house at the movies during the ill-fated lunch, where their grandparents and great aunt were eating; within days they would be dying of organ failure, while the local Baptist minister Ian Wilkinson is still fighting for life but poised potentially to become a key witness.
While Ms Patterson says she visited two hospitals in the wake of the lunch, there is no evidence to suggest she fell seriously ill; indeed her presence roaring around country Victoria and Melbourne in her MG SUV shows she has weathered the best of the five who ate the meal on July 29 at her country home.
Ms Patterson owns a city townhouse bought in 2019 for more than $913,000 with then husband Simon and lives in a $900,000 home on acreage in Leongatha, 130km southeast of Melbourne.
She also inherited a beachfront holiday house at Eden on the NSW south coast, later sold.
This was after the reported death in 2019 of her mother Heather Scutter, a reasonably well-known Melbourne academic who specialised in child literature.
Ms Patterson is a city girl who made her way to nearby Korumburra, population 4700, which is best known for cattle and its main street bakery.
It is clear police are very quietly going about their business investigating the case and that the more pressure Ms Patterson is under, the better for them.
There is no rush. This is an investigation that is being conducted one task at a time. Drip, drip, drip.
Mr Watson-Munro says police would be looking for points of weakness and the slow, steady approach would be tactical. “It is a fascinating case. Everyone is talking about it,’’ he said.
Former homicide squad investigator Charlie Bezzina says the lack of visual police activity in Leongatha belies what is going on.
He says Ms Patterson appeared to be in damage control with the release of a statement given to police repositioning herself after a wave of speculation about her guilt or otherwise.
“You’re not going to see a flurry of police everywhere,’’ he says.
“She’s on the back-burner, she’s not going anywhere.’’
The Weekend Australian is not suggesting Ms Patterson has committed any crimes and is simply reporting the facts around the case; police have said while Ms Patterson is a suspect, the deaths may not be deliberate.
It is also clear the families of the dead have been told to keep their silence.
The family PR spokeswoman has been told there will be no comment and the community around the dead and sick have also kept their distance.
It will test the area’s patience, however, when the bodies of the three dead are released to the families and they are finally buried, weeks after their deaths.
Korumburra, comfortably far from Melbourne, is out of its comfort zone.
In nearby Leongatha this week, two young baristas at Le Cafe were bemused by the story. It has spread across the world via The Times of London, the New York Times, Washington Post, Al Jazeera and South China Morning Post.
“It’s on the news in the US,’’ one girl mutters to the other.
Her colleague responds: “My dad rang me about it and he’s in England.
“Everyone’s talking about it.’’
A neighbour last week suggested Ms Patterson was into unicorns; this week it was confirmed that a wall of macabre graffiti had been left in a house once owned by the family.
A painter had been called in to cover over a series of random messages on a main wall inside the house that have been attributed to school-aged children. “Your (sic) dead from my sword,” one read, another adding “I am dead” and “no I am really dead”.
One message, according to news.com.au, appears to say “grandma R.I.P.”
Another says: “ME R.I.P.”
One local who had seen the photographs tells The Weekend Australian that there “wouldn’t be another house in Australia with that sort of stuff scribbled on a main wall … It’s very odd.’’
Like so much of the case, there is oddity in abundance.
Ms Patterson is rumoured to have engaged a high-end criminal solicitor but the lawyer did not respond to The Weekend Australian.
The ABC this week reported a statement that Ms Patterson – or her lawyers – sent to police that details how her estranged husband allegedly accused her of poisoning his parents.
Perhaps most significantly, she concedes she lied to police about the dumping of a food dehydrator used to help prepare the mushrooms, claiming she dumped the implement for fear of losing custody of her high school-age kids.
She also regretted giving police a no-comment interview, which is her legal right.
Ms Patterson said the meal was a mix of button mushrooms bought at a supermarket and dried fungi from an Asian grocery store in eastern Melbourne months before, but she did not recall exactly which Asian grocery, triggering health officials to try to track down the alleged source.
Perhaps most ominously for all involved, she said she was at a hospital taking about her food dehydrator when Simon Patterson allegedly asked: “Is that what you used to poison them?”
The Weekend Australian has approached Mr Patterson but he has not responded.
Syd White, president of the Korumburra Community Development and Action group, says the deaths have permeated the town.
“It’s pretty sad how it eventuated but we will get through it,’’ he says. “You’ve got to get on with it.’’
Police, meanwhile, are flat out in Melbourne investigating what happened.
It might be quiet at Gibson Street in Leongatha but it’s not at the homicide squad.
Oz
Vikki Campion:
Can we just call the Teals for what they really are? Another arm of the Greens.
Johannes Leak.
Mark Knight.
A.F. Branco.
Matt Margolis.
Al Goodwyn.
Chip Bok.
Gary Varvel.
Tom Stiglich.
Ben Garrison.
Jacinta Price says ‘Australians don’t need to be welcomed to their own country’
2,200 comments agreeing so far in the Oz – probably the most commented upon story they’ve ever run.
Re Vikki Campion.
A quick re-write;
“How could a man, who chained himself to a conservative, and in particular, a rural and farming constituency, ostensibly to represent and protect their interests, show a complete lack of spine when the time came to choose between the “net zero” fantasy and his juicy wage and super package?”
Such people are as complicit as the Pocock’s, Holmes a Court’s and myriad other crony capitalist’s and grifting foreign entities currently steamrolling rural Australia while silently strip mining the Australian taxpayer.
Perhaps people who are in a position to can start following the money and start writing about THAT instead.
I miss the Australia of my youth. The seventies were a great time for children back then.
Janet A in today’s Oz…
Too many women in senior roles appear to indulge in emotional blather as if it is part and parcel of female leadership.
Amen Janet.
Thanks Tom.
Another great Weekend Oz today.
Worth the sub.
If not subbed, worth buying.
“How could a man, who chained himself to an excavator to stop harm to the Pilliga scrub, show no such passion for environmental damage when renewables cause it?”
But he is NOT a man. David Pocock is a boy, he is our very own Peter Pan, a boy who refuses to grow up. I call him Peter Pocock. Sadly, he’s not the only one, this country has now created a whole generation of Peter Pans. Here in Oz we can find shades of Neverland in various Green, Teal and the more well-off electorates. Whenever I see or hear Pocock, I get the shivers because I find he exudes a nauseating combination of saccharine childishness, adolescent immaturity and foolish fatuousness, the last being dangerous. He’s so far down a privileged rabbit hole of idiocy and stupidity. I won’t call it naivety, because there’s a difference between reckless stupidity and naivety. Naivety is innocence, there’s a prospect that once you know better you then mature, or should mature. Pocock isn’t an innocent, he knows better or should know better, no no, no, he’s a duplicitous, creepy boy. I despise him. He was always a fully fledged Green who, until Svengali Simon came along with his dosh, would have contested as a Green in the ACT. Svengali Simon, with his rivers of dosh, gave Peter Pocock a better suit to dress up in.
Whenever I see Peter Pocock, I think I’m watching a John Wyndham novel being acted out, except Peter Pocock isn’t acting.
Rich Men North Of Richmond must have struck a nerve.
When was the last time corporate media critiqued a song? Or artist?
There is nothing authentic about the viral country hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” by Oliver Anthony. His real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford. He is a “conservative industry plant, astroturfed into existence by all the Daily Wire freaks and some right-wing social media promoter,” according to an online sleuth. “The entire concept was likely dreamt up in a Daily Wire/Con Inc laboratory,” acknowledged a Trump supporter.
I channel surfed this morning & CNN (yes, I know…) was discussing how dangerous this kind of music is.
When YouTube demonetises his channel, it will demonstrate just how scared they are of dissent.
I miss upticks.
Hope Lizzie and Cassie have a great time at CPAC.
Seems they are going to a conference of “despair” judging by an article by “Aboriginal” leader Marcus Stewart in Weekend Oz..
Article is basically CPAC bad but Uluru dialogue youth brainwashing conference good.
Bourne1879 Avatar
Bourne1879
Aug 19, 2023 6:37 AM
Probably not a conference of “despair” but little of practical value. I makes the audience feel good by hearing their values reinforced, but so far, over the years no positive action followed.
If I missed it, sorry, point me to it.
One glaring example, our own T Abbott, making fine speeches is no substitute for action.
OK I admit not all speakers are in a position to do something about it but I bet behind the scenes they could exert some influence.
Western society is now all about sound bytes, tweets, tiktoks.
How many decision makers (politicians, public servants) literally have zero idea of what they are deciding & implementing?
One glaring example, our own T Abbott, making fine speeches is no substitute for action.
well yes- he just seems to have taken being xx by his own party lying down. Why not team up with Latho for example instead of just fluffing around.
A guy I know has recently “won” a contract with a state government department.
It’s not small, but not big enough to be competing with the big boys.
Only after the contract was signed (which is costs plus), did they get into the finer details of the implementation which the public servants had zero idea about how expansive it will be.
Maybe because it wasn’t a monster contract that they didn’t have the A-team working on it.
Why not team up with Latho for example instead of just fluffing around.
Australians have demonstrated they are happy with cartels.
Economically, politically, they hate competition.
As long as they feel safe.
Always follow the money, the green elites are as fake as they come. Are there solar panels on roofs of their Point Piper mansions? Any windmills in their backyards? That’s industrial pollution which is farmed out to where there is no political power.
As for Vicki Campion, she is actually much more effective than her bedmate. Barnaby should stay home with the kids and she should take his place in the public arena.
There isn’t an A-team. They are all strictly B-ark. Nobody with a quality mind has ever been attracted to being a bureaucrat. Mycroft Holmes was fiction.
“Probably not a conference of “despair” but little of practical value. I makes the audience feel good by hearing their values reinforced, but so far, over the years no positive action followed.
If I missed it, sorry, point me to it.”
See, this is the big problem with the right, always putting down and dissing on its own. I’m tired of the naysayers and sneerers. By the way, whilst the word “conservative” is in the name of the conference, there are also libertarians, classical liberals and others on the right in attendance.
So what if it is of little “practical value”. It’s a chance to meet and speak with like-minded people, and for that I’m grateful. I don’t mind a bit of rah rah and my God, we need it. We have the far-left government in our history. Oh, and the left doesn’t piss on its own (pardon the crudity), and you know what, there are one or two things we could learn from the left, solidarity being the first!
I’m now off to CPAC. See ya!
“Sancho Panzer
Aug 19, 2023 6:32 AM
I miss upticks.”
I do too.
Australians have demonstrated they are happy with cartels.
Economically, politically, they hate competition.
As long as they feel safe.
So you asked all of them?
Australians have demonstrated they are happy with cartels.
Economically, politically, they hate competition.
As long as they feel safe.
how is that relevant to my comment about Abbott for that matter?
Cassie of Sydney
Aug 19, 2023 7:14 AM
I’m sorry, but there is plenty to diss about the right in politics , not sure where the “sneer” bit comes in.
If they haven’t caught on by now how to win, they have no chance until a completely new generation of conservative or at least center right politicians emerge.
Nothing wrong in fighting the opposition with their own tactics, But this lot ‘TM M0nty’ doesn’t even try FGS.
Enjoy and have fun anyway.
So you asked all of them?
Every three years (federally) & every four years (at a state level).
If I heard right on ABC radio news, Chairman Dan will payout 378 million as compensation for calling off the games.
A Saturday dump like his Friday night curry.
Farmer Gez
Aug 19, 2023 7:34 AM
It looks like becoming a habit of his.
Cancelling projects, that is.
Want a laugh?
Youtube “Grand Canyon, Egyptians, Smithsonian cover up”.
Glorious.
Every three years (federally) & every four years (at a state level).
Well in Victoria last feral election pretty much 50/50 LNP-UAP vs ALP-Green filth
I see Albo has capitulated to the Matildas call for moar munni. $200 million to be tipped into women’s and girls sporting pursuits. It’s a certainty now that they will hoist the cup in 4 years time.
If they haven’t caught on by now how to win, they have no chance until a completely new generation of conservative or at least center right politicians emerge.
Well Abbott knew in 2013 and he was removed
Chairman Dan will payout 378 million as compensation for calling off the games.
Will the parties who receive that compensation be listed so enquiring minds can look into them?
My new goal in life is to win a Victorian taxpayer funded contract, have it cancelled & be paid out…all without having to provide any services.
Obviously, I’d have to keep the pitch costs to a minimum to maximise my grift.
It’s a certainty now that they will hoist the cup in 4 years time.
canbra has decreed it so ofcourse
I suppose if you were a gambler this was an odds on bet .. Luigi would feel the “vibe” and when it’s OPM ya gotta be magnanimous large scale .. never mind, FIFA has $billions that it hoards for round-the-world- junkets for its “big boyz” club ..
Oz is gonna show ’em how generous we is ……. FFS!
https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/matildas/matildas-inspire-200m-government-commitment-to-equipment-changing-rooms/news-story/b5cc6b9de2c2fbd3cc6a498ef4742601
Haha, it’s such a wonderful catch-all excuse for everything!
‘Barren’ Disney Theme Parks Blamed on Climate Change (18 Aug)
It couldn’t possibly be because Disney has become a bunch of qwerty groomers who have creeped out parents…could it?
Maybe ladies, put on a decent product which will get eyeballs watching, which in turn gets advertising revenue as well as tv rights being paid to the sporting bodies.
miltonf
Aug 19, 2023 7:43 AM
Yes.
Upstick.
Report: Donald Trump to Sit down with Tucker Carlson in Lieu of First Republican Presidential Debate
How do plod justify grading/prioritizing any sort of 000 call that involves violence?
If your on the receiving end I’m guessin’ you think your in trouble but, apparently plod makes the final decision .. “Trust us your life is in the best of hands” … FFS!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-19/womans-death-shines-light-nsw-police-callout-times/102747092
Survey: Donald Trump Leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, Boasts 45-Point Lead Nationally
Former President Donald Trump is boasting a 45-point lead nationally, as well as double-digit leads in early states such as New Hampshire and Iowa, a string of recent surveys revealed.
The most recent American Pulse survey, released Friday, mere days ahead of the first Republican primary debate, showed Trump leading the competition by 45 points, garnering 58 percent support.
Maybe Albo should rein in his air travel and forward the money saved into women’s sports. The way he’s going, it will dwarf the $200 million. James Campbell writes in the Daily Telegraph:
Have a great time, Cassie.
I look forward to your news from inside the conference about the moving and shaking on the right side of politics and your reports on the spoiled white trash protesting outside about the civilisation they loathe.
Numerous Ukrainian troops in the Zaporozhye Region have abandoned the Kiev regime’s much-touted offensive, with low morale and recent heavy casualties as the driving force for their mass desertion.
Yevgeny Balitsky, Zaporozhye region’s acting governor, took to his Telegram channel to report that approximately 500 Ukrainian soldiers had fled the offensive on the Zaporozhye front.
According to the governor, “I just received information that two of the three airmobile battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine refused to participate in offensive operations in the direction of our positions due to their low moral and psychological state.”
Balitsky reported that this group of 500 servicemen had grown weary of witnessing the fatalities among their colleagues. He added that these individuals were determined not to become mere cannon fodder on the battlefield.
He mentioned that during the previous night, an additional 132 soldiers from the Ukraine army had lost their lives on the Zaporozhye front.
Balitsky noted that these soldiers were attempting to advance in their direction, but they weren’t able to even reach the initial position before sacrificing their lives, seemingly in alignment with the wishes of Western commanders.
Gabor
Aug 19, 2023 7:52 AM
miltonf
Aug 19, 2023 7:43 AM
Yes.
Upstick.
Shyte, cancel that. make it a +1
I miss up-ticks. OK, no down-ticks as the sensitive souls would be permanently scarred, but Dover, at least give us the up-ticks back please.
Pseudonym Joe: How Biden used personal email to share some government business with son Hunter
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is now pressing National Archives to release unredacted emails between Biden, his son and business partners.
Republican Voters Don’t Particularly Like Ron DeSantis
That’s because they are not sure he likes them.
The whole get rid of Abbott thing was almost like a trial run for get rid of Trump. Abbott did win convincingly but the meja ran dead on that fact. They then proceeded to make governing close to impossible ANOTHER GAFF. Of course this sabotage was coming from within the party too as we know. Sure he did a lot of idiotic stuff but compared to what he replaced and what followed makes him look good. He had the same problem as Trump regarding garbage minsters eg Hockey and Brandis. Again I ask why does Abbott take this lying down?
Social climate has changed, people no longer want to be pissed on and told it’s raining.
Just finished reading one of the “Clive Cussler with XXX” books, covering that very subject.
And then we can see who gets more views.
Opinion Bloomberg Editorial Board
Net Zero Is Stalling Out. What Now?
Pledges to slash carbon emissions are well and good. But governments need to start delivering concrete benefits.
By The Editors
18 August 2023
“Net zero,” the professed goal of governments worldwide to eradicate their carbon output, is at risk of failure. A growing backlash against the rising costs should prompt policymakers to rethink their approach.
Just over 90% of global GDP (and 88% of greenhouse-gas emissions) are now covered by national net-zero targets, a monumental feat of climate diplomacy. Yet only 10% of nations with such targets have detailed plans in place (and only half have even incomplete plans).
Add to this “say-do” gap a growing public wariness. Across the developed world, polls generally show that most people see climate change as a significant threat. But voters have legitimate questions about net-zero policies: How much will they cost? What benefits will they bring? Will they actually work as advertised?
Such skepticism is already changing politics, from the recent losses suffered by Germany’s Greens to the fall of the Dutch governing coalition, which was partly fueled by farmers’ anger over forced reductions in nitrogen-oxide emissions. Even some avowed environmentalists — such as the governor of New Jersey and the leader of the UK’s Labor Party — have lately been siding with voters who feel aggrieved at the costs of environmental policies.
Britain, an early leader in emissions reductions and a global advocate on the topic, is likewise feeling the pressure. Its legally binding policy of carbon neutrality by 2050 had long enjoyed a bipartisan consensus and public support. But slow growth and rising costs have changed the political calculation. The current government has announced new oil and gas production licenses, effectively lowered the price of carbon in its emissions trading scheme (reducing the incentive for green investment), and promised to review environment-related driving restrictions. There’s no longer talk of the “green revolution”; the new watchwords are “pragmatic and proportionate.”
This shift has a certain logic. As former Prime Minister Tony Blair recently noted, the sacrifices of a country contributing only 1% of global emissions aren’t going to have much impact on climate change generally. China and other fast-growing developing nations have a much bigger role to play. Voters aren’t crazy to ask why they need to bear endless new costs for such little benefit.
How should governments respond? Hollowing out net-zero pledges would be a mistake; the stakes are too high for further inaction. But policymakers need to demonstrate tangible benefits from the green transition, while distributing costs fairly and transparently.
That starts with simple competence. The UK plans to install 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028, but so far it has the worst record in Europe for actually doing so. If the government is going to ban the sale of gas boilers in 2035, as it says, it will need to make sure that cheaper alternatives are available. Likewise with a planned ban on new gas and diesel cars: It’s a fine goal, but it won’t go anywhere unless consumers have compelling incentives, charging infrastructure can meet demand and the government has otherwise laid the needed groundwork.
If lagging upgrades and planning constraints mean new offshore wind and nuclear power can’t easily reach communities, consumers won’t feel the benefits.
Above all, what’s needed is leadership. Decarbonization can drive economic growth, create jobs and bring substantial benefits to the environment and public health.
But it must be done purposefully and strategically. If voters can’t see the advantages or find the costs too burdensome, all those fine pledges will go up in smoke.
It’s officially 380 mill compo for cancelling.
The regional games were going to be too expensive is the excuse.
He would say that.
Everyone thought the regional model would be a logistical mess but the it’s hard to imagine the costs would exceed doing anything in Melbourne.
I was talking to a woman the other day after the Matildas, let us say, came second in their game.
She told me all the Matildas actually play in European leagues. I had not given it much thought but it makes sense as there is simply not the local competition to hone skills to European and South American levels.
It could also mean that they had a very uneven pool of talent to draw from. The Aussie players could be 90% wingers or even the Captain of the team had never captained before.
These are just idle speculations but I do wonder, if it is true that the Matildas develop their skills in Europe, then what is Albo’s gift of our money meant to achieve. Is it to be airfares for more Aussies to go to Europe? Or does he think he will be able to conjure up a world class league by throwing money up in the air.
OK. Of course I am kidding. He doesn’t give a rat’s about women’s soccer.
That money was an investment to make him look like good.
I also suspect he learned to hate Tories because he could not pronounce the ‘s’.
And at uni he became a Trot because the word ‘socialist’ was fraught with risk.
How pathetic does this 251 rubbish get? .. to compare the “Holocaust” with “alleged” 251 efforts from “tales my nanna told me” is really going low …. FFS!
Reading this very clever way of honouring the memory of jews who fell victims to the Nazi makes is very emotive ….. until you reach the end and this rubbish and realise the author has set you up for a plea to the the VOICE .. !
As an Australian, I wondered what it would take for the same thing to happen in this country where there are few monuments to Frontier Wars and massacres of Aboriginal people.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-19/how-stolpersteine-stumbling-stones-acknowledge-persecuted-jews/102712890
Johnny Strabler wannabe.
Probably.
I think an unresolved conflict in conservative/right world is the role of big business. Big business has demonstrated beyond doubt that it is not the friend of everyman both here and in the US. How is a private monopoly like Telstra superior to Telecom Australia? It never kept me awake at night what the government provided telephony.
Funding for women’s sporting facilities.
(Very binary, if you ask me.)
Of course, the money would already have been allocated for this or taken from some other spending silo, so someone else misses out.
Don’t expect the media to ask such questions though.
I also note that Mr McGowan is taking on some role with BHP. Might have been discussed earlier on this site. His statue astride the Swan becomes mightier.
YT doubled down on censorship overnight.
Inside YouTube’s New “Medical Misinformation Policy” (19 Aug)
You can’t put up truthful and scientifically accurate videos if the government doesn’t want the truth told eh? Well that’s going to help alternative video sites like Rumble. GWGB.
Democrats Rigged 2020, Aim To Make It the New Normal
The Democrats are Paper Tigers
Their seven-year odyssey to bring down Trump has left them more vulnerable than they realize.
“Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – Shakespeare
Despite the shock and awe of the four indictments against former president Donald Trump, the Democrats are more vulnerable than they’ve been in decades. It isn’t just the Afghanistan exit, the economy, or the cancer growing inside the presidency, it’s also the radical policies the Democrats have embraced since Biden took office in 2021.
They are hemorrhaging working-class voters, especially among groups they believe belong to them, like those in the Black and Hispanic communities.
Seems to me it just takes application of the universal dictum ‘follow the money’. Didn’t take much to persuade aboriginals to forsake their idyllic primitivism for a guaranteed share of GDP.
And Muscle cars :)~~~
Democrats Rigged 2020, Aim To Make It the New Normal
Lucy Letby is a name which will go down in infamy. Murdered 7 newborns and attempted 6 others in England somewhere. Just shit.
Sad bit of news.
Ancient Roman aqueduct collapses in Caesarea (18 Aug)
On the other hand not much of what has been built in Australia would survive for 1870 years.
Climate change or vaccines?
Or Extinction Rebellion idiots gluing themselves to the pylons?
I did some contract administration when I was in the APS. Having come from a private sector background, and with some legal training, I at least grasped the rudiments.
Three things became clear.
1. When requests for tender are prepared, the people doing it have no idea about how the world works. The requests are often vague, full of wishlists about peripheral items, and essentially ask the tenderer to solve a problem that they can’t even specify properly.
2. After the tender is let, the government agency every single time, without exception, asks for changes. See (1) above. As every home renovator knows, this adds to the cost. As every tenderer knows, this adds to the profit.
3. When I was given the task of trying to retrieve contracts which had gone into the weeds, my results were not welcomed by the hierarchy. It reflected badly on the previous letters and managers of the contract, and they were numerous and often senior.
That said, I am proud of the work, which saved taxpayers a lot of money.
The point is, the system is heavily loaded against efficient contracting out, and there are innumerable examples. My speciality was IT contracts – see Queensland Health as an example of how disastrous they can be.
Prosecutorial Bolshevism
The victims this time are Trump and his friends.
But it could be you next time, and it will be.
In the United States of America, there are roughly 3,150 counties.
Most of them have prosecutors or district attorneys. Each one of these can usually empanel a grand jury.
These grand juries can, with rare exceptions, meet in secret to consider indicting anyone at all.
There need be no publicity at all, but there usually is. These grand juries can call witnesses and even require Americans to testify for days or even weeks on end on matters that took place years before.
The “defendants” in these matters are not allowed to have lawyers, although sometimes they do. They are sometimes kept from their families and colleagues for long periods.
At any point the prosecutors can issue indictments for crimes, real or imagined, felonies or misdemeanors based on the proceedings of the grand juries.
In many jurisdictions, but not all, the mere fact of being indicted bars an American from holding public office or even running for public office.
Roughly half of the DAs are Democrats. They can indict anyone they wish and hold him for trial.
The defendants can or cannot afford legal counsel.
However, the defendants’ careers in public service are generally at an end once the indictments are handed down.
This process is similar to Bolshevik indictments of “counterrevolutionaries” in Stalin’s Russia.
All of the face cards are owned by the prosecutors.
There is almost no limit to the powers of the prosecutors.
They can simply take down the career and life of anyone they wish.
This is known as “prosecutorial misconduct” and there is no known way to stop it.
But this is exactly what is happening in the USA right now.
A dictatorship of prosecutor-bureaucrats has overruled and demolished the usually understood constitutional processes of the nation.
It’s not a fantasy. It’s happening right now. The victims this time are Trump and his friends.
But it could be you next time, and it will be.
“A boot stomping on a human face forever,” as Orwell said.
Again, it’s happening now, and it can kill America as we know it.
Emperor Murdoch Going Bananas – President Trump Will Interview with Tucker Carlson During GOPe Debate
August 18, 2023 – Sundance
Saving the Republic was always going to be a trilogy. In 2016 we caught the club off guard, “Club Wars” began. In 2020 the collective “Empire Strikes Back.”
Now we enter 2024, all of the enemies are defined, and the “Revenge of the MAGA” begins.
Within the epic battle that 2024 represents, the multinationals are deploying every available weapon in their arsenal and the rebellion is running an insurgency campaign while withstanding the constant bombardment.
While much is yet to be determined, our flag is still raised, and we stand steadfast -living our best life- while the bombs burst all around us.
The professional Republican apparatus is assembling in Wisconsin for the trap debate, but the rebellion has successfully out maneuvered the plot and will stand unaffected while diminishing the first losers to the status they deserve.
With commandant Bill Sammon retired, comrade Brett Baier was positioned to use the pending political indictments to pepper Trump with questions that would assist the feds.
By not subjecting himself to the constructed operation, President Trump has avoided the trap.
Emperor Murdoch is furious, while Darth Ronna failed in her effort to bait team MAGA.
NEW YORK TIMES – The former president’s apparent decision to skip the first debate is a major affront both to the Republican National Committee and to Fox News, which is hosting the event.
Former President Donald J. Trump plans to upstage the first Republican primary debate on Wednesday by sitting for an online interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, according to multiple people briefed on the matter.
In the past 24 hours, Mr. Trump has told people close to him that he has made up his mind and will skip the debate in Milwaukee, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.
[…] The exact timing and platform of the interview with Mr. Carlson remain unclear, but if it goes ahead as currently planned, the debate-night counterprogramming would serve as an act of open hostility.
The chairwoman of the R.N.C., Ronna McDaniel, has privately urged Mr. Trump to attend the debate, even traveling to his private club in Bedminster, N.J., last month to make her pitch in person.
And Fox News has been drawn into a public battle not only with Mr. Trump but with Mr. Carlson, who is still on contract and being paid by Fox despite having his show taken off the air.
Fox sent Mr. Carlson a cease-and-desist letter after he aired a series of videos on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The Trump campaign’s conversations with Mr. Carlson — and the possibility of counterprogramming — have previously been reported by multiple news organizations.
Miserable ghost reappears.
Malcolm Turnbull: Fossil Fuel Derived Hydrogen Must be Restricted for Green Hydrogen to Flourish (18 Aug)
Yep he wants to ban hydrogen production from natural gas even though “green hydrogen” is ridiculously uneconomic. You’d think a businessman could do financial analysis, but no, he clearly can’t.
One glaring example, our own T Abbott, making fine speeches is no substitute for action.
But money, lotza money to be made on the international tongue-fest circuit for ex pollies and they can waffle all they like about what should be dun even tho they didn’t do it when they could have …….!
Government tenders are also one of the key vectors by which the sicknesses of climate change hysteria, ‘diversity’, QWERTYness, Indigenous activism etc spread through the community.
The request for tender stipulates that tenderers demonstrate their commitment to the causes not only in how they conduct their own business but also in their sub-contractors so they have to play along with the poison pantomime too.
The stone structures built by convicts over seen by British army engineers perhaps.
The windmill on Wickham Tce. in Brisbane (1828) is founded on bedrock and its stone walls are c. 3 ft wide at the base and c. 2 ft at the top.
Similarly the old commissary building on William St. down by the river (1828), probably built by the same engineers and convict labourers.
Miltonf it was Abbott’s own fault, nobody else. He failed to deliver just like Fraser. Huge electoral win and did nothing with it. Both of them wanted to be loved by their enemies and didn’t want the media to say mean things. No matter how how nice Abbott is in his personal life his performance as leader was abysmal.
Abbott’s win in 2013 was bigger than Rudd’s in 2007.
The NT News:
I was at a different establishment when this event occurred.
You just know that whoever won that $1.6 mil will be some worthless piece of shit.
Still – chin up, shoulders back, and carry on.
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/08/18/dont-cry-for-them-argentina/
This is a template for our SFLs if they want to win my vote back….
Keno players.
They are a different breed.
Classic project management failure by poor quality requirements – impossible objectives, metrics and no cause to champion the effort.
August 18, 2023
THE MORNING RANT: Electric Vehicles Are Exploding In Popularity!!
I frequently mock electric vehicles for their propensity to spontaneously combust, but these things are seriously scary.
We just keep hearing more disturbing stories about EVs that burst into flames, many while they are parked, turned off, and not charging.
Here are some more of these stories since the last time I discussed the topic.
From Ye Olde Fredde.
This kind of simplification is not helpful. Yes, Coombs (no ‘e’, makes me wonder about the rest of your research) produced a report which was implemented. But, reports are produced all the time which are not or are only partially implemented.
It was the zeitgeist, and his report crystallised it.
I am no expert on this, but I think it’s a case of Shakespeare’s ‘tides in the affairs of men’ at work, and zinging in on Coombs is missing the point entirely. There was a whole movement of academics (surprise!) and social workers and teachers and activists and politicians etc etc all singing from that hymnsheet.
This penchant for blaming individuals for social movements may be personally gratifying, but it obscures the larger forces which were at work.
To suggest that a single report changed history is ludicrous.
A horrific story from Mexico tells you what Biden is bringing to America
And in Canberra – if my experience is anything to go by
Progressive calls for climate emergency swell after Biden says he ‘practically’ declared one
Battery fire destroys Lancia Delta Evo-e RX team cars, shuts down World RX event in UK
Special ONE Racing’s cars were lost, including Sebastien Loeb’s
A battery fire has destroyed both of Speed ONE Racing’s electric Lancia Delta World Rallycross cars, Carscoops reports.
The two Lancia Delta Evo-e race cars were reportedly in the paddock at Lydden Hill Race Circuit in the UK on Friday morning when a fire originating in one of the cars’ battery packs spread and consumed the team’s road tent, taking both cars with it.
The fire shut down the World Rallycross Championship event while race authorities attempted to ascertain the cause of the fire.
It All Makes Sense Now: Joe Biden’s Crooked Business Pseudonym Was “Robert L. Peters” – And Hunter Used “Pedo Peter” Name for His Father on His Phone
The Bee
Secret Service Says They Are Unable To Identify Man Meeting With Oligarchs In Oval Office Under Alias ‘Robert L. Peters’
Biden’s Criminal Enterprise
In creating a free and open system, the framers of the Constitution recognized that corrupting influence from foreign powers was a real threat.
They were particularly concerned about a corruptible American president. In his famous Farewell Address of 1796, George Washington issued a stern warning against the poisonous influence of foreign governments on the affairs of the new United States of America.
He said, “Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence… the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”
The Founders were idealists but also realists, and they recognized that people’s private ambitions and thirst for power or money were powerful motivators.
They understood that the human condition was flawed, and that goodness of human nature could not be relied upon.
So, they set up a system of checks and balances of power in the three branches of the legislative, the executive and the judiciary, and in a federal system of divided power between states and the federal government. They understood it was necessary to create these competing and redundant structures to But they went even further.
The case for impeaching President Joe Biden goes beyond bribery and emolument high crimes related to Ukraine.
In 2014, Hunter Biden introduced his father, then Vice President, to Kazakhstan oligarch Kenes Rakishev at a dinner. Records and testimony obtained by James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee show that at that time of introducing Rakishev to Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden and his business partner Devon Archer were working on a deal involving Burisma, on whose board they both served, and a Chinese company that would have been based in Kazakhstan. To facilitate the deal and his relationship with Archer and the Bidens, Rakishev wired $142,300 to Rosemont Seneca — a shell company created by Devon and Hunter — the exact amount needed to fund Hunter’s sportscar purchase the next day.
Another mysterious payment to the Bidens came during that same year. Shortly after Joe Biden was introduced to Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina at a dinner meeting in February 2014, $3.5 million was wired to Rosemont Seneca by Baturina.
These kinds of payments to the Bidens coming from oligarchs from Ukraine and other countries are way beyond a level where impeachment and removal from office is justified.
Also, the means of transferring and distributing funds follows the pattern of international criminal enterprises.
The Bidens were involved with the creation of some twenty shell companies for the purpose of concealing money transfers from foreign nationals and then distributing those transferred funds to as many as nine different Biden family members.
As egregious as all these payments and shell game money transfers were, the scope and scale of Biden deal activities in China crosses a new threshold requiring urgent correction.
Catturd ™
@catturd2
Just so you know …
– Global warming is a hoax.
– The people pushing global warming are con-artists.
– The people who believe in global warming are low IQ gullible suckers.
– Not one doomsday climate cult prediction has ever come true.
The WHO’s Proposed Amendments Will Increase Man-Made Pandemics
Geez, I could do with a coffee.
And given the propensity for high impact crashes in rallying – I would not want to be trapped in an electric one with a smoking battery.
We are moving toward a Global Empire and enslavement of humanity in a Digital Gulag
If you’re not following Shy Ted at Adam’s, you’re missing a treat.
His coverage of the Matildas was awesome.
What the Media Won’t Tell You About the Maui Fires
Re the comments above about Abbott’s alleged failings –
Unlike Fraser, and later Howard, Abbott could not rely in the Senate passing his legislative agenda. His was, in effect, a minority government.
Moreover, within his ministry and backbench were many determined to bring him down.
And I haven’t mentioned the media.
All that said, Abbott should remain quiet unless he’s going to go on the attack. A loose, even undisclosed alliance with Hanson-free Latham would be a start.
Johanna
An uptick re your comments about Coombs.
The very white looking chap who said Jacinta Price hates aboriginal people.
I smell a Trot.
After a five-month layoff due to serious injury in a race fall in March, star jockey Jamie Kah officially returns to race riding at 1.55pm at Randwick today aboard $3.50 favourite Kalina (T: C. Waller). Kah has four starts at Randwick, including Zaaki (T: A. Neasham) in the Group 1 Winks Stakes (1400m, $1 million) at 3.45pm.
Johanna
A precise reference to “Adam’s” please
More EV racing would add excitement to the sport!
Racing is at the bleeding edge of tech, which means racing EVs have to be charged and discharged to the motors as fast as possible, and that’s going to be very hard on the battery packs. The g forces would have interesting effects too. A battery fire during a race would be quite something, the marshals would have to have a sort of bulldozer on call to push the car off the track, where it’d flame away merrily. Can’t put out the fire since the fuel and oxidizer are together in the battery pack, like a solid fuel rocket booster.
Plenty of fires occur in F1 when refueling, but a blast with a fire extinguisher puts it out. That’s not possible with an EV.
What If There Had Been No Covid Coup?
In discussions about the military and national security coup during the Covid pandemic, people often ask me: would it really have been so different if the NIH and CDC had remained in charge of the pandemic response? What if the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Security Council had never taken over?
Wouldn’t the public health agencies have done basically the same things?
It is absolutely essential that everyone understand the answers to these questions. They impact not just our awareness of what happened during Covid, but also our assessment of how to handle all viral outbreaks in the future.
In this article, I will describe how the response to the pandemic would have proceeded if normal public health guidelines had been followed, not just in the US but around the world, without interference from national security authorities or covert biowarfare experts.
Public health guidelines
Before Covid, the guidelines for dealing with a new outbreak of a flu-like virus were clear:
. avoid panic,
. search for cheap, widely available early treatments that may reduce the risk of serious illness,
. plan to increase healthcare capacity if necessary, help local and state medical personnel to identify and treat cases if and when the virus causes serious illness,
and keep society functioning as normally as possible.
This was the approach used in all previous epidemics and pandemics. The guidelines are detailed in the planning documents of the WHO, HHS, and EU countries.
When the military and national security agencies took over the response, these guidelines were replaced by a biowarfare paradigm: Quarantine until vaccine.
In other words, keep everyone locked down while rapidly developing medical countermeasures.
This is a response intended to counter biowarfare and bioterrorism attacks.
It is not a public health response and is, in fact, in direct conflict with the scientific and ethical underpinnings of established public health principles.
Had we adhered to the public health protocols that were initially followed in the early months of 2020, life in the United States and around the world would have looked like life in Sweden during the pandemic, with even less panic: no masks, no school closures, no lockdowns, very low excess deaths.
No panic
The reasons not to panic were apparent in early 2020 from the data we had gathered from China: the virus was deadly mainly to elderly people with multiple serious health conditions, did not cause life-threatening illness in children or in most people under 65, and did not seem poised to cause more of an increase in hospitalizations or deaths than a very bad flu season.
It can be difficult at this point – after years of unrelenting censorship and propaganda – to remember that, at the beginning of 2020, the new virus emerging in China was not front and center in most people’s minds. The US media was busy covering election campaigns and economic issues, and the general attitude was that what was happening in China would not happen elsewhere.
Here are some examples of what medical and public health experts were saying in January, February and early March 2020:
January 30, 2020, CNBC: Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Obama’s White House health advisor declared that
“Americans are too worried about the new coronavirus that’s spreading rapidly across China.” He added: “Everyone in America should take a very big breath, slow down and stop panicking and being hysterical.” And he explained: “I think we need to put it into context, the death rate is much lower than for SARS.”
No censorship or propaganda
If we had continued down the road of a regular public health response, opinions like these from our national public health leaders would have continued to be published and discussed openly. There would have been open discussion of the virus’s potential harms, and expert debates about various response measures. There would have been no need to censor any particular opinion or disseminate propaganda supporting any other.
– China
– Testing and quarantines
– Early spread
– Cases
– Natural immunity and herd immunity
– Early treatment
– Vaccines
– Long Covid
– Origins of the virus
If the biodefense experts had been honest with the public, they could have explained that the virus might have leaked from a lab, but that everything we knew about it – low fatality rate, steep fatality age gradient, no ill effects for children, etc. – was still true.
– Why this sounds like a fantasy
Once the biowarfare cartel took over the pandemic response, there was only one objective: scare everyone as much as possible to gain compliance with lockdowns and make everyone desperate for vaccines.
Public health experts, including the leaders of the NIH, CDC, and NIAID, were no longer authorized to make their own pandemic policy decisions or public announcements. Everyone had to stick to the lockdown narrative.
The forces of panic and propaganda, in the service of enormous profits for pharmaceutical and media companies, once unleashed could not be contained.
It didn’t have to be that way. The more people understand this, the less likely they are to go along with such devastating madness in the future.
A story from Adam’s that deserves wider publication:
Interested observer says:
August 18, 2023 at 11:53 am
My story
Yesterday I had some bills to pay so went to log in (ANZ). The computer displayed an error message on password so retyped – another error message on discrepancies between number and password. I must have taken too long to study the screen as this was counted as a third log in and I was locked out.
Called on OH to sort out as he has more patience with computer lingo. He spent 20 minutes on hold with horrible music and gave up.
Made another attempt this morning and spent 30 minutes on hold (whilst I read my Ipad) to get a human male who asked for identification numbers that I did not understand. Gave him the debit card number and then the number I usually type to log in. I was then informed that this number does not match my name. No, I said, it is a joint account. Demanded to know my personal number (we both use the same log in). This is apparently a big no-no.
Told him the full names of the account holders – no this does not match. My mobile number is not on their records since the account was opened long before I had a mobile phone.
Handed the phone to OH but bank had hung up.
It is 60 km. to the local branch. Fortunately we do have another bank account and are able to log on there for transactions.
The ANZ has just lost a customer.
It’s in the sidebar on this site, but anyway:
https://catallaxy-files.com/open-thread-august-2023/#comments
Just plopped you into today.
Ted has written some awesome posts about being a whitey working in remote places.
Oh what a beautiful piece of art, puts me in mind of one of the Cat Clowder get-togethers – lovely
I’ve been arguing with Trots on Reddit re the Tassie Seig Heil ban.
These Trots see Nazis everywhere.
They’re paranoid.
Free speech matters more than your paranoia.
You realise a PM cannot deliver on their own. Their power lies in the cooperation of the rest of the cabinet. In the election I expect everyone was on their best behaviour but once won allowed the more venal, petty, wet natures to emerge.
It is easy to forget what the big issues at the time were – boats and the CO2 tax. Abbott managed both. Then the white anting began. With this onboard we come back to the Bismarck quote I posted in a different context the other day – “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.” What was possible with that mob was somewhat less lustrous than the best we all wanted.
Even the matter of s18C, for all of it insidious promise, was simply not an issue to most Australians despite the energetic discussions on Sinc’s Cat. They did not see it affecting them. Once Brandis framed the argument as ‘the right to be a bigot’ a mischaracterisation he would not correct but which was echoed throughout the MSM, pragmatism would urge putting it on the back burner.
Abbot’s flaw, if it was really his, was in his not being aware of just how slimy his colleagues were, who only awaited a ‘leader’ – Mick Trumble – to allow them to steep themselves their noxious secretions.
Yes Tom the big guns warming up for a spring assault. Chris Waller aiming for his 150th Group One win as well.
Letter from the Forbidden Land
BY Michael J. Sutton AUGUST 18, 2023
I am writing from Russia, a forbidden land, which the Australian government tells us is a nation we are not allowed to visit.
Most Russians, families, and friends however, come anyway.
For Australia, Russia is taboo because of the situation in Ukraine, and so sanctions have hit currency exchange, internet, and banking services.
Sanctions however are surreal.
The supermarkets overflow with goods, people use Gmail and Google, and have smartphones, and the malls are drenched with the same perfume scents one can find in any Western nation.
Australia boasts in freedom and democracy, but people have a short memory.
Australians experienced three years of martial law under Covid Hysteria (2020-2022), when democratic freedoms, human rights, and freedom of movement and association were curtailed for a virus they spent three years lying about and still do.
Australia ‘Stands with Ukraine,’ but it is not a pacifist nation and does not support peace.
Australians love war. It is a mercenary state. Australians will go wherever they are sent, even if they are not invited. From 1885 to 1965, Australia did the bidding of the British, and from 1966 until the present, Australia does the bidding of Washington.
Any political leader or academic who challenges American control over Australia will have a quiet career in obscurity.
For years, government officials have been in a state of ecstasy at the prospect of Total War with the People’s Republic of China. They want a slice of the ruins of Beijing or Taiwan or both, which they have been promised by Washington.
Australia calls it ‘freedom,’ but we know it by its real name: ‘money.’
This is the reason they are also in Ukraine, not for democracy, but for some part of the action in the ‘reconstruction period,’ which we have been told since February 2022 is just around the corner.
Did Australia ‘Stand with Iraq’ when America engaged in an ‘illegal and immoral invasion’ of that nation? Were the churches holding prayer vigils for the Iraqi people?
Did Australia cut off banking, credit, and internet services with America? No, of course not.
The Pacific’s great mercenary state hurriedly gave troops with the promise of some of the action after Iraq had been sent back to the Stone Age.
The late Simon Crean was one of the few politicians who stood against military action outside the UN. His career ended, and others, who supported America’s doctrine of eternal war, flourished. These days, no one is allowed to talk about the War on Terror in Australia anyway. It is taboo. Soldiers and generals alike are mired in allegations of war crimes.
The West doesn’t really care about the freedom of Ukraine, as they are happily and gleefully removing our freedoms from Washington to Canberra.
We in the West face a relentless, persistent, and comprehensive assault on our civil liberties, our freedoms, our beliefs, our faith, and our very existence from a virulent form of neo-fascism that has emerged like a cancer out of our faltering democracy.
Soldiers are going to fight for freedoms the West no longer believes in, and when they return, if they are not dismembered, blown to bits, or killed, they will be imprisoned, cancelled, or sued for saying things like ‘Only women can get pregnant,’ ‘Christ is Lord,’ ‘There are only men and women,’ or ‘Sex with animals is wrong.’
It is my belief that at some point, Ukraine will be betrayed by America. There are echoes of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Spanish Civil War in this current malaise, and the ghosts and demons from those dark periods have been awoken from their slumber. If history is anything to go by, the West will not ‘Stand with Ukraine’ forever, and just like South Korea, and South Vietnam, Ukraine will face the cold reality of American strategic realignment.
The Russians are fighting for what they believe is their homeland, and this is what the West doesn’t understand. In Donbas, they do not believe it is anything other than Russian territory. It is, in fact, not a war against the Ukrainian people, but against American imperialism. When the most recent conflict began, more Ukrainians fled to Russia than to the West. In fact, the largest community of Ukrainians in the world is in Russia.
The Ukrainian situation is an extension of Covid Hysteria. Fake news rules the day, defines and shapes the narrative, and silences dissent. We know now that Western troops have been on the ground even before February 2022. Why? We know that sections of the Ukrainian army are avowed fascists and white supremacists, who celebrate men who were responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews in the Holocaust. We know that there are many (some say 130 or so) American-funded biological labs in the Ukraine.
None of these facts are denied, but they are simply brushed away as ‘not giving us the full picture,’ or as ‘Russian conspiracy theories.’ But like the Hunter Biden laptop fraud, and the vaccine scandals, we will see quiet acceptance of these realities by the media, because the difference between conspiracy theory and truth these days is only a year or so.
Even if there is a hint of fascism in Ukraine, the Russians will see the job is done to remove it. They will not retreat, for anti-fascism is deeply ingrained in their blood. Russia lost 30 million in the war with the fascists and their allies, and there is not a family who was not affected. While Japan still lies about its wartime past, Australia invents its past, and America revises the history of the Cold War, Russia remembers the past. Russians are very good at confronting their past, and have memorials and museums for everything. Russian people are deeply aware of their past. They even have a memorial for the graves of Nazi officers and soldiers who died on Russian soil.
What we are witnessing in America’s war in Ukraine is a much clearer picture of the future of capitalism. Basically, most companies are standing with Russia. I am astounded that so many companies are still here, despite the sanctions and despite the efforts of the American imperial state to curtail their activities as well as the pervasive fake news run by media in places like Australia. It suggests to me that the imperium is unravelling, and freedom may have allies in unlikely places.
The ‘Stand with Ukraine’ movement is a cynical scam promoted by the corporations pulling the strings of Biden and NATO. It is in fact the largest arms sale in history, with live weapons testing in the towns and villages of a nation that no one in the West really cares about.
Even Australia is eagerly giving away its only armored truck to Ukraine for free so their ‘Bushmasters’ can be tested against Russian tanks and missiles.
Ukraine is a trial run for war with China. America hopes it can provoke China on Taiwan and in the ensuing conflict, China will fall much like it did in the 19th century, ready to be plundered, I mean given ‘democracy,’ and ‘freedom.’
Only an imbecile would want to take on China. At least Russia has the Orthodox faith as well as the Old Believers and both share the Christian doctrine of forgiveness. The Chinese have never forgiven Japan, so that should give the West reason for pause. Japan, for some reason is excited to go to war with China again, rearming faster than a squirrel gathers nuts in the fall. I hope Tokyo has a good missile defense system because they are going to need it.
Why Ukraine? Why not somewhere else? For twenty years, weapons manufacturers rejoiced in the bonanza of America’s failed Middle East policies, wars that were never meant to end. Ever since the scandalous and abrupt departure from Afghanistan, these corporations have been searching for a new war, and when Russia realized that the West had betrayed them in the Minsk Accords, the so-called ‘Stand with Ukraine’ was born on February 22. It had been planned for a while. It also suited Joe Biden because under his tenure (with Barack), America’s involvement with Ukraine was accelerated.
Joe loves Ukraine for some reason. Joe’s family and political history is wrapped up in the Ukraine, a public and well-known history that no one is allowed to talk about. So much for freedom.
There is more taboo about Biden’s Ukraine connections than UFOs in America.
Long but interesting read
I think Insolent linked to that on Wednesday.
I think so, but I could be wrong.
Seems a good idea to be clear on such a core element of my argument.
If we’re going to give people in power a pass on the consequences of their actions because they were merely representative of some amorphous social movement no politicians or high ranking public servant will ever be held personally accountable.
“It was the mood of the day” (what today is called “the feels”) is no justification for public policy, which I’m sure Coombs himself would have said.
In fact, when Australians voted Yes in 1967, the event which subsequently saw Coombs promoted to chair of the Council of Aboriginal Affairs, they weren’t endorsing the agenda he and some in academe were intent on implementing. Sensibly, the Coalition government of the day was sceptical of his recommendations. Regrettably, Whitlam wasn’t.
A young fella who assured me he has read more books than me can’t fathom how the Nazi salute could be used to mock the Nazis.
Hey don’t be stupid
Be a smarty
Come and join
The Nazi Party
SPRINGTIME, FOR HITLER, AND GERMANY!!!!
People here keep excoriating him about not doing something about TheirABC.
Here we go again. The Nats said out loud that they would not vote for anything that went against ThierABC.
Therefore, not only was it impossible, it risked shattering the Coalition.
Once again, this penchant for blaming individuals for larger forces (see Coombs, no ‘e’) seems to be popular around here.
Obama role documented in Ukraine Biolab
A June 2010 article details how Barack Obama, while serving as a U.S. senator from Illinois, was prominent in negotiations for a deal to build a level-3 bio-safety lab in Odessa, Ukraine which would handle “especially dangerous pathogens.”
The article, titled “Biolab Opens in Ukraine”, was deleted from the web but recovered by The National Pulse.
Among the viruses the lab studied were Ebola and “viruses of pathogencity group II by using of virology, molecular, serologica and express methods.”
“This laboratory was reconstructed and technically updated up to the BSL-3 level through a cooperative agreement between the United States Department of Defense and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine that started in 2005.
The collaboration focuses on preventing the spread of technologies, pathogens, and knowledge that can be used in the development of biological weapons, ” according to a 2011 report by U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Anticipating Biosecurity Challenges of the Global Expansion of High-Containment Biological Laboratories.
Additionally, the lab provided “special training for specialists on biosafety and biosecurity issues during handling of dangerous biological pathogenic agents.”
The National Pulse reported on the recovery of the article on March 8, the same day that Team Biden Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told the Senate that the American government is concerned about biological research facilities in Ukraine falling into the hands of Russian invaders.
The recovered article, which also highlighted the work of former Sen. Dick Lugar, was additionally included in Issue No. 818 of the United States Air Force (USAF) Counterproliferation Center’s Outreach Journal.
“Lugar said plans for the facility began in 2005 when he and then-Senator Barack Obama entered a partnership with Ukrainian officials.
Lugar and Obama also helped coordinate efforts between the U.S and Ukrainian researchers that year in an effort to study and help prevent avian flu,” explained author Tina Redlup.
“The unearthed biolab facility follows intense scrutiny over the U.S. government’s decision to fund risky, ‘gain-of-function’ research in Wuhan at a Chinese Communist Party-run lab with military ties,” the National Pulse noted.
This amazed me at the time.
You’d think, after working closely with the key ones, that a smart guy like Abbott would be able to identify the more dangerous duds. Lap band Hockey springs immediately to mind: who ever would have picked such a muddle-headed wombat as Treasurer?
Or Pyne, or Brandis, or Hunt, and far less the unrealistically ambitious but failure-soaked Miserable Ghost.
I guess you have to go with what you’ve got; but on day one this Cabinet had Farcup written all over it. It was discussed on Sinc Cat at the time (which was, I might say, temporarily blinded by relief at the demise of the RGR Embarrassment and the apparent glory of Fashionable Bishop and Morrison the Border Oaf).
I see Rafiki beat me to it.
He had the advantage of not thumbing through thesauruses to say the same thing again and again without using the same words (which would be too obvious).
Huon Valley Seafoods collapses: Tasmanian company in liquidation
A seafood giant has collapsed in Tasmania, leaving customers shocked.
Huon Valley Seafoods, based in Huonville in the south east of the island, has entered liquidation.
The company not only sources and processes seafood but also distribute and exports it.
You seem to be saying that public policy exists (or more likely, should exist) in some sort of bubble. ‘Some amorphous social movement’ was in fact a very powerful vector of change. Having an idealistic view of how politics should work doesn’t change how it actually does work.
Coombs simply rode the wave of fashionable left wing opinion at the time, and while lining him up for posthumous execution may be personally satisfying, it is the opposite of understanding history.
Abbott pandered to every man and his dog. If the PM doesn’t have enough power what is the point. Most voters wouldn’t have a clue about their own members unless they are extremely good or bad. Voters vote for the party with the leader that projects how they feel until they’ve had it so good or bad they dump the party in power. Apart from middle-class welfare and following the climate claptrap Howard was doing ok. Stupid people thought the Liars under Krudd would continue to flourish and just like every other Labor government went down the drain. Australia was still doing fine in spite of the World wide recession. Labor encourages failure to lead as none of them are successful out of grift and sheltered workshops. They cannot create from their own endeavours. The SFL have since followed in their footsteps.
Fleccas Talks:
THIS WEEK IN CULTURE 161
Plucked from a shallow talent pool.
Seems impossible but Lefties are actually getting worse.
‘War Crimes’: Leftists Attack Air Force Football for Uniforms Honoring 1942 Doolittle Raiders (18 Aug)
They’re now supporting the militaristic Japanese regime which committed massive numbers of atrocities. Wow, I sure do trust them in government. Not.
I hate the dumbification of the language.
‘Prolific’ means capable of producing lots of offspring.
Thanks to semi-literate thumb-pressers, it now means lots of anything.
It is now up to scientists to find another word for the original (and scientifically important) meaning.
Tankies gonna tank.
The US Army is keen to test hypersonic missiles in Australia’s outback, believing it to be vast and unpopulated.
“Australia obviously has a tremendous amount of territory where that testing is a little bit more doable [than in the USA], so I think that’s a unique thing … that the Australians bring to the table,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said on Wednesday.
Marles will have to arrange an intro to the native title holders.
WORST would have been an appropriate adjective.
Or ‘ugliest’.
Certainly – and that remains the problem with Australian politics generally. It’s a puddle, with things like Teals and Pocock growing around the edge.
The particular issue was that Abbott, who should have had unchallenged authority in his ministry, allowed the whole government thing to drift along, nudged around by mediocrities – with key decisions handed off to unelected experts.
It’s what happens when you don’t have a plan that everyone understands and has bought into.
The airmen on that raid didn’t expect to return as there wasn’t sufficient fuel after completing their mission over Tokyo. Some bailed out over China and fell into Jap hands and were executed; others landed in the Soviet Union and were imprisoned but secretly released within a year.
From the OOT:
No, I explained how reducing adultery to a ‘contract violation’ fails to capture the problem with adultery. How it can’t explain its treatment as a crime, historically. Further, that it’s seriousness is not contingent on a possible suicide, what ever.
Also, if I or anyone else responds to something in particular, don’t just assume they are “support[ing] or align[ing] yourself with those advocating a ban on pharma ads” as opposed to simply responding to what is directly quoted. The most that could be said about my position given what I argued is that I’m neutral about pharma ads and that any limitation would require good arguments.
I do but not on those libertarian grounds.
Re 1, I’m assuming libertarians would allow different clauses to be introduced to marriage contracts at the start or along the way. Re 2, but assuming meant you completely missed the point made that the libertarian view fails to capture grounds for ban X can go beyond its effects on the parties involved, and that this is reflected in adultery being previously judged a criminal and not merely civil matter. Re 3, no, I’m not going to stop with the ‘society thing’ because it’s society that usually foots the bill for marriage failure, not merely the parties directly involved.
And an uptick for you.
Mark, beyond the margin of fraud given those numbers.
There’s only so much whipping into shape broad churchmen will take.
Steve trickler
Aug 19, 2023 10:23 AM
Fleccas Talks:
THIS WEEK IN CULTURE 161
FMD. I don’t want anyone complaining about my cute owls again.
The few music reaction channels I watch are reacting positively to it across the demo so it’s understandable why the establishment hate it.
Of course you don’t
Vikki Campion’s article gets to the heart of the matter. The renewables drive is not about saving the planet it’s about money in investors pockets. The environment is being sacrificed across Australia at a rate of knots. Please take time to view this video of just one area of complete vandalism. https://vimeo.com/596232995?fbclid=IwAR3_7vIk6BR037PprxYzoavjJswjq_BkF7JUf86M2itmON3r2DXOUuMPexQ
The cry of everyone who didn’t get what they want, ever.
Contrary to your desires, the PM is not a dictator. Would you prefer that he/she is?
Be careful what you wish for.
A black rapper (patriot, ex-Marine?) has done a sympathetic take on it.
Why has the western press forgotten the al-Qaeda directive to all Muslims to light the west on fire?
With Greece, Canada and the USA suffering wild fires and many others over the years since that threat, all blamed on cloimet choinge, why are we ignoring the obvious?
Surrounded by females at home, Tony Abbott, in his campaigning for the prime ministership and in office, did and said whatever his politics guru Peta Credlin told him to say and do.
His willingness to obey the dictates/whims of the women around him rather than his own instincts was the source of his weakness as a leader.
Credlin’s primary tactic was appeasement of those in the party who regarded Abbott as a moral threat.
As a result, Credlin evidently did not regard the Turnbull coup plotting of 2014-15 as important enough to be life-ending for Abbott’s political career.
Good Lord. Herald Sun with Robyn Riley reporting:
Pretty shit behaviour.
I well recall doing work experience at Monash in Clayton many moons ago. Couldn’t really do a whole heap as the researchers there were in the middle of other projects like working on cancer treatments and other important stuff. But one of them showed the IVF process which seemed pretty basic.
Under the tutelage of a Dr Ismail Kola if memory serves. Looking back, he was pretty racist towards white people.
Oh, dear. Looking through Ye Olde Fredde I found this doozy from reliably tone deaf Lizzie:
I doubt that dear, sweet Lizzie has even heard of Greenacre, let alone been there.
When I was growing up, Greenacre was a battler suburb. Relatives of family friends lived there, Dutch migrants working to make good and bought houses. That was in the 60s to mid 70s. It was quiet, safe, pretty boring.
Well, it ain’t safe and boring nowadays. The suburb is almost entirely Lebanese and/or Muslim, and people get shot in the street from time to time.
We certainly do have ethnic ghettos of recent migrants, Ms ‘I know everything from Vaucluse’ combined with Angela’s Ashes. Me! Me! Me!
You know nothing about real life in the suburbs.
Look at this. Keep in mind it is MSM.
https://www.khon2.com/local-news/chinese-satellite-lasers-recorded-over-hawaii/
!!!!!!
What happened, you ask:
Gorsuch wrote the majority in Bostock. Clown.
Yeah, my granny’s house was just down the hill from the watertower. It was nice visiting her since she was a Christian, one of very few on that side of the family. She kept magpies – the family had built a gigantic chicken wire cage right down the side of her backyard, and whenever they found a damaged magpie it would be consigned to the cage. Must’ve been 25 m by 5 m at least. Which I suppose was a better fate than nature in tooth and claw. She loved them to bits. You could do such things back then, now the local council would persecute you for saving native wildlife from certain death. My other granny used to hand feed a line of kookas on her side fence…
Oh, FFS, here we go again. Blame the women. It’s not his fault, it’s the evil wimmensses around him. Like what they said about Tony Blair.
If a man wimps out, it’s not his fault, it’s … really?
He has no agency, he’s just a puppet. Or, he’s a well meaning fool. Most importantly, it’s not his responsibility. It’s evil wimmenses’ fault.
Gimme a break.
Forgot about this
https://nypost.com/2023/04/07/wannabe-shooter-owned-communist-manifesto-called-trump-a-con-man/
If you want to properly examine Abbott’s “failures” you do need to look at the white-ants within, like Trumble amd Brandis, with the likes of Downer chipping away as well.
But also remember that Fat Cloive and his Senate minions blocked him at every turn, as revenge for Campbell Newman not providing enough pocket lining for His Fatness.
Your thoughts on Fat Cloive’s senate blocking and cosying up to the ABC?
Of course you don’t
Don’t pretend you don’t like them head prefect. I’ve heard on the grapevine you’ve pulled up your socks with your workouts and are benefitting immensely from their inspiration. Next time you train glutes I want you to visualise this cute owl.
In other news another good reason for the citizenry to be armed and in charge of their own defence:
VIDEO: Hammer-Wielding Connecticut Man Launches Terrifying Attack on Female Police Officer Who Heroically Fights Back
She fired about a dozen shots at the white supremacist and only grazed his hand. She was saved by a neighbour’s intervention. She is definitely not a cute owl.
And don’t forget the secret dinner which Trumble, Parkinson and Palmer had. I particularly loathe Parkinson.
Bit of a anti climax only managing to become Chancelor of Macquarie uni
THIS is why we love you johanna.
The same old story.
Senior (male) doctor raises concerns about Letby with hospital management.
Warnings ignored and doctors raising complaints told to apologise to Letby and attend “mediation” with her.
I suspect this was a Higgins-style “mediation”, with the fix in favour of Letby right from the start.
I can picture the spiky-haired tubster hospital “manager” now. And the correspondence surrounding this matter will be liberally sprinkled with “misogyny”, “power imbalance” and “toxic masculinity”.
Homework help!
Trying to teach an autistic the Communist Manifesto is an incitement to moida.
Any pointers? I’m only on mobile now so can’t cut and paste so easily.
Yes, yes, I know; in politics, the ‘art of the possible’ is the real deal.
Nevertheless, in the proper world, in anything other than the simplest enterprise, the old cliches stand true and tested: no plan means chaos and disunity is death.
Sadly for dusty old technocratic managerialists like me, Australia has become a place where practical politics meets the unsentimental Iron Laws of reality.
If Abbott turns to mush around women, that’s still his fault.
Investment property listing, Cairns, FNQ:
WAR Zone Bunker
Top floor (strategic high ground)
Huge balcony with commanding view over battlefield
Free cultural performances (residents screaming and fighting)
Artworks in carpark (graffiti)
You wouldnt want to live there yourself but the return on investment is good
Who knows what the future holds – perhaps a foreign power will take over this god forsaken place and enforce some rule of law over ALL inhabitants
Nice views; yours for $250K
Can’t happen soon enough, Doc!
Correct. But it wasn’t just women. He was far to forgiving of the leftist swine infesting the Libs, especially Turdball. The fact that he paid far too much attention to Credlin was his fault.
He wanted to be loved by snakes.
More on polls now and on 2020 re Biden v Trump. During week I mentioned that latest Emerson poll:
Their prediction in 2020:
The declared result in 2020 was Biden 0.3.
So Trump is at least +4 in Arizona. Also interesting that Trump improves +1 v 2020, while Biden losses 5 pts. He’s getting hit by disapproval rating.
That’s the thing isn’t it- he made trumble comms minister and trumble never returned the courtesy nor did morrison. Therefore me and the lieboral pardy parted ways.
Benny Johnson
@bennyjohnson
“Argentinian Trump” Presidential candidate Javier Milei leaves reporter in STUNNED silence— WATCH
REPORTER: “Why do you call Leftists shit?”
MILEI: “BECAUSE THEY ARE SHIT!”
REPORTER: ?
MILEI: “If you think differently they will kill you!”
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1692224414593478923
I see that the left now hates protest songs, see their reaction to Oliver Anthony and his Rich Men North Of Richmond. Now that they are the establishment and the Rich Men of the song they can’t tolerate what they used to afore.
The other thing that has flipped is that the protest songs are now coming from country music while rock is now firmly in the establishment camp. Who could have foreseen that banjo would be transgressive?
His problem with Credlin was that she was a lot smarter than him. This is not a very high standard. He was just smart enough to see she was smarter.
Credlin, like many senior bureaucrats, is smarter than pretty much any politician. This is not difficult. The trouble comes when they infer, incorrectly, that they are smarter than everybody.
On the Letby murders:-
Powell and Kelly.
No spiky hair but look distinctly like the tubby dullards so often seen sitting behind hospital desks playing Candy Crush.
No doubt both had supped deeply at the trough of NHS “awareness training” to the point that they had no awareness that they were running top cover for a serial killer.
What is it with nurses and mass murder?
Bruce of Newcastle
Aug 19, 2023 9:36 AM
Plenty of fires occur in F1 when refueling, but a blast with a fire extinguisher puts it out. That’s not possible with an EV.
Fires during re-fueling are vanishingly rare these days in F1 or any other form of motorsport. Handling fuel in a motorsport environment has very strict and well known regulations and accidents are beyond extraordinary. Thank goodness.
However, you are correct about EV fires – the potential for one of these things to ‘arc up’ for no apparent reason is a big concern. It seems that there is no warning per se. In other words, if you’re re-fueling a petrol car that has an obvious action and known risk/mitigation. But with an EV, the car can just be sitting there with no one near it but the battery is quietly building up heat to ignition level. And then, you can’t put the bloody thing out!
CPAC going well. Jacinta and Tony spoke really well. Jacinta is a star.
Barnabus Beetroot Juice speaking now.
Have not seen any scum feral protesters but security here is tight….very tight.
Spoken to Kath Deves, Sophie Yorke…and others.
Have caught up with the wonderful Lizzie and Hairy.
Fly the anti-renewables flag for us Cassie.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/08/make-vaccines-safe-again-and-manufacturers-liable/
Beetroot speaking well….still cross with him though. He signed up to net zero for some pork barrelling.
Don’t worry Gez…I fight.
More on polls now and on 2020 re Biden v Trump. During week I mentioned that latest Emerson poll:
Arizona: Trump 45, Biden 43 Trump +2
Their prediction in 2020:
Biden 48 Trump 46 Biden +2
The declared result in 2020 was Biden 0.3.
So Trump is at least +4 in Arizona. Also interesting that Trump improves +1 v 2020, while Biden losses 5 pts. He’s getting hit by disapproval rating.
Who the fuk still votes for biden; fair dinkum you might as vote for a dog turd; or maybe they know obuma and his hubbie are running the show with a little bit of help from the clintons.
Beetroot speaking well….still cross with him though. He signed up to net zero for some pork barrelling.
Ask him if his missus has any sisters. Asking for a friend.
And get tone on stage to drop his daks just to prove he does in fact have a set.
Thanks for the update Cassie
Speedy – In chemical terms pushing recharging too hard will produce lithium metal at the anode rather than just pulling Li ions into place. There’s a tendency for more lithium to plate into the nearest bit of lithium, since that’s the shortest point between the cathode and anode. So the lithium metal grows into a dendrite – a stalagmite-like protuberance that sprouts from the anode.
Once the dendrite gets to the separator membrane it is now the easiest place for electrons to get to, since metallic lithium is good conductor, and the very thin plastic separator can fail – whereupon you have highly reactive lithium metal in contact with the oxidizer, be it cobalt III oxide or MnO2 or etc. Chemistry then takes the line of least resistance by reacting the two together exothermically…
There are a large number of square metres of membrane in a battery pack, and all it takes is one dendrite. That’s why battery chemists have worked very hard on the dendrite problem for a long time – with a lot of success. But stressing a battery pack in a high energy setting like motor racing is really going to be hard to safeguard against the dendrite problem. On the other hand racing has long been the way to develop the tech to improve consumer cars, and we can see that in current models like my nigh on unkillable Mazda 3. EVs may therefore benefit from such a stress test, but in the meantime the optics won’t be good.
“I think it should be clear that I meant we don’t have ethnic ghettos of relatively recent immigrants.”
That’s the trouble with multiculturalism in a democracy. When a minority population becomes sufficiently large, it has the political muscle to do pretty much whatever it wants, whether the majority likes it or not.
Dover
Trump cannot win the battleground states because they’ll cheat and they’ll cheat as much as they need to in order to get their candidate through.
These legal attacks against Trump aren’t just set up to destroy him. They’re also a warning to anyone who dares challenge the Demons with respect to cheating.
Sad but true JC. I’d call them illegal legal attacks. All very soviet.
I think it goes back to Seinfeld. Jerry asked Nooman why postal workers went postal. Nooman responded that it was the mail. It just keeps coming and never stops.
It’s the patients. They never stop!