Looks like the phantom downticker found a new victim. How childish can you get? So be it, I can live…
Open Thread – Tues 22 Aug 2023
- Open Thread – Mon 25 Nov 2024
- The more you gets the less you eats
- Open Thread – Weekend 23 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 21 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 18 Nov 2024
Exactly. How different would it be if we had an enemy choose our system of power generation?
Why are we fixing something that isn’t broken? And then why are we choosing the least effective and the costliest…
Now that’s a pantry I like, not a carrot in sight. And no refrigeration in those days either!
Real love and devotion to each other. We hear about the divorces and cheating of celebrities but hardly ever of…
Oh and yesterday, after nobly and gallantly leaping to the defense of Nathan Tebbutt Albanese, or should that be “Nathan Albanese Tebbutt”, Littleproud duly followed from the progressive playbook of lynching anyone who attended CPAC on the weekend, and launched into a stern criticism of what Gary Johns said at the conference about indigenous issues (for the record I was there, sitting in the audience listening to Johns’ comments, and he was, as always, measured).
Of course, Gary Johns’ crime is that he’s a truth teller. Can’t have that.
Now who next will Littleproud defend? Wong? Thorpe? Bandt? I mean, why bother having an opposition?
One other thing. I’ve often heard that in the US sheilas start more businesses then men and it may possibly be the same here, dunno. Great. That’s good. What I want to know is if the sheilas are taking this “risk” and ther’s a male behind them with a steady eddy job o doing it on their own? Did our Pauline, at the time have a bloke with a steady job? The reason I ask is that it’s men who do more risky things with their lives than sheilas. It’s not a put down but how our biomechanics work and should work.
Masterful turn of phrase and describes perfectly the supposed right of our political spectrum.
That’s not the same as employing teenagers. Working around assessment due dates, splits with boyfriends, the frission caused by BFFs falling out.
Then there is council walking in and demanding that under new rules regarding size, we change the signage on the windows within 30 days.
Or state govt imposing a rule that you have to Cert 3 in Food Handling ( 6 months or else you have to shut down until someone has Cert 3).
Or your supplier telling you on Monday there are no chips and won’t be any for a week, and you go through 30 boxes a week and have only 2 on hand.
Or the ATO doing snap audits. We had 3 in a row, one about staff & super payments, one to make sure everything was being rung up and a GST audit, or the govt changing the GST rules resulting in changes to how we accounted for GST. All of which resulted in expense we were not counting on.
Then the constant headache of under or over prepping – you don’t want to be battering fish when you have a line of people waiting to be served. Then again you don’t want to throw out kilos of fish either.
Because we were on the end of a looong piece of wire, dealing with blackouts (it could be beautiful and sunny in town, but a storm would go through Toowoomba 2 hours away and the lines would come down there) was always fun. Shop has to shut and if the power is out for too long , fridge content has to be thrown out. No we were not allowed a Genny. The butcher a couple doors up tried that, and within 30 minutes a council officer was at the door demanding he shut it down as it was against bylaw 123.
Yep hospitality is easy!
The “enemy”? Perhaps he is defending his right to receive the same favours at a future point in time without scrutiny.
Our political class are scum. And that’s an insult to scum, which at least has a use.
But for Jacinta, Littleproud would be in the Yes camp.
Aboriginal people in remote communities can have as many new houses, community, youth, health, arts centres built and paid for by somebody else to vandalise and destroy as they like.
It won’t change the culture of destructive victimhood, envy, hopelessness and endless mindnumbing boredom.
It most certainly is just going to be ceaseless inVoices for no service rendered.
Yes, sorry.
Never ignore the power of “and”.
Benny Johnson
@bennyjohnson
Citizen SNAPS at Joe Biden HOURS after he insulted victims of Maui fires by comparing disaster to his small kitchen fire:
“There were children that were incinerated to ASH, you F***king old man. You VILE human being… You need to step down from office.”
Rowan Dean:
As the Productivity Commission noted in July:
A massive fail by Commonwealth and State governments – and also apparently by the allegedly representative Coalition of Peaks – all of which are now genuflecting to the Voice, and several of which are carrying forward towards Treaty.
In a sane world, this report would be digested and government and Team Yes would be explaining ‘lessons learned’ and ‘this is how The Voice is going to do things better’.
The reality is that Closing the Gap with Indigenous advice is a far distant second to all of the other political agendas in play – none of which can be said out loud.
Far from being Garage Gay Grampian misinformation, this is all clearly documented by independent (?) government agencies. Yet Team No seems strangely silent on this elephant in the room.
Rebel Moon | Official Teaser Trailer | Netflix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rHLOXbFZtI
This young go-getter Zack Snyder chap might have a future as a director.
Want to close the gap?
Close the remote settlements.
In practice not that simple, given the political purpose those settlements serve and the brouhaha that would result on the prog-left, but that’s what it boils down to.
Hospitality isn’t easy, it’s hard work, but it doesn’t make Hanson having run a fish and chip shop (back when regulations weren’t quite as onerous) super human either.
Thousands and thousands of people do it successfully, I’m always amazed at new migrants stepping up to run food retail.
Having run a retail business as a sole trader for many years I have some appreciation.
Oh and being your own boss is great, when you’re making good money.
Seven days a week and wondering why you bother, not so much.
And you thought we’d reach peak crazy.
That Lemon Slice on Your Cocktail Is Contributing More Than Its Fair Share to Climate Change
But it was only a lounge pass, not a bottle of plonk!
A review of Littleproud’s political history (climate, Turnbull, Covid, drought etc) reveals him for what he is – Labor lite opportunist with no respect for his constituency, except pefhaps for the Brisbane doctor/lawyer vanity farm and dirty wekend center of Stanthorpe. His kind of people.
Despicable, disloyal creature.
When the hell is Canavan going to start exerting himself?
In a nutshell.
Let older aboriginals ‘retire’ to country, if they so wish.
Everyone else, have a proper life, with the rest of us, an education, a job, a home of your own, travel, hobbies, goals, ambitions.
No wonder 50% of aboriginals rely on one form of welfare or another, what else is there out there?
You want a community centre built, then you want someone else to come run it for you.
Lol. True.
Colin Barnett proposed closing down some of the remote settlements a few years ago – “Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance” closed down the centre of Melbourne in protest.
How many of them had ever seen a remote settlement?
We know that many ‘refugees’ go back to their country of origin often only a few years after gaining residency. I wonder how many urban indigenous, the ones that turn out for smoking ceremonies, welcome to country and claim connection to their ‘oldest continuous culture’ actually spend time back in communities that still have any semblance of living the original indigenous life?
Stan Grant is going off to Denmark for example, not many witchetty grubs there..
This is very convincing. Just like with JFK, they made absolutely sure. How could there possibly be someone else there was a gun in his hand and that gun not be tested?
RFK Jr. Identifies “The Real Shooter” Behind His Father’s Death
Can I just there’s one huge difference between working in banking / trading desk and regular business. You have to keep an eagle eye on the credit extended. I never believed just how hard it is to claw money you’re owed. It feels like one half of the business world owes the other half money and reluctant to pay. That’s another thing, if they’re not paying you cut them quickly and never let the credit run up.
Any federal politician who stared down the “Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance” would be acclaimed a national hero.
We’re ready for a reset in indigenous affairs.
Or state politician, for that matter.
There’s nothing new in the world.
Stalin’s Super Soldier Experiments – Forgotten History
Ha ha
Wealthy residents in Dem-led Bay Area city are branded NIMBYs for fighting to keep 100 homeless people from being housed in $134-a-night hotel – despite 75% voting for California Gov. Gavin Newsom progressive policies
Border Patrol admits it’s responsible for open floodgates in Arizona border wall
Preach it brother! Amazing how customers treat you like a bank. Most aggravating non-payment excuse – “I have to wait until money set aside for the project comes off term deposit”.
You bust your boiler to achieve payment stages only to find out you could have deployed resources elsewhere. Short of turning up on their doorstep with a shotgun, nothing much you can do.
Except learn.
Oh. And people lie. They lie all the time, even when they don’t need to.
Depressing.
Just my opinion, this chick was a psycho. She sabotaged the ISS to go home early. No, I don’t believe it is “RuZZian propaganda”.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1693990808939298828.html
Female Astronauts seem to be very unlucky or a lot less stable than the males.
Pauline mouthing off about Latham on Sky just now, says she only spoke to him once before the election, I expect this means the NSW state election. Then she says you can’t talk to him. How about ringing him regularly so you could talk to him? But then there would be no time to appear on Sky almost every evening. This also tells me that she left the communication with her leader in NSW Parliament to her chief of staff who also seems to have ample time appear on Sky almost every other night. For a chief of staff Ashby certainly behaves as an MP rather than a staffer.
From the Joe Aston article on The Rise and Rise of Little Nathan.
This.
In addition to your book learnin’ teach your kids this before they start a job, or take a promotion.
Little favours.
Converted to big guilt when you don’t reciprocate.
Dr. Vernon Coleman
Chemotherapy: Fraudulent and Deadly?
Just come back and rip their pavers out, until they pay, they’re yours.
I may have heard of such nefarious threats made by concreters rolling up with plant fit for purpose.
The Nationals, unlike the Lieborals, at least have the decency to look uncomfortable with their newfound milquetoast positioning. Having always been an advocate for Big Government and special interests must help.
Does someone want to tell me why taxol, abiraterone or tigilanol tiglate are fraudulent other than a Coffee Bro “doctor” saying so?
Look, there’s even a synergistic chemical mix in curry tree seed that might work on liver cancer.
Illegal. You can’t sabotage the work.
People do it though.
Cue the usual suspects reflexively parroting the ‘conspiracy theory’ defence – and not reading what RFKJ said.
Rosie, agree with you totally. It just doesn’t make any sense due to economies of scale. Besides all that, young people need socialisation with large groups in at least regional centres to make them capable of looking after themselves when they become adults. Frankly, the traditional culture is hostile to children and their aspirations.
Ashby is like Sinidonos. As soon as the public knows some parliamentary flunky they are not doing their day job well – except possibly Heads of Departments when are are forced to demean themselves before Senate Estimates.
Take a clue from history and try the pull approach rather than the push one when it comes to moving people into urban areas. There’s a lot of drift to towns happening already, so capitalise on it. Build plenty of good and cheap accommodation in townships in northern Australia and offer ‘created’ jobs with good money and limited hours to appeal to young aboriginal men. Use various incentives such as music festivals and other free entertainments; perhaps prizes for achievement however defined (could include cars and bikes). Encourage families with children in particular. Provide hostel accommodation in towns for children being cared for by remote-dwelling grandparents. Provide a bus service back to the remote areas for visiting relatives.
Then add a bit of push factor. Make all remote communities alcohol free, and give welfare only to old-age pensioners or those on the DSP (reviewed regularly for bludgers), with no dole available at all to those choosing to live remote while adult if they refuse accommodation offered in town.
None of this would work though without the full backing of the rule of law. Western law, not tribal law. Tribal excuses should be downplayed. Getting a few big men ‘elders’ on side would help.
LOL
The claims seem reasonable citing a reliable medical report so I wouldn’t bother with that disclaimer.
Yeah, our Pauline is a genius because she ran a fish&chip shop. This was the moron who came up with the stupidest tax idea that’s ever been proposed. I forget the finer details but it was supposed to be tax on every sale that occurred from the very begging all the way up the chain. Sinc figured it was end up being close to 100% of GDP or close to. It would’ve seized the entire system.
She runs the party like a politburo and can’t ever be removed.
Now she’s fighting with Latham ( like she has with almost all members who’ve gained station.
Latham is the best politician in the country by far. Incidentally he’s also a little temperamental too. 🙂
But he’s really smart.
Emperor Barney already tried that in WA. Just another big stick to bash whitey with (no pun intended).
I would find it a little bit funny if they had a falling out over the debits tax.
I’ve never really seen an analysis of the debits tax. I am not even sure it would work as intended because it would alter behaviour so much. This would make the analysis of the tax harder but realistic when taken into consideration.
A 2% tax was meant to get 50% of GDP in taxation.
Why not 1% then? We really don’t need more than that (25% of GDP) spent, even under a socialist ALP and high military spending.
At least she knows what it is to lie awake at night wondering which bill will take priority, because something totally outside your control, here I am looking at Council/State/Federal govt decisions, is going to cost you money that you don’t have, and/or will you lose your house.
If more pollies had that sort of experience we would not have Sleazy proposing extra public holidays, Stairman Dan saying landlords could easily afford more land tax and a new levy, or Jimbo claiming massive cost increases will not hurt business.
IIRC at the end of the Beattie era in Qld, someone did a comparison between the make up of parliament (both sides) & cabinet between the Joh era and the Beattie era. The difference was very stark – the Joh era parliament, even on the ALP side had people from all walks of life, most had run businesses, even if for a wage. In the Beattie era the proportions between lawyers/professional unionists/professional politicians ie young lib/lab , to electorate officer to advisor to backbench to ministry vs people from all walks of life had totally flipped.
The thing is too a low enough rated broad-based tax can be fine but it is poison as it creeps up.
A 6% LVT would be okay.
20% LVT would be utterly brutal and very trade-distorting.
Maybe a 1% debits tax is workable, prosperity-engendering & many times better than a 2% debits tax and a 3% debits tax is catastrophic.
Had our local member Anne Webster attend our town yesterday. On which she said she would listen to concerns, success or whatever that’s happening here.
Had 2 people head down to have a chinwag. The issues were the transmission lines being set up and the misinformation bill and how these will impact.
On misinformation bill:
“She said its bad and that they will vote against it, but we pushed her that that wasn’t good enough and they needed to be very loudly and publically campaigning against it. She was very non-committal about that.
On the lines:
“Then I asked about what she was doing about the aemo towers, and she said similar. I pushed her on the whole renewable energy thing being designed to shut down our energy supply and that once again they needed to be publicly pushing that message. she sort of agreed but once again was non committal”
Non committal seems to me that the Nationals are supporting this rubbish. Aligned with the work of Littleproud as noted upthread backing Albo the Junior, well I don’t have much hope.
Dot
Do you recall what was the cockamamie tax scheme the idiot came up with? Sinc even did a special on it .
Can’t really understand the Latham love. Learned his politics sitting at the foot of The Great Man on Liverpool Council in the wastelands of Western Sydney. Only really found out he had a problem with Liar party machine men (and women) when they booted him out the top job. Plenty of Liars have a Road to Damascus moment – typically shortly after no longer needing preselection for their seat.
Onya Black Ball. Hold their feet to the fire. I didn’t even go to a wine and cheese evening with Julie.
And let the younger ones go “walkabout” on country, if they so wish, during their holidays.
But they must spend their working lives where there is work.
We all find our road to Damascus at some point, Bear. Even you and I . 🙂
Easy tax or debits tax.
https://www.noelwhittaker.com.au/essential_grid/a-debits-tax/
It could be terrible but I’m not sure this has been proven conclusively.
“Latham is the best politician in the country by far. Incidentally he’s also a little temperamental too. ?
But he’s really smart.”
Umm….yep.
Most TDs can be broken with a relatively small fee or reduction in interest rate.
It would interesting if the supplier billed them for having to pull their money off TD to cover the late payment.
Crossie
Unfortunately, the traditional culture is just as hostile in regional centres.
See, as examples: Darwin, Alice Springs, Townsville, Dubbo, and many more.
His first mistake:
Don’t even begin to discuss it publicly unless you’re prepared to stand up to the bullies in the aboriginal industry and defeat them.
.
.
It’s official: Elbow has nothing left in the tank on the Voice (Paywallian):
Even more than the republic referendum, this one will become a textbook example of how to stuff up a political campaign. Item one: don’t base your campaign on trickery and deception. Item 2: don’t treat voters like idiots.
The second one will be hard for leftards as that’s all they ever do.
Reddit now:
NPC:
Well when racism from 1952 seems to work so well for Republicans of course you’ll have idiots thinking they should appeal to people who literally want to go back to 1952.
It’s why we ended up with Biden instead anyone worth a shit. We had no choice, fascism or corporate pawn.
Fudge em both, fudge the US government and fudge every single corporation in this country.. but I digress.
Me:
MLK was a Republican bro. Robert Byrd was in the KKK. Also, not everything is politics.
NPC:
Go fudge yourself.
Me:
MLK was a Republican bro. Robert Byrd was in the KKK. Also, not everything is politics.
Yes. And where there are constant reminders that normal people go to work.
Removal from the remote so-called ‘communities’ is a basic and necessary step. It could result in more slums in ‘town camps’ and the sort of strife we see in Alice Springs, but at least that is fixable with a greater intention to enforce the law and with a new generation having a better education and wanting something different than an alcoholic lifestyle doing nothing except bored socialising to gamble and get wasted.
Towns also provide economic opportunities simply by the population concentration that exists there. Shanty townships show that in spades in South America and South Africa.
The far left hit the mark but refuse to say the public don’t like a shit sandwich.
https://jacobin.com/2023/08/australias-voice-referendum-is-losing-thanks-to-the-radical-centrism-of-its-architects
Later this year, Australia will vote in a referendum on creating an Aboriginal Voice to advise parliament. The Yes campaign is flagging, hobbled by a technocratic strategy and language borrowed from corporate social responsibility values statements.
No one actually likes that borrowed language!
I was told I was too cynical as a 10yo. I had to go and look it up. They were right.
Indeed.
State and Federal, the current political class comes fairly uniformly from a background of keeping somebody else’s skin in the game.
After which he’ll be out of the country for several weeks, leaving Marles to handle the fallout.
Probably a wise move given Albanese isn’t capable of being conciliatory.
What are the odds of a Plibersek-Marles ticket in 2025?
Did you miss the PremiseData poll that has Trump +5.
Crossie
Further to my comment above, relocating to regional centres will only work if the rule of law is applied equally to all, regardless of ethnic ancestry.
Without that, the regional centres rapidly become clones of the remote “communities”.
Lizzie, snap on remote communities.
Lol
And bring in credible people like Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine (you can add the tribal names if you can spell them). These are people who know the problems and have the solutions and they can be spokespeople for changes. If the Referendum can be defeated (I am very anxious that it will not be and the No case must beef up now) then the opportunity for the Liberals to use these two spokespeople for a ‘re-set’ will be huge and I hope they seize it.
.
Gawd I hate LinkedIn…
Just saw a post from a dude from DXC, Anshum Tiwari, a well-paid IT engineer and manager who has worked in Australia and India, saying if you have the same role as last year, you should be paid less.
So if his business unit fails to deliver a project, does he live in mute penury for the rest of his life?
These idiots with MBAs are Taylorisms bastards. Taylor actually said the best workers within a class ought to be paid double, plus a bonus, plus profit sharing.
‘So many Australians want to do the “right” thing. They want to see advancement for Indigenous people in this country. They want us to be able to “close the gap”. I have no doubt that if we actually have a Voice that we are listening to it will enable us to do that better and more efficiently.’
The “right” thing. Another of those deliberately nebulous phrases that they count on everyone reading in whatever it might mean to them.
It is up there with demanding businesses pay ‘their fair share’. Businesses create viable jobs so the people get money, they provide the goods and services we desire, and they pay taxes, fees, and imposts that pays for government programs, social services, and vanity-project boondoggles – and the government thinks they are still not contributing enough.
I wonder what it would look like for a politician to look at a shopkeeper and realise that while the shopkeeper does a brisk trade, not a single person comes up to them to get something they want (except perhaps lickspittle advisors and calculating bureaucrats). At the end of the day the shop keeper can remember all the things he handed over, all the satisfied customers, and the feeling of solid work paying off. While the politician has to pay staff and suck up to j’ismists to create even the faintest illusory sense of the same thing.
Loathsome, stupid, shallow, unworthy people.
I have zero faith in the Liberals (keep expectations low to avoid disappointment).
They’ll have to be dragged into action by popular sentiment, which the likes of Jacinta & Warren are already tapping into and giving voice to.
Boambee John, employment creation is more likely to happen ‘organically’ in a larger community, and can also be jollied along by various job creation scheme, so I would see that as integral to successful ‘urbanising’. Also significant would be housing type and placement. Smaller ‘estates’ of public housing spread around into non-public housing areas do better than larger ones which create ghetto-style problems like standover tactics of big men that people can’t get away from. Each town would be different in what can be built and where, without creating fear from existing local populations who quite understandably don’t want to be swamped by problem families and people.
For almost 27 years Pauline Hanson has been smeared, sneered at, ridiculed, lampooned, caricatured, mocked, sued….wtf….she has even been imprisoned, all because, from the moment she burst onto the political scene, she has had the temerity to speak plainly, and thus her plain speaking has made her a target of the left (and even among Liberals) for cancelling and silencing. She was targeted by cancel culture before cancel culture became a thing. Sure, Pauline has said some dumb things, sure, she’s hopeless, utterly hopeless, at choosing solid candidates, except for Malcolm Roberts, Mark Latham, and she has a very good politician in SA, a young Jewish woman by the name of Sarah Game. Let me state here and now, I am not immune to Pauline’s political and personal failures, however Pauline represents something quite unique in this country, and it explains why, just like Trump, she’s popular in pleb land. She can walk through any shopping mall in the suburbs of middle and working class Australia and she’ll mobbed by well wishers and fans. I would add that the targeting and vilification that Pauline has endured over the last two and bit decades is now happening to ordinary Australians who refuse to kowtow to the progressive left. They have come for us.
I remember how, in 2016, when it was announced she was running, that putrid Turd of Point Piper publicly said that “Hanson wasn’t welcome in parliament”. That was a very revealing comment from His Putrid Highness from Point Piper, he was sneering and saying that only he and his ilk will decide who should be in parliament. Well. to that I say….NO. As BoN accurately wrote last night, Pauline’s ordeals are positively Trumpian…..
I’m not happy about this latest falling out with Latham, because I like both. I think Pauline is too dependent on Ashby but you know what, given the choice between Pauline or the dangerous Trot from Marrickville who’s sneering and lying to us everyday, I’ll take Pauline any day, and I know who’s more sinister and dangerous to this country and to me as an individual, and it is not Pauline Hanson.
I’m actually intrigued by the upper limit on when broad-based taxes become unacceptably distortionary.
So imagine a tax mix:
5% VAT
0.1% debits tax
1% LVT
1% royalties tax
Back of the envelope work suggests it would collect 15% of GDP, possibly more with less distortion in the economy. That is all a competent conservative government or a “moderate” libertarian government would ever need.
I can’t wait for Ashby’s tearful revelations that Pauline watched him take a shower.
Providing housing that could be ‘purchased’ (at special aboriginal discounts) and owned would give willing families some stake in the township being a safe and orderly place.
There is nothing like outright home ownership to make people more houseproud and keen to have jobs to pay off a mortgage.
A ‘planning law’ restricting and policing the occupation numbers in any given house would be a very good thing to implement to stop the indigent relatives from piling in.
Bill non-payment. Yes it is awful, embarrassing, infuriating and most of all amazing that people would do thst to you.
My young niece (oops, grand niece) has a very successful pony breeding business in Vicotria on land given to her by my daughter.
Her customers are mainly Melbourne elite, tree changers and genuine horse people.
She breeds, sells, agists, quarantines, leases and brokers the outrageously expensive little ponies.
She rapidly went out the back door until my daughter realised what was happening and stepped in.
The elite didn’t pay, or paid when it suited them and my niece lacked any knowledge of how to protect herself.,
My daughter, who terrifies me, instituted a customer management regime as well as dispatching the young woman off to various business programs.
That worked and it is now a very wary woman who cotempkates any Beamer X making it’s way down her driveway.
The street has most of its visitors when the bottle shops in Kununurra are shut, before 12pm and after 8pm.
Kununurra police officer-in-charge Sen. Sgt Neil Vanderplank said sly groggers in town were “vultures that prey on the vulnerable”.
Kununurra is probably my favourite town in outback Oz. Pretty, civilised and (when we were there in mid 2000s) well policed. At that time the grog was fairly well controlled. We went to what was called “The Barramundi Festival”. We had thought it was some sort of tourist thing with fake corroboree, but went anyway. It was quite the opposite. Yes – it was Aborigine focussed, but had modern rock music Aboriginal bands – & even a comical Aboriginal cross dresser compere – “Mary G”- who was hysterically funny. She/he encouraged the kids to go around picking up rubbish – and they did! On the chairs in front of us were a couple of very old ladies tended lovingly by helpers (white!) who brought them food. When the lights were out one of them lit a match & nearly set her hair on fire!
BTW the big heavies at the entry checked everyone for grog – even smelling their breath! I was terrified in the line, since husband and I had the obligatory early evening glass of wine before leaving our camper! I need not have worried as he just waved us through and didn’t want to hear my blubbering explanation.
For most Cats, watching the 7:30 Report is something you might get around to after pouring battery acid into both eyes.
Last night’s program had an interesting segment on the undisguised corruption machine that is the Andrews Government.
Former IBAC Chair and Supreme Court judge Robert Redlich tips a bucket on the Andrews ALP. A test for the current Chair.
It’s should be a bit of a watershed moment and worth a watch.
Cassie
True, I forgot about that. I take off my comments back. Deal?
Wouldn’t want to be going to an election with 18 months of Plibbers in the spotlight.
Interesting that the disaster in Maui is turning into Biden’s Katrina moment at the very least in Hawaii. Has there been any mention in our MSM that the deaths are likely over a thousand and a large number of them children.
Which is why I am proud I had a selfie with her at CPAC. She stands for something very real in Australian life, the ordinary Aussie who will have a go, and keep punching against all who denigrate what Aussie battlers see as their birthright – freedom to speak their mind. She speaks out in a well-understood vernacular, where people know what you mean even if it has some trouble being articulated. She is loved for that. There’s no talking down in it. Latham offers the male version of it, but more articulate, and more intellectually-developed, behind the ‘everyday man’ he presents.
JC is right, Pauline holds her Party as her Party in a Politburo manner, but that is also her strength. She won’t let go of her image for it is like Trump’s – the voice of the people. Latham forgot something about his origins when he (rightly) lashed out crudely at the vicious tormenter who called him a disgrace – he forgot the innate puritanism that exists in many working class homes, there are things no woman should hear. Pauline was outraged – ‘you have to apologise to the people‘ she said. He should have backed down a bit, and then there would have not been the harm that has ensued.
Like Cassie, I like them both.
BTW Aborigines can “make a go” of their own enterprises. One of the delights of the ABC “Outback Ringers” was the story of the rounding up of scrub cattle by Aboriginal Clarrie Shadforth and his family. That is SUPER HARDWORK, but Clarrie was on top of it and seems to make a good living for himself and his family.
“Which is why I am proud I had a selfie with her at CPAC. “
I did too Lizzie, at the dinner.
Farmers & conservationists in central QLD arcing up against Palaszczuk’s grand pumped hydro scheme and associated transmission lines.
Had an interesting discussion with my nerdy daughter over the weekend. She has enrolled in a neuroscience coarse because she wants to learn how to do her job better. She already does it better than most. The funny thing is it is actually her that is being studied to find out how she learns so many different things that appear to have no relevance to what she does. She gets taken to meetings incase the client asks questions nobody knows but her.
Providing housing that could be ‘purchased’ (at special aboriginal discounts) and owned would give willing families some stake in the township being a safe and orderly place.
Absolutely right, Lizzie. One of the ironies of the current situation is that individual private ownership of houses and land by Aborigines is not permitted in Native Title zones. This is, in fact, a significant complaint of many of the activists. It is one that should be addressed, and trials undertaken of private ownership.
Anything I’ve seen speaks of deaths at around 114 and no mention of more.
The MSM are certainly underplaying it. Biden’s response has been a disgrace.
Things are going to get very ugly for Mr. 32% post-referendum.
Re the Pauline/Latham debate:
I recall that Pauline (& possible Craig Kelly) was the only pollie we saw at the huge anti-vaccine rally in Canberra. She is fearless, and I really respect that.
Unfortunately, Cassie, Pauline has gone the way of so many who have spent too long in Canbra.
Despite the initial good intentions she is now playing the electoral cycle game.
“If we hold the balance of power next time we can do really good things.”
By getting rid of Latham she has consigned PHON to be a “one state party” which assures her future (and Ashby’s) but means it will be a fringe AEC vote subsidy harvesting outfit anywhere outside Queensssland.
Just watch this PHON woman, Sarah Game, from SA. If she starts getting anything like a decent public profile, Pauline will descend on her like a tonne of frozen chips.
I am sure Ashby will be egging her on, and using all the right phrases to justify the vendetta.
“It’s weakening The Brand by having two lead spokespersons”.
“Sarah has good media cut through, but she alienates some of our core support base” (i.e. she doesn’t accord me, James Ashby, the respeck I deserve).
“True, I forgot about that. I take off my comments back. Deal?”
Always a deal JC. Look, I understand economics is probably not Pauline’s strong suit, but given Gomer Chalmers and Sleazy from Marrickville’s economic policies, and particularly Gomer’s belief, as he wrote in The Saturday Boring Paper, about pushing for a “wellbeing budget”, I’ll take Pauline’s economics any day!
..
Yep.
They have a different morality to ordinary, decent people.
As seen on this very blog.
Interesting podcast on the issues surrounding Indians in Silicone Valley. Many do their best to hide any info re their caste. But if it gets out you are Dalit you can expect to be shunned at best, or as many discover, on the next plane back to Mumbai.
But white people are racist !
Vicki, I wouldn’t like to see this happen in the remote communities now, because it might lock more people into what is an untenable economic situation. In less remote communities still on Native Title land, I would (if Dictator, lol) seize the day and start to rescind the Native Title Act, and replace it with some sort of far more restricted land credits under Torrens Title for aboriginal people prepared to live in townships of a certain size and thus economy. I would also remove Land Councils and revert mining Royalties back to the Crown, where they could be used to give aborigines Torrens Titles and other credits not managed by a cabal of tribal big men. I think at some time Australians will need to revisit how much of our continent we wish to be tied up in some form of aboriginal ‘ownership’. It is another bad idea, like Nugget Coombes fantasy of Out Stations. Native Title is a legal fabrication. It should end.
Thanks Dr F.
They gave a fairly decent run to the Lawyer X Gobbo thing a couple of weeks ago.
Admittedly they focussed a bit too much on Ms Judd DPP having a conflict of interest, having refused to lay recommended corruption charges and having acted for Overland in an extended Police shootings case years earlier.
I must admit, it was a very innovative way of naming someone who cannot be named, even though it steered clear of the other connections between Judd, Andrews Labor and Overland.
Also a lot of chatter on Twitter following a TSA whistle-blower indicating plans for COVID mandates returning in Oct/ Nov.
My favourite person at the moment is the bloke who drops off the skip bins I’m using to clean up the place.
Such a friendly and positive individual.
But I make sure to pay him cash promptly.
Cash makes tradies of all types very happy.
BestPauline Hanson moment…calmly walking into Parliament, taking her seat…
wearing a burqa.
Can anyone else see the root cause of a problem brewing here?
The Australian news media is a faithful parrot of the Democratic Party’s daily talking points — on every single story, every single day.
So the true Hawaii fires death toll must be censored lest it reflect badly on the puppet president cheated into White House by the Dems’ swing state election rigging apparatus.
The entire Australian news media (including most of Sky News) is a Biden groupie. Speaking truth to power would just upset their dinner parties.
One aspect of dealing with customers that are listed corporations & the like; The scale of corporate delinquency.
The sheer number of corporations that avoid/deflect paying their bills.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/
Microreactor company looks to INL for fuel fabrication plant site
22 August 2023
Microreactor technology company NANO Nuclear Energy Inc has begun the due diligence for locating a nuclear fuel fabrication capability at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), which it says could begin production as soon as 2027.
The Zeus microreactor features a fully solid core and is designed to fit within a standard ISO shipping container.
Heat removal is through thermal conduction, eliminating the need for coolant and pumps. Odin, described as a low-pressure coolant reactor, is designed to use conventional sintered pellet UO2 fuel with up to 20% uranium-235 enrichment. NANO says it will use a unique reactivity control system design, minimising the number of moving parts, and will use natural convection of coolant for heat transfer. It will operate at higher than conventional water-cooled reactor temperatures, which the company says will allow resilient operation and high-power conversion efficiency in generating electricity.
In February, NANO announced the formation of its HALEU Energy Fuel Inc subsidiary to develop, improve and accelerate domestic US production of high-assay low enriched uranium.
Covid Mandates will always be on the Agenda for the 2024 elections. The Democrats will use them to insist on mail-out voting and other non-attendance votes so they can swing the election once more. It’s such an easy out and the Democrat public health brigade will quickly fall into line on it.
There will be more opposition to it this time though.
Having lots of uranium puts Australia in a very good position re nuclear predominance.
Canada has quite a bit too and they are now going nuclear in test areas.
We lag behind.
re Pauline Hanson: She is the key asset of her party and also the number one liability. One Nation could be deciding stuff in places like NSW but good candidates are turned off by the way things are run. Perhaps time for Pauline to move from player/coach to Chairman role.
We always offer it to independent contractors and they happily accept it.
We do it on the basis that running a business is hard enough anyway and they can decide for themselves how they do their books. We don’t need or ask for receipts.
We’ve found if anything goes wrong after a job is done, a quick call will bring the helpful tradie back quickly to fix it. One good turn deserves another etc.
We’ve had this discussion before.
If you are in the hotel business, Conrad, why don’t you do what 99.9956% of the rest of that industry does?
That is, insist on cleared credit card payment before keys are handed over?
I’ve worked for a few large corporates, and none objected to paying hotel bills on the spot by card.
Let me educate you on what is going on here, because I’ve seen it tried on before.
If you are providing credit, it is more likely the true scammers are the room occupants. They don’t pay you, sobbing that their evil boss won’t give them a card, and telling you to send an invoice in to HQ. They then return from their trip, claim a per diem, including an accommodation allowance, and pocket the cash. When the invoice turns up, the boss flicks it to the contractor/employee correctly saying, “This is yours. We’ve already paid you for it”. Employee/contractor bins it, hoping it will go away, and the cycle continues.
Another thing.
What evidence did you have that the person (ahem) “enjoying your hospitality” actually worked for the company they gave as the billing address?
A business card?
A logo on a shirt or cap?
….
Standby for “you don’t understand business around these parts” in 3 … 2 … 1.
Any hotel operator who continues to give credit when the whole world pays for or secures costs by credit card in advance is kind of asking for it.
Hanson was like first “Trump-like” political prisoner. The US is copying us for a change.
Meanwhile here in Australia under Blackout Bowen & AirBus Albo – Crickets
Britain fires starter’s gun on race to nuclear
In the second instalment of the Nuclear Option series, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government is suddenly ready to shower billions of pounds on getting modular nuclear reactors up and running by the early 2030s.
Hans van Leeuwen
Europe correspondent
London | The British government is ready to trowel more than £20 billion ($38 billion) of taxpayers’ money into turbocharging the country’s nuclear industry, as the daunting task of decarbonising the UK’s energy sector looms ever larger.
With offshore wind and solar unlikely to ensure Britain has uninterrupted baseload power, the official goal is to get 24 gigawatts of nuclear energy onstream by 2050 – up to a quarter of British power demand, up from 15 per cent now.
But hefty new gigawatt-scale nuclear power stations are struggling to get off the ground, so the government’s hopes are increasingly pinned on an early lift-off for small modular reactors (SMRs).
“The energy issue we’ve had in Europe in these past two years has been a bit of a reality check. Before that, we had a combination of wishful thinking and wilful ignorance about how we are going to decarbonise,” says Tom Greatrex, chief executive of Britain’s Nuclear Industry Association.
He says that although successive Downing Street administrations have all understood Britain’s flagging nuclear industry needs fresh legs, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government is now gripped with urgency. And it has clocked the key catalysing role of taxpayers and public policy.
“The lesson from anywhere in the world where nuclear power has been deployed is that unless the state is actively involved in encouraging it to happen, it doesn’t happen,” Greatrex says.
“It is public policy that has driven it, basically because the infrastructure is so big and capital-intensive.”
The government recently unfurled a £170 million investment into hurrying up work on the embryonic but enormous Sizewell C, a 3.2-gigawatt nuclear reactor to be built by the mid-2030s. This came on top of £700 million in earlier subsidies.
But the real action must of necessity be elsewhere. Construction of the next big new nuclear reactor, the 3.2-gigawatt Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset, has been subject to seemingly endless delays and cost blowouts. And of the five creaky old mega-reactors now operating, all but one will be shut in the next five years.
So, the focus is squarely on SMRs, which in theory can be rolled out more cheaply and snappily; and also on advanced modular reactors (AMRs), which use exotic new tech or methods that are still either largely on the drawing board or even just a glint in some scientist’s eye.
A week before the Sizewell announcement, the government confirmed it would set up a new agency, revelling in the Tory-boilerplate name of Great British Nuclear, to gee up the industry.
There would be up to £20 billion in subsidies, if needed, to get between five and eight SMRs up and running by early next decade, and about £160 million in grants to keep R&D ticking over into AMRs and nuclear fuels.
“I look forward to seeing the world-class designs submitted from all around the world through the competitive selection process, as the UK takes its place front and centre in the global race to unleash a new generation of nuclear technology,” energy minister Andrew Bowie trumpeted.
Leaders of the pack
At the front of the SMR pack is Rolls-Royce, leading a consortium that has already received £210 million in government grants. It has beefed up its SMR workforce to about 600 people.
Its reactor, based on the pressurised water reactor (PWR) in Britain’s nuclear submarines, is already being evaluated by the safety regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation.
Alastair Evans, director of corporate affairs at Rolls-Royce SMR, reckons its design is “at least 18 months ahead of any competitor in the UK”.
“Rolls-Royce has been a nuclear reactor plant designer since the start of the UK nuclear submarine program in the 1950s,” he says. The PWR design “has been used in over 200 reactors around the world … using proven and commercially available technology to deliver a fully integrated, factory-built nuclear power plant.”
GE Hitachi is Rolls-Royce’s main rival. Media reports say it already has a BWRX-300 under construction and regulatory review in Canada, and its model is under consideration in the US. The company claims to be the only contender with a realistic shot of getting an SMR operational by 2030.
The two are very likely to feature on Great British Nuclear’s short-list, which will be compiled by the end of the year. Other contenders could include Nuscale and Westinghouse.
The lucky winners will get access to the government’s subsidy scheme, which could be worth £20 billion if that’s what it takes.
It’s unclear exactly what form this largesse will assume. It could use the “regulated asset base” model, where investors are given a guaranteed minimum return, funded by a levy on consumer energy bills.
Another model might involve “strike prices”: a guaranteed price per unit, to smooth out the risks and uncertainty involved in committing so much capital upfront.
Whatever the capital cost, it won’t be as much as required for a mega-reactor: perhaps £2 billion to get an SMR up and running, as opposed to the £20 billion-plus for Sizewell C, thanks to the SMR’s modular, factory-based construction method. The catch, of course, is that you get just 50 to 500 megawatts of energy, rather than 3.2 gigawatts.
“It’s the economics of volume versus the economics of scale,” Greatrex says.
The initial batch of SMRs will almost certainly be built on the site of decommissioned larger reactors: communities there are socialised to nuclear; there are good grid connections; and the geography favours PWRs. This could help overcome a raft of potential political, planning or permit obstacles.
Dark horses
While the SMRs bolt towards an early-2030s target, the government hopes to back other horses in slower time. The AMRs might use technologies that ultimately prove more efficient, such as MoltexFlex’s molten-salt reactor. Or they might have different applications, such as local start-up U-Battery.
U-Battery was developing a gas-cooled micro-modular reactor (MMR) that could fit into a shed on land barely larger than a tennis court. Rather than feeding the grid, it could provide stand-alone heat and power to a single business or operation – a steelmaker, a hydrogen producer, a mine, a data centre – or to a remote township.
Its key backer, Urenco, ultimately couldn’t pull in investors, and in March handed the intellectual property to the government-backed National Nuclear Laboratory.
Other AMRs have higher-profile investors: TerraPower has Bill Gates; NewCleo has Italy’s Agnelli family. Most are working across multiple markets. X-Energy, for example, is using US funding to build a pilot of its gas-cooled pebble-bed reactor in Texas, which it says would allow it to roll out quickly in Britain.
“We’d probably benefit from two or three technologies,” Paul Norman, director of the Birmingham Centre for Nuclear Education and Research, told The Times recently. “You don’t want too many different designs, but you probably also want a bit of diversity and competition between vendors.”
The government has fired the starter’s gun, and the race in Britain is on. There’s bipartisan political support and investor interest, so Greatrex’s only anxiety is that Westminster might become distracted.
“It’s about maintaining momentum and focus. When something is at the top of the agenda it gets that attention and focus,” he says. “But if that focus is lost, that drive and commitment is lost? Then things could go back to taking a very long time.”
Sancho Pansy, pipe the f down about stuff you know nothing about. You’re not the smartest person in the room.
You’ve never walked in a small business’ shoes – stick to your lane.
Naaa, you think?
Trade world is mostly cash based when dealing with individuals.
On Nuclear, a Site to Bookmark
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org
Oh God.
A bit.
I offer it, but truthfully, most can’t be bothered with it for larger jobs.
Two hours here and there for a blocked drain or installing a power point, yes.
But bigger jobs they mostly prefer through the books.
Large amounts of cash present two problems.
Firstly you have to be able to use it. Most tradies pay for materials on credit, so that isn’t an outlet. And only a fool would pay the entirety of wages in cash. He runs the real risk of being hit up for … hellooo! … unpaid wages in the future.
The smart ones treat it as a little bit of cream for small after hours or weekend jobs, but don’t go the full Cranston.
I find that paying on time, all the time brings significant advantages – particularly in smaller communities and tighter industries. You tend to find people who want your business and are happy to provide services on time and to a standard.
Go the other way and you look like you’re struggling, or the government (yes, thanks for your 14 day invoice, but we pay 90 days on the dot). Suddenly you’re looking at risk-adjusted pricing and being ‘fitted in’.
Sounds trite and trivial, but it approaches the standard of an Iron Law.
Not many people seem to know that.
‘We Wanted to Shoot all Christians in the Class!’ – Austrian Teens Arrested before Planned Massacre
They have a history of violence and criminality, but are also inconspicuous.
That sounds suspiciously like “Mostly peaceful, but fiery protest.” Which also tells me the authorities are looking for an excuse to blame everyone else except the Muslims.
Opinion
NAPLAN benchmarks have changed, but bad results stay the same
The national school test results show one in three children failed to reach expectations in basic numeracy, reading, and writing skills.
Jordana Hunter and Nick Parkinson
The 2023 NAPLAN school test results, released today, show that an alarming number of Australian students are not on track with their learning.
The results are the first to be released since the introduction of the new NAPLAN measurement scale. Results are now reported against four categories. Students identified in the “Needs Additional Support” and “Developing” categories were below expectations for their learning at the time of testing.
About one in three students failed to reach expectations in numeracy, reading and writing. More than 40 per cent of year 3 and year 9 students fell short in grammar and punctuation. All states have considerable room for improvement. In each of the east-coast states, for example, at least 20,000 students fell short of the expected level in year 3 reading. Across the country, almost 100,000 year 9 students fell short in numeracy.
This matters because literacy and numeracy are fundamental life skills, and closely linked to wellbeing and success after school.
Some people might try to explain away these results by arguing that the new NAPLAN benchmark is set too high. Those people are wrong.
The new benchmark for each of the NAPLAN tests is based mainly on what students should have learnt in previous years. And the proportion found to be below expectations broadly reflects what international tests set by the OECD, among others, have long told us.
The 2023 results also cast a damning spotlight on the inequities that persist across Australia’s education system.
Falling short of the benchmark
Students in remote areas, those whose parents who did not complete high school, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are more likely to fall short of the benchmark. For example, 56 per cent of year 9 remote students were below expectations in reading, compared to 31 per cent of metropolitan students. And in every state, more than half of students whose parents have no paid work fell short of the benchmark in numeracy.
Many factors that influence learning are beyond the control of educators. But within school, the most important factor is the quality of teaching that students receive. There is only so much governments can do to boost teaching quality and get more students back on track.
Every teacher in every classroom must be equipped with the knowledge and tools for great teaching day in and day out. This includes clearer guidance on evidence-backed teaching practices. Education ministers’ recent agreement to reform initial teacher education will go some way to help the next generation of teachers, but much greater investment is needed to support teachers already in schools.
One way governments can help is to ensure all schools have access to high-quality, comprehensive sequences of curriculum materials that build knowledge and skills across year levels. A 2022 Grattan Institute survey of more than 2200 Australian teachers and school leaders found that only 15 per cent of teachers had access to such materials for all the subjects they teach.
Australian teachers deserve world-class materials to help them plan, just as their students deserve to be taught with world-class materials. Establishing an independent body to quality-assure comprehensive sequences of curriculum materials would give schools confidence that any materials they select are grounded in evidence, rather than educational fads, vague promises or glossy marketing.
The proportion found to be below expectations broadly reflects what international tests set by the OECD, among others, have long told us.
Given NAPLAN’s sobering results, it is also clear much more needs to be done to identify struggling students early. It is too late to wait until the year 3 NAPLAN tests to find out that one in three students has failed to meet expectations.
As a first step, education ministers should introduce a nationally consistent year 1 phonics check, to systematically identify students who struggle with essential early literacy skills. England adopted this approach in 2012, and its reading results have improved markedly since.
International research also shows the benefits of targeted intervention for struggling students through an “extra dose” of teaching, such as small-group tutoring. There is also good evidence that well-designed and well-implemented technology programs – such as digital tutors that provide practice in reading and maths – can help students who are not on track. Australia’s education ministers should fund rigorous evaluations to identify the best such programs.
The 2023 NAPLAN results are a warning sign that education ministers cannot ignore. They must act now to prevent more students falling through the gaps.
Or worse, she forced him to watch her taking a shower?
Testink
And right on cue …
Seven minutes and the hook is down the guts.
Not bad.
Now, would you care to answer as to why anyone in the hotel industry would give credit when they could simply rely on the industry convention of “no credit card – no key”?
I mean, we hear how fabulously successful your backpackers is and how it has 93.1% occupancy.
Why give credit to anyone if they are queued up to get in?
The Commonwealth public service used not to be a model account payer (it might, ho, ho, be different now).
https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/naplan-national-results
NAPLAN national results
Read the full NAPLAN commentar.
Download the
NAPLAN national results
ACARA reports NAPLAN national results for each year level tested (Years 3, 5, 7 and 9) and domain for Australia as a whole, by state/territory as well as by:
. gender
. Indigeneity
. language background other than English status
. parental occupation
. parental education
. remoteness.
We use the data to see how students have progressed in literacy and numeracy across the years of schooling.
The interactive displays below show NAPLAN student achievement as:
. average NAPLAN scores
. percentages of students achieving within the 4 proficiency levels for each domain and year level.
Proficiency levels
From 2023, we report student achievement in NAPLAN against 4 levels of proficiency.
This replaces the previous numerical NAPLAN bands and national minimum standards.
View NAPLAN results prior to 2023.
Time series reset
From 2023 we have reset the NAPAN measurement scale and time series. This means you can’t compare NAPLAN achievement prior to 2022 to that from 2023 onwards.
From 2024 you will be able to see NAPLAN results as a time series and compare to previous years.
That Biden has escaped secure dementia care is a given.
The more worrying thing is that, with the US and the rest of the world watching intently, nobody in the Deministration thinks to manage the National embarrassment. Apparently nobody cares – or they have a cunning plan and are throwing the old pervert to the wolves in agonising slow motion.
Yes.
I think prompt payment, whatever form it takes, is the thing.
Try getting a plumber to repair your heater mid-winter when you strung him out for payment the year before.
The truth is, it is usually me chasing them for a bill, rather than them chasing me for money.
Speaking of Paying Bills!
Queens Wharf consortium stops paying Multiplex bills
Michael Bleby
Senior reporter
The consortium behind Brisbane’s $3.6 billion Queens Wharf integrated resort development has stopped paying builder Multiplex’s invoices in a dispute over delay claims, extensions of time and rising costs, putting completion of the already-delayed project at further risk.
The Destination Brisbane Consortium issued Multiplex with a payment demand for $123,650,000 on July 10 for liquidated damages and has withheld payment of subsequent progress claims the builder has made for the project on the edge of the Brisbane River.
The project comprising four new luxury hotels, two residential towers with about 1500 units and one commercial tower was originally due to open last year and has a $2.6 billion price tag. It is now set for an April 2024 finish and to have cost $3.6 billion by then.
The dispute is thought to be costing Multiplex in the vicinity of $1 million per day in terms of labour and materials, excluding variations required by DBC.
The court action also raises risks of delay – both for the client in taking delivery of a working asset and also for the builder of higher preliminary costs that eat into profitability and prevent it from moving resources to other profitable projects – said the head of the Australian Constructors Association, an industry group for large contractors.
“You’re relying on the goodwill and balance sheet and understanding of the large contractor to essentially keep going and keep supporting your supply chain until the project is complete and the issues resolved,” ACA chief executive Jon Davies said.
“Generally speaking, something like this is not going to help get your project finished on time. It is essentially tying one arm behind the contractor’s back and expecting them to keep going and finish your project.”
Neither party would comment. The project on a riverfront site bounded by Alice, George and Queen streets is on state government-owned land. A spokeswoman for deputy premier and minister for state development, infrastructure, local government and planning Steven Miles declined to comment.
Multiplex is claiming up to $420 million from its client for costs it says it has incurred in accelerating work, rising input costs and other delays. A large component of its claim stems from delays it said it had no control over and which the consortium is responsible for.
The consortium’s liquidated damages claims individually total about $360 million, but industry sources said conventions limiting such claims to 10 per cent of a project’s value could cap that actual value at about $140 million.
Queens Wharf is one of the largest projects in Australia hit by surging costs, bad weather and labour shortages that pushed up the value of work yet to be done – used by the industry as a proxy for delays – to a record $224 billion in the March quarter.
Mr Davies said that at a time when subcontractor groups were asking for stronger security of payment protections – which the federal government has agreed to implement – the dispute showed up the problem subcontractors faced if their head contractor was not sufficiently able to offset its own risks.
“If the head contractor, for whatever reason, isn’t getting paid, there’s no money going into trust accounts and ultimately, if the contractor falls over, there won’t be enough money to pay the trades,” he said.
From recollection they were always pretty good.
They don’t pay their own individual accounts any more (of course).
Most of the extreme grief with govt departments is with the Qld state govt. (who also don’t pay their own accounts – allowing Campbell Newman to get away with the outright lie that the govt’s bills to small business are always paid within 14 days or somesuch falsification)
No. We have not had this discussion before.
You may be confusing it with you trolling & expounding forth condescendingly about small business, making shit up, & reframing, without any idea what you’re on about.
A common circumstance.
Spot the difference?
Sancho Panzer
Aug 23, 2023 11:52 AM
Dr Faustus
Aug 23, 2023 11:36 AM
The scale of corporate delinquency.
The sheer number of corporations that avoid/deflect paying their bills.
I find that paying on time, all the time brings significant advantages – particularly in smaller communities and tighter industries.
Yes.
I think prompt payment, whatever form it takes, is the thing.
Try getting a plumber to repair your heater mid-winter when you strung him out for payment the year before.
The truth is, it is usually me chasing them for a bill, rather than them chasing me for money.
Sancho,
I learnt a big lesson watching my Stone Mason Father-in-Law chasing up well known Rich people trying to get them to pay their bills – The Rich were the worst
When it came to running Companies, I always worked on the Golden Rule of paying my Bills on time
With regards to Trades, your comment – The truth is, it is usually me chasing them for a bill, rather than them chasing me for money. is what I usually do
My Lawns Guy for over 20 years, I used to see how fast I could pay him when the email Invoice came in – best effort 4 Mins
With Just completed Electrical – Email Invoice received 9.48pm Monday night – did not see emails till next morning – paid at 10.52 Tuesday Morning
If only Multiplex had first consulted Stenching Pantyhose, & obtained clear funds on a credit card, they’d not be in this fix.
Stupid Multiplex. Smart Sancho.
BJ
No disputing that.
The question was around corporations though, not government.
Unless Conrad is a SovCit who thinks The Government is a corporation.
Setting aside the ridiculously inept proposition that a hotel operator would take a bad debt risk when the credit card option is available, many delays in corporate world are due to their control systems.
They key is getting a Purchase Order.
In the Conrad example cited it goes like this …
Guest : “I’d like a room please. My boss is a toal c-nt and won’t give me a credit card. Can I have the room on tick?”
Conrad Fawlty : “Sure. No problems. Can you give me the PO number and the name and contact number of the procurement person who issued it so I can get a copy.”
Guest : (looking at shoes) “Ummm … err … not sure … she’s on leave I think … not back until we check out.”
My scenario of people double-dipping by claiming a per diem and then telling the provider to send an invoice to HQ is far more likely.
How do I know this?
I worked with a bunch of guys who used to do it.
Or, rather, try it, until they got shunted.
They actually worked for a subby and got stuff billed to the head contractor which was the subby’s responsibility and included in their contract.
Sancho badly needs a remedial “reading for comprehension” course. For he is reframing corporate delinquency into delinquency of an individual.
Joe Antoinette Biden lies to survivors, makes it all about himself in Hawaii
By Post Editorial Board
Last week, when President Biden announced his trip to Maui, The Post asked: How much do you want to bet he will act inappropriately to family members and try to make it all about himself?
If there was anyone dumb enough to take that bet, it’s time to pay up.
Even by Joe’s low standards, this trip was a debacle. Our tone-deaf commander-in-chief takes off from the Lake Tahoe home of a Democratic donor, does a fly-by of the island, then turns around to go back on vacation. Mission accomplished!
While on the ground, Biden points at some burned-out buildings, stiffly shakes hands with some first responders, and puts on a facial expression that’s meant to convey “serious” when it more resembles rigor mortis.
The Biden team set up a presidential lectern in the middle of the rubble, which is bad enough, but they also brought along a tiny little table to set his water on. Gotta make sure Joe Antoinette Biden doesn’t get thirsty. Guess we should be grateful they didn’t bring a teleprompter, which is why he stared at his speech the entire time.
Then Biden decided the best way to show Hawaii that he cares is to lie. Again. He recounted the harrowing moment firefighters had to “run into the flames” of his home to save his wife, Jill..
This. Never. Happened.
For years, Biden has turned a minor kitchen blaze into the Great Chicago Fire, even after the Delaware department he praises says it was “insignificant.”
The press tries to gaslight us by saying that Biden recounting this fire, or insisting his son Beau died in Iraq when he really died of cancer, resonates with victims. “Biden … has long been seen as uniquely adept at leading with empathy amid tragedies like this one,” the Washington Post claimed this week
But this isn’t empathy. This is ego. And it’s insulting.
From where do you hear this?
Citation required.
Now, now, Conrad.
No diversions.
We were talking specifically about paying for hospitality (hotel rooms and meals).
We weren’t talking about actually building the hotel itself.
Probably Multiplex isn’t the best example to choose when trying to demonstrate relative smartness.
Remember Wembley?
Is your occupancy rate high or low, Conrad?
Please copy & paste where those two items were being discussed.
No diversions.
Wasn’t Tony Abbott the main instigator in Hanson being prosecuted and going to jail?
Yep. He held coffee shop meetings with his compatriots in the ALP to cook up the railroading of her.
I don’t believe over a thousand are still missing. If there were so many of them wouldn’t their pictures be publicised so that if they were elsewhere they could be taken off the list. I also didn’t see any feverish activity in trying to find the remains of the missing people. Wouldn’t the search be particularly feverish in the case of missing children? Why don’t we know the names of the missing children? It doesn’t add up.
Boy does this fluctuate
Real time energy dashboard
You’re seeing in real time the dashboard for our King Island renewable energy solution.
It is based on contributions from wind and solar and the enabling technologies that improve system security and reliability, such as battery, dynamic resister, flywheel and demand side management.
And just like that, Sancho the great reframer goes silent.
Yet another faceplant by the smartest guy in the room.
It’d be easy to believe it is Malcolm Turnbull using an alias.
Crossie, this CBS article may contain some of the background you were referring to.
I like both of them as well and was rather taken aback at Pauline’s overreaction to Latham’s tweet. Seeing the subject of the tweet I guessed that Ashby was the one who felt disrespected. Pauline should have been the one to back down a bit in this case, staffers are easier to find than successful candidates.
Crossie.
Numbers are shaken, but apparently the ubermongs not only didn’t sound the emergency siren, they sent the kids home from school to in some cases, empty houses.
I’ve seen figures of 800 missing.
Lot will be kids.
How Much of Today’s ‘Racism’ Is Manufactured?
COMMENTARY – By Roger Kimball
The real problem with racism in America today is that demand far outstrips supply.
Where does the demand come from? Chiefly from our woke elites.
It is they who understand that the charge of “racism” is a potent meal ticket and guarantor of institutionalized political power. Accordingly, they have a large stake in perpetuating the reign of racism. In this realm, too, incentives matter.
It is also worth noting that many of these elite race cadets are white. Blacks are invited to participate in this theatrical production, but only so long as they play their assigned roles. They must mouth the pieties about “systemic,” i.e., perpetual, incurable racism.
The main narrative of this drama is racial conflict, enforced and perpetuated partly by a woke media machine, partly by governmental fiat.
The real goal is the destruction of America as a meritocratic republic that cherishes individual liberty and the rule of law.
These are points that Thomas D. Klingenstein makes in “Racism in America Today: A Real or Manufactured Problem?”, a powerful speech he delivered at the Women’s National Republican Club earlier this summer and just posted on his website at tomklingenstein.com. “To a very significant degree,” he argues, racism is a weapon “crafted by woke Leftists in order to overthrow the American way of life.”
Klingenstein, chairman of the Claremont Institute, is refreshingly forthright. “To the woke Left I say, ‘if you want to destroy America, then we will fight you and defeat you. America is not yours to destroy.’” Hear, hear.
This speech is full of hard truths. “Blacks commit more than 50% of the violent crime in America,” Klingenstein notes, “yet are only about 13% of population. The woke tell us this is due to racism, but Americans know better. We know that racism does not cause more crime, or out-of-wedlock births, or lower academic achievement.”
And here’s the kicker: “It is not racism but culture that causes outcome differences. But the woke make it very difficult for the rest of us to say it, because if it’s culture that explains outcome differences then the blame rests not on whites but on blacks.” That grinding sound you hear is The Narrative coming unglued.
Klingenstein is also clearsighted about the ultimate aim of the woke weaponization of race: “group outcome equality.” Most Americans, he points out, believe in color-blind advancement according to merit. Hence “these two goals are utterly irreconcilable. You can’t offer admission to college, medical school, law school, flight training, or anything else according to race and other quotas and, at the same time, offer admission according to merit. It’s one or the other: merit or group quotas.”
Klingenstein is right: “These irreconcilable goals make this struggle a war,” a war in which “the woke Left seeks total victory.” We do not often acknowledge the uncompromising nature of this ideology. What it wants is not compromise, and certainly not conciliation. What it wants is the utter destruction of its enemy, which is us.
This generally unacknowledged home truth helps to explain why the word “racism” silences conversation and sends an anticipatory shudder of delight down the spines of politically correct vigilantes of virtue. Like the word “heretic” in an earlier age, “racism” is more weapon than word. Its primary effect is not to describe but to intimidate, ostracize, and silence.
What semantic significance it may command is overshadowed by its use as an epithet. Once it is successfully applied to a person or practice, a sort of secular damnation, or at least excommunication, ensues. Seldom is there any appeal, let alone absolution. Those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, said St. Mark, cannot be forgiven. Racism is the eternal, the unforgivable, sin of our age. Those successfully accused of racism are beyond the pale, cast out into utter darkness.
It would be a tall order to explain why this should be so, but it seems clear, as Klingenstein notes, that charges of racism and the pursuit of power go hand in hand.
Stan Grant is going off to Denmark….. a keen student of Kierkegaard if I remember correctly.
Years ago, a true idiot once came on the old Cat complaining the Abbott government diddled his motel out 50 k . It was splashed all over the papers and even Their ABC carried the story. Eventually he got his money, but the story pinged back from Abbott’s office was that the place was a complete shithole, dirty and unkempt and when Abbott’s aides saw what was on offer they went to another place, more conducive to human habitation. Does anyone recall the story as I just have vague memories. It was also posted on the old Cat.
Yep. Ashby instinctively sided with Greenwich, rather than with Latham. Ashby influenced Hanson accordingly.
Result: One Nation party castrated itself.
thefrollickingmole
Aug 23, 2023 12:34 PM
Crossie.
Numbers are shaken, but apparently the ubermongs not only didn’t sound the emergency siren, they sent the kids home from school to in some cases, empty houses.
I’ve seen figures of 800 missing.
Lot will be kids.
‘Children Were Incinerated To Ash’: Livid Hawaiians Slam Biden For Cracking Jokes, Lying About Wife
BY TYLER DURDEN – TUESDAY, AUG 22, 2023 – 08:55 PM
Hawaiians are livid at President Joe Biden, who finally showed up to Maui two weeks after wildfires ravaged Lahaina, killing 114 and leaving over 850 missing – only to crack inappropriate jokes and lie about his wife ‘almost’ dying in a fire.
So, Conrad, are you saying you don’t have a problem with credit extended to Big Corporate for services provided by the third best backpackers in [Please Sancho. No specific references to the shitholes where other Cats may reside. Thanks. Dover.]
Just watched Hannity on the Maui town fires, the firefighters and rescue people are beginning to be overstressed by finding house after house where the bodies of mum dad and the kids are hiding in bathrooms pretty much vapourised by the heat. I believe the death toll will be over 1000. If you had a small family and the grandparents and aunts and uncles all lived in town, there may be no-one left locally to post a photo of the family on facebook to see if you were missing. Block after block of the old town is grey and black ash. As far as I could discover, the population of Lahaina was 23,000. Plus resort holiday visitors.
Any comment commencing with “So” is from that word onward, invariably a fabrication of the person writing that comment.
As it is above.
Left Wing Ideology & Competency Crisis Kills Kids in Maui
Mike Cernovich, Substack
Competency Crisis Kills in Maui
Who do you blame when everyone is at fault?
Shock Wave.
In Beirut Lebanon an explosion inside a factory killed dozens of people and injured thousands. The film Shock Wave (high
What happened? Nothing singular. There were layers of corruption sandwiched between lack of supervision. American audiences might find Shock Wave frustrating because there’s no comic book villain to hate. Instead there’s an amorphous blob of corrupt officials and unqualified people in a long chain of causation.
Maui Fires and Shock Wave.
The Maui Fires have killed at least 100 people, mostly children. If you read between the lines of what Hawaii’s governor is saying, the death toll is likely 1,000 or more. Almost all children.
What happened? Who is the bad guy?
The fires, which are common in that area of Maui, spread because of unusually high winds. The fire most likely sparked from faulty circuit breakers. (This happened in California as well.)
Firefighters didn’t have enough water in basins to put out the fires because a diversity hire who worships the water god. The woo woo water man was out into his position by rich Democrats.
The false narrative promoted by the Governor is that climate change caused the fires.
He’s standing on top of dead kids for his agenda. And he’s lying.
The emergency alarm system wasn’t activated. Kids weren’t supervised by adults.
Hundreds or even thousands of small children burned alive. Who do you blame?
All of the above, obviously. The diffusion of responsibility means no one will face appropriate consequences.
The media in the U.S. has already moved on. Too much truth got out. You can’t have Greta call a press conference and finger wag. These fires were directly traceable to the kind of people the “free press” runs propaganda for.
We are facing a competency crisis, which is now a matter of life or death.
This upcoming 2024 election will be the opportunity to decide if we will die from DEI, or whether we will chose competency and human life.
I must admit I am thinking more and more like Glenn Reynolds that Bidens dementia may be an act.Reinforced by the occasional shark like grin.
To conclude the above comment.
Sanchez
I have to slightly disagree with you about the credit issue from the example I posted above. Sometimes, like in the case I mentioned , it would be a great idea not to prepay. Imagine walking into a 3rd world toilet as the one described by Abbott’s team. FMD.
That’s easy. The Democrat Party of Hawaii.
They own this.
Shock Wave.
In Beirut Lebanon an explosion inside a factory killed dozens of people and injured thousands. The film Shock Wave
Actually produced by ABC and on Amazon Video Prime as well as You Tube
Beirut Blast: The explosion that stole a nation’s hope | Four Corners – 43 Mins 55 Secs
Needs sign in on both
Right.
The best example we can come up with for “corporate delinquency in paying debts” is a bunfight over a construction contract between a casino developer and a construction company.
Wow!
This has never happened before since the contract was let to build the Great Pyramid.
It goes like this …
Contract delivery runs late.
Developer imposes LDs.
Construction contractor claims either Force Majeure or excusable delay directly caused by actions of the client.
Contractor’s estimators then go to town inventing ambit contract variations as counter leverage.
All part of the rich tapestry of the blood-sport that is property development.
Hardly a solid example of wilful delinquency in payment of a correctly rendered invoice.
In a just world, the Hawaiian government would not only be thrown out of office, but marched into a sea roiling with sharks.
Stunningly good article by Douglas Murray.
Sorry, but can we all please move on from the guilt trips for non- Aboriginal Australians?
By DOUGLAS MURRAY
History is always being re-evaluated. Countries constantly evolve. But rarely has a country had a change as abrupt and comprehensive as Australia in one generation. America has suffered some of it. Canada a great deal of it. But among all the countries I know, Australia seems to have gone most all-in on a re-estimation of itself. And before I get to the results, let me point to the origin.
It is very simple, really. It is that thing which John Howard caused such controversy by touching on recently when he said “the luckiest thing that happened to this country was being colonised by the British”.
On balance, do you think that it was a good thing that the country you are in was founded or not?
In the case of Australia, do you think it was on balance a good thing that the English arrived? In the case of America, would you, on balance, rather that Christopher Columbus had not set sail? Or should he – having discovered America – have returned home and pretended that there was nothing worth seeing out there?
Until very recently the answer that most Australians, like Americans, would have given to such questions would have been, “Obviously, I’m glad that the country was
discovered. And the Europeans were among the better people to discover the land.”
Would the history of Australia have been better or worse if the Chinese had colonised it first? Or if the Persians had sent their prisoners to these shores? Would it have been better for America if Columbus had been a Mongol or a Hutu? We will never know because the experiment is impossible to run. But it is suggestive. And it allows us to add some context. Because when it comes to the case of Australia, as with America and Canada, it is context that is being most lost. And that context is everything.
Of course there is plenty of emphasis on the sufferings of Aboriginal Australians. Not all of which is inflicted by others. But I often marvel at how much non- Aboriginal Australians have been expected to put up with in recent years. Not least the endless guilt-tripping and the apologies without end. The Sea of Hands displays in which hundreds of thousands of Australian citizens sponsored and signed plastic hands in Aboriginal colours to sit on the lawn outside buildings such as Parliament House in Canberra. The creation of a National Sorry Day back in 1998 and the signing of “Sorry Books”. This all happened in the last century. Nevertheless, the apologies never stop coming.
It is now 15 years since Kevin Rudd as prime minister made his apology to the Indigenous peoples of Australia. Has any of the guilt been alleviated since then? Have the “sorrys” washed away any blame? It seems not. But then, how could they? After all, something that the Australian debate seems to have almost completely ignored is something I have tried to bring out a number of times. And it is this.
As a number of the most serious and profound ethicists of the last century have agreed, an apology can work only when it comes from someone who has done a wrong and is accepted by someone who has been wronged. If it comes from someone who has themselves done no wrong and goes to someone who has not actually been wronged, then the deal is a fraud. If such an apology is offered and accepted it is a fraud on both sides. Someone who has done no wrong is pretending to be speaking for the dead. And people who have suffered no direct wrong are pretending to be able to accept an apology on behalf of people they did not know.
This may seem a longwinded way to get to the core of more recent events. But it is important. Australia feels like it is stuck in an apology loop because it is. And the reason that it doesn’t seem to be getting the country anywhere is because it never
could – however many cycles of this you want to go around for.
One thing that it does do is subdue the majority of Australians. As I have found when travelling the country, the typical Australian no longer seems to me to be that striding, sensible, happy-go-lucky figure of old. They seem – in my experience – to be guilt-ridden people, forever caveating their thoughts and self-conscious to an often excruciating degree.
Why? Because if you browbeat any group of people for long enough you will get that result. A cringing, creeping-through life person, who subdues their thoughts and distrusts their own speech and actions.
Which brings me back to that original question. Are you happy with the country as it is, or not?
That is the question underneath the debate on the Indigenous voice to parliament. A lot of what is being proposed sounds reasonable. But even before considering the content, just consider the tone in which these proposals are being put before the Australian people.
Thanks to an FOI we can now all read a collection of documents that informed the proposal for the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Allow me to quote:
“The invasion that started at Botany Bay is the origin of the fundamental grievance between the old and new Australians … this is the time of the Frontier Wars when massacres, disease and poison decimated First Nations even as they fought a guerrilla war of resistance. The Tasmanian Genocide and the Black War waged by the colonists reveals the truth about this evil time.
“The taking of our land without consent represents our fundamental grievance against the British Crown … By making agreements at the highest level, the negotiation process with the Australian government allows First Nations to express our sovereignty.”
That does not sound to me like the words of a group seeking dialogue or common ground. It is entirely based on the language of blame, victimhood and grievance. A language not of equality but of superiority. It refers to the British as “colonisers”, “invaders, murderers and rapists” who to this day are living “in a country that is not
their own”.
Any self-respecting person with some knowledge of history might make a few assertions of their own after reading that. They might ask whether life was so great for the settlers who arrived in those days. Plenty of them died of diseases that our species was ignorant about at the time. Besides, the Indigenous peoples were hardly a pacifist group, whatever the propagandistic history of those times now pretends.
Besides, who says whose land it is? If the Aboriginals were conquered or subjugated, then they can join the club of almost every group in human history. The whole of history is the story of peoples rolling into other peoples’ neighbourhoods, and either succeeding or failing to conquer them. It happens to be the story of Aboriginal culture as well, where Aboriginal groups subjugated, subdued and slaughtered each other. I know that it is now de rigueur to refer to the origins of the Aboriginal communities as Dreamtime. But there was nothing Dreamlike about Aboriginal societies. They were violent, poverty-stricken and woefully unadvanced even for their time.
Anyone who likes to romanticise that time today needs their head examined. You would have hated to have lived in those times, and nobody should kid themselves otherwise.
Australia’s Aborigines were not even yet pre-Medieval when the English arrived. They came face to face with the relative modernity of their time and modernity won. That may be an unpleasant fact to accept, but it is a fact. If the situations had been reversed then the outcomes would have been reversed. But they weren’t.
Yet consider how completely the facts I have just stated have been made unsayable and effectively covered over. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese may have tried to keep this whole debate as unheated as possible. But even he has been happy to say – as he did at Marrickville Town Hall in October last year – that Australian history since 1788 had been a “brutal” history.
Perhaps he could soon tell us which group’s history has not been brutal in the past two-and-a- half centuries? Any contenders? Any at all? The Maori, perhaps? That wouldn’t be a good choice. In the 1800s the Maori were busy with their own intertribal “Musket wars” in which they traded with foreign markets – including the Chinese – for muskets with which they then attacked other Maori tribes. As Nigel
Biggar has pointed out in his recent book weighing up the ethics of colonialism, “By the early 1830s the Maori were trading ‘the smoked heads of slain enemies’ for muskets, with some slaves being killed specifically to supply the heads for this grisly market.” Does anyone want to demand humility and apology from the Maori? If not, why not? Why must all historical apology and self-flagellation be in one – direction alone?
It’s not a facile question. It gets to the root of what Australia is going to keep being put through if it continues down this path.
Bruce Pascoe – who Albanese so admires – is just one of those people who has helped feed the historical fantasy that is now rampant. What this always requires is a talking up of the horrors of the “colonisers” and at the same time a talking up of the achievements of the Indigenous population. That is how Pascoe got to his Dark Emu theory in which he claims that Aboriginal Australia was the first democracy in the world and existed for 80,000 years as a peaceful and blessed haven.
There are many people who would like to believe this – and not only many Aboriginal Australians. But once you concede nonsense, fantasy history like this you will find it very hard indeed to get your footing back.
The Prime Minister assures people that the upcoming vote is not about treaty. But you just watch. If the vote goes to the Yes camp, treaty will come next, with all its follow-on demands. After all, since Albanese has said no fewer than 34 times that his government is committed to the Uluru Statement “in full”, he ought to know that the mantra of the gathering that produced that statement was “Voice, Treaty, Truth”. So it looks like treaty will be on the table soon.
And why wouldn’t it be, when the point of view that Howard made recently seems so completely on the run?
The Yes campaign has already been incredibly successful in intimidating any and all opponents. It has been adept at claiming everything it doesn’t like (such as Nine’s July anti-voice ad) is “racist”. Of course. Because everything in its view is racist. Including the founding of Australia. And if the founding of a country is “racist” then everything in it is “racist”.
I see decent commentators trying to make their partial or full “don’t hurt me”
statements. One recently did the compulsory knee-bend about the way in which, compared with the Aboriginal people, “we’ve all just stepped off the boat”. Well, just see how far that gets you. And wonder where else such kowtowing would be encouraged. Would you like to scour England and tell all the people who’ve stepped off the boat more recently than the Anglo-Saxons that they have some apologising to do? I’d like to see someone try.
Would you like to try this exercise in any of the kingdoms ransacked by the Mongols, or the Russians? As my late friend Clive James used to say, with great wisdom, in the end “we are here because history happened”.
It could have gone any number of other ways. But it didn’t. A wise person – and a wise nation – accepts that and gets on with things.
After all, Australia’s situation is not unique. It is a situation that every nation in the world knows about to some generally greater degree. It is the story of humanity, in all its darkness and light.
Australia has the choice of conceding that it is wicked and that all failures of the Aboriginal peoples in the past and present are directly due to the “settlers”. Or it can concede that one of the least racist countries in the world should at some point give itself a break. The English did nothing wrong. Neither did any of you.
Yeah, I know.
And I agree from the customer’s perspective.
But if, for example, you owned such a 0.5 star establishment, wouldn’t that be all the more reason to demand payment up front?
I mean, you don’t want the invoice to lob two weeks later when they have just gotten over the diarrhoea, and are still putting calomine lotion on the bed-bug bites.
Lol. Sancho Turnbull has, by referencing an unrelated comment, proved there is no such thing as corporate delinquency.
It doesn’t happen. Sancho the site’s secondary oracle has spoken. 🙂
Musical Cats, and there are many, might be interested to read of a welcoming new strand coming to Quadrant Magazine – Quadrant Music.
Oops, the secondary oracle is busy mutually fascinating with the site’s primary oracle.
Let ’em enjoy their pleasure.
That is horrendous, I was hoping the 1000 number was due to media exaggeration.
The Cosmic Context of Greek Philosophy. Part Five
The Agenda of the Milesian School
In 1997, William Mullen, Professor of Classical Studies at Bard College, gave a conference talk entitled: Natural Catastrophes during Bronze Age Civilisation in which he outlined what he saw as the Agenda of the Milesian School.
So, indeed, it may have been a conscious program to quell the disorder that inevitably arose when comets appeared, which suggests that comets were, indeed, appearing with some regularity, though they were no longer as threatening as they had been in the previous era of mass destruction. Nevertheless, the philosophers of the Milesian school lived in very interesting times. The period of time during which they philosophized dated (roughly) from 630-475 BC. Recall our catalogue of historical comet sightings[3] from above which I’ll repeat here:
633 BC, China: A broom star comet appeared in Auriga with its tail pointing toward Shhu State. (Ho, 4)
613 BC, Autumn, China: A broom star comet entered the constellation of the Great Bear. (Ho, 5)
532 BC, Spring, China: A new star was seen in Aquarius. (Ho, 6)
525 BC, Winter, China: A bushy star comet appeared in the winter near Antares. (Ho, 7)
516 BC, China: A broom star comet appeared. (Ho, 8)
500 BC, China: A broom star comet was seen. (Ho, 9)
482 BC, Winter, China: A bushy star comet appeared in the east. (Ho, 10)
481 BC, Winter, China: A bushy star comet was seen. (Ho, 11)
480 BC, Greece: At the time of the Greek battle of Salamis, Pliny noted that a comet, shaped like a horn (ceratias type), was seen. (Barrett, 1)
So keep that in mind as you consider the details of these philosophers’ lives.
– Thales 624 – 548 BC
– Anaximander 610 – 545 BC
– Pythagoras – The Italian School – (570-495 BC)
In any event, Pythagoras himself is said to have died a refugee after a ‘popular revolt’ against him and his companions. This could have been masterminded by the wealthy seeking power and increase of their wealth, utilizing propaganda and rabble-rousing techniques that were highly developed at that time; we just don’t know. After this disaster, we find Pythagoreans in Greece, including Philolaus in Thebes. And then, the stories began to spread.
It is also entirely possible that Plato’s famous tale of Atlantis in Timaeus and Critias was one of the main things stolen from the alleged books of Pythagoras. I’ll expound on this when we come to our discussion of Plato.
All of this is much more interesting than the fanciful tales told about the man.
One even wonders if the stories were made up to distract attention away from the truth. And, when that is the case, it is usually a decent person or a group with high ideals that have been overthrown by ravening seekers of power for its own sake, and following such acts, they erect a smoke-screen such as the one created by Plato.
As William Shakespeare said
We are oft to blame in this, tis too much proved – that with devotion’s visage and pious action, we do sugar o’er the devil himself.
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Polonius to Opheila, Act III, Scene 1.
If I don’t know the place where I’m staying at I look at reviews and if a walk up ask to look at the room. Passed on a few occassions. One thing we always do with our own AIRBNB is ask the visitors if the place is as described. Invariably the response is better than advertised. Haven’t had any complaints for a long time. Then its from R Soles who have broken something and hidden it or dog has chewed the furniture.
Err, no.
I have demonstrated that you provided, firstly, a totally avoidable example (hotel reservations) and, secondly an entirely spurious example (a construction dispute which has sfa to do with wilful payment delinquency).
I know.
We need God Oracle here to mediate the construction dispute.
Please copy paste the reference to ‘hotel reservations’
Thank you.
Everyone in the “missing” column in Maui should be moved to the “deceased” column.
There might be one or two that pop up later who are off the grid.
But it’s pretty much all done now.
Also on the Maui fires…all those burned houses with vegetation still surrounding them.
A possible explanation – asphalt roofs. Embers strike the roof and up she goes.
Sancho Turnbull has faceplanted, yet again, by attempting a reframing.
tsk tsk tsk.
Yes, one might well think that. However, per Cernovich, the concept of government responsibility is 30+ years passé:
This can be traced back in modern organisational behaviour, everywhere. The ‘Buck Stops Nowhere’ while you have higher powers to hide behind; Great Moral Challenges, Experts, conflicting priorities, and flexibly defined cultural expectations.
It’s a superpower.
No, really.
Vicki
Aug 23, 2023 1:03 PM
Stunningly good article by Douglas Murray.
Sorry, but can we all please move on from the guilt trips for non- Aboriginal Australians?
By DOUGLAS MURRAY
Australia has the choice of conceding that it is wicked and that all failures of the Aboriginal peoples in the past and present are directly due to the “settlers”. Or it can concede that one of the least racist countries in the world should at some point give itself a break.
The English did nothing wrong. Neither did any of you.
The Voice
It’s Indigenous Culture, Nothing but the Culture
I am reminded of the age-old wisdom Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat — Those whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad.
This quote seems an ideal diagnosis of so many of our present so-called leaders.
Sadly, across all spheres of government and all major political parties, we have people who personify that mental and cognitive deficiency, many of them policy-setting bureaucrats and heads of departments.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the handling of Aboriginal affairs, an area of failed management that has seen billions of dollars wasted. At last assessment, Aboriginal affairs cost taxpayers in excess of thirty billion dollars per year ($30,000,000,000.)
Yes, that is the bill year after year to sustain the obvious failures of policy we see being played out on, amongst too many other locations, the streets of Alice Springs.
Those of us who have not been stripped of our wits can only be taken aback by so little benefit, if benefit at all, flowing from such stupendous sums.
Why the unwavering devotion to an approach so clearly at odds with reality, with the horrors to be witnessed almost every night of late on the TV news?
Because present leaders (a misnomer, forgive me) lack the will and diligence to seek out, expose and act meaningfully in response to the truth.
Were they to do so, they would realise the problem with outback Aboriginal communities is rooted in the falsely hyped “culture.”
You know, the one we hear has continued unbroken for 60,000 years.
Surely that has been enough time to grasp that it is a curse enforced by those who now extol it.
So what is Aboriginal culture and why should we laud or condemn it?
Surely it isn’t exemplified by the shuffling of dusty feet to the beat of clap sticks. Just as surely it cannot be the moaning drone of a didgeridoo or the claiming of eternal sovereignty over all the land amid a smokescreen of burning gum leaves.
Nor is it a culture – forgive me for being blunt — based on any notable achievement other than survival and adaption on and to an often harsh continent.
Aboriginal culture as practiced when Europeans settled our wide brown land, and as it’s noxious vestiges persist in remote settlements, was and remains a vile, dominating, patriarchal ethos that condemns women and children to physical and sexual abuse by older men.
Before we start tampering with the Constitution, let our so-called leaders find the courage to acknowledge the truth and act upon it.
This abuse often results in hospital admission, sometimes in death.
That this unacceptable debasement of human dignity continues to prevail is evident in the hospitals of Alice Springs, or Katherine, or any other hospital catering for Aboriginal people in remote areas.
I think we can file the hotel bad debts story under “S” for “Suicidal Management Practices”.
JUST IN: President Biden jokes about how hot the ground is in Maui after a fire ripped through, killing hundreds.
“You guys catch the boots out here? That’s a hot ground, man,” he joked.
Despite media reports of roughly 100 deaths from the fires, locals estimate that at least 480 people were killed.
“I know there are at least 480 dead here in Maui and I don’t understand why they’re [the authorities] not saying that,” said one local.
850 people are still missing.
Sad to hear that Heath Streak, aged 49, has died due to cancer. The only Zimbabwe bowler to take over 100 test wickets. He finished with over 200 test wickets. It will be a long time, if ever, for another bowler from Zim to take those number of wickets.
He and the Fowler brothers made Zim cricket competitive at test and ODI level.
No.
You faceplanted.
Stay in your lane. Stick to telling Multiplex they’re dumbasses. That might work for you.
Upthread earlier today, a commenter, sorry, can’t remember who, when talking about owning your own business, stated that one of the most important things to do is get rid of the deadwood. (paraphrasing here)
Link to an awesome example of just such a piece of deadwood. Karma Rules!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12434983/Ray-White-Aspley-Brisbane-agent-mocks-renters-nobodies.html
4,000 year old network of ceramic water pipes reveal complex engineering capabilities of neolithic peoples of China
According to a study published in the journal Nature Water, Neolithic people living in China were capable of complex engineering feats without the need for a centralised state authority.
The discovery of a network of ceramic water pipes and drainage ditches at the walled site of Pingliangtai, has revealed new insights into how people during the Neolithic period were able to manage and redirect water.
Pingliangtai is located in the southwest corner of Dazhu Village in Huaiyang County, central China. The site dates from around 4,300 during the Longshan period, emerging into one of China’s earliest major population centres that was inhabited by around 500 inhabitants.
Situated on the Upper Huai River Plain on the vast Huanghuaihai Plain, the area’s climate 4,000 years ago was marked by big seasonal climate shifts, where summer monsoons would commonly dump half a metre of rain on the region monthly.
The people of Pingliangtai constructed an advanced drainage system with interconnected ceramic water pipes – strategically positioned along roads and walls to redirect the rainwater. The sophisticated arrangement of these pipes showcases an advanced level of central planning, despite archaeologists finding little evidence of social hierarchy.
Dr Yijie Zhuang (UCL Institute of Archaeology), senior and corresponding author on the paper, said: “The discovery of this ceramic water pipe network is remarkable because the people of Pingliangtai were able to build and maintain this advanced water management system with stone age tools and without the organisation of a central power structure. This system would have required a significant level of community-wide planning and coordination, and it was all done communally.”
Co-author Dr Hai Zhang of Peking University said: “Pingliangtai is an extraordinary site. The network of water pipes shows an advanced understanding of engineering and hydrology that was previously only thought possible in more hierarchical societies.”
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/08/vote-yes-for-cake-and-coke/
Gary Johns is completely spot on. And the language cited in his article is frequently thrown at us whitefellas who visit/traverse these cesspits of despair. His final paragraph…
Omg! Insulting her customer base, and she contemptuously disparaged ordinary Aussies, considering herself better than them.
The boss had no choice but to sack her in a heartbeat.
There’s only one place for her attitude: Government service, she’ll fit right in.
Douglas Murray can see it so clearly as can most sane everyday people and yet our elites are blind as bats. On the other hand, they know it but are just evil and think that oppressing the majority will bring them even more power. And it is oppression as Douglas explained, when you constantly brand people as racist for simply existing you are oppressing them.
Could be, although he said outright on Bolt the other night that he was not the originator of Pauline’s outrage and didn’t see himself as any target of homophobia by Latham.
I’m still more of the view that Pauline’s traditional sense of what should be said in mixed company or in public was what prompted her outburst requiring an apology to the people </em. I bolded that term in my original comment. It was her followers, 'the people', whom she was trying to protect from 'bad language' and any association with 'indecency' I thought.
aargh. Emphasis fail.
To paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies, well he would say that, wouldn’t he.
Question – the painting is from 1632. Why are men and women working together in their persoanl field.
Why are’nt the women tied to the stove with the apron strings etc etc
This image allways portrayed theough out the centuries as men and women working together in the fileds for their survival.
Can some explain the feminist agle to this.
Indeed, we are.
Obviously the neoithic Chinese sourced their hydrography and reticulation expertise from Australia.
Riddle me this, Cats. Have you all read the “Yes” case, in your official referendum booklet, and resolved to change your vote, as a result?
Nah. me neither.
Baby dies after being found unresponsive inside a car in 33C Outback town Fitzroy Crossing
A baby has died after being found unresponsive inside a car in remote Western Australia.
The one-year-old was found inside a car parked outside the Department of Communities offices in Fitzroy Crossing, about 400km east of Broome, at 3pm on Tuesday.
The baby was the child of a Department of Communities worker.
Temperatures at the time of the tragic accident were close to 33C.
bons, you beat me to it! As soon as I read old ozzie’s comment, my first thought was the First Abo’s taught the Neolithics the art of drainage. LOL
Is there nothing our Indigenes couldn’t do before the EVIL WHITEY enslaved them? 😀
If only we changed the constitution so that the mum had a voice.
https://www.skynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Credlin-Editorial-PDF-2.pdf
If I have copied it correctly, this document contains much of what is envisaged in The Voice. Specially note the references to sovereignty. It is very clear that sovereignty has NOT been conceded. At best they may accept co-sovereignty.
As the pamplets have gone out I happen to be doing Nonna duty with my beautiful grandies. Left-leaning son has received his Yes/No case pamphlet, he is sympathetic to the cause but will be voting No – he said that if this was a debate the Yes campaign is just utterly, utterly fourth-rate, Year 6 level. Full of pithy aphorisms of which we’ve heard enough and unsubstantiated assertions
Well blow me down. When they’ve lost him, they’ve really lost.
Dreadful story from Western Australia. The lone comment below says it all.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12434517/Salimah-Elizabeth-Ainsworth-avoids-jail-telling-son-drown-three-year-old-devil-brother-bath-Kambalda-West-Western-Australia.html