Well done to the camera operator also.
Open Thread – Weekend 26 Aug 2023
- Open Thread – Remembrance Day 2024
- The Sweetest Victory
- Open Thread – Weekend 9 November 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 7 Nov 2024
- US Presidential Election 2024 Thread
Arky, are you going back to Model A wheels or sticking with the later ones? Or have a set of…
Conservatives have come out in support of leftists in matters of principle but it rarely goes the other way.
Still no news on whether Tulsi Gabbard is getting a gig in Trump’s cabinet. I do feel she’s owed something…
Wasn’t it Mark Riley who asked Julia Gilliard “Prime Minister, what can we do to help?”
TRUMP THE DISSIDENT RETURNS?
But here’s the rub, while I don’t think Trump is a dissident now, he is once again playing the role. He has millions who see him as unjustly persecuted for his politics, and a movement based on the premise of political persecution is already in gear.
I am not certain whether to fear or welcome this situation, but I think its foolish to dismiss it.
Trump the Dissident?
American political elites held a funeral this past weekend. Senator John McCain, a real American hero, was laid to rest in what became the most divisive political memorial service of a US statesman in decades. McCain, a pillar of the Washington political establishment, was rolled out in an attempt to show the American people the difference between a gentleman and a crude lowlife, i.e., Trump.
Yet, all it accomplished was to once again highlight the position of Donald Trump as a dissident within US politics. For what the McCain funeral illustrated was by nearly every measure Donald Trump is being treated by the American political establishment as if he were, and on his part, acting as if he is, a political dissident.
No Trump’s not the Dali Lama nor is Amnesty International going to light a candle for him. Yet in the US capital Trump qualifies as a dissident even by the Webster’s definition; “disagreeing especially with an established religious or political system, organization, or belief.”
Would anyone argue Bernie Sanders wasn’t a dissident candidate in the Democratic Party? How is Trump, in a city with the political establishment arrayed against him, any is different.
Less than 20% of the National Capital Area voted for Trump. In DC he had 4% of the vote. In an all gangster town the new sheriff, or in this case President, doesn’t always run the entire show.
Forget Trump the man. Many a dissident has been difficult, uncouth, surrounded by less than desirable elements, and in general a pain in the ass. Normal people are not dissidents. Normal people do not become President of the United States.
Yes, Trump is under investigation, but dissidents the world over are charged with crimes or under investigation. The point is not the validity of the charges; the point is the DC political establishment is following the same game plan against Trump that less democratic regimes use on their political opponents.
Why expect Trump to respond any differently than a dissident abroad?
The McCain funeral, with its “Trump is evil” theme was a full on effort by DC elites, with the blessing of McCain himself, to attack Trump.
It’s like watching the United Front in Hong Kong attack the democracy movement. No one who knows the democracy movement doesn’t know their many faults, but we know the CCP and United Front as well. We’ll take the unorganized and sloppy democracy advocates over the Commies any day.
The equation is the same for Trump. He may be a son of a bitch, but he is his backers son of a bitch and he is sticking it to the DC establishment his people hate.
But what ties together seeing Trump as a political dissident is Trump. Trump acts like a dissident.
A dissident is wrecker of political systems, a loner of incredible resolution, a general pain in the ass, and one who may not be certain in their own moral authority but has rock solid belief to tear down the illegitimate and corrupted system they fight.
For all of this I have no expectation that any of Trump’s political opponents will grant him any quarter, nor will my argument find favour with those hell bent on running Trump out of office.
Yet, in understanding Trump’s actions and responses, as well as his supporters unflinching backing, it’s vital to recognise we are dealing with Trump, the dissident.
I would hope it’s nothing more sinister like Farquharson. Heart hurts after reading.
Disney put sheer visual magic into its early depictions of the Cinderella and Snow White stories. Little girls learned all sorts of useful things from them. Cinderella showed how optimism, kindness and hope was always possible no matter how dire the circumstances and that good was rewarded as well as being its own reward. Snow White showed that caring, patience and tolerance were virtues that could overcome another woman’s vicious and jealous plotting and envy, and that the work of dwarves kept the world turning. The tales also told some eternal verities about men and women – that they need to partner, to find each other, and to see in each other the very best of virtues. Masculine and feminine are clearly differentiated, as Weberian Ideal Types. And there is nothing at all wrong for any child to see that in a fairy tale.
Those interested in the origin of folklore, as I am, may look more deeply at these tales of a remnant cosmology that reflected a pan-Indo-European culture from long ago. The sex role differentiation was a given in these cultures, but with men and women both accorded agency and volition within the cultural constraints. The ‘wicked stepmother’ is quite likely a meme from societies that stress descent. A man’s previous children may be disliked by a new and powerful wife favouring her own children in a patrilineal system; or a in a matrilineal system the children of a man may have no rights to his matrilineal lands. Where both systems of descent operate for specific purposes, as in the kindred-based double-unilineal cultures of Europe, then tensions between women and a man’s previous offspring can arise in numerous ways over resource allocation, creating the the wicked stepmother image which represents these tensions, framed as feminine allure in a magical mirror in Snow White and a tiny foot size in Cinderella.
Magical mirrors, which like reflections in water, created images of life in ‘the otherworld’, came forth with the development of metals that were reflective, initially precious and rare gold, later polished alloys of copper that made bronze, then in early forms of steel and glass. Handsome Princes represent something notable in all human culture – hypergamy – the tendency of young women to wish to ‘marry up’, and the power held by men that allowed them a status choice in mates (consult any evolutionary biologist on this). The Meaghan Markles of their day. 🙂
Opinion Global Insight
China hopes expanded Brics will turn world upside down
The size of proposed 11-country grouping would put G7 in the shade
For China, a decision on Thursday to expand the Brics bloc of developing economies by adding six new countries is all about trying to right the perceived wrongs of a global system that favours the US-led west.
The move to add Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the five existing members of Brics — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — creates a grouping of impressive size and influence.
After decades of the western world dominating global institutions, China is attempting to build a club that, by some measures of economic power, would turn the world upside down.
“Beijing’s focus is on creating a counterweight to the G7,” said Moritz Rudolf, research fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center in the US. “Strengthening the Brics grouping is a valuable tool in the pursuit for Chinese leadership.”
The size of the new 11-country grouping puts the G7 — which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US and EU — into the shade.
Excluding the EU — which is classified as a G7 “non-enumerated” member — the group of advanced democracies accounts for just 9.8 per cent of the world’s population and 29.8 per cent of global gross domestic product, calculated by purchasing power parity (PPP).
The new Brics group, by contrast, will account for 47 per cent of the world’s population and 37 per cent of its GDP by PPP.
The new grouping also possesses the lion’s share of the world’s oil and gas reserves, as well as a huge endowment of other natural resources.
All this, China hopes, will give it the heft that Beijing has long sought to reform the way the world works. Indeed, China cherishes many ambitions, some of which were discernible through a heavy loam of diplomatic language in the 26-page declaration after the Brics summit this week.
“Beijing seems to have been particularly successful at shaping the agenda and the Brics discussion this year,” said Helena Legarda, lead analyst at Merics, a Berlin-based think-tank on China. “Much of the language in the leaders’ declaration reflects Chinese positions.”
A repeated call in the declaration was for the reform of international institutions to give more power to developing countries.
One of these demands was for an overhaul of the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank and the IMF. Currently, the operations of both institutions are dominated by the US, Japan and other western democracies.
The call for reform included an explicit demand for “a greater role for emerging markets and developing countries, including in leadership positions”, the declaration said. Traditionally, the World Bank’s president has been an American citizen, while the IMF’s managing director has been European.
The declaration also urged “comprehensive reform” of the UN, which Beijing regards as central to global governance. One reform demanded was to the Security Council, the UN’s most powerful body, which should “increase the representation of developing countries”, the declaration said.
The Security Council currently consists of five permanent members — two of which are China and Russia — and 10 non-permanent members. Both Brazil and India, as well as other developing nations, are seeking elevated powers at the top of the UN.
This suite of reforms, if achieved, would have to come largely at the expense of some developed countries’ influence in the World Bank, IMF and in the UN. For this reason, such demands have aroused considerable resistance from G7 countries and others in the developed world.
The new Brics bloc also faces other challenges. Not all members — particularly India and Brazil — are comfortable with the overtly anti-western tone espoused by China and Russia in meetings, said one official from a Brics country, who declined to be further identified.
Geopolitical unity is also elusive on some other key issues, including the war in Ukraine, analysts said. Amid a long list of calls for political solutions to prevail in crises in Sudan, Haiti, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere, the wording on Ukraine was notably awkward.
“We recall our national positions concerning the conflict in and around Ukraine,” the declaration said. There was no mention of Russia’s invasion and subsequent aggression.
“It will be difficult for Beijing to create a parallel structure to the G7,” said Rudolf, adding that levels of political mistrust between some Brics members were high.
Nevertheless, the expanded grouping represents the most influential bloc the developing world has ever produced. There is a sense that after decades of accepting the west’s rules, the era of the “global south” is dawning. That feeling may be enough to give it traction.
Dover Beach:
You’re looking at BRICS as an economic institution. It is not. It is a political institution, wearing a cloak of many hues, but mainly red, one that our Trotskyist Wunder Child will happily join.
“The Hood Is Waking Up!” – Blacks Cheer Trump After Arrest – Trump Support from Black Community Climbs to 20% Support in Latest Poll
I might once have dismissed this as unsophisticated taxi-driver hyperbowl – or the unhinged nationalist frothings of a Gay Garage Grampian.
But I’m old enough to remember:
We are not governed by Top Men.
Driver had only minor injuries. If you look at the pics, all car occupants should have met their maker. Again, I hope this is a tragic accident and nothing more.
I can operate a chainsaw! But only an electric cord one.
Don’t laugh. I was distracted by the derg and cut the cord on mine.
Lucky the body of the thing was plastic and thus idiot proof.
Petrol equipment only thank you.
You put it so well, BB.
We hear of these modern tragedies, whether accidental or otherwise, daily.
Each time, another heartache.
Opinion Life & Arts
Lizzie – One for You – Let the dance go on
Summer is a period of vitality but we can harness that energy for other seasons
I think summer is wont to be that way regardless of the day-to-day weather. Somehow our minds more readily switch to flourishing mode, seemingly more expectant of our ability to embrace and be embraced by our lives. We may be more prone to being social. We may allow ourselves more heedless hours of pleasure. Maybe we’re more open to trying new activities or experiences. Our summering world emits an energy of lush days spilling into one another and we’re stretched to entwine ourselves around summer’s mood like rapidly climbing ivy.
But what happens to that energy when summer ends? Still caught in the luxuriousness of summer, I’ve found myself thinking about the idea of flourishing, wondering what it could mean to flourish in our lives, to grow vigorously beyond the seasons that seem to readily invite it.
I discovered the piece “Viriditas IV” by the contemporary American artist Elizabeth Hall while I was researching the 12th-century German Benedictine abbess, mystic and polymath Saint Hildegard of Bingen.
Hall’s mixed-media work on paper is part of a series exploring the healing properties of plants and the energy that sustains life forms. It is a vibrant drawing of herbs and neurons depicted within and surrounding a bell-shaped dome infused with green radiant light. The top of the dome is a brain with a spinal cord descending, nerves and neurons branching out as if from a tree. A variety of healing herbs — ginkgo, motherwort, passionflower — float throughout the work. The image looks like a creative blending of human and plant organ systems illuminated by a source of life-giving light.
In this work Hall was inspired by the theology and philosophy of Hildegard, who in her research and interest in the connection between the body, health, ecology and spirituality used the Latin term viriditas as an eco-theological idea of human flourishing. It depended on connecting with the greening power of the divine, a creative life force evident to Hildegard in the greening and flourishing of nature and flowing through all of creation, animals and humans included.
Whether understood literally or metaphorically (opinions differ on how to interpret Hildegard), at the heart of the idea is that a key to our vitality and human flourishing can be found in recognising that even our physical health is related to and affected by the ways we attend to our interior and spiritual lives. Hall’s intricate visual interpretation of the concept connects the idea of viriditas tangibly to something we can all relate to, whatever our ideas of spirituality.
The art beautifully hints at how the functioning of our physical bodies, and what happens on our insides, is also connected to life happening in our exterior environment and how the two overlap. To consider our flourishing in this way might be an invitation to pay more attention to how the spaces and places we inhabit regularly affect our sense of physical and emotional wellbeing. It is also an invitation to listen to what’s happening in our interior selves, perhaps simply beginning with noting what we find ourselves pulled towards or resisting.
I have always loved Henri Matisse’s 1909 “La Danse (I)” more than the final 1910 version. In its cooler, softer colour palette of peach, blue and green, five nude dancers move in a circle.
Their undefined bodies seem free and fluid enough to morph easily as they move, maybe even to blend and bend into the environment or into one another. I am engaged with the idea that flourishing in life necessitates occasional unrestrained movement, where we open ourselves to the possibilities of just going with the more loosely defined flow of our lives, against rigid planning or cemented expectations. This fluid flexibility and openness often leads to connections and experiences that couldn’t have happened if we’d planned it.
I also like this version because it was Matisse’s preliminary version and I think for any act of flourishing there needs to be an initial attempt, a willingness to move from or expand out of a familiar place or to reinvent some aspect of one’s life or work. In creating “La Danse (I)” Matisse is said to have considered the new influence of photography as an invitation for artists to focus less on details and to begin to create images with more expressive emotion. It was not only a practice sketch in which Matisse experimented with form and line and colour. It was also a sort of reinvention and reconfiguration of his 1905-06 work “Le Bonheur de Vivre”, in which a circle of dancers is painted in the background.
The idea of flourishing seems more about carrying a particular kind of energy within us into the varied circumstances and environments in which we find ourselves. Rather than thinking about the vitality of summer coming to an end, I wonder if we could ponder what it would look like to try and shift that vitality into new seasons of our lives.
Electoral and political fraud in Australia. Impossible, never happen here.
Vikki Campion on Big Brother and the Thought Police:
Albo reaching into his inner Mustapha Mond
Zat
If he played this well, by making remarks like how he now understands the issues relating to law enforcement and the black community, Trump could win over a surprising number of black voters. Just thinking out loud here.
Being anti-West may also give it some initial cultural coherence.
However I fully expect it to implode to some extent into factional fighting.
Happens to all political organisations, especially socialist-led ones.
I’ve no crystal ball though. It’s a significant development right now.
One to keep and eye on. For better or worse.
The squirming from the AEC is getting entertaining.
Australian Electoral Commission responds to Voice referendum bias claims (26 Aug)
You got sprung putting your thumb on the balance silly silly lefty activist peoples. Maybe next time think through the consequences of getting caught.
If the Libs ever win an election they need to clean out the AEC before we go the way of the US. I’m not holding much hope but.
Have to say that Ruscoe grifter doesn’t appear to be all THAT much to write home about anyway. Certainly not Amber Heard grade on the hot/crazy matrix anyway.
It must be tough for Chris Kenny reading the comments online in The Australian whenever he writes about the Voice.
His article today not going down well with a lot of the negative comments towards it gathering several hundred likes. He is also replying to a few. One of those trying to stick with the Uluru statement is only one page line.
If I am listening to Sky in the evening I switch off when he comes on.
Probably not your first choice in investigating bodies. Leave it up to the professionals – VicPlod. Don’t forget to give them a few minutes to change hats.
How to talk to a sommelier
‘I have wines on my list to suit every taste and budget — but you’ve got to help me to help you’
In the years I’ve spent working as a sommelier, the phrase I’ve heard more than any other is: “I don’t know much about wine, but I know what I like.” As a person, I’m happy for you. Self-knowledge is key to growth.
As a sommelier, however, this is useless information.
There are a few things you can do that will make ordering wine easier for the both of us, and maybe even fun.
First, ask if the restaurant has a sommelier and, if they do, ask to speak to them.
This isn’t rude or fussy. The best bit of a sommelier’s job is helping people discover new wines. The worst is deep cleaning the wine cellar during a service because nobody has asked for our advice.
At the table, I will start by asking you something open-ended: “What type of thing are you after?”
Which is when you will inevitably say, “Oh, I think we’d like to start with a dry white wine.” The thing is, almost all the white wines on a list are dry.
There might be one or two off-dry whites on a longer list, but it’s a pretty safe bet that sweet wines will have been confined to their own section.
So all you’ve actually told me is that you want white wine. Well, that’s a start.
Take a moment to think about what you really want from your dry white wine. There’s no such thing as right or wrong here, but getting familiar with a couple of key terms can help. “Citrusy” could be useful if you want bright, acidic wine; “tropical” if you want more of a fruity hit.
Fuller-bodied whites are often talked about as being buttery or even nutty. If no adjectives spring to mind, you can order with an example. If you tell me that you drank a really delicious Gewürztraminer recently, I can infer that you like medium-body, lower-acidity wines that are floral and fruity.
My favourite way to order (regardless of whether I’m making or taking it) requires letting go of some of the stiff Britishness that many of us have been nurturing our entire lives.
It requires openly talking about money. If you say, “We have £45 to spend, and we’d like to get the best wine possible for that price”, you will end up drinking the best-made, highest-quality wine that I have for less than £45.
Nobody understands wanting to drink great wine on a budget as much as a sommelier.
Wine service is theatre and it’s better when you accept its conventions.
When I open your bottle to pour you a taste, go ahead and taste it.
Some people find it easy to tell whether or not a wine is corked from smell alone, but there are a whole host of other faults that are hard to detect without tasting the wine.
Trust your instincts on this.
You don’t need to know what volatile acidity is to know that something tastes wrong. And remember you’re not just checking the taste, you’re also checking the temperature.
This is important. If you’ve spent your money on a bottle of wine, you should drink it however you please.
If your Châteauneuf-du-Pape arrives at your table the temperature of bathwater, ask for an ice bucket in which to cool it. If it’s 36C outside and you want ice for your rosé, order ice for your rosé.
Moreover, order a lot of it. A single cube of ice will melt quickly, leaving you with overly diluted wine which isn’t very cold.
If, on the other hand, you fill your glass to the brim with ice, your wine will chill quickly but dilute slowly.
There’s a chance that even if the wine is faultless, you won’t like it. Talk to the sommelier about it as soon as you can, not as you’re begrudgingly finishing the bottle.
It’s widely accepted that if the customer has chosen a wine and it’s been opened for them, it’s theirs. Hard luck. However, the sommelier might have alternative options. If the wine is on by the glass, the restaurant could potentially sell your bottle on.
There is only one wrong way to talk to a sommelier, and that’s rudely.
Every sommelier I know would prefer a night filled with nice customers ordering uninteresting wines than selling rare and fine wines to rude ones.
You can order vodka to add to your claret because it’s “not strong enough” (famous rock star, famous London restaurant) and we won’t mind, as long as you order with a smile and ask how the evening’s been.
What other people think of your taste in wine does not bear thinking about.
My favourite drink at the end of a long, sticky service has always been a white wine spritzer, extra ice.
Never hurts.
Lol Louise Milligan asking the important stuff. Via Tim Blair. Your taxes at work.
Pity – I thought he did good work, exposing the “secret women’s business” nonsense, over the Hindmarsh Island farce.
Big changes in store for apartment laws
Major updates to NSW strata are being proposed, with working groups having recommended some bold regulatory reforms for the sector.
Jimmy ThomsonContributor
Significant changes are in the wind for strata in NSW with two working groups having recommended legislative and regulatory reforms – some pretty radical – for the sector.
Among the changes afoot is a recommendation to make the initial annual general meeting of new buildings a two-stage process so that owners, especially first-timers, cannot be railroaded into agreements that are not in their best interests, such as embedded networks.
Instead, owners would elect a committee at the initial AGM which would then scrutinise the contracts on the table and take advice on them.
The committee would come to a later general meeting to advise on whether to accept, reject or renegotiate the contracts.
In their most egregious form, embedded networks comprise infrastructure that has been installed in an apartment building, for free or cheaply, by a service provider in exchange for an exclusive contract that gives them a monopoly on the service provision.
They can represent a cost saving to both developers and apartment owners, but are also used to surreptitiously transfer the cost of essential infrastructure from the developer to owners through maintenance contracts that owners are expected to approve at their first strata general meeting.
Allied to the recommendation above is a suggestion that all contracts entered into during the owners’ corporation’s initial period – before 50 per cent of the apartments have been sold – should expire and be renegotiated as part of the two-stage first AGM proposal.
This would remove the pressure on new owners – many of whom will have never lived in strata before – to agree to complex and potentially burdensome contracts on the day of the meeting.
All of this is occurring under the auspices of the NSW Department of Customer Service, which has finalised a report about “empowering stakeholders from point of sale through to establishment and management of strata schemes”.
A second report by the department on sustainability has also been issued and a third working group has met only recently to discuss insurance and affordability, so it hasn’t reported yet.
The Owners Corporation Network (OCN), representing apartment owners and residents, and Strata Community Australia (SCA-NSW), representing strata managers and other professionals, joined with leaders in industry, academia, business partners and regulators to tackle some challenges facing strata in the state.
Another suggested change would be to ensure that proper budgets, minimum standards for initial maintenance schedules, and asset registers are provided at settlement or handover as a condition of plan registration.
The working group agreed that risks incurred through strata lending need to be investigated and appropriate regulatory safeguards implemented.
There was a call for mandatory minimum disclosure standards in point of sale and marketing to be developed and implemented, including:
. Defect disclosure
. Vendor accountability and responsibility for disclosure to be quantified and mandated
. Strata loan disclosure at point of sale or marketing
. Compulsory appointment of managing agents to be noted
There was also a call for section 184 sales certificates to include notices of strata loans, compulsory managing agent appointment, NABERS (sustainability) ratings and any legal proceedings.
And there was a recommendation that developers engaged in off-the-plan sales should appoint accountable licensed professionals to prepare information for prospective purchasers about the proposed budget for the scheme, levies for various lots and the structure of the strata scheme.
Many of these reforms could be implemented in the mandatory five-year review of strata legislation due in 2025.
Clearly the proposals are all about transparency and accountability.
The preamble to the first working group report said its mission was to deliver an “empowered, accountable, and trusted property services sector, [which] will never be more important than it is in strata”.
“Confidence in strata remains fundamental to housing supply, affordability, economic well-being, and social cohesion in NSW,” it continues.
“Owners, residents, industry practitioners, investors, businesses, and developers all need greater transparency, certainty, and awareness for this to occur.
“With affordability and availability a growing problem, particularly with the worsening rental crisis, strata will play an important role in future solutions.”
Nothing is set in stone and any major reforms will have to be agreed by state parliament.
But this maps a clear road forward for potential reforms in NSW strata, and that alone is worthy of note.
Ignorant angry idiots.
Anger found to be the primary driver of climate activism (Phys.org), 25 Aug)
There’re no future repercussions lefty activist academic psychologist peoples, since anyone with a brain can see nothing much is happening. But angry kiddies going around screeching “the sky is falling!! and stopping traffic in peak hour, and gluing themselves to things, is causing plenty of anger out in the suburbs where ordinary people live. Maybe you should think about the fact that anger goes both ways. ULEZ cameras are an extremely threatened species lately, for example.
Let’s not pretend the ALP has ever been democratic.
Sure, but don’t you think we risk more than less trade with US? I would have thought US would lean on Korea, Japan, and Europeans to punish Australia if we joined BRICS. They’ve left India alone for now because they are still trying to triangulate China. But, look, yes, certainly appears attractive given the new entrants as well, especially UAE who is our largest ME trading partner, Egypt, who we should be selling more to, Ethiopia, etc. We have so much lovely coal, gas, etc. to sell. Brazil, India have massive potential.
Sachs was one of the crowd advising Yeltsin to institute a short, sharp shock to the Russian economy after the wall came down. He and the rest are the reason Putin is in power. The short, sharp shock was a freaking disaster.
BRICS isn’t going anywhere. Take it to the most basic level and put yourself in the BRICS movie. You have some cash that you want to invest in the long term. Which currency would you pick over investments in the US (and the US dollar)? If I’d chosen, I could’ve sold everything I owned overnight in the US, and I’d have my money in an Australian bank by Wednesday morning at the latest. Would anyone put money in China, Brazil, or South Africa? Buzz off.
This BRICS thing about trying to avoid the use of the US dollar for international settlements such as commodity trading is amusing to watch. Ultimately, the price deals struck work themselves back to the US dollar.
More on Sachs.
There was quite a bit of Japan bashing in the 1980s. I’m sure it’s on the web. There’s the famous video of Congressmen getting an axe and sledgehammer to a stack of Sony video cassette players in front of the Capitol.
Japan, though, had a floating exchange rate, and its strength was not manipulated by the US but the result of a large trade surplus.
Sachs is a bit of an idiot. Not a complete idiot, but a bit.
Don’t feel guilty about being lazy. Experts say there are some health benefits.
There is a joy to being lazy. And believe it or not, some health benefits too.
Whether you’re cruising through episodes of your favorite show so you can trade notes on the finale with friends or indulging in that comfort flick you’ve seen a million times, you’ve inevitably found yourself prioritizing chill time on the couch over time spent ticking to-do’s off your list. Estimates show that in 2023, the majority of Americans spend two hours and 33 minutes per day watching TV.
“Taking a break to do something you find pleasurable can trigger the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine, which are associated with feelings of pleasure and happiness,” Sanam Hafeez, a licensed psychologist and director of Comprehend the Mind in New York City, tells Yahoo Life.
There’s also a case for leaning on loafing — whether you’re watching TV, getting lost in a book you can’t put down or simply scrolling through cat memes on Instagram — to recharge and reduce burnout. But, as with anything, moderation is key.
Here’s what Hafeez, other experts and science have to say about the psychological benefits of chilling out on the couch — sometimes.
No. 1: Don’t feel guilty about loafing
No. 2: There are many benefits to chilling out
No. 3: There is such a thing as too much loafing
No. 4: Consider mindful loafing
NEW: Viktor Shokin Speaks out About Joe Biden’s Corruption in Ukraine
Former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin is speaking out years after then-Vice President Joe Biden secured his firing. In a now-infamous clip, Biden bragged about how he hijacked American aid in order to force the firing of Shokin, who he claimed was corrupt.
Since that tape emerged, much more has been learned about the situation, including the fact that Hunter Biden, the president’s son, was working for a company that Shokin was investigating.
That company’s co-founder Mykola Zlochevsky would later be implicated by an FBI FD-1023 form in which a confidential human source quoted him as saying Burisma hired Hunter Biden to get Shokin fired.
Now, Shokin is speaking to Fox News and discussing what transpired at the time, with the full interview to be released on Saturday.
“I do not want to deal in unproven facts, but my firm personal conviction is that, yes, this was the case. They were being bribed. The fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in US money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing, isn’t that alone a case of corruption?
To put it succinctly, Joe Biden inserted himself into American foreign policy toward Ukraine and used that power to fly to Kyiv and get a prosecutor fired who was investigating his a company his son was deeply involved in. Shokin is right to suspect that the Bidens were bribed for their involvement.
Understand, though, that not a single cent of money needed to have passed hands for this to be a scandal. A vice president holding appropriated U.S. resources hostage to benefit his son (and perhaps himself) stands on its own as objectively corrupt. In fact, the entire ordeal is very similar to what Democrats accused Donald Trump of doing before impeaching him the first time. Where are those same Democrats now? That’s rhetorical, of course.
It’s always been astonishing to me that the original video that surfaced in 2019 showing that Biden hijacked aid to get Shokin fired was treated as no big deal. Perhaps, four years later, we’ll finally start to see a reckoning about what happened, even if only politically.
Old Ozzie, in my Quadrant review of mid-century Australian artist Elizabeth Durack’s work (in Art and Life, Connor Court 2016) I mentioned how a painting of hers in the Durack’s homestead at Argyle in WA so much impressed me. It was of aboriginal stockmen enjoying the freedom of wild rodeo jumping, all in blues and solid colour, so exuberant. It led me to buy her book at a stall there and find out more about what I saw as her elemental Matisse-like style. It was ‘an act of flourishing’, a new way of looking at the aboriginal experience. Really remarkable. Must be a story there, I thought and I sought it.
Good paintings can do that. Dover’s selection can always make us think.
My dear Hairy, who fiercely interrogates the TV re lies about Trump, has his more soulful side, as do most good men. Our poor guide, late for our set lunch, couldn’t drag him out of the Impressionist Rooms at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, so much does he love this set of styles. She sent me in to do it. Bugger lunch, he said, till I persuaded him that she said she would ‘be punished’ if she was late.
And when the treasurers are drilling outside they chant:
Reporters Discover China’s Massive Electric Vehicle Graveyards
Reporters from Bloomberg News tracked down one of China’s fabled electric vehicle (EV) graveyards on Friday, a vast lot near the city of Hangzhou where hundreds of discarded EVs are rotting away, covered with weeds and cobwebs.
Reporter Dan Murtaugh wrote.:
These cars were mostly no-frills EVs with batteries that would be lucky to get more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) on a charge. They were built in the mid-2010s, when generous government subsidies lured hundreds of automakers into the field, and purchased by ride-hailing companies less concerned about long-term quality.
Murtaugh was willing to excuse the astonishing waste of materials to some degree, arguing that EV technology has advanced so rapidly over the past decade that older models became obsolete. These forgotten vehicles have little value on the secondary market, and there is not much demand for spare parts.
On the other hand, China’s huge Sargasso Seas of discarded EVs — there are many others besides the lot in Hangzhou — are a bit inconvenient for the common EV talking point that the massive amounts of carbon emitted in their manufacture will be offset by many years of reduced-emission service.
Murtaugh also found it curious that the Chinese made no effort to recycle the obsolete EVs, not even to recover the lithium used in their batteries.
Bloomberg reported last week that satellite photos have revealed at least half a dozen EV graveyards across China. Some of the cars were abandoned so suddenly that personal items, such as children’s toys, could still be seen in the back seats — a detail that is difficult to reconcile with theories that the cars were abandoned because the owners ran out to buy newer models or because they belonged to rental fleets.
None of that explains why China did not recycle the vehicles for valuable rare-earth metals, a deficiency Bloomberg admitted was disturbing for an industry that ostentatiously prides itself on being Earth-friendly.
Some of those EV graveyards hold thousands of rusting cars, and Chinese officials have been promising to clean them up for years.
Bloomberg noted some of those EV-happy ride-hailing companies looked like excuses to make huge inventories of unwanted electric cars disappear. Others appeared to be rackets cooked up to absorb the huge subsidies doled out by the Chinese government. Even Chinese state media, which tends to understate embarrassing details, reported over a billion dollars in EV subsidy fraud in 2016.
The bottom dropped out of this phantom industry when China’s economy began faltering, and subsidies had to be cut. The EV graveyards began appearing almost immediately after the subsidies were slashed. Absolutely no one in the Chinese government was willing to answer Bloomberg’s questions about them.
If the Libs ever win an election they need to clean out the AEC before we go the way of the US. I’m not holding much hope but.
If the gutless libs ever win another election they need to clean themselves out.
I’m not. Things like BRICS are geostrategic-economic-political institutions. Recall, I said that the US itself brought this upon themselves by politicizing the reserve currency status of their dollar through sanctions, freezing foreign reserves it holds, etc. of its political enemies. The group is pretty much a way of avoiding that, and there’s a lesson in their for China too. Lastly, I’m just not convinced or swayed any longer by intimations of ‘reds’. It’s used all too obviously nowadays as a way of keep us within certain ideological/ political silos when faced with the shit show before our eyes.
Just an aside to Seven-Nilligan’s faggot safari.
Appearing in her quest to discover the only gay in the AFL was “amateur AFL player Luke Ball”.
Luke played for some B-Grade suburban side and he only became some sort of poster boy because there were two well known AFL players at the time also called Luke Ball.
So “Gay AFL Player Luke Ball” had a certain click-bait quality.
Don’t get me wrong on this, I’m not arguing for BRICS. It seems to me essentially an extension of Chinese foreign policy – and certainly not something that would benefit Australia.
As I mentioned above, I suspect it will become scruffy quite quickly once the African and ME cohort join and the internal contradictions surface.
My point is that the political lure of quick buck solutions is like a pheromone to Australian politicians.
No. 5: Consider some extended loafing in the bath
Do not consider loafing sitting on the floor of the shower.
That is for hungover teenagers.
Joe in Hawaii. This guy needs to be subject to Medieval torture. If Hawaii continues to vote for this creep they deserve all they get from the demorats..
She’s been watching a lot of soccer lately?
Matildas striker says ‘I do’ to the love of her life (DT, 26 Aug, paywalled)
I’m not a subscriber but it’s pretty clear where this is going since the Tele includes both their names in the url. They are Emily Gielnik and Temica Sayer. I was amused.
The Daily Mail has a very touching photo in their version of the story. I wonder who the sperm donor will be?
Why would you put your money in an Australian bank?
Have you watched the clip?
Obviously the men did the re-signing themselves. Dead people are very enthusiastic participators in the democratic process these days.
When you ask them about it though they say nothing. Loose lips sink ships, as it’s said, and dead men’s lips are so loose they fell off years ago. Which explains their silence.
Our elites are so scornful of the plebeians they likely think they cannot spell ‘No’, so making crosses invalid is a brilliant tactic.
I wondered what happened after the US Civil war to various Confederate politicians. Found this little piece about Jefferson Davis:
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/jefferson-daviss-imprisonment/
While it was threatened, in the end : “The court finally heard preliminary motions in December 1868, when the defense asked for a dismissal claiming that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution already punished Davis by preventing him from holding public office in the future and that further prosecution and punishment would violate the double jeopardy restriction of the Fifth Amendment. The court divided in its official opinion and certified the question to the United States Supreme Court. Fearing the court would rule in favor of Davis, Johnson released an amnesty proclamation on December 25, 1868, issuing a pardon to all persons who had participated in the rebellion.
After enduring two years of imprisonment and nearly four years of uncertainty, Davis became a free man. The incomplete prosecution of his case and others’ gave clear indication that the government intended Reconstruction to realign southern society rather than punish a select few leaders for causing the rebellion.” Note that. After 600k deaths the Union gave all confederates a pardon.
And yet now we have Trump indicted. The way Biden is going I doubt he will be the last.
There are much bigger issues we are enmeshed in that stomp all over the likes of Dan’s attraction to Chinese bribes. AUKUS, US troop and plane deployments here, subs, 5 Eyes, Taiwan, Ukraine etc. Sure there may be an attraction but it will go nowhere. We are firmly gripped in the US (& UK) alliance and related strategic geopolitics, rock solid.
Bruce of Newcastle
Aug 26, 2023 12:09 PM
Lol Louise Milligan asking the important stuff.
She’s been watching a lot of soccer lately?
Matildas striker says ‘I do’ to the love of her life (DT, 26 Aug, paywalled)
Fresh from the Matildas’ stunning World Cup campaign, one of the team’s strikers has married her long-term love in a beautiful intimate ceremony. See the pictures here.
I’m not a subscriber but it’s pretty clear where this is going since the Tele includes both their names in the url. They are Emily Gielnik and Temica Sayer. I was amused.
The Daily Mail has a very touching photo in their version of the story. I wonder who the sperm donor will be?
BON,
Is the one in the Pantsuit the Giver or the Receiver? – I am not up todate on these modern day Pratnerships.
Certainly not Amber Heard grade on the hot/crazy matrix anyway.
That woman lives in my dreams.
Me neither OldOzzie. But at least we know which one wears the pants in that relationship.
The BRICs & non-aligned movements aren’t being viewed in the manner they see themselves.
Ex China who is a direct competitor to the US, most of the rest are playing a spoiling game.
They aren’t playing to “win”.
They are playing to stop the US “winning”.
Not a bad noon in the local: clouded sky, ping of Guinness – and one of the walls is all glass adjoining a little heritage listed house and yard. Stately trees that yield with magisterial condescension to the winds deliver a sprinkling of dry leaves which falling almost weightless to the ground.
Yep. Guinness is better than drugs.
Yes we are.
And yet, as per my 11:30 comment, we are blessed with politicians who think they don’t need a long spoon to sup with China.
Barkeep…another Guinness for Mother Lode, if you please.
Intimate.
With pictures to the press.
I am filled with dread that they may keep their bedroom activities secret – on DVD, Applestore, and Netflix.
Reaction to Trump’s mugshot.
Oh my lordy lord, the backfire is gonna be bigger than anybody realised.
How New Logistics Routes Will Ensure BRICS Security
During the BRICS Summit 2023, Vladimir Putin called for the establishment of a permanent BRICS transport commission to deal with the development of logistics and transport corridors interregionally and globally. What are the geographical advantages of BRICS’ expansion?
After the inclusion of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Argentina, and Ethiopia in BRICS, the organization will gain access to an extensive network of strategic logistics resources.
The group’s vast logistics network will include the Northern Sea Route, the North-South and West-East transport corridors, entries to the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal.
The commission mentioned by Putin would help ensure access of BRICS’ 11 nations to new logistics routes, as per Professor Alexis Habiyaremye, senior researcher with DSI/NRF, South African research chair in industrial development at the University of Johannesburg.
Per the professor, countries that are mainly interested in such transport corridors are primarily Russia, Iran, and China.
He explained that apart from ensuring access to open seas, the countries are looking to find alternative solutions to “choke holds,” like the Strait of Singapore, the Strait of Malacca, the Suez Canal, the Bosphorus, and the Strait of Hormuz.
“The main task would be establishing resilience and alternative solutions to the vulnerability of such chokeholds. So, countries like Russia and China… One of the most important considerations will be to develop high-speed train transportation corridors in the area where the ancient Silk Road used to be. So to make sure that there is an alternative to the freight transport, which cannot necessarily replace the sea transport, but which also alleviates an alternative in case there is a conflict and the Strait of Malacca, for instance, were blocked, or the Suez Canal were to be actually a stranglehold, then the link between China and Russia via Central Asia would be quite important,” the professor continued.
The other important project is the North-South Corridor linking the west and north to Russia to the Persian Gulf, according to Habiyaremye. When it comes to the Northern Sea Route (NSR), it is critical for Russia, as it will help it avoid a potential sea blockade by Western states amid ongoing sanctions, he believes.
Likewise, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea would be located within the jurisdiction of Russia’s BRICS partners after the inclusion of both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, he remarked.
Apparently, the BRICS partnership will also help solve controversies emerging over the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz, giving the group diplomatic leverage.
What is Northern Sea Route and How Can It Turn Russia Into Arctic Superpower?
I once drove a forklift as a teenager.
But it was only once.
And I didn’t inhale.
Sitting on the deck overlooking the water, wife drinking Guinness, me Kilkenny. Life is good. I tell my wife the grass needs cutting before we go home. Get to it.
‘Internal server error’ every time I try and post the last bit of the Janet Albrechsten piece.
test
When it was proposed to try Robert E.Lee for treason – in direct violation of the surrender terms, signed at Appomattox – U.S Grant threatened to resign his commission, in protest. The idea was quietly dropped.
The Bidens: “Stone Cold Crooked” (8) — This Is Getting Ridiculous
Beginning in April 2014 — one month after then Vice President Joe Biden became “point man” for U.S. policy in Ukraine — Joe’s son Hunter took a directorship of Ukrainian energy company Burisma at a fee of $83,333 per month, or $1 million per year.
Burisma was then strongly suspected of corruption, and within only a few months it came under official investigation, following the appointment in early 2015 of Victor Shokin as Ukraine’s General Prosecutor.
Then in late 2015 and early 2016, VP Joe Biden engineered the firing of Shokin by threatening to withhold a billion dollars of U.S. aid, which aid he controlled at that time.
Joe later admitted on a widely-viewed video that he threatened to withhold the U.S. aid as the means to get Shokin fired.
So was the million per year paid to Hunter a legitimate business transaction, or was it an obvious bribe to Joe to get him to leverage U.S. aid to Ukraine to protect Burisma from the prosecutor?
From the start, Joe and his minions have offered two defenses to the contention that this was a bribe: (1) Joe did not discuss his son’s business dealings, and was completely uninvolved; and (2) getting Shokin fired was official U.S. policy, and Joe’s tactics to accomplish the firing were merely implementing this official policy, and had nothing to do with the influence purchased with the million a year going to his son.
Defense number (1) was always absurd.
For anyone other than the Bidens, payments to children of politicians are universally viewed as the complete equivalent of a direct payment to the politicians themselves for purposes of the bribery statute.
But how about defense number (2)?
In recent days, new facts have emerged that make defense number (2) equally untenable.
I won’t go into further detail today as to defense (1).
If you think there might be something to that defense, I refer you to this post from March 2022, “The Rules About Corruption Just Don’t Apply To The Bidens,” and to the case of former New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos discussed therein.
Skelos is currently serving a four-year jail term for bribery, the alleged bribe consisting of a couple of hundred thousand dollars (pocket change compared to Biden-level corruption), all of which went to his son Adam.
The 2021 Second Circuit decision affirming Skelos’s conviction discusses the payments to Adam as if they are the same thing as payments to Dean.
And, even if Biden’s “I was not involved” defense was not absurd on its face, it has been blown up as a factual matter in the past several weeks by revelations that Joe participated in at least 20 or so conference calls and in-person meetings with Hunter and his “business” associates.
But how about defense number (2), that Joe in getting Shokin fired was just implementing U.S. policy?
That defense has now also been blown to smithereens by reporting over the past few days from John Solomon at Just the News. Here is Solomon’s piece from Monday (August 21), and here is his further piece from yesterday (August 23).
From the August 21 piece:
The narrative from Biden’s defenders and government officials who testified at Trump’s first impeachment was that Biden’s action in withholding the U.S. loan guarantees had nothing to do with his son’s role at Burisma and that officials across the West and inside the U.S. government were clamoring to fire Shokin because he was deemed corrupt.
However, documents uncovered by JTN through FOIA requests and from Congressional investigators reveal exactly the opposite story.
The key document is an October 1, 2015 email memorandum circulated to a large inter-agency government group (including representatives from State, Treasury, DOJ, DOE, USAID, and others) concluding that Ukraine had made sufficient progress against corruption that it should get the new billion dollar loan guarantee.
The document discusses potential conditions on the aid, without mention the name Shokin or a need to fire the prosecutor.
Excerpt from the memo:
The IPC concluded that (1) Ukraine has made sufficient progress on its reform agenda to justify a third guarantee and (2) Ukraine has an economic need for the guarantee and it is in our strategic interest to provide one. As such, the IPC recommends moving forward with a third loan guarantee for Ukraine in the near?term, noting State/F’s preference to issue the guarantee as late as possible to allow more clarity on the budget context and Embassy Kyiv and Treasury’s assessment that Ukraine needs the guarantee by end?2015.
So what happened between October 1 and Biden’s trip to Kyiv (December 8) to change things and see Joe threatening to withhold the aid to get Shokin fired? Well, there was the November 2, 2015 email chain between and among Hunter Biden and his Burisma paymasters, discussed in my August 4 post here. In that chain Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi states that his “only concern” was that they [Burisma and Hunter] were on the “same page re our final goals,” with the Burisma executive confirming that the “the ultimate purpose” was “to close down” “any cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine.” “Nikolay” refers to Burisma’s chairman, Mykola Zlochevsky.
Then there was the dinner Hunter was having in Dubai on December 4, 2015, following a Burisma board meeting. Mykola Zlochevsky and Vadim Pozharsky (numbers one and two at Burisma) joined Hunter for a conference call to “D.C.” (according to the Congressional testimony of Devon Archer).
Solomon’s August 23 piece at JTN documents the sudden shift in U.S. position that followed:
The decision by Joe Biden and his closest policymakers to try to force Shokin’s firing evolved over several days before he left for the December 2015 trip to Kyiv. For weeks beforehand, U.S. officials at State, Treasury and Justice recommended Ukraine get its $1 billion in loan guarantees because Shokin’s office had made adequate progress in anticorruption reforms. . . . By the time Biden got to Kyiv on Dec. 8-9, 2015, he had further altered the plan, deciding to threaten withholding the loan guarantees until Poroshenko fired Shokin, something he would brag about doing in a 2018 video tape.
At this point this is getting ridiculous. The firing of Shokin was not official U.S. policy at all (other than as dictated by Biden himself), and was in immediate response to a specific demand from Hunter’s paymasters at Burisma.
There has never been a U.S. President so obviously and thoroughly corrupt. It is shameful.
Reaction to Trump’s mugshot.
Oh my lordy lord, the backfire is gonna be bigger than anybody realised.
Trying to order the T shirt!!
Yes Sancho the only Luke Ball worth talking about was no amateur. St Kilda best and fairest, Collingwood premiership player etc. With a wife and child. So alas for Mzz Milligan, another swing and miss
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has demanded that the commission publicly release the legal advice behind accepting a tick as a yes vote but not accepting a cross as a no vote.
Any normal person would design it with Yes and No with boxes next to them. Put your mark in the box of your preference.
Personal observation of box ticking test results indicates that when answering in the positive, most will place a tick, when answering in the negative, most will place a cross. Regardless of instructions.
The design is designed for monkeying.
Be interesting to know if the duty on wine from Australia is paid on Chinese owned wineries in Australia.
Tim Blair also announces a flounce on the cards.
Be PROUD, Australia! This moron is our Prime Minister.
American Woke DemoCraps at Work
Mayhem in Maui as officials reveal list of 388 people missing in wildfires is only a ‘subset’ and HUNDREDS more are still unaccounted for: 46 victims identified as search and rescue of burn zone nears end and death toll remains at 115
The County of Maui on Thursday released a list of the names of 388 people they believe are still missing following the August 8 wildfire
On Friday, they revealed that the list was only partial, and there were ‘hundreds’ more people they thought were missing, but were not sure
The death toll remains at 115 – 46 of them have been identified, with the families of 35 victims notified, but relatives of 11 more not yet located or told
Yet on Friday, officials admitted that this list was just part of a much larger list, which they were also working from.
They did not say how many people were on this second list. They are also not publishing live updates of the list, meaning many people who have said they are fine are still listed as missing.
‘The 388 names were names that we had more information on,’ revealed Steven Merrill, Honolulu FBI Special Agent in Charge.
‘That’s why we released that first. We still have hundreds of other names where we still need more information.
‘These 388 names are a subset of a larger list. We care about every single person on that list and we will not rest until we know how each of those people are doing on that list.’
Bruce of Newcastle
But I was assured on these very august pages that the AEC was as pure as the driven snow!
Please! Please! I Ferkin Dersya!
calli
Aug 26, 2023 2:45 PM
Are you healing well? ( :
Old Ozzie:
I’d rather live in a couple of 40 foot containers than go through that ordeal again.
Going really well, thanks. Just bought a pair of hiking boots at the sales – never say die.
Here’s some dancing music for those who prefer indoor pursuits.
Big claims here! It wouldn’t surprise me if true.
CIA Agent Confesses: We Created ‘Adrenochrome Farms’ Where MILLIONS of Kids Are Sold to VIPS
there were ‘hundreds’ more people they thought were missing
You are either missing or not. Simples and even easier when disaster is domestic in nature. Speaking as someone who has once been on a DFAT missing list for 5 days. It’s not rocket science, most third world countries can even work this part out to the basic level.
Either someone above is playing games with numbers or local authorities are doing their best three wise monkeys rendition…
About ticks and crosses.
Two lines, one Yes.
One No.
What are they doing, saving paper?
Thanks for your 11.51am post, JC. It explains a lot.
There are a lot of bullshit artists about. In fact, there’s an epidemic. Therefore, there’s a lot to be said for sources you trust (which are thin on the ground).
Old Ozzie:
Re the EV graveyards.
Serpentza has been talking about these EV graveyards and the EV bikes for at least 3 years.
(Not knocking your contribution though.)
The Chinese economy is full of scams and dodgy deals. Which is why I believe they will go broke because they can’t deal with the corruption.
Question for Knuckle Dragger or Sanchez or other cats with a plod-like form.
Are one State’s police able to operate interstate independently, such as following a target to another State without needing to obtain permission from the destination State?
Do they brief the destination State on the case and hand over operations to the destination State’s own police resources?
I’d rather live in a couple of 40 foot containers than go through that ordeal again.
Me same. Problem is the big investment funds that have moved into BC/OC management. The one we took to VCAT and finally after 2 years offloaded were running the place into the ground whilst at the same time hugely increasing fees. We only had a few dozen owners and that was bad enough getting a quorum for a special meeting. I’d hate to be in a multistory complex with pools & lifts with hundreds of owners, some not speaking English.
That said the NSW initiatives are a step in the right direction, too much corruption in the contracts. Some jobs our OC Manager did I had quotes less than half of what it was charged out for from tradies I knew. However the SCA is not to be trusted, it’s in bed with these dodgy big Management Firms as we found out with our engagement with VCAT. When I got out of units there was no owners advocacy organisation, there definitely needs to be IMO.
Sounds good.
Does anyone remember the design of the republic referendum? One or two boxes?
One cannot blame Dutton for making as much political hay out of this issue while he can, but it is a beatup based on the numbers I’ve heard. The instruction is to write the actual words Yes or No. Anything else is like an informal vote. You get less than 1% of voters writing anything other than Yes or No on referendums. via The Paywallian:
There is a larger margin between Yes and No polling than 1% now, and of course to go ahead the Yesses would have to be ahead by 33% pts.
An equal representation argument can be argued on principle, but the practical net effect is moot.
Republic had one and you had to write yes or no. I rechecked it the other day when this blew up. Wikipedia clearly has the ballot, albeit with a lot more writing in the question.
This could have been solved day one by saying ticks & crosses will be invalid. The AEC look shifty in their incompetence to explain this. Could be solved still if the AEC clarifies it before the date announcement.
On that I’d forgotten how long both the preamble kerfuffle and Republic questions were. This ballot is really akin to writing a blank cheque, the no campaign really need to highlight this more IMO.
Rockdoctor,
Indeed,
Scrolling through my online copy of the Weekend Australian, I happened on Nikki Gemmel’s column in the Magazine section. I decided to count how many times she referenced herself with the personal pronoun (I, me, my and the royal “we”). 42 times in a short column. I imagine given Nikki’s obsession with talking about herself, that number would be comparatively low on a week by week comparo.
I’ve yet to get to “self-effacing” Phillip Adams but I’m sure he has no problems with his pronouns.
Biloxi, Mississippi, which we visited in October last year, is where Jefferson Davis finally spent his last years, in a grand old plantation house in the grounds of which the Jefferson Davis museum has now been built. We visited it briefly, just for the atmosphere. It is along a waterfront drive where near Biloxi there are high rise casinos, but further on the drive has some grand old Southern properties, including the White House Hotel, redolent of the 20’s and 30’s Southern Plantation Style and capitalising on the name of the Presidential residence nearby. We had an overnite stay in a beautiful sea view room there, and an excellent swim in the pool even though it was a bit chilly.
During the Cold War, there were a group of countries that formed a grouping referred to the Non-Aligned. Anyone recall that? The updated BRICS remind me a little of that.
Jefferson Davis’ sojourn in Biloxi more than 150 years ago is given context and made more meaningful by a recent visit from the Narcissist in Chief.
Oh, and the pool at the hotel was a bit chilly.
FFS!
Real Deal, life-style columnists drawing on their own lives is nothing new in journalism, and some of it is good journalism too – you might look at Jeremy Clark’s Low Life columns (and the two other columns there too – High Life and Real Life) to get some idea of how good such writing can be and in Jeremy’s case how many people were fans of his. Jeremy is now deceased, but Google his name to read some of his insightful and beautifully written material.
Gemmell has certain talents at writing, but she, like Phillip Adams, is very limited in her assessments as she is so often blindsided by left wing ideology there is a predictable tone of whinge to her work, offering limited fresh insights (being kind there). Her column today on Introversion doesn’t ring very true to me, as she confuses it with a need for reflective time to ourselves, which we all have. A deep and properly analytic thinker she is not. Give me Lionel Shriver or Melissa Kate in the Speccie any day. Great insight, wit and writing. There’s plenty of I and me and we within their stuffed-with-pronouns pieces, and good on them for sharing life’s … um …. grand experiential and observational pageant.
That said, such columns aren’t everyone’s idea of coffee-break company.
That’s ok, they can read the instructions for programming their fridge instead. 🙂
I was teased into subscribing to the Economist this week. I know, I know. I used to read it every week (in hard copy) until about 20 years ago, when it just became a left-wing gerbil warming rag. I succumbed because I saw a couple of articles in their email promo that appeared interesting. The one below on China is an example. I took a tour and decided I’d likely stop the sub once the free period runs out in a month. Their piece on the Trump goings-on is just disgusting. Anyhow, here’s the piece on China, which I think is pretty decent.
Jeremy Clark of course wrote for The Spectator for many years. Much missed.
About bloody time.
Disgraceful prevarication.
What took them so long? The SFLs have become a metropolitan soyboy party that doesn’t represent anyone who lives more than 10 kms from the GPO — and the federal National Party is sucking up to the SFLs as well.
Simply as a matter is strategic survival, the state Nats should divorce themselves from the metro SFL clownshow ASAP.
Stalker alert, just coming in to land.
Get lost, Stalker.
Only in America. You run a confederate military, then end up working in life Insurance.
Thanks Lizzie, I did read and enjoy Jeremy Clark’s Lowlife column, especially in his last few months. Enjoy Lionel’s as well. Nikki’s column’s read like a teenager’s diary entries. Fine to write solipsism if no one else has to read it.
Except the group has joined has joined one of the parties and taken together is a peer equivalent to the other side.
Mr Xi who has knocked back on welfare might discover that an economy in decline with a population finding things hard going after a glimpse of better times now shuttered out, all constrained by the demands of their personal ‘social credit’, might start getting more than a little restless.
Will he bring on a distraction called Taiwan?
This is what really really pissed me off about the Economist after the first time reading it while not on a place.
The title of the story:
The irony. Meanwhile, the current occupant of the White House has operated a crime family for decades, and the MSM has tried to avoid mentioning this like the plague.
Then get this, in one of it’s American politics stories:
There’s no evidence? This the reason I’m ditching this rag after the free period is over.
He could, but I suspect the military may not be ready, There’s also the possibility the economy takes a huge dive and a diversion tactic would make it worse.
Zulu.
Know WA Nat’s have always seem to march to a different beat which I find weird in a state that is even more regional than Queensland.
The wording by their leader seems to be limp to the point of bending with the wind but at the same time still having an each way bet.
Good luck with any seats let alone urban seats if being Labor lite is the future path.
It’s worth posting again.
Could the ABC or MSM whores could pull this off? Nup!
—
Avi:
I talk to the gangs TERRORISING Alice Springs
You bet there isn’t. Stinky Hunter is a moral failure and outlaw, so is his rotten dad.
Trump is a hero in a mugshot, and everybody knows why he is that – because he is going to show them some real democracy and the meaning of the Rule of Law.
The Economist has been full on TDS for around 20 years now. As a young woman I lived in a shared attic in Kirribilli with a girl who was minding the place for people overseas who subscribed to The Economist and also to Encounter. I read them both then. The Economist may have good articles again, but subscribing is a step too far.
Thanks JC for doing it for us for the limited value that it has.
Take more care.
That attic stay was when I worked in advertising writing copy and before universities got their claws into me. Recherche du temps perdu, there.
These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others. With apologies to a Marx – Karl, Groucho, somebody.
Whoops
Not on a plane…
Have you ever wondered why those eastern bloc looking statues in roundabouts on Bali look so much like , eastern bloc like statues? Thats because they are. Built and paid for by Russia. Gelora Bung Karno Stadium is a football stadium, named after Indonesia’s 1st President (Sukarno). During his presidency, he asked Russians to help build the architecture and design of the football stadium.
When it was finished and opened for 1965 Sea Games, Indonesia stood proud having the grandest football stadium among other South East Asian countries. Other statues and monuments were designed or built by Russia. Khrushchev even visited Bali in 1960 .
Two decades ago I was working in Asia and subscribing to The Economist. Stories about the country I was in, and about Australia, bore little relationship to reality. Have not bothered ever since.
That’s what Hairy says, only he puts it as why are you reading that garbage?
You realise, I reply, that we are paying for it, so I like to keep and eye on just how much we should tolerate. But if I chuck in the sub, we’ll have both thrown the financial book at them and their moderators and how do we then back down and keep our dignity if we decide to renew (again)? We’ll have to take a sub out in our son’s name. Or put Attapuss up front. Our soon to be toothless feline warrior. 🙂
If the Taiwan “distraction” leads to the deaths of many of the Little Emperors, then anything less than a convincing victory (and possibly even that) will see much more restlessness.
Apparently the stories about Australia were written by Michelle Grattan.
Does that help you any?
A rephrasing: The Economist has been heading further left for 20 years, including going absolute TDS in recent years.
Oops. I was going to write something smartarsy. That will learn me.
Nice piece in Unheard about China
Daily Mail.
I firmly believe that with a half decent media biden would be in adult diapers and a wheel chair and rub and tug still giving speeches in shorts at Sydney uni.
Jebus. No wonder no one gets a byline.
I can free Ecommunist magazines through my library card. Still not worth opening.
That’s very hurtful. Meow.
Apparently black men are coming to Trump in droves based on his mugshot. Black women on the other hand are still against him: fuking skanks.
“There’s no evidence? This the reason I’m ditching this rag after the free period is over.”
The problem in the West is the MSM. Once credible publications, such as the Economist (which I too once read) are now simply partisan spruikers and howlers for the left. Minus a few exceptions, the MSM now exists to not just protect the left, but also to enable the left.
Andy Ngo has chronicled how Antifa and BLM are aided and protected by much of the US mainstream media. And here in Oz the Labor Party and the Greens are also a protected species, a recent example, the Oz MSM have been largely silent on the Nathan Tebbutt Sleazy Qantas Lounge pass, and the Nathan Sleazy Tebbutt PwC job. Now, just imagine, for one sweet moment, if that had been a child of Tony Abbott or Scott Morrison. Ya reckon their ABC, Nine Newspapers and the Guardian would be sooooo quiet? I don’t think so.
The issue here is that in order for democracies to survive and flourish, there needs to be a credible media that is willing to put a torchlight on the right AND THE LEFT. But they no longer do this. The media are now activists, running cover for the left. What’s that slogan, adopted by the WaP in 2017….”Democracy Dies in Darkness”……ahhhh yes it does, and publications such as the NYT, the WaPo, the Economist and so on are actively involved in keeping the lights out.
Bear, during the 90s, if you avoided the Keynesian claptrap, it was a decent rag with good insights. It began to do full retard just after the turn of the century. I used to buy the new edition on the way home from work in Midtown. They used to begin selling the new edition from a couple of midtown new stands. The Xmas edition was great.
JC, does that trial Economist sub give you comment privelidges of some sort? Might be a bit of fun to be had.
Oh, God.
It’s like the diarrhoea of a terminal dysentery patient.
Please, let it stop.
I forgot to mention that the analysis of the differing responses to Trump from black men and women was done by Kira Davis. She went on to say that black men are supporting Trump because they are anti establishment which they see as an oppressor and are capitalistic even in their criminal endeavours while black women like to have a big state daddy.
Yeah, it sounds like the bros may be turning. The demons can’t afford to split the black vote with the GOP, otherwise they’re rooted worse than a hooker on a Friday night.
We have just been visited by three sulphur crested cockatoos. A family I think.
They are so close they would be strokable if I dared, but their beaks look ferocious. It is amusing to watch them grab a crust of bread and carefully eat it like an ice cream cone.
Such beautiful sleek-fitting white feathers and their little yellow Phrygian caps as they hop and strut on our verandah on the narrow strip of tiling protruding beyond the glass fencing. They don’t like losing their balance there as they jostle each other. Oops, going over, Bertie, one will almost say as he hits flight mode and heads back into the jacaranda.
Black bros would be turned off by the mugshot as it reminds them of what they’ve gone through. The Trumpster needs to say that he now knows and feels like what black dudes go through and show empathy. Promises to make changes. He may be white on the outside, but he’s now a black bro on the inside. They’ll love that sort of crapola.
Back in the day it was more convenient to read than a newspaper when commuting. Not sure I want to pay for it in the last 20years.
Aside from Biden The Younger complaining that he had to pay the bills for the whole family (including JB) from his business income and the infamous “10% for the big guy” email. Yeah, nah!
I don’t see how there would be when they are very different situations. Terrible analogy. This sledging piece would have done better to mention Kushner & Co getting a bunch of foreign business deals on the back of the Orange Dynasty, a much closer analogy.
I’m wary of Luttwak.He’s far too close to the US national security state.
The opposite of Darth Vader?
The demons can’t afford to split the black vote with the GOP, otherwise they’re rooted worse than a hooker on a Friday night.
Friday night? I thought you were a Saturday night man.
We get kookaburras too, plus the noisy miners and the lorikeets are constantly there.
The currawongs not so much in the past week, although they are territorial to us.
Hairy insists I chase off the occasional crow..
Crows have to live too, I say, but he says not on his watch.
The group is still (somewhat ironically) called the Non Aligned Movement – and it still exists. The main difference from the Cold War era is that Russia and China are now Observer members of the group.
It looks very much like BRICS because, when you add in the countries presently hanging around the BRICS hoop (ie most of Africa and South America), it has pretty much the same makeup – either as members or observers.
He got older.
Two-day recovery time.
a much closer analogy.
There is no analogy: the bidens got bribes because Joe was a corrupt senator/vp/POTUS. The Trumps had established and legitimate BUSINESS networks around the world which Trump divorced himself from when he became POTUS. They actually lost money when he became POTUS. Cheese and fuking VD.
They are doing this to demoralise us. There can be no other reason.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12447349/Courtney-Morley-Clarke-murderer-SLD-released-prison-despite-experts-warning-theres-high-chance-commit-violent-sexual-crimes.html
His sentence expired in 2021 but he was deemed too dangerous to be released, The Weekend Australian reports.
His possible freedom was assessed again last week but this time the court-appointed expert favoured an ESO over more prison time, noting there was little to no chance of rehabilitation for SLD in jail.
I came across the Economist in Asian airports. Boredom of flights & connecting delays in airports. Even a little over 20 years ago I thought it had a left tilt. However enjoyed the depth of international relations. I agree still on my foreign forays that I don’t bother anymore. It isn’t the publication it once was but I have noticed that even with the newspapers like Straits Times as well.
I still like trawling the bookshops of airports for international relations books. Something I am yet to find in Australia to the same quality and quantity.
Stalker still squawking.
Get lost, Stalker.
At this point the No case believes it is well ahead in WA and Queensland, meaning it can concentrate on winning in Tasmania or SA.
Being down in Tassie most years and having a lot of contacts there, I reckon the Voice will lose.
Strange, many might think, given Tasmania is now a hotbed of radical concerns. Hobart City Council being a good example.
But it still has a lot of people who grew up there and rarely leave. And so they see all of the local “Aboriginals” running around and think “they just look the same colour as me.” So why should they get anything extra. Michael Mansell is a good example – he’s been on the public teat for all of his life whingeing.
In the privacy of the ballot box they will vote No.
calli
Aug 26, 2023 3:01 PM
Going really well, thanks. Just bought a pair of hiking boots at the sales – never say die.
Here’s some dancing music for those who prefer indoor pursuits.
calli,
pleased knees are going well – I am still a Wuss avoiding kneee replacment at 78
Loved the 4 mins 48 Dancing Video – I love Dancing Mashups, but as a Commenter said
As a video editor, I can’t imagine how much time it must have taken to locate digital clips of all of these films, determine which clips to use, synch their speed with the perfect segment of the song, and merge them all together. It’s a truly stunning technical (and entertaining) accomplishment.
The Economist has an amazing history that fell to Conquest’s Law.
I read about this sculpture earlier today, but I couldn’t find the story again, and so I searched the web. It’s a sculpture of a veiled Christ in Naples. It’s without doubt one of the most beautiful sculptural images of all time.
More images here:
https://www.museosansevero.it/en/the-chapel-and-the-veiled-christ/the-veiled-christ
Stalker is missing upticks. So pathetic.
Someone please give her a few. I’ve used up all of my charity ones.
It’s an amazing sculpture. The style is just magical. The mastery is just undeniable.
That veiled Christ, JC. Truly ethereal.
This POS was thirteen when he murdered a three year old child. He’s looking forward to shedding his virginity when he’s released.
Eight O’clock walk to the hangman would solve all his problems.
Salvatore @ 4:49
Michelle Grate-on as past Oz rep for The Economis…no wonder the coverage was trash.
The Far Eastern Economic Review was far better than The Eonomist for asian coverage back then.
Non Aligned Movement,,,F… me…its 120 countries…Headquarters are in Jakarta.
When living in a non-English speaking country, The Economist was the most words (in English) for your
dollar[insert the local dinero here]I got a job in the NSW Cabinet Office in the early 1990s when Gary Sturgess (a weird sort of Mormon libertarian) was the boss. I was well underqualified on paper compared to the first class honours set.
I told the truth, like that I dropped out of law because I hated reading cases. But, I also said that I read The Economist from cover to cover, as well as the Far Eastern Economic Review.
It’s hard to think of anything comparable that a job applicant could cite today to a conservative panel. It takes time to build up a good reputation, and modern publications, which are now Web based, don’t yet have the history behind them. Like early print publications, many are shoestring operations, and even the more established ones are usually short of decent editorial standards. It takes time to develop that stuff.
Meanwhile, the old guard of ‘respectable’ print (The Lancet, The Economist, The Sydney Morning Herald et al) have been colonised by the wokerati and will slowly slide into the media equivalent of the La Brea Tarpits.
We are in a transformational period, and it’s always bumpy.
JC
Aug 26, 2023 4:08 PM
I was teased into subscribing to the Economist this week.
I know, I know. I used to read it every week (in hard copy) until about 20 years ago, when it just became a left-wing gerbil warming rag. I succumbed because I saw a couple of articles in their email promo that appeared interesting.
The one below on China is an example. I took a tour and decided I’d likely stop the sub once the free period runs out in a month. Their piece on the Trump goings-on is just disgusting. Anyhow, here’s the piece on China, which I think is pretty decent.
JC,
could be my anti-paywall extensions, but The Economist available on both Chrome & Firefox
OK – Yep not available on Safari my Non-Paywall & Non Ad Blocker Web Browser
What China’s economic troubles mean for the world
Pain for Elon Musk; relief for Jerome Powell
Only eight months ago China’s economy was expected to roar back to life. Zero-covid had been abandoned; the country’s shoppers and tourists allowed to roam free. Yet the rebound has fizzled out, with weak growth and deflation the result. This will not only affect its people. What happens in the world’s second-largest economy matters beyond its borders, too.
Because China is so big, its changing economic fortunes can drive overall global growth figures. But a slowing China also directly affects other countries’ prospects. Its households and companies will buy fewer goods and services than they would have otherwise, with consequences for both the producers of these goods and other consumers of them. In some places, China’s difficulties will be a source of pain. In others, though, they will bring relief.
Commodity exporters are especially exposed to China’s slowdown. The country guzzles almost a fifth of the world’s oil, half of its refined copper, nickel and zinc, and more than three-fifths of its iron ore. China’s property woes will mean it requires less of such supplies. That will be a knock for countries such as Zambia, where exports of copper and other metals to China amount to 20% of gdp, and Australia, a big supplier of coal and iron. On August 22nd the boss of bhp, the world’s biggest miner, reported the lowest annual profit for the Australian firm in three years, and warned that China’s stimulus efforts were not producing changes on the ground.
Weak spots in the West include Germany. Faltering demand from China is one reason why the country’s economy has either contracted or stagnated over the past three quarters. And some Western companies are exposed through their reliance on China for revenues. In 2021 the 200 biggest multinationals in America, Europe and Japan made 13% of their sales in the country, earning $700bn. Tesla is more exposed still, making around a fifth of its sales in China; Qualcomm, a chipmaker, makes a staggering two-thirds.
Provided the slowdown does not escalate into a full-blown crisis, the pain will remain relatively concentrated. Sales to China account for only 4-8% of business for all listed companies in America, Europe and Japan. Exports from America, Britain, France and Spain come to 1-2% of their respective outputs. Even in Germany, with an export share of nearly 4%, China would have to collapse in order to generate a sizeable hit to its economy.
Moreover, China’s struggles come at a time when the rest of the world is doing better than expected. In July the imf revised up its forecast for global growth, compared with projections in April. Most notable has been the rude health of the world’s biggest importer and China’s geopolitical rival, America, which some surveys suggest is growing at the red-hot pace of nearly 6%
When set against this backdrop, China’s slowing growth should even provide a measure of relief for the world’s consumers, since it will mean less demand for commodities, bringing down prices and import costs. That in turn will ease the task faced by the Federal Reserve and other central banks. Many have already raised rates to their highest level in decades, and would not relish having to go further still.
But what if things go badly wrong in China? Under a worst-case scenario, a property meltdown could reverberate through the world’s financial markets. A study published by the Bank of England in 2018 found that a “hard landing” in China, where economic growth fell from 7% to -1%, would cause global asset prices to fall and rich-world currencies to rise as investors rushed in the direction of safer assets. Overall, British gdp would drop by 1.2%. Although most Western financial institutions have relatively little exposure to China, there are exceptions, such as hsbc and Standard Chartered, two British banks.
A longer slowdown could lead China to turn inward, reducing its overseas investments and loans. Having become the world’s biggest bilateral creditor in 2017, it has already cut back as projects turn sour. Officials may become fussier still if they are firefighting at home. Observers will watch forthcoming celebrations of a decade of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, the label under which China splurged on bridges in Mozambique and ports in Pakistan, for signals of official intent.
Real difficulties at home would also change how the world perceives China. Rapid growth, along with generous overseas lending, boosted the country’s reputation. According to a recent survey of two dozen countries by Pew, a pollster, people in rich locations had a generally unfavourable view of China. The picture was different in much of the emerging world: Mexicans, Kenyans, Nigerians and South Africans all saw China in a more favourable light, and welcomed Chinese investment. The question is whether that will still be true in a year’s time.
Check out this. There is no threat to him at all. He’s their Dad!
—
The Lion Whisperer:
Kevin takes Thor’s Pride of 6 lions, including 3 white lions, on a walk. Kevin discusses the origins of the white lions in African legends. Stay tuned for some myth busting and scientific facts next week!
Have You Heard this LION LEGEND? | The Lion Whisperer
My girlfriends whom I’ve kept contact with from a Tassie dance class ten years ago are going to vote No, TE. They are all long-term locals. The Mansell types are not popular.
Or you could just scroll?
Old Ozzie
I think you get a couple of free articles per week and then goes paywall.
Incredible.
And what has recent “art” given us?…”Piss Christ”
Snap, Siltstone.
Had a temporary job as a secretary to a guy who was the Asia/Pacific manger of Bell and Howell. The Far Eastern was circulated, and looking at the dates and initials, I was the only one who read it.
It was a quality production, and fascinating to someone who previously only had the Australian media as a source,
From my vague memories of reading both some 50 years ago, the (now) Ecommunist used to have a broadly conservative tilt, while the Far Eastern Economic Review was more leftish, but still quite readable.
Does the Far Eastern Economic Review still exist?
la Mademoiselle …
Thank you JC, what a glorious achievement, breathtakingly beautiful.
Top Ender
Somewhat ironically, if a sealer named Mansell had not kidnapped aboriginal women for company, most of the Tasmanian aboriginals, who seem to largely comprise Mansells and another family group, would not exist.
He will need to pay reparations to himself for the actions of his ancestor, without whom he would not exist.
Sacré bleu!
A goil who is about to be the subject of a guest post, Cats – and in a good way.
Hollyweird … 🙂
Razey @ 5:21
The judge knowing releases a very high risk murderer. When the psycho kills again there will be no consequences for the judge. Compare this to what is now called “industrial manslaughter”. A person is killed in a workplace accident and the manager(s) have to prove they did everything humanly possible to reduce the likelihood of such an outcome, else conviction follows. I think such reasoning should apply to the judge. That is, he should face consequences if the psycho runs amok.
This is where the whole issue of “compensation” and “reparations” will be revealed as the farce and sham it actually is!
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Aug 26, 2023 5:33 PM
Courtney Morley-Clarke’s murderer, SLD, will be released from prison despite experts warning there’s a high chance he could commit violent sexual crimes
SLD killed toddler Courtney Morley-Clarke in 2001
He is at high-risk of committing violent, sexual crimes
He will be released under a strict supervision order
The judge who is releasing this creep has form:
Judge with no sense of the real world
Several months back, Doves realised he had to get some more guest posts happening if this blogue was to survive, let alone thrive.
Now he’s inundated with them.
This is a good thing.
Cats – feel free to start contributing – life on this planet from a non-collectivist perspective. It needs to be essayed, loud, long and in great detail. 🙂
If I was who I was before …
Bombadee—Alas, it longer exists. I think it went out of existence either in the late 90s or the early aughts.
Meanwhile, the old guard of ‘respectable’ print (The Lancet, The Economist, The Sydney Morning Herald et al) have been colonised by the wokerati and will slowly slide into the media equivalent of the La Brea Tarpits.
All true. But I still scan The Economist for interesting stories & even SMH can sometimes have useful articles. Actually, I am a fan of Peter Hartcher – stuff shirt that he sometimes appears. His book “Red Zone” warned about the duplicity of China when others were fawning. And he has a good mind, in spite of his weakness for the Left. He is also a loyal Australian, unlike many on the Left, and wrote almost a loveletter to the country in his book, “The Sweet Spot’.
SLD killed toddler Courtney Morley-Clarke in 2001
He is at high-risk of committing violent, sexual crimes
He will be released under a strict supervision order”
Yeah, sure he will.
Not if but when.
When you look at the table of Unemployment figure history
…does it seem like the 2021-22 financial year was Australia’s Tiananmen Square?
The year 2021-22 simply does not exist. Move along, move along.
The whole Spanish women’s soccer team is going on strike due to the unwelcome kiss. The best part was reading the comments in the WSJ. These days, I can predict which way its commentariat would lean.
There may have been comments previously about the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice suing Elon Mush for only hiring US citizens and not asylum seekers and refugees.
But isn’t this a private business?
The sculpture is incredible. Stone that looks like whispy gauze. Enough to make a visit to Naples, regardless of all the other wonders in the city.
Thanks for posting…now on my bucket list.
Excellent analogy, Siltie.
Every red flag that is possible is waving, but the ‘experts’ say that he should be released with an ankle bracelet, because ankle bracelets are perfect, plus they stop people from committing crimes. Not.
It comes down to the God complex of the Left – they imagine that they can transform human nature through politics and positive affirmation.
Also, there is no such thing as evil, and there are no evil people.
OK, I admit that the above is a bit simplistic. But, the Left’s refusal to admit that there are genuinely bad people – and there are – constantly clouds their perception of reality.
Far Eastern Economic Review died in 2009. Published in Hong Kong, well written rag, could be a bit lefty on non-economic matters but certainly not woke like The Economist is now.
The Spanish women’s soccer team tried a similar exercise before the World Cup over the same guy. He survived that and has decided this hasn’t got legs either. With 4 years to the next World Cup and one in the back pocket time is on his side.
HB — the last one was about the coach; this time it’s the big cheese who stood by the coach.
. Sure is — glad to see you are on the mend, and making preparations vis a vis hiking boots — what about boot scootin’ boots? tempted? Cheers.
In relation to Naples — the settentrionali used to say, rather unkindly See Naples and die (of the stench) so we drove on by to Positano – but the Museo Cappella Sansevero’s Veiled Christ is too much to resist seeing in all its marvellous beauty if ever we get the chance again.
I read three or four books a week. No particular topics, can be fiction, non-fiction or anything inbetween. Sometimes I pick up odd things from book exchanges, like the story of Fey Von Hassell. I’ve just finished John Mortimer’s (of Rumpole fame) novel Paradise Postponed, similarly acquired, written in the 80’s as a retrospect from 1945 till then. He writes well, as one might expect. At first I couldn’t stand it because it was also written as a TV series (now long gone) and the characters were introduced almost as a characterising script for dramatis personnae, and every piece of their surroundings was described in the detail of a staged setting. But then it got better, and I joined in with the plot structure, especially enjoying the way in which the old style British class structure which his characters inhabited was still in full operation until the arrival of the swinging sixties. His acerbic and amusing commentary on it all had also perked up by then. It concludes, as you might expect, in a courtroom, with a little bit of character mopping up still to be done in the final chapter. Not great, dated of course, trending leftwards in outlook, but still engaging enough for a quick read.
Now I’m starting Rowan Dean’s new book ‘Corkscrewed’, all in sans serif (help), a tale of UK advertising agencies in the 80’s. Better than ‘Mad Men’ in the sixties (set in Manhattan), the blurb says, and I’ll hold judgement on that, for I am one ‘who was there’ in the 60’s myself, albeit in Sydney in the rare ole times. ‘Mad Men’ didn’t have to invent ‘Peggy’, for that was me, and others like me, sans the unwed child in my case, thank goodness. Here we go now, Rowan, I’m diving in. See yous all later.
Perfect timing to enable building the team for winning next world cup. I guess the ladies didnt think this through – quite possible the kiss was intentional as way of getting rid of the current set of players also …
In Sport one team can be replaced by another easily if the timeline is measured in years.
I must have walked right by that chapel, more than once when I was in Naples in January.
Bother.
I guess I’ll have to go back.
The boots are for the Arctic Circle, later this year. If Dover permits, I might do a few comments on the journey.
Now walking (read hobbling) unaided. In a couple of weeks I’ll start proper training if the sawbones gives me the go ahead.
I have always thought the purpose of prison was to punish criminals and protect the public from them. Now if a murder has no remorse then why are they being let out?
Where’s Sep Blatter when you need him? I would think he could make this go away (for a price).
Dunno what is going on in the minds of Victorian pollies, they seem not to want anyone to visit Victoria.
City of Melbourne mulls $350 annual fee for property owners in shake up of short-term rentals as council addresses ‘housing crisis’ (Sky, 26 Aug)
This is after Dan the Man floated a tax on touristy beds. Way to go chaps and chapesses, tourists will be happy to elsewhere. The Stalinist tourism experience is briefly interesting but not especially conducive for return business. I suggest tourists holiday somewhere more welcoming, like Pyongyang.
Though looking at the exterior photo I’m pretty sure it was surrounded by scaffolding and getting renovated when I was there.
Naples is fabulous, might be stinky in summer? but in winter it’s fine.
He’s being released because his sentence has been served?
Michael Mansell is a good example – he’s been on the public teat for all of his life whingeing.
Yep, the blue eyed blonde (now grey) sealers son has been whingeing all his life.
Fragile Strong Women ™
By an icky man. Kisses from ladies seem more welcome, given the news from our Matildas gun striker today.