Looks like the phantom downticker found a new victim. How childish can you get? So be it, I can live…
Open Thread – Weekend 26 Aug 2023
- Open Thread – Mon 25 Nov 2024
- The more you gets the less you eats
- Open Thread – Weekend 23 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 21 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 18 Nov 2024
Exactly. How different would it be if we had an enemy choose our system of power generation?
Why are we fixing something that isn’t broken? And then why are we choosing the least effective and the costliest…
Now that’s a pantry I like, not a carrot in sight. And no refrigeration in those days either!
Real love and devotion to each other. We hear about the divorces and cheating of celebrities but hardly ever of…
Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis
@DrLoupis
79 people arrested in Greece for arson following the latest “climate change wildfires”.
Went out for a quick dinner last night to unwind after the arty-farty stuff was done.
Out of frying pan into fire.
Overheard the two ladies at the table next to us. When I say “overheard” they were very loud and eavesdropping was not avoidable. Might have pre-loaded.
They were both into competition pony riding of some description. One was obviously coming to terms with funding the pony enterprise, and was a bit miffed.
It would seem she had parted ways with her husband/partner and was horrified that he had insisted she fund her pony activities (and those of, I assume, their daughter) “completely out of my half”.
Err … it won’t be half-half if he pays for your outdoor pursuits.
Too much information, in any case.
It started out as very annoying but ended up very entertaining in a bizarre sort of way.
The Albanese Government is realising it is in trouble with its renewable rollout. We know that they know this because the ABC is running increasing cover for the failures. The latest excuses; because coal is inflexible. Not that renewables are unreliable. Farmers are holding up the rollout of transmission towers, not that the grand rollout is proving unrealistic and unacceptable. Also the light bulb moment, the realisation that if you get rid of coal-fired generation you have to have equivalent replacement generation already operating is being discussed. And whoops, this might not be achievable by 2030 . What to do? Suggestions are poorly researched in terms of feasibility and cost and are fed to the reader without analysis including batteries and gas peaking. There will be some nervous nellies in the sector and in government. Who is going to tell Bowen and Albo that they are in big trouble? Possibly time to get an independent consultancy in to deliver the bad news. Or does everyone just close their eyes and ears and keep spending tax payers money and hope it solves itself? Alternatively, just slowly walk back the grand plans getting the ABC to pave the way without questioning the failure and the billions syphoned off along the way. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-26/why-taxpayers-are-paying-to-keep-coal-plants-online/102778072
Pre-approved, of course.
HERE WE GO: Biden Regime Seeks Additional Funding for New COVID-19 Vaccine “That Works” – Warns Everyone Will Get It “No Matter Whether They’ve Gotten It Before or Not”
L.A. Mayor Bass: Lack of Consequences for Crime Isn’t Causing Retail Theft, ‘Things Like This Happen’ if There’s Profit
I wouldn’t bet against a standard Dachshund.
Flat white, one sugar thanks.
Citizen Free Press
@CitizenFreePres
Tulsi mic drop:
“A death rattle of any democracy is when a sitting president uses the state security apparatus to go after political opponents and cover up lies and crimes committed by himself or his family. Biden is doing that now.”
A couple of people with a highly developed literal streak here today.
It was a joke!
New World Odor™
@hugh_mankind
BREAKING:
Hollywood studio Lionsgate has removed their mask mandate only one week after it was implemented.
Keep speaking up. Keep ridiculing these useless mandates!
I came across this Guardian article on Moree and it seemed to ooze bullshit, so with a bit of cross-checking i found my concerns were warranted.
Read Moree: Australia’s richest rural shire first for real journalism with lots of comments from the horses mouths, then start on The Guardian article Moree elders: proud, strong and always resilient and you will quickly spot the race-baiting lie.
The first article is a good read, but long. Skip to near the end for the relevant part then read the tripe from The Guardian. Fortunately, the big lie is right at the top so your exposure to dross is thankfully limited. It’s the worst case of journalistic dishonesty I’ve seen in a long time because of potential to make things worse.
Pfizer Documents Show COVID-19 Vaccines Contain Potentially Harmful ‘Modified’ RNA, Not mRNA
First rule of Dog Fight Club.
. We never joke about Dog Fight Club.
CJ Hopkins has been given a choice of jail time or a fine for two tweets and a book cover
Already had three.
I also note, from a quick scan of yesterday arvo that the old chestnut – MILLIONS OF KIDS KEPT IN TUNNELS – got another run, preceded by the usual ‘this might be true’ caveat.
Clickbait for wompus nuffers.
Laughed out loud listening to the Yes campagn’s chief Yes man Dean Parkin being given a softball interview just now by one of the media’s Yes men, Sky’s Andrew Clennell.
Parkin said:
a) 40% of the population are undecided on the Voice.
b) After Yes wins, the new bureacracy it creates will be able to fine-tune itself to make sure it will be able to Close The Gap.
Just like every leftard ever born, a clueless, primary school-level misunderstanding of Australian politics.
The Kissinger Report & U.S. Government Policy to Depopulate the Planet
Will BRICS Change The World?
I missed most of yesterday due to being press-ganged into arty-farty stuff, and then having to listen to two Penelope horsey types complaining through their nosebags.
Apparently there are shenanigans afoot in dressage judging.
Smiles from everyone.
Cash! ( :
—
woof bark growl:
Cash 2.0 Great Dane at the Danish Village in Solvang 12
Yes, mem, the spinning is getting to the point where anyone who tries to follow it will fall down.
I read an article at TheirABC yesterday about why gubbmint is funding the extension of coal fired plants. It was a mixture of outright lies (coal is doomed – never mind the export figures or India and China) to numerous elisions where the missing bit in the middle, well, was missed.
It was framed as though we should all pull together and make sacrifices to achieve the Green Dream. I am reminded of that brilliant WIP image which juxtaposes a traditional bucolic scene with windmills surrounded by dead birds, solar panels covering the fields, and roads and other infrastructure despoiling the farmland.
The reality is gradually dawning. I see that South Australians are not thrilled about offshore wind farms, because of their sea harvesting industries and also whale migration paths. The question of cost/benefit has not yet been raised, but if and when it is, it’s going to look even uglier.
Good article about the RINOs in Amercian Spectator- thanks indolent. Reminds me of George Bush I filth- I can’t find any record of this but I recall that he said after he took over from Reagan that he would be the foreign policy president and that domestic affairs bored him. It’s over 30 years ago so maybe I’m mistaken. I know the grub also talked about a ‘kinder gentler America’ which I assume was the have a shot at RR.
Tickler, please.
Enough with the dog stuff.
It’s not that sort of blog.
Yesterday went to meeting of the local community association in the valley to discuss dreadful state of the roads in our area. Very good turn-up of some 60 or so people. We have been involved over the years in city developments and (unbearably) the necessary citizen/council meetings. This was a pleasant surprise. A quite competent General Manager who faced angry ratepayers fairly and with good information and argument. The mayor, a lady from the local town, was even more of a surprise. Very approachable (she apologised for her nervousness – she wasn’t!) and very well informed and down-to-earth. Beat by miles the rubbish meetings I have been to in Sydney over the years.
BTW my practical husband received lots of applause when he suggested that Council workers should not just shovel bitumen into potholes – but should use “Wacker-Packers” which are quite effective in longer term repairs. GM and Mayor duly noted the suggestions. Let’s see what happens.
Nothing like knowing you’ll probably run into ratepayers and voters on the main street to oil the wheels of democracy.
A mate of mine works in Local Government. Has a hilarious video of a protest held outside his offices.
Sancho Panzer
Aug 27, 2023 9:00 AM
Tickler, please.
Enough with the dog stuff.
It’s not that sort of blog.
Piss off. ( :
Millions of dogs being held captive in tunnels.
That’s what i want to read about.
Good reporting from this bloke.
—-
Tyler Oliveira:
I Investigated the Maui Wildfires…
*I*
mongs
Vicki,
What reasons, if any, were given for the state of the roads?
I did get the joke re sausage dogs, as I said in my comment.
The point was to let Cats and Kittehs who don’t know anything about daschunds know that they are not lap dogs. Not at all.
At Sinc’s, I told the story of a miniature one that was absolutely determined to hunt a full grown male grey kangaroo on Mt Taylor. It was fascinating to watch.
We had to forcibly restrain him before he got disembowelled.
I think we have a mong moratorium in place.
Tune into the Outsiders.
Transmission line story featuring a lovely lady I have had to privilege to get to know in the course of this fight against the power barons.
Steve trickler
Aug 27, 2023 9:12 AM
Sancho Panzer
Aug 27, 2023 9:00 AM
Tickler, please.
Enough with the dog stuff.
It’s not that sort of blog.
Piss off. ( :
Woof, woof………………
Currently in a waiting room being force fed the ALPBC.
It’s a form of hell.
Allegra Spendathon talking about tax reform.
GST should be on the table.
Capital Gains should be on the table, blah blah blah.
Piers Akerman:
That bolded part. Any poster from the West, indeed anyone, know what the hell Aboriginal fishing is and how it’s different? I don’t think it is true now, but I recall that Aboriginal people didn’t need to get fishing licences. No one should have to pay for this pleasurable experience.
What reasons, if any, were given for the state of the roads?
Bushiest – guess what? The usual – some big rain events, and then LACK OF FUNDS – surprise, surprise. GM went into great detail to explain the huge mileage of roads in our area & conversely, the small number (comparatively) of ratepayers.
He explained that they are trying to access the NSW Natural Disaster Fund- since there have been 6 or so events that can be classified as natural disasters – including the complete isolation of one valley for a period of time due to total collapse of entry road through a pass.
Indolent Avatar
Indolent
Aug 27, 2023 8:55 AM
Will BRICS Change The World?
Indolent your last 2 post links are malicous websites – 80 in 1st, 91 in the second – stopped by AVG
johanna
Sorry, I saw your reference to sausage dogs, then turned the page to find another over-literal comment.
Descending Deep into this Darkness</strong
QUESTION: Marty,
One of my mentors told me about you 6 months ago. Since that time, I have been an avid reader of your public and private blogs. Additionally, I’ve incorporated the Socrates arrays into my trading strategy.
First and foremost, thank you so much for everything you do. The world needs a voice like you during these difficult times as we are descending into darkness. You are helping so many people wakeup to the truth. Your integrity from within, courage in adversity and service above self have helped me to find my own voice. It is time for humanity to rise against our oppressors and take back our freedoms.
My question this morning is what happens to Socrates after you’re gone? I have watched several interviews as well as your documentary where you talk about how the CIA desperately wants the technology. Do you have a plan in place for protecting this powerful tool?
Wishing you many more years of health and happiness!
Best,
Evan
ANSWER: “Thank you. I do not regret what they did to me. I survived but emerged with a deeper understanding of how corrupt the system is. Having a working knowledge of law, I went toe-to-toe with my oppressors, who were clearly taking orders from those who sought to take over Russia and strip it clean of its wealth. I watched how they rigged trials, selected judges, and pretended it was random, and then saw how they altered transcripts to change the very words spoken in courts only to find the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to be as fake as a $3 bill. I helped others in their legal defense. I told one black kid to go to trial. He won. My own court-appointed counsel dared to say I helped a criminal escape. He said the jury did not find him innocent, only that there was insufficient evidence. That was the view of even these fake lawyers who pretend to defend people but are paid for by the court to make sure they lose 99% of the time. His mother hugged me and said I was the first white person who ever helped her family.
I have seen it all. I watched them prosecute three separate Italian Mafia families for “conspiracy” to murder the same alleged murder using three different theories, and no corpse was ever found. It was as if your spouse vanished, and they then charged you with conspiracy to murder them without any corpse ever found whatsoever. All they had was a car parked at the airport and nothing more. They found them all guilty and sentenced to 20+ years for nothing. I have ZERO respect for our legal system anymore. It is so corrupt I cannot even recant all the horror stories I witnessed. My own real lawyer warned me they would try to kill me. They did; I was in a coma but survived, to their dismay.
When the Rule of Law collapses, so does society. Lady Margaret Thatcher explained that Britain, in its golden age, brought the rule of law to the world. Civilization exists ONLY when everyone benefits. What is going on now is that when the LEFT seizes control, they seek to force their view on everyone else. This is simply an economic religion that has doomed the world, and we will not revitalize civilization until this collapses and people see what it really is. Communism collapsed in 1989. Ironically, this is just one Fibonacci count of 34 years later – it’s our time.
As Maggie said, when you run out of other people’s money, that is when it all falls apart. We have reached that point in history. That is why they are now pushing for CBDCs for total control because the debt system is collapsing. They are indeed, running out of other people’s money.
We are descending deep into this darkness. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We will emerge from this stronger, just as I did. When you see the system for what it truly is, that is when it will all change. Thirty years ago, the system was corrupt, but they at least tried to hide it. Today, they no longer care because they control the elections, and only a fool thinks they are fair. They will do as they like, for the government has undergone a silent coup and nobody seems to care in Washington. It’s like J. Edgar Hoover who had files on every politician, and they did as he said, or else. The Neocons are doing the same.
As for Socrates, it will survive me. The government canceled all the visas of my programmers from around the world. This is a worldwide effort to preserve this for posterity. People have always tried to infiltrate my operation to grab whatever they can because they are corrupt and greedy. All they ever see is money and screwing the world. Their greed blinds them, and they cannot fathom that they will not have the life they dream about because they are just corrupt in character. I have seen the evil inside the belly of the beast as well as on the outside. My goal is for Socrates to survive and help post-2032. It is my gift to humanity.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/products_services/socrates/descending-deep-into-this-darkness/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
What?
How could this have happened?
Television informs me that Palacechook is off to Europe whilst Queensland Labor is in turmoil. Now coupled with a headline on the dead tree Australian yesterday which from memory said Labor insiders are worried with Palacechook in charge, well things may be heating up.
Ha.
Haha.
Aaaaaaahahahhahaahhaaaaaaa.
Watching the Kiss between player and head of soccer I can’t believe the nonsense issuing from all the players and others .
She certainly did not push him away in fact put her arm around him.
I as an older woman had a man tall and big grab me in a tight embrace and tongue kiss me . We had just met and had spent some time standing and admiring the view and chatting about family connections , he grabbed me in a tight hold hey and I enjoyed it but I put my hands on his chest pushed him gently away and told him it was sexual assault. Still friends
“Lack of funds “
I bet the offices are still fully staffed.
My theory is “lack of funds” has become more prevalent since “abundance of subsidies” for renewable energy.
Yes.
But largely harmless when people just link to stuff which “looks interesting but not sure if it is accurate”, eh, Dover?
Tune into the Outsiders.
Transmission line story featuring a lovely lady I have had to privilege to get to know in the course of this fight against the power barons.
Just watched it Farmer Gez. Spoke very well and put the farmers case across quite clearly.
rubbish result for greens in Warrandyte by election
No probs, BJ.
As for rural roads, if they are like non-rural roads, a lot of the problem is governments accepting the cheapest quote to fix things. You know, chuck a shovelful of hotmix into the hole, give it a quick run over with a roller, then move on to the next one.
We all know how that works out, after the contractors have been paid.
I wish that some of them would have a more strategic approach
OK, we have 200 units of money to spend on roads,
We will spend 100 on hotmix fixes, and the other 100 on permanently fixing (the Romans knew how) priority areas. Sure, there won’t be much to see after a year, but after five years there will be.
I know that the numbers are daunting, but they need to make a start. It’s amazing how activity generates support. Doing nothing, OTOH …
Too much money in your account?
Want it cleaned out?
Just click on an Indolent link.
Any one will do.
I as an older woman had a man tall and big grab me in a tight embrace and tongue kiss me .
I, as an older man, had an old lady friend hug and kiss me quite generously. It wasn’t my missus.
If it wasn’t for the hormone treatment for prostate cancer I might have barred up.
No complaints of sexual harassment from me!
I don’t know what surprises me more. Intelligent, accessible Council office holders…or the ignorance about compaction devices for road repair.
Chairman Dan news:
Bluddee hell what a clusterphuck.
I suspect the rural mayor and CEO might be better politicians than they first appear.
Did anyone ask them precisely which roads are council, and which are State/Federal, how much their road network has grown in the last 10-20 years (not much would be my guess) and what funding the council has put in progressively over that period?
Might be some interesting answers come out of that.
Also the cheapest quote to build them in the first place.
Virtually all gravel roads I’ve seen get paved over the last 20 years need repairs after just one or two years.
In the current political environment, wankers will be pissed off with this video.
It shows Russia in a positive light.
HOW DARE YOU!
—
Eli from Russia:
There are 193 ethnic groups and 277 languages spoken in Russia. Is it enough to know only Russian to travel in different regions and republics of Russia?
Republics of Russia and what languages and dialects we speak
I get a distinct impression of Julie Bishop’s standard answer, “What a wonderful idea!”.
But then I’m jaded.
Especially since the ALP doesn’t look to’ve put up a candidate. That left 33% of voters to find someone else to vote for.
Warrandyte District by-election provisional results (VEC elections page)
2023 Warrandyte state by-election (wiki)
The wiki has a useful comparison with previous election results.
Ukrainian fighter ace ‘Juice’ among three killed in mid-air collision
Kyiv | Three Ukrainian military pilots including a “mega-talent” who yearned to fly F-16s were killed on Friday when two L-39 combat training aircraft collided over a region west of Kyiv on Friday, the air force said on Saturday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is counting on swift training of crews to fly up to 61 F-16 fighter jets promised by his Western allies, said in his nightly video address that the three men included Andriy Pilshchykov, callsign Juice, “a Ukrainian officer, one of those who greatly helped our state”.
Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat described Pilshchykov — who was fluent in English and aged 29 when Reuters interviewed him in December — as a “mega talent” and leader of reforms.
“You can’t even imagine how much he wanted to fly an F-16,” Ihnat wrote on his Facebook page. “But now that American planes are actually on the horizon, he will not fly them.”
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office announced a criminal investigation had been opened into whether flight preparation rules were violated.
“It is too early to discuss details. Certainly, all circumstances will be clarified,” Zelensky said.
The air force announced the crash on its Telegram app. “We express our condolences to the families of the victims. This is a painful and irreparable loss for all of us,” it said.
Zelensky noted that the third Saturday in August is also when Ukrainian military and civilian aviation celebrate their professional day, and said the introduction of F-16s would mark a “new level” for military aviation.
“This will also bring civil aviation back to the Ukrainian skies, as it will move us closer to victory and provide Ukraine with greater security,” he said.
Meanwhile
Ukraine’s Pilots ‘Won’t Be Competent to Fly F-16s,’ Let Alone Boost Kiev’s Offensive
Kiev is to receive US-made F-16 fighter jets, according to the deal between NATO powers and Ukraine. Washington will begin training Ukrainians to fly and maintain the aircraft, the Pentagon’s press secretary announced, adding that “following English language training for pilots in September, F-16 flying training is expected to begin in October.”
After just six months of language, and six months of flight school, Ukraine’s pilots will not be fully competent to fly NATO-gifted American-made F-16 fighter jets, retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.
“It would be wiser and more cost effective to hire experienced Polish, other NATO member nationals, even Americans or South Americans or Asian pilots instead. Even with experienced mercenary or volunteer pilots, the situation for F-16s in the theater of Ukraine will be extremely dangerous, and it will certainly not be well integrated with air defense and surveillance systems, ground support, logistics, or any perceivable strategy to advance a Ukrainian counteroffensive,” Kwiatkowski stated.
In the latest development, the Pentagon’s press secretary, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, revealed that Ukrainians would be training to fly and maintain F-16 fighter jets in the coming months on US soil starting in October after their English language training in September.
The scheme is to be implemented at the Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Arizona, facilitated by the Air National Guard’s 162nd Wing.
Estimates suggesting that a foreign pilot would be able to operate an F16 fighter jet after an intense training period of six to eight months would only work in the case of an American pilot who has already been through US basic flight school, Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, suggested.
“This does not include English language training, and while Ukrainian pilots are probably as trainable as any other nationality on an F-16, most are used to Soviet-manufactured aircraft and weapons systems, and air operations in the battlespace. So the muscle memory and the assumptions of these pilots may need to be shifted, and that could take longer for them to become proficient.”
However, the proposed timeline should be quite successful, the expert added, if “the goal is not to produce proficient and fully competent pilots, who can immediately add value in a combined defensive (and possibly offensive) sea-land-air operation against a competent and seasoned enemy.”
Language Handicap
Apart from the actual plane-operating skills, the other problem facing the Ukrainian pilots aspiring to fly US-made F-16s is the language barrier. Ukrainian pilots will be receiving language training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, to ensure that have “sufficient language skills” to understand “complexities and specialized English required to fly the aircraft,” Ryder said on Thursday.
If the initial English language skills fall short of being satisfactory, a “separate preparatory language class in advance of any practical training, and continual augmented language study while in flight school is expected,” Karen Kwiatkowski clarified.
“Unlike the case with a lot of NATO allies and traditional buyers of the F-16s, which have long set in place English language training for their airmen, the situation with Ukraine is a whole different ball game. While its anyone’s guess what percentage of potential Ukrainian F-16 pilots has had any preceding language preparation, it’s common knowledge that learning a new language as an adult often takes longer, and presents more of a challenge,” Kwiatkowski said.
Accordingly, bearing in mind this language “handicap,” the US will likely use it to “slow walk the actual F-16 training,” she said, adding:
“Much of this training can be done safely using flight simulators, and yet even this seems to be delayed.
The US government may not be excited about seeing the F-16s crash and burn, either in training in the US, or over Ukraine.”
In bird news…the little black water hen finished building her nest in the dietes at the back fence and is now sitting, occasionally relieved by her mate so she can forage.
Not long and we’ll have a conga line of long leggedey puffballs marching across the lawn.
Palacechook news with James Hall reporting in the Courier Mail:
What a ludicrous name for … just about anyone. And, this week, the wokerati took the Queen song ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ off their latest greatest hits album.
A sense of humour is now officially illegal.
Indeed, Albanese may fall on his sword or be knifed in the back if Voice fails and the backroom boys are likely trying to clear the way for Chalmers. Palacechook needs to be out of contention.
The Teals taxation for thee but not for me is particularly jarring form of hypocrisy.
I suspect Albo’s departure will be very much like Gillard. Lots of noise then just happens overnight.
“Watching the Kiss between player and head of soccer I can’t believe the nonsense issuing from all the players and others .
She certainly did not push him away in fact put her arm around him.”
It was inappropriate.
Do I believe it was assault? No. Do I believe it was appropriate? No.
“Indeed, Albanese may fall on his sword or be knifed in the back if Voice fails and the backroom boys are likely trying to clear the way for Chalmers. Palacechook needs to be out of contention”
In 2013, during his second coming, Rudd changed the rules which makes knifing Sleazy impossible.
Generally,if having lunch at the sailing club, one should make prior travel arrangements with your man and keep an open diary for the remainder of the day.
Thanks for the Powerline Week in Pictures toons, Tom. They are always a good reminder that not everything is political, sometimes its just that life as we live it can be pretty funny. Always good to see Biden get his comeuppance though.
I’m seeing a similar point of view regarding the “Voice.” Vote “YES” – “compensation” and “reparations” will be paid by thee, not me.
When the inVoice fails Sleazy will step down to spend “more time with family after a life of service to the country”.
Then we’ll watch with much mirth the bitch fight between Marles and the dealers missus.
Watch Russian FPV Attack Drone Eliminate Ukrainian Troops
2nd Video Down – ? “MIncemeat”
‘We’re trailing the world’: Push for Aussie-made defence drones
The Australian Defence Force would quickly begin using locally made surveillance drones under an Albanese government push to make the nation’s military less dependent on cheap imported technology from China.
The government’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA), a new agency created to spur innovation in the defence sector, has sought advice from Australian companies and research institutions about options to develop a sovereign, military-grade uncrewed aerial system (UAS) capability.
The Department of Defence and the Defence Force announced earlier this year that they were downing their extensive fleets of drones made by Chinese tech giant DJI because of security concerns.
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said it was a “no-brainer” for the government to encourage the use of locally made drone technology and expressed dismay the issue had not been addressed until now.
“We seem to be trailing the rest of the world,” Conroy said in an interview with this masthead.
“The fact we don’t have a sovereign UAS capability and rely on other countries, particularly DJI drones from China, makes us vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.
“Drones are versatile and cost-effective, and the war in Ukraine has shown how important they are to modern warfare.
“Australia will never have the biggest army in the world, so this type of unmanned technology is exactly what we need to be investing in.”
About DroneShield
DroneShield (ASX:DRO) is an Australian/U.S. publicly listed company focusing on RF sensing, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Sensor Fusion, Electronic Warfare, Rapid Prototyping and MIL-SPEC manufacturing.
Our capabilities are used to protect Military, Government, Law Enforcement, Critical Infrastructure, Commercial and VIPs throughout the world.
Through our team of engineers we offer customers bespoke solutions and off-the-shelf products designed to suit a variety of terrestrial, maritime or airborne platforms.
Meet Australia’s ethical arms dealer
Oleg Vornik fled Russia as a teen when his homeland took an authoritarian turn. Now he is helping Ukraine defend itself against Putin’s army.
‘Completely harmless’
DroneShield produces technology to stop unmanned aerial vehicles – drones – from communicating with their controllers. The products use sensors to detect drones and radio frequencies to stop them flying or transmitting images.
Systems can be mounted on buildings and vehicles but the company’s most popular product is the DroneGun, which can “fire” signals directly at drones. Customers include militaries, police, prisons, airports and stadiums.
While Vornik is riding the wave of increased military spending by governments amid rising geopolitical tensions, he maintains there is an ethical element to DroneShield’s wares.
DroneShield’s products are getting some real-world testing on the front line after being given to Ukrainian soldiers.
Both sides have embraced drones, for surveillance and carrying out attacks, including suicide drones laden with explosives that can destroy armoured vehicles.
Vornik admits constant improvement is needed to stay ahead of adversaries.
“It’s absolutely a cat-and-mouse game.
We are seeing now consumer drones that you and I can buy in JB Hi-Fi come out with features, which I would squarely describe as military features, like resistance to somebody trying to interfere with it,” he says.
“If you buy a $2000 drone for your child for Christmas, why would it need such a feature?
And I believe the answer is because the manufacturers know that some of the drones will be used in war theatres, and they build them to be compatible with that environment.
It’s pretty fascinating.”
VicPlod seem to have looked after their interests quite well.
The article about the BRICS is from the Expose, which I’ve been visiting without issues for months. What is AVG? Are you sure that that isn’t the malicious, or at least, censorious, part?
It’s hard to get rid of him because of the new rules, bear.
Vlads S400 missile system will make short work of the Team Woke’s F16’s.
What a ludicrous name for … just about anyone. And, this week, the wokerati took the Queen song ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ off their latest greatest hits album.
A sense of humour is now officially illegal.
Hey jo. People will be now looking the song up in the millions.
“Why the fuss over this song?”
Opinion
Why the Australian dollar again looks like the Pacific peso
Pendal’s Tim Hext says the weakness in the Aussie dollar is not just because of a strong Greenback, there are other reasons at play.
Tim Hext
One question I have been frequently asked by investors recently is: why is the Australian dollar so cheap?
As a bond manager, not a foreign exchange manager, I am careful when driving outside my lane, but it is a very good question.
Back in August 2003, the Aussie dollar was US64¢, and it’s trading at that very level today.
Its weakness is not just a strong US dollar story.
Over 20 years, we are unchanged on a trade-weighted basis.
You could be forgiven for thinking the mining boom never happened. But it has happened. Over those 20 years the volume of goods we export has doubled. We have also emerged as a major exporter of services like education and tourism.
The prices we receive for exports versus what we pay for imports, our terms of trade, has almost doubled. We now have a strong trade surplus and even a healthy current account surplus.
So why has the Australian dollar once again begun to look more like the Pacific peso of the Keating era, rather than the success story of a decade ago?
Is it structural or cyclical?
The short-term reasons for Australian dollar weakness are well covered, including increasing pessimism around China. Despite this, key commodity prices for now are still around decade averages and nearly everyone expects them to fall.
A longer-term economic explanation may lie in the flip side of a current account surplus. That is, a capital account deficit.
There is also the recent US fiscal stimulus that is strengthening the American economy and, unusually, pushing US interest rates higher than Australia’s.
However, we must ask if in the longer term there is something else at play.
A longer-term economic explanation may lie in the flip side of a current account surplus. That is, a capital account deficit.
For almost the first time in our history we are now an exporter, not importer, of capital.
Australians collectively now can be far better savers, not just spenders, helped by a trade surplus and our superannuation system. For every dollar of equity that comes into Australia, we now invest two dollars overseas.
This means we no longer need higher interest rates to attract foreign capital. Australian interest rates can be below US rates on a sustained basis without a currency crisis.
This is good news for our economy, but the lower interest rates make us less attractive to foreign investors, reducing demand for the currency.
We’re seen as a quarry and a farm
Another reading of this may be some foreign investors, and domestic investors, no longer view Australia as an attractive asset market to invest in relative to other economies. Overall, this seems strange, as on average our returns on assets remain higher than assets overseas.
A longer-term psychological explanation may be that while the Australian economy has undergone huge shifts in the last few decades, the international view of us has not.
We are still seen as a leveraged play on the global economic cycle, a procyclical currency. No more than a quarry and a farm.
This was shown in the short, sharp 10 per cent sell-off in the Australian dollar when COVID-19 broke out and economies shut down in March 2020.
Our heavy reliance on China does not help in a world seemingly very down on the Asian giant. Many are now comparing China to Japan, as always happens during a Chinese downturn.
Every time the Australian dollar falters, the critical old-economy narrative of the first tech boom re-emerges. The latest iterations are predictions we will be left behind in the artificial intelligence boom.
A longer-term political explanation may be that we have blown the commodity boom. Rather than re-invest the super-normal taxes and profits in other growth engines, the riches have flown back to shareholders, the majority of them foreigners, and to governments that have then not used them to help secure a post-boom future.
The economy also suffered from Dutch disease after the currency’s surge up to 2011, where the resources sector inflated the Australian dollar to the detriment of industries like manufacturing.
Whatever the explanation, on a longer-term basis the currency is beginning to look cheap.
Since the float in 1983 it has averaged US75¢. We remain a country with huge resources, a growing population of productive workers and a retirement system that takes pressure off the government. We not only have bulk commodities but also those needed for the transition economy.
Remember, too, that currencies are always relative measures – two stories told in one rate.
Scope for investor optimism
Few would argue Australia enjoys many legal, governance and social structure advantages over other major economies, highlighted during the pandemic.
Today’s currency outflows overseas from super funds will eventually be more balanced as retirement savings are drawn down.
Finding an exact low is difficult, given forecasting currencies is more of an art than a science.
The threat of global recession from higher rates has stalled for now but has not yet passed, so we may get cheaper yet.
For now, investors should be preparing to position themselves for a more optimistic time when Australia thrives again and our currency moves back to at least the average levels of the last 40 years, if not higher.
Tim Hext is head of government bond strategies at Pendal.
It gives indigenes the right to hunt turtles, dugong et al, including endangered specis under the guise of “traditional hunting”. the fact it is from a tinny using a rifle and metal lance is overlooked.
“It’s hard to get rid of him because of the new rules, bear.”
Correct, the only way Sleazy will depart before an election is if he retires, but I doubt very that that will happen, coz he and his squeeze, Jodeeeeee, likes the good stuff too much, that’s the socialist way..
Also the cheapest quote to build them in the first place.
Virtually all gravel roads I’ve seen get paved over the last 20 years need repairs after just one or two years.
That is certainly true in respect to some newly bitumen surfaced roads around here. Insufficient drainage was installed and the first big rains fractured large sections of bitumen. Indeed, a station manager near us complained to the GM that they now had about 50 hectares adjacent to the road on alluvial flats that was now unusable.
I’d be interested in knowing what AVG actually stopped.
Gaia hates ceiling fans.
The Biden Admin Is Going After Another Common Household Item in the Name of Climate Change (25 Aug)
The jokes write themselves…
France has too much wine. It’s paying millions to destroy it
Caroline Anders
France is about to destroy enough wine to fill more than 100 Olympic-size swimming pools. And it’s going to cost the nation about $US216 million ($337 million).
Ruining so much wine may sound ludicrous, but there’s a straightforward economic reason this is happening: Making wine is getting more expensive due in part to recent world events, and people are drinking less of it.
That’s left some producers with a surplus that they can’t price low enough to make a profit. Now, some of France’s most famous wine-producing regions, like Bordeaux, are struggling.
In June, the European Union initially gave France about $US172 million to destroy nearly 80 million gallons of wine, and the French government announced additional funds last week. Producers will use the funds to distil their wine into pure alcohol to be used for other products, like cleaning supplies or perfume.
Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau told reporters on Friday (Saturday AEST) that the money was “aimed at stopping prices collapsing and so that winemakers can find sources of revenue again,” according to Agence France-Presse.
The decline in wine consumption is not new, according to Olivier Gergaud, a professor of economics at France’s KEDGE Business School who researches food and wine.
Wine consumption in France has been plummeting since its peak in 1926, when the average French citizen drank about 136 litres per year.
Today, that number is closer to 40 litres.
Consumers are also inundated with beverage choices now, and they’re choosing wine less and less.
“We have an underlying issue of, ‘How do we better engage with the consumer and make wine more relevant, make wine a relevant choice for consumers that have a lot of options?’” said Stephen Rannekleiv, the global sector strategist for beverages at Rabobank, a Dutch financial firm specialising in agribusiness.
As consumption has taken a nosedive, production costs have increased and inflation has tightened budgets around the world. That’s especially true since the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered bars, restaurants and wineries, driving up prices.
The war in Ukraine also influenced the industry by disrupting shipments of products essential to winemaking, like fertiliser and bottles.
And on top of the pandemic and war, climate change is forcing growers to adapt to new harvest schedules and reckon with more extreme weather.
Costs are so high and demand is so low that some producers can’t turn a profit.
While this year’s subsidy is getting a lot of attention, the French government intervention is not a new phenomenon, according to Elizabeth Carter, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire who has studied the French wine market.
“I am not vaguely at all surprised that France is looking to destroy surplus and prop up prices by limiting quantity, because this is something that they’ve actually been struggling with since the 19th century, wine overproduction,” Ms Carter said.
She said there’s been an internal push-and-pull in France for decades as producers grapple with what quantity of grapes to grow and how much wine is too much.
The nation has long regulated the wine market intensely, in some cases telling producers how many vines they can grow and how far apart they have to be, in an effort to prevent the market from being flooded.
So while this buyback program isn’t totally new, Mr Gergaud said, he hopes the industry takes this moment to consider longer-term solutions.
“We need to think in terms of, you know, long-run adaptation to these changing conditions,” he said. “We need to help this market to transition to a better future, maybe with more wines that would respect the environment. Adaptation to climate change is a real challenge.”
And regardless of its current woes, wine is too strong a part of France’s identity for the market to go anywhere. It’s certainly in the government’s best interest to keep the industry happy:
French President Emmanuel Macron has even said that a meal without wine “is a bit sad.”
Kerry Packer’s views on taxation were more forthright but you could never accuse him of hypocrisy.
Those rules only apply to the Members of Parliament themselves. That won’t be where the problem lies.
Given that Andrews turned left into the street and hit the young lad, he would have been coming from the south end of Melbourne Rd. It is most likely he would have been at Sorrento Yacht Club as Blairgowrie YS is further to the North.
Well, yes.
Up until now it seems to have worked as planned.
The parents of the boy must have been naive in the extreme to think Slugs and Bugs wouldn’t fold at the earliest opportunity.
Send it to Australia. I’ll help get rid of some of it for them…yum!
I suspect it may have been another one of the decisions that just made itself. A peculiarly Victoriastani phenomenon.
dover0beach Avatar
dover0beach
Aug 27, 2023 10:33 AM
Indolent your last 2 post links are malicous websites – 80 in 1st, 91 in the second – stopped by AVG
I’d be interested in knowing what AVG actually stopped.
I have taken 2 screen shots of Will BRICS Change The World? Link
and can email if you want
What it says is
AVG Web Sheild Alert 1/91
Multiple Web Threats secured
We’ve blocked a threat URL Web Address https://expose-news.com/2023/08/25/will-brics-change-the-world/?cmid=40052909-a3a6-456c-8899-d7615ffa0caf from being downloaded
GOT IT
After consuming some vin ordinarie from an empty Coke bottle in the Bordeaux airport carpark in the early 90s tipping it out might be the best place for it.
Bruce of Newcastle
Aug 27, 2023 10:42 AM
France has too much wine.
Send it to Australia. I’ll help get rid of some of it for them…yum!
Australia has too much wine as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fQ7eL0yC8g
Coming to Australia soon – Especially VictoriaStan under Dictator Dan
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Offshore+wind+turbines+at+the+Scroby+Sands+Wind+Farm+near+Great+Yarmouth.+Bloomberg&iax=images&ia=images
Auto correct seems to have a problem with my high school French.
Other way around, Carpe, but I recall it being a right turn and heading towards Rye on Melbourne Rd. Could have been either club.
He could, however, be prevailed upon to fall on his sword.
For the cause, comrade.
OldOzzie, can you email the screenshots please.
You f*cking wankers! @9:57.
—
My Lunch Break:
We have our 9th Episode of Boots on the Ground! We are here in Champaign, Illinois today for Episode 36! With a shock ending, stay tuned for the whole thing. I hope you all enjoy seeing the Altgeld Hall as much as I did.
Ancient Champaign
Evening kitchen visit? 🙂
Ah yes of course Tintarella. Thank you
Well said bruvva. I’m sure we can look after him.
Pogria:
The world is full of arseholes, way beyond current requirements. The problem is identifying them so you can take corrective action.
Observation from one of the staff’s brat at boarding school in the big smoke, when their class was given “The Voice, yes or no?” as an essay topic.
The kids who wrote a “Yes” essay were those whose parents stand to lose nothing if the Voice gets up. The kids who wrote a “No” essay were those who perceived they’d likely be worse off from the Voice.
dover0beach
Aug 27, 2023 10:59 AM
OldOzzie, can you email the screenshots please.
dover,
2 sceen shots emailed to [email protected]
This.
There was a time when people simply shook hands – and men certainly DID NOT kiss and hug women unrelated to them.
I always find it nauseating on, say, Norton’s show when guests kiss (or even triple kiss) and hug other guests they have never met.
Re the French wine story it made me fondly recall the apocalyptic stories about European wine lakes and butter mountains twenty years ago.
And on such things amusingly lefties are now pushing for Prohibition.
Biden’s ‘Booze Czar’ Floats New Possible Guidance Of Only Two Beers A Week (27 Aug)
It’ll work just as well this time as it did last time. But it does show how the green-left are going full Baptist frowning ladies (insert Calli’s favourite photo here). Never go full Baptist frowning ladies. Add the story last week about the lefty cities wanting to ban meat and dairy entirely by 2030 and the great butter mountains will be back too.
(Yes I have attended Baptist churchs over the years, sue me.)
That would have been at the time when consumption of French wine was prescribed as the treatment for alcoholism?
Mug Shot All Biden Crime Family in One
I like No 3 Diamond Tits Queen of Stonks
Though we are missing Wicked Witch of the West Victoria Nuland & Husband Robert Kagan – A Family Business of Perpetual War
Exclusive: Victoria Nuland and Robert Kagan have a great mom-and-pop business going. From the State Department, she generates wars and from op-ed pages he demands Congress buy more weapons. There’s a pay-off, too, as grateful military contractors kick in money to think tanks where other Kagans work,
writes Robert Parry.
UniParty USA – Delay, Confuse, Distract
Meanwhile
Uniparty’s Plan To Save “Our Democracy” Unfolds
The ALP is basically a racketeering outfit with a parliamentary front.
The notion that Rudd’s “democratic reforms” would save an under-performing Albanese from backroom dealings is quaint.
AVG is to anti-virus what the The Expose is to news
it’s free … but they also want yr money
Dream on, Albo. Here, in the Wild West, after the Aboriginal Heritage law fiasco, your “Voice” is as dead as Melbourne at midnight.
Beertruk:
The AEC is already partisan – their website has this statement at the bottom of their webpage:
This is a political statement.
Remember how in 2020 if you dared to mention natural immunity you could lose your job, be censored on social media and have your bank account closed?
SARS-CoV-2: How the history of human populations influences their immune response (Phys.org, 26 Aug)
Please forget we ever did such things. We meant it for your own good!
Luigi the Unbelievable, “No one’s is saying that to me”. That’s because no one wants to talk to you. How does such a failure get to be PM?
MatrixTransform
Aug 27, 2023 11:37 AM
AVG is to anti-virus what the The Expose is to news
it’s free … but they also want yr money
Happy to Pay for Multiple Computer Coverage over many years
A Family Business of Perpetual War
March 20, 2015
Exclusive: Victoria Nuland and Robert Kagan have a great mom-and-pop business going. From the State Department, she generates wars and from op-ed pages he demands Congress buy more weapons. There’s a pay-off, too, as grateful military contractors kick in money to think tanks where other Kagans work, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
Neoconservative pundit Robert Kagan and his wife, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, run a remarkable family business: she has sparked a hot war in Ukraine and helped launch Cold War II with Russia and he steps in to demand that Congress jack up military spending so America can meet these new security threats.
This extraordinary husband-and-wife duo makes quite a one-two punch for the Military-Industrial Complex, an inside-outside team that creates the need for more military spending, applies political pressure to ensure higher appropriations, and watches as thankful weapons manufacturers lavish grants on like-minded hawkish Washington think tanks.
Not only does the broader community of neoconservatives stand to benefit but so do other members of the Kagan clan, including Robert’s brother Frederick at the American Enterprise Institute and his wife Kimberly, who runs her own shop called the Institute for the Study of War.
Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (which doesn’t disclose details on its funders), used his prized perch on the Washington Post’s op-ed page on Friday to bait Republicans into abandoning the sequester caps limiting the Pentagon’s budget, which he calculated at about $523 billion (apparently not counting extra war spending). Kagan called on the GOP legislators to add at least $38 billion and preferably more like $54 billion to $117 billion:
“The fact that [advocates for more spending] face a steep uphill battle to get even that lower number passed by a Republican-controlled Congress says a lot, about Republican hypocrisy. Republicans may be full-throated in denouncing Obama for weakening the nation’s security, yet when it comes to paying for the foreign policy that all their tough rhetoric implies, too many of them are nowhere to be found.
“The editorial writers and columnists who have been beating up Obama and cheering the Republicans need to tell those Republicans, and their own readers, that national security costs money and that letters and speeches are worse than meaningless without it.
“It will annoy the part of the Republican base that wants to see the government shrink, loves the sequester and doesn’t care what it does to defense. But leadership occasionally means telling people what they don’t want to hear. Those who propose to lead the United States in the coming years, Republicans and Democrats, need to show what kind of political courage they have, right now, when the crucial budget decisions are being made.”
So, the way to show “courage” in Kagan’s view is to ladle ever more billions into the Military-Industrial Complex, thus putting money where the Republican mouths are regarding the need to “defend Ukraine” and resist “a bad nuclear deal with Iran.”
Yet, if it weren’t for Nuland’s efforts as Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, the Ukraine crisis might not exist.
A neocon holdover who advised Vice President Dick Cheney, Nuland gained promotions under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and received backing, too, from current Secretary of State John Kerry.
Confirmed to her present job in September 2013, Nuland soon undertook an extraordinary effort to promote “regime change” in Ukraine.
She personally urged on business leaders and political activists to challenge elected President Viktor Yanukovych.
She reminded corporate executives that the United States had invested $5 billion in their “European aspirations,” and she literally passed out cookies to anti-government protesters in Kiev’s Maidan square.
Working with other key neocons, including National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman and Sen. John McCain, Nuland made clear that the United States would back a “regime change” against Yanukovych, which grew more likely as neo-N@zi and other right-wing militias poured into Kiev from western Ukraine.
In early February 2014, Nuland discussed U.S.-desired changes with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt (himself a veteran of a “regime change” operation at the International Atomic Energy Agency, helping to install U.S. yes man Yukiya Amano as the director-general in 2009).
Nuland treated her proposed new line-up of Ukrainian officials as if she were trading baseball cards, casting aside some while valuing others. “Yats is the guy,” she said of her favorite Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Disparaging the less aggressive European Union, she uttered “F@ck the EU” and brainstormed how she would “glue this thing” as Pyatt pondered how to “mid-wife this thing.” Their unsecure phone call was intercepted and leaked.
Ukraine’s ‘Regime Change’
The coup against Yanukovych played out on Feb. 22, 2014, as the neo-N@zi militias and other violent extremists overran government buildings forcing the president and other officials to flee for their lives.
Nuland’s State Department quickly declared the new regime “legitimate” and Yatsenyuk took over as prime minister.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had been presiding over the Winter Olympics at Sochi, was caught off-guard by the coup next door and held a crisis session to determine how to protect ethnic Russians and a Russian naval base in Crimea, leading to Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and annexation by Russia a year ago.
Though there was no evidence that Putin had instigated the Ukraine crisis and indeed all the evidence indicated the opposite the State Department peddled a propaganda theme to the credulous mainstream U.S. news media about Putin having somehow orchestrated the situation in Ukraine so he could begin invading Europe. Former Secretary of State Clinton compared Putin to Ad@lf H@tler.
As the new Kiev government launched a brutal “anti-terrorism operation” to subdue an uprising among the large ethnic Russian populations of eastern and southern,
Ukraine Nuland and other American neocons pushed for economic sanctions against Russia and demanded arms for the coup regime.
Amid the barrage of “information warfare” aimed at both the U.S. and world publics, a new Cold War took shape.
Prominent neocons, including Nuland’s husband Robert Kagan, a co-founder of the Project for the New American Century which masterminded the Iraq War, hammered home the domestic theme that Obama had shown himself to be “weak,” thus inviting Putin’s “aggression.”
In May 2014, Kagan published a lengthy essay in The New Republic entitled “Superpowers Don’t Get to Retire,” in which Kagan castigated Obama for failing to sustain American dominance in the world and demanding a more muscular U.S. posture toward adversaries.
According to a New York Times article about how the essay took shape and its aftermath, writer Jason Horowitz reported that Kagan and Nuland shared a common world view as well as professional ambitions, with Nuland editing Kagan’s articles, including the one tearing down her ostensible boss.
Though Nuland wouldn’t comment specifically on her husband’s attack on Obama, she indicated that she held similar views. “But suffice to say,” Nuland said, “that nothing goes out of the house that I don’t think is worthy of his talents. Let’s put it that way.”
Horowitz reported that Obama was so concerned about Kagan’s assault that the President revised his commencement speech at West Point to deflect some of the criticism and invited Kagan to lunch at the White House, where one source told me that it was like “a meeting of equals.”
Sinking a Peace Deal
And, whenever peace threatens to break out in Ukraine, Nuland jumps in to make sure that the interests of war are protected.
Last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande hammered out a plan for a cease-fire and a political settlement, known as Minsk-2, prompting Nuland to engage in more behind-the-scenes maneuvering to sabotage the deal.
In another overheard conversation — in Munich, Germany — Nuland mocked the peace agreement as “Merkel’s Moscow thing,” according to the German newspaper Bild, citing unnamed sources, likely from the German government which may have bugged the conference room in the luxurious Bayerischer Hof hotel and then leaked the details.
Picking up on Nuland’s contempt for Merkel, another U.S. official called the Minsk-2 deal the Europeans’ “Moscow bullshit.”
Nuland suggested that Merkel and Hollande cared only about the practical impact of the Ukraine war on Europe:
“They’re afraid of damage to their economy, counter-sanctions from Russia.”
According to the Bild story, Nuland also laid out a strategy for countering Merkel’s diplomacy by using strident language to frame the Ukraine crisis.
“We can fight against the Europeans, we can fight with rhetoric against them,” Nuland reportedly said.
NATO Commander Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove was quoted as saying that sending more weapons to the Ukrainian government would “raise the battlefield cost for Putin.”
Nuland interjected to the U.S. politicians present that “I’d strongly urge you to use the phrase ‘defensive systems’ that we would deliver to oppose Putin’s ‘offensive systems.’”
Nuland sounded determined to sink the Merkel-Hollande peace initiative even though it was arranged by two major U.S. allies and was blessed by President Obama.
And, this week, the deal seems indeed to have been blown apart by Nuland’s hand-picked Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, who inserted a poison pill into the legislation to implement the Minsk-2 political settlement.
The Ukrainian parliament in Kiev added a clause that, in effect, requires the rebels to first surrender and let the Ukrainian government organize elections before a federalized structure is determined. Minsk-2 had called for dialogue with the representatives of these rebellious eastern territories en route to elections and establishment of broad autonomy for the region.
Instead, reflecting Nuland’s hard-line position, Kiev refused to talks with rebel leaders and insisted on establishing control over these territories before the process can move forward.
If the legislation stands, the result will almost surely be a resumption of war between military forces backed by nuclear-armed Russia and the United States, a very dangerous development for the world.
Not only will the Ukrainian civil war resume but so will the Cold War between Washington and Moscow with lots of money to be made by the Military-Industrial Complex.
On Friday, Nuland’s husband, Robert Kagan, drove home that latter point in the neocon Washington Post.
The Payoff
But don’t think that this unlocking of the U.S. taxpayers’ wallets is just about this one couple.
There will be plenty of money to be made by other neocon think-tankers all around Washington, including Frederick Kagan, who works for the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, and his wife, Kimberly, who runs her own think tank, the Institute for the Study of War.
Cue the Downfall memes.
Indolent
Here’s a thought – what if Trump doesn’t become the Republican nominee? What if the Republicans pick someone else? Anyone else?
Could Trump get together an Independent ticket quickly enough to get over the line?
OO, I’m not saying AVG is bad … but it is rather noisy
at this end I use WebRoot for AV which is silent but deadly
I also have my Hosts file full of dead-end redirects for malicious and redirects and webhooks and ad-trackers … a program called HostsMan – abelhadigital.com helps with keeping that list up to date
On the dwedful kiss…
A moment of exuberance, triumph, congratulation and delight expressed in a typical continental fashion.
We’ve robbed ourselves of spontaneity and joy.
Trump Turns Himself In
Let the Games Begin…
A short take…
Finally, they’re going to GET HIM! It’s not about any crime he committed. There was no crime. The crime was: ORANGE MAN BAD. He’s a RACIST! And if he’s a RACIST! there is no bottom to what they can do to him. HE WILL PAY!
Sweaty and satiated, thank YOU, they moan. Thank you for another public humiliation of Trump. It’s not enough. It’s never enough. But at least we got a mug shot!
Bette Midler, Rob Reiner, Barbra Streisand, Rob Reiner, Stephen King, Carl Bernstein — they finally got him! Tingles everywhere! Euphoria Now!
THANK YOU, oh, weaponized justice system. THANK YOU, propaganda press. THANK YOU, corrupt administrative state. Thank YOU!
This is a somber day for America. But justice must be done!
No one is above the law!
[Except, you know, Joe Biden, his son, and any Democrat who ever contested an election or threatened to storm the White House or to disrupt any official proceeding because THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE]
It’s not a somber day! It’s a Caligula-like bacchanalia — a celebration! We will celebrate this day every year in the same way! Huzzah!
Today, they will feast upon the blood of the lesser-thans.
Today, they are winners.
. Again! Today, they can mock and tease and laugh!
. Today, they remove one more norm to go after a former president.
. Today, they help destroy what’s left of America.
Blame Trump, they chant. It’s HIS fault, not ours. I mean, even though we’re in power, we have all the power, all the money, all the corporate power, all the universities, and most of everything else in American life. We don’t HAVE IT ALL, and WE WANT IT ALL!
OFF WITH HIS HEAD!
Decadence at the top, decay everywhere else – all they can do is beg for more. Please, they say, just one more exciting episode of the Trump Show! Don’t make us endure another day without an exciting news cycle!
They Have Nothing Left But Trump
They can’t tell good stories. They can’t write great music. They can’t tell funny jokes. They are under constant surveillance by the thought police. They have no choice but to go along with the mandates. They’re not free. They’ve destroyed their own habitat.
And they’re BORED out of their minds. Trump is their only entertainment. He’s their chance to walk on the wild side. But wow, right? How the mighty have fallen. Low-hanging fruit, man. This is IT? This is the legacy of the once-mighty Obama coalition? WAAA We hate Trump!
Yet, the MAGA movement is stronger than ever, and support for Trump will likely grow because look at the alternative. I mean, really look at it.
Look at what has happened to our country at the hands of people who HAVE the power yet feel the need to eliminate any potential threats to that power. That must be the thing that cuts the deepest.
Not a single Democrat is as loved as Trump.
Not a single one can fill a stadium.
When all is said is done, they didn’t expose Trump at all. He’s exposed them.
Trump never weaponized the justice system to lock her up. He never opened fire on protesters. He never threw protesters in solitary for years without charges. He never persecuted and prosecuted people for “spectral evidence.” There has to be some comfort in that.
The good news? Rome fell, and so too will their empire.
From the Hun.
Would make quite a good “Downfall” meme.
RCP POLL AVERAGE
2024 Republican Presidential Nomination
Met someone in the Melbourne CBD yesterday. Wow, what a long way from what it was pre covid.
So many homeless, lots of basic maintenance type things that look like being let slide, and just dead compared to what I remember.
Really noticed the new station installation in federation square ruins the open feel it had, but I’m not upset it blocks the virtue signaling signs hung off the cathedral.
The small cadre of people handing out yes23 pamphlets on Bourke st were ignored by everyone when I went by, think that’s a positive sign overall.
Overall, a very long way from the place it was a few years ago.
If he’d kissed a guy it would been understandable exuberance, triumph, congratulation and delight. Kissing a girl was misogynistic and antitrans bigotry.
Spanish Football president Luis Rubiales refuses to resign over kissing scandal (Sky News, 26 Aug)
FIFA suspends Luis Rubiales for kissing Spanish midfielder Jenni Hermoso on lips as it begins disciplinary proceedings (Sky News, 27 Aug)
I hope he sticks to his guns, but the Left obviously smells blood in the water.
Dream on, Albo. Here, in the Wild West, after the Aboriginal Heritage law fiasco, your “Voice” is as dead as Melbourne at midnight.
It’s all going as well as that ‘Energy Transition Plan’. ‘Crash and Burn’ anyone?
How Long Will Congress Fund Failure in Ukraine?
Debate Fireworks Reflect Growing Divide over Biden’s Failed Ukraine Policy
Congress could end military aid to Ukraine starting in early 2024
With the apparent failure of Ukraine’s spring/summer offensive and the Biden Administration’s refusal to offer a peace plan, President Biden’s latest request for $24 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine landed with a thud on Capitol Hill. If approved, total U.S. aid to Ukraine since the war began in 2022 would reach $135 billion.
Sharp divisions over the Ukraine War at this week’s Republican primary debate reflect similar differences in Congress, with the two leading candidates critical of continuing U.S. military support. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis opposed more funding unless European states stepped up to “pull their weight.” Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said he would immediately cut off U.S. military aid.
Former President Trump has taken a slightly different approach, calling on Congress to withhold military support for Ukraine until the Biden administration cooperates with congressional investigations into his son Hunter’s business dealings. The former President also has said that if elected, he would negotiate a quick end to the war.
Several debaters strongly disagreed with cutting off U.S. support for Ukraine, with former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former Governor Chris Christie arguing that U.S. aid to Ukraine is crucial to the security of the United States, and NATO.
Although Congress is likely to approve the Biden Administration’s new Ukraine spending request, there is growing opposition by lawmakers and the American people over continuing to spend huge amounts of tax dollars on a war they view as an endless conflict in which no vital U.S. interests are at stake.
Biden Administration officials in the spring were optimistic that billions of dollars of additional military aid from the U.S. and European states would lead to a successful counteroffensive, enabling the Ukrainian army to retake a significant amount of territory and force Russia to the bargaining table. It didn’t happen. Russian forces had ample time to prepare a dense network of defensive structures to hold their ground, and Ukraine did not receive the type and quantity of weapons it needed—especially airpower.
President Biden finally agreed to Ukraine’s request to provide it with F-16 fighters in May. But the aircraft did not arrive in time for the counteroffensive and likely will be unavailable until next spring due to delays in training Ukrainian pilots.
The Washington Post reported on August 19 that a new intelligence community assessment does not anticipate Ukraine’s counteroffensive to make significant gains on the ground before the fighting season ends in early November. Although this conclusion tracks with other accounts, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said this week, “We do not assess that the conflict is a stalemate. We are seeing [Ukraine] continue to take territory on a methodical, systematic basis.”
According to the Financial Times, however, Biden Administration officials are gloomy about the counteroffensive’s prospects and have been critical of how it has been conducted. The Financial Times reports that U.S. officials believe Ukraine has been too risk-averse and misallocated its forces by concentrating on the east of the front instead of sending more troops to the south.
They report “really positive feedback” to party HQ.
IN MAUI, ‘WE’RE THE GOVERNMENT AND WE’RE HERE TO HELP’ WAS AS TERRIFYING AND TRAGIC AS EVER
The people of Lahaina probably assumed there was a plan for this. They probably thought their emergency response director had emergency management experience. They imagined emergency sirens would go off in emergencies.
They might have taken for granted that if a fire watch was issued and schools were closed for high winds days before a devastating wildfire swept through their community, the people charged with distributing water to firefighters and giving evacuation notices would be ready to do just that.
Instead, more than 1,000 people are unaccounted for on the west side of of Maui two weeks after wildfires ravaged the island, many of them children. The official death toll is now over 100, but the actual loss in Maui will likely be unfathomable.
It will take time to know exactly how this fire became so deadly. But it already seems clear a string of very basic failures and near-criminal incompetence from those in charge made it worse than it needed to be.
Herman Andaya, head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, has resigned for “health reasons,” after CBS reported he had no prior emergency operations experience.
Before resigning he said he didn’t regret not sounding sirens. He cited his concerns that citizens would move to high ground as they’re trained to do in tsunamis, but his public comments were the PR equivalent of the “NO RAGRETS” tattoo meme.
Andaya was hired in 2017 over 40 other candidates for his job, thanks in part to his tenure as a previous mayor’s chief of staff.
No Estimate, No Empathy Two Weeks After Maui Wildfire
Then there’s Maui County Mayor, Richard Bissen, who was asked on camera this week how many children are missing.
He shrugged wearily, offering no estimate or even empathy, before venting his annoyance that he was being asked the question repeatedly and trying to stop the press briefing.
It seems like a pretty important question and one officials should have some kind of answer for two weeks in.
– Biden, Mumbler in Chief
– Can’t Do The Basics
Oh. And as for all the blue stockings complaining…
Pucker up!
Historic Sexual Assault.
The fragmentation of the old world order
The expansion of BRICS reflects a striking shift in the global balance of power.
What is significant about BRICS and its programme of expansion is that it shows the huge potential for the fragmentation of the existing global economic order. Through the partial coordination of its members’ economic activity, BRICS might be able stop the West from always having its way.
With the emergence of competing economic blocs in place of the formerly globalised economy, it is likely that there will be a shift in the global balance of power. But how fast, and to whose benefit, remain open questions.
A Family Business of Perpetual War
March 20, 2015
Note the Date – March 20, 2015 – How Prescient was that Article on Victoria Nugan & Her Husband Robert Kagan looking at the Ukraine-Russia War today
Interesting that Trump ahead in North East, Midwest and South.
Sancho
If, however, the occupants of the car had been Liberals, they fight would still be ongoing.
Trump is the first possibility in modern times, or a “write-in” candidate getting across the line.
Should he be in a jail cell, multiply that chance x lotsa.
Is Luck Running Out for the Biden Crime Family?
Damn It Feels Good To Be A Biden
I & I Editorial Board
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that the Department of Justice had planned to let Hunter Biden completely skate on charges of tax fraud, felony gun possession, and whatever other felonies he’s committed. That is until a couple of whistleblowers blew the deal. So, plan B was a sweetheart plea deal, which blew up when the judge discovered a blanket immunity provision tucked into it.
U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss was the guy who hoped to get Biden off and then cooked up the plea deal. This is bombshell evidence of corruption and favoritism.
And how was Weiss punished? Attorney General Merrick Garland named him “special prosecutor” in the Hunter Biden criminal probe.
Yet despite all the help from a corrupt Justice Department, the stonewalling by other federal officials, the studied indifference of the mainstream press, evidence of the Biden crime family’s nefarious actions continues to trickle out.
That’s the problem though, isn’t it? Our latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows that two-thirds of the public – including half of Democrats – think Biden should resign or be run out of office if the bribery charge is true.
But without full-scale, constant media pressure, the story will meander along without gathering much steam.
It will continue to be dismissed as a partisan attack by Republicans, even though Republicans helped elect Biden.
Prosecutors will feel no pressure to pursue charges against the Biden family. After all, doing anything to hurt Biden could help …. Trump!!
Damn, it must feel good to be a Biden.
Three grades: vin ordinaire, vin tres ordinaire and vin horrible.
James Allan in the Oz.
If only they’d said they were raped inside parliament house by a liberal party staffer
OldOzzie
Aug 27, 2023 12:15 PM
The fragmentation of the old world order
The expansion of BRICS reflects a striking shift in the global balance of power.
Does Australia give Aid to any BRIC countries or to any countries wanting to join BRICS?
I suspect a Big YES, in which case, please redirect this Aid to the needy here in Australia.
From a concerned long suffering Australian Taxpayer.
The Decisions Which Developed Sentience.
Could be a movie in it.
Film Victoria haven’t got back to me after the pitch.
At that point Hunchback was opposition leader, so may not have been well known enough for an auto-decision.
He may have had to do it the old fashioned way. Ring a maaaate whose card he had been given for just such a situation, who would then initiate a daisy chain of Mr Fixit calls.
VikPlod make a lot of noise about how bullet-proof their D&A testing is. That may be so once a test is in the system, but the trick is to get maaaates to ensure it doesn’t make it into the system in the first place.
Pay that one, Sal.
Just watched this, profound.
The True Story of the Atomic Bombs – Bill Whittle 16:42
New memos undercut Biden-Ukraine narrative Democrats sold during 2019 impeachment scandal
Newly disclosed State Department memos conflict with the narrative Democrats crafted since 2019 impeachment.
By John Solomon and Steven Richards
Just weeks before then-Vice President Joe Biden took the opposite action in late 2015, a task force of State, Treasury and Justice Department officials declared that Ukraine had made adequate progress on anti-corruption reforms and deserved a new $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee, according to government memos that conflict with the narrative Democrats have sustained since the 2019 impeachment scandal.
“Ukraine has made sufficient progress on its reform agenda to justify a third guarantee,” reads an Oct. 1, 2015, memo summarizing the recommendation of the Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) – a task force created to advise the Obama White House on whether Ukraine was cleaning up its endemic corruption and deserved more Western foreign aid.
File UkraineTaskForceLoanGuaranteeMemo.pdf
The recommendation is one of several U.S. government memos gathered by Just the News over the last 36 months from Freedom of Information Act litigation, congressional inquiries and government agency sources that directly conflict with the long-held narrative that Biden was conducting official U.S. policy when he threatened to withhold a $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee to force Ukraine to fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, the country’s equivalent of the American attorney general.
At the time the threat was made in December 2015, Shokin’s office was conducting an increasingly aggressive corruption investigation into Burisma Holdings, an energy firm the State Department deemed to have been engaged in bribery and that employed Hunter Biden and paid him millions while his father was vice president.
New details on the impact of that probe have emerged in recent days.
Shokin’s pursuit was rattling Burisma, and the firm was putting pressure on Hunter Biden to deal with it, according to recent testimony and interviews with Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business partner and fellow Burisma board member.
The memos obtained by Just the News show:
. Senior State Department officials sent a conflicting message to Shokin before he was fired, inviting his staff to Washington for a January 2016 strategy session and sent him a personal note saying they were “impressed” with his office’s work.
. U.S. officials faced pressure from Burisma emissaries in the United States to make the corruption allegations go away and feared the energy firm had made two bribery payments in Ukraine as part of an effort to get cases settled.
. A top U.S. official in Kyiv blamed Hunter Biden for undercutting U.S. anticorruption policy in Ukraine through his dealings with Burisma.
But in a private, classified email shared with Just the News, one of the top U.S. officials in the Kyiv embassy told then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch at the end of the Obama administration that Hunter Biden had, in fact, impacted the U.S. anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.
“really positive feedback” means “no-one took our pamphlet, tore it up in front of us, and threw the shreds at us, while screaming in outrage about apartheid”.
A fair old sip……
Two Australians have been seriously injured after falling more than five metres from a popular medieval clifftop fortress on the sea front area near Dubrovnik, Croatia in the early hours of Saturday.
A woman, 26, is in a critical condition fighting for her life in intensive care while her 34 year old male companion has undergone emergency surgery and is in a serious condition.
The accident occurred just before 2.30am in Pile, an ancient fort between the areas of Dubravka and Nautika when the couple were leaning against a wall. Eyewitnesses have told the police both of the Australians fell when one of them leaned into the other.
Dubrovnik-Neretva police have ruled the injuries were caused accidentally, and were as a result of heavy intoxication. The women’s alcohol reading was 0.3, a level where blackouts can occur.
The man’s reading was 0.21.
Police have not yet released the names of the couple.
The accident happened near Fort Lovrijenac, where the Game of Thrones was filmed and is popular among tourists
If you’re going to get shit faced, pick level ground.
FT – Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia in maps — latest updates
A visual guide to the war
vs
Russias Special Military Operation-in-Ukraineand how it is progressing
A Tale of 2 Visions
I think that is correct.
The Hunch-mobile was approaching the “dead-end” of a T intersection, and the kid was on a path parallel to the “through” section of the T, but a bit back from the intersection.
Trump Mugshot – What Does His ‘Look’ Convey? (Pick Three)
As long ago as 2005 the President of Harvard got into very hot water for saying the there were differences of mind between men and women. The argument is seemingly refuted here with some soothing words about achievement and culture.
Recently though cognitive science has forged ahead showing significant differences do exist and while culture can matter, so can biology. The debate as been intensified when it comes to the top women’s chess matches. Should transgender ‘women’ be allowed to play? Under the title of The Queen’s Gambit the latest Spectator has an article by John MacGhlionn that suggests chess is a highly spatial game and that testosterone does offer born males a significant advantage in playing it, for spatial adroitness is the key to high competence in this game (recall the TV series The Queen’s Gambit (highly recommended) demonstrating how one female chess champion ‘imagined’ chess moves constantly when half-asleep. The argument for banning men in male competitions is enhanced by adding the trigger factor of the significantly more competitive nature of males, inborn in them.
Of course not all chess competitions are unisex. Many are mixed, but at top levels I don’t know how that works.
All one can say really is ‘discuss’. lol
oops, that should read ‘for banning men in FEMALE competitions’. Apols
In Georgia, the lone black male defendant in the Trump case rots in jail
If only Harrison Floyd’s first name were George. If only he’d been a convicted felon who passed a counterfeit bill, filled himself with illegal drugs, and resisted arrest. If that were the case, he’d have had millions of dollars flowing to him from Hollywood and Democrat politicians, and he’d have been a media hero. However, Harrison Floyd isn’t a thug of color. Instead, he’s a retired Marine vet, living with his family and getting by on his pension. And he’s also a black Trump supporter, which is why he’s rotting in a Fulton County jail.
One of the important things to remember about all this Democrat criminal lawfare against anyone who dared support Donald Trump is that it’s intended to destroy them economically. A great lawyer can cost close to $1,000 per hour (although, if he’s decent, he’ll hand the work to young lawyers and paralegals who will cost $300-$400 an hour). A good lawyer will cost about $400 an hour. A mediocre lawyer will cost about $250 per hour.
What this means for a client is that even a single court appearance on a simple matter (preparing documents, travel time, time spent in the courtroom) can result in a $1,000 to $4,000 bill. On a single complicated motion, you’re looking at $25,000 to $100,000 in legal fees. (Maybe more; I haven’t worked on a big case in about 15 years.)
If you’re rich, you can probably absorb this for years. If you’re middle-class, you can absorb this for months before your savings are exhausted, and you are no longer middle-class. And if you’re poor, you can’t afford this at all.
Moreover, the public interest lawyers who line up to represent the George Floyds of this world tend to be leftists.
They’re not going to volunteer their services for someone who dared to support Trump.
One of those people who dared to support Trump is Harrison Floyd. He was the director of Black Voices for Trump, which is the scariest organization in America if you’re a Democrat. That’s because, while blacks thrived economically under Trump, Biden has been a disaster for them. His inflation has drained the middle class and left the poor even poorer—and that means that blacks have seen whatever wealth they accrued during the Trump years vanish. If a leading motivation for voting is the economy, blacks have had the Biden economy pounding them into the ground.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis isn’t the only one afraid of Floyd. Jack Smith is, too, which is why Floyd was one of those in the crosshairs of Jack Smith’s January 6 investigation. In that case, the FBI claimed that he “yelled at, pushed and struck an agent who was serving a subpoena at his Maryland home…” Floyd was charged with assaulting an FBI agent. Let me act the role of a Fox News debate moderator: Raise your hand if you trust the FBI’s version of events.
Thanks to his service in the Marine Corps, Floyd is disabled, so he and his family are dependent on his pension. And while Biden’s illegal aliens are getting floods of taxpayer money thrown at them, the same is not true for disabled veterans. What this means is that Floyd was unable to hire a lawyer to represent him when Fani Willis issued her indictments.
He did, however, fly to Atlanta, where he turned himself in. Turning oneself in is not the hallmark of a flight risk.
This is the judge, Emily Richardson, who was in charge of the first hearing for Harrison Floyd, the defendant who was denied bond yesterday. Do not watch unless you’re prepared for your blood to boil. pic.twitter.com/vms7et4S4U
More
Only Black Defendant in the Fulton County Trump Indictment Is Denied Bail
Might be more bad news heaped on top.
Travel insurance is often voided by intoxication, and not just for driving.
You might have a case if you were a pedestrian with a BAC of 0.05%-ish.
0.2% to 0.3%.
Forget about it.
Testosterone also helps endurance, and keeps memory and focus on track.
The cognitive scientist and evolutionary psychologist mentioned in the article is David C. Geary.
Overall, a very long way from the place it was a few years ago.
yes the Melb CBD has become pretty unpleasant. Dystopian. Sure as sh*t glad I didn’t move there 10 or so years ago- used to be a lot of fun back then. Outer ‘burbs and the region are the future- well the good future anyway.
What does Trump’s “mugshot” say?
Well, to me I’d say well researched and rehearsed.
With a pitbull rather than bulldog flavour.
Old Ozzie:
Brave isn’t stopping them. Perhaps you should do what I do with the Expose sites – scroll past them?
…and who the hell are AVG? I don’t see them in our Constitution, Old Ozzie.
The Queen’s Gambit article also offers average testosterone levels, “between 265 and 923 nanograms per decilitre of testosterone, adult females, on the other hand, somewhere between 15 and 70”.
And Hairy laughs at me when I get a little nervous if, rarely, we have a female pilot. They always seem very proficient and confident so I have to persuade myself to dismiss the evolutionary theorists on this occasion and put my faith in training, culture and statistical outliers.
KD earlier re jurisdictional matters in Straya.
Of course, we aren’t going to have the cops screeching to a halt at our equivalent of the Hazzard County/Redneck County boundary, throwing their hat on the ground and shaking their fists as the Good Ole Boys disappear in a plume of dust.
I got the impression that Berka was talking about more routine, less pressing matters, along the lines of, “Well, if local NSW Plod won’t look at it, maybe you could go to the Qld station just over the border”.
Christ knows, it’s easy enough to get duck-shoved around within the same jurisdiction, let alone adding in the cross-border excuse.
I’ll check my Constitution when I get the truck out of the shed later.
That’s a very good ‘get’ there, Calli. A similarly studied performance, and as you say, likely well practiced by President Trump who knew a mugshot was coming up.
Pretty unpleasant?
Allow me to help.
The word you are looking for is “shithole”.
I predict it is on the path to becoming another LA … a group of suburbs in search of a city.
Calli upfred….
We’ve robbed ourselves of spontaneity and joy.
But if it was a qwerty or a cock in a frock it would be a poignant moment.
With regard to Victoria, we were pleasantly impressed with Bendigo when down there a few months ago. Seemed like very nice place to live. Civilised enough, yet with room the feel countryish and enjoy a lifestyle that would suit families or retirees, less expensive for a start.
Boambee John
Aug 27, 2023 12:22 PM
If the driver had been a Liberal, then he would have been breathalysed and not lost an opportunity to be innocent of drink driving.
He’s seriously pissed off, and if becomes Prez there’s going to be serious payback.
The case has been made (“Sliante,” Top Ender) that, had the conquest of the Japanese Islands had lasted until mid 1947, as the Americans believed, anywhere up to thirty million Japanese civilians may well have died from starvation or disease.
“Oh. And as for all the blue stockings complaining…”
I’m not a blue stocking nor a prude however a few points here, I don’t even kiss my father, my brother or my stepfather on the lips, I do kiss them on the cheeks and I hug them, but there’s no lip engagement. I hug and kiss on the cheek my male friends. However, I leave lip and tongue engagement to the man in my life. Secondly, given the highly censorious times we live in, and that censoriousness now even runs amok in once libertine countries like Spain, France and Italy, the Spanish FA president was a fool to do what he did. I don’t think what he did was as appropriate. As I said above, it was not assault but it was inappropriate.
“There was a time when people simply shook hands – and men certainly DID NOT kiss and hug women unrelated to them.”
Quite so, and you can call such boundaries old-fashioned, and you can call me old-fashioned (I would regard being called old-fashioned as a a compliment), however given the times we live in, perhaps men and women should , as far as I’m concerned, practice some boundaries when dealing with the opposite sex. After reading Harry Garside’s ordeal yesterday, and whilst reading it the blood drained from my face, it confirmed my belief that many of the problems nowadays is because we have recklessly tossed aside and trashed sexual boundaries between men and women….to the point now that it can be dangerous and lead to men having their lives destroyed, just ask Bruce Lehrmann and Harry Garside.
A few months ago, the Princess of Wales visited a mosque in East London, she tried to shake an imam’s hand, and he recoiled. There was much to-do about it, but it didn’t bother me because I know how observant Jewish and Muslim men are very strict about boundaries between males and females. Look, I don’t think shaking hands is going to lead to much but I respect religious leaders who don’t want to shake the hands of the opposite sex. And you know what? It avoids trouble.
Over twenty years ago, when I was younger and quite sexy, I went to a Kabbalah class given by a reform Rabbi, afterwards he kissed me on the cheek. I was shocked, I am still shocked by what he did.
Agree Sancho- I’ve thought the same thing re becoming another LA which makes the dick-tator’s cross city rail irrelevant unless you want to go from Sunbury to Dandenong without changing trains. Shithole is the word- sometimes literally.
Statistics is racist, Lizzie, surely you know that.
Scholars claim that statistics ‘serve white racial interests.’ (26 Aug)
Since we know math is also racist we can only reach equality when finally no one knows mathematics or statistics. Then there will be no statistical outliers since everyone will be equally ignorant.
Actually, I’m still sexy!
Words fail me, they honestly do.
They can’t run the dementia patient. I think you suggested the other day that Dementia will be the candidate, but I can’t see how they can. He’s deteriorating at the rate of knots. The Mauri ride was a total abomination.
With “youth groups” injecting some frisson into the suburban dreariness.
Hiden does, in public too. He even showered with a young daughter. Disgusting doesn’t begin to describe that crime family.
WaPo:
This is called narrative maintainence. Having continuously underrated Russian performance and exaggerated Ukrainian performance, you have to offer an explanation to a public confused by events so far in the counter-offensive.
Disgusting doesn’t begin to describe that crime family.
trash in the whitehouse- makes the Clintons look respectable (almost)
Sydney’s been like LA for decades imo with ‘minicities’- Chatswood, Parramatta, Liverpool
During covid, they basically smothered the CBD with bike lanes and cancelled ~30% off the street parking. I don’t want to go in anymore and you don’t have to with delivery service from around the world. These days you will receive parcels from Europe or the US faster than domestic service. In NYC, Amazon will deliver most things on the same day!
I reckon the only way he doesn’t run is if he ceases to be President in the current term. If he’s not fit to run in ’24 he’s not fit to complete his term. That’s the conundrum the Dems face.
Cassie, I wasn’t referring to you. I, too, shun casual and presumptuous physical contact.
I was alluding to Outraged’R’Us Inc., who are selectively promiscuous and always ready to pounce on an “offender”.
The same “Shout Your Abortion” types who purse their overblown porno lips at any male who steps out of line.
“calli
Aug 27, 2023 1:41 PM”
I know that, I was just responding quickly, apologies if I came across to brusque.
And you are 100% right.
Heh. On the “sexy” front, you’re likely a Ferrari.
I’m more a Morris Oxford.
Brisbane’s CBD is certainly looking down at heel since covid.
Asian students seem to be keeping the place going.
I may rule a few people with this but could we have a dedicated ‘news aggregator’ thread for OldOzzie to paste his copies which he can then refer or link to on the OT?
I get that he posts stuff usually behind paywalls so he is offering stuff not otherwise available to most, but it is the constant need every few posts to go scrolling through the walls of words.
A lot of people post whole articles, but as an exception, whereas OldOzzie’s contributions (valued as they are) consist of little but.
Anyway. Just a thought.
I dunno, he can’t the campaign from his basement one more time. Last time COVID was the excuse. And don’t forget the creep is deteriorating at the rate of knots. He’s far more into his mental quark than he was at the beginning of his stolen presidency.
Everything this scumbag has has been stolen in some way or another.
Okay, let’s hope he runs.
Biden is a lying treasonous pervert. He survives because of the swamp and the MSM. I understand the swamp wanting to protect their corrupt structure but what do the MSM get out of it. I can only think of 2 psychologies: firstly they have such a sense of superiority which Trump and his deplorables offend that they are blind to biden’s filth. Secondly, they know they are supporting a cause of decline in their society but think they will be immune to the consequences of its collapse.
Cassie’s comment describes my feelings on unnecessary “touchy-feely”, succinctly.
I am very tactile with close family members and friends. Complete strangers, male or female, going in for the whole body hug and maybe a smooch, pisses me off.
There is a great clip that should be easy enough to find on youtube of Janet Street-Porter shielding herself from some minor celeb on the tv program she was on. Something like a Pommy version of the Spew. Said celeb was introduced and proceeded to slobber all over every panellist until he came to Janet. The uproar that ensued was hilarious. She stated, like Cassie and myself and most women I’d venture, that she does not allow strangers to be too familiar. No matter how famous they may be.
So glad she stuck to her guns.
In the touchy-feely stuff…a lot of it, both male and female, is asserting dominance. They home in on you, expecting awkward compliance, and then recoil with mock affront when you won’t play.
I didn’t see that with FootballMan. The contact was spontaneous and fleeting. All I see is confected spite.
Perhaps I need to know more. Is he a serial offender?
Warning Cassie.
It looks like Lizzie has hacked your account.
Helen
Aug 27, 2023 12:31 PM
Just watched this, profound.
The True Story of the Atomic Bombs – Bill Whittle 16:42
Ta Helen. Great vid.
If you can get it, this is a bloody good book to read in relation to
Bill Whittle’s vid:
War’s End: An Eyewitness Account of America’s Last Atomic Mission by Charles W. Sweeney
The author recounts his selection as the leader of the atomic mission to Nagasaki
Sheilas don’t like being touched by strangers.
Who knew!
Calli,
what you said, + 5,000.
Rile a few people.
Dammit!