Open Thread – Weekend 30 Sept 2023


Women in the Garden, Claude Monet, 1866

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Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
October 1, 2023 11:13 am

SBS running interference for Uncle Luigi:

What happens to a government when it loses a referendum?

An Expert: Nothing much.

“Defeat of a referendum tends not to result in any lasting damage to governments, certainly in the Australian case, and certainly not to resignations of prime ministers,” he says.

“There’s no history of governments being fatally wounded by the defeat of a referendum.”

Past failed referenda went quietly into the night.

However, this particular Referendum is distinguished by Albanese’s promise to implement in full the Uluru Statement demand for Macaroni, Truth Telling, Treaty, self determination – and so on.

Having semi-control of the Parliament (at least on this issue), post a significant No vote for the Voice, Albanese will be spread out on the political BBQ if he carries on with his promise without the implied popular support of Constitutional change.
Or if he doesn’t.

Not immediately clear how the vile goblin Shorten plus Plibbers might be able to finesse a ‘good government that lost its way’ story around all that political wreckage. But it would certainly choke a brown dog.

Unfortunately, my crystal ball sees the Greens as the only political winners out of this. They will have no hesitation in calling for a joint Green-ALP legislative alliance to “put this Coalition-inspired racism right and deliver on Uluru”.

The knots will be Gordian.

Watch this space.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 11:13 am

John H

You described Trump’s comment about Milley, the stupid looking former military chief, as calling for his outright execution. Except, this is untrue. Trump made the comment in a historical context. Here:

Mark Milley, who led perhaps the most embarrassing moment in American history with his grossly incompetent implementation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, costing many lives, leaving behind hundreds of American citizens, and handing over BILLIONS of dollars of the finest military equipment ever made, will be leaving the military next week. This will be a time for all citizens of the USA to celebrate! This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!!!

If Trump wins, Milley will likely face a court-martial, even in his retirement.

Here’s Victor Hanson saying more about this very stupid looking general.

Victor Davis Hanson
@VDHanson
As Gen. Milley leaves office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, on his last day he goes out ranting about his loyalty to the Constitution and not to a “dictator,”—blasting Trump without mentioning Trump, and thus trumping as it were Trump’s own excesses with those of his own.

So transits the most politicalized and weaponized 4-star CJS since the office was created.

Would that instead Milley had at least explained the 2021 historically disastrous flight from Kabul and defeat in Afghanistan, or the radical implementation of woke agendas into the Pentagon retention and promotion policies, or why he felt the illustrious and renown Professor Kendi, of current Boston University “Center for Antiracist Research” infamy, should be required reading for the U.S. military at time when its recruitment is descending into historical lows and its deterrent reputation is seriously questioned.

So what about Milley’s own “constitutional” legacy?

Is it that an officer who deems his civilian President and Commander in Chief dangerous—as diagnosed by 4-star psychiatrist, state department diplomat, and now theater commander Milley—has a right to commandeer the chain of command, usurp powers that are expressly by law denied to him, and then take it on himself in a time of Chinese-American tensions to freelance, by contacting his communist counterpart to warn him about his own president’s diagnosed volatility, and to reassure the hardened Stalinist that Dr/Gen. Milley will inform him first of any precipitate action from the White House.

Dictatorial much?

Americans might ask the departing Milley, two questions, 1) if Trump is reelected in 2024, will a retired General Milley, as did his retired 4-star colleagues in 2020, violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice and repeat his current charges against a second-term President Trump—matching the previous invective of his colleagues’ accusations of “liar” or “Mussolini”?.

And 2) what would Milley have done had a subordinate like himself, say a 3-star general, decided that Gen. Mark Milley’s Beijing gambit and his arrogation of command powers that were not legally his own, posed a grave threat to the republic?

And thus would such a 3-star call up theater commanders to warn them to resist Milley’s reckless orders and to report to him first, followed by his phone call to the top Chinese PLA general to assure them that if Milley somehow gave an order deemed by the 3-star to be dangerously provocative, then he would not only not obey it but rather first warn the Chinese military of Milley’s unstable state of mind.

Is that the kind of military Milley wishes to leave as his legacy, as he departs barking accusations at the moon?

Chris
Chris
October 1, 2023 11:13 am

Jersey Man should be tested for DA in common with Florida Man.

Pogria
Pogria
October 1, 2023 11:15 am

Cohenite,
Mar a Lago’s neighbours should sue the Judge and the AG for the huge drop in value of their land. If Trump’s abode is only worth 18 million, it is logical that the surrounding properties are also cheap. It might work.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
October 1, 2023 11:15 am

Interesting article on conscription. Only time it seems to have worked here is when the enemy was on the doorstep. Most ex defence guys who were NCO’s I have come across aren’t keen on it in peacetime, they reckon they had enough problems with the volunteers among the younger generation let alone anyone who has been press ganged into service because their number came up.

I reckon it will be moot point anyway, I reckon we will either see the PRC cross the Taiwan Straits well before we expect or the internal demographics will put it off the table till the next dynastic cycle.

Pogria
Pogria
October 1, 2023 11:19 am

Regarding the felled tree at Sycamore Gap, Callie’s suggestion is the obvious one. However, seeing how far the Poms have fallen as a country, they will probably go the China Way. Stand the tree back up and fix it securely. Spray paint it green and attach plastic leaves in summer and take them all down again in Autumn.
The Chinese swear by it. If it works on mountain sides and foetid swamps, it will work for a lousy oak tree. 😀

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
October 1, 2023 11:23 am

The Chinese swear by it. If it works on mountain sides and foetid swamps, it will work for a lousy oak tree. ?

It was a nice sycamore tree that is no more.

Indolent
Indolent
October 1, 2023 11:25 am

Slam dunk. I don’t think we can argue with the Patent Office and the New Testament.

Not sure about the New Testament, but Dr. David Martin stated at least two years ago that there was no novel virus and that every single part of it had been patented over a period of about 20 years, going back to 2001. It was a manmade job lot or, to put it more accurately, a biological weapon.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
October 1, 2023 11:25 am

Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!

– Golda Meir

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
October 1, 2023 11:26 am

IRS contractor is charged in leak of Trump tax returns, thousands of wealthy Americans’ records
(Unlinkable OZ)

US federal prosecutors accuse worker of stealing tax returns from inside IRS and giving them to news organisations.

Federal prosecutors charged an Internal Revenue Service contractor with stealing the tax returns of former president Donald Trump and thousands of other wealthy Americans and leaking them to news organisations, apparently solving a two-year puzzle and a security breach that had drawn outrage from lawmakers and Biden administration officials.

Oddly, I hadn’t noticed any outrage from Biden administration officials about Trump’s tax leakage.

Indolent
Indolent
October 1, 2023 11:28 am
OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2023 11:31 am

The Joys of Multi-Culturism!

Director of disability service providers charged with defrauding NDIS of more than $2million

. NDIS provider accused of major fraud
. Western Sydney woman refused bail

A woman in charge of four NDIS service providers is behind bars charged with ripping off more than $2million from taxpayers.

Ebtesam Ibrahim Hamoud Fahmy ,who is a director of four disability service providers in western Sydney, was arrested after a series of raids orchestrated by a specialist NDIS fraud taskforce in July and August.

The raids at Casula, Potts Hill and Liverpool, seized boxes of paperwork, mobile phones, computers, banking documents and other evidence against the four providers, two of which had their registration immediately suspended.

Investigators allege Ms Fahmy, 54, was the subject of more than 15 tip-offs, which included that her services were collaborating with participants, who were paid kickbacks, to defraud the Commonwealth.

At a court appearance in Liverpool on Wednesday Ms Fahmy faced charges of dishonestly intending to obtain a gain and recklessly dealing in the proceeds of crime.

She was refused bail until she can make an application at Downing Centre Local Court next month.

The registration of two providers was immediately suspended with notices

Intention notices to ban Ms Fahmy, another woman and the four registered and unregistered NDIS providers have been issued.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten told the Daily Telegraph that he could not comment on a case before the courts but warned those who might think western Sydney was a s’oft touch’ for fraudsters.

‘They severely underestimate my determination to get rid of the crooks,’ Mr Shorten said.

johanna
johanna
October 1, 2023 11:32 am

I’d love to see Joe and Hunter Biden’s tax returns.

Explaining away or hiding all those millions from overseas must have been a very … creative … exercise.

Indolent
Indolent
October 1, 2023 11:33 am
calli
calli
October 1, 2023 11:39 am

Indolent, I’ve always thought the release to coincide with the 2020 was an obvious pointer to “deliberate”. After the Antifa shenanigans, the #metoo pussy hats and other feminist bleatings, the Kavanaugh fiasco, the BLM murder and mayhem…a pestilence was the finishing touch and opened the way to mail voting and industrial grade fraud.

I also believe that an attempt was made on Trump’s life during the Comey Barrett swearing in by exposing him and his family to the most virulent strain. This isn’t a “might have happened” but what actually did happen.

If it was a virus designed to wipe out masses on humanity, it failed dismally. But that wasn’t its purpose. What actually happened – a new, compliant geriatric in the WH, authoritarian feelers put out worldwide to test behavioural control, ruined Western economies, and a massive transfer of wealth.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
October 1, 2023 11:39 am

On Trump’s ” fraud”.

Surely a 5 second perusal of local real estate listings would scotch those suggestions

https://www.remax.com/homes-for-sale/fl/santa-rosa-beach/mar-a-lago/neighborhood/1150512

$5,000,000 for .25 acres, not sure of areas but the real estate put themselves as dealing in mar a Lago as well.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
October 1, 2023 11:40 am

I reckon we will either see the PRC cross the Taiwan Straits well before we expect or the internal demographics will put it off the table till the next dynastic cycle.

Can China take a pill to suppress its dynastic cycle?
Maybe the democracy pill labelled RU482.

😀

MatrixTransform
October 1, 2023 11:42 am

It’s fringe stuff but unless they faked it etc
https://youtu.be/RYvYsfm0omI?si=VYTYjTX_7SVaT1D_
I’m more interested in the derivation of phi and what that means.

wow.
that video was awesome !!

why? who knows

very interested in it now though

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 11:45 am

I’d love to see Joe and Hunter Biden’s tax returns.

Explaining away or hiding all those millions from overseas must have been a very … creative … exercise.

The story is they created numerous LLCs moving money around in a complex daisy chain through and to members of the crime family.

An LLC (limited lisability corp) has similar characteristics to a Pty Ltd Company but it’s not the same.

LLCs do not pay taxes on their profits directly.
Their profits and losses are passed through to members, who report them on their individual tax returns.

It’s undoubtedly the most corrupt family in US presidential history.

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
October 1, 2023 11:47 am

Hill End is the best

Hubby and I were quite stunned by Hill End when we got there during the pandemic. I have since discovered the forbears had several babies with deaths listed at Hill End (1830’s). Hard hard life there back then, astonishing diggings.

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 11:48 am

Their corruption makes them rich, but it also makes them compliant. One step wrong and it’s SingSing.

The Dem dossier on Biden must be the size of a small SUV.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2023 11:49 am

Bob the Seer.
45 minutes ago
Just imagine if Woodside seismic exploration was stopped because of Christian religious beliefs. The nation would be in an uproar. This is religious advantage for some only.

Boambee John
Boambee John
October 1, 2023 11:51 am

It was a nice sycamore tree that is no more.

It was pining (sic) for the lochs?

Dragnet
Dragnet
October 1, 2023 11:51 am

I’ve been walking around my neighbourhood this morning, smack bang in middle of Linda Burney’s electorate.
Until.today I’ve seen no placards or signs relating to the referendum, but lo and behold I suddenly came upon a stretch of leafy Bexley street about 200 metres where every third house was displaying Yes placards.
Notably all of those houses were handsome upscale Federation and California Bungalows with elegant gardens. I’m detecting a Tealish vibe here.
Quite possibly also, there might be one pain in the arse activist resident who has been harassing her neighbours into erecting the placards.
I’ve yet to perform a cross-referential comparison to the local election booth returns from the last couple of elections.

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 11:52 am

Hill End is great. Just don’t do what we did and try the Bridle Track. It is no more and you have to go around the long way.

That road was beautiful, with the river down below. You could imagine the hardy of a century past panning for gold down there.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2023 11:55 am

JC
Oct 1, 2023 11:45 AM

I’d love to see Joe and Hunter Biden’s tax returns.

Explaining away or hiding all those millions from overseas must have been a very … creative … exercise.

It’s undoubtedly the most corrupt family in US presidential history.

JC,

followed by the Clintons then the Bush Family?

Cassie of Sydney
October 1, 2023 11:58 am

Hill End is lovely, with an interesting history. Beginning in the 1840s, thousands of Chinese arrived here in the colony of NSW to pan for gold, although some came as indentured labour. By the 1850s there were thousands of Chinese living in and around Hill End. Some returned to China, but many stayed. I believe the Chinese have been a great gift to this country.

Speedbox
October 1, 2023 11:59 am

Holy Smoke!! I’ve hit the jackpot this time. Just received an email that the US Federal Court AND the International Monetary Fund have both determined that I’m the sole recipient of $US12 BILLION. Seriously, I’ve got the email.

Of course there are some legal matters starting with my sending a $US155 location fee to Ms. Elizabeth Nabbaale c/- the US Embassy in Kampala, Uganda. Seems fair to me.

The money can be paid into my account but they even give me the option to pick up the money in person if that suits me better. So, quick trip to Kampala, pay my $US155 and then fly home with suitcases full of cash.

What do we think Cats? Electronic transfer or, enjoy a holiday in Uganda and see the sights of a country I have never considered going to. Decisions, decisions.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
October 1, 2023 12:02 pm

Dot(?) said

It’s fringe stuff but unless they faked it etc

The demo was not fringe. People have been playing music through arcs from Tesla coils for decades.

Whatever he’s going on about with the Phi stuff sounds a bit fringey – NOT that there’s anything WRONG with that. /seinfeld

johanna
johanna
October 1, 2023 12:07 pm

Hill End is the best

When I was in high school, in the Paleolithic, we had one period a week for ‘hobbies.’ I chose Geology. Very unfashionable when surfing was an option, but rewarding. We went for a weekend excursion to Hill End and surrounds, panned for gold, and the Turon River and surrounds are absolutely beautiful. Mind you, it was winter, and sleeping in a caravan annexe on a camp bed I got so chilled I had to be taken into the caravan and warmed up.

The only time I have ever been so cold was camping in Yellowstone – ended up fleeing to a motel.

In those days (late 1960s) Hill End was a sad place. It was almost deserted, falling down, and nobody seemed to care about it except geology and history nuts like my teacher.

Apparently things have changed for the good.

NSW residents, especially those with families, could do a lot worse than go there for a few days if they are camping or with RVs.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2023 12:07 pm

Hill End is lovely, with an interesting history

Great Great Grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland, who “followed the gold” to Hill End. He came to the conclusion that, if you dug holes in the ground, you may or may not find gold. If you knew about wagons and teams, you charged the local storekeepers a pound a ton a mile for hauling flour and tea, picks and shovels, rum and tobacco from the railhead to the goldfields. He died a very wealthy man. His daughter married a man who thought that anyone could make money on mining shares, and lost most of the loot.

Speedbox
October 1, 2023 12:07 pm

JC
Oct 1, 2023 11:45 AM
The story is they created numerous LLCs moving money around in a complex daisy chain. An LLC (limited liability corp) has similar characteristics to a Pty Ltd Company but it’s not the same. LLCs do not pay taxes on their profits directly. Their profits and losses are passed through to members, who report them on their individual tax returns.

Ah, so that’s the thing with LLCs. I had read about the shuffling of money between numerous corporate entities but didn’t know ‘why’.

miltonf
miltonf
October 1, 2023 12:07 pm

Yes Calli- we tried the Bridle Track on my first visit to Hill end when I was 9. Turned around at the first opportunity.

You’re right too about the scamdemic- the 2019 timing much of a coincidence. Unimaginable evil. At least we now know the true nature of the western political class from chilla trash to howard trash.

Top Ender
Top Ender
October 1, 2023 12:16 pm

What do we think Cats? Electronic transfer or, enjoy a holiday in Uganda and see the sights of a country I have never considered going to.

Excellent! Worked for their president:

[Chorus]
Idi, Idi, Idi Amin
Most amazin’ man there’s ever been
He de General, de President
He king of the scene
Idi, Idi, Idi Amin

[Idi – Verse]
Look at the history, it packed with men
What risin’ to de top an’ gettin’ chopped again
No-one fathomin’ de secret of de whole damn ting
You got to give the population something to sing

[Chorus]
Idi, Idi, Idi Amin
Most amazin’ man there’s ever been
He de General, de President
He king of the scene
Idi, Idi, Idi Amin

[Idi – Verse]
Take Hitler, Stalin, Atilla the Nun
No-one got a good word for a single one
Where these first-class geniuses all goin’ wrong?
They never got the population singing along

johanna
johanna
October 1, 2023 12:17 pm

Pogria
Oct 1, 2023 11:15 AM

Cohenite,
Mar a Lago’s neighbours should sue the Judge and the AG for the huge drop in value of their land. If Trump’s abode is only worth 18 million, it is logical that the surrounding properties are also cheap. It might work.

They should get the team from Million Dollar Listing on it.

If one of them can’t get at least $100M, they’re not trying.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 1, 2023 12:19 pm

For naval history Cats. I put up a link a day or so ago about the USS Yorktown, sunk during the Battle of Midway, which has now been found. This new story has photos of carriers Kaga and Akagi who’ve also been found. Some more photos of Yorktown as well:

Video provides first clear views of WWII aircraft carriers lost in the pivotal Battle of Midway (Phys.org, 30 Sep)

RIP to all those sailors and airmen, who died serving their countries on both sides.

cohenite
October 1, 2023 12:22 pm

After the incoherent gibberish of the 3nd GOP POTUS debate Tump has increased his lead by 5% to 63%. All the participants decreased their position except that fat bastard christie, whom was the only one to have a shot at Trump; and he increased his % by 1 to 3%.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2023 12:22 pm

Video provides first clear views of WWII aircraft carriers lost in the pivotal Battle of Midway (Phys.org, 30 Sep)

Most interesting post, BoN, thank you.

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2023 12:24 pm

Dr Faustus at 11:13

SBS running interference for Uncle Luigi:
What happens to a government when it loses a referendum?
An Expert: Nothing much.

I’m not so sure. This referendum has been politicised in a way I don’t really recall the other ones as being (at least not as overtly). There will be consequences. Arrivederci.

miltonf
miltonf
October 1, 2023 12:24 pm

The Idi Amin and Mohamed Ali songs are great.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 1, 2023 12:33 pm

Albanese will be spread out on the political BBQ if he carries on with his promise without the implied popular support of Constitutional change.
Or if he doesn’t.

It is the cleftiest of all cleft sticks.
I haven’t been an avid MSM consumer of late (hi, Tickler!) but it seems to me that Luigi is now engaging in Marcel Marceau campaigning techniques.
Or dropping the ball.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 1, 2023 12:33 pm

We went to Hill End once and panned for gold sometime in the seventies. There was still enough in the creeks to find a modest amount. It was fun. My dad kept the gold in a jar.

Then when he married his third wife, who is a nice lady, they got a jeweler to melt the gold dust down and cast the wedding bands. Two excellent rings resulted, since there were some impurities in the gold dust – maybe some copper and some silver. The wedding rings had a distinct wavy look, with striations of reddish and silverish metal, and were very pretty. That’s my Hill End story.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2023 12:33 pm

Donald J. Trump, the Hero Who Stands Alone

No president, other than Richard Nixon, has ever faced a united front of Republicans and Democrats bringing him down; no president has ever been subjected to years of frivolous investigations by his political opponents; and no president since George Washington has sacrificed his personal and business interests, as Donald J. Trump, even working with no pay to serve this country.

After a protracted period of political assault by the Democrats that included the Russia collusion hoax and the Ukrainian phone call hoax, a futile impeachment failed to remove Donald Trump from office. The COVID-19 crisis became Democrats’ desperate attempt to render the President ineffective and ultimately defeat him in November 2020.

China, with its massive economy and military strength, has been acting with impunity as a US geopolitical adversary for decades. The election of Donald Trump inaugurated a potentially epochal shift in American-Chinese relations. Unlike his feeble predecessors, Trump saw the rise of China as a major economic and geopolitical threat. Using the United States’ world-dominant economic power, Trump exposed and exploited China’s economic and political vulnerabilities, threatening to set back China’s rise to global hegemon for generations.

So, it is perfectly plausible given the history of the Chinese communist statecraft that China would have seized the opportunity to unleash the Covid 19 virus to inflict mortal damage to the greatest economic and military power on earth. The prospect that millions of Chinese could also contract the virus and perish would not deter communists.

The Democrats, however, had a problem. The economy was booming, China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia were being constrained, illegal immigration was curbed, the Abraham Accords between Arabs and Israel were signed, and peace was blossoming in the Middle East. America was about to pull out of Afghanistan, and for once in the last 30 years, there was no new war in prospect.

So, the Left used scare tactics. Faulty models projected millions of deaths, instilling fear to convince the country that the economy must be shut down to save lives. The Democrat governors of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania ordered elderly hospital patients, many of whom were infected by a coronavirus, to move back to their nursing homes, precipitating a great number of deaths and partially validating the projected massive death count.

Although the inflated projections helped to shut down the economy and drive unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression, they also revealed the pathetic condition of the Blue States. Infamous for wasteful spending, they were woefully unprepared for an emergency. They lacked PPE, medical supplies, and ventilators and suffered a shortage of hospital beds and personnel. Before the whole dimension of this self-inflicted debacle could become evident, the Democrat governors blamed Donald Trump for their unpreparedness. They demanded excessive numbers of hospital beds, ventilators, and medical supplies from the federal government aimed at overwhelming the government bureaucracy and paralyzing the executive authority.

The scheme was as effective as it was reckless.

Maintaining their unbroken record of misjudging Donald Trump, they did not anticipate seeing such a comprehensive assault crumble so spectacularly.

Single-minded in pursuing his objectives, Trump demonstrated strong leadership and exceptional organizational skills.

His administration successfully mobilized military capabilities and the immense industrial power of the USA. In no time, the United States became the world’s largest producer of ventilators, PPE, and the leader in developing anti-coronavirus medication and vaccines.

In a matter of months, the Trump Administration overwhelmed the states with additional hospital capacity, medical equipment, and personnel. These proved to be of no use as a fraction of the estimated cases actually developed.

At some point, Trump realized that shutting down the whole economy was not an inevitable necessity. In terms of actual casualties caused by Covid, not just with Covid, the coronavirus was another hoax to destroy the US economy.

He recognized “who stands to gain” and called the country back to work.

His opponents fear that Trump will seek to abolish the rotten corruption of the existing political system rife with incompetence and anti-Americanism.

He poses an existential threat to the leadership of both political parties.

His powerful enemies cannot allow him to win and will use all means at their disposal to prevent him from being elected again. Indeed, there is a dismayingly high probability that Trump may share the tragic destiny of JFK and his brother Robert.

But nothing degrades the President’s fortitude as he stands alone against a legion of enemies unified by a common jeopardy. This is the characteristic that makes him dear to millions of Americans.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2023 12:36 pm

AnthonyR
1 hour ago

Labor frontbenchers declare the Indigenous voice to parliament is a chance “to do something we should have done 122 years ago”

Ah, but 122 years ago, the Labor party was too busy formulating, promoting and implementing the White Australia Policy, wasn’t it?

Despite opposition from Britain.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2023 12:36 pm

Transport Minister Catherine King told ‘front up and answer the questions’ by Senator Bridget McKenzie as Qatar inquiry continues

Senator Bridget McKenzie said she hopes Transport Minister Catherine King will “come and explain” why the Albanese government blocked extra flights from Qatar Airways, adding the Australian public deserves answers about the decision.

Senator Bridget McKenzie said it was time for Transport Minister Catherine King to “front up” to the inquiry into why the Albanese government blocked Qatar Airways from adding more flights to Australia as the public deserved answers about the call.

Speaking to Sky News Australia on Sunday morning, the Nationals Senator said she hoped the Minister would “come and explain” her thinking behind the move, although she acknowledged the Senate inquiry could not compel her to appear.

“You would hope Minister King would take up the kind invitation of the committee to come and explain her decision,” she said.

“There is precedence for members of the House of Representatives fronting up to Senate inquiries and helping us with the committee may have, I’ve fronted up to a Senate inquiry.

“So if you really believe in your decision it’s time now for the Minister to actually act on that and front up and answer the questions.”

Senator McKenzie added that “everyday Australians” frustrated about air travel deserved answers about why the aviation sector was not adequately serving their needs, especially given the number of scandals engulfing Qantas over the past several months.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2023 12:42 pm

Anthony Albanese’s Voice, Treaty message hijacks the word ‘truth-telling’ into meaning something completely different

Activist’s narrow and precise focus on the definition of the word ‘truth-telling’ cannot possibly give us an accurate picture of Australia’s colonialist past, writes Kel Richards.

That famous T-shirt the prime minister was photographed wearing said: ‘Voice, Treaty, Truth’.

And this same triple word slogan has been seen at many Voice referendum rallies.

So, what does it mean? Well, the ‘Voice’ we all know about, because we’ve followed the debates about for months now.

‘Treaty’ is also pretty self-explanatory—since we all have a reasonably clear idea what the word ‘treaty’ means.

But what about ‘truth’?

This, when you think about, should be the least controversial of the three.

I mean, surely everyone’s in favour of the truth, right? But is it more complicated than that?

In the famous ‘Uluru statement’ we read these words: ‘We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution … We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.’

So, what does ‘truth-telling about our history’ mean?

As a wordsmith I went, as I always do, to the ‘Oxford English Dictionary’.

The great lexicographers there say there are two meanings for ‘truth-telling’—an older one and a newer one.

The older meaning is recorded from 1539, and means pretty much what you’d expect it to mean: ‘The action of telling the truth or speaking honestly.’

The newer meaning is recorded only from 1988 and says something significantly different, and more complex: ‘Recognition or acknowledgement of historical injustices affecting Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people following the colonization of Australia, and re-evaluation of the impact of the discrimination and often violent treatment they have faced since that time.

Also, in extended use with reference to Indigenous peoples in other countries, including the M?ori people of New Zealand.’

That’s the full official definition in the big ‘Oxford English Dictionary’.

This meaning of “truth-telling” seems to have been coined by David Headon, in an essay he wrote for a book called Connections (Aboriginal Studies Press, 1988, Emmauel Nelson ed.).

This appears to be what the Uluru statement means when it calls for ‘truth-telling about our history.’

Look again at that definition.

It makes no reference to telling ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth’ (as we say in court oaths).

Instead, this sort of ‘truth-telling’ has a precise and narrow focus: ‘historical injustices… following colonization… the impact of discrimination… (and) violent treatment.’

But can such a narrow and precise focus really tell the truth about history?

As a test case, take the Myall Creek Massacre.

In June 1838, a group of 11 stockmen arrived at Myall Creek Station where a number of Aboriginal people were camped. These people (mostly old men, women and children) fled into a hut for safety.

The stockmen dragged them out of the hut, roped them together, and led them to a gully—where all 28 of them were killed. Only two shots were heard—most of them were slaughtered with swords.

It was a brutal, horrifying and vicious mass murder. And exactly the sort of thing that this specialised notion of ‘truth-telling’ would (quite rightly) want to focus on.

But what about the rest of the story? Because those stockmen was arrested by white policemen, put on trial before a white judge, prosecuted by a white prosecutor, convicted by a white jury, and executed by a white hangman.

The justice was incomplete because the leader of the group fled into the bush (and, possibly, across the border into another colony) and was never caught.

And of those who were caught, several put a defence claiming they had been misidentified and were not present at the slaughter.

Those few were found not guilty. But most of that group were convicted and executed.

Incomplete though it was, justice was done.

Why? Because those Aboriginal men, women and children were, legally, British citizens and were covered by British law.

This is part of what Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price means when she insists that colonization was not all bad.

It also, she says, brought good things—food, clothing, a written language and opportunities for work and self-improvement.

And it brought citizenship and the protection of law.

When the whole story is told it becomes more complicated, doesn’t it?

But could a ‘truth-telling’ commission focussed only on ‘historical injustices … following colonization … the impact of discrimination … (and) violent treatment’ ever report on the whole story, and paint the whole picture?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2023 12:43 pm

From the Hun.

News
South Australia

‘I was called out to find a snake in a BDSM sex dungeon’: The real lives of SA’s snake catchers and their wildest finds

Catching deadly snakes is all in a day’s work for Rolly Burrell. But trying to find one slithering around a sex dungeon had him running for his life.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 1, 2023 12:53 pm

Excellent discussion of Phi this morning.
Really rivetting stuff.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 1, 2023 12:57 pm

I was called out to find a snake in a BDSM sex dungeon

Have a heart for the poor escaped pythons loose in Pommyland.

Family shocked after finding ‘very strong’ python asleep on the kitchen boiler (30 Sep)

A family was shocked after their nanny found a python sleeping on top of their kitchen boiler. The snake, a five-foot long reticulated python, was found at the house in Tooting, South London, on September 13.

They’re pythons from Indonesia, so I can see why it wanted a bit of warmth. Very pretty critter, similar to a carpet python. Certainly pythons are very strong – I’ve rescued diamond pythons from Cafe neighbours’ yards from time to time, or maybe rescued the neighbours, since they weren’t at all happy having a snake in the backyard. They wrap themselves around your arm like a tourniquet.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2023 1:00 pm

But could a ‘truth-telling’ commission focussed only on ‘historical injustices … following colonization … the impact of discrimination … (and) violent treatment’ ever report on the whole story, and paint the whole picture?

Any “truth telling commision” is only ever going to be “stories my Nanna told me.”

(Regarding a “massacre” at Bedford Downs, in Western Australia, an “eyewitness” came forward)

“Me bin see the blackfellas fall down…me bin see the white police come out of the bushes, me bin see the fires and see the bodies..Me bin run faster then whitefella’s on horseback”

“Weren’t you eighty miles away at the time of the “massacre?”

“Oh, yeah, but we bin talk about it.”

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2023 1:05 pm

NATO analysts are concerned that there are tens of times more volunteers and contract soldiers in the Russian Armed Forces than in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Analysts affiliated with NATO and specifically with the Pentagon decided to analyze the situation with the voluntary involvement of citizens in military service in Russia and Ukraine.

This question arose in connection with the huge losses suffered by the Ukrainian army since the beginning of the so-called counter-offensive (even the West admits that the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost at least 70 thousand people without achieving what they initially expected), as well as the fact that these losses you need to make up for it somehow.

The Western press, citing data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, says that in the near future the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has plans to train “6-7 brigades.” If we take into account that the “counteroffensive” began with at least 8 brigades, and the total losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces largely exceeded these figures, then the Western sponsors of the Ukrainian conflict are faced with the question: how actively should they send military assistance to Ukraine if it is not ready or able to saturate front with manpower.

Data from the Russian defense department are also being analyzed, according to which more than 320 thousand people have already signed the contract in recent months, the vast majority of whom are not even involved in hostilities.

The British media focuses on the fact that these are “more motivated people than mobilized people.”

In this regard, NATO also admits that Russia has a significant advantage, since tens of times fewer people enroll in the Ukrainian army under contract than in the Russian army.

Kiev has made and continues to place bets on forced mobilization, but even in the West they are making it clear that if the Ukrainian army has no success at the front, it will be increasingly difficult to motivate those mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine to act with full dedication at the front.

However, the Kiev regime is not going to abolish the whip method, turning into a typical totalitarian state.

johanna
johanna
October 1, 2023 1:06 pm

Hot nor-wester coming in.

Reminds me of the early stages of last big bushfire season.

Are Greenie councils still banning people from creating effective firebreaks around their houses?

Oh, and thousands of elm seed pods. There are some old elm trees around town, and in my old house the drifts of pods built up in the corners to several centimetres high. With a decent wind, they are everywhere.

Hope some of them create new elm trees. 🙂

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 1:08 pm

The next instalment in the vandalism of our children’s minds by the ascendant T’s of the alphabet people.

Netflix. The Floor is Lava. Fun game, fun show, so far so good…until the next team introduces itself…Trannies in ballgowns. So off it went.

When asked, “I do not want to see men in girls clothes pretending to be girls”. And this was flamboyant, mincing stuff.

Enough!

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2023 1:15 pm

Interesting editorial in Teh Weekend Paywallian on Chairman Dan, Albo and the ideas of the Liar Left. The last PM who got too far ahead of the troops was arguably Keating once Bob was out the way. That didn’t end well.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 1, 2023 1:16 pm

Hot nor-wester coming in.

Johanna – I hope you are surviving, by the skin of your teeth, the dreadful global boiling.

Sydney set to swelter through boiling hot October long weekend as Sunday expected to top temperature records (Sky News, 1 Oct)

Boilingly boiling! At least it isn’t as bad as what England is getting.

UK hot weather: Exact date hot October will last until as scorching 25C heat imminent (29 Sep)

A boilingly scorching 25 C! How will they survive? At the Cafe according to the nearest BoM AWS it is just now reaching a terrifyingly incandescent 32 C. It’s been very pleasant wandering around the yard feeding various feathery mendicants.

Makka
Makka
October 1, 2023 1:18 pm

(even the West admits that the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost at least 70 thousand people without achieving what they initially expected)

This an obscene situation, if true. It’s disgraceful that the west should be aggressively supporting and funding this kind of carnage without pressing for negotiations and a ceasefire. Utter madness.

Boambee John
Boambee John
October 1, 2023 1:24 pm

Makka

And where is the Secretary General of the UN? Certainly not making the usual public noise about the desperate need for a ceasefire, negotiations and peacekeepers.

Has any recent conflict gone on for so long with absolutely no UN calls for negotiations?

johanna
johanna
October 1, 2023 1:28 pm

They’re pythons from Indonesia, so I can see why it wanted a bit of warmth. Very pretty critter, similar to a carpet python. Certainly pythons are very strong – I’ve rescued diamond pythons from Cafe neighbours’ yards from time to time, or maybe rescued the neighbours, since they weren’t at all happy having a snake in the backyard. They wrap themselves around your arm like a tourniquet.

A place I stayed at in the Gold Coast hinterland had a large pet python, which lived near the pond/dam. I think it was what is called a ‘carpet python.’ It could be seen most days sunning itself near the banks of the water.

By all accounts quite harmless, and very pretty to look at.

I am also a fan of red bellied black snakes, which are often cited as very dangerous. Yes, you don’t want to be bitten, but in fact they slither away at the first sign of trouble. You have to try hard to be bitten.

Dugites, oh boy!

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 1:29 pm

Hill End; a most unpredicted contender for the town most visited by Cats. Myself, been there so many times I couldn’t count. Used to go for a drive each Sunday up that way & over time all around up & down every road I could find.

Hill End, though a little larger than my hometown, is a contender for the title of town with the narrowest streets in Australia.

Makka
Makka
October 1, 2023 1:31 pm

If as the Mises Institute reports that the US Military is preparing the ground for a Draft, that aims to be able to replenish over 3000 casualties per day, you would naturally have to think that the conflict they are in preparation for is serious and substantial. Obviously the tranny, gay , woke PR recruitment campaigns are failing badly.

What then of their stoic ally, Australia? In such a major conflict it’s inconceivable we would decline the US request to join the conflict. Which, by the size of the reported US troop expansion, we could also be facing a Draft down the road. Military types on this blog might be able to catch some straws in the wind?

Real Deal
Real Deal
October 1, 2023 1:33 pm

Went to Hill End on a school excursion as a 15 year old in 1979. Adore the place. We had the last rock fight of our collective childhoods on the hill above the village camping area. Spent much of my twenties camping with mates along the Bridle Track while floating down the Macquarie River on li-los. Travelled a lot since but they were the most magical times.

Hill End is great. Just don’t do what we did and try the Bridle Track. It is no more and you have to go around the long way.

That road was beautiful, with the river down below. You could imagine the hardy of a century past panning for gold down there.

Calli, the Bridle Track has been repaired in the last year or so and is open. There is a Facebook page with lots of info and great pics. I think it is probably populated by lots of weekend 4×4 warriors that would deter me, but it still looks beautiful.

johanna
johanna
October 1, 2023 1:34 pm

Bruce of Newcastle Avatar
Bruce of Newcastle
Oct 1, 2023 1:16 PM

Hot nor-wester coming in.

Johanna – I hope you are surviving, by the skin of your teeth, the dreadful global boiling.

Of course not, merely suggesting that we might be in for another El Nino.

Although, I am getting worried about what that means, it’s just a wee bit inexact.

Mark from Melbourne
Mark from Melbourne
October 1, 2023 1:36 pm

Unfortunately, my crystal ball sees the Greens as the only political winners out of this. They will have no hesitation in calling for a joint Green-ALP legislative alliance to “put this Coalition-inspired racism right and deliver on Uluru”.

If that was a real option it would already have been done. Even Tits suggested it. See how it works before enshrining and all that.

This was from the very beginning a Hail Mary play. But (unless a few mill run onto the pitch having been hidden in the crowd) the wide receivers didn’t get and/or like the message.

In theory, I guess they could legislate it and have the activists promise hand on heart not to do anything silly, then try to pretend that that is what the Constitutional version would look like. It may have even worked if they’d done it before a loss.

After a loss, good luck keeping the activists on a leash when the next go around is likely to be just after the 12th of Never. If they legislate, it will be a fuster cluck of monumental proportions, with the general populace looking on not in bewilderment but in actual animosity.

They can never legislate, which means that their emotional fury will have to be taken out “elsewhere”. I would imagine we proles and Elbow will cop about an equal whack. Also, of course, those uppity NO campaigners. But Elbow is pretty much the only available actual victim I can see…

Top Ender
Top Ender
October 1, 2023 1:37 pm

This new story has photos of carriers Kaga and Akagi who’ve also been found.

No love lost there from the good residents of Darwin in WWII. They were two of the four carriers that attacked the place on 19 Feb 1942.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2023 1:46 pm

There’ll be more to this than meets the eye (the NT News):

Six people have been killed in a fiery head-on crash on the Stuart Highway, the Territory’s worst road disaster in a decade.

NT Police have confirmed the horrific scale of the incident on Sunday, two days after a Mitsubishi 4WD and road train were involved in the crash at 4.15pm Friday, 12km south of Pine Creek.

And:

Initial investigations suggest the Mitsubishi 4WD swerved into the path of a truck carrying cars and trailers of mangoes headed south along the Stuart Highway.

We’ll see. Crash reconstruction is, I am told, extremely advanced in this day and age.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 1:47 pm

calli Oct 1, 2023 9:22 AM
Here’s a practical idea for the Sycamore Gap.
Grind the stump and plant a new tree in place of the vandalised one. Then put a wall around it.

Calli, in my capacity as an overnight internet expert on the Sycamore Gap, I’m able to report that a replacement tree has been growing beside the old one for quite some time.

The old (now falled) tree had reached the point where the roots were about to distort/damage Hadrian’s Wall.

The new tree is on the same side of the wall as the stump of the fallen tree, about 20 yards or so further out from the wall, in a perpendicular line.
The new tree is protected/surrounded by a low circular stone wall, looks sort of like a well.

By an accident of location & framing, the new tree is not shown in most photographs.
If you can’t see the new tree sticking up over circular wall, it is an old photo, the new tree is well established.

bons
bons
October 1, 2023 1:47 pm

Well done Box.
Good for a loan are we?
I speak a few words of Swahili so I may be able to help.
I achieved my remarkable language skills in court when the ‘police’ selected two chancers out of the cells to be accused of my mugging.
It wasn’t them but “hey but sportsmon iz OK, OK”.
Have you ever noticed how many Kenyan and Ugandan coppers are gigantic women. Terrifying creatures.
The equally terrifying judge lady happily sent the poor stooges up the river, then gave me a force ten blast for coming to her beautiful country and tempting the young men into crime.
I took the Inspectors advice and moved on, but not before discovering that the hotel reception’s guest security safe had been ransacked by persons unknown. Never happened before. Police are investigating.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
October 1, 2023 1:51 pm

Ruh roh…

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-01/uk-aims-to-offer-military-training-inside-ukraine/102921758

The other day I read about a KC135 that was fired on by a Russian aircraft, lucky the missiles didn’t lock/launch.

To quote from Red October: ” It would be well for your government to consider that having your ships and ours, your aircraft and ours, in such proximity… is inherently DANGEROUS. Wars have begun that way, Mr. Ambassador. “

Speedbox
October 1, 2023 1:56 pm

KYIV, Sept 30 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday he wants to turn Ukraine’s defence industry into a “large military hub” by partnering with Western weapons manufacturers to increase arms supplies for Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russia.

He was speaking at a forum his government convened with international producers to discuss how to jointly develop industrial capacity to build and repair weapons in Ukraine despite constant Russian bombardment.

Ukraine critically depends on Western financial and military support and has had tens of billions of dollars of such help since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022. But the war created a constantly growing demand for arms and ammunition.

Executives from weapons producers from over 30 countries attended the forum. Some said they were depleting their stocks quickly and had struggled to find supplies to be able to ramp up production to meet Ukrainian demand.

Ukrainian officials see the development of domestic defence production as a boost to the economy, which has shrunk by about a third last year due to the war.

Several leading Western producers like Germany’s weapon production giant Rheinmetall and Britain-based BAE Systems have already announced plans to team up with Ukrainian producers.

The Ukrainian government plans to create special economic conditions to draw Western investment into the domestic defence sector including a fund to support new technology development.

“It will be a mutually beneficial partnership. I think it is a good time and place to create a large military hub,” Zelenskiy said.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraine-lures-western-weapons-makers-transform-defence-industry-2023-09-30/

Siltstone
Siltstone
October 1, 2023 1:56 pm

Confession. I have not yet been to Hill End.

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2023 1:57 pm

A new era of full blown conscription in the US would fail hard.

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2023 1:58 pm

Imagine McNamara’s morons, but on opioids and at 350 lbs.

Miltonf
Miltonf
October 1, 2023 1:59 pm

They really want wwwlll.

MatrixTransform
October 1, 2023 2:00 pm

Really rivetting stuff

yeah sancho, but don’t get your elec Phi mixed up with golden Phi

and to get from e^((pi.i)/5) + e^-((pi.i)/5) to 2cos(pi/5)

all you need to know is that : e^( i.x ) = cos(x)+ (i)sin(x)

… but you knew that right ?

MatrixTransform
October 1, 2023 2:02 pm

vandalism of our children’s minds

nice!

… borrowing that one

Crossie
Crossie
October 1, 2023 2:07 pm

Cassie of Sydney
Oct 1, 2023 9:58 AM
I don’t mind Musk

Nor do I, and he’s one of the few people on the planet who is not just willing to speak up for free speech, he has stuck his neck out for free speech.

Not only did he stick his neck out but he lost over $20B because of it. I suppose that’s punishment for inflicting the Tesla cars on the world.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
October 1, 2023 2:18 pm

The wife deleted my recording of the GF.
I know – what!
Too much chain obviously.

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 2:28 pm

Calli, in my capacity as an overnight internet expert on the Sycamore Gap, I’m able to report that a replacement tree has been growing beside the old one for quite some time.

Well, well, well. A story behind the story.

So….who felled the tree? Seems a big job for a “16 year old” unless he’s built like Arnie (in order to wield a suitable chainsaw).

P
P
October 1, 2023 2:28 pm

I believe the Chinese have been a great gift to this country.

At the beginning of the 1840s convict labour to NSW ended and indentured Chinese labourers were brought in to fill the gap.

The discovery of gold at Bathurst in 1851 and the subsequent discoveries soon after in Victoria and Adelaide brought about a 100% price increase in both labour, goods and provisions all over the country. Many thousands had fled to the goldfields leaving a great number of farmers and businessmen facing ruin for want of labour, which as well as being extremely expensive was almost impossible to find. Skilled labour was very scarce indeed and ridiculously highly priced. Building materials became enormously high. Prior to the gold discoveries, sawed timber was an average of 8 shillings per 100 ft and by mid 1850s was upwards of 30 shillings, and bricks which had been 2 pounds per thousand could not be got under 8 pounds.

Thereafter many thousands more Chinese came.

Pogria
Pogria
October 1, 2023 2:30 pm

A 3 day excursion to Hill End and Sofala was a standard for 2nd Year High School students in the seventies. I loved that trip although, as Johanna mentioned earlier, freezing cold at night. As a poor houso kid, no sleeping bag only a blanket. We slept four to a tent and the other girls very obligingly covered me with all their spare clothes at night so I would be warm.
Sofala is an interesting little Town. Very neglected when I was there with school, but visiting a few years later it was really on the improve.
The very bent and weird Aussie film “The Cars That Ate Paris”, was filmed in Sofala.

johanna
johanna
October 1, 2023 2:39 pm

Gorgeous summerish day here in Queanbeyan. Whiffs of jasmine, blue sky, various parrots chk chk-ing, the occasional brm brm of a Harley.

But no, I should be lying awake at night because I am not an elderly Jewish Princess, which would make me a person of enough weight and merit to be worthy of consideration.

Rich bitch Cassie said that she pities me. That is the ignorant snobbery which infested the RINOs, as Tom Wolfe magnificently chronicled.

As I have said, I’m happy with my life, and your continual attempts to treat me like I’m a brainless homeless person not in control of their faculties is gaslighting to the nth.

I can just see you out in western Sydney campaigning (not that you ever would – might break a nail). Except I can’t.

Yelling at people in Paddington is hardly manning the barricades, that’s not where the battle is being fought.

Any tips on what to wear while changing minds in Paddington?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 1, 2023 2:39 pm

Speaking with Youngest Daughter on Lifetime road trip in US – stunned by Californian Large Billboards advertising Cannibis/Marijuana, stayed in dodgy motel (Ok 2 star Hotel – SIL cheap – they did like Bellagio) in Bakersfield last night with Prostitutes and Drug Dealers roaming the hallways

Other than Disneyland and Park Rangers, Service Lousy – Waited 3 hours Queuing at Alamo Car Rental at LAX having dropped off RV at Anaheim & Ubered to LAX – to find RAV4 they had rented not available – with Alamo person pointing to Hertz next door with no queue saying they had run out of cars and your RAV4 not available – pay more and we will give you Mercedes GLA – struggle with Luggage and kids at night around Alamo Lot and find GLA won’t fiy their luggage – some random Alamo guy walked past – spoke with them and said here take keys to Nissan Rogue, bags fit – Guy says I will update paperwork – arrive at security checkout – not the right vehicle – explain – Gate securiy check – Ok, and open gate, but still have GLA paperwork – Cold, Wet & Misty in Sequoia Natl Park – 1C Overnight -14C max – next stop Yosemite and SIL upgraded to Tent with Heater – sounds like they will need it.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
October 1, 2023 2:40 pm

Bon your father can’t have been all that bright. I’d have thought he’d learnt his lesson after the first wife.

Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
October 1, 2023 2:42 pm

e ^ (i pi) + 1 = 0

Dragnet
Dragnet
October 1, 2023 2:44 pm

“Sofala” is the answer to a set of cryptic crossword clues that periodically do the rounds.

Vicki
Vicki
October 1, 2023 2:49 pm

In this age of fragmenting community spirit it is nice to observe good will.

Some renting neighbours in Sydney told us that their landlord made them pay for having hedges etc trimmed. Since a huge 2m+ hedge was encroaching upon our views, we offered to pay for an extra 1/2m hedge “haircut”. We have just returned to Sydney and husband knocked on their door with a large contribution to their bill plus eggs from our country hens.

They gratefully accepted the eggs, but refused flatly to take any money contribution to their hedging bill.

Robert Sewell
October 1, 2023 2:52 pm

Makka:

The context for this supposed need to reinstate conscription is the estimate that were the US to enter into a large-scale conflict, every day it would likely suffer thirty-six hundred casualties and require eight hundred replacements, again per day.

It’s going to happen in Australia in a couple of years – why else is our army being destroyed by attrition?
Most of the men and women who are leaving are the ones in the combat arms, from what I hear. All that’s needed now is a crisis that will allow partial conscription and we’ll have an army of brainwashed kids being run by officers who have been through the University of Woke.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 1, 2023 2:53 pm

But could a ‘truth-telling’ commission focussed only on ‘historical injustices … following colonization … the impact of discrimination … (and) violent treatment’ ever report on the whole story, and paint the whole picture?

Try reading Marcia Langton’s book “Welcome to Country.”

“A must for every household, this book shows how lucky we are to be the home of the world’s oldest continuing civilization, which is something to be respected and treasured.”

There’s all the old myths about Aborigines not being counted in the census until 1967, and Aboriginal soldiers returning home from World War Two, not being citizens, or having the right to vote for another 17 years…either the whole truth is told, or none of it is told.

Vicki
Vicki
October 1, 2023 2:55 pm

BTW – all I can say to a current blog “spat” is “Ladies! ladies!”

Whilst I smile at the s–t handed out by the boys here to each other, for some reason it is less amusing amongst the women.

Call me old fashioned.

Indolent
Indolent
October 1, 2023 2:56 pm

The EU is behaving exactly like Brexit never happened.

EU ORDERS Penalty For UK

Cassie of Sydney
October 1, 2023 3:01 pm

Goodness, I see above I have been called a “rich bitch”. I won’t dignify the nastiness but I’ll just say that, for the record, I am not “rich”. Wish I was.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2023 3:01 pm

Tartaria.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
October 1, 2023 3:02 pm

We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.

– Golda Meir

Cassie of Sydney
October 1, 2023 3:02 pm

Vicki
Oct 1, 2023 2:55 PM

Quite so Vicki.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2023 3:03 pm

Oh, right. That was a test post.

Despite only having a sole post for the back I kept getting the ‘posting too fast’ screen.

Gez. The misso deleting your GF recording is a 1939 Poland moment.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
October 1, 2023 3:04 pm

the home of the world’s oldest continuing civilization

Civilisation?

Hunters and gatherers with some mythology and formulaic art.

So, when and where has there been human society that would not qualify as civilisation then.

She makes the word meaningless because it adds nothing.

Hell, she would have Neanderthals being a civilisation.

Robert Sewell
October 1, 2023 3:04 pm

Indolent:

The nation once admired by the whole world is now a racially incoherent failed state. A good fit for NATO.

I never admired the Swedes. They always seemed to me to be a country full of self adoring snobs who thought their shit didn’t stink.
And it looks like it’s come back and is repeatedly biting their lily white arses.
Good luck with your migrant problem, suckers.
…and the one thing that would knock that problem down to size would be to cancel the welfare state they created because they were ‘special’ and oh so caring.

Vicki
Vicki
October 1, 2023 3:08 pm

I am also a fan of red bellied black snakes, which are often cited as very dangerous. Yes, you don’t want to be bitten, but in fact they slither away at the first sign of trouble. You have to try hard to be bitten.

Johanna, you are right – they are not as dangerous as most people think. However, they should not be taken cheaply. Last year I noticed a pretty big one heading over the paddock towards my chook pen. As I was on the ride-on mower I motored towards it to head it off. It didn’t appreciate my interference & reared up. I persisted & it turned & slid off into a clump of grass around a tree.

Again, a few days ago I was preparing a picnic area down by the creek for my grandson & his lady who were visiting. A medium size red belly seemed intent on proceeding towards the table & chairs. I had to really persist in discouragement before he relented and slid away.

I know a few on this blog quite like the red bellies. To me – they are predatory snakes with a nasty weapon.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2023 3:08 pm

I never admired the Swedes

Charles XII was pretty good.

I also rated the Swedish Chef highly.

Boambee John
Boambee John
October 1, 2023 3:16 pm

ML

Hell, she would have Neanderthals being a civilisation.

At the present rate of increase in the time that aborigines are claimed to have “been here”, Neanderthals will soon be the only possible source for them.

Robert Sewell
October 1, 2023 3:17 pm

Calli:

If it was a virus designed to wipe out masses on humanity, it failed dismally. But that wasn’t its purpose. What actually happened – a new, compliant geriatric in the WH, authoritarian feelers put out worldwide to test behavioural control, ruined Western economies, and a massive transfer of wealth.

Even though Chemical and Biological weapons are classed as WMD, they are not – at least primarily. They are weapons designed to cause mass panic. And they are very good at it.
Nuclear weapons cause immense damage and suffering, but leave behind a vengeful population. Biological weapons leave behind a frightened, much reduced population and a fully functioning economic machine that only needs more people to get it ticking over again.
That’s why the coming war between China and the West will be a biological one – not nuclear.

Indolent
Indolent
October 1, 2023 3:20 pm
Makka
Makka
October 1, 2023 3:22 pm

They always seemed to me to be a country full of self adoring snobs who thought their shit didn’t stink.

Their WW2 behavior was suss as well.

Makka
Makka
October 1, 2023 3:25 pm

dotty,
Awarding citizenship to conscripted illegals and their families, might make the US Draft more palatable. Don’t underestimate the insidious Biden regime.

Speedbox
October 1, 2023 3:27 pm

Sue bons. Seeing as you speak the lingo, would you mind going yo Kampala for me to collect the cash? Big commission on your return with the money! Maybe Zulu Kilo Two Alpha might like to go as well – he’s from that neck of the woods (well, kind of).

Speedbox
October 1, 2023 3:28 pm

Sure

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2023 3:29 pm

Gez. The misso deleting your GF recording is a 1939 Poland moment.

I had my housemates’ GF and now wife delete Laurence Olivier’s Richard III off my DVD DVR, that was devastating.

AFL? Never followed it.

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
October 1, 2023 3:29 pm

In 1971, the UN passed Resolution 2758, which recognised the Govt of the Peoples Republic of China, (PRC), as the “only” legitimate governing body for China and also stated that Chiang Kai Chek had no authority in the UN, (as supposed leader of Taiwan) and was ordered out of the UN.

I am not a supporter of the UN, having seen the utter inefficiency of that bloated organisation first hand, spending six months on the Horn of Africa, as an Officer in the ADF, but they are the facts.

https://www.state.gov/countries-areas/taiwan/

The link above indicates that this “Sino/Russo apologist” country, also agrees.

I have no doubt whatever, that the US is trying to start a war with China, but the political relationship China “enjoys” with Taiwan, is clearly not a reason for hostilities.
Perhaps, the Military Industrial Complex in the US, may, be able to shed light on the matter.

Chris
Chris
October 1, 2023 3:36 pm

Gez. The misso deleting your GF recording is a 1939 Poland moment.

I rank it way below tidying my garage.
Of course, if a friend cannot share a recording to make good the loss, the grievance is far worse.
Assuming GF is ‘grand final’ not ‘girlfriend’… if that were so I understand her deleting it and think you got off lightly.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 3:40 pm

calli Oct 1, 2023 2:28 PM
So….who felled the tree? Seems a big job for a “16 year old”

Calli, a day or so ago it was reported that a 60 yo man had become the 2nd person arrested in relation to the “incident”.

Yep, as is known by anyone who has worked in felling timber, in any capacity, or worked with timber in any capacity from cabinet making & small models through to wooden rafters in cathederals, whoever cut that tree down;

a) had access to a pretty fair dinkum sort of chainsaw
b) was very comfortable & experienced with using this chainsaw
c) was very experienced at cutting down grown trees

Vicki
Vicki
October 1, 2023 3:43 pm

Biological weapons leave behind a frightened, much reduced population and a fully functioning economic machine that only needs more people to get it ticking over again.
That’s why the coming war between China and the West will be a biological one – not nuclear.

Agree, Robert. The socio/political disruption – and even long term change – that Covid and its bureaucratic weaponry inflicted is astounding. The global strategists observed it in action. And this is what is especially frightening.

Gabor
Gabor
October 1, 2023 3:46 pm

Salvatore, Iron Publican
Oct 1, 2023 3:40 PM

calli Oct 1, 2023 2:28 PM
So….who felled the tree? Seems a big job for a “16 year old”

Calli, a day or so ago it was reported that a 60 yo man had become the 2nd person arrested in relation to the “incident”.


a) had access to a pretty fair dinkum sort of chainsaw
b) was very comfortable & experienced with using this chainsaw
c) was very experienced at cutting down grown trees

And the biggest unthinking, vengeful dick.. to boot.

Pogria
Pogria
October 1, 2023 3:46 pm

Cassie of Sydney
Oct 1, 2023 3:01 PM
Goodness, I see above I have been called a “rich bitch”. I won’t dignify the nastiness but I’ll just say that, for the record, I am not “rich”. Wish I was.

Cassie, you have family and friends whom you love, and who love you back. I consider you super-rich. The “Bitch” part is a bonus. I have worn the moniker “Bitch” for over forty years with pride. 😀

Jorge
Jorge
October 1, 2023 3:52 pm

That’s why the coming war between China and the West will be a biological one – not nuclear.

Which makes our current reorganisation of deployed tanks and missiles and personnel kind of superfluous. Not to mention billions on subs.

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 3:53 pm

Sal, by the look of the felled tree, it was cut down in a couple of passes. Complete.

The usual method is crown reduction, then drop the remainder using a wedge shaped cutout in the direction you want it to fall.

Reason – if the crown is left intact the balance of the tree may not necessarily be in the direction of the wedge…and it can fall on you. Or your house, car or whatever.

It’s difficult to imagine the utter stupidity of the people who did this thing. In a just world they’d be squished like Treebeard’s orc.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 1, 2023 3:57 pm

Unfortunately, my crystal ball sees the Greens as the only political winners out of this. They will have no hesitation in calling for a joint Green-ALP legislative alliance to “put this Coalition-inspired racism right and deliver on Uluru”.

That is Photios-Textor thinking.
“Oooh, how can we drive home a conservative electoral advantage by worrying about a Green-Left alliance and trying to placate them.”
As Keating once said, “In the race of life, always back self interest. At least you know it’s trying.”
If, as it appears, da Voice gets smashed 60:40 or worse, how many Liars in marginal seats are going to say, “More please, Mr Luigi”.
The Greens and Lydia will continue to rant about Blak power, but those interested in the continuing growth of their Parliamentary Super will drop it like a stolen TV when the divvy van turns up.

miltonf
miltonf
October 1, 2023 4:01 pm

The very bent and weird Aussie film “The Cars That Ate Paris”, was filmed in Sofala.

Yes coming down that hill on the road from Kelso I thought we might be going to do a reenactment most recent visit!

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:02 pm

If, as it appears, da Voice gets smashed 60:40 or worse, how many Liars in marginal seats are going to say, “More please, Mr Luigi”.

I saw an Insiders segment on Twitter today. I never watch the whole thing. They had this AFR dude on who we used to call Fabulous Phil (forget his last name). He was saying the undecided is hanging around 17%. That’s pretty high so close to voting day.

Chris
Chris
October 1, 2023 4:07 pm

He was saying the undecided is hanging around 17%. That’s pretty high so close to voting day.

Shy noes, but shy yessers too!

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 4:08 pm

Sorry about the chicksplaining.

I watched an enormous euc dropped on the Water Resources building in Goroka from the safety of my front verandah – the clowns had decided to undermine the rootplate using a drot. They had ropes attached to utes to pull it in the right direction once the tipping point was reached.

The tree had other ideas.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
October 1, 2023 4:11 pm

A medium size red belly seemed intent on proceeding towards the table & chairs
Snakey would be following one of his own pheromone trails, if he was distressed enough he’d be going all out for a hidey hole. Snakes are pretty much blind to anything further than half their own body length in front.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 1, 2023 4:11 pm

Reason – if the crown is left intact the balance of the tree may not necessarily be in the direction of the wedge…and it can fall on you. Or your house, car or whatever.

If the tree is unbalanced in the crown, you obviously let gravity do it’s thing if there is nothing you want to keep in the direction of the fall.
If the crown is symmetrical you should be able to drop it anywhere, with the wind then being the only possible fly in the ointment.
I felled one at the country estate a while back which would have hit the house in one direction and flattened a fence in the other. I put a stake in the ground where I wanted it to go and cut a very steep wedge in it (60-70 degrees +) Cut through from the back leaving about an inch of trunk intact. Banged some wedges in and over she went. Hit the stake dead centre.
Leaving a small amount of trunk is the key. It acts as a “hinge” and guides it down where you want it to go.

There’s a formula for all this, but I won’t bore you with it.

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 4:16 pm

There’s a formula for all this, but I won’t bore you with it.

Why not?

I was bored with four years of learning about it, and twenty years of God Oracling. 😀

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:17 pm

Yep, since the beginning, I’ve maintained he was one of the best in not the best airline CEO in the world.

As this book was being prepared for printing, a flurry of anti-Qantas and anti-Joyce news filled the media. It’s nothing new. Media storms have accompanied Alan Joyce for most of his time at the helm of Qantas.

He decided, in the end, to leave two months earlier than planned – on 5 September 2023 – just short of his 15th anniversary as CEO. In this final media storm, it’s only too easy to take for granted his achievements over those often enormously difficult years.
Alan Joyce and Qantas: The Trials and Transformation of an Australian Icon by Peter
Airlines have no preordained right to survival; today they exist in a hostile and unpredictable competitive environment. To emphasise that fact, all of the other major Australasian airlines have collapsed this century: Ansett Australia, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia. Ansett could not adapt and folded, leaving 16,000 staff out of work; Air New Zealand imploded and had to be renationalised; Virgin failed during Covid, destroying equity and impacting 6000 staff.

The fact is that over the course of his leadership, Joyce, supported by his board, has been responsible for transforming Qantas from an unwieldy operation, wholly unsuited to the new competitive environment, into one of the most successful airline groups in the world.

I noticed sometime earlier in the week that a numbnut who posts here took some nonsense from the ABC (fake news), which suggested Qantas hasn’t made much operating profit since Joyce took over and dividends were being paid out of borrowings. That information is 100% bogus.

Also, a load of airlines round the world have gone into some form of bankruptcy protection over the past 15 off years with Q being one of the few that didn’t.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 1, 2023 4:18 pm

They had ropes attached to utes to pull it in the right direction once the tipping point was reached.

The tree had other ideas.

Gonna need a bigger ute.
Having told my lumber-jack story, I still have one little rule.
If I can’t get my arms around the trunk at 1.5 metres off the ground, I getting out the yellow pages.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:19 pm

Tree lopping appears to be a trending topic today.

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 4:22 pm

Anyone up for a rose pruning lesson?

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:23 pm

Smith is one ugly deplorable human excrement. There is karma though.

Special Counsel Jack Smith said ex-President Donald Trump was “caught potentially violating” his terms of release, citing a video in which a Trump surrogate claimed he purchased a firearm.

Two weeks ago, Smith’s team filed a motion for a limited gag order, but late Friday, a new motion in support of that proposed order responded to opposition from Trump attorneys and cited a raft of more recent events to underscore the urgency — including his now-infamous remarks about General Mark Milley. and his attacks on the judge and others.

In that same filing to Federal District Judge Tanya Chutkan, Smith raised the possibility that Trump could have his release-pending-trial status revoked over his apparent attempt to purchase a firearm.

Smith wrote “The defendant should not be permitted to obtain the benefits of his incendiary public statements and then avoid accountability by having others—whose messages he knows will receive markedly less attention than his own—feign retraction.”

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 4:23 pm

It’s difficult to imagine the utter stupidity of the people who did this thing. In a just world they’d be squished like Treebeard’s orc.

Whoever cut it knew what they were doing Calli. They’ve cut trees, & full grown trees, aplenty.
They’ve also got a chainsaw with one helluva blade.

Looking at the stump, they’ve been beavering away at it, that saw didn’t cut like a knife through butter. He’s dug the dog spikes (or bumper spikes) in pretty hard. That helps with the cuts looking so clean. There’s serious sawdust spatter into the bark. (That’s the shiny line that looks like silver paint.)

It is difficult to get perspective on the girth of the tree. I suspect it is not as large in diameter as photographs lead us to believe it is.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:24 pm

Tree lopping and Euler’s theorem

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 4:25 pm

Tree lopping and O’Toole’s Law*.

* Murphy was an optimist.

Tom
Tom
October 1, 2023 4:25 pm

I saw an Insiders segment on Twitter today. I never watch the whole thing. They had this AFR dude on who we used to call Fabulous Phil (forget his last name). He was saying the undecided is hanging around 17%. That’s pretty high so close to voting day.

JC, Phabulous Phil Coorey is a line-and-length activist pretending to be a journalist who can always be relied to disgorge the looney left’s daily talking points.

The disinformation about undecideds is to mask the fact that the looney left knows it is about to get its arse kicked in the Voice referendum. The undecideds are 99.9% No voters.

Hope that helps.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:28 pm

German NGO’s receiving German government funding are doing this. Italy should get all these aliens and stick them on a train to Germany.. just like Texas is doing to NY.

Elon Musk waded into Germany and Italy’s migration row, saying Berlin-funded migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean could be seen as an “invasion” of Italy.

The billionaire Tesla founder shared a Twitter post criticising the German rescue ships and calling for a victory of Germany’s hard-Right party AfD ahead of regional elections.

Berlin is locked in a row with Italy over the search and rescue operations by charities, with Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, demanding that ships disembark the rescued migrants in their own countries.

“You cannot make solidarity with other people’s borders,” she said on the sidelines of a summit in Malta.

In his post on the migrant rescue ships, Mr Musk questioned if the “German public is aware of this”, to which the German foreign ministry replied: “Yes. And it’s called saving lives.”
‘Violation of the sovereignty’

The foreign ministry’s comeback then prompted Mr Musk, who was born in South Africa, has Canadian nationality and lives in the United States, to intensify his criticism, writing in another post early on Saturday: “Frankly, I doubt that a majority of the German public supports this.

“Have you run a poll? Surely it is a violation of the sovereignty of Italy for Germany to transport vast numbers of illegal immigrants to Italian soil? Has invasion vibes.”

The latest exchange of barbs came after Ms Meloni wrote a letter of complaint to Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, expressing her “amazement” about Berlin funding charities helping irregular migrants in her country.

Asked about the letter, Berlin confirmed that it was providing between €400,000 (£350,000) and €800,000 (£700,000) each to two projects relating to migrants.

The projects were “for the support on land in Italy of people rescued at sea and an NGO project for sea-rescue operations”.

At a press conference this week following talks with her Italian counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, the Germany foreign minister, defended Berlin’s backing of rescue missions.

“Volunteer sea rescuers have a life-saving task in the Mediterranean,” she said.

“They are committed to countering the deaths in the Mediterranean with humanity, precisely because the European joint sea rescue service Mare Nostrum no longer exists,” she added, referring to the Italian government’s year-long operation which rescued more than 100,000 migrants before ending in 2014.

More than 130,000 migrants have arrived on Italy’s shores so far this year, almost double the number last year, according to interior ministry figures.
Policing of borders

In Germany too, new arrival numbers have risen sharply, prompting Berlin to announce that it would step up policing of its borders with Poland and the Czech Republic, in a bid to stop people smugglers.

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 4:28 pm

Whoever cut it knew what they were doing Calli. They’ve cut trees, & full grown trees, aplenty.
They’ve also got a chainsaw with one helluva blade.

No argument from me. And they’ll do it that way until…ooops!

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:29 pm

Thanks Tom

Yeah, it’s Fabulous Phil Corey.

You know, that’s another nickname I came up with on the old blog.

Vicki
Vicki
October 1, 2023 4:30 pm

Snakes are pretty much blind to anything further than half their own body length in front.

Wally, that is not my experience, nor any of my neighbours in my neck of the woods. I wouldn’t suggest anybody accept it as “gospel” or test it out!

Rosie
Rosie
October 1, 2023 4:30 pm

Duscusing tree lopping.
Sure sign of Marxism.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 1, 2023 4:32 pm

calli

Oct 1, 2023 4:22 PM

Anyone up for a rose pruning lesson?

Don’t need wedge cuts for this one.
I was taught to cut to outside buds, think wine-glass shape and always take more than you initially think you should.

Rosie
Rosie
October 1, 2023 4:33 pm

Tree lopping still better that ABC Iview children’s programs (except Bluey).

Rosie
Rosie
October 1, 2023 4:35 pm

I prefer taking the hedge trimmers to roses.
Quick and no scratches.

Rosie
Rosie
October 1, 2023 4:35 pm

Electric hedge trimmers, to be clear.

Chris
Chris
October 1, 2023 4:36 pm

Sure sign of Marxism.

Trotskyist revisionist running dogs would say so! I bet you stopped clapping the Dear Leader before it was safe to do so, too.

Chris
Chris
October 1, 2023 4:37 pm

I was taught to cut to outside buds, think wine-glass shape and always take more than you initially think you should.

The rose, she say “You maka me poor, I maka you rich.”

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 4:41 pm

Serious question Calli, who does “crown reduction” when felling timber?
It’d have to be different to anything I’ve ever seen cut, or anybody I know has cut.
(okay, admittedly my experience is limited to timber for sawmills)
Crown reduction would be a helluva lot of work, slow things down no end, be logistically quite difficult. For what end?

Why not just cut it down?

That Sycamour Gap tree wouldn’t have been rocket science to cut down, especially as he’d likely have not had much interest in where it fell. Getting it down & then getting the heck out of there (taking chainsaw & being sure to not leave any trace evidence, eg small clues as to the make of chainsaw or whatever)

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
October 1, 2023 4:41 pm

I noticed sometime earlier in the week that a numbnut who posts here took some nonsense from the ABC (fake news), which suggested Qantas hasn’t made much operating profit since Joyce took over and dividends were being paid out of borrowings. That information is 100% bogus.

Well, “Jer Cough Cretin”, just phone Roger Montgomery, an Australian Fund Manager, and have a chat with him. It was his analysis of Quaintarse’s profit/loss over the past 15 years (coincidentally, the same 15 years that ‘Shirtlifter’ Joyce was CEO) which was being reported on The Business TV programme on the ALPBC.

Not ‘fake news’ at all you Pompous ‘thinks-he-knows-it-all’ Windbag.

You also need to go back and look at the original post as you have not correctly quoted what was actually posted which is very typical of your often mangled interpretations.

You are the one who is being 100% bogus. FFS.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:43 pm

I witnessed a truly unique trampstamp on the beach yesterday. A gal in a swimsuit was showing off her trampstamp, which resembled tire markings, beginning from the side of her chest curving down, stopping, and then meeting up the side of her thigh to the inside of her leg. It was a tire-mark tattoo.

P
P
October 1, 2023 4:44 pm

Whenever I read Sycamore tree I think of Zacchaeus.

Tom
Tom
October 1, 2023 4:46 pm

Yep, since the beginning, I’ve maintained he was one of the best in not the best airline CEO in the world.

JC, the operative word is “was”.

Joyce should never have got involved in pushing a leftwing political cause like the Voice, which alienated a majority of his customers and trashed the Qantas brand.

At the same time, he has used his relationship with Albanese and his children to restrict international competition and enhance Qantas’s virtual domestic monopoly.

The damage his activism has done to Qantas can be measured in billions of dollars.

There’s a reason good business managers never get involved in politics.

Joyce thought his activism would never come back and bite him on the bum. It did.

As a result, he’s now damaged goods in the airline world — an idiot who has broken one of business’s unwritten rules.

Joyce is a mathematical nerd who understands and cares little about how the world works. He walks away from Qantas a rich man who’s now virtually unemployable without a decade of doing nothing.

Rosie
Rosie
October 1, 2023 4:48 pm

I leave clapping for others.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:50 pm

Well, “Jer Cough Cretin”, just phone Roger Montgomery, an Australian Fund Manager, and have a chat with him. It was his analysis of Quaintarse’s profit/loss over the past 15 years (coincidentally, the same 15 years that ‘Shirtlifter’ Joyce was CEO) which was being reported on The Business TV programme on the ALPBC.

He sounds like marty.

Wodney, I looked at the numbers which are easily accessible by even just googling
Qantas operating result for year…

Start in 2008 and work your way from there, you ignorant, loudmouth buffoon. There was 2014, in the year which Qantas too a large extraordinary non cash loss as a result of speeding up it’s backlogged depreciation schedule. The market actually applauded the decision as the firm had been under providing through the Dixon years.

The business has made operating profits except for the years where it was forced to close down due to COVID. Now go eat a bag of dicks and STFU, you numbnut.

Jorge
Jorge
October 1, 2023 4:51 pm

Those perfidious Germans (above).

I fell a song coming on…..

Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
Now our victory is ultimately won.
Let us treat them very kindly,
As we would a valued friend.
We might send them out some bishops,
As a form of lease and lend.

Let’s be sweet to them
And day by day repeat to them
That sterilization simply isn’t done.
Let’s sweetly sympathize again,
And help the scum to rise again,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.

We must be kind
And with an open mind,
We must endeavour to find a way
To let the Germans know
That now the war is over,
They are not the ones who have to pay.

We must be sweet
And tactful and discreet,
And now they’ve suffered defeat,
We mustn’t let
Them feel upset,
Or ever get the feeling
That we’re cross with them or hate them.
Our future policy must be to reinstate them.

Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
For they’re civilized,
When all is said and done.
Though they gave us science, culture, art, and music, to excess,
They also gave us two world wars and Dr. Rudolph Hess.

Let’s be meek to them
And turn the other cheek to them,
And try to arouse their latent sense of fun.
Let’s give them full air parity,
And treat the rats with charity,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun!

Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans.
You can’t deprive a gangster of his gun!
Though they’ve been a little naughty
To the Czechs and Poles and Dutch,
I can’t believe those countries
Really minded very much.

Let’s be free with them
And share the BBC with them.
We mustn’t prevent them basking in the sun!
Let’s soften their defeat again,
And build their bloody fleet again,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun!

By Noel Coward

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 4:54 pm

Tom.

I 100% agree with you. The midget should never have been involved in any of the woke nonsense. Let me say this again, I can’t agree more. Having said that, the little bastard was totally focused on profitability and return on capital. Also, I never said he was THE BEST CEO in the world, I said he was the best airline CEO. Now, on a comparative basis all Anglo based airlines are as freaking woke. Maybe there’s a case to be made he was more woke than the rest, but I’m not going to defend him about that.

Pogria
Pogria
October 1, 2023 4:54 pm

Salvatore,
Crown reduction is important if you don’t have much leeway regarding where the tree falls. When I had a dozen huge conifers taken down a couple of months ago, the fellers climbed high into each one and cut down the tops and long limbs that were up to four metres into next doors paddock. The trees were along a fence line, next to my driveway. Opposite the trees were fences and animal yards. Not much room for error.

The blokes were brilliant, took the trees down section by section. Only one fence wire broken. The other awesome part was the Mafia Mulcher they used. A truly magnificent piece of kit.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
October 1, 2023 4:55 pm

Berlin-funded migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean

With 20 Major surface combat ships and 16 patrol vessels in the Italian Navy they could easily stop these migrant taxis from putting into Italian port. Yeah the hell raised by Brussels & Berlin would be legendary but till Meloni does that or does as you suggest carter trains & planes to Berlin then seems to be more Kubuki Theatre…

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 4:55 pm

Serious question Calli, who does “crown reduction” when felling timber?

Someone who wants to make old bones. And, as I pointed out, someone who doesn’t want the heaviest part to fall on a house (or them).

Why do you think the guys wear spikes and are dab hands with rope?

Also…whenever I think of Zacchaeus, I imagine Danny de Vito. A little guy, a bit of a chancer, but very determined, even to the indignity of the climb just to get a glimpse of Jesus. I like him very much.

The tree he climbed was a sycamore fig, which is a low spreading tree. He thought he’d climbed it unseen.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
October 1, 2023 4:56 pm

The number-one job of the hedge-fund manager is not to make sure that you can retire with a smile on your face – it’s for him to retire with a smile on his face.

– Mark Cuban

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 1, 2023 4:56 pm

I never admired the Swedes.

Well there’s Captain Gars. I liked him.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 4:58 pm

Crown reduction is important if you don’t have much leeway regarding where the tree falls.

This wouldn’t have been of any concern to the phantom tree cutter of sycamore gap.

Vicki
Vicki
October 1, 2023 4:59 pm

Reported on Jo Nova’s blog:

Anti-Grooming Protests Sweep Canada, Parents Speak Out Against Transgender Propaganda In Schools

A large anti-grooming protest is sweeping across Canada as demonstrators speak out against transgender propaganda and gender identity ideology being taught to children in schools.

“I am watching videos from across Canada. Amazing and inspiring,” prominent feminist Meghan Murphy wrote on X, along with the hashtag, “#1MillionMarch4Chidren.”

Murphy explained that tens of thousands of Canadians are saying “no” to gender ideology being taught in schools, telling trans activists to “leave the kids alone,” as they peacefully protest in Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, among other cities.

“The sheer number of people here is unreal. We will get police counts soon, but it’s gotta be close to 10,000 in Ottawa alone,” journalist Keean Bexte wrote on X.

“This is happening across the country, and may just be the death blow to the Trudeau Government,” Bexte added. “The election may be a ways away, but he’s done.”

http://www.womensystems.com/2023/09/anti-grooming-protests-sweep-canada.html

Pogria
Pogria
October 1, 2023 5:04 pm

This wouldn’t have been of any concern to the phantom tree cutter of sycamore gap.

It would have if he hadn’t gotten out of the way quick smart! 😀

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 5:04 pm

Why do you think the guys wear spikes and are dab hands with rope?

What are those? (can guess from the context) I’m not without timber cutting background, & have never seen either used.
The idea is to get as the timber on the ground with the minimum effort (cost).

We’re not talking forest giants here. A simple lone tree near to Hadrian’s wall.

Makka
Makka
October 1, 2023 5:05 pm

Which makes our current reorganisation of deployed tanks and missiles and personnel kind of superfluous. Not to mention billions on subs.

Not superfluous at all if you are on the spending gravy train, lining up your next big bux job or one for the family member, getting those o/seas trips and special career network invites, the Uni think tank sinecure etc etc. In fact it’s a necessity. Any way, when the shtf those responsible will be invisible or long gone.

P
P
October 1, 2023 5:06 pm

The Sycamore in Catholicism

The sycamore tree appears several times in the New Testament, but the main interpretation of what it stands for comes from the story of Zacchaeus. In this biblical excerpt, Zacchaeus is a wealthy collector in Jericho. One day, Jesus passes through the city, and Zacchaeus can’t see him because he was short in stature and the crowd is obstructing his view. So, he climbs a sycamore tree where he’s finally able to capture a glimpse of Jesus.

Because of this story, the sycamore has become somewhat of a symbol of clarity. Without the sycamore, Zacchaeus wouldn’t have been able to see Jesus, so for Catholics, it’s a symbol of a place in their own lives where they’re able to have a clear vision of their savior.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 5:07 pm

It would have if he hadn’t gotten out of the way quick smart!

Certainly would have sped up solving of the mystery of “who cut down the sacred sycamore gap tree”

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 5:09 pm

I’m not arguing any more with you about two different things.

You win. Wear it with pride.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 5:11 pm

At the same time, he has used his relationship with Albanese and his children to restrict international competition and enhance Qantas’s virtual domestic monopoly.

Tom, sometime ago I posted some comments about these restrictions, particularly about the Qatar issue. I’m really 50/50 on which way to go on that because of the various subsidies Qatar and the other Gulf State airlines receive from their governments of domicile. The fuel subsidies are very significant, as are other indirect subsidies such as being able to either purchase planes or lease at the risk rate of the state’s credit rating.

On one hand, these subsidies obviously help the Australian consumer if they wish to travel on a Gulf airline. On the other hand, it helps these airlines screw over those airlines like Qantas and US, UK services.

I’m really in two minds on this, but if I had a gun pointed at my head, I’d say let them in, but we should also be aware of the damage they would do to our operations.

Makka
Makka
October 1, 2023 5:17 pm

Remember Yoel Roth? Ext- Twitter censorship czar, rabid Trump and conservative hater, lefturd nazi , sacked by Elon. He pops up here like cancer out of remission;

Mike Benz
@MikeBenzCyber
Fun fact: Yoel Roth is currently a fellow at the same place run for seven (7) years by the current head of the CIA.

https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1708256070051803426

miltonf
miltonf
October 1, 2023 5:20 pm

Roth attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts and high honors in political science,

big bloody whoop- high honours in bullshit

Tom
Tom
October 1, 2023 5:33 pm

On one hand, these subsidies obviously help the Australian consumer if they wish to travel on a Gulf airline. On the other hand, it helps these airlines screw over those airlines like Qantas and US, UK services.

100% correct, JC. Qatar Airways is not only a state-owned airline, but a creation of Qatar state policy.

But QR CEO Akbar Al Baker is an airline professional who understands the weakness of the Qantas consumer brand and how to compete with it. QR is unbeatable in the long-haul space as a quality brand, IMO.

Al Baker is also combative and is involved in constant arguments with Airbus and Pratt and Whitney about aircraft/engine quality.

IMO, he’s in the same airline CEO class as Alan Joyce used to be.

Razey
Razey
October 1, 2023 5:34 pm

Alcosleazy and his marxist cronies must be sharting their collective pants. The Voice has uncovered future PM Jacinta Price. She is someone all decent Australians can rally around.

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2023 5:36 pm

Some renting neighbours in Sydney told us that their landlord made them pay for having hedges etc trimmed.

That would have been a short conversation when I was renting. But times have changed a bit since then. Mum and Dad landlords are an absolute blight in Oz.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 5:37 pm

MO, he’s in the same airline CEO class as Alan Joyce used to be.

Non-woke Joyce then. 🙂

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2023 5:40 pm

I also rated the Swedish Chef highly.

He seemed well suited for a career in hospitality.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 1, 2023 5:43 pm

I may have mentioned that there would be more to meeting the eye about a Mitsi 4WD swerving into the path of a road train up here yesterday afternoon, which ended with six people in the 4WD dead.

Well.

The Newscorp people are now running this underneath the piece:

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic or family violence you can contact:

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 1, 2023 5:48 pm

JC, Phabulous Phil Coorey is a line-and-length activist pretending to be a journalist who can always be relied to disgorge the looney left’s daily talking points.

A clown who has misplaced his circus. Well suited to Stutch’sAFR now La Tingle has found greener pastures (no pun intended).

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 5:49 pm

Calli, I wasn’t having a shot at you. I’ve just never seen trees cut by any method other than a squiz, work out where the tree will fall, or where you’d like it to fall, then, start pulling the cord of the chainsaw.

Trees in problematic urban locations are a different matter. The primary aim is not so much downing the tree, but to not damage buildings, or strike a power line & so on. (in my experience this is done by a bloke in a cherry picker)
There’s about 5 of those problematic trees in my yard, thus I’ll have lots & lots of firewood once they’re down. + some large trunk sections that’ll become garden tables. (i.e. just cut into 2 or 3 foot length & the top smoothed & polished)

Looking forward to this, as I just lurve tree felling.

Robert Sewell
October 1, 2023 5:56 pm

and bricks which had been 2 pounds per thousand could not be got under 8 pounds.

P, that’s very light for a thousand bricks.
Did we find the formulae/production secrets for polystyrene foam from the Aboriginals?

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 5:56 pm

Calli, I wasn’t having a shot at you.

All good, Sal. Two different arguments.

I’ve seen the site in question. Never even noticed the replacement tree.

The one they felled was a big bugger. And they did it with zero regard for the setting (hence my comments about felling in urban situations). So…the culprits were clearly not concerned about damage to the wall, which in historical terms is beyond price.

They were just stupid vandals.

Jorge
Jorge
October 1, 2023 5:56 pm

A beautiful evening outside. Green and gold everywhere.

Robert Frost where art thou ?

Top Ender
Top Ender
October 1, 2023 5:56 pm

Speaking of tree felling, we got a shock moving down south – not allowed to cut down trees on your own property without permission.

We were planning a big reno of the very big garden we have, and had to ask permission from the NSW bureaucrats. The answer came back as a default no, along with five pages of why trees are good, and “we have overhead imagery of your property so don’t think about it”.

Appealed and was allowed to cut down one.

calli
calli
October 1, 2023 6:02 pm

TE, the RFS is your friend. Get them to do a risk assessment.

Cassie of Sydney
October 1, 2023 6:04 pm

Pogria
Oct 1, 2023 3:46 PM”

Thank you Pogria. Appreciate it.

Barry
Barry
October 1, 2023 6:04 pm

Qantas was dead as of Mar 2020. It received massive government support to survive. I’ts effectively a government controlled (if not owned) airline, and the government is not shy of getting the dividends for its investment, nor in protecting its asset.

Fascism thy name is Qantas.

Yes23 free flights? Chairmans lounge? Domestic business class? Donations? Arschficker CEO?

Robert Sewell
October 1, 2023 6:08 pm

Vicki:

I know a few on this blog quite like the red bellies. To me – they are predatory snakes with a nasty weapon.

I’m with you on this one – RBBS are nasty little shits in their mating season.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 6:09 pm

The answer came back as a default no, along with five pages of why trees are good, and “we have overhead imagery of your property so don’t think about it”.

Turn the dial around a little, and you get another story. My parents had a farm, and the state government took a chunk of the land alongside the road for widening under compulsory acquisition. There were some magnificent tall cypress trees that protected the property, residing well inside the boundary.

The lawyers demanded extra compensation and were told that because the trees weren’t “original owners,” they were worth zip.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 6:13 pm

Compulsory acquisition is a real bastard.
That’s when we learn (a) just how little the word “Freehold title” actually means, and (b) that the government can just come & take all our stuff, any time, and (c) nobody cares, some will be gleeful at our misfortune.

The only people who’ll care are those who’ve the conceptual ability to forsee that they may be in the same shoes one day.

Gee I miss Tel‘s input on this sort of topic.

P
P
October 1, 2023 6:14 pm

and bricks which had been 2 pounds per thousand could not be got under 8 pounds.

P, that’s very light for a thousand bricks.
Did we find the formulae/production secrets for polystyrene foam from the Aboriginals?

Bricks in the 1850’s were often fired in a Scotch Kiln. A kiln could contain up to 30,000 bricks.

JC
JC
October 1, 2023 6:14 pm

Barry

You’re forgetting that the government CLOSED DOWN the airline business. Under these circumstances, the firm, shareholders, etc. are rightfully owed compensation. To suggest that they were compensated like other businesses for forced closure, which therefore means they’re operating as a fascist entity, is quite faulty thinking.

Crossie
Crossie
October 1, 2023 6:17 pm

In Germany too, new arrival numbers have risen sharply, prompting Berlin to announce that it would step up policing of its borders with Poland and the Czech Republic, in a bid to stop people smugglers.

They want to police the borders with Poland and Czechia? That’s not where the illegals are coming from. As far as I know Schengen border is not between Germany and Poland but Poland and its eastern neighbours. There are no border checkpoint between Germany and Poland, at least there shouldn’t be any. We didn’t see any checkpoints in 2019 when we drove from Berlin to Warsaw.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 1, 2023 6:19 pm

Calli, Pogria: I’m told by a couple of sheep cockies from near to the Sycamore Gap that the replacement tree died a couple of years ago.

These fellers have mixed views on the … whole sacred tree thing. (As is often the case with ordinary folk for whom a sacred landmark & the type and number of visitor attracted by it, is a part of daily life.

Dot
Dot
October 1, 2023 6:21 pm

Top Ender
Oct 1, 2023 5:56 PM
Speaking of tree felling, we got a shock moving down south – not allowed to cut down trees on your own property without permission.

We were planning a big reno of the very big garden we have, and had to ask permission from the NSW bureaucrats. The answer came back as a default no, along with five pages of why trees are good, and “we have overhead imagery of your property so don’t think about it”.

Appealed and was allowed to cut down one.

Isn’t there a lot of storms & dry rot down there? I’m surprised they didn’t approve for more felling.

Rabz
October 1, 2023 6:23 pm

JC – I’m grateful the Seymour is still with us, as it could be alleged he may have lived “a rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle”.

One of this continent’s great Troubadours.

Talking to a stranger

Siltstone
Siltstone
October 1, 2023 6:26 pm

Joyce sold $17 million worth of Qantas shares when he knew the ACCC investigation was underway into selling tickets on non-existent flights. The Board let him.

Barry
Barry
October 1, 2023 6:29 pm

JC
Oct 1, 2023 6:14 PM

Barry

You’re forgetting that the government CLOSED DOWN the airline business. Under these circumstances, the firm, shareholders, etc. are rightfully owed compensation. To suggest that they were compensated like other businesses for forced closure, which therefore means they’re operating as a fascist entity, is quite faulty thinking.

Current shareprice of AUD 5.18, (which should be AUD0.00) not enough compensation for you?

  1. I think the punters are stirring, getting ansty. Normally letting politics of either persuasion slide by as we just get…

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