Donald J Trump announces Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Open Thread – Mon 2 Oct 2023
- Open Thread – Thurs 14 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Remembrance Day 2024
- The Sweetest Victory
- Open Thread – Weekend 9 November 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 7 Nov 2024
This week Elizabeth Lund was booted – she was VP of Quality. And dusky Mr Ted Colbert was let go…
I had no idea that Rita Panahi is quite famous in the US due to her “Lefties Losing It” segments…
More chick bashing Trends In Wokeness & Girlbossery In Science -but I’m pleased to see ‘physiognomy’ back in the charts,…
Sour grapes.
Biden responds to government funding bill being passed:
“We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted.”
Why would the President of the United States be SO determined to continue funding another country even if it meant our own government shut down and our country failed?
Pretty sure this in and of itself proves there is something more here for Biden than just ‘defending democracy’. It’s one thing to care about another country getting invaded by Russia because Putin is evil AF, but to willingly shut your own government down if the elected officials who represent the will of the people want the funding to stop?
What the EFF?
– Seriously. We can stop funding a war that is not ours.
So why is Biden so damn desperate to keep the funding going? Is he worried Zelenskyy will spill the goods? *adjusts tinfoil hat*
– Why? Is Zelensky going to release the dirt he has on the Bidens if the money stops?
– Hey, we didn’t say it.
We saw it.
We didn’t disagree with it.
We included it in this article.
But we didn’t say it.
So there.
FJB
All day, every day.
I reckon that French is total bullshit.
You need to be careful with these polls as a lot of them are a brainwashing exercise.
OK. I have made some changes under the hood. If you get an internal server error let me know.
Failed human says we’re going to become a failed state.
I want to open the week on a conciliatory note and reciprocate to the plethora of welcome to country speeches over the grand final weekend by welcoming all our indigenous brethren to Country…
Welcome, please join us and enjoy the magnificence of our first rate, modern, first world, multi-racial and multi-cultural society… a society where our fundamental liberal democratic structures provide equality and equal upportunity for all of us to reach the objectives and life targets we set ourselves. A society where we cherish and nurture our less fortunate, where we cater for and protect those who cannot protect themselves.
A society where a young boy, living in government supplied housing and being raised by a single parent, can aspire to and achieve the highest political office in the land. A society without boundaries or limitations.
A society which is rich in a multitude of different and glorious cultures from all corners of the world which freely and knowingly intermingle with each other in peace and unison on a daily basis. A society which relies on the fundamental princilples of freedom of expression, freedom of travel, freedom of thought and is not separated or identified by any separate or individual race or creed…
A society we should all be proud of because we built it – together.
A society with no peer on the global stage, a society which welcomes all freedom loving and peaceful citizens who seek the uniqueness of our joined and united family.
We are indeed one and we are many.
Let us retain that unique status and continue to be just that… unique, not divided…
Welcome…
A secondary market will open up, especially for those with multiple IDs and “special” reasons for exemptions. E.g. sports players, climate activists, rich folks in general.
No good law if it doesn’t open up and/or monetise gaps between the proles and the elite.
A young boy of no special talents
FTFY
An interesting turn of events.
Technical Note: Engineers are only ever classified as “expert on climate change” when they are proposing unworkable, autistic solutions to imagined climate ‘problems’.
Engineers who propose the use of mathematical methods to test the hypothesised correlation between human activity and climate are neither Experts, nor Top Men.
Particularly if the respondents self-selected.
JC, I know you take a keen interest in such events:
Perhaps I am a bit naive but I wonder how many sciences have been hijacked by the Left. I’ve never really questioned Darwinism but watched this fantastic 45min video last night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noj4phMT9OE
Based on new evidence and knowledge that functioning proteins are extremely rare, should Darwin’s theory of evolution be dismissed, dissected, developed or replaced with a theory of intelligent design?
Has Darwinism really failed? Peter Robinson discusses it with Professors David Berlinski, David Gelernter, and Stephen Meyer, who have raised doubts about Darwin’s theory in their two books and essay, respectively The Deniable Darwin, Darwin’s Doubt, and “Giving Up Darwin” (published in the Claremont Review of Books).
Yes still getting Internal Server Error trying to post WSJ Article on
WSJ – How Joe Biden’s Kin Profited Off the Family Name. ‘The Big Guy Is Calling Me.’
James and Frank Biden have for decades leveraged their brother’s clout in their business pursuits
Four flights per lifetime?
My Dad built a Jodel D-11, a French-designed sportplane. Four flights would have suited him (and his childhood heroes – in Spitfires) no end.
LOL.
You are right when you say
Someone is hijacking, but I think science journalism is also long hijacked for sensation, clicks and to enable funding applications to metastasize.
Dover
I just went to the link and the community notes thing says:
I’d be really surprised if there was anything untoward about Wells. At this stage the large US banks have seen their stock prices fall materially, but I don’t think any are in trouble yet.
The fed is forcing the banks to add more to their capital base, which doesn’t help the stock prices too.
THE PANGLOSS-PÉTAIN PRESIDENCY
The argument whether Joe Biden is the worst-ever president could be settled by ranking him with the worst people in American history. If that seems too glib or partisan, people might try an historical and literary approach.
For example, Voltaire’s eponymous Candide finds chaos and catastrophe on every hand but his mentor Dr. Pangloss sees it as the best of all possible worlds.
According to the good doctor, “It is impossible that things should be other than they are, for everything is right.” Like Candide, Americans are confused and bewildered.
There’s something happening here, as the Buffalo Springfield said, and by now it’s exactly clear.
As David Samuels said in “The Obama Factor,” the landmark interview with David Garrow, this is “the disaster we are living through now.” That would be soaring inflation, rising crime, supply issues and so forth.
Don’t forget the more than seven million settlers Biden has brought into the country, with no background or health checks, language and job skills.
To clarify, “migrants,” are people who come and go.
These settlers are here to stay, an imported electorate, new clients for the welfare state, and replacement for Americans who are less than worshipful of Joe Biden.
He deeded an airbase and billions in military hardware to the Taliban and called it an “extraordinary success.”
Biden expects Americans to say the same about the disaster we are living through now. The Delaware Democrat is the Pangloss president, but there’s more to it.
Back in 1940, French WWI veteran Philippe Pétain, already in his 80s, struck an armistice with the German National Socialist invaders, then in alliance with Stalin’s Soviet Union. The Nazis made Pétain head of their puppet government in Vichy, allowing him to govern parts of France under their supervision.
The classic 1942 film Casablanca shows a mural of Pétain with his famous slogan, “Je tiens mes promesses, meme celles des autres,” – “I keep my promises, even those of others.” That’s Joe Biden all day long.
The Delaware Democrat is a dutiful collaborator with globalist billionaires, the United Nations and World Health Organization.
As Biden said in 2019, the Chinese are “not bad folks,” and the “Big Guy” has financial entanglements with China’s Communist regime through son Hunter. Under Biden, China can fly a surveillance balloon across America, including sensitive air bases.
Biden is also the puppet of the domestic woke left, imposing nihilistic trans ideology on the people.
When a trans assassin guns down three six-year-old children and three adults in Nashville, the Delaware Democrat won’t even say their names or condemn the shooter.
According to Biden’s White House mouthpiece, the shooter was the one under attack.
Joe Biden has erased any doubt that he is the collaborator-in-chief, the Pétain president.
If the present slide continues, Biden could be the national undertaker.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how the PBS presidential hagiographers dish up the Delaware Democrat.
OldOzzie
Find out who’s profiting and you’ll find out who is causing the problem.
Question, always.
Depending on how old you are, the Darwinism you were taught as a scientific dogma in high school was already a discarded theory on account of the lack of evidence in the fossil record.
I won’t watch the video. I’m more in accord with Eric Weinstein, the probability problem is ignored. “Given enough time this evolved” is not a scientific statement, it is a statement of faith.
I don’t doubt evolution happened but I don’t accept the neoDarwinian explanation. I’ve long had problems with the probability and bottleneck issues. Keep in mind that any protein can be involved in a huge array of functions, that proteins do not maintain a stable shape and shape is important to their function(vibration probably is too and that will change with shape shift), and the role of a protein is contextually determined. There is a tendency to think of cells as being like our machines. That’s wrong because our machines have discrete components that perform specific functions. In molecular biology there are discrete components that change structure all the time and perform many functions. That highlights a problem I have with intelligent design because while there are many obvious examples of stupid design the bewildering complexity of molecular biology points to an evolutionary process beyond my comprehension.
OldOzzie, can you email me the comment please.
Buffalo Guy Kicking Himself For Not Just Pulling Fire Alarm To Evacuate Congress
PHOENIX, AZ — After years of being jailed with violent criminals, Buffalo Guy was kicking himself today for not simply pulling a fire alarm on January 6th to force Congress to evacuate.
“Seriously? I could have just pulled the fire alarm instead of going to all the trouble to dress like a buffalo and charge into the Capitol?” said an aghast Buffalo Guy. “Gosh, do I feel silly.”
Buffalo Guy, known in some circles as Jacob Chansley, watched yesterday as Representative Jamaal Bowman demonstrated how to properly and legally commit a crime to delay Congressional proceedings.
“So you pull the fire alarm, and then come up with some ridiculous excuse, like you thought the fire alarm was a doorknob,” explained Mr. Bowman.
“You could even say that you have lived your whole life under the impression that pulling a fire alarm is how you select Nacho Cheese Doritos out of the vending machine.
It doesn’t matter.
They can have you on video committing the crime, and as long as you explain you’re too dumb to understand what a fire alarm is, you’re good to go!
Have at it destroying Congress!”
At publishing time, millions of Americans had headed for D.C. to help continuously pull the Capitol fire alarm in hopes of stopping Congress from ever doing anything ever.
Could someone please ask the Turtlehead who thinks he is “profiting” as he posts to me through other people? I’m going to follow the same passive-aggressive, big Mary protocol he does just to keep things on a even keel.
I would have thought the individual selling their property would have “profited,” but I suspect this all-round genius may have some other ideas. What are they?
dover0beach
Oct 2, 2023 12:56 PM
OldOzzie, can you email me the comment please.
Sent
He doesn’t sound like the good guy.
The fossil record issue is irrelevant because there are so few fossils. Even in our ancestral line of recent origin, despite millions of us being around, we have a handful of fossils so expecting the fossil record to be a metric is mistaken.
Interesting…
Rich life of the artful forger
David Henty invites us into his home to reveal how the ex-con became a top painter – or at least the finest art forger in the world.
By BLANCA SCHOFIELD
Outside David Henty’s lovely seaside home in Sussex, on the south coast of England, there is a blue plaque stating “The world’s number one art forger – he has painted more Lowrys than Lowry”.
Do you think that’s true, I ask him. “Well, I have painted a lot. I painted three little ones yesterday.”
Henty, 65, is not just focused on LS Lowry. He also does works by Monet, Modigliani, Caravaggio, Basquiat, Sickert … the list goes on. He both forges and copies them. There is a difference. As he puts it, a Mona Lisa he has upstairs is a copy because it is a direct replica. Whereas if he painted a new scene using Leonardo’s style, that would be a forgery.
Authenticity is tricky to achieve but Henty has many tricks up his sleeve: using the right canvases and boards (sometimes hundreds of years old), priming them with lead white so they can’t be X-rayed, finding old organic paints, adding amber to make them darker, keeping paintings in a smoker’s house and more. He also sometimes leaves them out for weeks so they develop cracks, or bakes them in the oven. “At a low heat: 80 to 100 degrees,” he details. “It does smell, so you’ve got to have the windows open. My wife doesn’t like it.” This he says with a laugh. He loves to chuckle and does so a lot during our conversation in his garden, which serves as his studio when the weather is nice.
“Some of my clients, you can’t believe how rich they are,” he tells me. There are football club owners and managers, political figures (he won’t tell me names). Galleries up and down the country sell his work and his commissions fetch up to $95,000. One man in Monaco offered to fly Henty over in a private jet to make a copy of a $13m Picasso he had bought. “He’s got young children and didn’t want it damaged.” He wanted to put the real one in the bank and have Henty’s in the front room. Hedge funders in charge of masterpieces do the same – leave them in a vault and order copies from Henty. Sometimes his old forgeries reappear in auctions as the real deal: in 2019, a Picasso he had painted was valued at $500,000 before he declared it was his.
A character in Peter James’s novel Picture You Dead is based on Henty, as is one in a film script by the actor Nick Moran. Henty himself has written a book with a friend about forgery, called Art World, Underworld, and has been in radio documentaries. Museums ask for his help, as do TV producers when they need a painting.
“I’m really proud. Me and my brothers, we laugh because we can’t believe it,” Henty says of his successes. “I have to pinch myself.”
It has certainly not always been smooth sailing. He was permanently banned from eBay and got in trouble with the taxman. Once, he says, after admitting one of his paintings was a forgery, he received arson threats and had to install cameras in front of his house. Also he has been imprisoned twice, first in the early 1990s and again in the early 2000s.
He left his local comprehensive at 16 and never went to any university or college. “I wasn’t very good in school,” he says. But he was always drawing. He would copy images from books: Michaelangelos, Hogarths. “I just could always do it … this is the funny thing about art. I always thought everyone could paint. I could just knock out a Picasso.
“I come from an artistic family,” he says. His sister Shani Struthers is an author, two of his brothers also paint and draw, and the other two are in antiques, as was his father. “My dad was dodgy,” Henty says with another of his laughs. “He used to forge jewellery and silver and stuff.”
Henty spent his 20s “ducking and diving”. Then, in 1989, he got in trouble with the law. In the lead-up to the handover of Hong Kong to China there was demand for fake British passports and some of Henty’s friends were almost offered $6m if they produced 1000. They enlisted him to help because he knew how to do watermarks and embossing.
They got caught – spelling was one of the clues that gave them away. They wrote “magesty” instead of “majesty”.
He served more than two years in prison. Painting gave him respite. He went to art class and made friends with the teachers. “I was the only one allowed to take my paintings back to my cell because I was really enthusiastic … in the prison studio we had Van Goghs, Monets, you name it hanging up.” When he saw photos of a local Sickert exhibition in the newspaper he painted them. Hours were also taken up with researching artists, sitting in the library reading about them. “My time flew … when you’re painting or doing something creative you’re away with the fairies.”
The second time Henty went to prison it was for selling stolen cars using forgery via a fake logbook. They were earning $100,000 a time “and we thought, this is great”. He bought a nightclub, drove around in sports cars wearing Rolexes. “The police became suspicious,” he says, and he was locked up for another 18 months.
A year of this was spent in Spain, where he had been arrested. “There was a lot more freedom than in English prison – you’re open all day.” Many international prisoners were, like him, waiting to be extradited, including an Italian Mafioso called Vincenzo he befriended through art. “He was trying to paint his wife and he was doing a terrible job,” Henty remembers. “I painted his wife and kids and we got on really well.”
Henty always liked doing portraits, especially of famous artists and boxers. But they took longer and never made much money when he tried to start selling them on eBay. Then one day in 2008 he put up a forgery of his and received $1400. “It was such a nice living,” he says. “I’d knock up a Paul Henry in the afternoon on an old canvas and get a thousand pounds.” A solicitor he went to for advice on how to sell without getting arrested said as long as he put a caveat in the adverts saying it was “after” or “in the style of” an artist, and he had no paperwork or provenance, he would be fine. Henty went on for years as the eBay forger “David Diamond”.
In 2014, however, eBay shut down his accounts when a newspaper did an expose on him and he had to stop. In reality he just changed his IP address and set up new ones. Then the newspaper did another expose a year later. “I was devastated,” Henty says of losing his income again.
He got over the upset in the end. “I’m quite fortunate in my life, I’ve had some good luck.” A $20,000 payment came through the post from someone in Ireland. Then he did an exhibition that sold out. Pieces in his own style priced at $60,000 are now shown in a gallery, as part of a project he is doing with his friend Jake Fern called the Righteous Brothers, where they paint satirical works of social commentary, criticising politicians or the King.
His house is filled with canvases of all genres, hanging or piled up, antique gilt frames he buys by the vanful from a friend in France, and art catalogues. Aside from going to multiple exhibitions here and abroad, he likes to “soak” himself in an artist. “Then what happens is, because your subconscious has taken so much in, you start dreaming you’re Caravaggio,” he says. He paints left-handed for Caravaggio, as well as for John William Waterhouse.
Henty is a man of theatrical details. A lot of his reference books are in his “forger’s den”, a nook hiding behind a fake bookshelf under his stairs, and he discusses new techniques with his forger friends, especially one he calls Billy the Brush. His licence plates are variations of V 90GH in tribute to the Dutch great. Old forgery stories thrill him – he talks to me avidly about the late Tom Keating as well as Eric Hebborn, who in 1996 died in mysterious circumstances in Italy.
There are styles Henty has not been able to imitate. “I had a commission for a Frida Kahlo and I just couldn’t get her,” he says.
And there are those who criticise what he does. “If you don’t want to buy it, don’t buy it” is his attitude. “I don’t care.” He wears a T-shirt with a spin on Picasso’s famous saying “Good artists copy, great artists steal, David Henty does both!”
Last year he had a scare when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. “You just think, well, that’s it, it’s over. Because not many people recover from it.” He is now in the clear, though it took an 11-hour surgery and a long recovery, during which he got sepsis. “I couldn’t paint, I couldn’t get up for months,” he says, adding that he still has to rest a lot. “But now I’m back working and loving life again and thinking, I’m so happy to be here and doing what I love. Because I love my job. I don’t want to do anything else.”
Oz
Congress Passes Trillion Dollar Stopgap Bill That Will Fund Government Until About 2 PM Tomorrow
and
Senator Feinstein Death Not Expected To Affect Re-election Campaign
Husband and I have volunteered for “No” Vote poll booth in Hale St Mosman on Referendum Day.
I strongly urge everyone who can spare the time to help out likewise.
Wife Frustrated That Husband Doesn’t Realize She Wants Him To Be Quiet And Also Talk To Her And Also Leave Her Alone And Also Come Talk To Her
Lance defended his actions or maybe lack of actions — he wasn’t quite sure — by insisting she showed signs of wanting to be left alone by looking stressed, listening to a podcast, texting her sisters, and telling him, “I want to be left alone.”
“You just don’t get it,” said Trisha, “You never really listen. When I said I wanted to be left alone it meant I wanted you right there by my side while I finished the true-crime podcast and finished an argument with my sister about whose husband is better.”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” she added, folding her arms and standing there, staring, just waiting to see what Lance would do, like a Komodo Dragon waiting in the shadows for a heedless young boar to wander too close.
“Babe, I love you,” stammered Lance as his eyes darted across her face and body, searching for any scintilla of a clue as to what he should do next.
At publishing time, the couple had been seen still standing there while Trisha awaited Lance’s next move.
Thanks folks….
Anyone that knows or has read about DNA, protein functionality or genetic code (amonst other things) is already well ahead of Darwin. There are many peeps much cleverer than I, but the Cambrian boom is fascinating… (I wish I’d paid more attention to evolutionary biology in high school….) 😛
LOL
You must have a very large range of tools.
Before I got most of that I needed or wanted. Hammers, pliers and screwdrivers were incredibly versatile.
Maybe it’s better to think of certain proteins and cells like platforms like skid steers that can do all kinds of remarkable work. Killer cells might be like a dozer or a water cart. Much more limited in functionality albeit carrying on useful tasks.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. America has both the smartest and the stupidest people of any country in the world. And when I say dumb/ stupid, nothing beats dumb.
They called the cops because someone stole the illicit drugs they sell on the street.
Amazon are in hot water over anti trust, any comments?
The fossil record was relevant when microbiology was less advanced.
Hence the advent of punctuated equilibrium c. 1970 as an alternative theory which better explained the evidence…or lack thereof.
Were that in the sunlit uplands of the Australian paradise, it would be whoever collects stamp duty, whoever collects sale commission, whoever collects fees for conveyancing.
Local Councils here use “polls” to gaslight people into thinking some idiotic idea has majority support.
They open a survey at 9:00 PM in a dim dark corner of their website, unannounced (except to a few fellow travellers in the know).
The fellow travellers get busy voting early and voting often. The survey closes midday the next day, and they can happily report that “an overwhelming majority of residents of the People’s Republic of Brunswick support xxxxxxx”.
Often it is used for framing and agenda setting. Something which is not in the Top Ten issues on people’s minds is suddenly front and centre, with an imperative to “dooo something”.
Obviously the “four flights in a lifetime” is the ambit claim. They will quite reasonably now make concession and allow ten.
I.e. long periods of stasis punctuated by bursts of speciation.
Homes Are “Unaffordable” In 99% Of US Counties
You can, however, get a lot for your buck.
For some time we have been watching Channel 94 Life. This channel frequently airs programs not just on house renovations in the USA, but of buyers searching to buy homes. They cover all states, and we have been amazed at the standard of building and the “affordable” quality houses. They also devote programs to holiday homes – and the so called “log cabins” are often enormous, beautifully crafted timber mansions.
The show is a reminder of why America is still the “dream” location of migrants. It is also a reminder of how physically beautiful much of the country is.
Drills,
Who’s paying you protection money? The motel must be really hard up.
Stop the mind reading and pretense. Let the Turtlehead speaks for itself, or even directed to you so he pretends not to be to me.
By the way, last evening I didn’t appreciate your intervention about the plane story as it appeared to be plagiarized. I let it go as I was tired. Ran it through a plagiarism counter and it highlighted several sentences you obviously stole from a site. Next time, it would be a good thing to make citations, you blowhard goofball.
Was he triple vaxxed?
That is not better.
Gold braid on the sleeve level plagiarism?
Or just a few sentences here and there?
I think there is a bit of that going on here.
Nick Lane(The Vital Question) and Andreas Wagner(Arrival of the Fittest) provide some very interesting metabolic based explanations for why that might happen.
Fauci’s suspicious CIA connection smacks of a COVID cover-up
By Editorial Board – The Washington Times
Democracy depends on transparency. But as we look back at the coronavirus pandemic, Americans remain in the dark about what went on behind the scenes in the early days of the COVID-19 panic.
The latest revelations suggest the prevailing narrative of the time was more the product of intelligence agency manipulation than science — that is, if it proves true that Dr. Anthony Fauci collaborated with the CIA to conceal the virus’s origin.
Information gathered by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic points out that while serving as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the pandemic, the now-retired Dr. Fauci was spirited into CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to shape the outcome of the agency’s investigation into the cause of the outbreak.
Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup, Ohio Republican, made the charge in a letter sent on Tuesday to Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm: “The information provided suggests that Dr. Fauci was escorted into Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Headquarters — without a record of entry — and participated in the analysis to ‘influence’ the Agency’s review.”
The letter asked the inspector general to produce documents related to Dr. Fauci’s visits to any CIA site between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2022.
This particular allegation intensifies the significance of whistleblower testimony investigators have already received alleging that the CIA offered a group of six analysts financial incentives to alter their finding of COVID-19’s likely origin from a lab leak to a natural event.
And that, indeed, was their conclusion.
Apparently, following the science isn’t nearly as rewarding as following the money.
The subcommittee has also uncovered evidence suggesting Dr. Fauci was behind the drafting of an earlier scientific paper titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” as the pandemic mushroomed in January 2020.
This report was used to slam the door on growing suspicion that the virus was engineered in a lab at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Contributing scientist Kristian Andersen texted as much to his co-authors: “Our main work over the last couple of weeks has been focused on trying to disprove any type of lab theory.”
Why swap a lab coat for the cloak and dagger?
Grants from Dr. Fauci’s institute funded the gain-of-function research in Wuhan that engendered viruses just like COVID-19.
Advocates of risky viral research with foreign facilities rationalize that such collaborations are necessary for developing dual-use technology that would be applicable in defending against both biological diseases and bioweapons.
In doing so, however, Dr. Fauci and his cohorts may have helped unleash the sort of human catastrophe they had hoped to prevent.
On an immensely larger scale, the foolish machinations are reminiscent of the Obama-era Operation Fast and Furious scheme in which the feds allowed guns to be sold illegally in hopes of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels.
The weapons were used to kill at least 150 innocent Mexicans as well as a U.S. Border Patrol agent. No cartel figures were arrested.
Understanding what happened during the COVID-19 panic is vital to avoiding similar mistakes in the future. That means Americans need to know whether Dr. Fauci’s role in the pandemic’s origin and subsequent CIA cover-up entitles to him a new label: doctor of deception.
Two law lecturers at different Sydney Unis received a couple of grants north of $300,000 for “surveying” backpacker (i.e. working holiday visa holder) “exploitation”
(Neither of them were statisticians.)
They ran an online survey, asking a series of questions along the lines of “By how much were you underpaid & exploited when employed on farms & orchards?”
Results showed backpackers were paid as low as $2 hour & were brutally overworked, exploited, sexually harassed, etc etc et-bloody-cetera.
The majority of IP addresses responding to the survey were Sydney Uni IP addresses. 🙂
I have the same hope. I’d start with this question:
How come William Buckley, an escaped convict who lived with aborigines for 30 years, never mentioned Welcome to Country or Dot paintings?
Yea, at the top of his, Conrad knew a 737 has a half life compared to a 747 because of the “formula” along with the other plagiarized crap. Captain kebab, the biggest blowhard here.
Or, perhaps more to the point, fields of grain and fish farms.
JC, pull your head in. That is an order.
One of those conflicts with the other two.
Stamp duty (~6%) is a definite barrier to turnover.
If those in receipt of sales commissions (usually 1-2%) and conveyancing fees (negligible) are so influential they would have stamp duty abolished and push for the release of more residential land.
They love turnover more than high prices.
In fact, agents don’t really mind a property crash, because it generates turnover.
This does not prevent agents from making profits when the market is high.
This does not prevents agents and solicitors from profiting under the current prevailing circumstances.
From the Bee piece OO linked to above – a microcosm of married life:
Ah. That takes me back.
I am going to scrutineer. For ON no less. ON is probably the only party that I am not a member of, if one ignores Liars, Filth and Rich Bitches.
No matter. I am certain that they are going to cheat, so I would never forgive myself for not helping out.
Homes Are “Unaffordable” In 99% Of US Counties
Find out who’s profiting and you’ll find out who is causing the problem.
According to the CEO at Brickworks here in Australia, around 40% of the cost of a new home, including the land it’s built on, results from Guv’ment charges, levies and taxes.
There’s one Big Culprit profiting for you.
Just wait until the green and black tape is fully applied.
I suspect that a fair bit of “Darwinism” as not so much species evolving to suit the local environment, as species not suited to the local environment dying out.
Lizzie,
Enjoying your travel reporting. Brought back memories of a European coach trip decades ago.
As we went through the Dolomites the driver was playing some incredible music. Not Enya but something in that genre. The combination of the scenary and the music was like being on some sort of drug.
My son is now planning a Europe trip and will cut and paste some of the tips from you and others on what to take.
JC at 1:27.
The point which was missed (although it was a good discussion with Ranga, Chris et al) was the tragic learning curve about airframe structural fatigue.
I wonder if we are heading into a new age of potential failures of a different kind, as composites replace metals in more and more aerospace components.
You would hope not, but aircraft operate in hostile and changeable environments – yuuuge temperature and pressure variations and incredible loadings on the structure during different phases of flight.
All this against the backdrop of relentless pressure to save weight, far more than in any other field of engineering.
It would be interesting to get your MIT materials guy’s thoughts on that.
That’s one reason why I couldn’t understand the excitement about punctuated evolution.
Hale St? Or Hale Rd, on the Cremorne side of Spit Rd?
This is a referendum, so does legislation mandate sausage sizzles? Or is the absence of a sausage sizzle one of the things that distinguishes plebiscites, referendums, and elections?
(The legal significance of $1 for a sausage and piece of bread with BBQ sauce would be a fascinating avenue for research precisely because it is so poorly understood.)
Is profiting bad?
In any case, I think the solicitor’ s fees on our last buy were less than 0.1% of the price, and agent’s fees were a bit under 1% on the sale.
Not really a yuuuge contributor to lack of housing affordability.
Can you explain how agent’s fees and conveyancing drive double-digit real estate price growth?
I’ll ask him.
Dover – for me it was across numerous threads wi different devices.
However, this morning, all OK with posting from my iPad.
Hopefully this gets through – posted via my iMac desktop.
Yeah comment got through ! ! !
Also voted today . . . NO in pen not pencil.
Has anybody asked this question?
Those who use a cheap solicitor usually get their money’s worth.
Naturally this is no aspersion on your ability to choose a solicitor.
Perhaps you bargained a good one down in price.
The God Oracle of reframing & verballing strikes again! 🙂 With yet another reframing. (Yawn). The question I copied, pasted, & replied to was: “Who is profiting?”
Not “How is price being driven up?”
In my opinion the word ‘Darwinism’ is only used outside the professions of people who study evolution – biologists and paleontologists. New Scientist and its peers enjoy the interest the arguments generate. Us church goers readings include occasional asides from interesting people who THINK that refinements or contradictions to Origins of Species can challenge the theory of evolution, and even support a ‘biblical’ Young Earth.
Sorry, no.
Darwin’s grasp of molecular biology and gene theory were way behind informed modern people, so his proposed mechanisms were rudimentary. Nevertheless evolution as a body of observations and inferences proceeds to improve.
No transitional species? Sorry cobber, there are plenty in microscopic things like diatoms. The chances of preservation and discovery in land environments just leave us a very poor record.
FMD, the clownship never ends
Eggsactly
But let’s hear it from that other giant brain mammal , turtlehead.
calli
Perhaps a DCM will work to get this entitled generation out of their rut. I’d be cancelling all the fish and chip Fridays and vegan food as well.
Remember the unholy mess that Elon encountered when he took over Twitter? To sort this lot out, institute a “Be at your desk 0800, and work until 1700. An hour off for lunch. If you want time off for breaks you sign off and sign on again.”
And if they don’t like the new rules, then piss off.
I’m sick of these cosseted, “I’m too educated to work, children.”
I only had one RN pull that shit on me. She wouldn’t get a pan for an invalid patient – “I didn’t do 3 years at university to do that kind of work.”
My reply – “Get your things together and report to Nursing Admin. I can’t use you on this ward.”
Ask Turtlehead, dickhead. That’s what people want to know.
OMG, just STFU you penniless clown. In Australia, the land transfer system is relatively easy and cheap.
Make me, you foul mouthed emotionally incontinent poorly bred p.o.s.
Make me.
Tintarella:
I understand that describing an especially well thought design by an Engineer as ‘elegant’ is quite appropriate even though having been playing on the Turpsichord with several, ‘elegant’ is not a word that immediately springs to mind.
Ask the complete idiot who you initially tried to protect by dissembling and now backtailing like the blowhard loser you’ve always been.
Ask the turtlehead who he thinks is walking off with the big bucks.
A reasonable fixed fee against a fairly high property value (I think it was just under $2000 all up, with a couple of extras for non-standard items).
A merger of two local family firms which have been around for 100 years.
Fully insured to the hilt.
No risk for me.
Learn to read for comprehension. I’ve not entered into why.
You’re not that bright are you?
DING DING! Round 3,764 is on!
Motherload:
No, they don’t get it because Socialism is always about violence being committed on the ones who don’t bend the knee.
They have no other approach after lying and manipulation haven’t worked.
I just did, you worthless loser. Now piss off and stop wasting everyone’s time, you pitiful clown.
And stop the “apropos” nonsense too as you don’t fool anyone, conrad. It’s becoming very annoying now.
Mmm…I’d rather say it’s a set of theories based on inferences put forward to explain a body of observations.
We are now entering not only an unprecedented world of composites replacing metals in aircraft design, but an unprecedented regime of ETOPS (extended range twin engine operations) as there will soon be no four-engined commercial aircraft in current production, just twins, now allowed by regulators to fly into remote areas (like most of the southern hemisphere) that are five-and-a-half hours from the nearest airport.
IMO, there is nothing less than a 100% chance that we will have both a catastrophic ETOPS and a composite materials failure in the next 50 years with major loss of life.
It’s becoming the loser protection society with a few around here.
Chris
I think there has been an evolution “of sorts” but I doubt we’ll ever get to the bottom of it all (or, at least, it will still take a lot of time). And no, I’m not a 7-day creationist and I believe that the Earth has gone through some very interesting periods since it was born on that sunny Thursday, some 4.5Bn years ago.
However, the three key planks that I found from that video linked above, were nevertheless intriguing:
1) Empirical evidence: The evidence clearly suggests a massive boom in the Cambrian period but… we don’t know how much evidence we don’t know about, nor really how it happened (based on lacking evidence). Genetic mutations are fine but if they happen too early the cell becomes abortive, if too late it doesn’t change the form of the creature as it only has minor material changes/
2) Falsifiability: Without this evidence, falsifiability is difficult, if not impossible. Without invoking Popper here, and whether we like it or not, the theory of evolution has become a pseudo-science in which “belief” drives most theories due to a lack of empirical evidence.
3) There has been some pretty big breakthroughs in our understanding of molecular science and, to quote one such scientist: “The more we discover about the complexities of molecular biology, the further away we find ourselves from understanding evolution.”
In short, I’m simply saying that evolutionary biology has become a lot like climate science; that is, a faith.
I’ll go one further: It’s a bit difficult trying to be conscious about all of this when we can’t even explain where consciousness came from. 😛
Apropos of nonsense, have a re-read of what you’ve typed in the past hour.
Learn to control yourself, something your father should have taught you early on, & clearly failed at.
You’re just an amoral ill-bred foul mouthed old goat, screaming at the sky. 🙂
Of course not. 🙂
How come William Buckley, an escaped convict who lived with aborigines for 30 years, never mentioned Welcome to Country or Dot paintings?
“Welcome to Country” does irritate the rest of Australians – for good reason, since whatever happened in the past, it is our country now – both spiritually & in “title”.
A similar procedure occurred in Aboriginal communities when neighbouring clans were “invited” (via message sticks) to important ceremonies – such as the initiation of young men. It was a sort of guarantee of a “truce”. In the very early days of settlement, white fellahs were not permitted to see sacred ceremonies.
In respect to “dot painting”: while the characteristic “dot” painting on canvass originated under the guidance of Geoffrey Bardon at Papunya, Aboriginal art is characteristically geometric and dot infills were seen in rock art and body painting. My own “feeling” is that the dots were an artistic representation of the life force. But that is just my humble opinion.
The only amoral illbred lowlife is you Driller. You lie, you blowhard and you have a defective personality. You come from a stock of lowlife scum without a shred of morality about you all. Even that rough head bro if yours looks like a criminal lowlife.
Calli:
It’s unfortunate that I have to do this, but I always keep a copy of any comments I make, along with pertinent replies. And keep them on a separate drive.
It gives me a record of what I actually wrote, rather than what others claim I wrote.
Wow, you’re not taking it well you sad old goat, I should come in here & kick your arse more often. 🙂
Now go & enroll yourself in anger management classes, lest ye one day in public forget your not on the Cat & your inability to control your temper gets your teeth knocked out.
We wouldn’t want you unable to chew steak now. 🙂
+1
Oh I need to go to anger management classes?
You penniless blowhard. Just human filth.
🙂 Keep going.
Nothing like seeing a meltdown in real time. 😉
Expend your rage against the wall, the cat, the wife, the garden. We know your type.
Fair!
Those who study epistemology can test the deep intellectual architecture, but to my half-trained geological eye that set of theories is adequately grounded for us operators’ purposes.
Yes indeed. You oh so very badly need to. You cannot control your temper. This is a serious character flaw. (One of many, however it is the one mostly likely to get you into ICU)
Interesting contrast between Leak and Broelman this morning.
Broelman’s joke was based on a muddling of the meaning of ‘voice’ and of ‘The Voice’, the latter being a political branding of an agenda.
Leak’s point was far more grounded and clever – Albo’s voice is hoarse because he has been shouting so long and his delivery is becoming raspy and strained – and detracting from whatever message he might have had.
I still think Leak senior was the better cartoonist (although junior’s art is still evolving) but he has inherited his Dad’s dab hand with an egotist’s-pricking pen.
You were asked to explain your comment, turtlehead. Now answer the question and stop trying to dissemble.
Go!
Hale St? Or Hale Rd, on the Cremorne side of Spit Rd?
This is a referendum, so does legislation mandate sausage sizzles? Or is the absence of a sausage sizzle one of the things that distinguishes plebiscites, referendums, and elections?
Sorry, Mother Lode – Hale ROAD – Cremorne side – it is within the Middle Harbour Public School.
There is generally a cake stall – not sure about a sausage sizzle. Husband is there when it opens, & I am rostered on after lunch. Introduce yourself if you attend!
Mother Lode
Oct 2, 2023 1:52 PM
in Hale St Mosman
Hale St? Or Hale Rd, on the Cremorne side of Spit Rd?
Election Booth at Middle Harbour Public School – Hale Road & Macpherson Street – Cremorne & North Sydney Council start Western Side of Macpherson Street – Mosman (Important for Real estate Selling) & Mosman Council starts on Eastern side of Macpherson Street
I already told you why I won’t, you dopey bastard. Now STFU, that is an order.
Vicki Avatar
Vicki
Oct 2, 2023 2:35 PM
Hale St? Or Hale Rd, on the Cremorne side of Spit Rd?
This is a referendum, so does legislation mandate sausage sizzles? Or is the absence of a sausage sizzle one of the things that distinguishes plebiscites, referendums, and elections?
Sorry, Mother Lode – Hale ROAD – Cremorne side – it is within the Middle Harbour Public School.
Vicki,
Mosman – https://atlas.id.com.au/mosman/
The Economist is not happy, I see. JC, the interesting thing here is not the allegations so much as the public caring more about his party’s NATO/ Ukraine scepticism.
Daily Mail.
dover0beach
Oct 2, 2023 2:41 PM
Slovakia gives pro-Russian populist nationalism another win
The Economist is not happy, I see. JC, the interesting thing here is not the allegations so much as the public caring more about his party’s NATO/ Ukraine scepticism.
Europe – Guess who’s back!
Slovakia gives pro-Russian populist nationalism another win
It could join the EU’s awkward squad if Robert Fico forms a government
Polling shows that Mr Fico’s voters and those with pro-Russian views tend to be older and less well educated. Younger and better educated ones favour the newish Progressive Slovakia party, which came second (after polls had hinted it might win). Its views on everything from Ukraine to lgbt rights align with those of western European liberal parties—but not with a majority of Slovaks.
Research by Globsec, a Slovak think-tank, reveals distrust in institutions, susceptibility to conspiracy theories and deep-seated anti-Americanism. Though 40% of Slovaks agree that Russia is primarily responsible for the war in Ukraine, 51% believe either that the West provoked Russia, or that Ukraine did so because it “oppressed” Russian-speakers
And 66% agreed that “the us is dragging Slovakia into a war with Russia because it is profiting from it.”
Only 48% agreed that liberal democracy based on equality, human rights and the rule of law was good for the country.
In a Bratislava café Vladimir, a retired 79-year-old structural engineer who had returned after 50 years in Germany and Britain, says that he believed that Zuzana Caputova, Slovakia’s president and a founder of Progressive Slovakia, was an American spy, that Ukrainian refugees were leeching off the Slovak state and that the Ukrainians were fools to fight.
In 1968, when the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia, “the president said we should not fight the Russians. If we had, then Bratislava and Prague would have been in ruins. This is what Ukrainians should have done.”
This ain’t exactly going to swing a few million votes.
Equally you could say that ‘It’s a bit difficult trying to be conscious about God when we can’t even explain where consciousness came from.’ Where consciousness came from is not necessary knowledge; merely that one is conscious. is a grounding. Let’s accept that for any knowledge, a systematic rejection of error and persistence looking for truth must improve us.
And for evolution, its an imperfect and incomplete work as but it is a solid start.
Families split again. The Voice is almost like a rerun of the Kung Flu virus hysteria.
There is currently a big argument going in that area. Some are calling Integrated Information Theory pseudoscientific. I don’t agree, I don’t know what the fuss is about with consciousness. There are so many things we don’t understand and trying to understand consciousness when we’re still at the butterfly collecting stage of neuroscience is absurd. It’s like the Wright Brothers tried to fly to the moon.
Driller
Stfu and just go away, you pitiful clown. Lying what you own. Do you really think anyone believes it anymore? Ask Abbott if he thinks you own a pub? -:) You barely own the clothes on your greasy back let alone a pub or barking orders to people over the web. Piss off.
What the Hell is wrong with you?
A harmless comment used to help people find out what the problem is and you read it as
Get some frigging psychiatric help, you fool of a man.
..and that’s me out of the place for the rest of the day.
Clare Armstrong writes in the Daily Telegraph:
Maybe Ms Armstrong the key to living a good life is to look after yourself and what goes in your body.
Maybe get a job, move from the shitholes.
Maybe question where the money goes when disbursed to the Aboriginal agencies around Australia.
But to talk of a day of mourning on October 15 because a result might not go the way one wants is rubbish. FMD
Asia faces one of worst economic outlooks in half a century, World Bank warns
Sluggish post-pandemic recovery, China’s property crisis and US trade policies expected to hinder growth next year
The World Bank has cut its forecast for China’s growth next year and warned that east Asia’s developing economies are set to expand at one of the lowest rates in five decades, as US protectionism and rising levels of debt pose an economic drag.
The gloomier 2024 forecasts from the bank underline the mounting concern over China’s slowdown and how it will spill into Asia. China’s policymakers have already set one of the lowest growth targets in decades for 2023, of about 5 per cent.
Citing a string of weak indicators for the world’s second-biggest economy, the World Bank said it now expected China’s economic output would grow 4.4 per cent in 2024, down from the 4.8 per cent it expected in April.
It also downgraded its 2024 forecast for gross domestic product growth for developing economies in east Asia and the Pacific, which includes China, to 4.5 per cent, from a prediction in April of 4.8 per cent and trailing the 5 per cent rate expected this year.
The projections show that the region, one of the world’s main growth engines, is set for its slowest pace of growth since the late 1960s, excluding extraordinary events such as the coronavirus pandemic, the Asian financial crisis and the global oil shock in the 1970s.
Economists expected China’s rebound from strict pandemic controls would be “more sustained and more significant than it turned out to be”, said Aaditya Mattoo, World Bank chief economist for east Asia and the Pacific.
The bank pointed to Chinese retail sales tumbling to below pre-pandemic levels, stagnant house prices, increased household debt and lagging private sector investment.
Mattoo warned that slower growth would persist unless governments, including China’s, embarked on “deeper” service sector reforms. But a transition from property- and investment-led growth has been challenging for many developing Asian economies.
“In a region which has really thrived through trade and investment in manufacturing?.?.?.?the next big key to growth will come from reforming the services sectors to harness the digital revolution,” he said.
Softer global demand is taking its toll. Goods exports are down more than 20 per cent in Indonesia and Malaysia, and more than 10 per cent in China and Vietnam compared with the second quarter of 2022. Rising household, corporate and government debt has further dented growth prospects.
The worsening forecasts also reflect that much of the region — not just China — is starting to be hit by new US industrial and trade policies under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act.
For years, US-China trade tensions and tariffs imposed on Beijing by Washington benefited south-east Asia, driving demand for imports towards other countries in the region, especially Vietnam.
But the introduction of the IRA and Chips laws in 2022 — policies designed to boost US manufacturing and cut American dependence on China — has hit south-east Asian countries. Their exports of affected products to the US have fallen.
“This whole region which had perversely benefited from US-China trade tensions in terms of [trade] diversion now is suffering trade diversion away from it,” said Mattoo.
Electronics and machinery exports from China and south-east Asian countries including Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand declined after President Joe Biden’s protectionist policies came into force, according to the World Bank.
By comparison, US trade with countries including Canada and Mexico, which unlike China and south-east Asia are exempt from the local content requirements attached to US subsidies, has not declined.
“The treatment under these provisions is discriminating against countries which are not exempt from the local content requirements,” Mattoo said.
The World Bank data factors in a reduction in demand due to the overall slowdown in global growth that is affecting all countries.
Concerned south-east Asian countries are rushing to fight back. Indonesian business has criticised the “unfair” exclusion of the country’s critical minerals from a huge package of US subsidies for green technology.
Indonesia holds the world’s largest reserves of nickel, which is crucial for producing electric vehicle batteries. Jakarta is trying to negotiate a provision that would make its mineral exports eligible for similar treatment to Canada or Mexico.
Business lobby groups in Vietnam have similarly argued that the US should extend electric vehicle tax credit benefits to Hanoi, especially after the two countries formally upgraded ties this month.
The US is Vietnam’s largest market, but shipments fell 19.1 per cent from January to August this year, compared with a 13.6 per cent rise in 2022.
Sadly, I think you are right.
Maybe not 100% certainty but higher than acceptable probability.
I am less concerned about simultaneous twin engine failures (which would more likely be the result of failures in computers and/or fuel systems) than I am about structural failure.
And the cause might be water.
Years ago I was tangentially involved with a company which made composite landing gear doors. A tiny bit of water got between the composite layers. Constant freezing and thawing of the water resulted in delamination. Now, an aircraft could probably survive a landing gear door disintegrating, but composites have moved from fairings and other non-critical components to primary structures.
The “experts” claim failure signs can be detected earlier.
We’ll see.
No, however you should.
Tsk tsk, diddums
Feel free to expand on this.
Believes what, exactly?
Who or what is “Abbott”? I don’t go to church all that often, they wouldn’t know me.
Feel free to back this up.
No to people, just you.
You haven’t got what it takes to make me.
Deal with that. Psychiatric intervention is likely what is required at your advanced stage of dementia.
It is well past time you grew up. Well past.
Thancho the problem with composites is the testing generally requires destruction. Each part is never the same as the quality of the layup is variable. You cannot test for the qualty of the bond between layers. The more exotic the material the worse it is. Knitted fabrics which shape without cutting have improved quality. Having built a fibreglass yacht, dinghy, car body parts, wing mast and spars out of polyester and epoxy I have developed skin irritation if I look at glass. People who work in the industry have terrible health issues. Not many people like working in pressure suits. The fumes are bad. I see graphene is being investigated for use in composites.
Apropos the cost of land:
A quick opinion on the purpose & pricing of Stamp Duty would help support that claim, & would be most instructive.
Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels
9 quotes from saints about guardian angels
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their [angels’] watchful care and intercession. ‘Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.’ Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God” (No. 336).
I love Jnr’s black crop top and big “outback” hat. And the turned up nose, as if Elbow’s just run into a slammed door.
His “everyman” characters deserve a bit of honing, that’s where Dad excelled – pinpointing what part of the cultural ecosystem people came from by the way they dressed and body attitude.
Both men are also serious artists, again Snr had a lot more years under his belt. It shows though in poses and suggestions of emotion with a few economical strokes. Also, if you need to label your caricatures, you’ve failed.
I love SailGP and America’s Cup boats. This F1 on water. These guys know how to do stuff and still components fail. Boat loads of money doesn’t stop failure. On the water it hasn’t resulted in death but at the speeds they are up to, 100kph, it can’t be far away.
Families split again.
What, the members of the exploded nuclear family of Warren Mundine- thrice married, kids from two- have divergent views? Stone the crows.
It doesn’t matter what organisation they end up writing for, journalists now graduate from the same groupthink colleges, whose graduates:
— despise voters and democracy.
— spout the same propaganda favouring the Greens and Labor — or, as bons put it earlier today, “Liars, Filth and Rich Bitches (Teals)”.
Journalism used to be the public’s eyes and ears. That’s no longer possible because 99% of journalists despise the public.
Aren’t most of them in jail for crimes of violence against other Aborigines?
Good Long Read on Lasers in War
Does US Have Laser Weapons?
The integration of various laser technology-related weapon systems into the US military’s arsenal, coupled with their potential in combating present and upcoming threats, magnifies the advantages offered by such cutting-edge military technology, thus showcasing its immense potential in shaping the future of warfare.
In the annals of military technology, few advances have generated as much intrigue and fascination as laser weapons.
These cutting-edge systems represent a paradigm shift in warfare, offering precision and speed once reserved for science fiction.
At the forefront of this discussion is a critical question: does the United States currently have operational laser weapons in its military arsenal? With its far-reaching implications for national security, this question forms the crux of our inquiry.
In order to fully grasp the current state of laser weapons in the United States, it is crucial to delve into the historical background that has led us to where we are today. Decades of persistent research, experimentation, and technological innovation have paved the way for these formidable beams of directed energy.
This journey from a theoretical concept to a tangible military asset underscores the ingenuity of scientists and engineers.
It also highlights the strategic foresight of military planners who recognized the potential transformative impact of harnessing light as a weapon.
Throughout this journey, we will explore official declarations, established systems, and continuous research endeavors to offer a comprehensive insight into the United States’ engagement with laser weapons.
Is Laser Technology Going To Pioneer Next-Gen Weapon Systems?
Although the U.S. military currently has several laser-based weapon systems as part of its arsenal, the push for more military spending on new or next-generation military technology continues as the military landscape evolves.
Military leaders, in conjunction with the U.S. military-industrial complex, continue to chart a course toward incorporating defensive mechanisms into the next generation of combat technology innovations.
A central feature under consideration is the combination of an active protection system powered by directed energy technology, which represents a viable alternative to the established paradigm of mounted weapons.
According to several documents related to the U.S. Army’s directed energy programs, the Army emphasizes the potential of active protection systems incorporating laser technology to provide a comprehensive 360-degree defense against incoming projectiles or UAV threats.
In addition, these laser-based weapon systems have the ability to disable or potentially eliminate enemy vehicles, enhancing the defensive capabilities of military assets.
Officials emphasize that key decisions must be made by 2025 in order to begin fielding Army units equipped with next-generation military weapons by 2035.
This timeline underscores that the U.S. Army has approximately seven years to advance laser weapon technology to the point where it is a realistic contender for integration into the next generation of combat vehicles.
Mother Lode
Oct 2, 2023 2:35 PM
Interesting contrast between Leak and Broelman this morning.
Not wrong there ML, Leak senior was a few notches above, and I think the junior is stuck in a groove drawing characters.
Probably a good thing for a cartoonists as a trade mark, I don’t know.
Love his wit. Brilliant.
There is a US one Tom links to, who only has the same male, female picture but his captions are worth looking at them.
Computers and sensors are now fundamental to flight control. A B2 Spirit Bomber crashed on takeoff at Guam. Typically kept in specific hangars and in colder climates, they determined that what happened was some sensors became filled with water after a huge storm. That resulted in the computer responding to faulty sensor input causing a catastrophic correction.
I’m sorry Claire Armstrong whoever you are, but your self-abusing words trigger me to ask: WHO is damned by the damning gap?
Do aboriginal people have no spine, no agency, no capacity to make their own lives better? Could they persuade their kids not to sniff petrol and their men not to commit vile crimes against their women and children?
You academics have been patronised by being allowed to get away with travelling on identity and lived experience, not straight up doing good work like the ordinary people you patronise in turn.
Diversity hire, show some worth.
The sausage sizzle is a pig-oppressing performance of coloniser power which divides the bun community. This absolutely saucist activity needlessly pits mustard against tomato when scientifically there is no such thing as “sauce” as they are all equal members of the same condiment family. The disrespectful term “sauerkraut” is a violent mis-vegetabling of the trans-onions that need our support.
How dare you.
ML, Junior says it all in a picture.
Tom
Oct 2, 2023 3:05 PM
Clare Armstrong writes in the Daily Telegraph:
It doesn’t matter what organisation they end up writing for, journalists now graduate from the same groupthink colleges, whose graduates:
— despise voters and democracy.
— spout the same propaganda favouring the Greens and Labor — or, as bons put it earlier today, “Liars, Filth and Rich Bitches (Teals)”.
Journalism used to be the public’s eyes and ears. That’s no longer possible because 99% of journalists despise the public.
Tom,
Old Journos like Piers Akerman went through Old Journalists Cadet Scheme with Newspapers
Developing Software with our Overseas Team in Sydney late at night, we used to finish by going to the Journos Club for a wind down with one of the Boston Boys playing a magnificent Piano as it was the only place open, got into great conversations with Old Jounos – great guys with cynical and realistic view on life
TIK last video “Did Darwin cause Hitler?” is an interesting discussion of evolution and social Darwinism (cough eugenics cough), which boils down to evolution being nature (Mendel/DNA) vs Nurture (Darwin/external factors causing survival of the fittest).
https://youtu.be/AWYjBfe0I9s?feature=shared
JC at 12:31
Fatty Adams jumps the gun on Sorry Business. Please, let it fail first.
Steve Kelly – dry minimalist.
The other one I like is Chip Bok – his DEM characters look as if they’re putrefying and disintegrating as he draws them. Biden being the best.
“Equally” indeed. Although many atheists and, more likely, antitheists would never admit this. I’m not trying to “convert” you to Christianity or religion Chris. But by concluding “equally” you have been gracious enough to admit many theories are just a matter of personal preference and prejudice rather than scientific interrogation.
**thumbs up** 🙂
Bill Leak did truly awesome work, because his spot-on insight reframed a situation and exposed the hidden idiocy.
I think this comes from a deep experience of human failings, including his own. Hard to bottle that and pass it on.
Yet Johannes has done very very well. I have been impressed.
Anyway, a bigger problem for humanity is that WA is now three hours behind the East…
I’m not pro-daylight saving in WA (as you don’t need a hot sun lingering in the sky until late evening when Perth and most of the State traditionally swelter above 38 for weeks on end), but calling colleagues, friends and family in Melbournistan sucks balls.
Speaking of paintings, the one for the thread is an early Hopper. Gosh he loved that baby nappy yellow even back then. It’s a great colour but not to everyone’s taste.
Why do these “voices” need to reach Canberra? Aren’t those at the “grassroots” capable of identifying the problem and taking local action to resolve it?
Too much Canbra paternalism, not enough local subsidiarity.
On SBS World Movies(FTA channel 32/Foxtel channel 433) at 4.15pm — A Hard Day’s Night:
Girl at Sewing Machine
(after a painting by Edward Hopper)
Mary Leader
Darwin on Herbert Spencer’s social Darwinism(Spencer created the term survival of the fittest)
“I am not conscious of having profited in my work from Spencer’s writings. His deductive manner of treating every subject is wholly opposed to my frame of mind. His conclusions never convince me … . They partake more of the nature of definition than of laws of nature.”
We now can keep so many more people alive that even a few decades ago would not have survived to adulthood. Many of those will breed. That is expensive. Most chronic conditions, congenital problems, and disabilities have a genetic component. Nurture will not triumph over those genes.
Vote, maybe a sausage Sanger, then go to The Duck.
Democracy is a beautiful thing – but don’t tell Canada Bay or Five Dock councils I said that. I cannot imagine the disgusting things they can imagine at that phrase. They are the sickness they think they are fighting.
Too late! Dunked long ago. 🙂
As a dunked person AND a geologist I have to manage my epistemology.
Christians accept the Bible as a primary document on God and his works.
But those works include the earlier primary document: the earth itself and all that is in it.
And if we accept that God is not is not a counterfeiter, we can read and map observations to make quite solid inferences about the materials and processes that resulted in local and general aspect of this earth.
The ‘POOF!!!’ model of instantaneous creation only makes sense if you accuse God of faking evidence.
McCusker plays a pretty straight bat on most stuff. Closest thing to old money you’ll get in Perf.
At that price $4,000 I think your daughter has Lagotto Romagnolos – $4,000 is in the doggie park
A Leak Snr cartoon I didn’t notice at the time.
(was looking for a Bulletin or SMH era Leak Snr to see how much his craft improved over the journey. Quite a lot. With time if not already it’s going to be, pick the greater Bernoulli.)
Eating fewer calories can ward off ageing
And various existing medicines may offer similar benefits
In 1991 eight volunteers sealed themselves into a huge greenhouse in the desert near Tucson, Arizona. They were part of an experiment seeking to discover whether a carefully curated selection of plants and animals could develop into a self-sustaining ecosystem: a “Biosphere 2” independent of “Biosphere 1”, aka the outside world.
In terms of proving grand ecological truths the Biosphere 2 experiments were something of a bust. As an illustration of what can happen when somewhat fringe-y science meets extreme wealth they were fascinating. There were fierce fallings-out on both sides of the glass. In 1994 Ed Bass, an oil dynast who had paid for the facility, threw out the management team and handed the reins to Steve Bannon, later a key adviser to Donald Trump. At the same time, though, there was what some took to be a breakthrough in the science of human ageing.
One of the eight biospherians was Roy Walford, a professor of pathology at the University of California, Los Angeles (ucla). Research by Walford and others had shown that restricting what animals ate could significantly lengthen their lives. The lifespans of nematode worms, fruit flies, rodents and dogs could be extended as much as 50% by laboratory protocols which gave them a diet with all the nutrients they needed in terms of minerals, vitamins and the like but fewer calories than were seen as normal.
Biosphere 2 allowed him to test the theory on humans in no position to sneak off for snacks. With a daily intake of 1,750-2,100 calories (7,320-8,790 kilojoules) the biospherians, trim to begin with, all slimmed down. But after eight months their weight stabilised. Gaunt as they were, their energy levels remained high. Blood tests showed physiological responses which matched those of calorie-restricted rodents with extended lifespans.
Some people have taken this as a reason to incorporate calorie restriction into their lives, as Walford did. But such diets, which go well beyond the sort of weight-restricting efforts to which any sensible person might aspire, are hard to maintain. That has provoked an interest in finding ways to get the benefits of calorie restriction without having to engage in it.
The garden of forking paths
Calories are a measure of the amount of energy that cells can get from breaking food into its component chemical parts. The precise nature of that breaking down, and what happens with all the parts, is under the control of a range of signalling pathways which have the job of matching what the cell is doing with how much energy the organism needs and has available. Dysfunction in these nutrient-signalling pathways is one of the 12 hallmarks of ageing listed by Dr López-Otín and his colleagues.
If there is a general truth behind the success of calorie restriction, it is that when energy is on the scarce side, the nutrient signalling pathways in cells pay greater attention to what is going on and keep the cell in better shape. What is necessary if the same pathways are to be recruited without the calorie reduction is an understanding of what other cues can have the same effect.
The research would be both easier to do and easier to understand if these pathways all had distinct, clearly understood functions. Alas, this is not the case. Pathways frequently regulate more than one function, functions are frequently regulated by more than one pathway and the farthest-flung parts of pathways are often obscure. To make things yet less comprehensible, the proteins involved in the pathways have incredibly opaque names.
Take the mtorc1 pathway. The complex of proteins which gives it its name first came to attention because an immune suppressant called rapamycin has a strong effect on it: hence “mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1”. That gives no real clue, however, to the fact that the signalling pathway in which mtorc1 sits is a complex set of controls and feedbacks designed to regulate metabolism in response both to the availability of nutrients (for example, glucose, which provides energy, and amino acids, from which proteins are made) and impediments to their use (for example, low oxygen levels).
The ambit of this regulatory power is broad; it influences the rate at which cells break down damaged internal structures (“autophagy”), the balance of their protein content (“proteostasis”) and the reproduction of their mitochondria, components responsible for turning the calories it receives into a form of energy its proteins can use. Autophagy, proteostasis and mitochondrial reproduction are three more of the 12 hallmarks of ageing.
Rap of ages
What is more, rapamycin, the effects of which give mtorc1 its name, turns out to lengthen the lives of lab animals even though it curbs their immune responses. This has led some longevity enthusiasts to seek off-label prescriptions for it. But its side-effects, including anaemia and an insensitivity to insulin, make rapamycin ill-suited for widespread use. There is thus a search for “rapalogs” which provide the benefits of a tuned-up mtorc1 pathway without so many costs.
Another pathway which calorie-restriction studies have marked out as promising is named after a protein called ampk (don’t ask). This regulates the production of atp, a small energy-carrying molecule produced in mitochondria. When atp levels fall, the ampk pathway increases a cell’s sensitivity to insulin.
Metformin, a drug used to treat type-2 diabetes, does so by activating the ampk pathway. Like rapamycin, it extends the lifespans of healthy mice. It does the same for diabetic humans. A study published in 2014 showed that diabetes patients treated with metformin enjoyed a decreased mortality rate, not just compared with patients who were not treated with it, but also with healthy controls who were not given the drug.
Not surprisingly, metformin is also used off-label, probably more widely than rapamycin. The American Federation for Ageing Research, a not-for-profit organisation, hopes soon to start a six-year, 3,000-person clinical trial to measure its effects in people from 65- to 79-years-old. The Targeting Ageing with Metformin (tame) trial will see if metformin helps prevent cardiovascular disease, cancer and cognitive decline; it will also test the hypothesis that it reduces all-cause mortality.
A further set of medicines developed to treat diabetes but now used more widely are the glp-1 receptor agonists. The best known, semaglutide (sold as Wegovy), has been specifically licensed in various places for use in people without diabetes who nevertheless need to lose weight. Whether they might live longer than someone of the same final weight who does not take one of the drugs is an open question. There are no published studies that show the drugs to have an effect on the lifespans of laboratory animals.
One thing that does do the job for lab animals is taurine, an amino acid widely used as a dietary supplement. According to a recent paper by Parminder Singh of the Buck Institute for Research on Ageing in Novato, California, and colleagues, in mice taurine increases lifespan by 10%; some of this seems to be due to nutrient signalling. But there are effects on four or five other hallmarks of ageing, too. Taurine levels drop with age in humans but, in those who live to be over 100, levels stay significantly higher.
Nutrient sensitivity may also be enhanced by a molecule called nad+. Some enzymes—proteins which catalyse chemical reactions—require the presence of a small extra molecule to do their thing. nad+ is such a “co-enzyme”. More than 300 enzymes need it to be present if they are to do their bit for the cell. And if you give mice more of it, they live longer.
Considering that nad+ is so generous with its favours it is difficult to know exactly which of the enzymes it helps are responsible for delivering this effect. But one connection which looks particularly interesting is that with a set of proteins called sirtuins.
La vie en vin rouge
Sirtuins came to prominence two decades ago when David Sinclair, who is now co-director of the Centre for Biology of Ageing Research at Harvard University, showed that stimulating their production prolongs life in a variety of laboratory animals. One form of stimulation is calorie restriction. But Dr Sinclair discovered a chemical alternative: resveratrol, a molecule found, among other places, in the skins of red grapes.
Dr Sinclair is by no means publicity-shy; his discovery saw a great deal of brouhaha. He founded a company, Sirtris, to produce resveratrol derivatives suited to the human body. The work did not amount to much. Sirtris, having been bought by GlaxoSmithKline, ceased to exist as a separate entity in 2013.
That might seem a cautionary tale. But it can also be seen as grounds for hope.
Sirtuins got a lot of attention because there had been no similarly credible claims about longevity for some time. Their story set out a blueprint for looking into such things: a mechanism looked interesting, a molecule seemed promising, investigations were carried out, conclusions were drawn. Many more mechanisms and drugs are now being scrutinised in the same way. Some scepticism is warranted. But there is no reason to believe that none of them will get results just because the few looked at so far have not.
This article appeared in the Technology Quarterly section of the print edition under the headline “Don’t be greedy”
This is exactly wrong.
It will ensconce the same people who have championed the so far failed policies, with less accountability, and greater patronage of the people who have implemented and benefited from the past failures.
Far from introducing a new approach it will cement the old defective one – any change means some of the current gainers will become losers. It will become more centralised, more urbanised, and more bureaucratic.
The voice will just turn it up to eleven.
Dover by the way OT loading at lightning speed
I’m on my way out to vote in the “Voice” referendum. I’m taking a black biro, carrying a copy of Keith Windschuttle’s “The Breakup Of Australia” and wearing an Afrikaner Broederbond sweatshirt. I don’t want to be mistaken for a “YES” voter.
Well, just went for a stroll through East Perth and (not unusually) encountered four locals sharing a goon bag with one shooting up. Later on in the stroll, I encountered two (different) locals picking up ciggy butts off the ground near a rubbish bin.
A terrible existence and easy to see why so many of these folks die so young.
Saying the Voice is going to fix these problems is a bit like saying the Minutes from some random meeting held by a bureaucrat on Barton Drive, ACT, can cure the world of these ills….
There goes Charmers’ surplus lol!
West Australia’s resources sector is bracing for chaos ahead of a pilots’ strike that’s expected to affect thousands of FIFO workers.
Accompanied by a harmless question to explain your stupid assertion. And you still trying to avoid it.
Also, how do you feel about this dependency you appear to have.
Okay, Dr Turtlehead.
Any chance of making longer please?
I’ve never seen a grown man so needy, so dependent, so needing validation.
The video is very compelling. The cops involved should be administered corporal punishment, NSW style (1790s style, that is)
Whoops, full article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Use the leg sweep, Bobbie.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) will appoint Laphonza Butler to fill Feinstein’s vacant Senate seat.
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision.” Politico reported.
Laphonza Butler lives in Maryland and registered to vote there LAST YEAR!
California’s newest Senator Laphonza Butler literally lives in Maryland and registered to vote here LAST YEAR https://t.co/0Ps00L3Nuq pic.twitter.com/YImmk48n5y
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) October 2, 2023
Dianne Feinstein died Thursday night at the age of 90. She was the longest-serving woman in the US Senate.
Feinstein was also one of the most corrupt Senators, and that is saying a lot.
She served on the Senate Intelligence Panel yet she was caught with a Chinese spy on her payroll — a man she had employed and paid for over 20 years.
Last month on “Meet the Press,” Newsom said he would make an “interim appointment” and suggested he would choose a black woman to replace Feinstein.
California will now have two US Senators who were not elected by the people.
Newsom previously chose former California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill Kamala Harris’s senate seat after he steered $35 million to a firm linked to the Biden-Harris campaign in 2020.
Alex Padilla is a crooked Democrat politician who has been swimming in the California swamp for decades and it appears he purchased Kamala Harris’s senate seat.
Republicans on the House Oversight and House Administration Committees previously demanded an investigation into Alex Padilla over a “highly questionable” taxpayer-funded $35 million no-bid contract his office gave to a firm linked to the Biden campaign.
Padilla’s office took grant money from a Coronavirus stimulus package and funneled it to the Biden-linked firm to influence the federal election.
“As you know, the use of HAVA funds for voter contact is a violation of the law,” Republican lawmakers wrote. “According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, HAVA grants cannot be used to get out the vote or encourage voting.”
“Secretary Padilla’s decision to fast-track a no-bid contract to a pro-Biden firm raises serious ethical and legal questions and we must have answers immediately,” GOP Rep. Comer said in a statement to Fox News. “It appears taxpayer funds were illegally allocated by Padilla’s office to enable Democrat operatives to contact voters and potentially have access to sensitive voter information.”
From the Comments
– Well that will certainly check off all the TOKEN boxes… LOL
– Female: Check
Black: Check
Kills Babies in the Womb: Check
Communist: Check
Dumb as a brick: Check
Controls funding for Democrat candidates: Triple Check.
Hates America: Check
IQ below room temperature: Check
When I was in East Vic Park one of the other cafe regulars was a pilot laid off over Covid. Seemed pretty unconcerned by it all. Would expect much the same for strike action. Can’t imagine the miners management are quite as relaxed.
This is the first time I have heard this stated. Can anyone on the CAT point me to a reference to back up this statement.
Sal @ 2.58 pm
Stamp Duty has nothing to do with land transfer as such.
The real estate conveyancing process in NSW is governed mainly by the Real Property Act and the Conveyancing Act.
Stamp Duty is an (unwelcome) external impost pursuant to the Duties Act.
The boys stuck at site will be a little jumpy, too.
We now can keep so many more people alive that even a few decades ago would not have survived to adulthood. Many of those will breed. That is expensive. Most chronic conditions, congenital problems, and disabilities have a genetic component. Nurture will not triumph over those genes.
I agree; and to get back to natural genetic commonsense I propose every leftie should be knackered. I’m still formulating a working definition of leftie; something simple like asking folks if they have read a book titled Cecil the Aardvark goes Quantity Surveying. I find lefties have a set reaction to that question which distinguishes them from non lefties.
Qantas’s decision to use its political connections to block new capacity competition from Qatar Airways is not only going to hurt Qantas, but is a boon for Emirates, which has now begun an intensive Australian advertising campaign to pick up the passengers that Qantas refuses to carry at the Qantas price point.
For Qantas, it not just a matter of pissing off the punters down the back of the plane with its high prices, but also the corporates.
It’s not well known in Australia that the key to Emirates’ success in Australia in the past 20 years has been cutting the price of business travel to Europe. Qantas currently has virtually zero European network outside London, while Emirates has dozens of European destinations.
That’s a lot of high-yield corporates that Qantas is effectively thumbing its nose at.
Emirates is making hay from Alan Joyce’s reckless stupidity.
Just thought I’d add, before I get a reputation here, that my middle name is not Incontinentia. Truth is that my blood pressure tablets are going haywire here due to the altitude, which is making my fingers swell and my rings hard to put on. These tablets contain a diuretic, which can kick in suddenly in these climes at inconvenient times. Another reason for heading out of the mountains.
Hairy is still asleep but I am enjoying a proper morning cuppa tea. This ‘junior suite’ where we have spent two nights is very spacious but entirely lacks amenities even for tea and coffee making. They provide breakfast downstairs, but no other food or drink. We begged an electric jug from them which they gave us because English-speaking and crazy, so with the milk we’ve kept fresh on the balcony I can have some English breakfast tea. Here at breakfast in coffee-land tea means fruit teas. Another tip – in the Spartan suite they provide a bottle of water and two thick glasses. You can make tea in these if you warm the glass first swilling it with boiling water. Otherwise it will crack open. It’s always touch and go though for the first minute or two.
Unfortunately I left our mugs behind at the last place. Will buy some more before we leave today, souvenir mugs with deer on them, suitable too for a quick muesli brekkie in-room so we can have some sleep-ins at the next place. The mugs here are 15 euros each, which is around $30. The exchange rate is not good, so I’m ignoring it and thinking the Euro prices are in dollars…
I wanted to spend the next four days in the Stutgart Holiday Inn to have a known quantity of corporate facilities and services, but they were all booked out, so we chance it again with Tyrolean hotel decor and life as lived locally. Guess that’s what travel’s really about though.
Dragnet, understood. Bit hard to separate it though. It does seem to be inexorably linked to a land purchase & I’ve never been able to buy land without coughing “Stamp Duty”, in an amount that seems to be out of all proportion (obscenely so) to the cost-recovery of a simple government service.
Stamp duty is inextricably linked to Australia’s dysfunctional federation.
On the way to this valley we stopped at San Martino gondola lift for me to admire where Hairy went to the day before. The first gondola was of the usual sort, although steep and high as expected, but when he proudly pointed out the second one he took I gasped in horror. It was a tightrope of ascent between two high mountain peaks with thousands of metres drop under it. He shyly admitted to me then that even he had second thoughts about doing it. There are only two carriages on it and they have to balance each other out, so the carriage has to have a driver as well as passengers. He found this reassuring, he says. No way I would ever do that, I admire. He went with two mountaining-geared guys and their dog, and on arrival climbed to the very peak for a selfie wearing only his old Nikes.
Most of my mates seemed to fly Business to London with the sand monkeys. Not sure if that still holds post Covid.
I love these book titles. Do I have permission to use this?
I love these book titles. Do I have permission to use this?
First tell me what your reaction was.
Sharri Markson has too much going on at home again today with her newborn son to turn up at work at Sky News to do her job.
I would say Markson is getting a reputation among editors as a prima donna who’s more trouble than it’s worth.
The ABC’s Tasmania correspondent is 16 years old, or thinks his readership is:
It’s come to this. Emojis.
Imagine having less gravitas than news.com.au.
I guess you’ll have to click the link to see. But if you can’t be arsed (and who could blame you), there is either a big green tick, a big red cross, a smiling emoji or an emoji of a vote going into a ballot box at the end of each sentence.
Apropos of Professor Simon Rice (Uni of Sydney Professor of Law & Social Justice) here’s the video from 2020, of him when trying to get up after being knocked down by cops, being again slammed to the ground by a trio of cops who could play front row for the Wallabies.
Monty Python sucks.
Ben Wallace in the UK Tel:
I believe Bolt does mountains of this stuff Tony Montana-style.
ALPBC Tasmania would have a much lower rate of literate viewers.
Spiky has had her baby. A boy called Jabari Peter. I asked if it was named after Jabbar the Hutt, or if the father was a Zulu.
Prolly to avoid having to change the name if it decides to change sex later on.
Get outta here! That’s like subtracting from minus infinity.
Congrats and felicitations to Spiky!
12-year old Ms Armstrong makes a valid point:
Defeat of the Voice is not going to make the substantive issues attached to the Uluru Statement – ‘Truth Telling’, Treaty, compensation, self-determination –
go gentle into that good night. It will not, like the vote on the Monarchy, slip off the agenda for a decade or so – waiting for a better opportunity.
Notwithstanding his tactical avoidance of anything other than the ‘generous and modest’ Voice, Albanese has bolted his government to “implementing them in full” and has sold his government’s sorry arse to the Greens in return for their support for the Referendum.
And, as an activist party with substantial control of the Parliament, without any fiscal responsibility, with hopes of boosting their base, and an eye on the disruptive effects of Indigenous self-determination on minerals, energy, and agriculture – they shirley will try to do just that.
On a No vote, Albanese is about to be jammed. And unfortunately, unless he has a cunning Plan B, the likely price of his personal political survival is that Australia gets to enjoy all the benefits of a Greens-influenced legislated version of Uluru.
“Simon Rice”
I know Simon, smart guy.
So returned from casting my ballot, in THAT referendum. Everyone being very civil to each other – one of those waiting to cast his ballot was a police officer, complete with taser and handgun…
Latest polls on RCP:
Economist/YouGov clear outlier.
Wife is hsting a long table lunch thing for International Rural Women’s Day.
Requests to me have been, is that ok? Can we have a garden busy bee? Can you fix up the shearers’ toilet in time? Can you do the firebreaks early so the spray doesn’t look to raw?
Answers have been, yep, sure, just give me plenty of notice. I did note for the record that youse Rural Women have a funny habit of scheduling most of your Melbourne Cup, Office Christmas and Charity Fundraiser gigs for the touch-n-go times for farm activity- I’m usually cutting hay, shearing sheep, weaning lambs, planting spuds…
…then I said, And no Welcome To Country. This is our freehold farm, not some fuedal concession or mumbo-jumbo safe space.
Ooooh dear. Went from incredulous to furious quite quickly. I’ll note now that-
-most wimmin are paralysed by the need for conformity and social acceptance
-most of what Australia calls “culture” has been captured by the Lizard People
-and like Anthony Daniels has realized, most of the rituals we are asked to kowtow to are designed to humiliate us, because a cowed and ashamed populace is easier to rule over.
“Voice”, “Sorry”, “Welcome To Country”… “Let Her Speak”, “Emily’s List”, “Me Too”… “Organic”, “Regenerative”… “Fair Trade”, “Triple Bottom Line”… “Pride”, “Love is Love”, “Diversity”… “I stand with Ukraine”, “1% for the Planet”… all these are ritualized group grovelling, compliance tests to demonstrate that you have installed the latest updates.
“Voice” is a Rubicon amongst the hashtags. I hope we resist it.
As News Corp’s designed media Labor voter, Joe Hildebrand is Sky News’s twenty-dollar hooker.
C’mon, Joe: tell us how much Ruperdink and his idiot children agreed to pay you as Uncle Luigi’s TV harlot.
Da bruvvas know if they go full Green it’s back to Opposition.
…designed/designated …
Dover
Do national polls really matter or the only thing that counts is polls in the battleground states?
Tom – whenever anyone criticises Fox or Sky and Murdoch666 for the way it is (biased apparently)… I have a very simple line that I use…
“Yes, Murdoch is an idiot for the way he’s stacked those channels. He should do what they’ve done at the ABC, CNN or MSNBC where no diversity of opinion is allowed!”
Over at CL’s place:Another attempt to ‘save democracy’ brought to you by the CIA
Will be keeping an eye on events in Poland.
Oh, I see the “downticker” is back….
Yes Minister meets WA Premier, Roger Cook:
Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals do not have enough patients to fill the 80 beds the state government acquired at the Murdoch medihotel in a $55 million four-year deal with private operator Aegis.
https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/western-australia/fiona-stanley-freo-hospitals-lack-the-patients-for-murdoch-medihotel-20230929-p5e8p1.html
I’m hoping for that.
Rather fervently.
Unfortunately, the Greens presently have a squirrel grip on Uncle Luigi which could make that happen sooner than the bruvvah’s might like.
If Trump is where he is nationally, he’s only going to be doing better than usual in the battleground states. If Trump beat Clinton in Michigan with a Clinton +2.1 nationally, what’s he going to do with a Trump +1?