Bowen is not a human. He is a mere mathematical operation in a larger and more cynical political equation. Oh…
Open Thread – Wed 4 Oct 2023
Pope Set To Hold Press Conference on Aliens and the SupernaturalHe doesn’t appear to be on the same planet as…
WITH YOU on that GreyRanga. Could not love mine more. They tolerate my idiosyncrasies far more than daughter or friends.…
What what did the post contribute? That driving in Portugal is unpleasant and has particular perils? All outlined specifically. I…
I’m surprised Fake diggeynous bwuce the goothse pascoe hasn’t claimed the diggies were playing gayfl for thousands of years.
Good moaning!
Good moaning be barggerd, it is almost an hour until midnight arrives.
No point complaining about global warming in Melbourne!!!
Who feels like
…this evening.
LOL.
I don’t know why they keep saying 65,000 years. The genetic studies consistently point to ~50,000 years. I’ve downloaded this but can’t link it. Behind a wall. Mitogenome: the genetics in mitochondria.
Aboriginal mitogenomes reveal 50,000 years of regionalism in Australia
Aboriginal Australians represent one of the longest continuous cultural complexes known. Archaeological evidence indicates that Australia and New Guinea were initially settled approximately 50 thousand years ago (ka); however, little is known about the processes underlying the enormous linguistic and phenotypic diversity within Australia. Here we report 111 mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) from historical Aboriginal Australian hair samples, whose origins enable us to reconstruct Australian phylogeographic history before European settlement. Marked geographic patterns and deep splits across the major mitochondrial haplogroups imply that the settlement of Australia comprised a single, rapid migration along the east and west coasts that reached southern Australia by 49–45 ka. After continent-wide colonization, strong regional patterns developed and these have survived despite substantial climatic and cultural change during the late Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. Remarkably, we find evidence for the continuous presence of populations in discrete geographic areas dating back to around 50 ka, in agreement with the notable Aboriginal Australian cultural attachment to their country
Aboriginal mitogenomes reveal 50,000 years of regionalism in Australia
Aboriginal Australians represent one of the longest continuous cultural complexes known. Archaeological evidence indicates that Australia and New Guinea were initially settled approximately 50 thousand years ago (ka); however, little is known about the processes underlying the enormous linguistic and phenotypic diversity within Australia. Here we report 111 mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) from historical Aboriginal Australian hair samples, whose origins enable us to reconstruct Australian phylogeographic history before European settlement. Marked geographic patterns and deep splits across the major mitochondrial haplogroups imply that the settlement of Australia comprised a single, rapid migration along the east and west coasts that reached southern Australia by 49–45 ka. After continent-wide colonization, strong regional patterns developed and these have survived despite substantial climatic and cultural change during the late Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. Remarkably, we find evidence for the continuous presence of populations in discrete geographic areas dating back to around 50 ka, in agreement with the notable Aboriginal Australian cultural attachment to their country
…I bolded the bits of conjecture for you, JH.
“Archaeology is the search for facts. Not truth. If it’s truth you’re searching for, the Philosophy class is down the hall.”
-Dr Henry Jones (Jr)
John H
But here’s the thing I don’t quite get about 50,000 or even 100,000 years of “Orginal Owner” residence.
What’s the big scoop if, indeed, people were here? Every freaking continent has/had “original owners”. Perhaps there was more isolation here because it was relatively remote, but this offers nothing in the grand scheme of things. There were folks living here 50 thousand years ago. Okay.
Then a lot more folks came over, starting just under 250 years ago.
The continents are replete with people trampling over others.
Former general and White House chief of staff John Kelly speaks out against his former boss, Donald Trump
Wally Dalí
Oct 4, 2023 12:31 AM
You are right, I don’t understand why this sentence is included.
I also have a strong cultural attachment to our property, didn’t own it for 50 K years but still love it.
Parents, grandparents and more were born and lived there, now I do and I treasure it.
Does it make me an aborigine?
Sometimes you wonder what those learned professors are on about.
It’s just blah blah for me JC. I’ve told friends that there is nothing to be proud about occupying an entire continent for so long and having nothing to show for it. What irritates me is the refusal of politicians and the media to turn around and argue against some of the ludicrous claims about how advanced and spiritual the people here were.
I’m not sure where that reticence to call out indigenous boasts comes from because everyone I know thinks it is mostly piffle. I live a rather isolated life, choose my friends and contacts very carefully, but somewhere out there is a vast mob pushing all this nonsense.
Back in Japan (Kanazawa) after a short sojourn to Busan, Korea.
Impressions:
Korean people love apartments; the place looks like an ant colony. A 3×2 costs about USD$400k … for 100 sq m! Why? It costs too much to heat and cool the average self-contained house.
Japan reminds me of a maiden aunt: clean, neat and tidy, but somewhat threadbare around the edges.
Japan actually bribes its people to buy Japanese cars … up to $6000. Korean cars look better ( purely subjective).
Japanese young girls often = pussy pelmets with thigh-high FM boots. Very distracting.
After much experimentation, I prefer Western food: sosume! ?
Japanese and Korean people are wonderfully patient and overwhelmingly pleasant: so nice.
Next holiday is going to be somewhere without any bloody steps or ramps to climb!
They included that because the genomics points to a surprising degree of genetic localisation. That is even more striking because the mitochondrial DNA is transmitted through the female line and in hunter gatherer tribes females are often exchanged. What appears to have happened in Australia is a very reduced activity of that kind, hence the tribes were not nomads, did not exchange a great deal of genetic material through mating, and hence appear to be unusually localized to a specific region.
I’ve read other studies making the same finding. It might also explain why indigenous people are known to fight with each other. Meanwhile, in the rest of the population, one of the most ethnically varied in the world, everyone is having a good time and not beating each other over the head.
Another important reason is they might want to do follow up studies so gotta keep the natives happy.
They make a big deal out of this attachment to the land, as if it is something unique to them. My response is perhaps trite. We know about that, we even have a song about it. The Green Green Grass of Home.
John H
The story is as old as 2016. Trump mocked McCain, and deservedly so. McCain had a nasty go at him, and Trump hit him back hard.
McCain was a POW and undoubtedly experienced hardship during the time he was captive. He also refused to criticise the US and, therefore, made his stay in captivity much longer. But boy, he played on that throughout his time in politics. There are a few GOP congressmen missing limbs, and we don’t see them playing this organ all the time like McCain.
Kelly is just pushing a barrow of sour grapes because he was booted. I wouldn’t believe the story that Trump didn’t want to be seen with vets missing limbs, etc. That’s just Kelly with a bug up his ass.
It just sounds too contrived.
I vaguely recall this story going back to 2018.
It was reported first in the Atlantic, so it must be true because the Atlantic has never reported any fake news about Trump, except for all the fake news they’ve reported about Trump since 2016.
As usual, no name attached making the allegations. Just another anonymous source, which, being first reported in the Atlantic, means it must be true.
And Kelly is regurgitating this shit.
The military loves Trump, and he’s always loved them back.
Kelly was there, in person. So he is confirming the story first hand rather than “regurgitating”.
Okay, so was Kelly’s name attached to the story in the Atlantic, in 2018?
That;s the Atlantic. They head the story with the suckers comment, which is a dead giveaway for fakenews.
Here’s the Atlantic story.
Here’s the google search page.
Show where Kelly’s name is attached to any of the reporting in these August and uncompromising journals?
Not sure eaactly which Atlantic story you are referring to, This one mentions Kelly
And what difference does it make now – you can believe Kelly or believe a known liar who dodged the draft and thinks military service & sacrifice is for “suckers”
Moreover, the Trump administration was leaking like the Titanic and we’re expected to believe Trump would come out with such a thing to staffers or Kelly himself, who was a former general.
Okay, thanks for the link.
Trump accompanied Kelly to Kelly’s son’s grave, which negates the claims that Trump didn’t want to be seen in cemeteries and with amputees.
Trump was anti-war and anti-Afghanistan war in particular. Of course he believed these soldiers died for nothing and saying “what was in it for them is a kind and gentle comment in keeping with his view on the war there.
From the Courier Mail. A good start.
Fifty people at booths at Cleveland and Victoria Point in Redland, a long-time blue ribbon federal Liberal seat were asked: “What do you think of the Voice to Parliament”.
More than 93 per cent of people said they were voting “no” in the referendum after filling out ballot papers hours after pre-polls opened on Tuesday.
LOL. Read again and think about Kelly’s confirmations and what they reflect on Trump. You strain at a gnat but swallow a camel when it comes to anything critical of the former president.
Check out the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. Continuous emissions everyday. Earth is doing fine.
—
John Stossel:
The FULL Judith Curry Interview: Climate Scientist Says World Won’t End
JC
Oct 4, 2023 1:36 AM
Any quote can be misconstrued specially if uttered at the wrong place and if there is malice involved from the reporter.
I also ask myself why did we get involved in a lot of wars that had nothing to with us?
And with hindsight cost a lot of young lives for nothing.
I’m old enough to remember when some “insider” revealed that Trump spends all day watching TV tuned to a gorilla wrestling channel, coz that’s the only thing on TV he understood.
Among the newsmedia & academia there were more than a few who actually believed this.
That Trump was too dumb to understand anything beyond two gorillas wrasslin’ each other all day long.
John Spooner.
Peter Broelman.
Michael Ramirez.
Matt Margolis.
Steve Kelley.
Tina Norton.
LOL, Bruce WA. After our sojourn in the Alps I’m with you on that, because we did quite a bit of uphill walking just to get around there in the towns, steps everywhere plus ramps. Keeps one yoof-ful and bouncing along though, there is that.
It was easier today down on the flat in Salzburg, where it seems half of Europe is visiting here to honour its great culture hero Amadeus aka Mozart, who wrote a few tunes around the time of Captain Cook or a bit before. From a sociological perspective his paternal family were artisans and shopkeepers on the rise who did well with education and then public service, with music providing Mozart’s dad’s way into higher things. He also married quite well, daughter of a Judge, living in penury with her mother after her father died.
There are two Mozart museums in Salzburg, one in the property where he was born and raised, containing three quite spacious first floor rooms and a kitchen. He and his sister were two survivors from seven born here. With a better income as the child prodigy that was Mozart became famous, the family moved to a whole floor apartment in a more gracious building, and later from there to Vienna under the patronage of Enlightenment Emperor Franz Josef.
There was so much pictorial and written and articfactual material themed concerning Mozart that it became rather too much to take in. My impression from some of his written material and some of the small miniatures of him (one non-profile one in particular) during his lifetime was that a modern psychologist may well be inclined to diagnose autism. He was of course hothoused by his ambitious father, but not without love and affection on both sides, and from his mother too, who died suddenly in his young adulthood.
Couldn’t drag Hairy out of there. He was humming to all the written notation all the way through, and clicking his iphone camera on memorabilia in a way rare for him. He is, needless to say, such a great fan, as were many of the crowd. Me too, truth be
told, though I can’t read nor play a note.
We then walked through the Mirrabella Gardens which feature in the Sound of Music, and where bright orange, cyclamen and purple flowers, a cornucopia of colours of all sorts, bloom frantically large in this Autumnal season. I purchased a small antique enamelled trio of mountain daisies, an Eidelweis pendant, as a keepsake; my only concession to that movie while we are here.
Oh Gawd, he’s wandering round our room in his undies with Doh, a Dear, a Female Deer, and the rest of it, now playing on his ipad. Oh, and here they are in that movie clip in the Mirabella gardens singing it. We took a rest on seats by that same fountain in those gardens today! Away, pants on, let’s go to dinner, I say.
They’ve got a lot more flowerbeds around that fountain now than in the 60’s, I note.
The man in the antique shop told me the flowers were Eidelweis, I say to Hairy. It’s genuine enamelled early nineteenth century.
Sure he didn’t say it was a piece of the True Cross? he quips back.
It wasn’t very expensive. My bargain of the day. Cassie can judge it.
The hotel we are staying in is owned by a woman of middle-years whose family have owned it since the 1880’s or before. The furniture is a mix of modern Scandi design and old antique pieces, all of whic belonged to her family in past generations. Her husband is currently in rehab for a bad back, and she’s managing the place herself (it is fully booked) while he is away. She helped us to find a local garage where they have our car tyre under monitoring. They lowered the pressures all round and the light has now gone off. We going to drive to the Sound of Music high hills above town tomorrow just to give it a test run for them.
Maybe if the tyre is ok we’ll even drive to see the Salt Mines of the Neolithic and later, after which the town is named, the source it is said of Celtic language and Hallstadt culture which spread through Europe. Plentiful salt enabled meat to be salted for the winters, meaning more unseasonable land could be opened up to human habitation.
Thanks Tom. Love those Toons.
It was rather thrilling to go into the second museum, the whole floor apartment that was rather grand, and think of how Mozart composed some of his works there, compositions that garnered the attention of the crowned heads of Europe and live on today (except where loonies such as those in London who cancelled a much loved regular Mozart concert as dead white maledom in favour of some hip hop ravings or some such).
For Vicki and her Cows. All in good fun. ( :
—
Dust:
Sci-Fi Short Film “Daisy” | DUST
Cassie on the old thread early evening said: Everything about Noel Pearson is contrived. He’s a ham actor.
His biography should be titled: The Bully in the Pork Pie Hat.
Sadly, he’s just a mendacious grifter – might not have started out that way but that’s where he’s ended up. He was educated by the Baptists, he’s smart and talks a good game, has been courted by both Labor and Liberal to take a seat in Parliament, his hubristic pride and malice is most unbecoming and boy does it show.
Robert Sewell
Oct 4, 2023 5:58 AM
MatrixTransform
I don’t watch Cadogan any more – he was promoting flashlights the other day. These were being flogged off for hundreds of dollars but available on ebay for $10 – $40.
There’s his integrity blown out his arse in one easy video.
Queensland childcare worker facing allegations over 1,600 offences named as Ashley Paul Griffith, 45
https://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/crime/queensland-childcare-worker-ashley-paul-griffith-45-facing-allegations-over-1600-offences/news-story/4e2adfe16a74f9f933e677c5cd0b0051
The plod seem so certain its all wrapped up.
How can they possibly think that’s the case ?
New OT on Wednesday?
Sneaky sneaky.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/10/just-texas-democrat-rep-henry-cuellar-carjacked-gunpoint/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=2023-10-03
“Texas Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar was carjacked at gunpoint outside his apartment building in Washington D.C. The incident occurred Monday night and has been confirmed by multiple sources.”
Gee. That’s sad. Nevermind, can’t be helped.
I didn’t think the Canadian internet censorship started until the end of the month.
I’m seeing screen shots of the FT & Bloomberg being geo blocked in Canada because they haven’t adhered to the new regime rules (a range of people across the political spectrum sharing the screen shots on different social media).
There’s no aboriginal word for wheel.
“There’s no aboriginal word for wheel.”
So, the Incas and Aztecs didn’t have the wheel.
When it comes to Aboriginal non-advancement, I think it was isolation that prolonged the static nature of Aboriginal societies. They were were cut off and isolated, particularly the Tasmanian Aboriginal. The boomerang was never in Tasmania, nor was the dingo. When you look at human history and technological advancements, they’ve come through interaction with other humans.
“I didn’t think the Canadian internet censorship started until the end of the month.”
Watch that come here.
Does a VPN get around this?
The ATO just happened to release info on super balances just has Chalmers pushes forward with the 30% tax on super balances over $3mill.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-03/more-australians-report-super-balances-over-100-million/102925838
I’ve seen modelling that when this is rolled forward 10-15 years, it will capture 500,000 Australians.
This is exactly how they will introduce CGT on the PPOR.
First it will be, it only impacts a small number of people, then watch the number grow over a decade or two.
And similar to the tax on super, they will play silly buggers.
That is, unrealised gains are taxed but there is no benefit if there are unrealised losses.
And if your balance drops year on year, there is no benefit for previous years additional tax.
A month ago I was at a bbq at place in Point Piper.
A good guy I know who inherited a lot & is very conscious of that.
Unfortunately his wife is an idiot.
The super tax was raised and the idiot wife piped up with “if you have 3mill in super you should be taxed more”.
I’ll remind her of this view when CGT on PPOR is introduced considering their place would be in the 20mill+ price range.
A question for the ages.
And the subject of poetry, fiction and history and many…many conversations.
I can’t see the problem, except that everything Trump says is filtered through the worst possible seive.
Didn’t earn it. Doesn’t value it.
Translates into lots of other stuff, not just super.
I see the phantom downticker is up early.
“The super tax was raised and the idiot wife piped up with “if you have 3mill in super you should be taxed more”.
I’ll remind her of this view when CGT on PPOR is introduced considering their place would be in the 20mill+ price range.”
She clearly voted Teal last May. Wentworth is full of such women.
Who are the “twelve” downtickers jumping on Winston?
Are none of them smart enough to mount a counter argument?
Grow up.
Bruce, that sounds like a cruise I was on some years ago. My suggestion about visiting Japan is to go in spring.
I note the Oz has a story on the Disability Royal Commission, a commission which in itself is “disabled”, and one its far-left Commissioners, “Rhonda Galbally”, has come out as follows…
A disability royal commissioner is urging Labor to make funding for private schools conditional on how well they integrate disabled children, in a bid to begin reducing the segregation of students in the near term.
Commissioner Rhonda Galbally, one of the three royal commissioners to call for special schools to be phased out by 2051, said the government had levers at its disposal to pressure the private school system to enrol more disabled students.
Her comments come as advocates of “desegregation” call for the $2.7bn spent annually on special schools to be redirected into training teachers and employing aides in mainstream classrooms.”
“We (the royal commission) have been criticised for not addressing private schools, but the federal government is in a very good position, with its funding of private schools, to make inclusion of children with disability part of the terms and conditions,” Dr Galbally told The Australian.”
Firstly, special schools are NOT “segregated schools”, interesting they choose such a divisive and emotive word, all designed to blubberise the issues. It’s utterly absurd and ridiculous to equate such schools with race segregation. There are schools, like the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, designed for children with particular needs. They are fantastic schools. No, this is about attacking private religious schools, attacking parents to choose to send their children to such schools. And as the left do so well, it’s about dumbing down schools. Phasing out special schools is insanity.
Secondly, and this is the truly sinister aspect, the above statement by Galbally, rich in Marxism, is part of the left’s war on private schools and private hospitals, particularly religious schools and religious hospitals. This is a continuation of what we saw in the ACT with Calvary. Galbally’s words aren’t about assisting disabled children, it’s about declaring war on private schooling.
The Oz doesn’t have comments open.
And still they wonder why inflation keeps on keeping on? .. Woolies this morning …
“Homebrand” dry catfood $5kg .. Last week $4kg .. 3 weeks ago $3kg …..
Cassie/Calli:
JC is convinced I’m the downticker and in his mind I’m probably downticking my own posts to throw the hounds off the scent.
It reminds of an incident during WW2 when the Japanese Americans were being interned in the US – A leading defence official remarked that there had been less sabotage of transport infrastructure on the West Coast than in the East. He also remarked that “We actually find that quite suspicious.”
I suppose that to a paranoid, everything is evidence of … whatever you want it to be evidence for.
Record dry conditions in Sept have been replaced by record rainfall in many parts of Vic. Fires in the east will be bucketed with rain today.
BoM predicted 5mm or less in the Mallee a day ago and yet many central and eastern parts of the region received 30-50mm.
We had 22mm and that should finish off the heading and filling crops nicely. Cut hay took a whack but that’s life on the farm.
Weather is best reported not preached.
“You strain at a gnat but swallow a camel when it comes to anything critical of the former president.”
Yeah Kamala, much like you strain at a gnat but swallow a camel when it comes to anything positive of the former president.
We were there in the summer of 1991 with our then teenage daughters who loved the sights but soon lost interest. The last visit there was late autumn 2019 when it was cold, misty and wet. It was hard to see get excited when trying to keep dry and warm. Sunny and warm Barcelona, where we flew next, was gorgeous and a wonderful start to our four week cruise that eventually took us through Panama Canal and on to Los Angeles.
Even the stopover in LA before boarding a flight home also had a fin de siècle aura about it, nothing like the robust LA of previous visits. It had the feel of genteel decrepitude.
It really gives me the shiites with people that think you should pay a higher rate of tax if you earn more. Would these same people going to the supermarket pay more for an item just because they earn more. Welfare on the scale we have has ruined every country that embraces it. Safety nets should not be a lifestyle choice.
A great line, I’ll use that with a general attribution.
McCarthy gorne!
RINO goes back to the RINO herd.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Monday the sweeping success of a weeklong statewide human trafficking operation, aptly named ‘Operation Buyer’s Remorse.’ The operation aimed to arrest individuals attempting to purchase sex and identify survivors of human trafficking.
Over 100 Survivors Rescued and 160 Arrests Made in North East Ohio Human Trafficking Sting, Including EMTs, Nurses, and Educators
Great sympathy to those who have battled bushfires in the south of NSW & to those who have lost houses. Having been through the Gospers Mt range fire of a few years ago, & recollection of my father having his legs burned when his overalls caught fire in a backburn when I was a child, I have a horror of bushfires. Our local brigade put out a small grass fire about 4K from us last week, so we are on alert.
Meantime it has been a very warm Spring. So warm that we returned from a trip to Sydney to find one of our chooks seemingly expired from heat stress since the poplars that shade the run have not leafed yet! She was still breathing, but unconscious, so I lay her on a wet towel in the chookhouse & sprinkled water under her feathers. I expected to find her dead this morning, but amazingly, husband just returned from checking to find her up & about as normal! Absolutely astonishing, as I expected we would have a dead chook this morning!
reminds me of one too.
where trying to stooge the Allies, the Chermans built a whole faked wooden airfield complete with wooden* fake airplanes
so the Allies bombed it
with a single fake wooden bomb
* may have actually been Lego instead of wood
Could not agree more. Out late son thrived in a special school even though his “normal” school were doing everything possible for him. When it was closed down and replaced by a special education unit he did not do as well.
Lizzie, just go to a Bridgestone (or equivalent) and have the tyre replaced. It will save you a hell of a lot of worry. Had the same thing happen on our SUV in Utah. Flat, worn tyres. Because SUV AWD all the tyres had to be replaced and did battle with the hire company over it.
We were prepared to replace at our own expense just to get on with things safely, but the Beloved had a rare victory and the hire co paid.
Not worth spoiling your holiday over.
There’s no aboriginal word for wheel.
Wheely? I neva nu that.
the green grift is not about solving problems
This is what I’ve been saying for decades –
More Race Baiting in the OZ.
Even Frank Brennan thinks the government has stuffed up the InVoice campaign.
#PlasmidGate: Plasmid DNA in Pfizer and Moderna injections can enter the nucleus of our cells in 5 different ways
I’m sure there’s no aboriginal word for lots of things. Just as they have words for plants and animals and landform that early settlers didn’t have.
It isn’t a strong argument – no need for the wheel because nothing to pull a cart with. What is more interesting is the seeming absence of bows and arrows.
You’d expect “news” like this to be headlining across the media but, surprisingly, only seems to be carried by the Mail Online & even then … way down the page ……..!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12589429/chinese-sailors-trap-yellow-sea.html
And, speaking of holidays, I’m just typing up our northern lights and Christmas markets extravaganza itinerary for Nov-Dec.
My teeth are chattering already just looking at photos of Prague in winter. It better be good. 😀
Let’s hope he’s right.
The War is Ending, and Canada Lauds a Nazi as a Ukrainian Hero. Scott Ritter
Trudeau’s Liberals Paid WEF For Report Justifying Climate Change Policies.
Good on David Limrick, once again keeping pressure on re gender transitioning and the law. Article from The Oz.
Moira Deeming also involved in this group.
Government spending is taxation. When you look at this, I’ve never heard of a poor person spending himself into prosperity; let alone I’ve never heard of a poor person taxing himself into prosperity.
– Arthur Laffer
They are coming after our kids.
Warm coat, gloves, sox, boots and hat will see you through with flying colours, Calli. 🙂
Finland in January was fine once these were donned – oh, and a wooly scarf too for the windy times.
Benny Johnson
@bennyjohnson
This is the politics of controlled demolition.
The Left is attempting to usher in a new America— a Marxist America.
And THIS is what they are attempting to bring to this nation: a weaponized judicial system.
They are putting their full weight against Donald Trump, he’s facing 91 felonies.
They’re coming after Elon Musk for daring to criticize Joe Biden.
They’ll come after every single person who comes after the regime unless we put a stop to it.
Exhibit 1 –
Jack Poso
@JackPosobiec
Trump Judge: If juries get it wrong, I can overrule them based on my emotions about the case
Gaetz defeats McCarthy. Brilliant.
Emerald Robinson
@EmeraldRobinson
Kevin McCarthy has now been removed as Speaker of the House — it’s the first time a transparent charlatan posing as a member of the GOP has not been allowed to sell out the vital interests of his own voters like Boehner and Ryan and Hastert.
It’s a great day for America First.
Catturd ™
@catturd2
The Young Guns are now the Done Guns.
No slingshots either.
We did that in Lincoln in our May 2022 UK trip (first one out after lockdown) when we had a nail stuck in a tyre. It was changed pronto. Trouble with this is that computer says no, and no-one can work out why, or which tyre if any is causing a problem, so we are just taking it day by day with our nice garage man checking the pressures daily (he is Pakistani and was watching the cricket – amazing to hear this English commentary here in a Salzburg workshop). Luckily we have a couple of days here to do the checking, but it must be solved before we take off into further mountains in Germany, briefly, before returning to Italy and handing this vehicle over at Trieste prior to our cruise. We have full insurance on the car so whatever needs to be done should be done, it’s just a time issue that is problematic.
In Britain we didn’t have full insurance, but paying for the tyre ourselves still worked out cheaper than the insurance cost there, which was sky high for full insurance so we only took the basic major accident stuff there.
A great accomplishment for Gaetz. It seems many people have underestimated him though I believe persecution of Trump and now Musk has woken up a lot of Republicans.
McCarthy miscalculated on a galactic scale when he gave the deep state everything they wanted. I think whoever is the new Speaker will not go along to get along. Could we hope for a change here as well?
Fury as Minneapolis’ ‘woke’ DA Mary Moriarty allows accused rapists and killers to stay free — too much even for Soros-backed AG
They did not have a word for wheel because they had forgotten it.
Bruce Pascoe discovered, from the lack of any road network or evidence of trackways, that Aborigines had discovered anti-gravity levitation technologies. In fact from there being no evidence of roads or trackways it is reasonable to construe that the whole country was abuzz from coast to coast with traffic.
Until whitey came along, blew up the factories and the vehicles and then covered it all up in their reports and diaries.
Half of England ladies’ angling team quit after trans woman ‘with hands like shovels’ and who used to be a rugby player is selected to join their squad for physically demanding fishing championship
Well, Droll Pearson says that being indigenous is not based on race, so whilst you might not be an aboriginal, you certainly seem to be indigenous.
Nolte: High-Profile Leftists Victimized by Violent Crime – Now Will Democrats Care?
This is what we’ve come to.
Largest EV Charging Station In World Powered By Diesel-Powered Generators
My money is on CMD Longtime Lurker.
Crossie
Oct 4, 2023 8:41 AM
Don’t know about the slingshots, but I disagree about the wheel.
There were people to pull or push a wheeled contrivance and they must have observed that a round rock was easier to push about than a square one, yet nothing happened.
A wheelbarrow can carry twice the weight than a man can carry on his back if not more.
Sorry to be negative on this point and many others, one thing, is they survived but always limited in numbers and lucky that no natural disasters have taken place.
But luck has its run too. Only a matter of time, in this case it was over the odds.
Over 277,000 COVID-19 Cases in 2021 in the Vaccinated Hidden by CDC: Files
I don’t know why Republicans still vote to keep the government open. Don’t fund it until you get dramatic cuts. 3 months, 6 months, 12 months…. and wait. Eventually the grifters will run out of money and will do a deal.
What tools and materials do you need to make even a rudimentary wheel? I think the answer may lie there.
Indigenous Australians didn’t think of the wheel because they had domesticated kangaroos.
Not ideal for pulling carts.
That what VDH said to Tucker in the latest inverview.
“We’re In The Middle Of A Revolution” – Victor Davis Hanson Warns Tucker: “The Next 12 Months Will Be The Most Explosive In History” (3 Oct)
The Tucker-VDH video is included in the story.
Reading that you’d think CO2 scrubbers and O2 generators
haven’t been standard kit on upholstered sewer pipes
for going on eighty years.
All Hail The Uniparty’s Demise—Bring It On, RFK!
DAVID STOCKMAN
OCT 3
It was a banner weekend. The hapless House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, triggered a veritable civil war within the GOP by surrendering to the bipartisan spenders’ caucus, while the scion of America’s most venerated political family stormed out of the Dems’ corruption-besotted encampment on the Potomac to continue his run for president as an independent candidate of the people.
So suddenly and thankfully, the malefic Washington Uniparty is on the ropes. Imperial Washington is under siege. America’s long nightmare of war, welfare, debt, financialization, bureaucratic tyranny, cancel culture and crony capitalist corruption may finally be coming to at least the beginning of the end.
History will show that the inflection point was the cold turkey demise of the Uniparty’s bootless Ukrainian project. The fact is, RFK’s independent candidacy is the political death knell for its current sponsors—that is, “Joe Biden” and the beltway War Party careerists who have saddled America with this pointless, shameful, financially-ruinous incarnation of yet another Forever War. And the coming House GOP fratricide virtually guarantees that the open-ended $115 billion ratline to Kiev will abruptly run dry for want of Congressional action.
Then the dominoes will fall—in a good way. The Ukrainian government and military—which is being funded down to the last civilian fireman and military MRE kit (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) from Uncle Sam’s depleted bank account—-will collapse in chaos, possibly even before this season’s freeze of the Pontic steppes is over.
Thereafter will follow a hasty peace conference and partition of the Ukrainian state. Hooray!…
The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters Volume 53 – 13 Pages
Number 3 Volume 53, Number 3 (2023) AutumnIssue
Article 10 8-25-2323
A Call to Action: Lessons fr o Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the F aine for the Future Force
ABSTRACT:
Fifty years ago, the US Army faced a strategicinflection point after a failed counterinsurgency effort in Vietnam.
In response to lessons learned from the Yom Kippur War, the
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command was created
to reorient thinking and doctrine around the conventional Soviet
threat. Today’s Army must embrace the Russo-Ukrainian conf lict
as an opportunity to reorient the force into one as forward-thinking
and formidable as the Army that won Operation Desert Storm.
This article suggests changes the Army should make to enable
success in multidomain large-scale combat operations at today’s
strategic inflection point.
The general gist of their chief point of concern is something we’ve all known, and something I’ve continuously written about, including in the previously posted report.
It’s the fact that the past two decades of U.S. military action abroad have been nothing more than glorified policing actions against insurgent threats, dealing primarily with COIN (Counter Insurgency) training, tactics, and general strategic doctrine.
They now understand that years of fighting in a way where signal dominance and air supremacy reigned, allowed the U.S. to become undisciplined and lax, never having to worry about being ‘contested’ in any domain. This is the same point made by Dr. Philip Karber’s West Point Talk, where he repeatedly emphasized how bright the U.S. army’s rear logistical and C2/C3 points “glow” in the electromagnetic spectrum, and how easily this would be seen and pinpointed by Russia or any advanced peer force.
The Russia-Ukraine War makes it clear that the electromagnetic signature emitted from the command posts of the past 20 years cannot survive against the pace and precision of an adversary who possesses sensor-based technologies, electronic warfare, and unmanned aerial systems or has access to satellite imagery.
Quoting JRTC’s (Joint Readiness Training Center) Brigadier General David Gardner, this article states:
In turn, Army formations are learning to adjust, including by using their communications equipment as little as possible. “In the past, it was only scouts that would go into radio silence, ” Gardner said. “Now we’re seeing that across entire formations.”
Formations are also adapting by changing up their communications—using parabolic antennas to direct radio waves, using fiber-optic cables, and trying to match the pattern of other signals traffic in the area so as to not stand out, Taylor said.
Gardner’s chief point of concern about the modern battlefield is the completely “transparent nature” of it—nothing you do can truly be concealed, at least not with any measure of ease and not without great disproportionate effort.
Turning back to the War College report, we now come to the most eye-opening part which has been making the rounds across the internet.
The stark admission that facing such an unprecedented high-intensity war as the Ukrainian conflict, the U.S. can expect to suffer 3,600 casualties per day:
For context, the United States sustained about 50,000 casualties in two decades of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. In large-scale combat operations, the United States could experience that same number of casualties in two weeks.
Firstly, this seems an interesting admission of what they likely believe Ukraine’s true daily casualty rate to be, including all total wounded. But perhaps also an admission that the U.S. can end up suffering even higher casualties because they don’t currently have the capability to disperse and de-centralize with the efficacy that Ukraine manages. Not to mention a general understanding that in a war between U.S. and Russia, the latter would not be fighting with ‘kid gloves’ in the way it’s currently doing with Ukraine, which it views as a fraternal brother war and has certain mission priorities to reduce civilian casualties and infrastructure damage in a land it intends to occupy and annex afterwards. All of that would go out the window against the U.S. or NATO.
But put that in perspective. That’s the official Army War College admitting that against Russia, they would suffer in a single day more casualties than they suffered in the entirety of the twenty-year-long Afghan war (2001-2021). This should tell you how profoundly disturbed U.S. planners secretly have been by Russia’s capabilities in the Ukrainian conflict.
In a mere two weeks, the U.S. can suffer 50k casualties, according to the report. But the biggest issue here is they foresee a need of 800 daily recruits to sustain such a war, yet they call attention to major deficiencies in the current reserve system:
The Individual Ready Reserve, which stood at 700,000 in 1973 and 450,000 in 1994, now stands at 76,000.
It goes on:
These numbers cannot fill the existing gaps in the active force, let alone any casualty replacement or expansion during a large-scale combat operation. The implication is that the 1970s concept of an all-volunteer force has outlived its shelf life and does not align with the current operating environment. The technological revolution described below suggests this force has reached obsolescence. Large-scale combat operations troop requirements may well require a reconceptualization of the 1970s and 1980s volunteer force and a move toward partial conscription.
What’s most interesting is that this release comes amid a timely and clearly coordinated push from other publications to begin conditioning the U.S. public for the need of a new future draft to restock the depleted American armed forces.
They argue that confidence in the military is at its lowest and that the branches can’t fill their yearly quotas of recruits. A “limited draft” could help them catch their numbers up. This happens to jibe with the War College report which states that:
the US Army is facing a dire combination of a recruiting shortfall and a shrinking Individual Ready Reserve. This recruiting shortfall, nearly 50 percent in the combat arms career management fields, is a longitudinal problem. Every infantry and armor soldier we do not recruit today is a strategic mobilization asset we will not have in 2031.
In short, they are thinking toward future conflicts and have already identified that America won’t have even close to the required number of ‘bodies’ to take on a competent adversary.
Now, quelle surprise, the War College report agrees with the following admission:
The implication is that the 1970s concept of an all-volunteer force has outlived its shelf life and does not align with the current operating environment.
The technological revolution described below suggests this force has reached obsolescence.
Large-scale combat operations troop requirements may well require a reconceptualization of the 1970s and 1980s volunteer force and a move toward partial conscription.
No Plan B?
What say we go back to assimilation into the mainstream?
You’ve done pretty well out of it.
Two interesting articles from Politico yesterday.
Firstly, in the continuing crusade to rewrite history, particularly that of WWII, (in order to assist Justin “Mammy” Trudeau-Castro), just because you fought against the Russians, you were not necessarily a Nazi.
I guess that goes double, for the Waffen SS.
Next week, they will probably condemn Russia, for dropping those two A bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “How dare they!”
Secondly, after having gotten hold of “secret” documents, they say that, (now you’d better sit down, ……, this is a shocker), Ukraine is corrupt!
Mon dieu! Who would have thought?
That such thoughts are now being expressed publicly, obviously with the approval of that transvestite O-Bummer, or whoever is actually running the show, is significant.
See if you can arrange these three words in a sentence;
‘elensky,
bus and
under.
Never be in hurry to buy? I recently required a special tool. It would have expanded an already extensive set. $96 + freight for it locally. Looked on ebay, Temu, Amazon etc. Poor quality and as I only needed it for one job and the part I am making is $127 + freight anyway. I have found this morning a complete set made in Germany for $97 freight included. Someone has obviously brought stock from Germany from a business doing it tough or closed down. Prices are all over the place as well as quality. I notice the price difference between Aldi and Colesworth getting greater. Woolies will soon be able to rebrand themselves as Woolies Select or No Choice as the name brands are disappearing. 50,000 different Coke and chip varieties if your diet consists of sugar and salt. How many do they need? No wonder as a nation we’re fat and sick.
calli
Oct 4, 2023 9:04 AM
Sorry again calli, but the same tools and materials other prehistoric people had.
But if you ignore those materials, then you are stuck for ever with what you have, which is fine as long nothing unusual happens.
My point is, if it needs to be emphasized, is that they had no interest in invention, not even when offered by outsiders.
Total apathy.
And that is evident today in the genuine aboriginal community who live in a stagnant pool.
Burn me.
I suspect the”us” he is referring to are the aboriginal urban aristocracy and I fervently hope it is a disaster for them. The only hope for remote communities and disaffected aboriginal youth is integration. As that aboriginal guy said on Q and A, you should not need all the duplicated government agencies to help sick or those in trouble, the mainstream departments should be able to treat all. Duplication is just waste of resources.
‘Stubborn’ Labor offers no compromises on $3m super tax
Industry players also warned the tax will potentially hit more people than suggested, as draft laws released on Tuesday confirmed it would not be indexed.
Hannah Wootton – Reporter
The Albanese government has dug in on its controversial plan to tax unrealised gains on earnings from superannuation balances over $3 million, with industry experts and the opposition slamming Labor for failing to take on stakeholder feedback.
Industry players also warned that the new tax will potentially hit many more Australians than Labor has suggested, as draft legislation released on Tuesday confirmed the measure would not be indexed.
The legislation, if passed, would establish a new tax known as a ‘division 296 tax liability’ which an additional 15 per cent tax rate on the earnings of super accounts over $3 million, proportionate to how much of their balances are over that threshold.
But while Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Tuesday that the laws were “modest” and in line with the government’s plan to make superannuation more “equitable and sustainable”, parts of the sector said he had failed to take on board their concerns.
SMSF Association chief executive Peter Burgess said the government had not acted on concerns raised by accountants and other experts.
“We weren’t expecting the government to back away from the $3 million threshold but we did remain optimistic that they would change their measurement of earnings,” he said.
Labor first proposed taxing unrealised gains as part of the reforms in March, but faced widespread criticism from tax experts who warned it could force investors to sell illiquid assets such as property to fund the tax.
“But they haven’t done that … instead, they’ve used an artificial calculation of earnings and will give rise to many unintended consequences and bizarre outcomes.
“We don’t think it’s the right approach, and they don’t have to do it – it’s not difficult for super funds to report actual taxable incomes.”
Mr Burgess suggested that the government was not serious about taking on feedback on the tax, noting that it had granted just two weeks for feedback on the proposed legislation.
This follows the earlier consultation period for the proposal in April, which was also just a fortnight.
RSM Australia national director of superannuation, Katie Timms, said that the government had been “stubborn” in sticking to its original proposals and agreed the consultation period was too short.
“It does not change the definition of earnings and stubbornly maintains its original and illogical position that Australians should pay tax on unrealised superannuation gains,” she said.
Ms Timms also warned that farmers and small business owners would be “disproportionately impacted” by taxing unrealised gains given they generally held the commercial properties from which they operated in their funds, which could not be easily liquidated to pay tax debts.
“I would challenge whether the bill is in indeed consistent with the government’s objective for superannuation, that being to deliver retirement incomes in an equitable way,” she said. “This legislation needs the Senate to run a fine tooth comb over it.”
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said that taxing unrealised gains was “not right for the times” given the strain currently faced by many small businesses and households with SMSFs.
Edge of the wedge
He also warned that the tax will include significantly more Australians than the 80,000 predicted to be hit in its first year as it is not indexed, accusing Labor of using the public’s retirement savings “as a honey pot to be raided”.
Just 0.5 per cent of people with super funds have balances over $3 million, but earlier modelling suggests the 30 per cent tax rate could apply to 10 per cent of super savers within 30 years, without indexation.
“The idea that this policy change will only affect older Australians and the super-wealthy is deliberately deceptive,” Mr Taylor said.
“For a 20-year-old Australian on average earnings, they will be caught by this tax in the future and that will be pain down the track and superannuation is all about money down the track.”
Chartered Accountants ANZ superannuation leader Tony Negline said that it was “disappointing” that the government was not indexing the threshold despite it being one of “a laundry list of issues” raised in the proposal’s original consultation.
Super fund customers with these high balances will be able to pay the extra tax from their account balances even if they do not meet other conditions for accessing their superannuation such as retirement, or from other savings.
The draft legislation also confirmed that they will be able to carry forward losses to offset any major gains in future years. Mr Negline said this was “an important feature” as it meant that they could be extended periods of asset price fluctuation where the tax was not payable.
“But our initial modelling showed that the tax can be quite hard to plan for and can be quite lumpy, so it’ll be a difficult tax to manage in practice,” he added.
Federal judges exempt
The legislation also confirmed that judges will be spared from the tax because the Constitution does not allow the government to change the remuneration of any judges in Commonwealth courts while they are still on the bench. This means that any appointed before July 1, 2025, when the new tax kicks in, are exempt.
Historic rules designed to protect defined benefit schemes also exclude customers of some state public service schemes and judges from paying any additional tax from those products, though the legislation still said they would be included in calculating balances over $3 million.
Mr Taylor suggested this compromised the equity of the proposed tax: “Australians will pay different rates of tax on their super depending on what job they have – even if their income is equal.”
There’s no aboriginal word for wheel.
Forget the high tech wheel. In (apparently) 60,000 years they couldn’t even make a hat or a pair of sunglasses. What they heck were they doing in all that time?
Bern the didgyknees had squares instead of wheels on their carts to suit the bouncing kangaroos. It was bad news if they got out of sync though. I’ve been proof reading Juice* Pascoe’s new book so I know what I’m talking about. *have to be on the juice to write the rubbish he does.
‘There is no plan A’ for the ‘Yes’ campaign, only ‘demands’: Malcom Roberts
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts says “there is no plan A” for the ‘Yes’ campaign as polling suggests more voters intend to vote ‘No’ for the Voice referendum.
Mr Roberts’ remarks follow leading ‘Yes’ campaigner Noel Pearson insisting “there’s no plan B” if the ‘No’ vote gets up, which “will be a disaster for all of us”.
“There is a simple blind request – just give us more money, set us up lock us into the constitution so you can never take us out,” Mr Roberts told Sky News host Caleb Bond.
“Lock us in forever – that’s their plan A, no plan at all, just a demand.
“They’ve never given us any detail instead they’ve given us celebrities, emotion, lies, distortions, exaggerations, fear; that’s what they’ve given us.”
https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/peta-credlin/tanya-plibersek-absolutely-scared-of-the-truth-in-mildura/video/b8e7154c4ad621735e452d59755a98f1
Grape Grower Greg Milner says Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek would be “absolutely scared” to front up to farmers in Mildura because “she is afraid of the truth”.
Farmers in the Mildura region have rallied against Ms Plibersek’s plan to extract 450 gigalitres of water off their plantations ahead of a likely drought period – a move described as jeopardising Australia’s food security.
“She wouldn’t be able to have an answer for the truth that is here,” Mr Milner told Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin.
“Too often politicians sit in Canberra, they listen to their bureaucratic advisors and they tell them what to do and they just go down the party line.
“It has got nothing to do with science, it is all to do with vote collecting.
“People were upset about paying $11 for a lettuce – well if this buyback goes ahead, you’ll be paying $15 a lettuce, you’ll be paying $6 or $7 for an avocado, you won’t be able to get any orange juice.”
Thanks for posting OldOzzie at 9:25am.
I couldn’t be bothered cutting and pasting from the AFR anymore.
Too many ads, related stories & stock quotes to delete.
I’m surprised the bruvvers haven’t tapped Dim Chalmers coz a lot of them will have that much with the high rates of grift in the construction industry.
Don’t be sorry, Gabor. To make a rudimentary wheel, you need some method of shaping and cutting wood, something a bit more advanced than flints, rope and fire.
So we come to tool making and metallurgy, which was beyond their ken. They were still in the stone age, using tools typical of peoples long gone in the rest of the world.
There must have been a need, because carrying loads is tiring and burns much needed calories. So the only answer to survival was to carry minimal loads (including the young or infirm) and move on to another food rich area.
We are making the same point, just from different directions.
Rita Panahi:
Zulu gave us Gillard speaking to some London event but didn’t know they had a drag queen. Wowee.
I read an article about the proposed phasing out of special schools.
One father was adamantly against it due to his son’s experience of being locked in a ‘walk in robe’ during his periodic meltdowns.
Of course no-one who dreads the impact on the education of non disabled children got to have a say.
It’s equality of outcomes.
Incidentally, what do they propose for selective entry high schools?
Don’t forget the thinly veiled threats.
‘Another day, another tax’: The hefty new government cash grab the premier didn’t even know was coming
Millions of Australians will be subjected to yet another big new tax – a move the premier didn’t even know was coming. The cash grab has sparked a furious backlash.
A surprise new tax has sparked shock and anger in Victoria, with even the state’s new premier reportedly caught unaware.
Treasurer Tim Pallas announced the Vacant Residential Land Tax at a property industry function yesterday, which will slug the owners of homes left unoccupied for more than six months with a financial penalty.
The move, which will apply to empty properties and undeveloped land right across Victoria from 2025 and is part of a suite of measures in response to the housing crisis, has been met with fury.
Premier Jacinta Allan, who entered the top job on Monday following the resignation of Daniel Andrews, was unaware of the new tax, according to reports.
“If the Premier didn’t know she should sack the treasurer if he’s just now freewheeling about tax rises,” Sky News host Paul Murray said on his show last night.
“That is a bad start to a new government.”
Ms Allan later insisted in parliament that she was across the details, however Assistant Treasurer Danny Pearson conceded he had been unaware of the policy.
“Multiple members of staff did not know,” Murray said on his show.
Late on Tuesday afternoon, several hours after his surprise announcement at the Property Council breakfast, Mr Pallas issued a press release with more details of the policy.
He then fronted the media, saying: “This is for substantial lots of land that are to be provided in bulk to the community. That is, land banking, that’s what we’re trying to knock out.”
However, he could not say what land sizes or values would see a tax applied.
Talkback host Tom Elliott from 3AW took to the airwaves to slam the measure, asking: “When is the government going to realise that new taxes are not always the answer?”
The timing of the move and the fact that no-one expected it, including in the government, was telling, Elliott added.
“Another day, another new tax in Victoria.”
It was recently revealed Victorians pay more tax per person than anywhere else in the country – an average of $5638, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
Even social media star and rental advocate Jordie van den Berg, the man behind the popular online sensation Sh** Rentals, is dubious.
“The problem with the vacant residential land tax in Victoria is that it relies on landlords to self-report their land banking, which then makes them pay a tax,” Mr van den Berg wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Landlords will never do this, so unless the expansion of this tax replaces self-reporting with actual enforcement, it will again, do nothing.
“Tim Pallas, will you enforce this tax?”
An unnamed senior property industry figure told the Herald Sun newspaper that the new land tax would likely backfire.
“This will disincentivise the supply of new housing, which is what the government has apparently forgotten in the two weeks since the release of the Housing Statement.”
That statement, a bold vision to build 2.2 million new homes across Victoria by 2051, was released late last week and warmly welcomed by the property sector.
Cath Evans, the executive director of the Property Council’s Victorian division, said the land tax undermines the spirit of partnership that the statement aimed to foster.
“Industry went into this partnership in good faith with the understanding that there will be consultation on any reforms going forward that affect the availability of housing stock,” Ms Evans told the Guardian.
“There has not been good faith in the execution of the agreement to date.”
It isn’t a strong argument – no need for the wheel because nothing to pull a cart with. What is more interesting is the seeming absence of bows and arrows.
Indeed. I think it can be dangerous to look at non-European cultures with “European eyes”. I’m reluctant to use mumbo jumbo “colonialist” language about history however we do tend to look at non-European cultures, be it the Australian Aboriginal, the Inca or the Inuit through a Euro prism and this can be foolish.
For example, we might think that the Vikings, who settled Iceland and Greenland from the 800s were advanced, and more advanced than a people like the Inuit. However the Greenland Vikings, who died out, were unwilling/unable to adapt to worsening climatic conditions whereas the seemingly less advanced Inuit, who were in Greenland at the same time as the Vikings, were much better skilled and equipped for the changing conditions. There is clear evidence that the Greenland Vikings refused to learn from the Inuit, there was little interaction and what interaction occurred was hostile.
Human history advances through human interaction. We learn from each other.
Reality bites.
On the absence of bows and arrows…the thinking is that there was unsuitable timber to make the things.
I’m not buying that for a second. Just about any sapling is suitable to make a bow, even with a sharpened flint and a string of pounded and stripped leaves. Dilly bags were made of them after all. As for arrows, same – sharpened flint, a notch and a tightened string (made even tighter over a fire).
I wonder what Chinese investors think of this tax, since it will disproportionately fall onto them?
Pallas may have just undone all the work Wong did to persuade Xi to reduce tariffs.
And the Neolithic Revolution – the transition from hunting & gathering to farming, settlements, the domestication of animals and so on, providing the preconditions for the development of Bronze Age civilisation – bypassed the Australian continent.
No.
Aborigines in north Queensland and the NT traded with Torres Strait Islanders and Indonesians respectively. Both of the latter groups were much more advanced technologically and in other ways, such as growing crops and raising livestock.
Yet, the Aborigines were not the least bit interested in acquiring or using the knowledge which would have greatly raised their living standards. What’s more, the traders had to come to them, as they weren’t interested in learning seafaring either.
The cultures of all the disparate tribal Aboriginal groups involved had one thing in common – rigidity and hostility to new ideas.
Yes here be aforementioned drag queen. Nice name, Karla Bear. Get it? Oh my aching sides.
Seriously, this is what they really think of black fellas here. I wonder if Pearson et al know about this absolute farce.
johanna
Yet that unadventurous “culture” now claims pseudo-religious links to areas between 100 and 400 kms offshore., both in the Darwin area (Tiwi Islands) and the Pilbara.
Speaking of drag queens.
Presumably the same data release which revealed that Victorians have the second lowest rate of disposable household income in Australia, behind Tasmania.
Democracy, good and hard.
Bruce in WA: Next holiday is going to be somewhere without any bloody steps or ramps to climb!
Holland?
Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi – 4th October 2023
St. Francis of Assisi died on Oct. 3, 1226. Pope Gregory IX, his friend and devotee, canonized him in 1228.
Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
“What tools and materials do you need to make even a rudimentary wheel?”
A round rock, and enough energy to punch a hole in the middle. Guess there just weren’t enough suitable rocks in Australia.
The suffering of the UK punter seems to have no end in sight.
Witness this absurd statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt:
Firstly, it’s not ‘extra money.’ It’s their money.
Secondly, how does he know that they will spend it, rather than saving or investing it – something the government definitely won’t do. Which leads me to …
Thirdly, how come private spending is inflationary, but Government spending is not?
This bloke is not fit to run the tuckshop till, let alone a national economy. Why on earth is he in the job?
THEY.ARE.COMING.FOR.YOUR.SUPER
damon
Oct 4, 2023 10:19 AM
If Fred Flintstone could do it anyone could. /s
Roger, Victoria is well past that point and well into Alexis de Tocqueville’s post-democratic world where a demagogue (Daniel Andrews) was able to impose a revolution in which the peasants are able to use government to appropriate wealth for themselves by stealing from the rich.
Except the peasants never actually get the wealth, which ends up in the hands of the demagogues who design the revolution.
(Having successfully wrecked the joint, Andrews has now retired to play golf on a huge pension paid for by the peasants.)
Yabba dabba doo!
Punch a square hole, add a couple of sticks and you have TV!
The UK is experiencing more severe cost of living pressures and inflation than we are.
He’s probably right on that, at least – many people would have little choice but to spend a tax cut.
Yesterday he conceded that quantitative easing during covid was more inflationary than expected.
While he wasn’t chancellor at the time, he was a strong advocate for the UK government’s interventions and lockdowns.
Top man.
Meanwhile, Congressman Troy Nehls has nominated former President Donald Trump for Speaker.
Congressman Troy E. Nehls
@RepTroyNehls
Kevin McCarthy will NOT be running again as Speaker.
I nominate Donald J. Trump for Speaker of the House.
The rumour is that his mate Albanese would welcome him as a head kicker in federal parliament.
And a memo to Victorians: Wealth is created, not borrowed.
Bloke I knew said: no aboriginal word for lots of things and then went on to list:
– artillery
– sailing ship
– aquaduct
– hypocaust
– crop rotation
– armour
– firearm
– longbow
and then I hit him and put him right.
They did, ‘cos Uncle Bruce Pascoe told me. The white invaders destroyed them all.
To be fair, Malcolm Roberts’ criticism applies mainly to Uncle Luigi. The First Nations industry has been pretty clear about:
Albanese has adopted the possum skin cloak of promising to implement all these expectations “in full” – but apparently hoping to use his Torrie-fighting Superpowers to skate through with just an ATSIC 2.0 advisory body, doing whatev’s, but politicised against the conservative side of politics.
The Referendum is a debacle for the whole of Australia. And it’s primarily Albanese’s debacle.
Actually if you have large permanent tax cuts they are likely to be deflationary.
There have already been reparations, some form of customary law and self determination is up to you.
Outgoing Queensland Fire and Emergency Services boss, who is incapable of ensuring that the figures his department compiles are accurate, details his achievments:
Can anyone spot the missing elements here? Could they have something to do with the job title?
Says it all about what the priorities are for senior government appointments these days. Competence is way down the list.
(Having successfully wrecked the joint, Andrews has now retired to play golf on a huge pension paid for by the peasants.)
Paid for with borrowed money.
Link
Mexico President Blasts US Billions To Ukraine As “Irrational” – Says Focus On Latin America
BY TYLER DURDEN
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is no stranger to issuing pointed and scathing criticisms of Washington foreign policy.
On Monday he did it again, but this time related to US military aid to Ukraine, at a sensitive moment that some Congressional Republican holdouts are trying to strip Ukraine funding from the defense budget. Lopez Obrador took the opportunity to question why more US foreign aid isn’t being invested in America’s own backyard. In this context, he blasted sinking billions into Ukraine as “irrational”.
“I was just looking at how now they’re not authorizing aid for the war in Ukraine,” he said during a daily press briefing. “But how much have they destined for the Ukraine war? 30 to 50 billion dollars for the war. Which is the most irrational thing you can have. And damaging.”
“So they do have to modify their strategy and learn respect. It’s not the time for them to ignore Mexican authorities,” The Mexican president added.
Reuters underscored that in the remarks he “urged Washington to devote more resources to helping Latin American countries.”
The leftist Lopez Obrador has maintained a neutral stance regarding Ukraine, in line with other Global South countries, but has generally been supportive of a number of UN resolutions rebuking ‘Russian aggression’.
At the same time, he has still been more cooperative with Moscow than any of the big Western powers would ever be at this point, as Reuters also notes:
Two weeks ago the president defended the presence of a Russian military unit in a weekend parade marking Mexico’s independence day, following sharp criticism that his country had given a platform to forces that invaded Ukraine.
From the Comments
– Zelensky visits US. Speaker out.
Zelensky visits Canada. Speaker out.
Mexico dodged a bullet
– Mexico has to learn how to play the game. 10 percent for the Big Guy and you’ll get your aid. Either that, or extort the Biden crime family.
– Sounds boring but any extra money we have should be paying down our debt.
– There’s just no logic in DC especially regarding ‘Ukraine’ that money is stolen. I was just visiting a friend who grew up in Moldova and he says the longer this goes on, the more territory Russia gets. Ukraine has no chance to beat Russia, never did have. And the war is about money. The dollars sent to Ukraine are stolen. The Ukranians are brainwashed so they’re marching to their death, to make money for the corrupt officials. I can hardly look at an American flag these days, so disgusting what’s done in my name.
– I can’t believe i’m agreeing with him… but he’s right, we do need to get out of ukraine and focus on Latin America… we should have been doing that since vietnam.
Imagine living in isolated Tasmania before whites arrived.
Cold, damp, grey mist for most of the year, few bright colours.
Looming, dark forests all around. Extremely so in Tassie.
Another thing: no drugs or alcohol which other cultures discovered and used to escape their oppressive conditions. So, yes, apathy.
Not just government; also big business.
Generous bonuses for executives are offered for the successful implementation of DEI measures.
Lessons Of FTX And The SBF Trial
BY TYLER DURDEN
Authored by Michael Wilkerson via The Epoch Times,
Sam Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF, goes on trial later this week for his role as founder and CEO in the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, in what prosecutors allege was a $40 billion fraud.
Some sympathetic observers, such as Michael Lewis, the author of The Big Short and Liar’s Poker, and now biographer of SBF, paint the founder as a more or less innocent victim of a bank run, and perhaps even a misunderstood genius.
This is too generous.
The lesson of the downfall of FTX and its founder is just this.
FTX is not a crypto story, it is a financial crimes story.
SBF and his enablers perpetuated a gigantic fraud.
FTX counts as one of the largest financial frauds on record, alongside now notorious names like Bernie Madoff, Enron,and WorldCom.
This bloke is not fit to run the tuckshop till, let alone a national economy. Why on earth is he in the job?
The same reason that Dim Chalmers is the Treasurer here. Politics.
– I can’t believe i’m agreeing with him… but he’s right, we do need to get out of ukraine and focus on Latin America… we should have been doing that since vietnam.
Fix up the US cities first and then get back to what the USA stood for in the ‘Good Old Days’.
No background checks during this creep’s employment?
This is the face of the childcare worker alleged to be Australia’s worst pedophile.
Ashley Paul Griffith can be identified for the first time under new Queensland laws that allow alleged sex offenders to be named before they are committed to stand trial.
The 45-year-old former childcare worker stands accused of 1623 charges relating to the abuse of 91 little girls over a 15-year period in a dozen centres spanning states and continents.
The Australian could reveal his identity as of 12.01am on Tuesday when new laws came into effect to “modernise” the reporting of such offences and hold perpetrators to account, with media now able to name those accused in a slew of cases before the courts.
A love of Gaia need not be left at the commune door these days.
America the Home of Blindfolded Justice – Bull!
Meet the Activist Wife Who Networks the Anti-MAGA White House While Her Prosecutor Husband Puts January Sixers in Jail
By Julie Kelly, RealClearInvestigations
October 03, 2023
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland is the public face of the government’s unprecedented effort to identify, arrest, and prosecute those connected to the Jan. 6, 2021 protest at the Capitol.
But the person handling the day-to-day management of the one of the largest and most politically freighted efforts in the history of American law enforcement has largely flown under the radar:
Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
An appointee of President Biden, Graves’ office has prosecuted at least 1,100 Jan. 6 defendants – including roughly 200 people so far this year.
Republicans claim that the Justice Department’s steady pace of Jan. 6 arrests and Graves’ prosecutions aim to keep one of Biden’s animating narratives in the news – that, as the president put it, “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.”
The political nature of the Jan. 6 prosecutions is illustrated by the long partisan history of Graves and his wife, Fatima Goss Graves.
According to documents on file with the U.S. Senate, Matthew Graves, a registered Democrat, served as a domestic policy adviser to the Biden campaign in 2020. According to the questionnaire submitted for his Senate confirmation, he “assisted with Vice-Presidential vetting for the Kerry Campaign in 2004,” resulting in the nomination of John Edwards, well before an extramarital affair got wide attention and helped end Edwards’ 2008 presidential campaign. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s Democratic delegate to the House of Representatives, recommended Graves for his influential current post.
Recently, Graves declined to pursue charges against Hunter Biden for tax offenses. And his wife is an influential progressive activist who has frequently visited the White House as her husband has pursued the president’s political opponents.
One week after he was sworn into office, Graves indicted longtime Trump confidant Steve Bannon on two contempt of Congress charges, acting on a referral from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 6 Select Committee.
Graves filed a separate indictment on the same charges against Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro in June 2022. Both men were quickly convicted by D.C. juries;
Bannon’s conviction is on appeal, with oral argument scheduled for October. Navarro’s lawyers recently filed a motion seeking a new trial.
Much of Graves’ work now involves prosecuting the steady stream of people the FBI has arrested in connection with Jan. 6. On August 30, Nathan Hughes was taken into custody at a Fayetteville, Ark., mall by at least seven FBI agents brandishing automatic rifles. That same morning at least 10 vehicles apparently driven by FBI agents and local law enforcement raided Hughes’ Bentonville home. “They ordered my girlfriend Taylor out of the house with her hands up and had rifles pointed at her too,” Hughes would write. “They put her in handcuffs, unplugged our home security cameras, and turned our house upside down searching it.”
Hughes was later indicted for assaulting or interfering with police, civil disorder, and three misdemeanors for his involvement in the Jan. 6 mayhem at the U.S. Capitol.
Four other men were named as Hughes’ co-defendants, charged for crimes they allegedly committed nearly 33 months ago. His case, like every Jan. 6 case, is now transferred to Washington, D.C., the scene of the alleged “attack on the Capitol.”
Graves appears to be making good on his pledge to double the number of Jan. 6 defendants, a growing caseload that monopolizes Department of Justice resources and clogs the D.C. federal court calendar with trials and hearings. Graves told the Washington Post in a February 2022 interview that “somewhere around 2,000 people” could be identified and charged before his work was over – or before the statute of limitations for most offenses expires in 2026.
Near-daily press releases trumpet details of the latest arrest, which are subsequently posted on Graves’ social media account. Roughly three-quarters of the posts on X (formerly Twitter) are Jan. 6-related; at the same time, Graves is under fire for declining to prosecute 67% of violent crimes in the nation’s capital amid an unabated crime wave. (Graves is the only U.S. attorney responsible for prosecuting federal and local crimes in his jurisdiction.)
While the overwhelming majority of Jan. 6 defendants face low-level nonviolent charges such as “parading” in the Capitol or remaining on restricted grounds, the Justice Department continues to cast the crimes committed as quite serious.
For example, despite the common description of Jan. 6 as an “armed insurrection,” only 10% of all defendants have been charged with a weapons violation, usually involving flag poles, riot shields, and pepper spray, not firearms. And no one has been charged with insurrection.
Separately, House Republicans have asked Graves to explain why he, according to IRS whistleblowers, declined to charge Hunter Biden for failing to report income in 2014 and 2015 during his time on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The IRS investigators told the House Ways and Means Committee that Graves overrode the recommendation of a career prosecutor in his office to protect the first son from prosecution in the matter.
Graves is expected to sit for a transcribed interview with the House Judiciary Committee within the next few weeks.
Concerns about Graves’ impartiality are intensified because of his wife’s involvement in partisan issues and her closeness to the Biden White House.
As president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) – whose primary focus is reforming the Supreme Court, demanding unrestricted access to abortion, and promoting LGBTQ rights – Fatima Goss Graves plays a crucial role in advancing priorities of Democrats and the Biden administration.
According to government records, Goss Graves has visited the Biden White House at least 28 times since her husband was confirmed.
Some appointments and events have involved the president, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic lawmakers, and top cabinet officials. (Logs also indicate Matthew Graves joined his wife for a Fourth of July barbecue at the White House in 2022.)
Which Latin American country are they going to rig elections in, or conduct military operations in, or invade? Those good old days?
Congressman Troy Nehls has nominated former President Donald Trump for Speaker of the House.
Bwahahaha! That is known as yanking the left’s chain in American lingo.
Buy popcorn futures.
John H.
Oct 4, 2023 11:08 AM
Actually I said this –
“Fix up the US cities first and then get back to what the USA stood for in the ‘Good Old Days”.
The Poster that I was replying to said this –
“– I can’t believe i’m agreeing with him… but he’s right, we do need to get out of ukraine and focus on Latin America… we should have been doing that since vietnam.”
So, I was disagreeing with that Poster.
Yes and no. They had a neat way of making a paddle on Vanderlin Island, part of the Edward Pellew Group in the Gulf. After selecting a suitable size pine it shaped it in situ and only then was cut down and the blade finished off. It is a long time ago now, and I can’t remember if the custodians of Vanderlin showed me photographs of native canoes with four sided sails [cotton I think], or I later looked them up in a library. There was an old tamarind tree beside the homestead so no doubt Macassin influence. They did show me faded colour snaps of gaff rigged workboats they built in the sixties. Outboards killed that off.
And. Flinders noted evidence of recent activity on Percy and Duke Islands off the CQ-ish coast. Need a reasonably seaworthy canoe to venture as far off as Percy given the tide races and all.
Remember Nancy as Speaker tearing up Trumps SOTU speech ?
If Trump is now appointed to that post he should follow this precedent, hallowed by time.
Except he has more respect for the dignity of the office than that clownshow.
Rand Corporation – Understanding the Risk of Escalation in the War in Ukraine
Now to touch on the new Rand paper, which has to do with the theme of risk escalation in the Ukraine war.
There are only a couple main points to ferret out here.
The most important is Rand’s list of the 3 main types of escalation scenarios that could occur:
Three Possible Scenarios Illustrate the Risk of Inadvertent Escalation
The ongoing war carries with it risks of inadvertent escalation that have yet to materialize. To better appreciate these risks, we outline three horizontal escalation scenarios that are plausible based on what we know of Russian,Ukrainian, and NATO activities to date.
1. A Russian strike inside Ukraine could kill NATO officials. Russia may not have intended to target the officials, but the NATO member state might not believe the explanation, triggering political pressure to attack Russia or diplomatic demands for a collective NATO response. Putin could wait to see how NATO responds or attempt to preempt any attack by striking NATO capabilities first. Either possibility could lead to direct exchange of fire between Russian and NATO militaries.
2. Aggressive Russian maneuvers against U.S. surveillance aircraft kill U.S. military personnel. Aggressive Russian maneuvers targeting a manned U.S. surveillance aircraft operating in or near the Black Sea could plausibly lead to the deaths of U.S. personnel. U.S. policymakers would face pressure to respond, possibly by targeting the Russian aircraft or supporting base involved. Russia may view any U.S. response strike as highly escalatory, leading Putin to consider retaliatory strikes.
3. Russia misperceives NATO moves as signals of intervention in Ukraine. A substantial increase in higher-readiness forces with longer-range strike capabilities near Russia’s borders, accompanied by explicit discussions about a near-term pathway to Ukraine’s membership in NATO, or comparable security guarantees, could convince Moscow that it is on a slippery slope to direct NATO intervention. Putin could decide to push for a ceasefire, but he could also decide to strike NATO targets preemptively to degrade NATO capabilities or deter a future intervention by underlining Russia’s willingness to bring the war directly to NATO countries. In response to what it would likely view as an unprovoked Russian attack, NATO could be deterred, but it could also be outraged and seek to punish Moscow through direct military action
Through these or other scenarios, the potential for inadvertent escalation is likely to persist for the duration of the conflict, highlighting the value of maintaining open lines of military and diplomatic communications with Russia to help disrupt such spirals.
Both Russia and Ukraine Have Capability and Motivation for Deliberate Escalation
Again, to tie things into current events, it’s interesting they chose to focus on this area now, of all times.
The reason being that just yesterday, Britain made waves by asserting that they will send ‘advisors to Ukraine’. Now, as if in another concerted timed release, Rand is discussing what would happen if Russia kills NATO officials inside of Ukraine.
It’s also odd timing given Medvedev’s recent statements, which themselves follow a major provocation from Germany vis a vis the Taurus missile, that Russia would be legally permitted to strike German facilities outside of Ukraine in exchange for Germany’s position that Ukraine can use the Taurus missiles to strike targets inside Russia proper.
You see, usually such provocation chains are heavily planned out and orchestrated by the West, as the entire Ukrainian war was to begin with. That’s because knowing a country’s pressure points and their stated doctrinal reactions to those points, and then acting on them to provoke the country into doing exactly what you want it to do, is very elementary.
We’ve talked for a long time about how when Ukraine is finally on the precipice of total capitulation, there will be a dangerous period of heightened risk for a major falseflag from the West to save them.
Thus, given the timing, and that Ukraine now does appear to be entering a declining phase, the Rand report strikes me as almost prescriptive in nature, i.e. a subtle ‘nudge’ to clandestine policymakers to begin a phase of operations that could provoke and goad Russia into creating a needed “overreaction” which would set the stage for some form of intervention to save Ukraine.
Notice how literally each of their points are areas where they have recently begun escalating themselves.
Yet here they are characterizing it in a manner of a pre-emptive excuse so as to give themselves baked-in absolution later, should things precipitate as they’ve outlined.
Washington DC aside, there’s little the Feds can directly do about US cities.
Even California governor Gavin Newsom was recently thwarted by local activists and the judiciary when he proposed clearing out homeless encampments from San Francisco’s CBD.
Won’t get up, but it’ll be revealing to see who votes for him.
If just the Gaetz faction, it’ll tell Republican voters everything they need to know. If a plurality then it would tell the RNC they are losing grip on the GOP rank & file congress critters.
Oops Linls – Aploogies
Rand Corporation – Understanding the Risk of Escalation in the War in Ukraine
Now to touch on the new Rand paper, which has to do with the theme of risk escalation in the Ukraine war.
There are only a couple main points to ferret out here.
Did anyone ever use wheels made out of rocks? Too time consuming to produce. And too heavy. And as soon as you came to an incline they would start pulling with a lot of weight downhill.
To me (poor me, untutored in such things as archaeology) I would expect the wheel was a development of something else – like a few logs that objects were put on and dragged with the logs revolving underneath – it seems this is how they explain the transport of monoliths for Stonehenge and the likely blocks for the pyramids. Then someone notes that you can use cross sections of logs as wheels. Then it is a matter of making your own (stronger) cross sections.
Point is, the wheel would not have been invented complete, but as a development of earlier ‘technology’. Not sure the Aborigines would had an antecedent technology from which the wheel would have developed.
Now, boiling water to kill bacteria would have been useful if they ever had to drink from a stagnant stream.
Or not.
Apologies JR. It is just when I think of the USA “focusing” on Latin America I am reminded of what a Latin American diplomat said when a US ambassador stated he was perplexed why so many people in the region hated the USA. The diplomat responded: we read history.
Cerno makes a good point. Vid of the incident in a previous Poso comment.
Kevin McCarthy Removed as Speaker – It’s Time to Expel California From then Union
“California has become a foreign country that should be expelled from the Union. There has been much discussion of how a state can secede from the Union. Justice Scalia wrote a letter in 2006 saying the answer was no and that it had been decided by force with the American Civil War. That is not really a constitutional answer.
Interestingly, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif. (RINO)) has been removed as House speaker by a vote of the House of Representatives on a motion to vacate the chair brought by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on a 216–210 vote. This unprecedented action now creates a political crisis, plunging the House of Representatives into inevitable confusion and uncertainty, not to mention a highly contentious battle over the speaker position. This coincides as it simultaneously battles the calendar to complete the appropriations process and continues its impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden.
This raises serious questions about California and whether it should be expelled from the United States, especially as the Democrats want to put up Newsom to replace Biden. Is there any way a state could be removed from the US without its consent? All of the worst politicians, from Pelosi, Feinstein, and McCarty to Newsom, have all been outright anti-American core values.
A Constitutional amendment could do this job. But that is not so quick of a process. The Constitution provides that Congress may propose an amendment with a two-thirds majority vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures. Perhaps a Constitutional Convention could muster a two-thirds vote to expel California – from my mouth to God’s ears.
However, there is a hitch. “[N]o State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.” If a state is removed from the Union, it is not represented in the Senate. This begs the legal question: If a State is expelled at this point in time, is it still a state for the purposes of the Constitution? I would say NO WAY!
The Constitution does not describe such a method, and no one has ever tried to do so in the history of this imperfect union. We know that during and immediately following the U.S. Civil War, some States attempted to secede from the U.S. to join the Confederate States of America. They were treated unconstitutionally for being denied the right to secede; they were still not allowed to be represented in Congress. They were demanded to end their insurrections, and a post-war government had to be approved by the Union forces in the Reconstruction era was in place. They were effectively stripped of all representation and treated themselves as slaves.
The Union States cleverly claimed that being denied Due Process of Law and stripped of representation in Congress, somehow using legal fiction, this was not on the theory that these areas had ceased to be States of the Union. The legal fiction used was based on the idea that there was a vacancy in the positions because these areas had not held elections for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Now comes the 14th Amendment, which was, at best, not Constitutionally valid. The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. It has been hailed as addressing citizenship rights and equal protection under the law for former slaves. However, it is punitive and a denial of Due Process in and of itself, for the defeated Confederacy bitterly contested the amendment. They were denied all representation in Congress and had been defeated militarily. They were given NO CHOICE and were forced to ratify it in order to regain representation in Congress. It was ratified by duress, and that is fraud under the law. Still, people sometimes sign contracts privately under duress or because of undue influence or coercion. These are all legal terms referring to questionable tactics, and they may invalidate a contract. This is my argument that the 14th Amendment is unconstitutional, for the South was denied representation unless they ratified the Amendment.
They could elect no one and not appoint even a Senator. This is why they are now trying to apply this abuse of process to Trump, claiming anyone who participated in an “insurrection” can not hold office. That was retribution and punitive and stripped the rights of the people denying them to be fairly represented in Congress.
Prior to the 14th Amendment, this denial of U.S. government representation was viewed as a function of practical reality and the war powers of Congress, and perhaps the “invasion or insurrection” and “Republican government” clauses of the U.S. Constitution. There was absolutely no constitutional validity to the actions taken by the Union. It cannot be a free government of the people when the people are not free to elect whomever they desire.
There is precedent for the expulsion of a Member of Congress. The United States Constitution (Article I, Section 5, Clause 2) provides that “Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.” There is a legal maxim known as:
“Everything which is not forbidden is allowed.“
It is the legal concept that any action can be taken unless a law is against it. It is also known in some situations as the “general power of competence,” whereby the body or person being regulated is acknowledged to have a competent judgment of their scope of action. Suppose we apply this to expelling the State of California from the United States. In that case, NO law stands in the way, and the precedent from the Civil War is bogus and unconstitutional, which was railroaded by military force.
Therefore, we can EXPEL California – there is NOTHING in the Constitution that prevents that nor for a State to secede.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/rule-of-law/kevin-mccarthy-removed-as-speaker-its-time-to-expel-california-from-then-union/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
I have a faint memory the Yamnaya people were using wheels. Even the early farmers would have plenty of need to produce a wheel because the harvesting of all that grain that had to be transported to storage areas. If Bing is to be trusted the wheel was invented around 3,500 BC, which is close to when the Yamnaya started migrating into Europe. Also they were pastoralists so had already domesticated suitable animals.
Yeah, doubt it will even make it to a vote, but the fun is in twisting the left’s tail over it!
I guarantee it shocked the hell out of more than a few of them.
Two and a half years later, the FBI has not been able to find a single “insurrectionist”? Either the FBI is completely incompetent, or all the babble about “insurrection” is pure politics.
Or both.
What expertise?
Other than not being where the smoke gets in your eyes.
Here’s the final chart from their report, giving all the potential escalatory dynamics they foresee:
Interestingly, buried in the extended complementary report is the admission that Russia actually has no current reason to escalate because they perfectly envision themselves as still winning the war via continued attrition:
Russia believes it still has a path to achieving its goals in Ukraine. At present, there still appears to be a perception in the Kremlin that continued mobilization and the potential to outproduce Ukraine and key NATO countries in critical munitions may enable Russia to win a long, grinding war of attrition, without taking on further risks of NATO intervention. Directly attacking NATO and hoping that the response would be a reduction in support for Ukraine rather than an increase, or even direct NATO entry into the war, would be an enormous risk for Russia to run. As long as Moscow believes it has other, plausible pathways to achieving its goals in the war, it may prefer to avoid such risks.
But this seems to highlight the odd dichotomy: on one hand the entire report, entitled Escalation in the War in Ukraine, appears to go into overdrive in attempting to convince readers and policymakers that Russia is surrounded by a plethora of escalation options, insinuating that it will have no choice but to use one of them as it gets increasingly ‘desperate’ in the war effort. But on the other hand, they admit Russia actually doesn’t see any reason to escalate.
This leaves us to conclude that the real current course in Western military command centers and thinktank-land revolves around finding further pressure points and ways to make Russia want to escalate in a way that could turn global perception against it, and could justify further NATO intervention of some kind to save Ukraine. In a sense, as I implied before, this report appears more like a handbook or guidebook on how to make Russia give us the casus belli to increase our own provocations and escalations to save a floundering AFU.
What it ultimately highlights is the fact that the West appears greatly irked and peeved by Russia’s stoic, mannered approach to this war. They are beside themselves, and can’t believe that Russia can fight such a devastatingly protracted conflict in so calm and measured a manner, without major political, societal, and economic upheaval to throw them off-kilter and create the ripe groundswell of turmoil which would necessitate an off-balancing “escalation” that would prove a major blunder, and hand the salivating NATO thinktankers an enormous gift.
Thus, in light of this, the West plans to use all possible means to coax Russia into shooting itself in the foot by disproportionately responding to one of the planned provocations they have in store, in order to give raison d’etre for some intervention to save Ukraine. This doesn’t have to be something of maximal proportions yet, like full-on NATO invasion or something like that. No, even the justification of further increased support, or the activation of more lethal strategic weaponry supplied to Ukraine would suffice.
Remember, a major portion—perhaps the biggest one—of the West’s support is convincing their own publics and lawmakers in justifying increasingly more provocative weapons pledges. Even provoking a relatively minor Russian rash response could be used to convince wearying Western populaces in warming to the hand over of things like ATACMS or other items.
Of course, I find all this to be a relatively pointless exercise and strategic dead-end because I don’t think they have much left to hand over that could do anything in changing the now-crystallized trajectory of this conflict.
The only other potential pivot I could glean from the Rand document which could conceivably form the axis of a strategy is in the final item on their escalations options list: Option G.
It reads: Ukraine expands its strikes inside Russia. Motivation: Increase domestic political costs for Russian leadership.
That encapsulates just about the only realistic option they have left, and given recent trends it appears to be one of the main thrusts they’re going with.
I’m referring to the other big recent provocation, German Bundestag member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann’s statement that Ukraine has the right to strike Russian territory with German Taurus missiles.
Putting the two together, we can only come to the conclusion that the progressive push for Ukraine to strike deeper and deeper into Russian territory has nothing whatever to do with any strategic or military considerations, but rather revolves entirely around Rand’s assessment of “putting political pressure on Russian leadership.”
To wit, they believe that by striking deep into Russia they can cause enough fear, panic, and public distress as to force Russian citizens to begin pressuring the government to end the war, or simply create enough unpopularity as to give Western intel services opportunities to oust key leadership, whether that might be election, overthrow, etc.
Unfortunately, this has virtually no chance of having any effect as the Russian public either doesn’t care nor notice any strikes, including the ones to the heart of Moscow, or is simply unified into greater solidarity by them.
Dmitry Medvedev’s “populist” pandering-style response to both the aforementioned provocative announcements likely leaves Western thinktankers with an inkling of hope:
The number of leadership idiots in NATO countries is growing.
One newfangled cretin – the British defense minister – has decided to move British training courses for Ukrainian soldiers to the territory of Ukraine itself. That is, to turn their instructors into a legal target for our Armed Forces. Realizing perfectly well that they will be ruthlessly destroyed. And not as mercenaries, but as British NATO specialists.
Another fool – the head of the Defense Committee of the Federal Republic of Germany with a hard-to-pronounce surname – demands to immediately supply the Khokhobanderites with Taurus missiles, so that the Kiev regime can strike at the territory of Russia to weaken the supply of our army. They say this is in accordance with international law. Well, in that case, strikes on German factories where these missiles are made would also be in full compliance with international law.
After all, these morons are actively pushing us towards World War III
– Medvedev
Except the longer this goes on, the less and less territory Russia keeps.
Quick, somone invade Ukraine to free them of their brainwashing!
Russia has no ulterior motives at all. No, not at all. Territorial gain has nothing to do with money.
I don’t mind criticism of the US or Ukraine but it’s often spoiled with Kremlin nonsense.
eric hinton
Was this before or after colonisation? What tools were used for the shaping? Pre-colonisation tools or axes?
Cotton suggests post-colonisation.
Post-colonisation.
Or had been washed out by the tide races, and stranded there?
From The Oz…
Transgender athletes decline to race in World Aquatics new open category event
World Aquatics to hold test event for elite transgender swimmers in world first
International Swimming bosses are preparing to host the world’s first event for elite transgender swimmers after a… 71 per cent majority of federations voted to ban trans athletes from elite women’s competitions at the 2022 congress. According to a report in The Australian, World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA, More
No entries have been received for the new open category at the Swimming World Cup in Berlin this weekend, World Aquatics said on Tuesday.
The governing body introduced the category after voting last year to ban male-to-female transgender athletes from competing in women’s elite races.
A statement from the governing body, formerly known as FINA, read: “World Aquatics can confirm that no entries have been received for the open category events.
“Distances in various events had been made available for the open category, introduced on a pilot basis following the adoption of the World Aquatics policy on eligibility for the men’s and women’s competition categories.
“The World Aquatics Open Category Working Group will continue its work and engagement with the aquatics community on open category events.
“Even if there is no current demand at the elite level, the working group is planning to look at the possibility of including open category races at Masters events in the future.” The Berlin meet, one of three World Cup events this year, will take place from October 6 to 8.
They are all qualifying events for the World Aquatics Championships in Doha next year and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Open categories had been offered in 50 metres and 100m races across all strokes, with World Aquatics describing it as a “pioneering pilot project”.
Transgender participation has become a hot-button issue in recent months as sports try to balance inclusivity with ensuring fair competition.
International governing bodies in cycling and athletics have also banned transgender competitors.
World Athletics announced in March that transgender women would no longer be allowed to compete in female track and field events.
Of course they decline, because the autogynephile perverts are only interesting in beating biological females.
All of this is about appropriating biological women and disappearing biological women
The wheel would have been developed pretty early – it’s usefulness is manifest and even moreso when you have domesticated beasts to pull a cart. One person with a cart versus 20 people carrying baskets.
I would think the wheel was invented in one place (I believe Mesopotamia is a favoured possibility) and then the final stage would be the one that spread far and wide.
And the wheel by itself is not worth anything without the materials to create it (saws, drills, a knowledge to construct with wood etc). And what would they carry? They were nomads. They did not (sorry Mr Pascoe) farm food and trade it, they did not need to transport their excess product. And it would not even have served a purpose of getting them somewhere faster. As they wandered across a landscape did it matter if it took one day or two days to cross a couple of hills. In their small bands the wheel would not offer any great advantage.
I am going to leave it off there because it really is just all speculation on my part and I don’t want to seem to commit to a specific theory for which I have no real evidence. I will just finish with this:
Epstein did not kill himself!
Why does a Moldavian care about US tax dollars wasted on Ukraine that aren’t wasted on Iraq, Mexico, North Korea or Iran?
Aborigines didn’t invent the wheel because they didn’t need it.
They had a survival system that worked; fire, flood or drought.
I’m not going to bow down and worship their songlines etc.
Most of that is half baked nonsense. I doubt many if any Aborigines today understand the belief systems of pre settlement, everything had been glazed over by Christianity.
Chiefly low intensity hazard reduction burns to better manage forest undergrowth.
Preferable to the lock it up and return it to wilderness green philosophy, at least.
Only thing I can think of is millstones. Part of a much more sophisticated contraption.
This para was accidentally deleted from my response to eric hinton.
Post-colonisation.
John – wheels are useless unless you have suitable terrain. The Incas didn’t, they had narrow winding mountain trails. The Maya had jungles. Aboriginals had bushland plus not much worth carrying in a cart anyway.
It’s logical that the wheel got its start in Mesopotamia and Egypt, where you had flat barren lands that were suitable. Plus beasts of burden to pull them – which Mesoamericans and Aboriginals didn’t have. Then roads were invented to let the new fangled wheeled thingies travel over terrain which wasn’t originally traversable.
Don’t build structures, don’t need to transport heavy items.
seems wooden rollers came first.
CNN defends arms shipments to the Khokhls:
“First of all, a huge portion of the money allocated goes to American companies and jobs, right? Because these people (Americans) make Abrams, shells and all that stuff. Take Lockheed Martin, for example, the company that makes the HIMARS that play a big role in counter-attack – the company announced that it will increase the number of employees in the state of Arkansas by 20%! Simply because of new demand for its products.
The money is coming to America.”
The Khokhls, well done, of course they increased Lockheed Martin’s Arkansas workforce by 20%.
By NATO standards !
“Rosie
Oct 4, 2023 11:44 AM”
Agree.
You simply could not domesticate animals in Australia as beasts of burden.
Not even megafauna.
If you never have genuinely permanent settlements, genuine agriculture and metallurgy you are unlikely to advance. Few suitable permanent water sources that were stable enough and cereals that have naturally very low yields.
1. You will never create facilities needed for metallurgy. It would not be easy nomadically to start a Bronze Age. Iron ore is plentiful, but that’s a huge leap. Tin and copper aren’t plentiful as they were in the Fertile Crescent.
2. You will never have the impetus for record keeping (seasons, quantification and keeping notes) and thus writing.
3. You will never have an agricultural surplus or a means to store it.
4. You will never see engineering flowing from prior advancements, such as cutting tools, measuring devices, better hammers and even inventing wheels and so on.
5. The wheel may have been adopted from a potter’s wheel. Without permanent settlement, clay pots don’t make sense. Nomads need mobility and bladders make more sense. A potters wheel doesn’t make sense for a nomad either.
Australia was not lucky as a place to cradle civilisation. It is an excellent place to farm with a technological boost however.
Some settlements looked like they were starting to become permanent and could have developed. They did not have all the advantages like elsewhere however.
Rosie (I think it was) from above; yes, we are on a cruise, on Silver Muse. Started in Vancouver BC, across to Tokyo, then around Japan and into Korea, finishing back in Tokyo; 32 days of overindulgence in all. The weather has been atrocious; low 30s and 80%+ humidity.
Went to a (bloody expensive) tea ceremony yesterday. The tepid frothy “tea” they dished up tasted as though they’d just whipped out and got some lawn clippings from the gardener. “Good for you”, hissed my wife. “Bollocks!” I responded, sotto voce — I hoped.
Ice creams covered with edible gold leaf are a big deal here, at approx. $11.00 a pop. Overheard one lady complaining that it didn’t taste “goldy”, however that may taste.
We also had a lunch in a restaurant. It had been prepared and set out before we arrived, so it was, at best, lukewarm. At least nothing was still wriggling or twitching! And the two small bottles of local sake slid down a treat. Kanpai!
Geeze, what a mess in the US.
Albeit, probably a necessary, and tasty, mess.
Your upcoming European trip (and Lizzie’s current adventure) giving me that itch Calli.
I’m not making plans yet, not til the latest go round with the specialist is done and there is some semblance of certainty.
My little visitors have departed, I don’t remember my four ever being quite so exhausting though my oldest was very um high spirited.
I must be getting old.
And I’ve signed up for grandma daycare two days a week from next Thursday til year end.
Then I’ll definitely need a holiday.
As one of the latter in this group of chortling, top-hat-and-monocle capitalists, I’m presently wondering whether I have to fold a second business in three years because of made-up-on-the-go government policy.
A modest proposal: the very worst.
Just quietly, Australia might benefit from having a few more SME’s represented in Parliament. Perhaps a Voice, or something like that…
Wasn’t me. Didn’t really do any Japanese cultural stuff on my visit.
There were some ladies doing tea ceremonies for their own amusement in the tea house in the Shikkeien Gardens when we were there. Was a lovely glimpse for me.
And we saw the recreated portable gold tea house in the castle in Osaka, that was burnt down by Tokugawa. That was an interesting place to visit.
If I go again I will do more historical stuff.
Michael Malice
@michaelmalice
Kevin McCarthy is going to go home, pour himself a nice scotch, and beat off to the thought of his wife getting f*cked by
@MattGaetz
8:32 AM · Oct 4, 2023
Malice is doing well on twitter tonight.
There is plenty of suitable terrain all over the world. If they had suitable terrain for agriculture they had suitable terrain for wheels. Both the early farmers and pastoralists would have found wheels useful.