It seems not.
What a weird and rather horrible period we are living through at present. Thank goodness for a sunny day for a bit of cheer.

I meant the day just finished. It was a pleasant drive to Seymour where I go every few weeks for an Aldi/Colesworth shop.

11.30 here where the clock is correct, morning all youse others.

I wonder if Biden pops in to say hi to the Saudi’s while he’s over there.

Magnificent article by Janet Albrechtsen on the rank ineptitude of law firms, and all corporations who supported the Voice from the get-go.

Corporate heads must roll over reckless voice advocacy
JANET ALBRECHTSEN

Whether you were a Yes or No voter, this referendum has been so divisive and bitter that it must not be allowed to pass into history without learning its lessons.

The next few weeks and months will allow much of the necessary analysis to be done. However, there is no time like the present for key players in this dismal affair to take accountability and begin reform.

There is white-hot anger directed towards some of our big corporate entities – BHP, Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers, the big four banks and others – which, without consultation or consent from their shareholders, dived into the middle of a bitterly contested political dispute and poured millions of dollars of their shareholders’ money into partisan warfare.

It is bad enough that millions of dollars were wasted on a flawed campaign and misconceived voice model that was grossly unpopular with the overwhelming majority of Australians.

The participation of these big corporations was a significant factor in ensuring the Yes campaign was a resounding failure – voters hate being lectured at. That this money was effectively an appropriation of shareholders’ money in pursuit of the private political views of some dominant company directors is also aggravating in the extreme. This aggravation is compounded by the fact the big end of town has been completely outplayed by the government and its union paymasters in the policy areas they do have a legitimate interest in, especially industrial relations.

Worst of all, though, was the sheer negligence and incompetence of these big companies and their boards. This is what demands accountability – meaning heads should roll – and reform for the future.

As long ago as January 2021, Rio Tinto and BHP signalled their support for the voice.

“A referendum not only demands political courage, it demands courage from all of us,” BHP’s Mike Henry said. Courage? What about due diligence?

By May 2021 more companies and professional services firms had put their names to advertisements in national newspapers stridently committing themselves to supporting the voice. Almost two dozen chief executives and chairmen from investment banks and super funds including John Wylie, Hamish Douglass, Geoff Wilson, Ben Gray and Ian Silk got on board early, too.

Not one of these very smart people had any idea at that point what model the voice would take. Eighteen of the nation’s leading law firms, including my old law firm Freehills, jumped aboard the voice train. Again, well before there were any actual words for them to interpret by applying their brilliant legal skills.

And that was the problem with all these firms, companies, chief executives and chairmen – they were signing on entirely blind to the final proposed wording to the Constitution. What on earth were these corporate masters of the universe thinking? Is this how they evaluate proposals in their day job? Is this how lawyers practised law at the office?

At that time there was no indication from the then federal government about the intended legal form of the voice, let alone its powers, composition, procedures, term, resources, intended outcomes or objectives or any relevant limitations.

All of these companies, firms and other entities had signed up to the voice on the basis of emotion and the vibe. They had done no due diligence and got no expert advice on any aspect of the voice for the simple reason that at that time not even the slightest details or even conceptual framework of the voice was known. It was the ultimate pig in a poke. Yet these corporations had signed up to it – whatever it turned out to be.

This was not only a dereliction of directors’ fiduciary duties of care and skill (how can directors sign blank cheques in advance for unknown entities with unknown powers?) but would prove to be a disastrous contributor to the form of ridiculously overreaching model of the voice that was put to the referendum.

The Albanese government knew, even before releasing wording, that it had corporate Australia in its pocket. These companies had abdicated the ability to influence the design of the voice in any way. They had in effect told the activists who would ultimately draft the language of the constitutional amendment: “Go your hardest, we will support whatever you come up with.”

This folly was exactly the same as the blunder committed by Julian Leeser and Greg Craven. Leeser and Craven were the self-styled “constitutional conservatives” who helped come up with the idea of the voice and allowed themselves to be used by the activists who would dictate the final form of the constitutional amendment.

Leeser and Craven were ultimately critical of the final form of the amendment – Craven in particularly colourful language. But both swallowed their pride and the flawed words, and still supported the Yes side, with Leeser walking the streets drumming up support for Yes23.

The surrender by Leeser and Craven, and by the corporations and law firms that signed on to the voice before words were settled, meant any chance of negotiating a more moderate form of proposed amendment was lost.

There would be no compromise by having a non-justiciability clause or removing the reference to executive government or narrowing the remit of the voice to matters affecting Indigenous persons only or any of the large number of ways in which the ultimately proposed constitutional language could have been made more palatable. The possibility for any reasonable compromise of any kind went out the window as far back as 2021.

To be clear, these “fixes” would not have made the voice acceptable in principle. I would still have opposed it and believe it would still have failed because it violated the principle of equal civic rights in the Constitution.

However, adopting a process that ensured the proposed amendment would be the most absurdly overreaching possibility available certainly made referendum success impossible and made the whole campaign much more divisive than it needed to be.

The Albanese government and its departmental advisers were every bit as supine in negotiating reasonable wording as the alleged constitutional conservatives and the corporations, but the lessons for the government must await another day. Others too are on remand, awaiting judgment for another day.

Right now, corporate Australia is in the dock. What form of accountability should await the boards of our big companies?

They deserve to be on the wrong end of class-action lawsuits for negligence and breach of duty but, sadly, the legal industry was so complicit in their failures this is unlikely.

However, there should be significant board resignations to atone for the diversion of shareholder funds to personal political objectives and for rampant negligence.

Boards should be prepared to forgo directors’ fees until shareholders are compensated for the loss of funds wasted by directors tilting at their personal political windmills. In an ideal world shareholders would enforce that result but, again, the big union-controlled industry fund shareholders are likely to have been so complicit in directors’ actions this is unlikely.

Ultimately there needs to be a sea change in the level of politicisation of our big companies. This should be started by the Australian Institute of Company Directors, which is effectively the standard setter for company directors. That, too, faces barriers as the AICD itself has become significantly politicised and its own board was a prominent and one-sided supporter of the voice. However, one can only live in hope.

If the board of the AICD collectively fell on its sword and brought in some change agents to depoliticise it, this might be the catalyst, and the example, that returns Australian corporations to a focus on shareholder interests and genuine corporate purpose rather than personal political goals.

If you know any wealthy people then Doctors Against Mandates in Queensland could do with some support apparently. Lawfare is a thing.

Workplace accident at Gaza Hospital blamed on Israelis.

Kenny has Penced himself

I expect a lot of these ‘yes’ traitors and wreckers will simply resort to abusing the electorate. It’s class warfare in many ways. Leaners vs lifters.

Much howling outrage and finger pointing at Israel this morning for bombing a hospital. Except it strongly appears it was actually a Hamas failed missile launch.

Gaza health ministry reports at least 500 ‘sick’ and displaced people sheltering in hospital killed in airstrike, as Joe Biden prepares to visit war zone for talks (18 Oct)

Hundreds of displaced and injured people have been killed after a Gaza hospital they were sheltering inside of was hit by an airstrike, according to local authorities.

Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which is located in the centre of the Gaza Strip and surrounded by residential buildings, was hit without any warning on Tuesday night.
…
Unverified social media footage showed a missile crashing into a building, as locals rushed to the hospital to help the injured.
…
Israel’s military initially said it could not provide any details, with spokesman Daniel Hagari saying: “I don’t know to say whether it was an Israeli air strike.”

But a few hours after the attack, the Israel Defence Force claimed early investigations suggest the explosion was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch.

A doctor in Gaza told Al Jazeera the hospital had been considered a “safe place” for residents, who were evacuating but had nowhere to go.

Since Israel gives warnings for targets especially such this and since they use bombs not missiles it would seem very likely that Hamas or Islamic Jihad are indeed the ones whose rocket it was. Their missiles regularly drop short, the failure rate is about 10% as I recall.

But get some earplugs since the MSM will be screeching all day.

Workplace accident at Gaza Hospital blamed on Israelis.

Yes. IDF now saying via Fox News that Hamas was resonsible for the damage to the hospital.

It’s a war zone and Hamas is deliberately telling civilians to stay put.
Tell you everything you need to know; I’m just ignoring the MSM reporting.

A Palestinian woman was on saying how difficult Israel were being. My response to her was what do you expect? You started this. Just get out of the way now.

I give up commenting and or reading on the Gaza situation, no matter what happens, Israel will be blamed for everything.

Lizzie – can’t believe how much you & Hairy have packed into this OS trip! Frankly, I couldn’t face that amount – even when we were young & had to pack a lot into the 6 week school holiday break at Xmas. We have spread our OS “list” over a lifetime & now there are few places left on the list, & in these times not desirable in our humble opinion. But it is wonderful hearing of your wonderful experiences. Stay safe.

Unwanted exploding turkeys news.

GM Delays EV Truck Production at MI Plant by One Year (17 Oct)

General Motors Co. said Tuesday it will delay production of the electric pickup trucks at its Orion Township, Michigan, plant as it grapples with “evolving EV demand.”

The move is the latest sign that electric vehicle production and demand may not be as strong as forecast in the near term. Ford Motor said on Friday it was temporarily cutting one shift at its plant that builds the F-150 Lightning EV.

Evolving EV demand eh? Maybe you shouldn’t’ve believed all those lies from the green left.

As I mentioned before it looks like about 75% of EV sales are fleet sales of one sort or another. After the massive fire in the Luton airport carpark you have to wonder if the likes of Hertz or Europcar are starting to get leery of having lots of EVs together in one yard.

More on US carmakers.

US Carmakers Slam Biden’s Fuel Efficiency Plans (18 Oct)

All major carmakers in the United States have united against proposed rules for higher fuel efficiency that would threaten them with fines totaling some $14 billion in the five years from 2027 to 2032.

In July, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed hiking fuel efficiency limits by an annual 2% for passenger cars and by 4% for trucks between 2027 and 2032.

They’re finally getting a spine and fighting back. Good! Helps that the fuel efficiency standards are reaching the point of physical and chemical impossibility. But mere impossibility never stopped a lefty government before, so why would they stop now? Time to move somewhere else guys, where the US qwerty in charge of transport can’t get at you.

Pierre Polievre has been studying Maggie Thatcher being interviewed by George Negus video. Funny and awesome.

It is clear that the UK and Western Europe are waking up to the unpleasant reality of Islam and Muslims. As I write, Jewish schools in London are being vandalised, Jewish children are being kept at home

No one could have predicted this…

“Never let a dead Gazan go to waste.” – Hamas Office of Propaganda

WHAT HAVE WE GOT HERE JOHNNY!?

LOL

How to address the Israel-Hamas war with your team
By monday.com

Nearly every news outlet today is talking about the Israel-Hamas war, raising concerns amongst people across the globe. Many of those within the region and beyond are worried about their safety and the safety of loved ones, especially as anti-semitic and islamophobic crimes are now on the rise in other parts of the world.

Additionally, with lots of people glued to social media and news for updates and information, it’s common to feel scared, anxious, and overwhelmed – which can naturally bleed into our work performance and ability to stay focused.

As a manager, it’s important to recognize this situation’s potential impact on your team members. It may be taking a toll on their mental health and motivation, which is why it’s crucial to be understanding and attentive, and to know how to offer effective support during these difficult times.

LOL

Here’s how to deal with it, thanks to Phil Leotardo:

Your concerns have been taken under advisement.

Now shut the f@#$ up and do your job and you won’t get sacked.

“His Presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify public servants”

Good lord, she belongs in 1967 Bulgaria.

Battery blammo.

Home Electric Battery Storage Unit In Central Germany Explodes, Causing Extensive Damage (17 Oct)

Today German site Blackout News here reports how one home in central Germany had an entire exterior wall blown out as a storage battery exploded last Friday.
…
Not only was there extensive damage to the home, which now risks collapsing, but also three people were slightly injured. Police are now investigating.

The police have not made public the manufacturer of the battery, but Blackout News reports that it is a LiFePo4 type battery storage system (pv-magazine).

I have to say suburbia has gotten a whole lot more exciting since they invented these critters.

Brave model claps back at online trolls…

The participation of these big corporations was a significant factor in ensuring the Yes campaign was a resounding failure – voters hate being lectured at.

I see little difference between corporations backing a side in a referendum and backing a side in a general election.

As a contractor, I magically adopt whatever different values of each organisation I work for demands I have. Like the great Groucho Marx, those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.

Corporate Australia is a farcical bad joke.

Normally treaties are entered into by two countries.

Under our treaty system we are entering into treaties with citizens of our own country. The side who will benefit from the treaties also happens to have their people controlling the treaty commissions.

Same for the truth telling set up which will decide the extent of any reparations and land rights etc

The treaties are rigged before they start.

Clearly up on the crazy scale, not sure about the hot.

Clearly not hot enough to attract the attention she’s claiming. Classic paranoid narcissism at play here. And I speak from experience.

She should be in the French rugby side.

Catholic nun tackles an environmental activist trying to stop construction of a religious center in France (17 Oct)

Since 2018, the project to build a large Catholic religious center in Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier, in Ardèche, has been controversial. This Monday, October 14, environmental activists fiercely opposed the nuns trained in a human chain to protect the completion of the work.

On one side, the ecological collective Les Amis de la Bourges, on the other, nuns.
…
Impossible for the activists to penetrate the site, fortified with barriers, themselves guarded by nuns who arrived during the night. Some still managed to sneak onto the construction site and violent clashes then began.

From eight o’clock, environmental activists and nuns came to blows. These violent altercations lasted almost an hour.

Great tackle lady! The greenies reckon they’re protecting a rare plant. Yeah sure.

Love it, Bruce! The nuns resorted to violent singing. Sure they did.

I wonder if Mr FrenchGreen has ever listened to his national anthem?

Like with justice, I’m thinking that a vote result delayed is a vote result denied.

Get rid of pre-polls.

Fred the ginger beat me to it. She needs a care package.

I think I talked my mate who drank the Roffs Child Kool-Aid back to “well, Israel should have only ever been the size that the Peel commission recommended”.

That’s a win to me.

Joe, a Yes supporter, tries to walk the fence now….

Joe Hildebrand: Yes campaign was backed by the rich who are never, ever told no

So maybe it’s them who should shut up and listen.

TE, sounds very Yes Minister-ish.

Get rid of the commenters and the site will run like clockwork! 😀

Courier-Mail runs a poll after Jacinta Price’s failed bid to get an RC up:

Do you think there should be a royal commission into child abuse in remote Indigenous communities?
Yes 97 %
No 3 %
229 votes

Vote here if you can climb the paywall:

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/nsw/disgusting-push-for-aboriginal-child-abuse-probe-rejected/news-story/15893f055ec427a938d40d63254930a5

The heartbreaking thing is that this time the cause was actually a worthy one, but ordinary people were so sick of moralising from on high that nobody listened.

No it wasn’t. Just because you say so doesn’t make it so.

If you can bear to, Joe, pop over to Quadrant and read Windschuttle’s article. In it you’ll find an excerpt from Megan Davis’ book describing exactly what they wanted.

Then have a proper think about it, disengaging the progressive brain draining man bun for a few minutes. The light will dawn.

While I felt momentarily guilty about snuffing out his last ember of hope, it is a lesson the left must learn if it is to survive. Indeed it is difficult to even know what the left is anymore.

…

… working-class, migrant heavy seats — strong Labor seats — were voting No at a rate of almost two-to-one. These are hardworking, generous people, often religious and socially conservative.

…

And this is the terrifying thing: The new left is more about the moralising Teals than it is about the struggling working class and, if you want to buy into its obsession with race, it is whiter than a polar bear in a snowstorm.

The left have now enthusiastically become what they claim to hate. Until they look into a mirror and reflect on what they see, they are on a downhill path.

May they continue on that path.

duncanm @8.45, got it in one.

m0nty
Oct 18, 2023 9:21 AM
At last some good news, with Moira Deeming in tears as Victoria bans the Nazi salute.

Evidence, or as usual you are lying.

Why do people assume that Israel is the only group that would like to drop boom booms on Hamas?

My eldest is pro-Palestine, obviously after hearing that opinion from a peer. It made sense that there was nothing in it for Israel, but it’s a hard sell to the naive that Hamas would murder babies for propaganda. But when you get older, you get to understand that different people have different values. And if death to Israel is your biggest value, then what is a few hundred people dead that are complete strangers to you? Precedent and context matters.

Mutley the moron bringing greatness from the basement. How are the Milko’s kids?

All I ever did was write fairly positive comments regarding MTL bar how long the court case regarding Mt B was taking.

Looks like I’ve been banned on HotCopper for absolutely nothing?!

Don’t despair.
If the internet is like searching an office waste bin – mostly rubbish, with some good stuff – HotCopper is like looking for used chewing gum in an ashtray.

I think some boomer complained about me and now I’m banned on Haute Crapper!

I posted:

Some stuff that was anti-Biden, MONTHS ago.
Some anti-Putin lite stuff.
MOSTLY pro-MTL comments, questioning the length of the Mt B approval decision.
Some banter on CXO about how it was a good stock, but the other holders were deluded about it being $4.00 right now.
Some “please don’t bash AMI” and “let’s go DEG, this is good for MTL” positive chat.

I see mOron’s period of mourning has ended,so now releasing a squirrel or 2 of no consequence.

The Lefturd Talking Points email today must be pretty lame if all you have is a quip about nazis.

Bridget McKenzie only has to snap her fingers and I’m hers!

. American-style politics just doesn’t fly here.

Federalism
Senate
Referenda
State level bill of rights legislation
Leaders debates, televised

Uh, okay.

Monty is out of step with his party. I wonder if they’ll rescind his membership?

Bimbette Jayes on Sky seems more inclined to believe Hamas than the IDF about the hospital bigga-badda-boom.

The hospital hit appears, at this stage, to be disputed.
We’ve had a couple of we don’t knows, a few more Pallis bomb gone wrong and at least one speculation it’s a himars ( Israeli) rocket.

So go on , tell us we’re a hive Mind again.

One thing that is guaranteed, you won’t see Australian Israelis dancing in the streets in celebration at the deaths there.

ABC (why do I bother) now using aboriginal names for Australian cities, followed, in parentheses, by their common (real) names. Get rid of it. There are already alternatives, and in the era of the kinternet, no need for it.

There are out-and-out pump and dump crooks that need to be in gaol that still post on Hot Copper. Absolutely ridiculous.

Quite.
Several shitty third tier brokers appear to routinely used HotCopper for that very purpose.

Even an incurious body like ASIC would be able to correlate ‘research notes’, trading volumes, and raising with comments from regular posters along the lines of ‘Buy this one for xyz potential – it’s going to the stars’, or ‘I probably shouldn’t say this, but inside gen tells me that this one is on the runway about to take off’.

French Nuns tackling enviro-loons?

Vive la France!

How many non-French-speaking people are familiar with the Lyrics of that National Anthem?

https://www.thoughtco.com/la-marseillaise-frances-national-anthem-4080565

It starts:

Let’s go children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny’s
Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)
In the countryside, do you hear
The roaring of these fierce soldiers?
They come right to our arms
To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!

Refrain:

Grab your weapons, citizens!
Form your battalions!
Let us march! Let us march!
May impure blood
Water our fields!

…..And so on…….

A bit more uplifting than some National Anthems with which we are familiar…..

Not all of them are the “cheese-munching surrender monkeys” of popular legend.

Despite decades of government policies and actions to achieve just that end.

Actually I am thinking of having this Word Salad on a T-Shirt

I am an Uneducated Dickhead Dinosaur Stupid Racist (Thanks Ray Martin, Marcia Langton & Waleed Aly) who read Document 14, pages 87-112 of the ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART on which Voice was based, unlike YES Labor Australian PM Airbus Albo who only read one page – Who is the Uneducated One?

PS https://www.skynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Credlin-Editorial-PDF-2.pdf – Document 14 Pages 87-112

Why is Labor so besotted with the Democrats then?

The Hawker Britton wing of the party should be cleared out in the wake of the Voice failure. NSW Labor is full of drongoes.