Open Thread – Mon 30 Oct 2023


An autumn morning, Milson’s Point, Sydney, Tom Roberts, 1888

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Indolent
Indolent
October 31, 2023 3:24 pm
feelthebern
feelthebern
October 31, 2023 3:25 pm

If the Apple/Goldman accounts have been underwhelming, the twitter/X one will be a bust.
If it’s a payment gateway alternative, that would be awesome.

Muddy
Muddy
October 31, 2023 3:27 pm

It’s not just that it’s been supporting an agenda whose aim, whether people understand this or not, is the annihilation …

I’m beginning to think that a large number of people CHOOSE ignorance or delusion. It offers an excuse for the disturbing fantasies that profound insecurity demands.

(It can no longer be a lack of access to information. We’ve ‘raised awareness’ to the point where it’s now oozing from our pores like narcissists on social media).

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
October 31, 2023 3:27 pm

The final punch!

Deserved!

Steve Inman:

<a href = "https://rumble.com/v3srrpv-home-owner-catches-bike-thief-and-punishes-him.html

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 31, 2023 3:28 pm

82,000 Pages of Emails Joe Biden Sent or Received on Three Private Pseudonym Accounts For Illicit Business Deals with Foreign Officials. Located

Under legal pressure, the National Archives has located 82,000 pages of emails that President Joe Biden sent or received during his vice presidential tenure on three private pseudonym accounts, a total that potentially dwarfs the amount that landed Hillary Clinton in hot water a decade ago, according to a federal court filing released Monday.

The total of Biden private email exchanges was disclosed Monday in a little-noticed status report filed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought against the National Archives and Records Administration by the nonprofit public interest law firm the Southeastern Legal Foundation.

The foundation brought the lawsuit seeking access to the emails after Just the News revealed a year ago that Joe Biden had used three pseudonym email accounts — [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] – during the time he served as President Barack Obama’s vice president.

The status report filed Monday in a federal court in Atlanta was the first to provide an estimate of the size and scope of possible government business conducted through Joe Biden’s private email accounts.

“NARA has completed a search for potentially responsive documents and is currently processing those documents for the purpose of producing non-exempt portions of any responsive records on a monthly rolling basis,” the status report stated. “Given the scope of Plaintiff’s FOIA request, which seeks copies of all emails in three separate accounts over an eight-year period, the volume of potentially responsive records is necessarily large.

“NARA has identified approximately 82,000 pages of potentially responsive documents, and it is currently processing those documents and preparing any non-exempt responsive documents for production on a rolling basis,” the filing added.

You can read the full court filing here.

https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2023-10/SELF-NARA-BidenPseudonymEmails.pdf

feelthebern
feelthebern
October 31, 2023 3:28 pm

Old Ozzie, pretty sure Flynn has been saying things along those lines for years.

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 3:29 pm

I agree JC and given that gaza is an extreme patriarchy, the men, husbands, brothers, fathers are either cowards, tacit supporters of hamas or members of hamas and 100 percent responsible for what happens to their innocent children.

Muddy
Muddy
October 31, 2023 3:30 pm

Indolent
Oct 31, 2023 3:24 PM
You can see the head move.
WATCH: Gaza “dead” bodies move on CNN report

Great catch.
To me, it seemed there may have been slight movement in the feet also, but that could have been wind, or the poor quality of the footage.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 3:31 pm

@Muddy
Oct 31, 2023 3:27 PM

Yeah sure but you still need to keep an open mind ….

Ass to Information that deluges us ? … still the same old saw …

“Never mind the quality , feel the width .. “

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 31, 2023 3:31 pm

82,000 Pages of Emails Joe Biden Sent or Received on Three Private Pseudonym Accounts For Illicit Business Deals with Foreign Officials. Located

Under legal pressure, the National Archives has located 82,000 pages of emails that President Joe Biden sent or received during his vice presidential tenure on three private pseudonym accounts, a total that potentially dwarfs the amount that landed Hillary Clinton in hot water a decade ago, according to a federal court filing released Monday.

The total of Biden private email exchanges was disclosed Monday in a little-noticed status report filed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought against the National Archives and Records Administration by the nonprofit public interest law firm the Southeastern Legal Foundation.

The foundation brought the lawsuit seeking access to the emails after Just the News revealed a year ago that Joe Biden had used three pseudonym email accounts — robinware456, JRBWare, and Robert.L.Peters – during the time he served as President Barack Obama’s vice president.

The status report filed Monday in a federal court in Atlanta was the first to provide an estimate of the size and scope of possible government business conducted through Joe Biden’s private email accounts.

“NARA has completed a search for potentially responsive documents and is currently processing those documents for the purpose of producing non-exempt portions of any responsive records on a monthly rolling basis,” the status report stated. “Given the scope of Plaintiff’s FOIA request, which seeks copies of all emails in three separate accounts over an eight-year period, the volume of potentially responsive records is necessarily large.

“NARA has identified approximately 82,000 pages of potentially responsive documents, and it is currently processing those documents and preparing any non-exempt responsive documents for production on a rolling basis,” the filing added.

You can read the full court filing here.

https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2023-10/SELF-NARA-BidenPseudonymEmails.pdf

feelthebern
feelthebern
October 31, 2023 3:31 pm

If all the hostages were released, it would make a “ceasefire” hard not to agree to.
The international pressure even from the US would be enormous.

When I say ceasefire, it refers to Hamas doing whatever it wants while Israel has its hands tied behind it’s back.

feelthebern
feelthebern
October 31, 2023 3:32 pm

Also, Hamas can’t release hostages that have already been raped to death.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 31, 2023 3:34 pm

Quick Follow Up – Makhachkala Airport Operation

October 30, 2023 – Sundance

As noted yesterday {Go Deep}, nothing about the story of the Red Wings flight from Tel-Aviv to the Dagestan region Makhachkala airport seemingly made sense.

Yes, the visual aspects of the story were accurate in that Muslims and Hamas sympathizers rushed the airport looking for Israeli Jews on the flight.

However, something just didn’t seem right both in the story and the way it was promoted by western media.

As more people began looking skeptical at the background [Research LINK], it now appears the crowd was organized on Telegram by the TG channel Morning_Dagestan, owned by the anti-Putin politician Ilya Ponomarev, who lives in Kiev.

That channel has now been removed.

Exiled from Russia, Ilya Ponomarev is reportedly working for western intelligence and lives in Kiev, Ukraine.

Ponomarev spent time in the USA in 2014 [San Jose California], before going to Ukraine in 2016. There is an interesting background bio story available on Ponomarev HERE. …” since invading Ukraine last year, some now call for direct action. Ilya Ponomarev, former Russian Duma member and activist, is leading this charge” in opposition to Vladimir Putin.

If Ponomarev, a self-declared communist, is working for the interests of Ukraine against Russia and Vladimir Putin, he is intersecting with the CIA and U.S. State Dept who are organizing the resistance effort in Ukraine.

It makes sense he would be running psychological operations against Russia and exploiting the opportunities to incite unrest in the Dagestan region. Pure opportunism.

In essence, if you put all the pretending away, this looks like a collaborative psy-op effort by western intel, with the intent to undermine Putin (Russia) on the international stage.

That would explain how the story and events went viral as intended jumping from social media to mainstream corporate media as promoted by people like Fox News Jennifer Griffin.

JC
JC
October 31, 2023 3:34 pm

Muddy

No one knew Adam D. He took it upon himself to try and take over the blog name, making all sorts of promises about how he would single-handedly keep it going and actually improve things. It was an impressive marketing spiel. Additionally, he said he was all for free speech and would protect this right.

The Bird came along and wrecked it. Adam D is 100% to blame for this and no one else, because he made all sorts of promises he couldn’t and didn’t keep and allowed Bird free flight until it was destroyed.

Finally, when Bird was gone, the free speech angle changed to something like… “oh it’s only speech I approve of”… and it became actually quite oppressive because no one ever knew where the fcuking moron stood anymore.

The shithole should’ve been closed down ages ago.

Don’t give credence and claps to someone who’s undeserving. The handful of regulars there were mh and Kaycee. They were essentially talking to themselves. Finally it became an embarrassment of idiocy. Trust me saying this, it was so bad, Wodney, Trans and the Driller would’ve been an improvement if they resided there.

Good riddance.

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 3:36 pm

You can see the head move.

WATCH: Gaza “dead” bodies move on CNN report

One more time for the record.
This footage is from a Muslim brotherhood protest in 2013, it has resurfaced multiple times in various conflicts in Syria and Gaza and been debunked.
I actually remember seeing it in the mid 10s
Hamas by all accounts have lost thousands of terrorists, 1500 are currently rotting on the ground in southern Israel and hundreds more have been killed by the IDF, they don’t need fake dead men.
Just fake dead babies.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
October 31, 2023 3:36 pm

Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

– John F. Kennedy

bespoke
bespoke
October 31, 2023 3:37 pm

KD

If you get chance watch a doco on Prime called “A doctor’s Sword” . It’s about the highest ranking POW camped outside Nagasaki when it was bombed.

Dot
Dot
October 31, 2023 3:37 pm

As more people began looking skeptical at the background [Research LINK], it now appears the crowd was organized on Telegram by the TG channel Morning_Dagestan, owned by the anti-Putin politician Ilya Ponomarev, who lives in Kiev.

Sure buddy.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 31, 2023 3:39 pm

AFR Rear Window

Qantas lawyer Andrew Finch still flying high

Myriam Robin – Columnist

Precisely 38 days after Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson told customers the airline had heard their cries and lamentations, Andrew Finch is still employed, and running the show.

Not only can the chief legal counsel’s hand be discerned in Qantas’ newly filed defence to the ACCC’s “ghost flights” suit, he’s also the only regular attendee of Qantas’ board meetings whose career is, right now, in full flight.

Last week in San Antonio, he was one of four new directors sworn in to the Association of Corporate Counsel, whose 40,000 members represent the cream of the world’s in-house legal capacity. Its board seats the top law officers of titans such as Microsoft, GE, GlaxoSmithKline and Moderna.

“As always, the number of highly qualified candidates made the selection process difficult,” the organisation’s global chair Tracy Preston said in a media release, lauding the “impressive group of volunteers” who had triumphed and were keen to “help educate and connect with our members and the broader global in-house community”.

Precisely what Finch could teach said grouping is a deeply disturbing prospect. This is the man who, when hauled into the Senate alongside his chairman and CEO, saw fit to scold elected members of parliament about the length of time they’d been asking questions. In this and other skirmishes, Finch totally undercut any claims of humility made by his chairman and CEO, both seemingly struck dumb by his display.

As Qantas’ company secretary, Finch will at Friday’s AGM sit alongside Richard Goyder and Hudson, though will surely be on firm instructions not to say a word out of school. The mere optics of his presence will do enough damage as is.

Quite aside from his total inability to read a room, Finch also has carriage for both industrial relations and legal affairs at the national carrier. And hasn’t Qantas been tarnished on both counts.

Finch executed the legal instrument by which then-chief Alan Joyce delegated total authority for the decision to sack 1700 baggage handlers during the pandemic. It worked: Joyce never had to front court. But Qantas lost the case and was found to have acted illegally, its board nonetheless advised to appeal the case once, then again, to no avail.

Logical contortion

Qantas won’t repeat the error and will surely settle its case with the ACCC imminently. For now, though, Monday’s defence is a classic of the genre.

“Mistakes were made”, Qantas freely admits, before 1500 words of logical contortion suggesting to customers it sold them cancelled flights for their own good.

Further, and “in purely legal terms”, Qantas says the ACCC ignores “the nature of travel – when weather and operational issues mean delays and cancellations are inevitable and unavoidable”.

But the ACCC isn’t suing Qantas for cancelling or delaying flights. It’s suing the airline for continuing to sell tickets to cancelled flights, for an average of 16 days after those flights were cancelled!

Removing such flights from sale would, apparently, have been very difficult.

Had flights disappeared from the available schedule, people might have called up about it and Qantas didn’t have enough staff rostered to handle their queries. Imagine the angst.

Qantas was really looking after its customers all along, making sure it had arranged them alternate flights before it gave them any inkling anything was wrong (never mind any other plans they made, assured in their erroneous belief they had their flights sorted).

These things take time, but that’s hardly the fault of the ticketing department.

Mistakes everywhere, and not a drop of responsibility to account for them!

And then there’s the core reputational bombshell Qantas legal filing exposes it to, which is the argument that customers never purchased tickets to particular flights, but rather, a “bundle of rights” to fly on any number of similar flights.

Try claiming your “bundle of rights” at the counter next time you turn up 30 seconds after check-in closes, or as you query the price difference between a 6am or 7am flight, or on the phone as you try to change your ticket to one slightly earlier or later than the one you booked without paying a hefty fee.

It won’t work, but when dealing with Qantas, neither will anything else.

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 3:40 pm

Adam’s hasn’t been shut down by the way, it’s just getting its usual three four comments a day.

Muddy
Muddy
October 31, 2023 3:43 pm

CIA World Factbook (online).
g@z@ Strip estimated 2023 population: 2, 098, 389.
98 – 99% Muslim.

Age structure:
0-14 years: 39.75% (male 415,804/female 394,236)
15-64 years: 57.34% (male 580,693/female 587,807)
65 years and over: 2.91% (2023 est.) (male 31,671/female 27,533)

Makka
Makka
October 31, 2023 3:44 pm

I was a young apprentice when the ’73 Yom Kippur War lit up. I used to catch the train in and would drop by a Lebo bakery on the way to work.

Johnny Leb was the owner and we chatted about the sh*t flying in the ME, again. His take was ; “Always remember this young man, never f*ck with the Jews. And that’s all I’m sayin’.”

Hamas has signed it’s death warrant. It just remains to be seen how long that death takes. And who else joins them.

Muddy
Muddy
October 31, 2023 3:44 pm

Apologies, but I couldn’t find the stats for non-binary or LGBTQ+

duncanm
duncanm
October 31, 2023 3:45 pm

Liion when they’re physically compromised..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1j9TUV5coc

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 31, 2023 3:47 pm

bespoke
Oct 31, 2023 3:37 PM

KD

If you get chance watch a doco on Prime called “A doctor’s Sword” . It’s about the highest ranking POW camped outside Nagasaki when it was bombed.</em>

bespoke

Paul Couvret OAM JP (5 June 1922 – 5 July 2013) was a Dutch–Australian military veteran, New South Wales schoolteacher and local Councillor.

He was a Councillor on Warringah Council from 1973 to 1995 and was Shire President from 1979 to 1983.

Couvret was born in June 1922 in Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, the son of Paul Couvret, an accountant, and Anne-Marie, a trained nurse. When World War II came to the Netherlands in 1940, Couvret signed up to the Royal Netherlands Navy but by the time the East Indies were invaded by the Empire of Japan, he was taken prisoner during service in the Indian Ocean on 8 March 1942, aged 20.

He was subsequently transported to Nagasaki on board the Asama Maru in October 1942, where he spent the rest of the war. On 9 August 1945, Couvret was working in a sunken dock in Nagasaki Harbour when an atom bomb exploded six kilometres away. He dived under the ship he had been working on and was thus protected from the explosion.[2]

Immigration to Australia

Upon being liberated by sailors of the US Navy on 11 September 1945, Couvret returned to service with the Dutch Navy, this time as a pilot in the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service.[2]

His father had died in a Japanese prison in Bandoeng and his mother had died of starvation in a nearby women’s camp.

Therefore, at the end of 1945 he came to Australia for six months to assist with the evacuation of prisoners of war from the East.

Couvret was eventually demobilised in July 1947 and then repatriated to the Netherlands. However, he decided to return to Australia, arriving in Sydney on the SS Volendam in January 1949, aged 27.

Muddy
Muddy
October 31, 2023 3:49 pm

rosie
Oct 31, 2023 3:36 PM

One more time for the record.

Understood.

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 3:53 pm

I disagree about AdamD, JC. Circumstances changed everything, he tried to do his best, like several others.

He did comment on SincCat, but probably not frequently enough to make him well known.

Unfortunately what may have started with all good intentions has been reduced to something else entirely – only a few commenters and zero disagreement. In fact zero interaction at all. I suppose my wish for a Happy Easter falling on stony, unresponsive ground made me pause and decide just to lurk.

There has been an odd change since Oct 7. There was always a whiff of criticism of Israel (fair enough, no country is perfect and they went nuts with the vaccines) but the claim not to know the history before forming an opinion about Oct 7 was a bridge too far for me.

Anyways, I’ll duck behind the hedge now to avoid a kick in the bum for disagreeing! 🙂

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 3:54 pm

Bespoke! 😀

Boambee John
Boambee John
October 31, 2023 3:55 pm

Shy Ted has put up several good posts at the Dash -Cat, based on his personal experiences.

That said, it is slow moving, with monthly Open Threads that get fewer comments in a week than here does in a day.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 31, 2023 3:55 pm

Anthony Albanese evades questions over former PM Paul Keating’s abstention from prime ministerial anti-Hamas statement

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has steered clear of explaining former PM Paul Keating’s refusal to co-sign an anti-Hamas statement issued by six former Australian prime ministers this week.

Heloise Vyas – Digital Reporter

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has evaded questions around Paul Keating’s refusal to sign a joint statement from six former Australian leaders condemning Palestinian militant group Hamas and backing Israel.

The letter, released on Monday, and saw all living former prime ministers sign the statement except Mr Keating, who abstained and said it had been “drafted by” the Jewish representative organisation.

The rare statement drew support from across the political spectrum with former Labor and Coalition leaders joining and mirrored the Albanese Government’s diplomatic show of support for Israel whilst also criticising the devastation its defences were causing to civilians in Gaza.

Mr Albanese reiterated this position when asked about the letter, however, held off on commenting about Mr Keating’s abstention.

“I think that’s a question for Paul Keating, I would have thought,” the prime minister said on Tuesday.

“I support the positions that I’ve taken and the position in the parliament last Monday was done with overwhelming support.

“It is important that we recognise that the attacks from Hamas on Israel are worthy of absolute condemnation in an unequivocal way.

It’s also important to recognise that Israel has a right to defend itself, but how it does that matters.

And we need to make sure as well that every civilian life is valued. Whether it be Israeli or Palestinian, every innocent loss of life is a tragedy.”

The joint statement – issued by John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison – condemned Hamas’ “cruel and murderous” October 7 attack and labelled its violence on par with transnational terror group ISIS.

It also acknowledged and voiced solidarity with innocent Palestinians killed in the conflict and pinned responsibility for the casualties on Hamas, saying it “sought to provoke Israel into a reaction that would kill countless innocent civilians in Gaza”.

“The Hamas terrorists have no more interest in the safety of Palestinians than they do of Israelis,” it read.

The former leaders also called on Australians to not allow the war to ignite ethnic division amongst themselves, a plea repeatedly made by politicians with domestic community tensions continuing to spiral.

Prime Minister Albanese has since faced fresh demands to show more urgency in his response to the issue, with the Opposition calling for a “solid and firm” stance on Israel’s military defences in Gaza.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and Mr Albanese have both affirmed the view that although Israel’s retaliatory attacks on the Palestinian territory are within its right of self-defence, the “way it defends itself matters”

bespoke
bespoke
October 31, 2023 3:56 pm

Cheers OldOzzie.

shatterzzz
October 31, 2023 3:57 pm

He had spent $9 mn on rehab but was still unable to shake his addiction to liquor & drugs.

&9million (I’m assuming $US,as well) .. too much money and no willpower and folk feel sorry for him .. FFS!
AS an alcoholic now in my 43rd year (August 1980) of “recovery” I can tell you it don’t take money (I had none) to quit it just takes resolve (and the diagnosis of early Cirrhosis .. LOL!) .. 1st 3 months were the worst, 2nd 3 you start to feel a slight change .. 2 years on and feeling good enuf to realise your capable of winning .. 5 years almost beat … 10 years alcohol’s side effects becoming an ever dwindling memory .. 20 years on 4 adult kids and 8 grandees and you know you’ve made it! .. 23 years on and the Chrissie cheer season approaches .. and .. I’d rather have a “coke” than a beer …
this is what VICTORY looks/tastes like ! ……………

John H.
John H.
October 31, 2023 4:00 pm

Mark Bolton
Oct 31, 2023 3:31 PM
@Muddy
Oct 31, 2023 3:27 PM

Yeah sure but you still need to keep an open mind ….

Ass to Information that deluges us ? … still the same old saw …

“Never mind the quality , feel the width .. “

“A professor in California has estimated that on an average weekday the New York Times contains more information than any contemporary of Shakespeare would have acquired in a lifetime. I am ready to believe that this is more or less true, although I suspect that an educated Elizabethan was less confused by what he knew. He would certainly have been less agitated than we are. His knowledge cannot have lain so close to the threshold of chaos as ours.”

Saul Bellow

Ignorance is type of freedom. Truth does not always set us free, it often constrains us. Brainstorming is stupid. How much can we know with certainty? Who am I to dictate to people what they must know?

P
P
October 31, 2023 4:02 pm

Good to see you bespoke.

JC
JC
October 31, 2023 4:10 pm

Anyways, I’ll duck behind the hedge now to avoid a kick in the bum for disagreeing! ?

That’s the point. He made disagreement almost impossible. And that’s the fun about a blog.

How dare you disagree with the most disagreeable person here. -)

bons
bons
October 31, 2023 4:13 pm

Ohoo woo Myrian Robin – boom.

Someone of note at the AFR must have had a flight cancelled.

bespoke
bespoke
October 31, 2023 4:13 pm

P!

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 4:14 pm

H.
Oct 31, 2023 4:00 PM

Indeed … I study ignorance .. it fascinates me.

There is a current stream of thougt , Zietgiest, that every one that lived in the past were ignorant savages. The Painting. The Philosophy , the Mathematics. the conception of what it must be like to be a worthwhile Human Being in our allotted time …

“Well it all must be flawed because We are Us and this is Now… ”

I woke up one morning in my bassinet and know these things to be True.

Real Deal
Real Deal
October 31, 2023 4:14 pm

Trust me saying this, it was so bad, Wodney, Trans and the Driller would’ve been an improvement if they resided there.

Generous and fulsome praise, JC. ?

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 4:15 pm

John H.
Oct 31, 2023 4:00 PM

Also big propps to Saul Bellow … a canny chap.

Real Deal
Real Deal
October 31, 2023 4:16 pm

That question mark at the end was supposed to be a smiley emoji.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
October 31, 2023 4:22 pm

Steve trickler
Oct 31, 2023 3:27 PM
The final punch!

Normally I’m happy to see evil doers punished but that video showed more than just punishment.
A large man punching the head of a smaller man on the ground, over and over, was taking retribution too far.
The overuse of violence was sickening. The commentary is just as much a problem as the “beat down” was.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 31, 2023 4:23 pm

The sales guy told me these batteries are heavier than LiIon …but far less prone to catch fire… I wasnt listening hard enough .. He said it was a diffeerent chemistry?

Your take ?

Mark – I think they are Li ion. The first in the series you linked is called that elsewhere, like here. They may be LiFePO4 batteries rather than the higher performance LiCoO2 batteries that Elon uses, but both are Li ion.

I haven’t looked at the respective safety performance of the two Li ion systems. LiFePO4 is preferred because it is cheaper, but has about 10-20% lower capacity than the good ones. Not so important in a bike as an EV.

If you have a quality bike it should be fine. Laptop and phone batteries are Li ion and they are pretty good. Very few fires from them. Likewise hand tool batteries. Keep to the procedures as written in the manual and look after it and the chance of an issue would be microscopic.

From other Cats, like Speedbox, who knows the technical area much better than I, my impression is it is especially cheap e-scooters and e-bikes that are the issue. And leaving them to charge overnight unattended.

The thing is statistics. Each battery cell has a chance of a fault, so the more cells in a battery pack the larger the chance of a failure. In an EV you have lots more cells so a factorial increase in risk. But even with that the occurrences of fires are pretty low. But non zero of course. Wear and tear, age, temperature do affect this. Li ion batteries don’t like being charged at too cold a temperature, as the Li ions become Li metal instead, and that can lead to shorts.

It is I think possible to get conventional lead acid batteries for bikes and mobility vehicles, but they are very heavy and much shorter in range. But lead acid batteries are very safe.

Another other commercial consumer battery chemistry is NiMH, which is used in Toyota Priuses. They don’t seem to catch fire, but the battery does fail. Some friends of mine had that happen and the car was a dead parrot, since it wasn’t worth replacing the battery pack. I haven’t ever heard of NiMH batteries for e-bikes.

If this helps great, but I defer to Speedbox for the technology itself. I’m a chemist, so unhelpfully pure rather than applied.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 4:24 pm

John H.
Oct 31, 2023 4:00 PM

Oh gosh you gruuuby little man …you got me going now… My little Hobby Horse go “Clippetty Clop” … 😉

How did people get their information back then ? The sort of Information that Cephalopods cant pass down to thier chldren beacuse they are all dead before the eggs even hatch?

Fairy Tales?

Nursery Rhymes.?

There was a lot of Life saving information that needed to be passed along and in a life span lesser than ours? How did they accomplish this?

It didn’t need to be “accurate”. well not “precise” .. but both of those terms are Modern …

It just needed to be effective.

Peace.

Aaron
Aaron
October 31, 2023 4:26 pm

“The Opposition has urged the Albanese government to stand united on the Israel and Hamas war like all former living prime ministers have amid accusations Labor has fractured over the matter”.

What? Did I miss Van Helsing do a number on Count Keating?

shatterzzz
October 31, 2023 4:30 pm

A large man punching the head of a smaller man on the ground, over and over, was taking retribution too far.
The overuse of violence was sickening. The commentary is just as much a problem as the “beat down” was.

personally, I enjoy these vids of guilty furglewitz getting their comeuppance .. if the “little” bloke hadn’t been stealing then the “big” bloke wouldn’t be hitting him .. FFS!
Keep ’em coming, Steve, I’m enjoying them …….

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 4:30 pm

@ Bruce of Newcastle

NiMH .. Yes that was the technology the sales guy hit me up with !! … it is all flooding back …

THX for that Mate.! Answer I was looking for !! .. I will buy you a beer one day if I ever happen to be in Newcastle … and haven’t succumbed to spontaneous human combustion in the mean time …

JC
JC
October 31, 2023 4:35 pm

Generous and fulsome praise, JC. ?

Just being helpful. Think of me an UN refugee resettlement envoy.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 4:41 pm

@ Bruce of Newcastle

Also you wont believe how many Lead Acid Batteries I have. I designed this Off Grid set up ten years ago and people keep throwing lead at me … Thankfully my Truck remains under GVM … I am starting to calculate in the Amp Millennia … My HP LED Calculator ..is blowing steam and busting a gasket ..despite having flat batteries .. yet again , as ever!! … But my HP 11 …is just going plain sailing … was worth every cent of the Hundred and some bucks I paid for it back in the 80s and it got my sorry backside through Trade School …

Sorry Folks an inside “Engineer” joke …

Boambee John
Boambee John
October 31, 2023 4:44 pm

Bruce of N

Likewise hand tool batteries. Keep to the procedures as written in the manual and look after it and the chance of an issue would be microscopic.

I dropped a Ryobi lithium-ion battery on a concrete floor recently. It looked OK, just some abrasions on the rubberised base. As I have to store it in the (attached) garage, however, I disposed of it to a battery recycling place, with advice of the possible problem. I wasn’t willing to take the chance of a fire.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 4:49 pm

Boambee John
Oct 31, 2023 4:44 PM

Yup … Whale Oil was the best ! Why didnt we stick to what was “Tried and True?”

and now they try to fobb us off with these inferior mineral substitutes!!

Dot
Dot
October 31, 2023 4:51 pm

Oh God.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/oct/31/marriage-is-an-inherently-misogynistic-institution-so-why-do-women-agree-to-it

Marriage is an inherently misogynistic institution – so why do women agree to it?
Clementine Ford

Yeah, just ask the poor bastard on child support.

Marriage is not now and never has been designed with women’s happiness in mind – and yet we’re told that without it, we will be miserable.

Hmmmmm

When it comes to divorce, the financial risk to women is more perilous: ASX research based on numerous studies has shown that women’s incomes drop by around 21-30% after divorce, an economic hit that it takes an average of six years to recover from.

Alllllllriiiiighty then.

The same is not true for men, their income briefly dipping by about 5% before recovering.

Complete bullshit.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 31, 2023 4:52 pm

I’m listening to David D. on Spaces explaining that Israel is pumping purple smoke into tunnels and bombing wherever the purple comes up elsewhere

Now that is weird.
That popped into my head this morning.
The old council plumbing regulators trick. Pump inert coloured gas into the sewer. If it starts coming out through downpipes and spouting, someone has been very naughty and hooked up stormwater to the sewer.
Same here.
If coloured smoke starts coming up through a “hospital” or “residential apartment block” it’s wham-bam-thank you ma’am time.
The beauty is, you don’t need innernet as a warning. If purple smoke starts coming up through the service duct, it’s time to leave toot sweet.

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 4:55 pm

Her ex must have found a new squeeze. Poor Clemmie.

But I pity her little boy more. Growing up knowing he is toxic for something he just can’t help – being male.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 4:56 pm

Sancho Panzer
Oct 31, 2023 4:52 PM

an interesting and amusing story …

I am not sure that I know of an additive that can make any gas visible…

But still, I like you’re style…

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 31, 2023 4:59 pm

Living on a giant sandy sponge drainage issues are largely another world to residents of Perf. The only person I recall having issues was the late Uncle Len Buckeridge over some unorthodox storm water plumbing ending up in the Swan River in Peppy Grove.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 31, 2023 5:01 pm

I Don’t by Clementine Ford is published by Allen & Unwin ($34.99) today

I don’t think I’ll add Clementines’ literary honkings to my library shelves.

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 5:02 pm

Purple smoke to red mist.

Smarter than the average bear, Mr. Abdula sir!

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
October 31, 2023 5:03 pm

So pleased for you Shatterzz, it also involves most things in life, deciding what is the most important. Will power, or in your case won’t power. One thing, is that a line of coke or the bottle?

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 5:04 pm

It’s funny, Zulu. “Not getting married” has been the rule rather than the exception for thirty years +.

And she’s only just discovered it?

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 5:05 pm

@ calli

Clementine Ford ! Now there is a name to conjurer with … Proffessor Bunyip spoke of husbands and crashing pots and pans … under the sink …

I might be wrong on this but my days of joyfully clanging pots and pans under the sink are well in the Rear View…

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 31, 2023 5:08 pm

BJ – My brother does battery recycling, he has a big field and the pallet loads of old batteries are spread out on it with social distancing from all the other pallets. He said he usually gets a couple pallets go up each week.

Not dissimilar to solid booster rockets. APCP fuel has a metal (aluminium) and an oxidizer (ammonium perchlorate) intimately mixed, although held apart by an elastomer. Li ion batteries have a metal (lithium) very closely adjacent to an oxidizer (CoO2) and separated by a thin layer of porous plastic – a battery separator membrane. So if the membrane fails due to mechanical damage or a dendritic short penetrating the plastic then the result is similar to lighting booster rocket fuel.

At least with ICEs the fuel (hydrocarbons) is well separated from the oxidizer (air). But as you know you can still get some pretty excitable fires out of a humble Datsun.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 5:08 pm

@calli
Oct 31, 2023 5:02 PM

Do not make jokes about “Red Mist” ….

I have known men in the profession of arms that have given rise to such a meteorological phenomenon …

But never one that thought it risible..

Look at you self and take Note.

For Shame

Peace .

Rabz
October 31, 2023 5:09 pm
Zippster
Zippster
October 31, 2023 5:14 pm
Boambee John
Boambee John
October 31, 2023 5:15 pm

Bruce of Newcastle
Oct 31, 2023 5:08 PM
BJ – My brother does battery recycling, he has a big field and the pallet loads of old batteries are spread out on it with social distancing from all the other pallets. He said he usually gets a couple pallets go up each week.

Sounds like I made the correct decision!

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 5:19 pm

@ Boambee John
Oct 31, 2023 5:15 PM

at least with Whale Oil it only combusts, or gets remotely interesting , when a lighted taper is held to it (or when you chuck a harpoon into the buggers) .. 😉

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 5:21 pm

I’ll make any jokes I care to about the animals who went into Israel on Oct 7.

Dispatching them swiftly is a mercy compared to what they subjected their victims to.

If you don’t like it, scroll my comments.

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 5:22 pm

Oh. And Peace Off, Mr Showboat.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 5:23 pm

@ calli .. OK Little Miss Red Mist … duly noted.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
October 31, 2023 5:23 pm

Old School Conservative
Oct 31, 2023 4:22 PM
Steve trickler
Oct 31, 2023 3:27 PM
The final punch!

Normally I’m happy to see evil doers punished but that video showed more than just punishment.
A large man punching the head of a smaller man on the ground, over and over, was taking retribution too far.
The overuse of violence was sickening. The commentary is just as much a problem as the “beat down” was.

I would have kicked him in the head 3 times with a steel cap boot; break both arms, snapped his legs and him kicked in the head again.

Got a problem with that?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
October 31, 2023 5:23 pm

Too much information? That is not the problem, its how we process it. Information has become like the kid in the lolly shop. Too much choice. Most people are linear thinkers not lateral. I’m a lateral thinker, wifes a linear thinker. Neither of us understand each other. She is still changing her mind after she has decided on something then thinks of something else. Could be she’s just female.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 31, 2023 5:24 pm

Some of my thinking about the rag-head tunnels this morning left me wondering about the extent and complexity of the tunnel system.
The propaganda would have us believe it is a combination of the Tokyo, London and New York subway systems on steroids, and is totally impenetrable.
Without dismissing the challenge it presents, I strongly suspect it is considerably more modest than the PR brochure.
The Snowy 2.0 of defensive installations if you like.
Remember the hype around Saddam Hussein’s “Elite Republican Guard” in Gulf War 1 who were hardened by years of the Iran-iraq war? The regular Iraqis might be a pushover, but as the Allies approached Baghdad they would find the Elite Republican Guard (they carried the adjective “elite” with them wherever they went) would give the soft-handed GIs a thrashing. Well, that was the PR coming out of learned scholars of war and earnest j’isms, tinged with a bit of a hopeful tone from some of them, it must be said.
The reality? It was all over before morning tea and it turned out the average GI unit from Biloxi Mississippi was way more eliterer than Saddam’s finest.
Impenetrable defensive installations have a long history of being … well, penetrated.

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 5:24 pm

Earlier I read through (on x) some utter moron’s attempt to parse the circumstances of the death of Shani Louk.
I guess he was a muslim, I didn’t bother to look at his profile, shab something or other.
Dumbest thought leader ever.
It just couldn’t occur to him it was likely Shani Louk was shot then partially decapitated, hopefully post mortem.
No doubt her killers found the decapitating part too much hard work and gave up but leaving some of the rear of her skull in a field with cut marks enabling the pathologist to determine that there had been an attempt at decapitation.
He was good at completely avoiding that image of her contorted broken leg too
On the back of the truck her head was hidden by her hair, how convenient for her killers.
Such lengths to go to to somehow excuse the utter barbarity of her death.
As we saw in Iraq and syria and even France muslims delight in decapitating their victims, they have koranic support for it, it is halal.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 31, 2023 5:26 pm

Mark Bolton

Oct 31, 2023 4:56 PM

Sancho Panzer
Oct 31, 2023 4:52 PM

an interesting and amusing story …

I am not sure that I know of an additive that can make any gas visible…

You what?

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 31, 2023 5:27 pm

Over 1,000 comments in a day and a half.
Yep, people are sure being driven away from the blog in yuuuge numbers.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 31, 2023 5:28 pm

We nearly burnt down our uni Chemistry Building in 1985 due to lithium. Fortunately the fireys knew about us and sent 20 fire trucks. They saved the building but our Organic Chemistry floor was pretty bad. That was t-butyllithium. I used lots of n-butyllithium, which was less excitable but still a lot of fun.

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 5:28 pm

Yes rosie. Read up on the nineteen princes of Topkapi, strangled by bowstring on the orders of their eldest brother.

Why? Because decapitation was shameful. I’ve seen the pitiful tomb, the smallest is heartbreaking.

What a lovely culture.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 31, 2023 5:29 pm

When it comes to divorce, the financial risk to women is more perilous: ASX research based on numerous studies has shown that women’s incomes drop by around 21-30% after divorce, an economic hit that it takes an average of six years to recover from.

It’s nearly forty years ago since I parted company with the Monster From The Black Lagoon, A.K.A. my ex – wife, but doing the property settlement, I questioned why my assets seemed to be “up for grabs,” but hers seemed not to be being taken into account. “I know she has her own bank account, investments and a luxury sports car.”

I was assured by the Registrar of the Family Law Court that “It is obvious that you have substantial assets. During your married life, your wife has become accustomed to a certain standard of living. We are here to make a fair division of those assets, so your wife may continue to enjoy such a standard of living.”

How I never smashed the sniveling little girly man into the next post code, I shall never know.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 31, 2023 5:30 pm

The Left Is Responsible for the Mass Psychogenic Illness of Jewish Hatred

The antisemitism on college campuses has spread like wildfire. While it can’t be justified, the real question is: Where did this hatred come from?

In my humble opinion, it’s a 2023 version of a mass psychogenic illness. The truth is that none of these haters are Middle East history experts.

So why would they gather in mass and display such venom toward a group of people they know little to nothing about?

Mass psychogenic disorder, mass sociogenic illness, and mass epidemic hysteria are different ways to describe the same thing and are certainly not new. In fact, there have been some fascinating cases throughout history, and most if not all have had tragic consequences in one manner or another.

One case has become known as the Dancing plague of 1518. Scientists and historians still aren’t sure what led people in Strasbourg to dance themselves to death. However, in July 1518, residents of the city of Strasbourg, which was then part of the Holy Roman Empire, were struck by a sudden and seemingly uncontrollable urge to dance. At the time, Strasbourg was a densely populated and highly stressed city, with frequent outbreaks of disease, famine, and social unrest. Some historians have suggested that the dancing may have been a form of mass psychogenic illness, triggered by anxiety, religious fervor, or other psychological factors.

The hysteria kicked off when a woman known as Frau Troffea stepped into the street and began to silently twist, twirl, and shake. She kept up her solo dance-a-thon for nearly a week. Before long, some three dozen other people had joined in. By August, the dancing epidemic had claimed as many as 400 victims. With no other explanation for the phenomenon, local physicians blamed it on “hot blood” and suggested the afflicted simply gyrate the fever away.

A stage was constructed, and professional dancers were brought in.The town even hired a band to provide backup music, but it wasn’t long before the marathon started to take its toll. Many dancers collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Some even died from strokes and heart attacks. The strange episode didn’t end until September, when the dancers were whisked away to a mountaintop shrine to pray for absolution.

The Strasbourg dancing plague might sound like the stuff of legend, but it’s well documented in 16th-century historical records. It’s also not the only known incident of its kind. Similar manias took place in Switzerland, Germany. and Holland, though few were as large or deadly as the one triggered in 1518.

As strange as a mass dancing sociogenic illness is, in 1962 a mass hysteria involving laughter took place in Tanzania. The phenomenon was seen as an illness that people caught, and the boarding school in Kashasha was sued by some for letting the phenomenon spread outside the school. The laughter epidemic carried on for several months, affecting hundreds of people and forcing 14 schools to close.

Sufferers’ symptoms included recurring attacks of laughing and crying that lasted from a few hours to 16 days. These fits were accompanied by restlessness, aimless running, and occasional violence, but there was no evidence of organic causes.

The left has caused this turmoil and continues to churn it on every level of society on a daily basis. They start in grade school and even earlier. They force children to contemplate things that are irrational and biologically impossible.

They continue the siege of their minds by preaching agendas and ignoring facts.

By the time students reach college, they are opinionated and entitled. They have the swag, but not the fortitude.

They are fragile snowflakes offended by everything, hating tradition, and blind to the fact that the Kool-Aid they have been breast-fed by the left has destroyed their ability to think rationally.

They are legends in their own minds.

They see themselves as social justice warriors and independent thinkers with a voice.

It’s laughable really. They are nothing more than followers of the hysterical left. Clowns with no makeup and oversized shoes who are so desperate to be heard that they scream at the tops of their lungs when they should be silent and learn.

The left has turned many of them into nothing more than zombies.

They are infected, not by a physical virus but by a mental one that is more effective than anything portrayed in any George Romero movie.

They are just as mindless and equally as dangerous. The mobs need to be dispersed and consequences need to be levied.

Then we as a society need to reclaim our schools by tearing off the left’s mask and exposing them for the monsters they are.

Otherwise, every day will look like Halloween without the treats.

bons
bons
October 31, 2023 5:32 pm

I see from the videos that Israel’s venerable armoured D9’s are once again playing in the front row of the IDF scrum. Who would ever want to be a combat engineer …. b…..ls like baloons.

I saw a video of one scraping a road into a propaganda prison, otherwise referred to as a Palistinian refugee camp, in the West Bank The road was obviously loaded with IED’S. The operator had hung a sign in the rear of the cabin – “of course I love my job”.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 5:33 pm

@GreyRanga
Oct 31, 2023 5:23 PM

Yes indeed … !! There is a branch of Mathematics called “Game Theory” it isnt as intimidating as Calculus .. though I quite like that one too ..

It was Arithmetic that had me stuffed ….

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 31, 2023 5:34 pm

Palli projection.
I think their little foray across the border was meant to draw a vicious and swift response from Israel, which they would then turn into a wailing pity-trolling PR production.
Because the OTT response is what they would do.
I don’t think they were prepared for the steady methodical approach being employed by the IDF.

H B Bear
H B Bear
October 31, 2023 5:35 pm

BIL’s 2nd last place was on the market following a divorce. Husband was MD of a building co and this was the trophy home. Ended up setting a new record for the suburb when they moved it on. Wife had downsized and the kids days at private school were coming to an end. Nothing torches joint wealth like divorce.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 31, 2023 5:36 pm

AFR – Netanyahu lobbied EU to pressure Egypt into accepting Gaza refugees

Henry Foy, Leila Abboud, Donato Paolo Mancini and Andrew England

Brussels/Paris | Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to convince European leaders to put pressure on Egypt to accept refugees from Gaza, according to people briefed on the discussions.

The idea, which he put forward in meetings with European officials last week, was floated by countries including the Czech Republic and Austria in private discussions that led up to a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday, those people told the Financial Times.

However, key European countries – notably France, Germany and the UK – have dismissed the proposal as unrealistic, pointing to Egyptian officials’ consistent resistance to the idea of accepting refugees from Gaza, even on a temporary basis.

Cairo has vociferously expressed its concerns that Israel would seek to use the crisis to force its problems with the Palestinians on to Egypt.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said this month that his country rejected “any attempt to liquidate the Palestinian issue by military means or through the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land, which would come at the expense of the countries of the region”.

Egypt’s potential role was discussed in the EU summit, people briefed on the leaders’ discussions told the FT. But leaders ultimately agreed that Egypt should play a role in providing broad humanitarian assistance to Gaza, but not be pressured to accept refugees.

“Netanyahu pushed quite hard that the solution was for Egyptians to take Gazans at least during the conflict,” a Western diplomat said. “But we didn’t take it very seriously because the Egyptian position is and has always been very clear, and they just won’t do it.”

A second Western diplomat said they believed the pressure of a continued Israeli assault on Gaza could yet lead to a shift in stance. “That’s the only thing that can be done??…?so now the time is to put increased pressure on the Egyptians to agree,” they said.

More than 1 million Gazans have been displaced inside the territory since Israel began bombarding the coastal enclave three weeks ago in response to a devastating assault by Hamas militants on October 7, which killed more than 1400 people, according to Israeli officials, in the deadliest ever attack on Israeli soil.

Israeli counterstrikes on Gaza have killed more than 8000 people, according to Palestinian officials, and aid groups have warned that humanitarian conditions in the strip, where Israel has also severely restricted supplies of electricity, water, fuel and food, are catastrophic.

A joint declaration agreed by EU leaders released after last week’s summit called for “continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs”.

“The European Union will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter, ensuring that such assistance is not abused by terrorist organisations,” EU leaders said in the declaration.

Two other people familiar with the situation said that, separately, talks were also ongoing about bringing injured people from Gaza to Egypt, but that there was no certainty that a deal would be reached.

The Rafah crossing into Egypt’s Sinai region is the only entry and exit point from Gaza not controlled by Israel and currently the only route for aid to enter the territory.

“The Turks [have] offered to establish a field hospital if necessary. We’re not planning to move field hospitals to [north Sinai] but offering to provide technical support to strengthen a referral pathway from Gaza to Egypt,” one of the people said. “[The Egyptians] established a triage facility at Rafah, and we’re still in discussions about that.”

Egypt has taken in injured Palestinians for treatment during previous conflicts in Gaza and the authorities have been ensuring that hospitals in north Sinai have the necessary resources if wounded Gazans are allowed in.

The US state department said Washington supported safe passage for civilians wishing to leave Gaza, but did not support “any forced relocation of Palestinians outside of the Gaza Strip”.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 5:38 pm

@ bons
Oct 31, 2023 5:32 PM

Yup that is how this one will play …. as it ever has…. I had blokes who fought in WW1 in my ear …back in the day… They were older then than I am now … putting me to sleep

Wanna know ? between whisky breath and Roolie Smoke … ? They told me ?

Peace .

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 31, 2023 5:38 pm

How come you and former Mrs ZK2A went Splitsville?
Was this before or after the Lionel Murphy “no fault” divorce laws?

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 5:39 pm

Lest We Forget

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 5:40 pm

It’s like a speed dating site and we’re all getting a turn.

Slow down on the drugs, fella.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 5:43 pm

@Bruce of Newcastle
Oct 31, 2023 5:28 PM

“We (sic) nearly burnt down our uni Chemistry Building in 1985 … ”

and it was all down to you you jammy little bugger and yet you skated… ? ,-)

Oh my Golly Gosh …

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
October 31, 2023 5:43 pm

Let’s hope the Israeli-Hamas war isn’t another 1914 moment

European leaders failed to stop the first world war breaking out after the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand. The US hopes Saudi Arabia, Qatar and even China can stop Iran widening the current Middle East flashpoint.

Gideon Rachman – Columnist

Historians are fascinated by the outbreak of World War I. How could the assassination of an Austrian archduke in Sarajevo in June 1914 have led, just a few weeks later, to a conflict that dragged in every major power in Europe, and eventually the US?

The question is particularly troubling because many of the leaders involved tried hard to avoid a general European war. The German and Russian emperors exchanged numerous messages trying to defuse the month-long crisis that led to conflict. But they failed.

A similar danger of inadvertent escalation now hangs over the Middle East.

The horrors of the Gaza conflict are so compelling that it is tempting just to concentrate on the fighting there.

But Western policymakers are increasingly focused on the wider region – and the danger of a general war in the Middle East that could pull in Iran, the US and even Saudi Arabia.

For the Biden administration, that threat of a wider war is now regarded as the central challenge in the entire crisis.

As one Washington insider puts it: “All the countries involved have thresholds that, if crossed, will make them believe they have to act. But nobody really knows what the other side’s threshold is.”

Over the weekend, Iran issued a clear threat that its own threshold is getting closer. Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s president, took to X (formerly Twitter) to state that Israel’s actions in Gaza have “crossed the red lines, and this may force everyone to take action”.

He added: “Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel.”

So how could escalation play out?

One indication came last week, when the US bombed Iran-backed militias in Syria. Washington said that it was responding to attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria, carried out by Iranian proxies. If those attacks continue, and American troops are killed, the next US response will be even fiercer.

Hezbollah powder keg

The role of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon, is crucial. If Hezbollah steps up its attacks on Israel, it has enough precision-guided missiles in its armoury to essentially force most of the civilian population of Israel into bomb shelters.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has threatened Lebanon with “devastation”, if Israel is attacked from its territory.

But if Hezbollah is in danger of destruction, Iran could send in troops from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to fight alongside its ally.

At that point, Israel might decide to strike the IRGC in Iran, as well as in Lebanon.

Other Iranian proxies around the region would also probably respond to a war involving Hezbollah, by stepping up their attacks on Israeli and American targets.

Iran might also finally act on its occasional threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s oil flows – perhaps by mining the strait. That would send the global economy into a tailspin and also directly threaten Saudi Arabia.

The US Navy would attempt to reopen the strait. But that might lead Iran and its proxies to hit back. The US has troops and facilities all over the region that could be targeted – including in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Syria and Iraq.

One Iran-backed force that the Americans are watching with particular concern are the Houthis in Yemen, who were targeted in a brutal war with Saudi Arabia.

Houthi forces fired rockets towards Israel last week. They have also hit Saudi oil facilities in the past.

A few precision missiles could destroy the desalination plants that supply water to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

A conflict that unfolded in this way would be a disaster for every one of the participants – and they all know it. It could happen nonetheless because all sides also believe that there are certain events that it would be very dangerous for them not to respond to.

Israel has invaded Gaza, without a credible exit plan because it feels it must “restore deterrence”. Iran believes that it has to show that its “axis of resistance” is supporting the Palestinians. America believes that it must respond forcefully to any attacks on its troops.

Not everybody in the region is panicking. In Riyadh last week, I found some well-placed Saudis asserting confidently that this was just another crisis in a historically unstable region. The kingdom’s ambitious modernisation agenda – Vision 2030 – remained on track, they insisted.

But the business-as-usual crowd in Riyadh are burying their heads in the sand.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, is very worried about the risk of a regional war. MBS’ strategy, says one confidant, is to “put pressure on the Americans to put pressure on the Israelis”.

The Americans, for their part, hope that MBS, Qatar and even China can persuade Iran of the dangers of escalation and the need for restraint.

This crisis has already led to an unprecedented conversation between MBS and the president of Iran. Like the Russian and German emperors before World War I, the Iranian and Saudi leaders were willing to talk to each other – in a bid to avoid a catastrophic war.

It did not work in 1914. Let us hope this time is different.

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 5:44 pm

Dunno Sancho

Hamas has been building tunnels for over 20 years, they have had an inexhaustible supply of expendable child labour and millions of tonnes of concrete to play with.
I think most of are miserable rat runs though.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
October 31, 2023 5:46 pm

The Ayatollah’s Islamic Republic of Iran to chair UN Human Rights Council.

LOL.
Oh? You were serious? Well allow me to laugh even harder.
LOOOOOOOLLLL.

Forerunners of the highly successful homo and transgender counseling service known as “gravity therapy”. ( h/t Gaad Saad )
If that’s how human rights get respected, I’d hate to see what they do with wrongs.

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 5:48 pm

Israel has invaded Gaza, without a credible exit plan because it feels it must “restore deterrence”

That’s a conjecture not a fact.
Israel have a stated aim, recover hostages destroy hamas.
I think then the rest might be left to the ‘international community ‘ as Israel creates a no go zone and permanently closes its borders with gaza.

JC
JC
October 31, 2023 5:50 pm

The release of the old hostages was a mind-switch by Hamarse. It was meant to elicit brownie points. They treated them with kid gloves, totally with the intention of releasing them, and they, in turn, saying Hamarse were treated quite well. The Hamsters really know how to play the Western media asshats.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 5:50 pm

I chose very deliberately not to opine on subjects outside my purview … but Hamas is not the only token on this chess board … that much I can say for sure.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
October 31, 2023 5:53 pm

Zippster
Oct 31, 2023 4:57 PM
Israel-Hamas, Ukraine-Russia and China: John Mearsheimer on why the US is in serious trouble!

Thanks for posting Zippster.

An excellent Presentation IMHO and I tend to agree with his views.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
October 31, 2023 5:59 pm

A group of us that were trading would meet occasionally and do game theory. It only worked with a small number of parameters but was good fo focusing on the things that mattered. It was funny because some would nt participate as more variables were introduced and others like myself continued but ignored new parameters as it made it too hard to choose. The result being still better than the toss of a coin. Doing nothing is often the better choice than “we have to do something” like incompetent government is apt to do.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 31, 2023 6:00 pm

How come you and former Mrs ZK2A went Splitsville?
Was this before or after the Lionel Murphy “no fault” divorce laws?

After Lionel Murphy – she decided “being married wasn’t cool any more’ and the coven of harpies, where she worked, had assured her she would get half of everything. When I refused to write her a blank cheque it all got very nasty, but, under Western Australian law, if you are married less then five years, and there are no children, what you get out, is what you put in. The final property settlement was much less then she had been confidently expecting….

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
October 31, 2023 6:01 pm
Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 6:02 pm

@ Johnny Rotten
Oct 31, 2023 5:53 PM

I dont like John Mearsheimer.. he might be right for all the wrong reasons.

But I wont prognosticate … doing so makes us all a hostage to fortune.

Let us see how this unravells , if it ever does..

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 31, 2023 6:03 pm

and it was all down to you you jammy little bugger and yet you skated… ?

Not me. 😀

We had an old fridge, where a colleague kept his t-butyllithium. The stuff has to be kept cold and away from air, so it was in a sealed container in the fridge opposite the technical officers’ storage room.

Unfortunately one Saturday the fridge died. The contents then warmed up and leaked. That ignited all the rest of the organic chemicals in the fridge. I was at home but he was working and got the fire extinguishers out, but it was ‘way too much.

Next morning it was like in the Jenolan Caves, all the fluorescent light fittings had melted and oozed down like stalactites. Fortunately my lab bench was up the far end of the floor so I didn’t lose anything.

Cassie of Sydney
October 31, 2023 6:06 pm

“They treated them with kid gloves”

No JC, one of the elderly women was beaten badly, she has described her captivity as horrendous. I suspect both women who were released speak Arabic, which may have helped them. I don’t know.

There is one thing I do know, and that is the world changed on 7 October 2023.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 6:07 pm

@Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Oct 31, 2023 6:00 PM

you arent the first and you wont be the last … Stay Strong Brother…

these sorts of things go all sorts of directions…. just make sure the direction it carries you is one you can be proud off …

Sorry to blurt in …. not my comms … ” Out to you ” …

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 6:12 pm

@ Bruce of Newcastle
Oct 31, 2023 6:03 PM

and so you remained employable from that day to this …. Get Out of Here !!

I always idolized D.B. Cooper. But now must push him to one side…

M

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 31, 2023 6:20 pm

I always idolized D.B. Cooper.

Went into alien technology after bailing out. He appears in the book series I’ve been reading: Bob’s Saucer Repair.

Chemistry was a lot more fun in those days, now it’s tied up in HSEC rubbish to the point of immobility.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 31, 2023 6:21 pm

Over 1,000 comments in a day and a half.
Yep, people are sure being driven away from the blog in yuuuge numbers.

wrong again blogwrecker

they’re staying away in droves

the brilliant ones who hate being questioned

they’re spacking out

like Nietzche

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 31, 2023 6:22 pm

Daily Telegraph.

Gruesome Hamas attack footage shown to Australian media

A stomach-churning compilation videos showing Hamas militants executing Israeli civilians has been screened to a group of Australian media on Tuesday.

“Executing?” What’s wrong with “Murdering?”

cohenite
October 31, 2023 6:22 pm

Israel has invaded Gaza, without a credible exit plan because it feels it must “restore deterrence”

Calling bullshit on that; destroying hamas and then leaving is an exit plan

Trump had nutted the iranian flogs by bankrupting them. Biden and his handlers, obuma etc, should be subject to electro shock torture for 24 hours and then fed to the pigs for reversing Trump’s simple plan and causing this existential shit.

Mark from Melbourne
Mark from Melbourne
October 31, 2023 6:25 pm

Duncanm @3.45PM…

What amazes me about that vid is this :-

Hydraulic Press Channel
8.44M subscribers

Truly, the interwebs cater to all comers… even Finnish Hydraulic Press enthusiasts!

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
October 31, 2023 6:27 pm

Elon Musk Powers Gaza – Open Communications Amid War

Israel has stripped Gaza of all electricity, and over 2.2 million people no longer have access to basic necessities. Elon Musk announced over the weekend that he would send Starlink connectivity to Gaza. “Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza,” Musk posted on X.

A billionaire’s net worth provides more than money can buy. Musk has the ability to intervene in international affairs on his own accord. Palestine did not ask Musk for help; he simply decided to provide it on his own. Musk provided Starlink connectivity to Ukraine after Ukrainian officials urged him to help the innocent people living there. He was celebrated in the media as a hero for powering Ukraine, but now, he is being villainized for his efforts to help the people of Palestine.

Israel is angered that their communication blackout is coming to an end. Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi promised, “Israel will use all means at its disposal to fight this.” He continued, “HAMAS will use it for terrorist activities. There is no doubt about it, we know it, and Musk knows it. HAMAS is ISIS. Perhaps Musk would be willing to condition it with the release of our abducted babies, sons, daughters, elderly people. All of them! By then, my office will cut any ties with Starlink.”

The United Nations and World Health Organization have said they have been unable to reach their people on the ground in Palestine. The world condemned Russia for committing a war crime, but it is ok when Israel and the West use these tactics against civilians.

Another game changer in this war is X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk is not deplatforming people who disagree with the narrative. In fact, absolutely everyone is taking to X to express their views, including members of Hamas. This is one of the last platforms for free speech without censorship. Musk is using his wealth and technology for the greater good. Time will tell if the powers that be have the power to cancel an influential tech billionaire.

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/elon-musk-powers-gaza-opens-communications-amid-war/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 31, 2023 6:33 pm

Elon Musk Powers Gaza – Open Communications Amid War

Uh huh.

What’s Armstrong paying you again?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
October 31, 2023 6:34 pm

Hydraulic Press Channel
8.44M subscribers

More of a Gorilla Channel kind of guy, myself.

Where did that thing about Trump demanding the Gorilla Channel come from?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 31, 2023 6:35 pm

Israel has stripped Gaza of all electricity

Wrong, on several levels.

I know this must be a complete shock to people.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 6:36 pm

@ Bruce of Newcastle
Oct 31, 2023 6:20 PM

So that was my mistake ?! I deserted Chemistry only to fall into the Clutches of Physics and Electronics…

Sure I can fly a plane upside down …. but what good did it ever do me… ??

If only you had been around when I was twenty … my Life wouldn’t be the disaster it is now ?

We could have set fire to some thing ? Blown up a little thing or two?

Alas not to be…….

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
October 31, 2023 6:39 pm

ZK2A at 6:00.
Good to hear you didn’t get totally cleaned out.
The WA law thing is a new one to me. I thought the Family Law Act was Federal and over-ruled state law. Maybe Cohenite knows how that worked.
Hard to say.
Pre Gough a lot of blokes would turf the missus out with nothing. Post Gough some brides made out like bandits after marrying into money.
I think Chris Dawson was one of those blokes who was caught by surprise by the new regime and decided to bury his wife under the house rather than give her half of it.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 6:42 pm

@ Bruce of Newcastle
Oct 31, 2023 6:20 PM

and I blush to confess ……Geology …

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
October 31, 2023 6:46 pm

Sydney mosque continues Hezbollah commemorations, calls for Minns’s resignation

Exclusive
By alexi demetriadi
NSW Political Reporter
@ADemetriadi
9:00AM October 31, 2023

A Sydney mosque that vowed to “continue” to commemorate Hezbollah fighters killed in Lebanon has made good on its pledge after another service was held over the weekend as its imam also called on the NSW Premier to resign.

Masjid Arrahman – also known as Al Rahman mosque, in southwest Sydney – held a commemoration service for Hezbollah fighter Najib Muhammad Ali Zahr on Saturday.

It follows a service the week prior for another three Hezbollah militants: Taha Abbas Abbas, Ali Marmar and Hussam Ibrahim.

Last week, Hezbollah announced Ali Zahr, had died while on jihad – commemorating him for “his unwavering dedication to his jihadi duty” – with a funeral service taking place in Lebanon.

The Australian previously reported how, at that first commemoration service, the mosque’s imam, Sheikh Youssef Nabha, vowed to “continue to do so (commemorate Hezbollah fighters) peacefully”.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 31, 2023 6:51 pm

Elon Musk Powers Gaza – Open Communications Amid War

Biden already forced Israel to turn the internet back on in Gaza.
Says all you ever need.

US confirms that it pressured Israel to restore Gaza comms and that J’lem complied (30 Oct)

Fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.

Makka
Makka
October 31, 2023 6:54 pm

So the people who nurture, support and donate to the enemy of Israel, who then invade and murder innocent women children and babies (FFS!), should now be supported with utilities provided by Israel.

Fk them and the horse they rode in on. Hamas has crossed the Rubicon here and any deprivations inflicted on Gazan’s are down to Hamas and every one supporting them. Israel is completely blameless and should disregard anything that interferes with their ongoing Gazan operations..

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 6:55 pm

@ Zulu Kilo …hsisss . once more unbiden on your channel … “Do not I say again Do not …take any notice of thees idiots …

“new regime and decided to bury his wife under the house rather than give her half of it. ”

Zzz … radios noises … sorry to intrude … “Out to You “

Arky
October 31, 2023 6:55 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Oct 31, 2023 6:00 PM

..
When certain individuals on here ask for details about personal events it isn’t out of casual conversation or normal human interaction.
My advice Zulu, is to not respond.

Roger
Roger
October 31, 2023 6:55 pm

The Australian previously reported how, at that first commemoration service, the mosque’s imam, Sheikh Youssef Nabha, vowed to “continue to do so (commemorate Hezbollah fighters) peacefully”.

May they have many dead jihadis to commemorate in the weeks ahead!

cohenite
October 31, 2023 6:57 pm

Jessica Tarlov, a left winger on The Five says that one silver lining of the violent antisemite protests taking place is that the Holocaust survivors aren’t alive to see it. She is a Jew. Does anyone else find this a strange thing to say.

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 7:01 pm

I think there might significant differences in service levels in south and North Gaza.
At the ‘daily sabah’
I don’t think Israel is going in and repairing generators in northern gaza.

Northern Gaza Strip faces internet, phone service disruption

Gabor
Gabor
October 31, 2023 7:02 pm

johanna
Oct 31, 2023 11:53 AM

I commented today angrily at Adam’s about the Jew-hating comments (btw our newest commenter was there) and it looks like he has closed it down.

Not so far.
Birdy was cosseted and tolerated in the beginning also, that’s why most of us left.

bespoke
bespoke
October 31, 2023 7:02 pm

Does anyone else find this a strange thing to say.

I don’t. They would be re trumertize by the display.

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 7:02 pm

Nope. Spared the distress.
Good.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 31, 2023 7:05 pm

Over 1,000 comments in a day and a half.
Yep, people are sure being driven away from the blog in yuuuge numbers.

Over 500 (i.e. half) of those comments are made by just Ten commenters.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 7:05 pm

Hi Chappies !! ??

Wanna get Calli all in the Mood ?

She seems a little bereft … at present …

Here is the nudge

” Pink Mist” …

just say it and she will be youre’s ..

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 31, 2023 7:08 pm

johanna.

JOHANNA.

I commented today angrily at Adam’s about the Jew-hating comments (btw our newest commenter was there)

That post, at 10.01 this morning deserves thunderous applause. I won’t post it because of the blog rules, but it was:

Concise;
On the money; and
Between the fourth and fifth rib.

*golf clap*

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 7:09 pm

Whisper it into her ear ….. “Pink Mist” …

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 7:11 pm

What a load of crap.
Israel provided around half of gaza’s electricity, the rest is domestic though mainly via diesel generators (very net zero)
On 7 October hamas snatched up all the diesel left in the strip.
Hospitals are still getting some, presumably because they are also hamas nests.
Israel don’t want to let fuel in, not surprising, because hamas which, obviously, is the government will take it.
There is no international law that requires a country to provide the materials required to wage war against it, to its enemy.
Hamas knew all this but did it anyhow.
Again; Gazan men are either cowards or complicit.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 31, 2023 7:11 pm

Whisper it into her ear ….. “Pink Mist” …

Ease up on the pills, champ.

Makka
Makka
October 31, 2023 7:13 pm

Does anyone else find this a strange thing to say.

Tarlov on The View.

7 in 10 US Jews identify as Democrat according to Pew. Given the venom with which the left are showcasing support for the Pallie/Hamas murderers, perhaps US Jews should take a good hard look again at their leftist comrades and consider where exactly their best interests lie.

cohenite
October 31, 2023 7:20 pm

I could not see a positive/silver lining as Tarlov said. Holocaust survivors had every right to expect the perpetrators of this stain to be eradicated and for it not to happen again. It has happened again entirely because of tarlov’s politics which consist of bizarre support for biden and his policies. I see her comments as a grotesque distraction from that base point.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
October 31, 2023 7:20 pm

Jews should take a good hard look again at their leftist comrades and consider where exactly their best interests lie.

Most people would sooner die than think. And in this case likely will.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 7:21 pm

Calli is clearly dumber than a bag of wet mice and I don’t propose to follow this line of reasoning to it’s logical conclusion…

Chappeies and Chapesses … if you are in the Dating game ? I suggest anyone who rejoices on turning human beings into a pink spray might be good for an adventurous hotel assignation … (who an i to judge?) … but in the larger realm .. ? Hey Not so much …

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
October 31, 2023 7:26 pm

I suspect both women who were released speak Arabic, which may have helped them. I don’t know.

Didn’t one those elderly released women have an elderly husband left behind with Hamas? That would be a considerable incentive for her to go soft on her captors as she would be thinking of sparing him from reprisals if she didn’t heap praises on her treatment.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
October 31, 2023 7:29 pm

Knuckle Dragger
Oct 31, 2023 6:33 PM

Neanderthal person. The Martin Armstrong posts are from a free Blog. No cost to re-post.

Roger
Roger
October 31, 2023 7:29 pm

Holocaust survivors had every right to expect the perpetrators of this stain to be eradicated…

Israel retains the death penalty for crimes of genocide and the murder of Jewish civilians during wartime.

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 7:30 pm

Charming.

Troll harder. You know you can.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
October 31, 2023 7:31 pm

I’ve never seen cats do that.

His first and last time sitting cats

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 7:31 pm

@ Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Oct 31, 2023 7:26 PM

We just dont know … this is all “fog of war” and utter dissimulation…

Cassie of Sydney
October 31, 2023 7:32 pm

Didn’t one those elderly released women have an elderly husband left behind with Hamas? That would be a considerable incentive for her to go soft on her captors as she would be thinking of sparing him from reprisals if she didn’t heap praises on her treatment.”

Yes Lizzie.

JC
JC
October 31, 2023 7:32 pm

Arky
Oct 31, 2023 6:55 PM

Interesting. And if you receive a call from a blocked phone number, after the caller was made aware it was blocked, you know you’ve made the right decision. Stalkers know the ropes, so their advice should be adhered to.

Mark from Melbourne
Mark from Melbourne
October 31, 2023 7:34 pm

In what appears to be JC’s absence…

Johnny Rotten is posting a link to a convicted felon.

Here’s the explanation.

https://armstrongecmscam.blogspot.com/p/where-and-how-to-complain.html

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 31, 2023 7:36 pm

Calli is clearly dumber than a bag of wet mice and I don’t propose to follow this line of reasoning to it’s logical conclusion

Bolton. This is temporary.

You’ll be off soon enough, when the mismanaged medication finally takes its toll and you can’t navigate the couch/fridge matrix any more.

Guaranteed you’re already receiving several calls a day from various nursing agencies because you’ve missed your ‘appointments’.

Do you go to shopping centres much? Are there too many people? Are the people robots in disguise? Is everyone looking at you?

Best stay home, where the only distraction is the little magnets Big Government put under the sink to control your thoughts.

Finally, it is no surprise you’re Tasmanian (sorry TE) and a union stooge with delusions of adequacy at that.

Have some manners, you poltroon.

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 7:36 pm

Both women had husbands left behind.

JC
JC
October 31, 2023 7:38 pm

Oh, I missed it. Open the windows, for lord’s sake

Johnny rotten (aka Wodney Woddenhead) let out a huge Marty stinking out the blog. I hope Wodney gets a diaper change.

Wondey’s link is to a convicted felon who spent 11 years in federal prison for stealing client money.

Here’s more.

https://armstrongecmscam.blogspot.com/p/where-and-how-to-complain.html

I have established beyond doubt, in an incontestable way that Martin Armstrong is running a scam with his Socrates system and various other products and services. Here is what you can do (and perhaps should do).

Depending on whom you want to address, here are the Martin Armstrong Inner Circle Details which includes company details, addresses, phone numbers etc..
File a SEC Complaint

rosie
rosie
October 31, 2023 7:38 pm

Incidentally I’m pretty sure Zulu has given a blow by blow of the circumstances of his divorce, more than once.

bons
bons
October 31, 2023 7:39 pm

Bettina.
Long sorry but telling.

The Australian media pack was salivating last week. They’d finally broken through the legal barriers protecting Bruce Lehrmann from being named as the “high profile” man who’d been accused of rape in Toowoomba, in Southern Queensland.
The Brittany Higgins media cheer squad was bitterly disappointed when their hero fell apart, exposed as a lying, scheming bimbo who destroyed a man’s life to save her career and conned her way into $3 million compensation payout, all taxpayer’s money.
So, the media hounds have been running hot ever since they discovered last year that a Toowoomba woman was having a go at Lehrmann, claiming an alleged sexual assault dating back to October 2021, long after the Higgins case hit the news.
The story of what has been happening in Toowoomba is astonishing, with many echoes of the Higgins affair, complete with reluctant police apparently unconvinced by the alleged victim’s story, defence lawyers denied key evidence and key players leant on by the powers that be. Oh yes, here too there was political interference, when the ideologues who run Queensland’s key institutions chose to get involved.
Remember prosecutor Drumgold’s claim in the Higgins case that there’d been political interference from the Coalition government, seeking to bury the case to avoid political damage? Drumgold was forced to retract that false allegation during the Sofronoff inquiry. Then the real political interference was found to be from Labor, when Channel 7’s Spotlight program revealed Labor Ministers plotting to use the case to bring down the government.
Well, here Labor is at it again, working behind the scenes to crush Bruce Lehrmann. Once it was determined that Lehrmann was set to be charged, the notoriously anti-male Queensland Labor government fast tracked a new law to name men accused of sexual assault as soon as police commence proceedings. (Naturally, complainants remain anonymous.)
But even before that law was enacted a mighty legal battle commenced as Lehrmann’s lawyers briefly achieved a temporary suppression order in the Supreme Court to avoid him being named. Every key media company in Australia, except for Channel 7, ganged up to apply for that order to be lifted. Can you imagine what that was like for Lehrmann, knowing the combined legal muscle of the media was out to get him?
(Funnily enough, many of those on the coalface weren’t so keen on Lehrmann being named. The police were initially supportive of a suppression order but just before the case was heard in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court, they changed position to oppose his name being suppressed.)
Note that early this week, a Brisbane Magistrate ruled the new law didn’t apply to a Channel 7 personality charged with multiple child sexual offences, citing the need to protect the woman’s mental health – precisely the reason used to call off the Higgins trial. Very different rules for the girls, obviously.
The most revealing fact about the Toowoomba case is the timing. Here’s a woman who has a sexual encounter with a man she meets at a local nightclub. It is expected evidence will reveal the next morning the couple left home appearing very chummy with each other before grabbing a coffee and Lehrmann driving her home. They exchanged messages on SnapChat for a week or so.
Then, six weeks later, the accuser googled the Higgins case and discovered the man she’d had sex with that night was Bruce Lehrmann. It is understood her statement will reveal that she quickly met with a Brisbane compensation lawyer before reporting the matter to the police. Apparently the phone download of the complainant includes evidence that she is involved in distribution of illicit drugs and has long been unemployed.
Ms Gold-digger’s story, according to media reports, is they had sex once in the evening and twice the next morning. She claims the first time was consensual but awoke the next morning to find Lehrmann having sex with her without using a condom – new laws decree it is sexual assault to have sex without a condom unless you give permission for this to happen.
According to her they had sex not once but twice without her giving permission to not use a condom. Lehrmann will obviously plead not guilty to these charges.
It’s understood he then drove her to the pharmacy to get the morning after pill, waiting in the car before going for coffee with her. She signed the standard pharmacy form which indicated that she had not been sexually assaulted.
Note that this case has been languishing on the police books since late November 2021, with the police showing no initial interest in pursuing the case. Lehrmann had no idea that another rape accusation had been made until well into 2022. Over a year after the allegation was made to police, Toowoomba police rang Lehrmann’s lawyers and informed them they would be commencing criminal proceedings against him – on the same day the Queensland Government released a report critical of police handling of domestic violence.
This year there’s been all sorts of high jinks over the complainant’s phone which police for months refused to hand over to prosecutors. Then prosecutors also withheld the phone records from Lehrmann’s legal team for over two months whilst they undertook their own redactions. Lehrman’s lawyers finally received the heavily redacted phone records at the eleventh hour, the night before his appeal for the suppression order in the Supreme Court.
It was only two months ago that our entire country witnessed Sofronoff tear strips off Higgins trial prosecutor Shane Drumgold for treating criminal litigation as “a poker game in which a prosecutor can hide the cards,” after the prosecutor failed to disclose key evidence to the defence. But it seems Queenslanders are a law unto themselves.
This was on display last week when Supreme Court Justice Peter Applegarth decided to lift the suppression order, disregarding expert evidence from Lehrmann’s long-time psychologist about possible “serious adverse consequences” to his mental health. The psychologist had pointed to Lehrmann’s extremely depressed state and the extreme suicidal ideation he experienced after the Higgins case was made public in 2021, leading to him being admitted to a mental health facility.
The psychologist wrote: “For over two years he has endured media hounding, public defamation of character, loss of friendships and support, relocating on numerous occasions, and a loss of a sense of safety and security in normal public places.” He mentioned that the Sofronoff inquiry, and ongoing strain of constant legal battles has meant Lehrmann’s mental health has fluctuated considerably this year but warned of the potentially serious psychological effects if he had further public shaming over the Toowoomba case.
Applegarth used Lehrmann’s confident stance in the Spotlight interview to dismiss the psychologist’s assessment regarding the mental health risk. “I hope that Channel 7 paid him or his solicitor a lot of money for the consequences it has had on this application, if nothing else,” the judge quipped, to the delight of the media who naturally were put out that Channel 7 had secured the exclusive interview.
Lehrmann was obviously putting on a brave face at the time of the Channel 7 interview perhaps because the dark clouds had briefly lifted – Higgins’ case had fallen apart leaving him legally an innocent man. For a judge to dismiss the potential impact of another nationwide public shaming over the Toowoomba case is utterly shameful.
As with the Higgins case, once again we are witnessing a disgraceful trial by media, as details of the Toowoomba case are leaked, many of which are apparently contrary to the complainant’s own statement to police. In our believe-the-victim culture it appears that the truth counts for very little.
Thank you so much for being a paid subscriber. I use these funds to contribute to the costs of my various campaigns, and to provide support for falsely accused students facing our campus kangaroo courts.
A word of appreciation to all the people making regular donations. It’s very heartening having this very concrete support. Some of you prefer to donate to me directly rather than take a subscription, which is great. But I do like to thank people, particularly those generous souls who make regular donations. So if you are making a direct deposit, please give your email address.
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It’s also a great help if you help me reach a wider audience by sending my blogs on to friends and urging them to sign up. You can give me build a platform despite the best efforts of the mob to ensure I am cancelled.

Top Ender
Top Ender
October 31, 2023 7:39 pm

Indolent, when clicking your link I get https://www.removepaywall.com/article/current

Cassie of Sydney
October 31, 2023 7:39 pm

Calli is clearly dumber than a bag of wet mice”

Completely untrue.

JC
JC
October 31, 2023 7:40 pm

Thanks Mark

Just saw your link.

bons
bons
October 31, 2023 7:40 pm

From Bettina,

The Australian media pack was salivating last week. They’d finally broken through the legal barriers protecting Bruce Lehrmann from being named as the “high profile” man who’d been accused of rape in Toowoomba, in Southern Queensland.
The Brittany Higgins media cheer squad was bitterly disappointed when their hero fell apart, exposed as a lying, scheming bimbo who destroyed a man’s life to save her career and conned her way into $3 million compensation payout, all taxpayer’s money.
So, the media hounds have been running hot ever since they discovered last year that a Toowoomba woman was having a go at Lehrmann, claiming an alleged sexual assault dating back to October 2021, long after the Higgins case hit the news.
The story of what has been happening in Toowoomba is astonishing, with many echoes of the Higgins affair, complete with reluctant police apparently unconvinced by the alleged victim’s story, defence lawyers denied key evidence and key players leant on by the powers that be. Oh yes, here too there was political interference, when the ideologues who run Queensland’s key institutions chose to get involved.
Remember prosecutor Drumgold’s claim in the Higgins case that there’d been political interference from the Coalition government, seeking to bury the case to avoid political damage? Drumgold was forced to retract that false allegation during the Sofronoff inquiry. Then the real political interference was found to be from Labor, when Channel 7’s Spotlight program revealed Labor Ministers plotting to use the case to bring down the government.
Well, here Labor is at it again, working behind the scenes to crush Bruce Lehrmann. Once it was determined that Lehrmann was set to be charged, the notoriously anti-male Queensland Labor government fast tracked a new law to name men accused of sexual assault as soon as police commence proceedings. (Naturally, complainants remain anonymous.)
But even before that law was enacted a mighty legal battle commenced as Lehrmann’s lawyers briefly achieved a temporary suppression order in the Supreme Court to avoid him being named. Every key media company in Australia, except for Channel 7, ganged up to apply for that order to be lifted. Can you imagine what that was like for Lehrmann, knowing the combined legal muscle of the media was out to get him?
(Funnily enough, many of those on the coalface weren’t so keen on Lehrmann being named. The police were initially supportive of a suppression order but just before the case was heard in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court, they changed position to oppose his name being suppressed.)
Note that early this week, a Brisbane Magistrate ruled the new law didn’t apply to a Channel 7 personality charged with multiple child sexual offences, citing the need to protect the woman’s mental health – precisely the reason used to call off the Higgins trial. Very different rules for the girls, obviously.
The most revealing fact about the Toowoomba case is the timing. Here’s a woman who has a sexual encounter with a man she meets at a local nightclub. It is expected evidence will reveal the next morning the couple left home appearing very chummy with each other before grabbing a coffee and Lehrmann driving her home. They exchanged messages on SnapChat for a week or so.
Then, six weeks later, the accuser googled the Higgins case and discovered the man she’d had sex with that night was Bruce Lehrmann. It is understood her statement will reveal that she quickly met with a Brisbane compensation lawyer before reporting the matter to the police. Apparently the phone download of the complainant includes evidence that she is involved in distribution of illicit drugs and has long been unemployed.
Ms Gold-digger’s story, according to media reports, is they had sex once in the evening and twice the next morning. She claims the first time was consensual but awoke the next morning to find Lehrmann having sex with her without using a condom – new laws decree it is sexual assault to have sex without a condom unless you give permission for this to happen.
According to her they had sex not once but twice without her giving permission to not use a condom. Lehrmann will obviously plead not guilty to these charges.
It’s understood he then drove her to the pharmacy to get the morning after pill, waiting in the car before going for coffee with her. She signed the standard pharmacy form which indicated that she had not been sexually assaulted.
Note that this case has been languishing on the police books since late November 2021, with the police showing no initial interest in pursuing the case. Lehrmann had no idea that another rape accusation had been made until well into 2022. Over a year after the allegation was made to police, Toowoomba police rang Lehrmann’s lawyers and informed them they would be commencing criminal proceedings against him – on the same day the Queensland Government released a report critical of police handling of domestic violence.
This year there’s been all sorts of high jinks over the complainant’s phone which police for months refused to hand over to prosecutors. Then prosecutors also withheld the phone records from Lehrmann’s legal team for over two months whilst they undertook their own redactions. Lehrman’s lawyers finally received the heavily redacted phone records at the eleventh hour, the night before his appeal for the suppression order in the Supreme Court.
It was only two months ago that our entire country witnessed Sofronoff tear strips off Higgins trial prosecutor Shane Drumgold for treating criminal litigation as “a poker game in which a prosecutor can hide the cards,” after the prosecutor failed to disclose key evidence to the defence. But it seems Queenslanders are a law unto themselves.
This was on display last week when Supreme Court Justice Peter Applegarth decided to lift the suppression order, disregarding expert evidence from Lehrmann’s long-time psychologist about possible “serious adverse consequences” to his mental health. The psychologist had pointed to Lehrmann’s extremely depressed state and the extreme suicidal ideation he experienced after the Higgins case was made public in 2021, leading to him being admitted to a mental health facility.
The psychologist wrote: “For over two years he has endured media hounding, public defamation of character, loss of friendships and support, relocating on numerous occasions, and a loss of a sense of safety and security in normal public places.” He mentioned that the Sofronoff inquiry, and ongoing strain of constant legal battles has meant Lehrmann’s mental health has fluctuated considerably this year but warned of the potentially serious psychological effects if he had further public shaming over the Toowoomba case.
Applegarth used Lehrmann’s confident stance in the Spotlight interview to dismiss the psychologist’s assessment regarding the mental health risk. “I hope that Channel 7 paid him or his solicitor a lot of money for the consequences it has had on this application, if nothing else,” the judge quipped, to the delight of the media who naturally were put out that Channel 7 had secured the exclusive interview.
Lehrmann was obviously putting on a brave face at the time of the Channel 7 interview perhaps because the dark clouds had briefly lifted – Higgins’ case had fallen apart leaving him legally an innocent man. For a judge to dismiss the potential impact of another nationwide public shaming over the Toowoomba case is utterly shameful.
As with the Higgins case, once again we are witnessing a disgraceful trial by media, as details of the Toowoomba case are leaked, many of which are apparently contrary to the complainant’s own statement to police. In our believe-the-victim culture it appears that the truth counts for very little.
Thank you so much for being a paid subscriber. I use these funds to contribute to the costs of my various campaigns, and to provide support for falsely accused students facing our campus kangaroo courts.
A word of appreciation to all the people making regular donations. It’s very heartening having this very concrete support. Some of you prefer to donate to me directly rather than take a subscription, which is great. But I do like to thank people, particularly those generous souls who make regular donations. So if you are making a direct deposit, please give your email address.
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Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 7:43 pm

I realize that our brethren of the diminutive millenary ..just want to drag Us all into this controversy … they have made my salutation ; “Peace”

WHHHAT !! ??? DO you mean by saying Peace … you approve of Hammas beheading and butchery of infantss !!! ???

….into an argument I never made … but so thirsty are they for an enemy they will find them where ever they might ?

Cassie of Sydney
October 31, 2023 7:44 pm

Bettina Arndt does great work.

calli
calli
October 31, 2023 7:45 pm

Forget the wet mice.

They’re on ice.

Cassie of Sydney
October 31, 2023 7:47 pm

I think it’s time for John Bolton to crawl back into his wet mouse hole, and stay there.

Delta A
Delta A
October 31, 2023 7:48 pm

Invited for afternoon tea and a chat some long timers from our new congregation, we having transferred from KI. Our church currently is in the throes of debate re women’s ordination. As our clued in visitor stated: that is not the only issue. Underlying the proposal is a movement for ‘diversity and acceptance’.

Sounds fine? But diversity and acceptance’ actually means, among other radical views, approval of homosexual marriage, homosexual ordination and complete acceptance of the alphabet culture.

The final decision is about one year away, but I am heart-broken that the beliefs of my life are teetering on the edge of a crisis which could blow apart my beloved church. My conviction is unshakeable: if you claim to be Christian, you follow the teachings of the Bible without question. No cherry picking or twisting God’s word to support your preferences, or the views of the day.

We live in dangerous times.

JC
JC
October 31, 2023 7:51 pm

Thanks for correction, Cass. I read the one account.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
October 31, 2023 7:51 pm

The reality? It was all over before morning tea and it turned out the average GI unit from Biloxi Mississippi was way more eliterer than Saddam’s finest.

Biloxi is where the last President of the Confederacy was put out to graze post-bellum back in the day. His house there which we visited is now his Presidential Museum. Biloxi is also where the Mississippi high rollers come to play. Biloxi boys are bred tough, don’t underestimate them.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
October 31, 2023 7:52 pm

Thanks Bons.
This stands out:
She signed the standard pharmacy form which indicated that she had not been sexually assaulted.

Indolent
Indolent
October 31, 2023 7:55 pm
Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 7:58 pm

@ Knuccle Dragger

Why do you do this? It is just poorlly crafted Ad Hom … I have seen you at your best.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
October 31, 2023 7:58 pm

I realize that our brethren of the diminutive millenary

Enough of this. Bring this Bird iteration to its inevitable end.

This is neither smart nor funny. It’s ‘Jew-baiting’, deliberate and smarmy.

Top Ender
Top Ender
October 31, 2023 8:00 pm

Judge finds Whakaari Management Limited guilty over White Island volcano tragedy

A judge has delivered the verdict on whether a tour company is liable over the White Island volcano tragedy that killed 22 people, including 14 Australians.

A tour company has been found guilty of negligence in New Zealand’s White Island volcano tragedy that claimed 22 lives, including those of 14 Australians.

The Auckland District Court ruled Whakaari Management Limited failed to obtain “the necessary expert advice on risk” before taking nearly 50 Royal Carribean cruise ship passangers on a tour of the active volcano on December 9, 2019.

“Given that Whakaari had the duty it did, it was fundamental that it engaged the necessary expertise to assess risk arising from the conduct of commercial tours on its active volcano,” Judge Evangelos Thomas said, in handing down his findings.

“This was critical to ensuring tours could be conducted safely. While that was the expert evidence, it is also common sense.

“Had Whakaari complied with its duty and obtained the necessary expert advice on risk and health and safety, it would have fully understood the risk.”

Twenty-two people were killed, either on the island or while receiving care for severe burns and volcanic ash inhalation. Dozens more were suffered horrific injures.

The island’s owners — brothers Andrew, James and Peter Buttle — had individual charges against them dismissed last month, but their company Whakaari Management Limited was on Tuesday found guilty of one charge of breaching workplace laws.

Judge Thomas dismissed a second charge against Whakaari Management Limited, which related to the safety of its own workers.

Daily Tele

Roger
Roger
October 31, 2023 8:02 pm

Our church currently is in the throes of debate re women’s ordination.

If they’re “debating” women’s ordination, as if there are two equally valid positions, they’ve already departed from the authority of holy scripture.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 8:05 pm

@ Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Oct 31, 2023 7:58 PM

These people have been putting the boot into me relentlessly … I am not ” The Bird “nor do I have any idea what one is …

I have just been trying to elicit information as regards propaganda from the people that are drenched in it. I have never been confrontational .. indeed I never engaged in any conversation I was not invited into …

Mostly I have been discussing Chemistry and Geology … only reason I mentioned a certain Faith Group was because I didnt like the idea of turning human Beings into “Pink Mist” regardless of their Faith or Cultural affiliations … and even then I wasn’t rude or belligerent.

Top Ender
Top Ender
October 31, 2023 8:07 pm

Anti-West, anti-capitalist, anti-colonialism grievance mongers join pro-Palestine rallies

There’s dumb, dangerously dumb and then there’s the sort of spectacular, unrestrained, self-sabotaging stupidity that only the modern Left could pull off.

Rita Panahi
Follow @ritapanahi

HERALDSUN.COM.AU

A familiar theme is emerging at pro-Palestinian rallies across the country.

Joining those with ethnic links to the region are the usual ragtag bunch of neo-Marxist malcontents who are at every leftist rally from Black Lives Matter and “invasion day” to global warming protests.

The same anti-West, anti-capitalist, anti-colonialism grievance mongers who want to delegitimise modern Australia; the same activist class that’s been emboldened in this state by weak, selective policing.

The Melbourne rally on the weekend and others across the country featured Aboriginal flags and acknowledgement of country announcements.

Speakers repeatedly linked the Palestinian cause with the supposed oppression of Indigenous Australians.

The same tropes about colonialism, imperialism, stolen land, illegal settlements and genocide are repeated, with Israel and Australia condemned.

There’s dumb, dangerously dumb and then there’s the sort of spectacular, unrestrained, self-sabotaging stupidity that only the modern left could pull off.

At rallies in Britain, the US and here in Melbourne “queer” folk have expressed solidarity with Palestine.

Speakers at the rallies have rolled out the same tropes about colonialism, imperialism, stolen land, illegal settlements and genocide. Picture: David Crosling
Speakers at the rallies have rolled out the same tropes about colonialism, imperialism, stolen land, illegal settlements and genocide. Picture: David Crosling
They’ve mindlessly shouted anti-Semitic “river to the sea” slogans.

These are the same people who would not last five minutes in Gaza where alternative lifestyles including homosexuality are not tolerated.

Those suspected of being gay face a terrible fate including jail, beatings and sometimes death.

In fact, the only place in the Middle East where members of the LGBTQIA+ community enjoy full rights is Israel.

It’s little wonder that groups such as “Queers for Palestine” have been likened to “Chickens for KFC”.

On the weekend an individual identifying as a “black, queer, anti-Zionist Jew” spoke at the Melbourne rally.

“This colony is built upon white supremacy and settler colonialism … of course so-called Australia supports a racist, genocidal regime,” they said.

On Monday pro-Palestinian, or to be more accurate anti-Israel, protesters caused chaos in the CBD before damaging a government building.

There were no arrests, despite a sizeable police presence.

Police had no qualms about harassing old women on park benches or a pregnant woman in her own kitchen during Victoria’s illiberal lockdowns but when it comes to the usual troublemakers they are reluctant to act.

Herald-Sun

Cassie of Sydney
October 31, 2023 8:07 pm

“Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Oct 31, 2023 7:58 PM”

Well said.

Boambee John
Boambee John
October 31, 2023 8:08 pm

On the subject of Gaza, Israel and the tunnels. I wonder if the technique is to blow some smoke in, use their aerosol foam to seal each entrance found, then move on and repeat.

Eventually, hamarse will find themselves in danger of being trapped underground, and will have to come out. At the very least, their tactical options will become very restricted.

Roger
Roger
October 31, 2023 8:11 pm

The authority of scripture having been ceded, the rest of the progressive agenda follows, with theological conservatives fighting a rearguard action to the bitter end, which sees them forced out of the denomination.

cohenite
October 31, 2023 8:11 pm

This stands out:
She signed the standard pharmacy form which indicated that she had not been sexually assaulted.

You bet. Not to mention the yet unreleased contents of her phone and the fact she saw a compo lawyer before the police.

This is the media again. They are the enemy of the people.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
October 31, 2023 8:11 pm

Steve trickler
Oct 31, 2023 5:23 PM
I would have kicked him in the head 3 times with a steel cap boot; break both arms, snapped his legs and him kicked in the head again.

Got a problem with that?

Yes I do Steve.
Given the size of the perp, he was probably a teenager.
Teenagers make rash decisions.
An old fashioned boot up the butt would suffice in that scenario.
I’ve had children who were teenagers. I’d absolutely hate for them to try and steal a bike, but I’d be devastated if they were zombies for life after brain damage caused by such a savage beating. All for a bike? Yeah, but nah.
No need to take out your fury with the inequities of the world on a now-defenceless kid.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 8:12 pm

@Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Oct 31, 2023 7:58 PM

“Pink Mist”

some of you seem to rejoice in such meteorological phenomenon … I know about them … I know how it gets done … perhaps it is sometimes necessary?

But it should never be a subject for amusement.

mizaris
mizaris
October 31, 2023 8:15 pm

Here’s the Speccy article from Indolent’s link.

Do Covid vaccines meet the definition of gene therapy?
Serious questions are being asked of Australia’s Office of the Gene Technology Regulator
Julie Sladden

It seems like a lifetime ago that an enjoyable night in consisted of the couch, popcorn, and a feel-good movie. Not anymore. With the hotbed of post-pandemic questions filtering through Australia’s Parliament, I’ve discovered riveting viewing can be found in an evening of ‘Senate-estimates-live’ if you get the right participants. Nothing quite matches the drama and real-time manoeuvering between our elected representatives and the bureaucrats. The only comparable analogy is that of a high-level game of chess … with higher stakes.

We had such a night recently. The scheduled appearance of AHPRA, the TGA, and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR), joined by Senators Rennick and Roberts promised to be popcorn-worthy viewing. And it was.

Five minutes before the closing of the session at 11 pm, the final question was handed to Senator Rennick. I was wakened from my somnolence as the Senator asked, ‘Have we got the Gene Technology Regulator here?’

The following conversation may well be the biggest bombshell drop in the Covid vaccine drama so far.

In the absence of the pending HANSARD transcript (ref. 27445), the conversation goes like this:

Senator Rennick: ‘I have a Pfizer document here from their own website. It says, “Gene therapies are delicate, intentional processes encapsulating the desired gene. Manufacturing gene therapies is challenging and it requires certain steps including transfection.” That is on Pfizer’s own website.

‘Then I had also from the website of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy “because the vaccine (it’s referring to the Covid mRNA vaccine) introduces new genetic material into cells for a short period of time to induce antibodies, it is a gene therapy” as defined by the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.

‘And then the TGA [in] its own Pfizer nonclinical report page 19 says the proposed commercial scale manufacturing process includes use of linearized plasmid DNA template for mRNA production. So, we’ve now got Pfizer themselves who admit that the mRNA vaccines are gene therapy, the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy admits the mRNA vaccines are gene therapy, and we’ve got the TGA themselves admit the DNA was used in the manufacturing process. Why wasn’t the actual mRNA vaccine tested for genotoxicity and why didn’t the (OGTR) look at it in terms of Gene Technology?’

Dr Raj Bula (Office of the Gene Technology Regulator):

‘Thank you for your question, Senator. I think the first part about the genotoxicity that question has been asked before. Because the Therapeutic Goods Administration was the approving authority for the vaccine products, that is a question for TGA on GMO toxicity.

‘In relation to your question around manufacturing, I think it’s useful to put a bit of context around that in that the committee is aware the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines were fully formulated and imported into Australia, which meant that there was actually no manufacture of the mRNA or the vaccine product itself here in Australia. If indeed the mRNA was being manufactured here, and it’s correct, that gene technology was used in the modification of the mRNA then under the Gene Technology Act an approval would have been required for that manufacturing step.’

Senator Rennick: ‘That contradicts what you’ve said previously. You’ve said previously gene therapy and gene technology wasn’t used. Now you’re saying because it was produced in another country, that you’re not responsible for checking the gene therapy.’

Dr Bhula: ‘So, the Gene Technology Act, it doesn’t reach into manufacturing in other countries.’

Senator Rennick: ‘But it still involves transfection here. It transfects cells of Australian citizens.’

Dr Bhula: ‘I disagree with that.’

Senator Rennick: ‘Well, that’s what Pfizer say. Even they admit transfection, is a part of gene therapy.’

Dr Bhula: ‘No senator.’

Senator Rennick: ‘So you’re disagreeing with Pfizer, the people who actually made the vaccine that transfection isn’t a part of gene therapy.’

Chair: ‘I think she’s disagreeing with you at the moment.’

Senator Rennick: ‘Well, it’s not my words. I’ll just read out what Pfizer said.’

Gallagher: ‘Welcome to my world.’

Dr Bhula: ‘I think it comes down to a definition of what is a gene therapy.’

Senator Rennick: ‘Yep, that’s right. And I’m relying on the manufacturer.’

This little exchange at the eleventh hour of Senate estimates had me wide-eyed and jaw dropped.

In my view, the OGTR has undermined their answers to Senator Rennick in Feb 2023 (as follows):

Senator Rennick: ‘Under section 30C of the Therapeutic Goods Act, the secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Health must seek advice from the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator on the safety and efficiency of any product that uses GMO as defined by the Gene Technology Act. Do you have evidence of where the secretary has written to you asking for advice on the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines?’

Dr Bhula: ‘Thank you for your question, Senator. Where the particular vaccine involves a GMO, there’s a reciprocal arrangement, if you like, for OGTR to seek advice from the TGA in terms of a risk assessment around that GM vaccine and vice versa. The TGA may also request advice from the OGTR.’

Senator Rennick: ‘Do you have documentation of that?’

Dr Bhula: ‘For GM vaccines, yes.’

Senator Rennick: ‘Where they’ve written to you for the Pfizer one?’

Dr Bhula: ‘No, because the mRNA vaccines are not required to be regulated through the OGTR.’

Senator Rennick: ‘Did they write to you and actually ask you that question?’

Dr Bhula: ‘No, because they’re not required to be regulated through the OGTR.’

Senator Rennick: ‘But how would they know, because you’re the expert? And, by the way, gene technology involves both replication and transcription.’

Dr Bhula: ‘Yes.’

Senator Rennick: ‘Which is what the mRNA vaccine does.’

Dr Bhula: ‘But the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines did not involve any step of genetic modification…’

Senator Rennick: ‘They produce proteins.’

Dr Bhula: ‘Or a GMO…’

Chair: ‘Senator Rennick, would you allow Dr Bhula to finish her answers?’

Dr Bhula: ‘Which meant that that didn’t require regulatory oversight by the OGTR.’

Senator Rennick: ‘Well, I dispute that. Look up gene technology. But, anyway, thank you.’

In February 2023, the OGTR asserted that there was no documentation between the TGA and the OGTR regarding the mRNA vaccines. They say the mRNA vaccines were not required to be regulated through the OGTR because they did not involve a GMO or any step of genetic modification.

However, in October 2023, the OGTR says they don’t have oversight because the Gene Technology Act doesn’t reach into manufacturing in other countries and the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines were fully formulated outside of Australia.

Please bear with me while I explain the significance of this moment.

Senator Rennick has tabled several documents from Pfizer, the TGA, and the American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy confirming that Covid-19 mRNA injections are indeed gene therapy products involving genetic modification during manufacture.

Importantly the OGTR concedes that if what Senator Rennick is saying is true, then the mRNA injections are GM products and should be regulated by the OGTR if they were manufactured in Australia, but they do not have oversight because the Covid-19 mRNA injections were manufactured overseas.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

The Gene Technology Act 2000 requires that such gene technology products fall under the regulation of the OGTR as soon as they hit Australian shores, with GMO ‘dealings’ including manufacture, import, transport, and disposal. The OGTR’s response to Senator Rennick last week that the mRNA products were not regulated by them because they were manufactured outside of Australia appears to contradict what is written in the Gene Technology Act.

There’s something else. Let’s look at the concept of ‘manufacture’. Both the mRNA (Pfizer and Moderna) and viral vector (AZ) Covid-19 injections are pro-drugs, meaning they tell the body to ‘manufacture’ the final product. In this case, this final product is the spike protein. This means the final manufacturing step does indeed happen on Australian soil, in the bodies of injected Australians.

An (anonymous) Australian professor of science and medicine explains it this way:

‘…the concept of “manufacture” here is an interesting one as with the mRNA and also the adenoviral vector vaccines the final act of “manufacture” occurs in the body into which these products are injected.

‘This is because they are designed to induce the manufacture of spike protein production in vivo [in the human body] (the manufacture) as their final step. Without this final manufacturing step, they don’t work.

‘So, in effect when the products are injected into a human body in Australia, then the final act of genetic manufacture does indeed occur in Australia.

‘What the OGTR are proposing is thereby a nonsense. If they are redefining the Act in this way then it means we can create all manner of new genetic organisms and providing we do this in vivo (in living organisms) then it is now outside the purview of the OGTR – how wonderful – the virology community will be ecstatic that they can now do these things in vivo without going to the OGTR.’

‘So what?’ you may say.

Well this, dear reader, brings us to seriousness of the issue. A legal case filed in Australia’s Federal Court claims the Pfizer and Moderna products always met Australian legal definitions for being deemed genetically modified organisms and should therefore have obtained GMO licenses from the OGTR. They did not.

What, you may ask, is the penalty for dealing in GMOs without a license? You can read more about that here.

Even more serious is what this potentially means for the millions of Australians who were assured the mRNA vaccines were not gene therapy, making fully informed consent null and void. Not to mention their health in this ‘world’s largest experiment’.

One thing is certain, this isn’t the last we have heard about the OGTR.

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

Cassie of Sydney
October 31, 2023 8:15 pm

Perhaps it’s time ‘Bolton’ spent all his time at Dash Cat. I’ve just had a look at the site, and it’s sicker than ever, but ‘Bolton’ seems to like it very much, in fact he applauds the explicit Jew hate.

Roger
Roger
October 31, 2023 8:21 pm

Site slow to reload; error code 524 pops up.

Real Deal
Real Deal
October 31, 2023 8:21 pm

My conviction is unshakeable: if you claim to be Christian, you follow the teachings of the Bible without question. No cherry picking or twisting God’s word to support your preferences, or the views of the day.

Perfectly stated, Delta. The people pushing this stuff would rather think none of us had convictions. Sadly in some denominations people in leadership rise to the top precisely because they abandon convictions such as the ones you have stated. Keep reminding your leaders why God’s truth is important.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
October 31, 2023 8:21 pm

Old School Conservative
Oct 31, 2023 8:11 PM
Steve trickler
Oct 31, 2023 5:23 PM
I would have kicked him in the head 3 times with a steel cap boot; break both arms, snapped his legs and him kicked in the head again.

Got a problem with that?

Yes I do Steve.
Given the size of the perp, he was probably a teenager.

I’d pummel his head him, No hesitation.

Cassie of Sydney
October 31, 2023 8:22 pm

I’ll tell you what I do rejoice in, and that is the thought that the Jew hating Hamas butchers, the Jew hating Hamas beheaders, the Jew hating Hamas rapists and the all round Jew hating terrorists in Gaza and elsewhere on the planet are atomised into mist. I’m not fussed what colour these Jew hating Hamas terrorists end up, they can end up pink mist, yellow mist, brown mist, purple mist, black mist, green mist, any colour mist, and such mist will not only make me smile, it’ll make the world, and particularly Israel, a safer place.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
October 31, 2023 8:25 pm

Troll Bolton:

It is just poorlly crafted Ad Hom

‘dumber than a bag of wet mice’ ring a bell?

No?

The pills are calling.

Cassie of Sydney
October 31, 2023 8:26 pm

Roger
Oct 31, 2023 8:21 PM
Site slow to reload; error code 524 pops up.

Yes.

JC
JC
October 31, 2023 8:26 pm

Salvatore, Iron Publican
Oct 31, 2023 7:05 PM

Over 1,000 comments in a day and a half.
Yep, people are sure being driven away from the blog in yuuuge numbers.

Over 500 (i.e. half) of those comments are made by just Ten commenters.

It would be great if he provides the blog names making up that sum in order to fact check the comment. I’m sure it’s tabulated, so it wouldn’t be much of an effort to provide the details.

If none is forthcoming, we have to assume it’s a lie, which unfortunately has never presented as a problem to this commenter.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
October 31, 2023 8:27 pm

My conviction is unshakeable: if you claim to be Christian, you follow the teachings of the Bible without question.

Delta – the parable about the house upon the rock is much unconsidered these days, but is actually profound.

Regarding mice, there’re no mice at the Cafe. The kookas ate all of them, with relish, poor things. So I have to step in. Old lady kooka sat on my hand so long at lunchtime today that it hurt, and I had to hold my arm up with my other hand. She’s awesome.

miltonf
miltonf
October 31, 2023 8:27 pm

The meja are out to get Bruce because he dared take on one of their ‘stars’

Roger
Roger
October 31, 2023 8:27 pm

Is it any wonder the LNP wants to ditch Senator Rennick?

Dot
Dot
October 31, 2023 8:27 pm

There is a current stream of thougt , Zietgiest, that every one that lived in the past were ignorant savages. The Painting. The Philosophy , the Mathematics. the conception of what it must be like to be a worthwhile Human Being in our allotted time …

“Well it all must be flawed because We are Us and this is Now… ”

I woke up one morning in my bassinet and know these things to be True.

Good lord. Smoosh this Bird before it can fly.

Enough.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 8:28 pm

@
Real Deal
Oct 31, 2023 8:21 PM

well spoken… the travail is to sort out what the Almighty needs us to know , amidst the clutter and chaff of what other People think we should Think

Peace.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
October 31, 2023 8:30 pm

So what you are saying Steve that you’d possibly kill a teenager for trying (unsuccessfully) to steal a bike?

Salvatore, Iron Publican
October 31, 2023 8:32 pm

Arky Oct 31, 2023 6:55 PM
Zulu Kilo Two AlphaOct 31, 2023 6:00 PM..
When certain individuals on here ask for details about personal events it isn’t out of casual conversation or normal human interaction.
My advice Zulu, is to not respond.

Kenoath. Particularly if the question is being asked by one who does not comment in good faith.

Mark Bolton
October 31, 2023 8:37 pm

@
Old School Conservative
Oct 31, 2023 8:30 PM

Oh such a vexed question … In Vietnam you will be killed if you piss the Community off .. that is why it never Happens…

Isnt it interestiing … ?

  1. This possibility grows increasingly likely as we continue to fail to tackle climate change. Wait, is someone calling for human…

  2. Agreed. Who would have thought the Greens are ‘right-wing extremists?’ You have to just laugh at them sometimes.

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