I take it Kate is married. Isn’t this the same as telling her husband “I don’t think much about you…
Open Thread – Wed 8 Nov 2023
- TULIP versus ruinous Labor
- Open Thread – Weekend 18 May 2024
- Bumtree #15
- Bumtree #14
- Open Thread – Thurs 16 May 2024
I look forward to the day when these kids realise just how badly they’ve been abused by the Doctors, Nurses,…
They will have to tear my chocolate bar from my cold dead hands.
“Depressing,” says the minister No Minister- “predictable” is the word you are after. And “imbecile” is the word describing you…
A warning note from the Danish experience with Gaza refugees ….. Two-thirds of those who were granted a residence permit…
I see that the hapless, gormless CEO of Optus is in the middle of a shitstorm.
It’s not that the company left millions of customers in the lurch. Sins like that or worse can be forgiven within the charmed circle, as was demonstrated during the COVID debacle.
It is that she left players like the Minister, the regulator and the MSM out of the loop, instead of calling them first.
That is unforgiveable, because (a) it makes them look bad, and (b) it shows that she doesn’t understand the rules, and how things work among the Top Men and Wimmenses.
She’s a goner.
Whilst James Mudrock is woke, Lachlan Mudrock is not.
Lozza Fox uploaded this last night…..please watch and listen…
Laurence Fox – Far from the Madding Crowd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqrY7SypBHU
It’s superb.
Dr. Eli David
@DrEliDavid
@CNN photographer in Gaza holding a grenade as he joins Hamas terrorists on October 7th massacre.
Source: His own Facebook page.
https://twitter.com/drelidavid/status/1722637894592942473?s=43&t=Yc00iJmlrMbSkMLAa3-zEw
Bruce Pascoe .. Are there still luvvies taking him seriously? People have done research on him yonks ago, and there wasn’t a shred of aboriginal ancestry in the clown.
Apparently, none of them are public serpents .. his “charity” BLACK DUCK ( of which he is the only beneficiary) still receiving $100s of $1 000s in Federal grants ..
The geography of Vaucluse is conveniently structured to permit easy construction of a wall to isolate the festering slum from real Australia.
The beneficial result will be a need to renew almost every corporate board as well as an immediate improvement in communications, post and air services.
The two-time Oscar winner also condemned those who “see walls and barbed wire fences as a solution to the world’s 36.4 million refugees.”
Putting her money where her mouth is Cate is, no doubt, planning to house several hundred “refugees” herself ..!
https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/oceans-8-cate-blanchett-home-england/
Tears again. This morning I read Yoni Bashan’s (The Australian) account of a senior IDF commander’s recollection of 7/10. Harrowing.
All those who stubbornly refuse to accept the evidence and/or won’t look at the photographs should read this account.
Also read, if you can, Henry Ergas’ brilliant analysis of the actual international law on legal responses to attack, who is responsible for civilians etc. It destroys the myths that are being flogged by the ABC et al who vilify Israel for deaths of Gazans.
FatBoy spent four weeks collecting leftard/Pally talking points so he could come here and rub our noses in our fascism and racism. He lasted about a day, before fleeing in disarray.
bons – mate, be careful of denigrating a whole suburb because some creepy corporates live there. So do a number of Cats, as well as a lot of OK Aussies.
Ain’t no such word.
It’s ‘nobble’ as in nobbling a racehorse to win or lose.
Some may regard it as pedantry – to me it’s a small part of the war against illiteracy.
BTW, Waterson’s excellent article left out a favourite at Ye Olde Cat – wallah!
Comrehensive video this morning not only Gaza but Syria & Lebanon reports …..
https://youtu.be/fnD8dc39Yjo
Tears again. This morning I read Yoni Bashan’s (The Australian) account of a senior IDF commander’s recollection of 7/10. Harrowing.
You have to force yourself to read these accounts of the 7th of October butchery.
Never forget these demons attacked innocent civilians & then celebrated it.
Just finished watching an episode of ‘Undercover Boss’, a formulaic show where CEOs try to do jobs they are not trained for, badly, and end up giving selected employees money for their sick kids, or buy them a new car, that kind of thing.
Anyway, the one I just watched all involved black employees of a fast food chain. They were given cash. Every one of them was going to spend it on depreciating assets like cars, none of them was going to save a cent.
Who was the prescient fella who said that ‘reparations’ in California would end up in the pockets of Mercedes?
Culture matters.
I’ve been watching as many interviews and long form talks/lectures on the Israel situation as I can since Oct 7.
Two things stand out like dogs balls.
– The obfuscation, passive aggressive, lying, denial, bluster and general rudeness of the Palestinian spokespeople themselves.
– The utter dripping sanctimony and hatred for the West exhibited by the vast majority of prominent pally supporters in the West itself.
After I read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, it gave me nightmares for a bit.
& I wish I could un-read it.
That is nothing compared to the stories & images I’ve head/seen from 7th October.
More more of them than us policing in the UK.
Doubt they’d be telling a muezzin to put a sock in it.
Can anyone tell me what has happened to the Armenian population frog marched out of their oblast in Azberjan.
What has happened to them,Armenia and the toll on life.
Dr. Vernon Coleman
Anastrozole – Here we go again giving experimental drugs to perfectly healthy women
Louis Litt
Nov 10, 2023 8:20 AM
Best not to go there, bc who has supported Azerbaijan against the christian Armenians.
I don’t read too much into Douglas’ strained eyes. It was dark during this interview. Also, he’d just dodged a rocket or two and still kept on with the interview. That would take nerves of steel and a lot of nervous energy in the eyes. This interview was shown in full late last nite on Peers Morgan’s show and it is well worth seeing, scroll back to my linky last nite to see it.
Cassie’s view that Douglas Murray is an old Etonian and thus given better media treatment than Tommy Robinson is quite correct, but in fairness to Douglas it is not just that, the class factor (although it is relevant for Douglas’ modulated tones carry weight), nor is it just the fact that he is gay. Douglas has written numerous very well regarded books on the culture wars, so the ‘high media’ will give him points for that vs Tommy the street fighter. I admire them both, having modulated tones myself and not averse in my past life to being a bit of a street fighter.
CNN Cuts Ties with Freelancer after Photo Emerges of Him Sharing a Kiss with Hamas Leader
TERFed!
Feminist Disinformation Site Jezebel Shuts Down Because No One Wanted It (9 Nov)
I suspect the usual disinclination for Lefties to part with actual money for stuff. On the other hand the TERF wars mustn’t’ve helped, since that intersectionalism would comfuse progressives – “is it still ok to read a radical feminist site? Maybe it’s safer not to, I might get canceled for wrongthink.”
This Is What Inflation Does To Our Kids
EU Pushes CBDC-Linked ‘Digital Identity’ for All Citizens
Gazan journalist participated in Hamas massacre, ecstatically displayed soldier’s ID card, helmet and magazine
NYPD: Antisemitic Hate Crimes Jump 214% in October
Deep State is coming after Steven Crowder for releasing “trans manifesto,” but he’s fearlessly doubling down…
This is why I never join ‘rewards’ programs:
There is nothing new about this, but the technology has taken it to a new level.
In the late 1970s, I worked for a company that, among other things, ran ‘competitions’ for corporate clients, It was all manual, physical letters and entry forms.
The results were rigged to ensure that every State got at least one winner, duly followed up by the local rag.
The names and addresses of people who sent in entries were entered into The Computer, which occupied a large chunk of the basement. That information was used for other clients.
As usual, history is of no interest to the perpetrators of the latest hysteria.
Money For Nothing: The Radical Growth of the Gazan Population
No 10 disowns Suella Braverman article attacking police over protests
On my recommendation, Hairy watched the Murray interview on Peer’s show last night. I sat there saying isn’t Douglas great, he’s really hitting out at the Brits for weakness, and what is more, he’s very yummy for a girl to look at. Think you could convert him? asks Hairy, and I reply that I’d certainly give it a go.
He reminds me so much in looks and accent of the upper class Brit guy I had a year-long relationship with during the inter-regnum between two husbands, who was sexually normal (I was the judge of that), looked like a Greek god, and had that bi side to his arousals, which he could dismiss in the presence of an appreciative woman. A lot of the ‘gayness’ in such men is British Public School boarding-based, with young adolescent males being groomed by older ‘fags’; and in that my erstwhile lover was out of exactly the same box as Douglas.
He decided he was fully gay when you dumped him, observes Hairy mildly, who has met my ex-lover and agrees with me that these schools (one of which Hairy also attended) certainly could divert vulnerable young minds. Glad they didn’t have any success with you, I nuzzle. I was never a boarder, he counters.
Listen To Hillary Clinton Spell Out Exactly What Democrats Are Doing To Destroy The Republic
More glorious GWGB.
Nolte: Disney’s ‘The Marvels’ Opens to Dreadful Reviews – ‘Worst Marvel Film Yet’ (8 Nov)
Very Kaelish snark! I know that Disney is trying very hard to defibrillate the tree because glowing articles are all over the news sites this morning. Disney must be paying a motza for these advertorials.
Meanwhile…
Disney’s Dark Days Ahead: Bob Iger Plans Another $2 Billion in Cuts (9 Nov)
Keep on doing the same thing over and over woke Disney peoples, I’m sure it’ll come good eventually.
I’ll add here that this man has kept in touch with us all, and all of my kids in adolescence developed the taunting meme of mum turned him gay, for he had numerous girlfriends before me. No, I would counsel them, I had nothing to do with that decision. People make those sorts of decisions all by themselves.
breaking the tytler cycle
I was never a boarder, he counters.
Border fags…
That insult takes me back…
Some GWGB isn’t glorious.
From 2022:
‘Ringworld’ Needs to Be Updated for Television.
Ruining one of the greats.
Up in your neck of the woods Lizzie, staying at Potts Point in the Hotel Challis. Nice old building. We were just ruminating on its past. Probably a very big house for people with very big wealth.
Kings Cross has become much more gentrified than when I did a few “runs ashore” 30 years back in Navy time. The old Beefsteak and Bourbon hotel looks closed.
Quite – when asked by mitre 10 or bunnings or colesworths if I have a ‘rewards card’, I smile and say ‘no – no tracking chip in me…’
With things heating up with the pro Palestinian rallies, VicPlod have other ideas. Hun:
I think the previous Premier has a lot to do with this current issue. Particularly the way he used them during his lockdowns.
‘Ringworld’ Needs to Be Updated for Television.
I know where this is heading, and i dont like it.
Watch: ‘Clueless’ protesters on pro-Palestine march say they are ‘not sure’ Hamas invaded Israel – Paywalled
Two activists who were interviewed about the terrorist assault on Israel on Oct 7 admitted to having little knowledge about the conflict
By Ewan Somerville
“Clueless” protesters have invited ridicule of pro-Palestine marches after admitting that they did not know whether Hamas attacked Israel.
Two young activists, who have not been identified, were interviewed about the terrorist assault on Israel on Oct 7 as they joined a demonstration in London last Saturday.
But they appeared to have little knowledge of what exactly they were protesting about, with one admitting they needed to be “more clued up”.
In a clip shared online, an interviewer from the Campaign Against Antisemitism asks the pair: “When Hamas invaded Israel on 7th October, what was your initial reaction to that?”
One replies: “I don’t believe they did, did they? Hamas?”
The other responds nervously: “I think so… honestly I think I need to be a bit more clued up on everything that’s going on, so I feel like I’m not really qualified to answer that too well.”
The first activist then adds: “I mean, I’m not sure if I’ve seen anything that shows that that’s actually happened or factually correct.”
She was holding a placard reading: “Rishi, Keir U must be invertebrates cause ur spineless!!!! Call 4 ceasefire.”
Some 1,400 Israelis were killed and 200 taken hostage when Hamas, a proscribed terror group, stormed the Jewish state and sparked a ground and air mission from Israel to eliminate the militants in Palestine.
It comes as 70,000 activists prepare to march on Armistice Day, the fifth mass pro-Palestine protest in London in as many weeks despite furious opposition from the Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who partly cited The Telegraph’s findings that half of the organisers have links to Hamas.
The clip has gone viral on social media with anti-Semitism campaigners saying it shows “willful idiocy”.
‘Clueless and dangerous’
The Campaign Against Antisemitism told The Telegraph that it “showcases the toxic combination of ignorance and support for terrorism that motivates too many of the protesters on these marches”.
A spokesman added: “These people are clueless and dangerous. Is it any surprise that opinions such as these, accompanied by genocidal chanting, anti-Semitic signage and calls for violence, are terrifying the Jewish community?
“London cannot continue to be a no-go zone for Jewish people week after week.”
A Community Security Trust spokesman said: “These two people are a stunning example of willful idiocy, ripe picking for whatever extremist ideology comes down the track, including anti-Semitism.”
At the London pro-Palestine march last weekend where the video was filmed, a total of 29 people were arrested on suspicion of public order offences, racially motivated crimes and assaulting a police officer. Six people have been charged.
The Metropolitan Police said fireworks were thrown at officers and a pamphlet reported to support Hamas was on sale.
Excellent article in the American Thinker on population growth in Gaza.
As per Indolent’s link above to the full article. Worth a read.
I won’t link now, heading out to do some shit, but Harry Hunter is making news. Be sure to target his business. Actually three paragraphs from the Daily Telegraph:
Peter Singer would be happy. Daniel Greenfield has a story on his FPM blog today which is decidedly NSFW. What is it about Lefties, they seem to aggregate the weirdest fetishes and hatreds mankind ever had the misfortune to invent?
Bruce, I read a bit of the Marvels review you posted to Mrs TE, and she made the interesting point that if homosexuality is so good why don’t movies show the full process as they do with hetero.
Then again maybe movies do that and we just haven’t been watching the right ones!
via SkyNews:
“George called them Thought Police, now we call them Fact Checkers.”
– Tom MacDonald, “Sheeple” https://youtu.be/JgFgnXtF9Cc?t=163
Jounalists associated with CNN, NYT, AP & Reuters knew beforehand about the Hamas invasion on 7 Oct and were among the first invaders.
https://honestreporting.com/photographers-without-borders-ap-reuters-pictures-of-hamas-atrocities-raise-ethical-questions/
Vicki, Do not patronise me. I am not your mate.
I however take your point about the good burghers of Vaucluse, so I have arranged for the cruise liners to call into Watson’s Bay for their pickups from now on.
staying at Potts Point in the Hotel Challis.
You’re a couple of mins walk away from Betty’s Burgers.
I mention it because they have their lobster roll back on the menu for a limited time.
Not sure if you have Betty’s Burgers where you live, but that lobster roll is the only reason to pop in.
We had a thunderstorm and 5mm of rain yesterday. Not much, but we need it. Put the cattle down on the alluvial flat where there is the best feed left. They couldn’t believe their good luck. They are still in good nick – as, although what was left is dry, it is still reasonable feed.
BOM is still delivering dire news of imminent El Nino – but, in the next breath say there will be rain in the second half of the coming Summer. Who knows?
David Burge
@iowahawkblog
When it comes to this issue, there is no left wing and there is no right wing, just one big intersectional coalition of idiotic losers who can only imagine that their countless self-inflicted failures are all somehow explained by the existence of Jews
Iowahawk has been spot on since Oct 7th.
Vicki, Do not patronise me. I am not your mate.
Just an Aussie figure of speech, bons.
Busy today, Top Ender, but if you are around tomorrow and would like to meet up for a coffee, we could probably do that. Either in The Cross at the Challis, or you could get the ferry up to Watson’s Bay easily from the Quay and I could meet it if you tell me what time your ferry leaves; the trip takes 20 minutes. Get my email from Dover. No worries however if you are busy and in Sydney for other plans.
Chuckle. That’s the guy who brings the tiffin, isn’t it?
Speaking of tiffin, here in the Sakura Lounge at Haneda awaiting our flight to Helsinki. Quite warm here in Tokyo…naturally we had the pressure cooker doona in our hotel room and something I hadn’t come across before – a pillow that had the texture of rice husk filling.
The place is buzzing as usual, it amazes me how efficient and time conscious everything is here. Unfortunately all airline staff are still in masks. It’s horrible and ridiculous. Lovely Japanese girls faces covered with face nappies.
First they opened up the nut houses, now they allow eco- terrorists to hold motorists hostage.
The inevitable happened in Panama:
..
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12728101/kenneth-darlington-panama-climate-change-protesters-shoot-dead.html
Two activists who were interviewed about the terrorist assault on Israel on Oct 7 admitted to having little knowledge about the conflict
This is my concern. As I have posted before, I have friends who will simply not read about the atrocities, and certainly will not look at photographs. They cling to the possibility, however absurd and totally without evidence, that the photographs were manufactured.
Obviously, given their intransigence, they are Lefties.
Bruce of Newcastle
Nov 10, 2023 9:13 AM
I know where this is heading, and i dont like it.
Peter Singer would be happy. Daniel Greenfield has a story on his FPM blog today which is decidedly NSFW. What is it about Lefties, they seem to aggregate the weirdest fetishes and hatreds mankind ever had the misfortune to invent?
Vegan ‘Godfather of Animal Rights’ Promotes Sex With Animals
Peter Singer is a Princeton professor of bioethics
BON,
Inbred Arabs, especially Gazan Palestinina Hamas have always been ahead in this approach – to quote my Iranian Friends “We are Persians, Not Inbred Arab Camel Traders”
And…good morning to you my sweet little stalker!
Without me you couldn’t exist.
A good piece on why the Jew hate.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/10/20/why-they-kill-jews/
Speculates on the origins of the modern version very well.
Much the same as I think, because Jews were hemmed into certain roles, when those roles became formalised and critical Jews (fortunately for them) were able to carve a niche for themselves.
The particular socio-historical conditions of much of Western and Central Europe in the late-19th century provide the context for the emergence of this new form of anti-Semitism. Up until the 19th century, a section of the Jewish community had played a role as financial intermediaries for Europe’s rulers. Arendt refers to them as Hofjuden (court Jews). This is the reason Jews were often associated in the public mind with finance.
So when a modern market economy supplanted traditional European societies, the ensuing social and economic dislocation was often associated with Jews. They were seen as the financiers, the agents of capital. And the appalling living and working conditions that prevailed were likewise portrayed as the result of the Jewish character of capitalism.
The tendency to see certain key institutions as somehow Jewish in character is best grasped not so much as anti-Semitism – which can be targeted at individual Jews – but as anti-Judaism. So the problems and hardships associated with the development of capitalism and modernity were seen by many in 19th- and early 20th-century Europe as essentially Jewish. Jews came to be seen as the personification of the ills of the market economy.
I think I’ll pass on the LCT*, if it’s all the same to you.
* Lizzie Conversion Therapy
There was always something “off” about Singer.
I remember his talking about chicken farms and how they reminded him of the out-of-sight death factories of Nazi Germany.
It was a stupid thing to say. If the chicken barns were so secret, why could you drive by them and see the sign pasted on the fence? Feelz came before rational observation.
If you are a dual Canadian- Panamanian citizen born in Panama, but you shoot a couple of speed humps you automatically become “American” to the media.
Too soft.
At the very least, arrest these individuals and investigate if they can be charged with any crimes.
Regarding CNN’s sacking of the journalist associating – very closely – with a reptile leader: What the feck did you think you were getting, CNN? You didn’t perform any background checks? Or you did, and you CHOSE to remain quiet, lest your product suffer?
Peter Singer:
I wonder if Mr and Mrs Singer senior are still around…
So Bons wants to hem us in here on peninsula Vaucluse harbourside. We’re used to it. You can’t drive in or out to our place without an address pass when the City to Surf or the Sydney to Hobart start is on, nor on New Years Eve due to the fireworks viewing crush.
We gird our loins and somehow manage.
I passed a Jewish man in the terminal this morning. He face was worried but he was striding along confidently. Made eye contact and said “God bless you”. It was the least I could do.
Who’d have thought six months ago that wearing a kippah would be an act of bravery and defiance?
I gird my lions.
They bite too. 😀
Irrelevant.
These agencies are after-the-fact accessories to mass homicide.
More than any other enabler, the Filth Filter (media) need to be pounded on this. They won’t be, of course, because we have very few political or community leaders – not counting L-grade comedians – with either courage or conviction.
A good piece on why the Jew hate.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/10/20/why-they-kill-jews/
I have never understood anti-Semitism. It doesn’t compute in the way I see the world.
In respect to Israel – there are no nationalities that I like more. I found Israelis super smart, and even better – very direct. No nonsense. I like that a lot.
Greenfield’s additional point is that Singer also supports Hamas.
MOSSAD is probably viewing that video….
There’s a reason for that.
The link is to Powerline blog yesterday although the headline is actually in the Grauniad. Certainly shows the effect of dumbing down the school system. Two generations of educational propaganda has consequences.
lol, you, and my kids too, Sancho.
You might end up wanting to marry me and have children, as my ‘gay’ lover did.
Can’t have that. He lost me eventually to Hairy and took up with a girl too young to comprehend his issues. Then turned ‘gay’.
I am sorry for him, as I don’t think his ‘choice’ has brought him real happiness.
He has not found love and a long-term companion in his new life. Nor children.
Sorry, I forgot to include the links. My posts above were extracted from the National Review Online.
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2023/11/australia-worst-in-the-oecd-for-real-household-disposable-income-decline-30623-.html
Yes sireeee, read it and weep! Them liebor guberments are real good for the wuckers!
The real Covid jab scandal is finally emerging
The young and healthy, who were at minimal risk from Covid, should not have been told they had to take the vaccine – Paywalled
ALLISON PEARSON
I am not an anti-vaxxer but… On 29 April 2021, Lisa Shaw, a clever, sensible, creative, mischievous, award-winning presenter at BBC Radio Newcastle, had her first Covid vaccination. Like millions of us, Lisa was delighted and relieved to get her jab. Not only did the 44-year-old mother of one feel she was doing her bit to keep her community safe (Lisa had been astonished a few weeks earlier when a girlfriend had said she wasn’t getting jabbed), she was excited “to give her mam a hug”.
A few days later, Lisa developed a headache and stabbing pains behind her eyes which wouldn’t go away. By May 16, she was taken by ambulance to University Hospital of North Durham.
Tests revealed blood clots in Lisa’s brain and she was moved to a specialist neurology unit in Newcastle. By now, she had difficulty speaking. Scans showed she had suffered a haemorrhage in the brain and part of her skull was removed to try and relieve the pressure.
Her husband Gareth Eve remained by his wife’s bedside, but Lisa told him to go home because she was worried about Zachary, their six-year-old. One final kiss. The last time Gareth heard her voice.
Lisa Shaw died on May 21 from complications arising from the AstraZeneca Covid vaccination.
The coroner said: “Ms Shaw was previously fit and well” but it was “clearly established” that her death was due to a very rare “vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT)”, a new condition which leads to swelling and bleeding of the brain.
Strenuous efforts had been made to put the public’s mind at rest when the jab was approved.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was “a great British success story”, according to the then health secretary Matt Hancock; self-obsessed numpty that he is, Hancock was particularly chuffed the jab had been invented by someone who went to his Oxford college. “It is truly fantastic news – and a triumph for British science – that the @UniofOxford/@AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use,” tweeted a triumphant prime minister Boris Johnson.
At a dark time, the AZ jab brought a blazing ray of hope with the added patriotic, Brexit bonus that the UK was able to steal a march on our European neighbours.
After Lisa Shaw died, we were told that the clots are “considered extremely rare,” there had only been 417 reported cases and 72 deaths after 24.8 million first doses and 23.9 million second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK.
It also saved a great many lives.
But expressing reservations about possible side-effects was seen as party-pooping. It meant you ran the risk of being labelled as that most reviled and irresponsible being, an “anti-vaxxer”.
“I had lost my wife and my son had lost his mam, but for an awfully long time people like us weren’t able to tell our story because we were put in the box of crackpots and conspiracy theorists,” Gareth Eve told me yesterday.
After Lisa died, Gareth says he had phone conversations with several leading broadcasters. “They would express sympathy, but then they were very nervous, they’d say they have to be very careful, you know, how they report the story without breaching broadcasting guidelines by implying there was any problem with the jab.”
One beautiful vibrant woman, “loved by everyone whose lives she touched”, was gone. (“I wish it had been me instead of her,” Gareth says, “I do my best as a single dad with Zach, but I’m never going to be Lisa, she was so tactile and loving.”)
The fact Lisa Shaw had died after receiving the AZ jab was nothing to worry about, though, in the grand scheme of things, was it?
Well, yes, actually it was. The public – and in particular fit younger people like Lisa – have every right to feel aggrieved.
As this newspaper reported yesterday, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has been branded “defective” in a multi-million pound landmark legal action which will suggest that claims over its efficacy were “vastly overstated”.
The pharmaceutical giant is being sued in a test case by Jamie Scott, a father-of-two who suffered a significant permanent brain injury, and by the widower and two young children of 35-year-old Alpa Tailor.
Both damages claims relate to VITT, the condition that killed Lisa Shaw. AstraZeneca says that the vaccine “has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile” and that “regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side-effects.”
In the months after her death, Gareth, who was “dealing with grief while you’re trying to parent” didn’t have the emotional energy for a legal battle.
“I was in the Coroner’s Court in Newcastle when the coroner said there is no doubt Lisa died because of the AstraZeneca jab and the pathologist said the same and the doctor told Lisa while she was still conscious that the Covid jab had done this to her.
It’s like they don’t want there to be any written record that they admitted guilt.”
I must admit there is a strong sense of, “There but for the grace of God go I” when I hear Gareth talking about his wife. I also had the AstraZeneca jab (twice) because, like Lisa, I wanted to reassure my elderly mother and hug her after over a year apart.
We were all given the impression that the jab could prevent both infection and transmission (why else would they make it mandatory for care home workers?) It sounded brilliant.
But the legal claim states, “the absolute risk reduction concerning Covid-19 prevention was only 1.2 per cent”.
“Lisa thought getting the jab was the right thing to do as everybody did,” Gareth recalls, “The Government kept saying it was safe and effective. We didn’t know there were other countries that were withdrawing the AstraZeneca.”
Ah, yes, “safe and effective”. How many times did we hear Cabinet ministers intone that reassuring mantra?
Yet, use of the word “safe” by any pharmaceutical company advertising a product had been banned for years for exactly that reason – it is misleadingly reassuring.
(The Government seems to think the rules didn’t prevent it saying “safe and effective” because it wasn’t advertising a specific product: a Mandy Rice Davis if ever I heard one.)
Where, you might well ask, was the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency)?
Ben Kingsley, a lawyer and co-author of a brilliant and damning new book, The Accountability Deficit, says: “For good reason, the MHRA’s rules did not allow AstraZeneca to promote its vaccine as ‘safe’.
Yet, astonishingly, while a raft of other countries were pulling the AZ jab for safety reasons the British regulator stood aside with tragic consequences for Lisa and her family while ministers and the NHS continued to insist that it remained unequivocally safe and effective.”
It is almost too painful to consider that, 15 days before Lisa Shaw went eagerly to get her Covid jab so she could “hug my mam”, Denmark stopped the use of AstraZeneca in its vaccination rollout after reports of rare but serious cases of blood clots.
Finland also announced that it would continue to limit the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged 65 and over following similar health concerns.
Was the MHRA unaware of growing international doubts (AZ was never licensed in the US) or was it, perhaps, rather reluctant to tarnish a great British success story?
In ethical terms, for a vaccine to be rolled out to people who are not at significant risk from Covid, it would need to be shown to be very safe indeed for those groups.
I also clearly remember the head of the Government’s Vaccine Taskforce, Kate Bingham, saying that vaccinating everyone in the country was “not going to happen”. “It’s an adult-only vaccine, for people over 50, focusing on health workers and care home workers and the vulnerable,” she said.
Vaccination policy would be aimed at those “most at risk”.
She noted that vaccinating healthy people, who are much less likely to have severe outcomes from Covid-19, “could cause them some freak harm”, potentially tipping the scales in terms of the risk-benefit analysis.
With a heavy heart I’m going to say what should have been said a long time ago.
Unlike those who were actually vulnerable to Covid, Lisa Shaw did not need a Covid vaccine; any minuscule benefit to her was outweighed by the small risk.
Neither did I (I’d had the virus in January 2020 as plentiful antibodies later attested and enjoyed good immunity).
Millions of healthy people queued up for a jab they didn’t require which protected against serious disease in the elderly and vulnerable, but was not necessary for most of the rest of us.
How this country moved from a policy of only vaccinating those who would benefit to running the risk of inflicting “some freak harm” on people like Lisa Shaw may yet turn out to be one of the great scandals of the age.
“I put her on a pedestal,” Gareth Eve says of his late wife, “Lisa was only 5ft 2 and I’m 6 foot, but I put her on a pedestal. She was that wonderful. When she died, because of the way that she died after the jab, it was ‘a dirty secret’, you weren’t supposed to talk about.
With AstraZeneca, these companies are run by human beings, you would have thought they were run by human beings, Allison, but they don’t want to talk to the people like me…Zachary doesn’t have his mam because the authorities didn’t give us the full picture about the risks.”
I am not an anti-vaxxer but…. Let’s stop saying that, shall we?
There’s no shame in being against giving a vaccine to groups who didn’t need it, and which caused people to be dead who should be alive and taking their eight-year-old son to school.
The rest of the presstitute community should be mildly concerned, too.
CNN’s exciting practice of embedding ‘journalists’ with active terrorists pushes the press pack towards being legitimate military targets. In a deliberately ambiguous and propaganda-driven conflict, who is to know in the heat of the moment if that wanker wearing a ‘Press’ flack jacket is really a player – or just a monster facilitator?
Or care about the distinction?
For Arky.
Hi ho, another day, another bold fail…
Sorry about all the typos. My iPad has gone rogue. That’s my excuse anyway.
“Obviously, given their intransigence, they are Lefties.”
Send them the Piers Morgan interview with Douglas Murray, only done yesterday.
Murray doesn’t mince words.
The stuff of nightmares, Calli. I take a pillow with me now when travelling.
In Japan I used to fold my warm soft coats to make a pillow when faced with those crinkly ricey things.
Not sure who runs IsraelWarRoom but it’s turned into the most reliable source on breaking news on twitter.
The drivel/dribble never stops. It is like being attached to a 12 month old’s bib.
Chanticleer
Why it’s Michele Bullock versus the Boomers
UBS data shows household income from superannuation is running hot, making the economy more resilient to interest rate rises and inflation stickier.
George Tharenou, the chief economist for UBS in Australia, is one of many local commentators who believe the Reserve Bank is probably done lifting rates.
But Tharenou’s base case is that governor Michele Bullock will keep rates at their current 12-year high for 12 months, as the central bank struggles to bring sticky inflation to heel.
Tharenou argues there are a number of factors that are denting the effectiveness of the RBA’s rate rises.
These include demand created by record immigration (which he says could push towards 600,000 this year, putting particular pressure on rents) and strong fiscal spending, which Tharenou says remains clearly stimulatory.
Nominal public demand is growing at a stunning 8 per cent year-on-year, contributing 2 percentage points to GDP growth and spilling into demand in the private sector, particularly in infrastructure and construction.
The official rise in the minimum wage and the removal of caps on public service wages are also likely to keep inflationary pressures high.
But the big reason inflation is likely to remain sticky – UBS estimates that inflation will come down to 4.5 per cent at the end of next year and stay above the RBA’s 3.5 per cent target at the end of 2025 – is the unexpected resilience of retail trade and household spending.
Superannuation boost
Tharenou says this reflects the build-up of excess household savings and strong wage income, which pushed household deposits up 7.6 per cent in the September quarter.
But that figure masks an “an increasingly bifurcated consumer outlook” whereby the country is divided by their exposure to debts and assets; the nation’s liability-to-income ratio sits at two times, but the asset-to-income ratio sits at 12 times.
Obviously, higher rates are squeezing those with higher debts; the RBA’s own figures suggest 15 per cent of households can’t cover expenses and mortgage payments, and that figure will rise as Tuesday’s rate rise flows through.
On Tharenou’s numbers, mortgage prepayment buffers are back to pre-COVID levels during the pandemic, while the household savings rate has plunged to the lowest level since 2008.
But asset-rich, mainly older households are in a much different position. “For those with assets, higher interest rates are providing a large boost to their interest income – and they’re willing to spend it,” Tharenou says.
He points out interest received has surged to 5 per cent of household income. But what’s been less discussed is the boost these households are getting from superannuation.
Tharenou’s analysis of data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian taxation office shows that income drawn from superannuation in the last year is already over $100 billion, or a stunning 8 per cent of aggregate household income.
“Obviously, the super system has been maturing for a long period of time now, but what’s happened is that the boomers have now flipped over that preservation age and are willing and able to draw down that income.”
Whether they are spending this income on themselves or on using the retirement savings to help family members with school fees and housing, Tharenou’s key point is that this “pot of money that didn’t exist in prior decades” is making the economy even more resilient to interest rates.
UBS expects GDP will slow to 1.6 per cent in 2024, and unemployment will rise sharply to 4.8 per cent in 2024 (in part because of migrants, foreign students and struggling households remaining in the workforce and swelling the participation rate) and 5 per cent in 2025.
If Tharenou’s forecasts are right, the backdrop for the 2025 federal election could be fascinating – rising unemployment, relatively little in the way of interest rate relief and a cohort of boomers thriving while younger households struggle.
CNN not only chose to remain quiet on the disgusting nature of their paid representative, they actively reported his lies about Oct 7 and Hamas involvement.
Distancing themselves now is pointless. They’ve been caught, like the others.
calli
Nov 10, 2023 9:52 AM
Sorry about all the typos. My iPad has gone rogue. That’s my excuse anyway.
calli,
my excuse fingers faster than the brain
I was never a fan of rap (I’m still not), and wouldn’t describe Tom’s music as ‘musical,’ but in terms of lyrical content and the ability to deliver his message verbally and visually – as an independent artist – he’s a master. Sometimes a bit too simplistic and repetitive in his choruses, he nevertheless has a very loyal following online.
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Nov 10, 2023 9:51 AM
Hi ho, another day, another bold fail…
No problems – More Importantly, thanks for The Australian Henry Ergas Article – as I said to calli above, my problem/excuse “Fingers fatser than the Brain”
When history looks back, I want people to know that the Nazis could not kill millions of people with impunity.
– Simon Wiesenthal
Nothing of value was lost.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/nov/09/jezebel-news-shut-down-layoffs-go-media
Jezebel to shut down after 16 years as parent company lays off staff
And…good morning to you my sweet little stalker!
Without me you couldn’t exist.
Chortle. Not unlike Jerry Maguire.
“You complete me!”
Remember the fawning at Wimbledon? Some dummy made a vaccine that wasn’t effective for than a few months.
She was being praised because AZ was tested against foetal cells. No more and no less.
Could this explain the police failure to act against large mobs of Palestinian protestors bent on genocide ?
They lack the muscle. Easier for them if they just give way and allow the streets to be taken over for an afternoon.
Trouble is, it never stops there.
If Tharenou’s forecasts are right, the backdrop for the 2025 federal election could be fascinating – rising unemployment, relatively little in the way of interest rate relief and a cohort of boomers thriving while younger households struggle.
With all the predictive skill and insight of a Fortune Cookie, it’s just possible to suggest the 2025 election will be based on ‘those who can afford to pay more’ – superannuants.
That “fiscal spending” won’t fund itself, and Handsome Albanese has nothing else.
Neal Stephenson summed it up pretty well (paraphrased):
When you’re the distraction squirrel for despots throughout history,
it’s best to specialise in an occupation where you can
throw all your assets onto a wagon and get out of town
before the mob arrives.
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2023/11/australia-worst-in-the-oecd-for-real-household-disposable-income-decline-30623-.html
shows the Chart from the AFR Article – https://newcatallaxy.blog/2023/11/08/open-thread-wed-8-nov-2023/comment-page-4/#comment-633713
Australia worst in the OECD for real household disposable income decline (30/6/23).
Thursday, 09 November 2023
Shocking.
But you knew that.
You live it every, single day.
If you want to watch or send on the Douglas Murray interview from the Israeli-Gaza border, where he comes under fire from Gaza, showing great courage while he rips Doubting Peers Morgan to shreds, here it is again.
Interesting theory. Despite the media hype the interest rate pain isn’t behaving like it used to. Keep an eye on unemployment and the dollar – that’s when we go over the cliff.
I will pick up where I left off earlier regarding Harry Hunter:
Mmmyes so he is anti colonialist yet his Indian upbringing was in the UK.
Looks like he is trying to save face, and doing so in not too convincing style.
The White House has announced that Paramotor Monty has agreed to daily 4-hour pauses in trollbardment.
Thanks for posting the Henry Ergas piece ZK2A.
A powerful article leading into 11 November.
How long before VicPlod start going to work in civvies?
Thanks for posting that, Zulu. That has essentially been my understanding, even though I haven’t known the details.
Unfortunately, the most important victory for h@m@s is in the court of public (regional and international) opinion, and they are well on their way to achieving that, if they haven’t already. They will let their many enablers and ‘adjacents’ pursue legal claims in the coming months and years; ignoring formalities, because it is the dislocation of Israel’s reputation they seek. Isolating Israel is the goal.
The porcine leaders have their martyrs, which will ensure long lines of donors and volunteers, and h@m@s has proven itself capable of delivering what it has promised in the past, but delivered.
I’m not trying to be dramatic or negative, but a week or two ago, I asked ‘What do we think h@m@s’ victory state looks like?’ I asked this because what we here think constitutes victory may not be the same as their image. Understanding an enemy is a step towards planning and executing a successful long-term strategy.
But espouses the theory that up to the age of 5 children are not self-aware so, in his view, there is no reason why you can’t murder them with a clear conscience — the Singer creature was given a gong I think an AC iirc, by none other than the morally bankrupt Gillard ineptocracy.
Where is Australia? – What Cost of Living Crisis? – What Clinate Change/Global Warming? – I am having Fun on the Australian Taxpayer’s Flight Credit Card – Peasants!
Australian Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spotted dancing during sombre Pacific Islands Forum
Anthony Albanese has been filmed busting a move during a trip to the Cook Islands for the Pacific Islands Forum on Thursday but the mood among the assembled leaders was anything but light-hearted.
From the Comments
– Albo is having a grand time touring the world at our expense. How much money is this idiot wasting, also the exorbitant emissions created from all his flying. He is living the high life while low and middle class Australians are struggling as a result of his bad policies.
– Played for the fool that he is
– Very sad, is this the best, as a great Country we can come up with as our PM, makes me more and more proud I have never voted Labor and never will , It was a very expensive $350 m dance P M for absolutely nothing. What a idiot! Where you off to next? Maybe come home and do your job for this country it’s called Australia remember? best country in the world
– Can’t look. It hurts my eyes and I puke from cringe.
– Albanese has announced a $600M grant for PNG to enter the NRL in 2027.
Where is that money tree that Albanese has growing that he keeps of giving $$$MMM from.
– Does he realise how stupid he looks. Get back here and help people who can’t put food on the table for their families or put petrol in their cars or hang on to their houses.
I have a Mitre 10 card which proudly bears my name – Ford Prefect. I don’t mind these cards where they are transactional with the enterprise concerned. I get a small discount, and they get meta-data on buying patterns.
But collecting lots of data superfluous to my transaction?
Nup.
I remember commenting on this after the Sloptus data spill. Why do they need all that personal data for a pre-paid phone plan?
With four kids and six grandkids I think I’d know a bit more about these bibs than my critic above. I write from life. Which yes, is as messy as a baby’s bib at times.
I don’t mind baby mess. You can’t insult me with it. I love babies. I also love the smell of little babies and their gooey gummy grins. The one I mentioned I saw yesterday in his or her mother’s arms near the Jewish school, the one that reminded me of the enormity of recent horrors, was absolutely adorable. Sent me into oxytocin overdrive and that’s even without a sniff.
Albanese falls for another ‘global warming sting’ as he attends Pacific Islands Forum
Sky News host Andrew Bolt says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has just fallen for another “global warming sting” as he attends the Pacific Islands Forum.
“He flew on another junket this time to the Pacific Islands Forum with our credit card and today slapped on another $350 million to give to Pacific countries for, you guessed it, global warming,” Mr Bolt said.
The Prime Minister said in a media conference the “reception” Australia had received has been “extremely positive”.
“’Extremely positively received’ – well that tends to happen when you dump a whole bunch of money in the laps of Pacific leaders – they would like it,” Mr Bolt said.
“Money that comes from Australian taxpayers – some of whom are struggling to put food on their own table back here at home.”
‘Not going to end well for Labor’: Australia suffers ‘largest fall’ in living standards
The Australian Financial Review reported today we have suffered the largest fall in living standards in the developed world over the past year, says Sky News host Chris Kenny.
A graph from OECD data showed how “household disposable income peaked during COVID but has now come crashing down,” with Australia “plunging below the OECD average,” Mr Kenny said.
“Our costs are going up far more quickly than any pay increase – the cost of living is rising and our standard of living is falling,” Mr Kenny said.
“Which means Anthony Albanese broke his election promises big time.
‘This is not going to end well for Labor.”
“As someone who has been brought up by Indian immigrants in the UK, I have very strong opinions about this,” he said.”
Hmm…what the f*ck does this mean? And since when is ‘Hunter’ an Indian surname?
When the video begins Mr Hunter can be heard to say “pi– off back to North Bondi and get the f–k out of Newtown”.
“You’re whiter than the English that gave you the land you f–king animals,” he then continues.
Pure unadulterated Jew hatred. There’s a synagogue in Newtown, which has been there for decades, and Jews have lived in the inner-west long before he ever arrived. Given his racist remarks, Hunter should be visited by the police and cautioned not to go anywhere near it the shul and secondly, any prospective employer should be notified of his Jew hatred. I wouldn’t want Harry Hunter anywhere near me in a restaurant. In fact, he shouldn’t work again.
Pretty sure Callum won’t enjoy swinging a chip hoe all day long
in JSO’s New Utopia.
Here y’are. Pics of little babies. Awwwww ….
People who hurt little babies are unbelievable monsters. Who could do that?
How long before VicPlod start going to work in civvies?
Not without precedent. Happened at the checkpoint for the covid rubbish on the Murray River.
Fire and ice news.
Best Way to Extinguish a Flaming Electric Vehicle? Let It Burn (9 Nov)
First responders in Franklin, Tenn., faced their first burning EV in September, a Nissan Leaf that ignited while charging outside the car maker’s North America headquarters. They spent hours pouring 45,000 gallons of water on the car, compared with the 500 to 1,000 gallons that fires involving gasoline-powered vehicles usually need, Fire Marshal Andy King said.
New York Gives Up on Electric Snow Plows: ‘Insufficient for the Demands of Winter’ (9 Nov)
Meanwhile in the Tele today there’re five EV and hybrid spruiking stories on the main page, and the Oz is going full on Gaia luvvin pushing $1.5 trillion of climate spending like it’s a good thing. The only sane article is Graham Lloyd’s from yesterday, which was still up when I looked. They sure don’t seem to want subscribers much.
Dr Faustus
Nov 10, 2023 10:14 AM
If Tharenou’s forecasts are right, the backdrop for the 2025 federal election could be fascinating – rising unemployment, relatively little in the way of interest rate relief and a cohort of boomers thriving while younger households struggle.
With all the predictive skill and insight of a Fortune Cookie, it’s just possible to suggest the 2025 election will be based on ‘those who can afford to pay more’ – superannuants.
That “fiscal spending” won’t fund itself, and Handsome Albanese has nothing else.
Dr Faustus,
the real problem in Australia is summed up by 2 posts in The Australian Today (if anyone can post would be grateful)
“High Cost of Labor’s Bloated Labour Bill
Exploding public service numbers, rubber-stamped by Anthony Albanese and his Labor Premier comrades, increases the risks of higher inflation, red tape and flatlining productivity at the worst possible time.
GEOFF CHAMBERS
Chief Political Correspondent
&
Labor’s Great Inflation of ACT Bubble
The $1bn lift in the annual wages bill for Canberra bureaucrats comes as Labor ploughs money into rebuilding the capacity of the public service.
14 MINUTES AGO By PATRICK COMMINS, GREG BROWN
I think we have reached the Point in Australia where there are more on the Public Purse at the Local, State/Territory & Federal Government levels than there are Productive Workers in Australia
Liberal Campbell Newman in QLD approached it correctly in downsizing QLD Public Servants but was rewarded by being thrown out
Bluntly Australia is stuffed under Labor/Greens
Mark Dice.
Republican Debate Last Night Goes Off the Rails!
With all the predictive skill and insight of a Fortune Cookie, it’s just possible to suggest the 2025 election will be based on ‘those who can afford to pay more’ – superannuants.
My prediction? Just as the Libs were thrown out in a massive swing – so the pendulum will swing the other way. Labor will exit in A BIG WAY.
The Douglas Murray clip (thanks Lizzie for reposting) is excellent.
His point at the end about Britain being too weak to enforce its own laws can be taken in so many ways. We are no different.
Excellent point about the difference between Nazis and Hamas murderers.
Daily Mail. All right, which one of you lot was it?
Oh, and before someone hops in and says Israel kills little babies with bombs, I respond now by saying war is a killing field. I don’t like it, I don’t encourage it if there are other alternatives, but sometimes it is necessary, because there is no alternative. I never forget that I was born in 1942 when Hitler’s goons were throwing little babies live into gas ovens and Britain where I was born was fighting against this evil. Israel is fighting on the side of right and good to remove baby-killing Hamas and its goons. Hamas encourage women in Gaza to have lots of babies, and sees them as mere fodder for future wars. Read the article above on the deliberately skewed demography of Gaza.
start by shutting down the $1.6B UNRWA
Vicki
The BoM certainly doesn’t!
The only sane article is Graham Lloyd’s from yesterday, which was still up when I looked
Any chance of a cut/paste BoN?
Vivek Ramaswamy in that debate scenario above is forthright and correct in his assessments. The meltdown by Nikki Haley over his mild and truthful reference to her daughter’s use of Tik Tok sent her down in my estimation. I don’t like her much anyway, as I think she is rather shrieky and getting onto the high horse over this added to that perception for me and I hope others too.
With so many hand grenades of indeterminate fuse length, society is now an arsenal waiting for a spark.
Indeed.
Also, one has to keep endlessly repeating, as Douglas Murray does, that Israel is taking slow and cautious steps in their advance into Gaza, giving civilians warnings of strikes, and opening humanitarian corridors for civilians to escape, while Hamas tries to stop them. Human shields are important to Hamas, as is hostage-taking. Human life means nothing to this death cult; people are expendable. Israel takes the opposite view.
Optus channels Qantas approach to crisis management
Optus has become another instant case study of what not to do in a crisis.
CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin cannot convince the public or the politicians its response is adequate.
Jennifer HewettColumnist
A major telecommunications breakdown affecting 10 million customers is bad enough. A comprehensive failure to even attempt to explain “a technical network issue” turns out to be much worse.
According to Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, the problem was less one of lack of communications and more one of customers wanting to be told a different message.
Customers being told their service was out with no timing on when it would be restored is “not very satisfying” she told Chanticleer on Wednesday.
Even more unbelievably, lack of clarity from Optus about identifying the cause and how the company plans to assist customers, beyond offering a month’s worth of free extra data, continued through Thursday, long after the 14-hour outage had been finally “fixed” the previous evening.
Yet, Bayer Rosmarin was still insisting the company’s communication had been transparent and forthcoming as more information became available – despite the frustration felt by customers on the day.
Come again? Has Optus been channelling Qantas in crisis management skills?
What is the cost of a severely damaged brand confronting millions of outraged customers?
Insisting that Optus first needs to do a highly technical “root cause” investigation doesn’t register with the public.
Telco experts are meanwhile swapping theories about the possibility of faulty “route reflectors” that direct internet traffic routing instructions or “border gateway protocols” being overwhelmed.
Would this have anything to do with Optus relocating its network operations centre offshore, for example?
Or Optus not investing enough in back-up technology systems? Who knows?
It’s little wonder government ministers are falling over themselves to condemn Optus’ “bizarre” approach and question its competence.
Big engineering problems with basic services translate into big political problems.
Directing blame elsewhere is inevitable.
Michelle Rowland’s predictable announcement of a “post incident” review into telecommunications will be designed to help all telco providers improve their processes in any further outages.
These are certain to be tested, along with the adequacy of redundancy systems in a digitised, data dependent world. In that sense, the Optus disaster is a timely warning about broader vulnerabilities across networks, including the risks or benefits of being able to shift networks in the event one goes down.
But it’s Optus’ response, or lack thereof, that’s the immediate fiasco requiring attention.
It has already become another instant case study of what not to do in a crisis. Surely, any low-ranking manager, let alone a CEO, would have known a quick call to the communications minister should be one of the first steps.
Thursday’s establishment of a separate Senate inquiry – pushed by the Greens with Coalition backing – is another version of the political purgatory to come for Optus executives.
“While we welcome that Optus services were restored over the course of the day, it is critical the government conducts a process to identify lessons to be learned from yesterday’s outage,” Rowland said. “Connectivity is absolutely essential for Australian consumers and businesses, and the impacts of this outage were particularly concerning.”
The minister clearly has no patience with Optus’ airy dismissal of the need for direct financial compensation for affected customers, including small businesses.
Company executives have made vague suggestions about thinking of how to say thank you and “reward customers for their loyalty and patience”.
“I think that there is a reasonable expectation here if there is an outage of this nature that causes them to suffer loss in some way – be that economic or otherwise – that corporations will do the right thing by them,” Rowland said in one of her many radio interviews.
“Australians expect providers to compensate them when things go wrong, and I think that’s reasonable.”
What’s obviously not reasonable, or even commercially rational, is trying to dodge financial responsibility until forced into it.
As Optus, and its owner Singtel, most certainly will be sooner or later.
The CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrew McKellar, is not alone in describing Optus’ response as well as its lack of communication as a “clown show”.
It doesn’t help that Optus’ reputation, and that of its CEO in particular, are still recovering from last year’s data breach.
A review by Deloitte into what happened has not been released despite the company’s original commitment to do so.
Class action lawyers are currently attempting to gain access to the review. This week’s events can only reinvigorate demands for the findings to be public and more accusations that Optus wants to hide them.
Customer dissatisfaction with Optus had already led to many of its customers switching providers after cyber criminals hacked into the company’s database and published personal financial information and other details. Increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks are now a fact of life for any company, many of them totally ill-prepared.
No company is immune. But the government was extremely critical of Optus’ response and its inadequate communications 13 months ago too. Why were lessons not learned?
In a coincidence of timing, Optus released its half-year results on Thursday, showing a slide in earnings before interest and tax to $141 million despite a slight rise in revenue to $4 billion for the six months to September. This debacle will undoubtedly make for much tougher figures by the time of the full-year results.
Between now and then, Optus will have a lot more explaining to do. The prospect of Kelly Bayer Rosmarin remaining as CEO must be under question in an era where chief executives are the very public face of their organisation – for better or worse.
Even though she cannot be held directly responsible for “technical” network faults, she is certainly responsible for managing the response.
So far, that’s being marked as an F.
‘Suspicious’ blaze at burger chain
Owner critised for rally attendance
Hash Tayeh maybe set the blaze hoping Jews get blamed?
Did he recently upgrade his insurance policy?
Yep. Throw another $100K on the barbie, Hairy, and book another trip or three.
For 2024 and 2025. While we can and before they come for it. We earned it, but they want it.
Lizzie:
Mohammedans do that, as they’ve just demonstrated. Their holy book demands it. Their head prophet demands it, and he is considered by them to be the perfect man.
This is a fight between good and evil, and it’s a civilisation ending fight.
Unless we wake up to this fact, it will be us being consigned to the dustbin of history.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Nov 10, 2023 10:57 AM
Vivek Ramaswamy in that debate scenario above is forthright and correct in his assessments.
The meltdown by Nikki Haley over his mild and truthful reference to her daughter’s use of Tik Tok sent her down in my estimation.
I don’t like her much anyway, as I think she is rather shrieky and getting onto the high horse over this added to that perception for me and I hope others too.
Lizzie,
Trump’s best choice for a Running Mate is Kari Lake – Watching as someone who comes from a Media background – Excellent Speaker & Handler of Woke Reporters
National Republicans knew Lake was unbeatable. So they joined her.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Kari Lake launched her long-awaited Senate campaign with a 50-minute speech on Tuesday that bore little resemblance to the fire and brimstone candidacy that marked her gubernatorial bid two years ago.
But some of the old Lake was still on display, instructing the crowd to jeer at the “fake news fools” toward the back of the hangar where media outlets gathered. She embraced her well-earned reputation as a Donald Trump acolyte and the former president himself chimed in on video to offer her his endorsement. Rally attendees wearing Trump garb and holding signs depicting Lake as Rosie the Riveter mingled alongside those in blazers and formal wear.
Lake’s efforts to recast herself, much like her candidacy as a whole, presents a conundrum for Republicans. Many had hoped that she would leave the political stage after her defeat in 2022, convinced that she blew a winnable race by waging such a vicious, unapologetic campaign that dwelled on conspiracies.
But as Lake began to openly consider a Senate bid, it also became evident that the party had no mechanism or leverage for stopping her even if they wanted to. Party operatives traded around private polling that showed Lake was unbeatable in a primary and that hits against her did not put a dent in her numbers, according to a person familiar with the data.
Definitely worth five minutes of your time.
The new Marvels movie is letting righty critics run wild and free with the wind of excellent snark! Here is the New York Post review, via Instapundit:
‘The Marvels’ review: The worst MCU movie yet (8 Nov)
Oh dear! 😀
One thing I’ve not yet seen is anyone mentioning how bad the timing is of having a Muslim wymminses superhero just as Hamas winds up the atrocity knob to 11.
Pity she doesn’t wear a burqa, that would actually be entertaining. You could have a lot of jokes based on that, like a laser beam through the eyeslot, bouncing bullets off its awesomely strong fabric, or getting tangled up in it whilst trying to fly.
Of course, and completely in line with the natural order of things, boarders were the elite.
Day rats were peripheral creatures. Some were sort of okay blokes, but…. you know.
They were occasionally useful for bringing in a pack of smokes, should one be in the unfortunate circumstance of being grounded.
That uncharitable thought had occurred to me, yes.
Lizzie at 9.46:
I didn’t know you dated an airline pilot.
Post-Election Analysis: Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Mississippi
ANALYSIS
By Sean Trende – RCP Staff
Good detailed analysis.
Dover – The Murdochs have chosen Haley as their not-Trump, after having exhausted the possibilities of Ron DeSantis and having failed to persuade Youngkin to run.
Quite funny, since the momentum behind Trump is obviously huge. Maybe NYP wants a better class of readership.*
* which never goes well.
Just got an email from my electricity supplier, Origin, offering me their internet services.
I have no trouble imagining that they had rolled out some internet service on the back of their other infrastructure, hoping to make gradual inroads into the market – and the cock up with Optus seems an unexpected piece of good luck.
Mother Lode Avatar
Mother Lode
Nov 10, 2023 11:21 AM
Just got an email from my electricity supplier, Origin, offering me their internet services.
Mother Lode. Origin don’t have their own “network”. They are just reselling AUssie Broadband NBN.
Just taken delivery of Martin Gilbert’s classic “Israel: A History” and browsing through that volume.
There’s an account of of the Arab attack on a Jewish hospital convey, on April 15th, 1948. Seventy seven Jewish doctors, nurses and patients were killed, and of the twenty eight survivors, only eight were unwounded.
Among the dead was Chiam Yassky, an ophthalmologist, whose pioneering work on the scourge of trachoma had saved the eyesight of tens of thousands of Arabs….
Another of the uncharitable thoughts that occurred to me was that, was there ever an Arab, who had made such a contribution?
Yet annother winner from their ABC Classic. Program coming tio you from ‘wherethefukarewe’. Can someone wake up these galoots?
Reminder to British Christians…
Muslim terrorists (that’s all of them) want to exterminate you too:
British Armenians fear a repeat of history as Genocide Memorial vandalised.
Take a look at the arrogance in that picture. These are men who – unlike little old ladies praying 200 metres from an abortion clinic – know they will never be arrested.
In Disposable Income news:
While the rest of Australia slumps into public sector economic darkness, here in Meanjin boutique gin distilling is going gangbusters.
I’m more of a flagon sherry man myself, but last night I was offered a (very small) custom made gin. Apparently, there are multiple artisan distilleries that allow you to mix your own botanicals and produce a ‘unique gin’ by running rectified spirits and cutting the distillate with water.
For a touch under $200 per bottle.
I wonder how the poor people manage…
Further to Harry Hunter, I note he hurled these words…
“pi– off back to North Bondi and get the f–k out of Newtown”.
Interesting comment from Harry. Harry Hunter’s very names, that is his first name and his surname, reek of the very “colonialism” he decries. Memo to Harry dear, if you’re such a “staunch anti-colonialist”, maybe you should consider changing your names because they reek colonialism!
Now, what’s the bet that Harry da Hypocrite is also a rabid Greens voter, who no doubt thought Pauline Hanson’s tweet to the Islamist apologist Mehreen Faruqi last year, was outrageous and racist. Remember that tweet? If you don’t, I’ll remind you. In response to Faruqi’s callous and nasty tweet about the queen dying, Hanson responded back to Faruqi that she should…..”p— off back to Pakistan”
I sayeth Harry da Hypocrite?
You know, everyday the left’s endless smug hypocrisy and double standards are exposed. For far too long the right have chosen to ignore it. This must stop. Everyday the dung heap that is the progressive left in this country, and this includes racist progressive scum like Harry Hunter, not only need to have the dung thrown back at them, but they need to have their faces rubbed in the dung they defecate.
Washington Post removes ‘racist’ cartoon depicting ‘grossly mischaracterized’ Hamas terrorist with women and children tied to his body after reader backlash
. A ‘racist’ cartoon was ripped down by the Washington Post after backlash
. It depicted a Hamas terrorist tied to women and children as human shields
. While some readers reacted with fury, others argued it revealed a ‘sad reality’
Tom,
One for the Books and your Morning Cartoons – A Michael Ramirez Cartoon that Totally Accurately Depicts Hanas – Second not bad either
From the Comments
– I totally agree with both cartoons. Great calls.
– Oh please
– History is repeating itself, this is surreal. And people are allowing it and cheering it.
– So much money invested and so many tunnels dug yet not one air raid shelter for civilians.
– Sad reality
– I agree with the sad reality of it all
They were occasionally useful for bringing in a pack of smokes, should one be in the unfortunate circumstance of being grounded.
Day rats were also useful in getting their older brothers to purchase sherry flagons for boarders to stash for late night sips with their smokes.
Just back from my morning walk, topic of all conversations with other regular walkers was when we could expect some global warming? FMD it was chilly in Perth!
Always the Greens…….something rotten in the ACT…
Greens member of the ACT Legislative Assembly Johnathan Davis has been stood down over allegations of misconduct.
In a statement, ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said:
“A complaint was brought to my attention at the beginning of this week, with another following shortly after.”
“I immediately asked a member of my senior staff to do an initial review to establish the appropriate next steps, and I have stood Mr Davis down from his MLA duties indefinitely.
“My office has not seen evidence of illegal activity, but we are reporting what we know of the complaints to police.”
Mr Rattenbury is expected to front the media within the hour.
Mr Davis is the member for the southern ACT seat of Brindabella and was elected to the territory’s Legislative Assembly in 2020.
The ABC has contacted Mr Davis for comment.
A brief chat with Eva Vlaardingerbroek, (who jokes at the beginning that she needs to find a husband. Any takers?).
The most interesting aspect of this is why would WaPo ever run a cartoon by Ramirez? Until his TDS outbreak he’s been in the forefront of righty cartoonists, and is still good so long as the subject isn’t Covid, Trump or the stolen elections.
I see nothing wrong with the toon at all, it is very accurate.
Muddy has just been squished by a horde of stampeding tomCats.
Quality trolling.
I reckon it was mutley responsible for the burger fire after all he puches out nazis in the same way Luigi fights Tory’s.
The way things are going in Sicktoria Sicplod will be working from home.
The beauty of the gin racket is Net Present Value…
Distil Whisky, shove in barrel for 8 to 12 years before selling and getting any money back. Costs upfront and ongoing, returns come in half a generation later, and financed at compound interest.
Gin on the other hand… take customer’s money, then lie them down with mouth open under condenser spout . Hand wave and crap on a bit about botanicals, which were picked from neighbours gardens on the way to work.
Take money and pay off loan for still.
P town could do with some D town weather. I sound like my old man when he used to come down from Tom Price. Of course, you never complain about the lack of heat in Perf, especially going in to December. Some rain would be nice too. 36 days without a drop and counting.
Toad the ABC have contacted the greenie to see if they can help cover up any wrongdoings. They have form.
Even from my exalted position as day boy master race I condescended to having a border scum friend or 2.
One we used to call JC – king of the jews, because the bastard was always on the scam for something to eat or money.
Occasionally Id deign to leave him a crust or 2.
Aahahaha!
Noice.
I’m shocked. Shocked!
Government called to take action on ABC following internal meeting where staff complained of ‘pro-Israel’ bias in coverage of Gaza conflict (Sky, 10 Nov)
The ABC is full of Jew-hating antisemites? Whoda thunk?
Hence the popularity of wineries with lawyer types. Those Koppers logs aren’t going to buy themselves. Even with contract winemaking the expenses never stop. And then the real fun begins trying to sell it. I have 2 bottles of a mates perfectly acceptable red on the dining room table. Another mate got the short straw of trying to sell much larger volumes from a place down near Mt Barker after his old man died early.
.
That cartoon is one of Ramirez’s best, but unfortunately he hasn’t posted it on his website — my first port of call at 0400 each day when locating American cartoons so I missed it.
Not running around with my hair on fire, yet, but Labor really, really needs to exit in a very big way. Unfortunately, I’m seeing a few more Greens MHR’s in my Fortune Cookies (sadly, from Meanjin electorates) plus Greens retaining effective control of the Senate.
And not a powerhouse Coalition coming over the top.
Add to that the likelihood that the Teals experiment will continue for another term and the prospect is for a Labor-Green-Teal coalition in the Lower House – with a Senate Green-RugbyMoron fast track for every fashionably stupid idea known to modern politics.
Day boys vs boarders.
Very St Trinian’s.
Time for Dot to man up and join the speed dating circuit.
Mx Clancy wears a self-styled outfit of pink cow-print pants with a fringe shirt.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-09/sydney-s-plus-size-community-tackles-fat-stigma/103075342
Yeah, you’re not getting laid in those pants. Even in Sydney.
Holy heck. Eye bleach, stat!
I repurpose a lawyer joke: If all the fashion-challenged liposuction candidates in that picture were laid end to end along the bottom of the Marianas Trench, it would be a very good thing.
Scott Morrison describes ‘horrific’ scenes in Israel
Scott Morrison apologised as he spoke of the “horrific” scenes he witnessed during his trip to Israel with former UK prime minister Boris Johnson.
Scott Morrison has spoken about his recent trip to Israel with former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, describing what they witnessed as “horrific”.
The former prime minister didn’t hold back when asked what he had seen, even apologising to those who were listening as he described the war zone to 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“We went down to Kfar Aza, which is one of the kibbutz that were one of the scenes of the atrocities in the attacks that took place,” he said.
“To walk through what was once an incredibly peaceful place and to see the devastation and to be shown what happened and where it happened.
“The murders, the children being abducted and others being beheaded, I’m sorry, for those who are listening, but I mean, this is what happened.”
Mr Morrison continued, stating that he had never before heard about, or seen, anything like what had happened there in his life.
“There were reports of women being scalped,” he said.
“The premeditation of this attack, the level of drilling that would have gone on beforehand as they executed these atrocities without warning and unprovoked.
“It was, undoubtedly, the worst thing I’ve ever heard and ever had the misfortune to be in a place where that had happened.”
When asked if he had been shown any footage, Mr Morrison said he and Mr Johnson were presented with photos while touring with the Israeli soldiers who arrived just after the attacks.
Mr Morrison said they described how Hamas had left nasty surprises for them.
“The bodies were booby trapped, which was intended to kill those who were coming and providing aid and support to the people,” he said.
“They had their own photos, and they were sharing them with Boris and I, at the very site where these things were taking place.”
Mr Morrison said he supported the White House announcement that Israel would hold momentary “pauses” in northern Gaza to help Palestinian civilians flee the city.
The former prime minister also said it wasn’t a decision influenced by him or any other former leaders.
“I’m pleased that Israel has made that decision,” he said. “And that’s a decision that they’ve made (themselves).
“In the statements that I signed along with the other former prime ministers, we said it wasn’t our task to instruct or lecture Israel on how they went ahead and conducted things operationally.”
As for the visit itself, which Fordham said “surprised a lot of people”, Mr Morrison said it wasn’t initially planned and came down to timing.
“I was in London on other business and Boris and I were catching up with friends,” he said. “We went through a lot together as Prime Ministers during the pandemic and AUKUS and trade agreements and so on.
“We were just catching up and he said, ‘Look, what are you doing this weekend?’ and I said I was heading home and he said, ‘Well, would you like to come to Israel with me?’”
Be very interesting tomorrow to see how their ABC deals with Armistice Day. Anyone bet on ‘How aborigines saved Australia’?
Barnaby Joyce: Government should be all over Optus ‘like seagulls over chips’
“Captured Hamas terrorists could be charged with rape – Paywalled”
If they are charged, tried and found guilty, then it would be appropriate for the prosecutor to ask for, and the judge agree to, a suitable punishment as per Sharia law.
Preferably something barbaric like chopping off certain bits to make sure they won’t be doing it again.
Hey, just respecting their beliefs…
It’s a shame that the Israeli’s are probably too civilised to actually do it, but you never know I guess.
He’s not had much luck with birds lately.
‘Be quiet’: Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce forced to pause TV interview to scold noisy bird for loud interruption (Sky, 10 Nov)
He said it was a currawong, but whatever it was it sounded more like a couple having enthusiastic sex on a mattress with squeaky springs.
I dunno.
What a Bunch of Barbaric Arseholes
Hamas leaders reveal motive behind October 7 attack on Israel
ByBen Hubbard and Maria Abi-Habib
Doha, Qatar: Thousands have been killed in the Gaza Strip. Israeli airstrikes have reduced Palestinian neighbourhoods to rubble, while doctors treat screaming children with no anaesthesia. Across the Middle East, fear has spread over the possible outbreak of a broader, regional war.
But in the bloody arithmetic of Hamas’ leaders, the carnage is not the regrettable outcome of a big miscalculation.
It is the necessary cost of a great accomplishment – shattering the status quo and opening a new, more volatile chapter in their fight against Israel.
It was necessary to “change the entire equation and not just have a clash”, Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’ top leadership body, told The New York Times in Doha.
“We succeeded in putting the Palestinian issue back on the table, and now no one in the region is experiencing calm.”
Holy f*ck.
Those links should be Optus’d
frollicking one…
there should be warnings to not click on those links
Barnaby, more retail than Bunnings.
Btw he’s getting hitched Sunday, as I recall. Hopefully we’ll get a report from Cardimona.
A brief history of Kristallnacht
By Jeremy B. Kay
November 9th marks the eighty-fifth anniversity of Kristallnacht, the infamous “night of broken glass.”
The pretext for this part-pogrom, part state-sponsored riot was the assassination of German embassy official Ernst vom Rath in Paris. Throughout Germany and Austria, primarily in heavily Jewish areas, synagogues were destroyed, businesses gutted, and for the first time, Jews were arrested by the thousands and sent to the existing concentration camps like Dachau.
Looking back, the mortal danger to the Jews of Germany was obvious. The Jews of Germany and Austria were concerned, of course, but many were comforted by the idea that Jews had survived calamities before and discrimination even leading to violence, was often a feature of the world they lived in. They just need to lie low, and the threat would pass.
When Hitler came to power many still did not take him seriously. One Jewish commentator in Chicago echoed what was commonly believed: Speculating that while the situation for Jews in Germany was dire, it was unlikely that Hitler would remain in power past one year.
The Nazis had made it clear that Jews were to be ostracized. The Nuremberg Laws had begun to be enforced, amounting to the isolation and exclusion of Jews from society. Physicians, professors, teachers, and civil servants all faced restrictions that often prevented them even interacting with Gentiles.
Large numbers of Jews who were able left the country. But others waited.
It was Kristallnacht that left no doubt; Jewish life in Germany was at an end.
Damon, the trannie on weekend mornings Ed Le Brocq (previously known as Emma Ayres) excels in mansplaining.
Her whole announcer schtick is built around the sort of thing feminists used to rage about with regard to men but with trannies is fine. It’s like the drag queen idea of a woman except applied to a tranny’s idea of a man.
The Weagles and Freo at Optus suddenly makes sense.
Bodycam footage from the DUI arrest of a leftist is sublime schadenfreude
From suggesting “like, really bad social anxiety” was the cause of her sloshed behavior behind the wheel and her inability to completely field sobriety tests, to announcing her status as an “indigenous person” as she exited the vehicle, to correcting the officer when he called her “miss” because of course, she’s “non-binary,” this drunk girl, gave it all she had, but the big bad “white man” wasn’t having any of it, and it was glorious; watch below:
I suppose the good news is, looking at her, unless they were blindingly drunk, it is not likely that anyone would like to propagate the Human race with her
Surely she’s joking?
If only she played GAA Hockey and had a Ph D in maths. I’d go out and buy Our Maserati right now!
Gay Auntie getting the knickers in a knot……
The ABC has flagged it will lodge a formal complaint with Sky News Australia after Bronwyn Bishop said the public broadcaster was “aligning themselves with the policy of Germany’s national socialist party for the elimination of Jews” in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
A regular guest on Sky, the former Liberal senator was responding to Sky News host Sharri Markson’s claim that the ABC was “so biased, so one-sided, so anti-Israel”.
Complete losers. Good!
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have labelled the Family Guy episode that lampooned the couple as “royal grifters” an “outrageous slur”.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were shredded for the lavish lifestyle in the second animated take-down since South Park’s World Wide Privacy Tour.
The pair “can’t catch a break” after the “savage” episode left them feeling like “they’re not being taken seriously enough”, according to a source close to the couple.
“Meghan said she won’t be humiliated like this and is desperate for a solution. They’re in full panic mode,” the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the UK’s Closer magazine.
Calling the episode an “attack from inside Hollywood,” the source said that Ms Markle believes to only way to save their brand is for Prince Harry to “swallow his pride and beg for his family’s forgiveness”.
Daily Tele
Going to be a lot of Darwin Awards coming.
Ethical, environmental and political concerns about climate change affect reproductive choices, finds study (Phys.org, 9 Nov)
I think “political sentiments” is code for “being green-progressive”. It’s heartening that the climate disease will breed itself out of the species, since the sufferers aren’t having children.
I would take that lady to the pictures, and whisper sweet nothings and Shakespearean sonnets in her ear during the quieter parts of a John Wick marathon.
it is not likely that anyone would like to propagate the Human race with her
Any port in a storm doesn’t apply to that one
Dinger. Heh.
Live: Lots of gunfire in Gaza right now:
https://youtu.be/ZV-ftihBDp8
For those interested in ‘other’ perspectives on the Israeli response, here’s a Spectator TV interview with Douglas Murray and a more ‘nuanced’ commentator – a lot of water has passed under that bridge in the three weeks that have now gone by.
Kristallnacht remembered in Netherlands tonight; National commemoration in Amsterdam
she’s a bit of alright.
Very amusing. The Oz is running a big feature on EV’s. The title gives away the tone:
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/electric-buzz-your-guide-to-the-best-evs-on-the-market/news-story/6f4b65c9d8716f2d2d70c48769c2ea0b
Every comment so far is negative, and quite detailed explaining why.