Open Thread – Weekend 25 Nov 2023


On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt, Claude Monet, 1868

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OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 25, 2023 11:41 am
Rabz
November 25, 2023 11:42 am

show one band member pushing and punching another, before the other slams a guitar on his head

Rock ‘n’ Roll!

Anton Newcombe – LOL. Nutty as a fruitcake.

Vicki
Vicki
November 25, 2023 11:43 am

Israel is a litmus test. It’s not someone else’s problem…

Totally agree, Dr. Faustus.

It is instructive that many of the anti-Israel lobby are either Teals or Greens. There are also the expected Labor MPs from predominantly Middle Eastern constituencies.

But the despicable anti Israeli pronouncements from a coterie of Australian journos reported in The Australian today are also reflective of an increasingly anti-western stance of these so called “impartial reporters of news”.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 11:46 am

One for Ms Plibersek, who is currently deciding whether to destroy Tassie’s fish farming industry to save an allegedly endangered guppy that has survived 100 years of copper tailings from Mt Lyell.

What kind of seafood is morally ethical to eat? (Phys.org, 24 Nov)

Do you like cod, shrimp, salmon, crab or pollock (also known as fish sticks)? Of course you do. Do you shop at Walmart, Costco, Kroger or Albertsons for fish? Who doesn’t? Do you eat at one of the more than 400,000 restaurants supplied by food distributor Sysco? Almost certainly.

If so, you’ve likely been served or sold seafood caught by Indonesian forced-labor victims on Chinese vessels or processed in China by Uyghurs, a cultural, racial and religious minority that faces systematic repression. Some 79% of the seafood sold in the United States is imported, according to the latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. China alone supplies nearly 10% of American seafood imports.

The best choices tend to be locally caught or farmed U.S. fish and shellfish. Making informed decisions about the seafood you’re buying may seem like a small step, but even this can make a big difference.

I hope she does the right thing, but with this government, and Bowen in the loop, you never know.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 25, 2023 11:46 am

Brilliant letter from Andrew Hastie – on leadership, or Australia’s lack of it.

Dear Michael

My phone buzzed this morning.

It was a text from an interstate friend. Someone from outside politics.

Working hard. Raising a family.

An everyday Aussie bloke:

“Is it me or does it seem we have a lack of leadership at the moment? Haven’t heard much from anyone recently.”

It’s a good question.

Violence and anti-Semitism descends onto Australian streets.

Who is leading us to higher ground?

Another interest rate rise, breaking the spirits of young homeowners.

Who is showing us a way forward?

A High Court ruling sees murderers and rapists free on our streets.

Who is thinking ahead,with new laws?

A Chinese warship uses its sonar, in hybrid war tactics, to deliberately injure Aussie navy divers.

Who is publicly standing up to the bullies?

Yes, these are challenging times. But impossible moments are why we elect leaders to lead.

We’ve expected leadership—but we’re not seeing it.

It gives me no pleasure to say it. But in these moments of crisis, the Prime Minister has been slow to respond, weak or missing in action.

So, too, have his Cabinet Ministers.

Take last week.

The sonar attack on the HMAS Toowoomba divers was a dangerous and reckless escalation by the Chinese navy.

The Prime Minister would have been briefed about the incident as he boarded his flight for San Francisco.

It deserved to be raised with President Xi last week at APEC.

Man-to-man.

That’s what leaders do, right? They have the hard conversations.

Instead, Anthony Albanese dodged the tough moment. It was a test of leadership.

He failed. He took the weak option.

And weakness is provocative.

After weeks of weak leadership, the boats have started up again.

We’ve all been patient with this government. We’ve given them time.

It’s time we saw the leadership our nation needs.

Regards

Andrew Hastie

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
November 25, 2023 11:50 am

That crowd at the Forum are all OLD. OOOLD OOOLLLD OLLLLLLD, looking like the disapproving bingo birds. Plus some xe-xers by the looks.
Hint: if you want to know where the cutting edge is, it’s not with superannuated biddies on an NDIS community contact outing, or seeing Mark McGowan feat. Coldplay.

Makka
Makka
November 25, 2023 11:51 am

We’ve all been patient with this government. We’ve given them time.

The LNP needs to park the shItcanning of the Liars and get on with letting everyone know what they can/will do to right this sinking ship. KISS, short and loud. Follow the Jacinta model. Grow some hope.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 25, 2023 11:51 am

‘Ruffled feathers’: Tom Switzer resigns from ABC

ABC star Tom Switzer has resigned from the national broadcaster as insiders allege he “upset” and “ruffled feathers” with his choice of conservative guests.

ABC radio star Tom Switzer has resigned from the national broadcaster as insiders say he “ruffled feathers” with his choice of conservative guests.

On Thursday, Switzer announced he would be leaving the ABC after nine years, largely as host of the weekly popular radio program and podcast Between the Lines.

In a statement on Thursday, Switzer revealed he was leaving to concentrate on his other role as the executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies, a liberal think-tank.

“I have been very fortunate to work on various programs at ABC’s Radio National for the best part of a decade, especially Between The Lines,” Switzer said.

“I have learnt a lot about the craft of serious interviewing on the public broadcaster, and I am very grateful for all the support I’ve received from many producers, audio engineers and management.”

The former editor, academic, and senior Liberal Party adviser joined the ABC in 2015 to host the program, billed to “make sense of Australia’s place in the world … (by putting) contemporary issues and events into a broader context, seeking out original perspectives and challenging accepted wisdoms”, according to ABC Listen.

However, it’s believed Switzer’s decision to step down was partly motivated by the pressure of being a ‘lone conservative’ at the public broadcaster.

“Tom’s editorial decisions for the show were beginning to upset the sensibilities of some staff and even friends of the ABC,” an ABC source told The Australian.

“It wasn’t what his guests would say – he always challenges them – but just the mere gesture of giving some people a platform got people off-side.

“There is always a different side to the story, sometimes even three sides, that’s what the organisation needs to understand.

Apart from Vanstone (former Liberal minister Amanda Vanstone) what other conservative voices do they have in there?

It is moving dangerously into group think territory.”

“He’s been ruffling feathers since day one because he dared give guests who wouldn’t usually appear on the ABC the time of day,” another source revealed to The Australian.

“You would remember back in 2015 when he had Nigel Lawson (former UK politician) on the program explaining his concerns about the dangers of climate change alarmist.”

Switzer’s resignation adds his name to a growing list of stars who have walked away from the ABC this year. Q+A host Stan Grant resigned in August, sports broadcaster Tracy Holmes left in October, and presenter Joseph Szeps announced mid-show last week that he was “too spicy” for the ABC.

The Sydney Afternoon’s host quit live on-air, claiming he “could spin a lot of PR guff but if you know me you would know I don’t do bulls**t, I am a straight shooter”.
Szeps said the need for more “uncomfortable, bulls**t-free conversations” was behind his reasons for leaving.

The ABC issued a statement after Switzer’s resignation on Thursday, thanking him for his tenure at the broadcaster. Between the Lines broadcasts its final episode on January 20, 2024.

“Tom has brought a depth of knowledge of foreign affairs and a variety of voices and perspectives to RN,” Radio National manager Cath Dwyer said.

“His dedicated listeners will miss his inquiring mind, curiosity and desire to challenge ideas.”

MatrixTransform
November 25, 2023 11:51 am

please excuse me

I have a luncheon appointment at a brewery today

… I may be some time

Roger
Roger
November 25, 2023 11:53 am

That’s the year they formed in San Francisco, so you just missed them!

I don’t think any good music has come out of SF since c. 1970, by which time most of the Bay Area bands had peaked creatively.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
November 25, 2023 11:54 am

Along with other significant developments abroad, these may be indicators that identity politics, which is nothing but an adaptation of Marxism to fit the post-1989 world, may have already reached its high water mark.

The disarray around us says that this may be true (and I’d like nothing more than to believe it). But the great problem with experiential learning is the rubble left behind after the lesson is learned – and we have a long way to go in that department.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 11:56 am

Old Ozzie,
that was brilliant. Labour will be doubling down on their determination to pass the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill once they have seen that. 😀

bons
bons
November 25, 2023 11:56 am

Pogria,

Please forward some of your “gloomy and rainy” at your earliest convenience.

Thanking you in advance M’aam.

Avid Follower.

P
P
November 25, 2023 11:58 am

JFK, Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis: Whose Vision of the Future Was the Most Accurate?

What did the future look like 60 years ago?

On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. On the same day, two significant writers also died: C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley.

That historic coincidence prompted Peter Kreeft to write a book imagining what the three souls might discuss as they meet in the afterlife. Entitled Between Heaven and Hell, it is a “dialogue somewhere beyond death” featuring JFK arguing for “modern humanism,” Lewis for Christian theism and Huxley for Eastern pantheism.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 25, 2023 12:00 pm

Hamas has just won a major victory over Israel

The hostage deal has costs as well as benefits – and it’s the terrorists who stand to gain most

JOHN BOLTON

Beware of terrorists bearing gifts.

Compassionate goals and unrelenting war make for a complex mix.

While freeing Hamas’s October 7 victims is laudable, there are right and wrong ways to do so. There are costs as well as benefits.

Here, Hamas has won a significant victory.

Whether the deal sets a definitively negative precedent for Israel remains unclear, but it casts doubt on whether it will attain its legitimate goal of eliminating Hamas’s terrorist threat.

The agreement is fatally defective in many ways, even if it proceeded flawlessly (which it has not). Hamas is set to release 50 terror victims, and Israel will release 150 accused or convicted criminals, a ratio the reverse of what we should consider civilised.

Equating innocent victims with law-breakers is morally appalling.

One fifteen-year-old “child” Israel listed for possible release was convicted of attempted murder for stabbing a neighbor.

Many are male teenagers. You can guess why.

A critical argument for this deal now is removing hostages from danger, but it does nothing for those left behind.

The releases are occurring over four days, during which Israeli military activity is “pausing” operations.

Undoubtedly, Israel will use the pause to prepare the next phase of hostilities, rotating and resupplying troops and the like.

But Hamas terrorists are the real beneficiaries of a cessation of hostilities.

They have been pounded by air, and hunted down inside and under Gaza in their extraordinary tunnel networks. Israel’s military campaign is just in its opening phases, but Hamas has been significantly damaged.

Why let up now?

Hamas will use the pause to extricate its terrorists from a difficult position, exfiltrate assets and personnel into Egypt and Israel through undiscovered tunnels, and prepare southern Gaza for the next Israeli offensive.

How many chances for faster advances or more surprise attacks will Israel lose due to this pause?

How many more Israeli soldiers will die because of Hamas’s opportunity to set additional traps and further entrench itself?

If Hamas chooses to release more hostages, the pause will be extended one day for each ten hostages.

What conceivable justification is there to allow your enemy to unilaterally determine the length of the pause?

And what if “technical difficulties” mean only six hostages are released; does Hamas still get another day of respite? Israel will unfairly bear the onus of resuming hostilities, adding leverage to Hamas propaganda efforts to erase its own October 7 barbarity.

Inexplicably, both Jerusalem and Washington are suspending overhead surveillance of Gaza for six hours a day during the pause.

This concession may be more significant than the pause itself because it denies Israel information about Hamas’s activities.

Israel has agreed to be “eyeless in Gaza” during these terrorist-friendly time windows.

The White House boasts that the deal means “a massive surge of humanitarian relief” into Gaza, but without adequate assurances the relief will go to those in need.

When Herbert Hoover launched America’s first major international relief effort in World War I, he insisted on two conditions: aid must go only to non-combatants, and the donors must distribute or closely monitor its distribution.

We have no idea how much will fall into Hamas’s hands, enabling more terrorism.

Israel’s critical military problem is the opportunities it will miss by halting in mid-stream its increasingly successful assault.

Hamas’s strategy is to take any pause, however short, and whatever its rationale, and stretch it into a permanent ceasefire.

That may not happen on the first try, but the pressure on Israel to succumb will grow.

Israel’s critical political risk is seeing its determination to eliminate Hamas undermined.

Even chancier is the strength of US backing, which is already weakening.

Biden’s initially robust rhetorical support for Israel has cooled, and his resolve shrinks daily under the assault of the Democratic party’s pro-Palestinian Left-wing.

His problems will grow more acute as the 2024 presidential campaign unfolds.

The benefits of freeing hostages are visible now. The much larger costs are on their way.

John Bolton is a former US national security adviser

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 12:02 pm

‘Ruffled feathers’: Tom Switzer resigns from ABC

The kolkhoz purges the last remaining kulak.
Why are my taxes still paying for them?

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 12:03 pm

Oh I am sorry Bons. I wasn’t gloating. I had forgotten you need the rain out your way.
Here in the Southern Tablelands, we have been receiving reports that we are going to have a severe bushfire season because no rain is forecast for months.
This has been changed since yesterday to “rain for the next week”.
Top Men.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 12:04 pm

JFK, Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis: Whose Vision of the Future Was the Most Accurate?

George Orwell’s.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 25, 2023 12:11 pm

The Following could be applied Totally to Australia. if The Australian Labor Party had any Guts – Unfortunately it would point out State Labor Governments Incompetence – especially VictoriaStan under Dictactor Dan Andrews!

The Covid Inquiry isn’t asking the only question that matters: was lockdown a terrible mistake?

We deserve a thorough probe into whether draconian controls were worth it, not this politicised, pointless blame game

CAMILLA TOMINEY – ASSOCIATE EDITOR

What on earth is the point of the Covid Inquiry? Lockdown was arguably the most controversial policy to be implemented in British peacetime history. It had huge ramifications for the nation’s health, its economy and for an entire generation of children.

The impact is still being felt, with nearly 7.8?million patients languishing on NHS waiting lists. Wednesday’s Autumn Statement laid bare the stultifying effect it has had on the UK’s growth rate and the eye-watering sums it has added to our national debt.

We needed a thorough investigation into whether the coronavirus cure was worse than the disease; a forensic cost-benefit analysis of whether shutting down the country for months on end was the right policy.

But we haven’t got that.

Far from it. Instead, we have an embarrassing merry-go-round of blame that is repeatedly failing to answer the central and most important question of all:

how many lives were actually saved by lockdown, and was it really worth it?

In June, researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Lund University examined almost 20,000 studies on measures taken to protect populations against Covid across the world.

Their findings suggested that lockdown in spring 2020, when compared with less strict policies adopted by nations like Sweden, prevented as few as 1,700 deaths in England and Wales.

To put that into context: in an average week there are around 11,000 deaths in England and Wales. Flu deaths hit a five-year high of 15,000 in England last winter.

The report’s authors said their study showed that the draconian measures had a “negligible impact” on Covid mortality and were a “policy failure of gigantic proportions”.

They concluded: “The data are in: the deaths saved were a drop in the bucket compared to the staggering collateral costs imposed.”

“The data are in.” Information we desperately lacked at the start of the pandemic we now have in droves.

Yet is any of it being properly pored over by the inquiry? No.

Are any “lessons being learnt” or meaningful conclusions being drawn? It appears not.

This week, we heard evidence from Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s former chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, and his deputy, Jonathan Van-Tam. Sadly, it disclosed nothing we didn’t know already.

We were told that the government was woefully ill-prepared for a pandemic, that the first lockdown probably came too late, that the second one probably could have been avoided, that Dominic Cummings caused rows and that the politicians followed the science, except when they didn’t.

Mass gatherings in March 2020 were a “mistake”. It was wrong to plug for “herd immunity”. And, as far as the “experts” are concerned, any mistakes were largely the government’s fault.

We will hear from the politicians next, who will doubtless blame the scientists.

And on and on it will tiresomely go as the main protagonists desperately try to cover their backs.

Tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer money have been spent on this exercise so far, and the British people are none the wiser.

Rather than asking difficult questions, as did the researchers at Johns Hopkins, or exploring important issues like the origins of the virus, the inquiry appears to be operating on the foregone conclusion that if we’d locked down earlier, longer and harder, we would have been better off – despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

The probe seems to be firmly set within the bounds of a centrist political consensus that the dysfunctional government – and its former prime minister – messed it all up and should be held responsible.

Yet even on this point, its exploration of the advice structure around Boris Johnson appears wholly inadequate.

We have heard virtually nothing on why scientists with opposing views on lockdown were shut out of the decision-making process inside No?10, and why some sought to destroy their reputations.

The inquiry appears obsessed with the importance of “following the science” yet is unwilling to entertain the notion that some of that “science” may have been flawed or wrong altogether.

There has similarly been scant scrutiny of supposedly science-led decisions which seem to have been made on the basis of little or no evidence at all.

Is the inquiry going to examine the extent to which the modelling was wrong, and unpick why it was so heavily relied upon?

If you look at the graphs of infection and hospitalisation and death, some have pointed out that, to a large extent, they seem to rise and fall in natural geometric curves.

The inquiry should therefore surely be clarifying which interventions worked and which didn’t.

It should be sharing everything it knows about the efficacy of different measures, including social distancing, contract tracing and mask wearing.

It should be drawing lessons from the care homes scandal, and explaining how we should protect the elderly and vulnerable in future.

It should be carrying out a comprehensive audit of how badly children were affected by lockdown – both educationally and psychologically – and drawing a conclusion on whether schools should ever be closed again.

Fundamentally, it should be telling us whether lockdown worked and to what extent, rather than getting lost in a trivial maze of pointless tittle-tattle and name-calling, none of which proves anything about government efficiency or decision-making.

The inquiry’s chairwoman, Baroness Hallett, urgently needs to take hold of proceedings and reframe the debate.

She should start by stopping people from observing the inquiry while holding up images of their dead relatives.

I don’t say this to be heartless. I have the utmost sympathy with those who lost loved ones during the pandemic. In January 2021, I wrote a heartbreaking story about one of my old school friends losing both of her parents within months of each other.

But the presence of largely Left-wing groups purporting to represent the victims is further skewing what should be an impartial, dispassionate process.

It is placing undue weight on those who died of Covid compared with those who died because of lockdown.

It was estimated in 2020 that the average age of a death from Covid was 82.4 years old. Any death is a tragedy.

And that means we should also be examining whether the young mums who succumbed to breast cancer because people were “staying at home, saving lives and protecting the NHS” could have been avoided.

The inquiry should look as closely at excess deaths as it has Covid deaths.

During the next pandemic, any future government will look back to this investigation for guidance on the efficacy of lockdown.

If the inquiry fails to answer that key question, then it is going to be found guilty of a total dereliction of duty.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 12:12 pm

I don’t think any good music has come out of SF since c. 1970, by which time most of the Bay Area bands had peaked creatively.

Oi, Seattle is nearly near SF! They’re both on the Left Coast after all. And Glendale is even closer.

Audioslave – Cochise (2002)

System Of A Down – Toxicity (2001)

C.L.
C.L.
November 25, 2023 12:14 pm

Not sure whose idea it was to have Mick Gatto as a guest on Rita Panahi – rambling on about autistic children and all the money he has raised for worthy causes.

Sinister slob.

Roger
Roger
November 25, 2023 12:17 pm

…the great problem with experiential learning is the rubble left behind after the lesson is learned – and we have a long way to go in that department.

Yes, in some respects it feels like we are already living among the ruins of a once great civilisation. In which case all I can do is cobble together some of the discarded stones laying about the place and make my abode as comfortable as possible.

Or it may be that we’ll come through “by the skin of our teeth”, as Kenneth Clark put it in his memorable TV series, Civilisation.

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 25, 2023 12:22 pm

Antony Loewenstein

One of Professor Bunyip’s favoured targets if I recall correctly.

Chris
Chris
November 25, 2023 12:25 pm

Yes, in some respects it feels like we are already living among the ruins of a once great civilisation. In which case all I can do is cobble together some of the discarded stones laying about the place and make my abode as comfortable as possible.

Or it may be that we’ll come through “by the skin of our teeth”, as Kenneth Clark put it in his memorable TV series, Civilisation.

Lord, let me die in a pile of fallen enemy with nothing left but empty brass.

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 25, 2023 12:27 pm
Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
November 25, 2023 12:30 pm

Black Ball
Nov 25, 2023 10:54 AM

Yup and as CL posted yesterday morning Chrisafulli is going add to it…

Also they are crowing about all these coal royalties, what happens when the Fed Court and HC start channelling the vibe about mythical dreaming and close down further projects and expansions? See the pettifoggery (& I don’t use that label lightly) on display with Tiwi Is and Scarborough let alone ignoring Jukaan Gorge was signed off by Cultural Heritage for exploitation.

The only thing stopping it now is that most Qld coal projects cover freehold land which I am led to believe dodge a lot of the more onerous native title constraints pastoral lease arrangements have.

Quite obvious to me anyway the uniparty is allowing this to happen with no legislative solutions as it fits with their ideology. However they cant just come out with it as the mining arms of the CMFEU and AWU would revolt especially with the ALP.

Lucky country run by second raters is very evident now.

Chris
Chris
November 25, 2023 12:30 pm

A downthumb to Black Ball for the mental images accompanying his link ‘Antony Loewenstein on himself.’

Roger
Roger
November 25, 2023 12:30 pm

Audioslave – Cochise (2002)

System Of A Down – Toxicity (2001)

I’m afraid you’ve just confirmed my prejudice against contemporary rock, Bruce.

I couldn’t listen to either for more than 15 seconds.

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 25, 2023 12:32 pm

A downthumb to Black Ball for the mental images accompanying his link ‘Antony Loewenstein on himself.’

Unintended consequences I apologise sir 🙂

Roger
Roger
November 25, 2023 12:36 pm

Lucky country run by second raters is very evident now.

Give me Horne’s second raters any day; at least they didn’t conspire against the nation’s interests.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 12:38 pm

C’mon Roger, grunge! Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, Queens of the Stone Age, Tool/Perfect Circle/Puscifer!

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 12:41 pm

You have to like Black Hole Sun. Everyone likes it.

Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun (1994)

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
November 25, 2023 12:42 pm

Also a story about an elderly woman and her intellectually disabled daughter being abandoned in the north, found and looked after by idf.

I won’t forget the video of a stream of people leaving Gaza for the south early on with one man dragging an elderly relative sitting on a chair. An impossible task for a long trek. No-one able-bodied and young in that crowd, in fact no-one at all, offered to help him. This is a selfish and disorganised community.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 12:52 pm

This mime has real talent.
Although I hope never catch an elevator with him in it!

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
November 25, 2023 12:53 pm

I suggest Cats email their state senators over the weekend to express their concern.

Do you think contacting the Greens Senators will do much good?

If you say you think they are wrong it will be labelled hate speech because they don’t like being told.

Draw attention to the fact that Hamas kills QWERTY people it will be taken as a death threat.

Chris
Chris
November 25, 2023 12:53 pm

no-one at all, offered to help him. This is a selfish and disorganised community.

Generational trauma. From all the Gazan people murdered by Iranians or Hamas to enforce their rule.
The reference to Iranians is because a Pali hairdresser I went to told me his brother was murdered by the Iranians.

Bill P
Bill P
November 25, 2023 12:55 pm

P
The Yanks have been using that stupid term since the fifties
OK, mea culpa. Thought it was new(ish)

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 12:56 pm
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
November 25, 2023 12:56 pm

Not sure whose idea it was to have Mick Gatto as a guest on Rita Panahi – rambling on about autistic children and all the money he has raised for worthy causes.

Sinister slob.

I had a vague idea he was a Melbourne gangster, which Hairy confirmed, calling in the Union bruvvers for his Brownie Points towards heaven. Reminded me a bit of Daman Runyon’s famous stories of hardened old gangsters getting good-hearted and soft over kids. “Marky Dance’ was one such tale. Gatto is clearly one of those, the honour amongst thieves brigade in their later age.

Gatto’s ‘difficult’ son has been diagnosed in adulthood as having autism, which explains the cause he was spruiking. I had some sympathy. Social recognition of the struggles of often undiagnosed adult autists is well due, as are self-help groups for them. Charitable rather than governental assistance would be my choice, so I’d give Gatto some small recognition for this, as Rita apparently has decided to do too.

Roger
Roger
November 25, 2023 12:56 pm

C’mon Roger, grunge! Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, Queens of the Stone Age, Tool/Perfect Circle/Puscifer!

Unmusical and artless riffage and nihilistic lyrics.

Here…run this through your speakers and chill out for 14 mins, Bruce.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 12:58 pm

Bill P,
no worries. 😀

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
November 25, 2023 12:58 pm

I’ve just spent the morning minding a Level 2 autistic grandson aged 4, still in nappies, very hyperactive and hardly speaking yet. So I might be rather biased in my views here. I want this child to have a good future. NDIS is helpful but not the answer for life.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
November 25, 2023 12:58 pm

Nelson_Kidd-Players
Nov 25, 2023 4:32 AM

Of the Austin variety?

Gonna have to say No because I have no idea what you’re talking about.

I was thinking of the old thriller movie “Seven” with Morgan and Pitt, which was promoted with the aforementioned stylised title.

C.L.
C.L.
November 25, 2023 1:01 pm

Rod Dreher wasn’t impressed with Napoleon

Short and brutal:

https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1728161912632885541

bons
bons
November 25, 2023 1:03 pm

The thought that came to mind when I saw Rita’s inexplicable blooper of having the thug Gato on her show was that other sham thugshow, the bikies’ Christmas toy run.

Puts my TV at risk each year.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
November 25, 2023 1:07 pm

Re this grandson, NDIS therapies are working. For the first time today he engaged me in excited communicative eye contact when I pointed out our fireplace and said Santa would come down it soon. It was wonderful to see and feel it, the child inside trying to emerge. He’s besotted with all things Santa. He has never recognised me or Hairy before, nor ever tried any engagement. It’s heartbreaking for us both, but we are so proud of how our son manages this blow to his life’s plans. He is the best dad to this little one, ever to be his only child. His wife, a double university medalist (the second in our family), has also been diagnosed as on the Spectrum, and will not hear of having another child.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 1:11 pm

Sheesh, Roger, The Dead are the grandfathers of Seattle grunge.

Puscifer – “Momma Sed” (2008)

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
November 25, 2023 1:12 pm

System Of A Down – Toxicity (2001)

Noice, awesome track, didn’t really take to their other stuff. Remember a mate at the time it was released telling me that I love all this weird stuff. He didn’t like it much.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
November 25, 2023 1:12 pm

Sorry missed Chop Suey.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
November 25, 2023 1:13 pm

Dr Faustus
Nov 25, 2023 11:54 AM

But the great problem with experiential learning is the rubble left behind after the lesson is learned – and we have a long way to go in that department.

I feel personally attacked!

i.e. True.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 1:20 pm

RD – Serj Tankian does a lot of solo/collaboration stuff too which is pretty interesting.

Serj Tankian – Amber (2022)

Nelson_Kidd-Players
November 25, 2023 1:27 pm
Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
November 25, 2023 1:30 pm

Antony Loewenstein on himself.

up, not on

rosie
rosie
November 25, 2023 1:35 pm

I suggest Cats email their state senators over the weekend to express their concern.

I wrote a polite note to senator lidia thorpe.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
November 25, 2023 1:42 pm

Quoted from MichaelSmithNews

My phone buzzed this morning.
It was a text from an interstate friend. Someone from outside politics.
Working hard. Raising a family.
An everyday Aussie bloke:
“Is it me or does it seem we have a lack of leadership at the moment? Haven’t heard much from anyone recently.”

I do not believe such a text was sent.

Brislurker
Brislurker
November 25, 2023 1:43 pm

we had some of the 10 cubic km of ash over NQ.

Thanks for this Rockdoctor. It is the first I have heard of ash reaching Australia. I don’t this the BOM have clue, making it up as they go along, as no one knows how all the water vapour thrown into the atmosphere will effect the climate.

rosie
rosie
November 25, 2023 1:44 pm

Another anecdote about my 3 yo not able to say air-conditioning grandson.
Dinner on Thursday evening he wouldn’t eat any chicken, only rice and pineapple.
Lunch time Friday grandmother under pressure bought him chicken nuggets on the way to an excursion, which he scoffed.
I just had to ask him what he thought chicken nuggets were made of.
Without a moment’s hesitation he declared them fish.

rosie
rosie
November 25, 2023 1:56 pm

After exchanging one kidnapped hostage for 1100 terrorists and criminals in 2011, so far it’s been a bargain.
And yes, one Jew is worth 1100 Palestinians.
Apparently Yafa Adar, who has just been released and who was taken away on a golf cart was sold by Palestinian civilians to Hamas.
There’s still a long way to go, and just as many feared all the hostages were dead, we have to remain hopeful that more can be ransomed and the IDF can crush hamas.
I ! reminded too that capturing people for fun and profit has been a muslim money maker for centuries.
The aristo ancestor of the airbnb I stayed in in Cagliari was a ransomed muslim kidnap victim.
It was an occupational hazard for the inhabitants of anyone living near the coast in Portugal, Spain France, Italy and Malta (who once had about the entire 5000 person population of Gozo taken and only 12 ransomed home)

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 2:01 pm

And yes, one Jew is worth 1100 Palestinians.

+ 1,101.

Makka
Makka
November 25, 2023 2:06 pm

There’s still a long way to go, and just as many feared all the hostages were dead, we have to remain hopeful that more can be ransomed and the IDF can crush hamas.

I hope Israel is able to substantially ignore the enormous “noise” being directed their way and get on with executing this war as they want to.

To be the best ally of Israel right now is get out of their way and offer Hamas no support in any way. It’s their fight, their battle , their war. They have to eliminate Hamas and the web of connections in the ME that sustained those murdering bastards.

bespoke
bespoke
November 25, 2023 2:10 pm

Hear! hear! Makka

Old Lefty
Old Lefty
November 25, 2023 2:12 pm

The allegations against Lisa Lines are interesting to say the least. What allegedly happens when woke bisexual academics move from theory to practice?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
November 25, 2023 2:14 pm

Those bands listed from the nineties I’ve only heard of two of them and only know teen spirit and that is from relatively lately. Never listened to radio or tv for at least 10 years.

Digger
Digger
November 25, 2023 2:24 pm

Do you think contacting the Greens Senators will do much good?

Better off talking to a turnip…. higher IQ.

Davey Boy
Davey Boy
November 25, 2023 2:33 pm

At the moment there’s a focus on the Greens and their smiling promotion of antisemitism.

Not to forget that, business-as-usual, they have also been pumping out a steady stream of climate disaster agitprop.

It’s likely that items from their latest email (reproduced below, minus disaster p0rn images) will in the near future turn up in ‘school strike’ protests and/or mainstream media outlets, as the ‘current thing’ distraction squirrel.


Hi ,
Earlier this week we emailed you about the UN’s 3 degree warning. We’ve since learned some sober facts about this news.
, the BoM has advised that if the world heats by 3 degrees, Australia will heat by over 4 degrees.
Yet on the same day as this news broke, the Climate Change Minister – Chris Bowen – called for new gas projects to proceed.
That’s what happens when the gas industry owns the Government.
The literal Climate Change Minister ignores the UN and BoM’s warnings, and spruiks a path to unimaginable extreme weather – fires, floods and heatwaves.
We’re not going to sugarcoat it – the temperatures we’re headed for will cook Australia.
So we re-share our request from Tuesday, if you’re financially comfortable, we need you. Please join the fight for our future.

BECOME A CLIMATE CHAMPION

Here’s what we can expect in Australia if the world warms by 3 degrees:
– 1 in 100 year coastal flooding events will happen every single year threatening most of our cities and coastal towns, and putting people’s lives at severe risk.
– Cyclones will shift southward (Northern NSW) and become more intense and dump greater amounts of water, increasing flash flooding.
– Heatwaves in Brisbane will happen as often as seven times a year lasting 16 days on average (a third of year under extreme heat).
– Darwin will go from having 11 days a year over 35 degrees to 265 days a year.
– Dust storms will be frequent and hail will become larger with storms shifting southward, predominately in NSW and Victoria.
– Late frosts will increase, threatening farmer’s harvests.
– Bushfire risk will increase as well as pyro-convection (fire-created weather systems and lightning strikes). It was pyro-convection that tossed over a 10-tonne firetruck and killed a firefighting volunteer in last year’s fires.

If that doesn’t sound like the future you had planned, please join us now in the fight for our lives.

With Labor captured by the gas industry, the future rests in our hands now.
Yours in solidarity,
Your Greens Team

The “pyro-convection” incident is described here: https://www.9news.com.au/national/firefighter-dies-in-nsw-after-truck-rolls-near-jingellic-green-valley-bushfire/215b9513-da5a-4af9-88d3-243e172a8bdc

Oh come on
Oh come on
November 25, 2023 2:42 pm

Your ivory skyscraper ABC scribbler/ dribbler moment for the week comes from LaTingle:

The exhaustion with energy and climate change politics — no matter how vital they might be to the electorate —

LaTingle doesn’t realise that “energy and climate change politics” are about as far removed from the concerns of the average Australian as LaTingle is from the average Australian.

I’ll qualify that slightly by saying the average Australian regards energy policy and climate change policy as discrete matters. They have a general, abstract concern about climate change, and a false sense of security regarding energy due to the promise that transitioning to ‘green’ energy will reduce their power bills. These are not “vital” issues in any sense, though.

However, if climate change policy starts to cut into living standards, and when the transition to ‘green’ energy starts to cut into living standards, these issues will become much more vital for the average Australian – but not in the way LaTingle would want them to be.

Incidentally, the photo of the cabinet table caught my eye – or at least the flags displayed did. Three flags are visible and mounted alongside each other: the Australian flag, the Aboriginal flag and the TSI flag. Why, in the Cabinet Room of Parliament House, the seat of the Commonwealth Government of Australia, are the Australian and TSI flags mounted on each side of the Aboriginal flag? Why is the Aboriginal flag in the centre?

A national flag is an inherently symbolic object. When, where, how and why it is displayed, on its own or relative to other flags or objects, as well as the circumstances in which it is displayed – these parameters are all mindfully adjusted by the bearer of the national flag to make a symbolic statement about that nation.

In this case, the statement is that the executive arm of the Commonwealth Government has a higher loyalty to the people represented by the Aboriginal flag than it does to the people represented by the Australian flag.

There’s your Voice. It’s been here this whole time.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
November 25, 2023 2:44 pm

How to unnecessarily spend $600:

1. Leave your chair near an outdoor table in a position where a nine-month old dachshund can use it as a stepladder;
2. Leave your TV remote control on said table;
3. Leave the house;
4. Indirectly allow said dachshund to relocate remote control to ground level and begin chewing;
5. Also own a giant rescue dog, which may take remote control from the dachshund and finish the job; and
6. Have a TV with no manual switches, thus rendering the concept of ‘universal remote control’ unviable.

bespoke
bespoke
November 25, 2023 2:51 pm

KD

You don’t have to program most universal remote controls. Just select make and model from a list.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 2:52 pm

KD,
hahahahahaha
I feel your pain. I have TWO, seven week old puppies right now. Seriously considering have a cat scan of my brain. I was at the great place in life where my two older dogs are perfectly house-trained (although the chihuaha cross can be a vengeful little turd!), no chewing or hiding things. The cats, ditto litter trained. Bonus with cats, no mice in the house. 😀

My floor is lined with puppy pads, looks like a disposable nappy explosion. Cables, shoes, anything loose is up high. Sigh…

Still more fun than the former Mr Pog. Lol! 😀

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
November 25, 2023 2:56 pm

You don’t have to program most universal remote controls. Just select make and model from a list

Yes, but the first step in the process is manually turning your TV on so you can start the coding process.

No manual turn on – no dice.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 2:59 pm

KD,
do you have a DVD player connected to the box? Often, you can switch on said box via the DVD. Worth a try.

Oh come on
Oh come on
November 25, 2023 3:01 pm

No manual turn on – no dice.

I’ve wondered how a Tesla operates if the giant screen that the driver uses to control everything bar the steering, brakes and accelerator fails, or is damaged and inoperable.

bespoke
bespoke
November 25, 2023 3:04 pm

Try looking for an for that brand of tv, KD.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 25, 2023 3:05 pm

breaking
George Floyd’s killer Derek Chauvin stabbed in prison
Michael R SisakAP
Sat, 25 November 2023 10:09AM

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, has been stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured at a federal prison in Arizona, a person familiar with the matter has told The Associated Press.

The attack happened at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. The person was not authorised to publicly discuss details of the attack and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

The Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incarcerated person was assaulted at FCI Tucson about 12.30pm on Friday. In a statement, the agency said responding employees contained the incident and performed “life-saving measures” before the inmate, who it did not name, was taken to a hospital for further treatment and evaluation.

No employees were injured, and the FBI was notified, the Bureau of Prisons said. Visiting at the facility, which has about 380 inmates, has been suspended.

Messages seeking comment were left with Chauvin’s lawyers and the FBI.

bespoke
bespoke
November 25, 2023 3:05 pm

What’s a DVD player?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
November 25, 2023 3:05 pm

Try looking for an for that brand of tv, KD.

Yep – had to come from Chermany, so nah.

Entirely my fault.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 3:06 pm

Calli’s dingleberry is lonely. xe/xer also hates dogs judging by the down ticking.

You cut me deep dingleberry. hahaha.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 3:09 pm

KD,
one more thing to try. I have found some TV’s have a manual switch at the back, down along the lower part.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
November 25, 2023 3:11 pm

Sky News pissing me off all day with their reports on Israeli hostages.

On the bar at the bottom of the screen they constantly refer to “hostage swap”.

Israel doesn’t have any hostages. They have Hamas criminals in prison.

Hamas has hostages they kidnapped when they invaded southern Israel on 7 October.

Israel is releasing criminals from prison in exchange for hostages illegally kidnapped by murderous bastards.

Get it right numpties!

calli
calli
November 25, 2023 3:12 pm

Ahahaha! Watching a stripe painted shaman in a furry coat, pierced septum and weirdly wrapped topknot banging two sticks together and casting a spell over the Adelaide Supercars.

We are not a serious country. The drivers are averting their eyes from the capering wanker in embarrassment.

Bruce
Bruce
November 25, 2023 3:12 pm

“If pikes are in short supply,?”

Star pickets are MUCH harder to burn, they usually come with one end already slightly ‘sharpened”, they come in all manner of handy lengths.

LOTS of useful applications.

Diogenes
Diogenes
November 25, 2023 3:15 pm

Yep – had to come from Chermany, so nah.

Entirely my fault.

KD
I managed to get spare remotes for an old Aldi TV from this place. They have remotes for lots of obscure brands. https://remotecontrolwarehouse.com.au/.

This mob also had them https://australiaremotes.com/ .

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
November 25, 2023 3:15 pm

I have found some TV’s have a manual switch at the back

Nope Pog. Examined every square millimetre of the bloody thing. Nada.

If only they were made artisanally somewhere.

Stupid Germans. Lost two world wars and can’t produce a TV with a backup system to turn it on.

calli
calli
November 25, 2023 3:19 pm

Knuckles, my Samsung has some cunningly hidden switches along the bottom of the screen. I only found they were there by googling their location. Have you consulted the Universal Knower of All Knowledge, ie. Youtube?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
November 25, 2023 3:19 pm

If D-Town had an Aldior Costco or something I may have been able to get a gigantic TV for $20.

On that note – while in the Hardly Normal loading bay waiting to pick up my new one, I saw a bloke I know through crikkiting circles. He had a mate and a minivan, and in a stunning lack of tape measure awareness had tried to get a 98 inch behemoth of a TV into it.

Unsuccessfully.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
November 25, 2023 3:20 pm

Jeepers.

*Aldi or Costco*

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 3:20 pm

How does that go if things spiral out of control?

The 12th imam wandering around the radioactive plain where Tehran used to be and wondering where everybody has gone?

rosie
rosie
November 25, 2023 3:21 pm

Doesn’t look like any of the Israeli hostagecriminalterrorists released had to be carried to waiting ambulances or were considered to need health checks or psychological support (or to be told that family members were murdered on the 7th of October)
One of these things is not like the other.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
November 25, 2023 3:21 pm

calli – did all that.

No hidden compartments. No priest-holes.

Nothing.

Watching the new one as we speak, with the old one up on Gummy and FB Marketplace because the punters will buy anything.

Chris
Chris
November 25, 2023 3:21 pm

dachshund to relocate remote control to ground level and begin chewing;

Yep – had to come from Chermany, so nah.

Stupid Germans. Lost two world wars and can’t produce a TV with a backup system to turn it on.

German dog. German remote.
Just a coincidence?
It’s happening people!

Makka
Makka
November 25, 2023 3:23 pm

How does that go if things spiral out of control?

That’s what the Eisenhower and the Ford are there for. How does it go? You annihilate the enemy at top speed and come out on the winning side.

Vicki
Vicki
November 25, 2023 3:23 pm

I’ve wondered how a Tesla operates if the giant screen that the driver uses to control everything bar the steering, brakes and accelerator fails, or is damaged and inoperable.

Husband, who is an old fashioned car “nut”, took a test drive in a Tesla. He HATES them. He reckons the computer screen would never pass the registration test of years ago, as it diverts attention from the road.

He concedes that the Tesla had fantastic power, great seats, reasonable build quality. But dislikes how many decisions are conceded to the damn car. AND the thing is electric, with all the drawbacks of the charging dramas & dubious safety of the batteries. And amongst all these issues to be considered is the limited life of the battery itself, and the extraordinary price to replace it. No wonder that electric vehicle sales are declining overseas.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
November 25, 2023 3:27 pm

German dog. German remote.
Just a coincidence?

It’s happening people!

My God. You’re right. You’re right!

What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Bloody Krauts are at it again!

Iodine people! Stock up while you can!

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
November 25, 2023 3:27 pm

We’re not going to sugarcoat it – the temperatures we’re headed for will cook Australia.

… and even the rain that falls is never going to fill our dams again …. and children by 2016 will grow up never knowing what snow looks like any more

Still going on, terrifying the yoof, etc etc ad nauseum.

JohnJJJ
JohnJJJ
November 25, 2023 3:32 pm

Interesting: Police withholding the name of the Dublin attacker who stabbed the kids. I wonder why?

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
November 25, 2023 3:33 pm

I’ve wondered how a Tesla operates if the giant screen that the driver uses to control everything bar the steering, brakes and accelerator fails, or is damaged and inoperable.

Vicki, Hairy is convinced that the BMW that lost control and went flying from the US to Canada was an electric model gone crazy and refusing the driver’s instructions. Certainly the intensely burning fire did seem to go on much longer than a gasoline explosion would have done. He points out that there’s no information about whether it was electric vehicle, which may be part of a general attempt to keep bad news about these cars away from prospective users.

We wouldn’t buy one in a fit, and I’ve disliked driving in any hybrid we’ve hired when travelling because of the safety concerns re fire and electric things going ‘wrong’ and locking me (or anyone else) in.

Bruce
Bruce
November 25, 2023 3:39 pm

@Matrix Transform:

“… they’re building new city underground for us proles.

Like in “The Time Machine”?

Who ‘da thunk Oz would be ahead of the Eloi / Morlock game?.

Boambee John
Boambee John
November 25, 2023 3:40 pm

JohnJJJ
Nov 25, 2023 3:32 PM
Interesting: Police withholding the name of the Dublin attacker who stabbed the kids. I wonder why?

It isn’t O’Reilly?

Makka
Makka
November 25, 2023 3:41 pm

Yeah, I don’t think it ends up quite like that in the real world, certainly without serious problems on the other side of the ledger.

I’m certain that if it goes pear shaped, it will end that way.

Getting there will be bloody and at times messy without doubt. But in the end it will end with Tehran in rubble and Iran’s military , it’s infrastructure shredded. Inside 24 hours they will have no eyes or ears.

All of this is known to the mullah’s so it will be a choice between the virgins or the mortal coil. I think they’ll remain on the sidelines hurling abuse.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
November 25, 2023 3:49 pm

Interesting: Police withholding the name of the Dublin attacker who stabbed the kids. I wonder why?

Fair chance it’s Mohammed or a variant thereof.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
November 25, 2023 3:49 pm

BJ, its sHamas O’Reilly.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
November 25, 2023 3:51 pm

Interesting: Police withholding the name of the Dublin attacker who stabbed the kids. I wonder why?

Algerian migrant. I did some digging this morning after Ace of Spade had a thread covering it. Riot after targeted hostels & hotels housing immigrants and looters seen to be other immigrants cashing in on the chaos. Link below tells some of the story:

https://pjmedia.com/kevindowneyjr/2023/11/23/enough-dublin-responds-after-immigrant-stabs-5-including-young-girl-n4924188

Bruce
Bruce
November 25, 2023 3:55 pm

Re: Andrew Hastie and leadership, or the lack thereof:

This springs to mind:

“Beware wishing for “strong leadership”;

You might just get it, good and hard and often.

The last couple of centuries have seen an over-abundance of “strong leadership.

Maybe it is long past time for responsibility for one’s own life.

bespoke
bespoke
November 25, 2023 3:56 pm
Bruce
Bruce
November 25, 2023 4:04 pm

@Lizzie:

“… and even the rain that falls is never going to fill our dams again …. and children by 2016 will grow up never knowing what snow looks like any more

Still going on, terrifying the yoof, etc etc ad nauseum.”

Remind me again about the Sainted ALP PM who declared:

“By 1990, mo Australian child will live in poverty”.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 4:06 pm

Dammit Bespoke!
I have had blue hair in years! That is an old photo.

Bruce
Bruce
November 25, 2023 4:08 pm

“bespoke”:

ABC Triple-J studio?

Could just as easily be their “Radio Notional one, at times.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 4:18 pm

bugger, that should have read “haven’t”. sheesh, it’s been a long day…

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
November 25, 2023 4:19 pm

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Nov 25, 2023 3:33 PM

We wouldn’t buy one in a fit, and I’ve disliked driving in any hybrid we’ve hired when travelling because of the safety concerns re fire and electric things going ‘wrong’ and locking me (or anyone else) in.

Keep that window breaker you purchased with you at all times.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
November 25, 2023 4:26 pm

Both w*nkers should have survived … broken bones? Probably.

Steve Inman:

How every robbery should end

Makka
Makka
November 25, 2023 4:28 pm

I don’t think this is known at all.

Iran sympathizers have been at the very top of the State Dept for many years. It’s a certainty that Iran knows what will come their way in a hot war with the US up against them. Like I said, it will be bloody for the US but the outcome won’t be in any doubt. I think you over estimate Iran’s ability to C&C past the first 24 hrs. There is no upside for Iran if it chooses to go hot in the ME.

rosie
rosie
November 25, 2023 4:31 pm

I’m guessing Algerian stabber’s name is either
Jihad Mohamed
Or maybe just
Mohamed Mohamed.

rosie
rosie
November 25, 2023 4:34 pm

Apparently hamas are just so nice because they protected Israeli hostages from Israeli bombs.
The logic is unassailable.
Also must have been nice because 85 year old Yafa Adar was allowed to take a small plastic bag home with her and waved at Palestinians as they drove through Rafah crossing.
She has dementia.

Tom
Tom
November 25, 2023 4:35 pm

There is no upside for Iran if it chooses to go hot in the ME.

My observation of American politics in the past five years is that the military-industrial complex runs the Pentagon regardless of who or which party runs the White House.

The military-industrial complex will destroy whoever threatens the US’s global military dominance, whether that’s China or Iran or anyone else like Putin.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
November 25, 2023 4:39 pm

rosie Nov 25, 2023 10:39 AM
Red Rooster Line.
As through you are forced to buy it.
It’s halal and they only open franchises where there is demand.
I wonder where the the KFC line is.

Had never heard of the “Red Rooster Line”, until Roger quoted it upthread.
Looked it up on the map. It’s actually very appropriate for determining “Western Sydney”

Sort of like the Bundy Rum Divide, or the Goat’s Cheese Curtain are somewhat apt for their demarcation of demographics.

Though the name changed to “Red Rooster” years ago, I still call it “Big Rooster”
As far as the tucker is concerned, it’s one of the better fast food franchises. (Though it’s not necessarily halal chook they’re serving.)

rosie
rosie
November 25, 2023 4:43 pm

McDonalds, KFC, Hungry Jacks, Red Rooster, Subway, Domino’s all use halal certified chicken and cheese, even though the majority of stores are not halal certified.

Lee
Lee
November 25, 2023 4:43 pm

When the authorities are very slow to identify a killer or attempted murderer (like the Algerian), or release his/her motive or manifesto, you can bet it is very embarrassing for the leftist narrative that only white men would commit such evil.

In the case of the Nashville school shooting, even several months later, the authorities are still blocking the release of the killer-trannie’s hate-filled manifesto, although parts have been leaked.

Oh come on
Oh come on
November 25, 2023 4:44 pm

Agree with Dover. The balance of power in the world is shifting. The era of unquestioned US hard power dominance is over. And with the end of that era, the balance of power in the ME is also shifting. ME states that were reliant upon US hard power dominance for their protection are now furiously resorting to Plan B. One consequence of this is they don’t need to fall into line when the US says to anymore. Therefore, Israel doesn’t have carte blanche in Gaza like it might once have had. It just doesn’t. That is the reality and even Israel accepts it – hence the ceasefire. I don’t see any benefit in denying this reality, even if I may not like it.

And this loose talk of Israel using nuclear weapons is nuts. If Israel nukes Iran in circumstances that are not justifiable to a critical mass of Israel’s neighbours, Iran will still survive as a state. Israel probably will not. There will be no possibility of Israel making peace with her neighbours after that – ever. There will be a regional conventional and nuclear arms race that Israel could not possibly win. And sooner or later the sheer weight of numbers stacked against Israel will overwhelm it.

Israel will also likely lose the support of her Western allies if she nukes Iran without self-evident just cause (ie. it’d have to be a LOT better than the pathetic and frankly embarrassing remnants the IDF was able to scrounge together as ‘proof’ that that hospital it overran was a Hamas command centre). Public sympathy for Israel will evaporate when the images of a post-nuclear strike begin to hit our screens, and, ultimately, Western governments will not be able to resist reflecting the sentiments of their constituents.

It’s just a crazy idea. Even Iran, if it obtains nukes, would be very limited in what it could do with them. It can’t initiate a strike on Israel without destroying Islamic holy sites and damaging or destroying its allies and proxies. There is no such thing as a nuclear scalpel, which is what Iran would need given the size of Israel and its proximity to areas Iran would wish to protect.

Boambee John
Boambee John
November 25, 2023 4:46 pm

Makka

All of this is known to the mullah’s so it will be a choice between the virgins or the mortal coil. I think they’ll remain on the sidelines hurling abuse.

I have long believed that this was one reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union. As good communist atheists, they believed that there is no next life, Reagan frightened them with Star Wars, their economy was a wreck, so Gorbachev negotiated the best deal he could, and folded.

I suspect that the mullahs know that if Israel is about to be extinguished, they will use their nuclear weapons to take their enemies, including Iran, with them.

Pogria
Pogria
November 25, 2023 4:47 pm

Salvatore,
it’s funny to read someone call it “Big Rooster”. I lived in Brisbane during 1980 and came across Big Rooster for the first time. I still call it Big Rooster. It was only called Red Rooster when it came to NSW. Drunken Friday and Saturday nights a bunch of us would go out and buy Big Rooter Chicken Rolls.
We thought we were so funny calling it Big Rooter. Probably why they changed the name. lol.

Lee
Lee
November 25, 2023 4:47 pm

Apparently hamas are just so nice because they protected Israeli hostages from Israeli bombs.

I couldn’t believe the news report I read earlier which commended Hamas for considering releasing some hostages.

The fact that they should never have been hostages in the first place doesn’t seem to have entered the reporter’s head.

calli
calli
November 25, 2023 4:49 pm

Oh dear. I disobeyed. I clicked.

The Michelin Man in a skinsuit.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
November 25, 2023 4:53 pm

That was a big bang in Papua New Guinea from a few days back.

Volcanic blast to 60,000 feet. More ash to play with the weather.

Giant volcanic ash cloud hangs over Papua New Guinea sky after eruption

Boambee John
Boambee John
November 25, 2023 4:54 pm

OCO

And this loose talk of Israel using nuclear weapons is nuts. If Israel nukes Iran in circumstances that are not justifiable to a critical mass of Israel’s neighbours, Iran will still survive as a state. Israel probably will not. There will be no possibility of Israel making peace with her neighbours after that – ever. There will be a regional conventional and nuclear arms race that Israel could not possibly win. And sooner or later the sheer weight of numbers stacked against Israel will overwhelm it.

As one of the supposed “loose talkers”, I should (re-)emphasise that I see Israel using nuclear weapons only as the ultimate, final, last resort. As I wrote a few days ago, when “Masada is about to fall again”. As Samson died to ensure the deaths of his enemies, if “Never again” is about to happen again, and there is nothing left to lose.

Zafiro
Zafiro
November 25, 2023 4:56 pm

I worked at Steggles for a while in 2003/4. It went “Halal” during my time.

They employed a Mohammedan to stand and watch the chooks as they passed the spinning blade that cut their throats. Nothing more than that. Totally Faux-lal, but it gets the logo on the packet etc.

calli
calli
November 25, 2023 4:56 pm

Had never heard of the “Red Rooster Line”,

Neither had I.

Maginot. Hindenburg. Checkpoint Charlie. No Man’s Land. Demilitarised Zone. Hey, even the Romulan Neutral Zone.

But poultry? Where no leghorn has gone before?

Lee
Lee
November 25, 2023 4:57 pm

Agree with Dover. The balance of power in the world is shifting. The era of unquestioned US hard power dominance is over.

You can thank/blame Biden and the Democrats for that.

“Make America Un-Great Again!”

Oh come on
Oh come on
November 25, 2023 4:57 pm

Not even sure about that, Makka. The US relies heavily on its air power. Iran’s air defence network is Russian and not nearly as shabby as one might think. Russia’s air defence capabilities are ridiculously superior to those of the West (a Soviet legacy).

Look at the Ukrainian air defence network for proof of this – it was able to keep the Russian airforce largely grounded for a year whilst the Russians gradually degraded it via missiles and drones. The Russians could have sent their planes in and finished the job sooner, but at a price they weren’t willing to pay. And this from a Soviet legacy system that has basically not been upgraded since the 1980s.

Iran’s air defence network is more modern than Ukraine’s was, albeit probably not as heavily and comprehensively layered. It will still be able to knock a LOT of US planes out of the sky. Too many, I suspect.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
November 25, 2023 4:59 pm

Whenever someone posts “NSFW” or “Don’t Click On This Link”. I always do.

It’s human nature. Can’t resist temptation.

Oh come on
Oh come on
November 25, 2023 5:00 pm

As one of the supposed “loose talkers”,

Not saying it about anyone in particular. I agree with you that Israel would be justified in using its nuclear arsenal in the circumstances you describe. I don’t think we are anywhere near that point, however (and I’m not saying you believe we are, either).

Makka
Makka
November 25, 2023 5:03 pm

The balance of power in the world is shifting.

Not in the ME. The US still holds more than sufficient sway when it comes to firepower deployed.

Israel’s ceasefire was a domestically driven strategy to put more emphasis on getting hostages back. The northern Gaza operation could pause as long as the hostage release requirements could be met. Massive damage and inroads into Hamas have been achieved. Time to get hostages back.

At this point I doubt Israel gives a fk what allies think.At least the IDF don’t. They know who their real friends are in any case. They have just seen Jewish babies butchered in the most horrible ways – there’s no mercy now. End Hamas permanently at any cost will be their mind set.

Israel won’t need to use nukes to achieve it’s goals.

Lee
Lee
November 25, 2023 5:06 pm

Any nuclear attack on Israel, will result in the immediate nuking of the attackers’ capital, whether it be Tehran, Riyadh, Baghdad, or whatever.

It may be retaliation, but it will also being the sternest warning to others.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 25, 2023 5:07 pm

How every robbery should end

Such footage does my nasty, cruel little mind a great deal of good!

Tom
Tom
November 25, 2023 5:08 pm

The fact that they should never have been hostages in the first place doesn’t seem to have entered the reporter’s head.

It makes sense only if you understand that “reporters” aren’t reporters at all. They’re activists who think the public is too stupid to be trusted with information and must be told how to think.

Most “journalists” see themselves as cyphers on whom the public depends for information, so the “information” must be tailored — the ultimate abuse of journalism.

Most journalists behave as if the internet hasn’t been invented and they are the sole source of information for the public.

Journalism has become an elitist department of the ;eftist establishment and can never be trusted (because 99% of journalists think you’re too stupid to vote).

Oh come on
Oh come on
November 25, 2023 5:11 pm

Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see, Makka. History suggests the kind of fury that motivates a fighting force that you mentioned tends to be worn down by the reality of combat.

Makka
Makka
November 25, 2023 5:12 pm

OCO,

The first swarm of missiles (of many) hitting Iran will take out most of their C&C. Over a number of hours they will eventually be blinded and decapitated.

Then US airpower will play it’s part

Jorge
Jorge
November 25, 2023 5:13 pm

More ash to play with the weather.

Guangdong & Shenzhen received 5 metres of rain in 5 hours a few days ago. Biblical flooding.

Winston Smith
November 25, 2023 5:14 pm

Black Ball:
Black Ball:

The union representing 56,000 Victorian bureaucrats is refusing to back down on a four-day working week trial as part of a radical new wages deal.
The issue is emerging as a key sticking point in ongoing negotiations with the Allan government that are now locked in a stalemate.

I’d say that 50% of the State bureaucracy could be replaced by a moderately sized call centre in Dubai, or even better still – disbanded. That half of the bureaucracy should be put on notice to justify their Golden Sofa over the last financial year.

Winston Smith
November 25, 2023 5:15 pm

Winston Smith
Nov 25, 2023 4:50 PM
bons

Nov 24, 2023 11:22 AM
Rain! Rain!

Wazzat OldAussie.
Are you some kind of BOM fantasist?
We can’t even remember rain up here in real Oz.

We’ve had nearly a week of gentle rain, thunderstorms, downpours and sunny skies.
Perfect rainfall pattern – the deluges have the chance to soak in and refill the ground before the next lot comes down.

Oh come on
Oh come on
November 25, 2023 5:16 pm

Incidentally, US power projection in the region is centred on its two carrier fleets there. Those carriers are not as impregnable as they once were.

Vicki
Vicki
November 25, 2023 5:19 pm

Vicki, Hairy is convinced that the BMW that lost control and went flying from the US to Canada was an electric model gone crazy and refusing the driver’s instructions.

Lizzie, we understood that it was a Bentley. Even worse! My favourite large sedan is actually a 2017 Bentley owned by a friend. It is a car that (as a passenger) you feel is a genuine limousine. All class. Actually, this particular car feels almost Italian in its brown/beige interior with timber (as I recall) trimming. You just sink into the plush back seats. Unlike any car I have travelled in. It ain’t a sports car – by, by gosh, it is a wonderful vehicle.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 25, 2023 5:20 pm

From the Hun. Didn’t Marcia Langton say there would be no more “welcome to country” if the referendum was defeated?

Liberals boo as speaker acknowledges the land of traditional owners at conference

Anger at the Voice referendum spilled over into a Liberal Party conference in Sydney with members booing a speaker acknowledging the land of the “traditional owners” the gathering was being held upon.

Zafiro
Zafiro
November 25, 2023 5:20 pm

Guangdong & Shenzhen received 5 metres of rain in 5 hours a few days ago. Biblical flooding.

5000ml in a few hours?

Zafiro
Zafiro
November 25, 2023 5:21 pm

Vicki
Vicki
November 25, 2023 5:22 pm

We’ve had nearly a week of gentle rain, thunderstorms, downpours and sunny skies.
Perfect rainfall pattern – the deluges have the chance to soak in and refill the ground before the next lot comes down.

We haven’t had the thunderstorms. But we have had, like you, the gentle rain that soaks in. Not much…but enough to get the growth going.

Jorge
Jorge
November 25, 2023 5:24 pm

Correction: 4.67 m.

Winston Smith
November 25, 2023 5:24 pm

Zatara:

They also had trouble understanding pronouns, where babies come from, reading books without pictures, and making correct change for an order of chips.

I think you’re being a bit harsh. First you need to know what kind of chips. Crinkle cut, thick cut, beer batter coated.
The price will change – especially if they are with chicken salt or vinegar.

Vicki
Vicki
November 25, 2023 5:24 pm

It makes sense only if you understand that “reporters” aren’t reporters at all. They’re activists who think the public is too stupid to be trusted with information and must be told how to think.

Some great criticism of the blatant anti-Semitism in some of the Australian media in today’s Oz.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
November 25, 2023 5:26 pm

Just give the “cute owl” links a big swerve, Barky

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 25, 2023 5:27 pm
Makka
Makka
November 25, 2023 5:27 pm

Incidentally, US power projection in the region is centred on its two carrier fleets there.

The US also has plenty of stand off power over the horizon in Diego Garcia and with subs throughout the region. I have no doubt that the US is completely ready to play for keeps if it comes to that,

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
November 25, 2023 5:28 pm

eg “cute owl

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
November 25, 2023 5:30 pm

I want this child to have a good future. NDIS is helpful but not the answer for life.

Why do three people here downtick this, and five people downtick my further comment regarding this autistic grandchild? Is it simply ill-will, or is there an argument they would like made against what is being said? If so, why not make that argument?

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
November 25, 2023 5:33 pm

More footage that does my nasty cruel little mind a great deal of good!

Beautifully executed tackle.

And the simpering sheila crying “oh my God, oh my God” – well if you support hamas, you don’t have a God.

Winston Smith
November 25, 2023 5:33 pm

Old Ozzie:

A question to ask of PM Albanese & Foreign Minister Penny Wong
How many of the 1700 Israeli Visas were to Arab Israeli’s
The government has approved visitor visas for more than 850 people living in Gaza and 1700 to Israelis following terror group Hamas’ October 7 attack

…and that, OO, is a damn fine question.

calli
calli
November 25, 2023 5:34 pm

Lol, Wally! I had an inkling of who it might be before I clicked. 😀

Lizzie, I’ve never understood the downticking stuff and never will. It’s lazy, cowardly and intellectually feeble.

Make an argument or use your fingers to pick your nose, or any other orifice you fancy.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
November 25, 2023 5:36 pm

eg “cute owl“

Oh f#ck. I clicked on it!

Rabz
November 25, 2023 5:37 pm

The kolkhoz purges the last remaining kulak.
Why are my taxes still paying for them?

Because BoN, my good friend, the Mantra™ is yet to be enacted, Squire.

Oh come on
Oh come on
November 25, 2023 5:39 pm

The first swarm of missiles (of many) hitting Iran will take out most of their C&C. Over a number of hours they will eventually be blinded and decapitated.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq playbook won’t work in Iran.

1 – its C&C is almost certainly underground and impervious to Tomahawks, doesn’t matter how many are expended.

2 – the US doesn’t have any standoff munitions that could penetrate these bunkers – it would have to send the bombers in and these would be vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. And that assumes US targeting would be effective, which is far from a certainty.

3 – Iran is a mountainous country. It would be easy for Iran to conceal/ protect its air defence assets using its geography.

4 – if you and I know about the US’s capabilities, the Iranians certainly do. They have been preparing for such an attack for decades. The belief that Iran will be knocked out by a wave of cruise missiles is wishful thinking.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
November 25, 2023 5:42 pm

and that would be one of the less traumatising Owls…

Rabz
November 25, 2023 5:44 pm

Hey JC, you maudlin hypochondriac, time to watch some very funny videos …

Not my Taco

Members Only

JohnJJJ
JohnJJJ
November 25, 2023 5:47 pm

Lee
Nov 25, 2023 4:43 PM
When the authorities are very slow to identify a killer or attempted murderer (like the Algerian), or release his/her motive or manifesto, you can bet it is very embarrassing……

Yep. They are treating the population like they are six year olds. It is the philosophy of ‘nesting’. I would guess the likes of Catherine Burn are in charge. The trouble for them now is the non nesters see right through it.
The police ‘service’ new role as keepers of public safety is a perfect example of nesting. Police force, i.e. enforcing the law, for long term survival of society is an anathema to the nesters.

Harlequin Decline
November 25, 2023 5:50 pm

We flew Air NZ economy from Queenstown to Auckland, no complaints all pretty good.

This morning flew Air NZ business Auckland to Sydney but what a contrast given you are paying more for the service.

Check in via a small room packed with people, 3 desks each with queues providing boarding passes and luggage tags but no luggage handling- you dragged your bags over to the belt just like the self check in kiosks of which there were 3. So we used the self check in but no priority tags for the bags so the Bolshevik bagge handlers at the Sydney end wouldn’t get offended.

Then crushpacked into a lift to get to departures and the lounge which in turn was overflowing with overweight kiwi’s.

On the plane they were performing the usual unintelligible last rites before closing the door. It sounded something like ‘If Mr Oblong Sasquatch and Ms Sump Meretrix are on board please make yourself known to the cabin staff’ when a much clearer announcement came through-

.’Please leave the plane immediately and leave all your belongings behind, repeat please get off the plane immediately, do not take your bags with you’

So off the plane we get , a chap tells me there was smoke.coming out of vents in the rear of the plane so we mill around watching the firies and fire truck roll.up, then depart, then the mobile generator turns up. After a couple if hours of no announcement on WTF is happening boarding recommences.

Back on board the pilot announces they have reconfigured things to isolate the problem and we’re good to go except it’s now getting warmer in the plane but it’ll be OK once we’re in the air. No mention of what the issue was but at a guess the APU connection to the aircon was faulty hence smoke then no aircon on the ground.

Breakfast was edible in parts, the parts that didn’t resemble a compost heap that is.

And on arrival into Sydney the initial set of dopey little kiosks that provide the tags prior to immigration were roped up for queuing, with good reason only 2 out of 6 were working.

Still there was no welcome to the country so there is that.

Winston Smith
November 25, 2023 5:50 pm

One time our son started choking and we called triple0 ( 8km to the Mater Kids in Annerley, 2km from Oxley ambo station) – uttered the words the Specialist told us to ” suffers spontaneous respiratory failure” … ” Sorry nothing will be there for 30 minutes” … Took the decision to drive. Luckily there was a RBT just up the road so we got a police escort.

Diogenes, that’s pretty bloody scary – and it proves that shit can happen even in the best resourced areas. Have you done an emergency airway support course or similar?
Always good to know how to do a tracheostomy in your position if it’s needed.

Chris
Chris
November 25, 2023 5:50 pm

, the Mantra™

Rabz,
is there a variation that also says ‘Hear the lamentation of the rich middle-class women’?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 5:54 pm

OCO – The USN will just sink the entire Iranian fleet then sail away. Anything that floats won’t anymore. Reagan sank half of it in an afternoon, and they have nothing now that can prevent the current Navy from doing the whole lot.

The Houthis, on behalf of the mullahs, had another go at an Arleigh Burke this week. It was a fiasco.

Cassie of Sydney
November 25, 2023 5:55 pm

I’ve had a lovely day, this afternoon I went to the ballet with my sister. The ballet was exquisite, perfect, magical, the second major piece was inspired by one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The performance took my breath away, and for the first time in weeks I didn’t think of pogroms, of dead Jews, of hunted Jews, of kidnapped Jews, of raped Jews, of progressive and Green Jew hating scum like that despicable Faruqi, of leftist politicians engaging in moral equivalence, no, I just sat in my seat in the Opera House and allowed my mind to be transported to another place, struck by the beauty of the performance. It really is an exquisite story. I met my sister at the Opera House, I got off the bus, and walked underneath along the concourse for two reasons, one was that it was raining, but also I didn’t want to walk on the tiles where on Monday night, 9 October 2023, various Palestinian and leftist Nazis screamed “gas the Jews”.

Before the performance we drank a glass of champers each and ate delicious little sandwiches. My sister told me her hubby, my brother in law, has banned her from driving a certain route to their business in the western suburbs because a street near the business has a Palestinian flag flying on a fence, and my sister has insisted that she wants to stop her car, get out of her car and yank it off the fence. And you wanna know what, she would do it!

She, like me, is truly her mother’s daughter!

MatrixTransform
November 25, 2023 5:57 pm

No manual turn on – no dice.

go to Bunnings and buy an Antsig IR Blaster

load Grid Connect software on yr phone

select TV model

your phone is now the remote

Chris
Chris
November 25, 2023 5:57 pm

Popped over to Babylon Bee. The headlines are excellent.
As Family U-Haul Leaves California, Wife Looks Back Wistfully, Turns To Pillar Of Salt
In Incredible Black Friday Sale, Lockheed Martin Offering 2 Wars For Price Of 1
President Xi Confirms Chinese Ban On Bibles Does Not Apply To ‘The Message’
Men Pretending To Be Women Go To Lunch With Man Pretending To Be Catholic
Libertarian Pilgrims Set Sail For Argentina In Search Of A Better Life

And the one about me:
‘Our Family Doesn’t Even Have A Weird Uncle,’ Thinks Man Moments Before Realizing He’s The Weird Uncle

Rabz
November 25, 2023 5:58 pm

Gazza Numan – Cars*

Still think it’s the greatest coda in human history, Cats 🙂

*No, not the explodey ones …

MatrixTransform
November 25, 2023 6:00 pm

tell me the make and model and I’ll look up the list in my own Grid Connect software

miltonf
miltonf
November 25, 2023 6:00 pm

Journalism has become an elitist department of the ;eftist establishment and can never be trusted (because 99% of journalists think you’re too stupid to vote).

Yes and the Tingle sludge posted here this morning is a good example.

Rabz
November 25, 2023 6:04 pm

is there a variation that also says ‘Hear the lamentation of the rich middle-class women’?

Chris – you’ve just identified a “gap in the market”, Squire.

You could make some yourself. To paraphrase the underpants Gnomes, “Profit”!

The proprietor of the Liberty Line t-shirt business used to be a good friend of myself and various other Cats until he, err, well, there is no other way to put it, Cats – he lost his mind.

Watching a friend go “over the edge” is not edifying, I tells ya. 🙁

bespoke
bespoke
November 25, 2023 6:06 pm

Grid Connect uses Tuya cloud, Matrix.

Most of my iot uses Zigbee run on a home server.

Diogenes
Diogenes
November 25, 2023 6:06 pm

Have you done an emergency airway support course or similar?
Always good to know how to do a tracheostomy in your position if it’s needed.

Winston,
His medulla was damaged by lactic acid* and he had issues with his swallow reflex. Basically it was his throat muscles losing tone . Thee specialist told us to use that form of words to get a priority 1 response, although it was technically not accurate, and would save us a lot of time with dispatch. We had a cpap machine to help , but that time it was ineffective. That hospital stay was about 3 weeks, with lots of speech therapy.

This happened about 3 months before the medulla stopped working completely which is what ultimately killed him.

* His body had only about half the normal amount of the pyruvate dehydrogenase enzyme, and as a result his body had great difficulty regulating lactic acid.

Harlequin Decline
November 25, 2023 6:07 pm

The Tongan eruption back in early 2022 oor thereabouts certainly had some far reaching effects.

About 6 months after it erupted I was on the promenade next to Manly beach when I noticed what looked like a line of blue metal along the shoreline. I went down to take a look and it was pumice, presumably it drifted in from the volcano over the preceding months.

cohenite
November 25, 2023 6:08 pm

Salty on the irish current issue with the muzzies stabbing kids and when some irish blokes come out and attack the bastards the msm cry racism, so do the senior pricks betraying their own people. Colin McGregor wants to bash people.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 6:11 pm

This guy has been tongue-bathing Hamas rapists and baby murderers for the last month.

‘Stop making climate crisis worse’: Bandt takes part in blockade of major port (Sky News mainpage headline, 25 Nov)

One of the largest climate protests in Australia’s history is underway at Newcastle Port with an estimated 3000 activists to spend 30 hours on the water in an effort to block coal-carrying ships.

Arrest them all and send them to Gaza. They do not deserve to live in this country.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
November 25, 2023 6:15 pm

Cassie, so pleased to hear you’ve been having some R & R away from current woes.
I am now going to use the last scented bath bomb from last Christmas before the new lot arrive, and read in the bath the last three chapters of my current book, which is a novel about Displaced Persons in the period following WW2. Its themes are revenge and redemption. It’s heavily structured from the different perspectives of the participants, which can get irritating, but it’s quite well written.

Diogenes
Diogenes
November 25, 2023 6:15 pm

We thought we were so funny calling it Big Rooter. Probably why they changed the name. lol.

Everybody I know used to call it the Big C**k.

calli
calli
November 25, 2023 6:19 pm

Harlequin, we had the opposite experience at Sydney Airport on Thursday, around 10:30pm.

Yes, there was a roped area to those stupid self-serve ticket machines, but they were all working and it went smoothly. I have learned the necessary passport-fu, regardless of sleep deprivation.

Our A380 coincided with a packed arrival from South Africa, so the baggage carousels were going gangbusters. Again, busy but not mahem.

Naturally, I had some delicious Norwegian chocolate to declare…so straight through. Tucked up in the Rydges feather bed by midnight. 😀

Rabz
November 25, 2023 6:22 pm

The Tongan eruption back in early 2022 or thereabouts certainly had some far reaching effects

Including the very lacklustre recent and current weather here in Sydneystan.

No el Nino for you 😕

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 6:22 pm

There’s gold in them thar hills.

CCTV shows terrifying armed robbery at South Maclean home as Queensland family claim they were threatened with firearm (Sky News, 25 Nov)

Four suspects are on the run after stealing gold, thousands in cash and mobile phones during a violent robbery that has left a Queensland family-of-six fearing for their lives.

Stealing gold…?

Khaleefa Al Shamari told 7News on Friday the family were watching television in their living room when four hooded thieves burst through the door.

“They hit me here and on my eye here,” he said, pointing to bruises on his arm and face.

His son Mustafa claimed he was threatened with a gun while in his bedroom.

“He broke my door. Then he just came in and pointed the gun at me. He was like, ‘if you make any noise I’ll shoot you’,” he told 7News.

Mr Al Shamari said the thugs took gold which he estimated was worth about $20,000, $2,500 in cash and stole he and his wife’s phones.

The assailants also took keys to two cars parked outside but they failed to escape with the vehicles due to an electric fence which was closed at the time.

The father-of-four took off in a car in search for the thieves but could not find them.

CCTV from the home showed the before and aftermath as the hooded thugs ran from the home holding weapons, including what appeared to be a bat and a firearm.

Why is it that I have this feeling that there’s more to this story that appears on the surface? Weird how I feel that.

Rabz
November 25, 2023 6:23 pm

On the upside, we won’t have to worry about the electrickery grid collapsing until winter sets in.

JC
JC
November 25, 2023 6:24 pm

Colin McGregor wants to bash people.

You’re saying that as though it’s a bad thing. The pint sized little fcuk is very angry.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 25, 2023 6:29 pm

Orko gorne, again.

Orkopoulos jailed for second time over sex abuse (Ncl local news, 24 Nov)

Now former New South Wales Labor MP Milton Orkopoulos has been handed more time behind bars – for sexually abusing four boys. The 66-year-old, today jailed for up to 20 years.

See ya!

Rabz
November 25, 2023 6:30 pm

Colin McGregor wants to bash people

If you’re going to allegedly quote an angry oirish personage, then for feck’s sake at least get his name somewhat correct:

Conor McGregor …

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
November 25, 2023 6:32 pm

Wow Big Roster, trip down memory lane there. Younger siblings and I used to make jokes about an outlet on Woodville rd somewhere near Guildford when we were on our way or back to see relatives in Liverpool all the time. Can’t remember what exactly but highly amusing to preteen boys which we all were. Dad on the other hand didn’t like it much LOL.

Frank
Frank
November 25, 2023 6:33 pm

I’d say that 50% of the State bureaucracy could be replaced by a moderately sized call centre in Dubai

ChatGPT trained on the Public Service Style Manual and the relevant legistlation coupled with soe voice synthesis software. Couldn’t be worse.

pete of perth
pete of perth
November 25, 2023 6:34 pm

Walli, would thta be Floreat Forum? I used to work down the road from there when they were knocking down Perry Lakes Stadium now replaced with two story mcmansions. My Local is Dog Swamp Shopping Centre. Plenty of fossils at that one..including myself.

pete of perth
pete of perth
November 25, 2023 6:35 pm
Steve trickler
Steve trickler
November 25, 2023 6:37 pm

Tszyu gave him a flogging in the end … he was unleashed!

Nikita Tszyu vs Dylan Biggs : Full Fight Highlights | Main Event | Fox Sports Australia

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 25, 2023 6:37 pm

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I am not a murderer: ex-cop Sirul Azhar Umar pleads to stay

By amanda hodge
South East Asia Correspondent
@hodgeamanda
9:03PM November 24, 2023
11 Comments

A former Malaysian elite police bodyguard convicted of killing a politically linked Mongolian model and translator – allegedly on the orders of “powerful” ­people – has pleaded for Australian authorities to let him stay in the country, insisting “I am not a murderer”.

Sirul Azhar Umar was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death in Malaysia in late 2014 for the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu after he had already fled to Australia, where he was arrested weeks later and detained in Sydney’s Villawood detention centre.

He was among more than 90 people released earlier this month after the High Court ruled indefinite immigration detention to be unlawful.

Sirul told The Weekend Australian in an exclusive interview that he was now a “free man” not subject to any curfew, despite new legislation imposing strict visa and monitoring conditions on many detainees, and he was seeking a second chance from Australia. His ultimate fate remains unclear, given he cannot be extradited unless he appeals for his sentence to be commuted, which he has definitively ruled out.

“I did not commit the murder. I will not ask for a pardon. There is no reason for me to because I was not involved,” he said on Friday.

The 52-year-old confirmed he was paid more than $330,000 in hush money in exchange for recording a 2016 video while in Villa­wood detention exonerating then Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak from involvement in the murder.

Najib was jailed for 12 years in 2022 for corruption related to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB mis­appropriation scandal, but he has always denied any link to Shaariibuu’s murder.

Sirul claims to not know who paid the money through his Mal­aysian solicitors – or who paid those lawyers known to be senior figures in Najib’s UMNO party – but he told Al Jazeera in a separate interview he understood it was “to protect former prime minister at that time, Mr Najib”.

In that interview he appealed to the Australian authorities to let him stay. “Whatever happens, I want to build a life with my child here in Australia. I hope the Australian community accepts me (for) who I am. I’m not a bad person,” he said.

He said Australia’s “home minister “had contacted police in the Malaysian high commission for assurances that he would not be a danger to the local community and had received those assurances.

Sirul told The Weekend Australian his only involvement in the murder of Shaariibuu was to remove her from outside the Kuala Lumpur house of her ex-lover Razak Baginda, a close confidant of Najib, drive her from the area and hand her over to his police superior, Azilah Hadri, who is on death row in Malaysia for her murder.

“I knew she was going to be killed but I did not do it. Azilah had already told me it was some mission but I didn’t want to be ­involved,” he said.

He said Azilah had told him they had orders from then deputy prime minister Najib to conduct a “special operation” against Shaariibuu, and had lied to him in alleging she was a spy.

The 28-year-old mother of two young boys was shot twice in the head and her body was then blown up with military-grade ­explosives.

Sirul insists he was not there when it happened, and that evidence subsequently found in his car and his house, including jewellery of the murdered woman, was “planted.

“As a policeman, I just took orders and I carried out my task up to the point that I handed her to Azilah so I am not responsible for what happened after that. I am not a murderer. I have a family I love. The people of Australia have nothing to fear from me,” he said.

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