David Starkey: Tony Blair Destroyed the Old Britain
Open Thread – Wed 29 Nov 2023
- Open Thread – Thurs 17 Oct 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 14 Oct 2024
- The Fifth Problem of the Bowen Kind
- Open Thread – Weekend 12 Oct 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 10 Oct 2024
Sounds like a fallback job. No-one else wants the toxic bestard.Even this mob have got him on a fixed term.
There you go 2nd stadium is near Harrup Park Country Club also close to the airport. Just been subject to…
Cenk needs his nose driven into his head, ‘Shut up’: Douglas Murray clashes with Cenk Uygur over Israel-Hamas war
You are only Jewish if your mother is Jewish, and her mother is Jewish. A very wise rule that one,…
About time too. Good moaning all.
It’s only 10 past eleven.
Top of the moaning to youse all.
bah humbug
Is this the right place for an argument?
The most destructive virus to humankind is the so-called ‘mainstream’ or legacy, media.
Gmoaning.
I’ve been up since 4… rare combo of low tide, full moon and calm seas had me out with the faithful mutt running down abalone.
Walked past the remnants of the Nicholas Cage film set, yuge Maori bloke guarding it, camps there overnight. Reckons it’ll be gone by Christmas, barring re-shoots. Are re-shoots even a thing in the age of digital “rushes” and CGI touch-ups? Nah it’s script re-writes after audience testing bro, mainly emotional and the steamy romantic stuff, you never know how much creedence the average viewer will actually give a scene when you’re shooting under the dazzling starpower of the scriptwriter-actor-producer-director.
“Did the blackfellas eat your paua here?”
Don’t see why not, you can pluck them off by hand if you’re quick. Limpets, no chance, unless you’d just bludgeon them off with a rock. But you wouldn’t want to rely on them, pickin’ conditions don’t happen very often.
From the OOT:
It is. This started when you wrote:
This is something you refuse to understand. The guys with the biggest guns set the rules. to which I replied,
Not at all. This is precisely what is being contested in the ME right now.
So my saying that post-WW2 changed nothing is me acknowledging that the international system involves the great powers setting the rules.
You’re always looking for an angle.
What does that have to do with what you quoted?
That quote wasn’t even addressed to you but to Roger.
Is the right room for an argument?
I’ve told you once.
No, you didn’t.
Yes, I did.
When?
Just now.
No, you didn’t.
Yes, I did.
No, you didn’t.
Excuse me. Is the five minute argument or the half hour?
Oh, just the five minute.
Thank you. Anyway, I did tell you.
No, you most certainly did not.
Let’s get one thing straight: I most definitely told you.
No, you didn’t.
Yes, I did.
No, you didn’t.
Yes, I did.
No, you didn’t.
Yes, I did.
This isn’t an argument!
Yes, it is.
No, it isn’t. It’s just contradiction.
No, it isn’t.
Yes, it is. You just contradicted me.
No, I didn’t.
Yes, you did.
No, no, no.
You did just then.
That’s ludicrous.
Oh, this is futile.
No, it isn’t.
I came in here for a good argument.
No, you didn’t. You came in here for an argument.
Well, argument isn’t the same as contradiction.
Can be.
No, it can’t.
An argument is a collective series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
No, it isn’t.
Yes, it is. It isn’t just contradiction.
Look, if I argue with you. I must take a contrary position.
But it isn’t just saying No, it isn’t.
Yes, it is.
No, it isn’t. Argument’s an intellectual protest,
Contradiction just the automatic opposite of any statement the other person makes.
No, it isn’t.
Yes, it is.
Not at all.
Now, look– (Bell dings)
Good morning.
What?
That’s it. Good morning.
The State is giving people a choice. The State allows people to smoke but that does equal the State endorsing smoking, it actually does the exact opposite. The State makes a judgment that is demanded by sizeable group of people within it. The State rarely adopts policies that everyone endorses. That is what democratic states do. Is there anyone is a modern society in total accord with the State? Supporting euthanasia is not an affirmation that everyone in the State supports it. That people openly dispute euthanasia is evidence that is wrong. I’m morally opposed to many things in society. Get over it, that’s modern life.
Champagne comedy Bruce! Love that, peak Python.
“If you’re arguing with me, then I must have paid! Ha, I’ve got you!”
“Not necessarily… I could be arguing in my spare time.”
“oh, I’ve had enough of this…’
“No, you haven’t…”
Except you’ve been dancing around this with tortured arguments since the beginning to the point where you’ve even confused yourself.
Really? Asking a question for further elaboration is looking for an angle?
I’ve quoted your remarks, and responded to them.
The difference is that 1400 innocent people were murdered by a bunch of primitives and the US has responded on the side of Israel. The Houthis have take sides with the primitives. This is something you never took into account in your equation.
The state taxes smokers up the wazoo. You can hardly claim it is giving people a choice. And smoking isn’t analogous to smoking or driving, morally speaking.
It’s not a matter about everyone needing to endorse a policy. The point was that institutionalizing euthanasia affirms it whatever the public thinks. The state isn’t ‘morally neutral’ when it provides facilities for its undertaking. Further, the law is a teacher; a law that affirms euthanasia establishes it as a morally licit choice available to the public. People will see its availability as a gesture of approval, and the more this is the case the more widespread it will become.
No, you misread my response because you got yourself in a tizzy because I criticized the US.
No, thinking that something more must be behind my response and then asking ‘to what end’ is certainly looking for an angle.
No, the relevant response/s weren’t addressing what I said.
Good night.
I think Lizzie’s and her friends views on Napoleon probably supports what Ridley Scott was aiming for. Entertainment over accuracy.
Can’t remember his name but one of the historical advisers on the movie pointed out a particular error in the movie and Scott over ruled him. The expert then said that was when he realised thay they making entertainment not a documentary.
Lizzie mentioned Austerlitz and battle on the ice. Certainly looked good but not accurate. Check out Wikipedia on the battle. It does mention ice but it was a very minor part of the battle and few apparently died there.
Hollywood v History has a good article on the differences for those interested.
The last sentence is :
“articles that address where the film deviates from the facts and veers into fiction are important, as is understanding that the film is first and foremost a piece of entertainment, not a documentary”.
I replied to your comment where you first suggested the Houthis’ actions were somewhat morally equal to US actions of the past. I’ve commented both in this discussion and previously, that I found US and aligned actions seizing the property of Russian individuals concerning. So no, I’m not in a tizzy because you criticized the US. I am however, highlighting there is a world of difference between the US and the Houthis, rendering moral equivalence in terms of whom they are supporting very distinct.
I know what is behind your response. You’ve told us.
In my opinion, I have.
Translation.
I’m not a fat porker.
Whoops
I’m now a fat porker.
Black Friday retail sales are in.
JC, are you covering Bolton’s night-shift tonight?
John Spooner.
Mark Knight.
Mark Knight #2.
Mark Knight #3.
Christian Adams.
Michael Ramirez.
A.F. Branco.
Matt Margolis.
Chip Bok.
Gary Varvel.
Henry Payne.
Tom Stiglich.
Sancho Panzer
Nov 29, 2023 3:56 AM
Don’t mention MB, he might feel he is wanted and comes back.
I think he is recharging his medicine cabinet at the moment, after last night it must be depleted.
Thanks Ton.
Bok and Payne today. And they feed in to Knight.
Why keep the fear and misery in the ME when we can import it here?
Marty blog is great fun.
https://armstrongecmscam.blogspot.com/2020/08/
Sustained high level incoherence which may have involved pharmaceuticals.
Marty really does have to dial down the sycophantic tone of the fan-mail he writes to himself.
delighted innocent civilian comments about Mia Leimberg and her dog which was dognapped.
It beggars belief that film-makers have to embellish the stories of people such as Napoleon. Pretty sure he’s interesting enough without adding in total fictions about him. They really have a low opinion of the viewing public.
The big guns of both the USSR and the USA failed in Afghanistan.
Euthanasia is state intervention in death via regulations, certification of who can dispense the toxin, monitoring compliance. It requires new legislation to revise the role of medical practitioners and to regulate the relationship between doctors and relatives of a patient.
It’s not comparable to the state permitting smoking. Relatives of smokers aren’t interviewed before the smoker is permitted to purchase a packet.
Another example of Palestinian distorted reality.
Where is Kfir?
It’s a total mystery why some many young people have been supporting Hamas rapists and murderers.
NSW Teachers Federation under fire for encouraging staff to engage in political protest in support of Palestine (Sky News, 28 Nov)
It’s also a mystery how kids ever learn anything these days, when their heads are being filled with leftist political mush, woke, qwerty, black arm band rubbish and global warming propaganda.
Freeze in the dark, proles.
National Grid to pay people to stop using energy tomorrow as cold weather hits (28 Nov)
Weird how wind and solar don’t supply electricity on cold dark still nights. Those people silly enough to replace their gas heaters with electric heat pumps to save the Planet are going to be quite miserable I suspect.
What the?
Are they imagining a ute-load of Bellevue Hill Jews is going to drive over and attack the school once they get wind of it?
Fevered imaginations reframing the actual threat by Muslims to Jews in this country. They know they can be “virtuous” without repercussions.
Do they not know there is currently a ceasefire?
Where is the compassion for the hostages?
apparently they waited 37 days before bothering to rescue her.
They also posed for group photos.
I can’t believe this white helmety still gets puffed up.
Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?
Pope Punishes Cardinal Burke in 2nd Retaliation Against Conservative Critic (28 Nov)
Purge the wreckers and the splitters! I wonder where I heard of that practice being carried out before?
Israel Defense Forces
@IDF
Over the last hour, 3 explosive devices were detonated adjacent to IDF troops in 2 different locations in northern Gaza, violating the framework of the operational pause.
In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire. A number of soldiers were lightly injured during the incidents.
IDF troops were located in positions as per the framework of the operational pause.
Hamas hasn’t stopped during the “ceasefire”.
Israel has.
Corporate media coverage?
Minimal to none.
From rosie’s link:
Do these clowns even read what they write?
I presume “ceasefire” means a permanent ceasefire, as the “truce” already exists. Except that’s also a lie, because Hamas is still firing rockets into Israel.
more stories of innocent gazan civilians.
and so many angry Muslims demanding that Israeli child hostages relive their trauma in the media for Muslim viewing pleasure.
That’s a disgraceful comment.
ai cat photos now popular with gazans
Someone was complaining about historical accuracy and Napoleon. It’s a movie, not a docco.
Shame they didn’t do this for the most recent Ben Hur. Might have made it worth watching.
They cover all the “calls” to this and that ad infinitum.
But what’s actually happening…meh.
From The Oz…Van der Groper……
Labor roping in ex-Liberal ‘groper’s’ vote
David Van, who quit the Liberal Party over allegations of sexual harassment, has emerged as a potential kingmaker vote on Labor’s IR legislation.
Crossbench senator David Van, who quit the Liberal Party over allegations of sexual harassment, has emerged as a potential kingmaker vote on Labor’s industrial relations legislation after declaring he was open to talks with Tony Burke and union leaders.
After successfully negotiating a legislative deal with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek on the Murray-Darling Basin on Tuesday, the Liberal defector told The Australian: “I think people are only just starting to figure out that as an independent, my vote has some weight now.”
The Australian understands Workplace Relations Minister Mr Burke and union leaders are open to talking with Senator Van, despite senior Labor MPs condemning the 59-year-old in June over sexual harassment allegations referred by Peter Dutton to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service.
Asked about the investigation into allegations made by Greens senator Lidia Thorpe, an unnamed former Liberal MP and former Liberal minister Amanda Stoker, who claimed he groped her on the bottom, Senator Van said “it’s an ongoing and confidential process, I’m not going to talk about that at all”.
Another own goal by the Liberals. We can personally thank the frizzy blond Amanda Stoker for this, she sided with an ideological enemy and all round hysteric by the name of Lidia Thorpe against a sitting Liberal. No wonder Van is angry, now he’s siding with Labor against the Liberals. I don’t blame him for being angry. I would be too.
Calli,
that pic is great. brings back very fond memories of my miniature, Corey. I used to drive him in harness at shows and on the roads around my area. With my Foxy, Sam on the seat beside me, so much fun. I still have his gear and his little jogger. He’s been gone about 12 years now. He’s the pony I mentioned ages ago I used to cart around in my panel van along with my two dogs.
I do. Helping bad legislation get passed that is bad for Australia is despicable.
I think Lizzie’s and her friends views on Napoleon probably supports what Ridley Scott was aiming for. Entertainment over accuracy.
Damn! I quit watching after 90 minutes .. should have stayed for the entertainment ..!
There is a massive moral difference between being forced to pay a tax you don’t believe in. You stop smoking or you pay up. It’s morally irrelevant to the rest of us. We aren’t being forced to smoke to please the government and its squealing nanny anti-smokers.
The State is forcing all those who oppose VAD, whether on moral or religious grounds, to participate. Individuals or groups, doctors or care home staff. Two moral wrongs for us doesnt make it right for the rest of you.
That is precisely what the Almighty State is doing to those of us who would rather follow the actual Almighty.
I’m opposed to VAD, hope I’m never forced into making that choice for both moral and religious reasons but I’m not going to oppose those who say they want it. You have it completely arse about face when you say we aren’t being forced to participate.
There’s also the classic slippery slope argument.
See also: baby Indi Gregory in the UK. Brutal force by agents of the Sate via the NHS and the courts.
Tell me again how those poor parents had a choice.
I do. Helping bad legislation get passed that is bad for Australia is despicable.
One of the, obvious, problems gummint has with revised, re-visited industrial legislation is that gummint tends to forget who pays the bills .. if the employer/company is financially affected by new legislation it is wukkas who are discarded not the public serpent(s) who increased the costs ……..
Not when the moderates are to lazy to inform themselves or to scared to drew the line incase it may jeopardise that freedom. That line has been crossed. Vulnerable people are being nudged into doing it by fanatical creeps. We are not fare from state sponsored eugenics.
Ah…my ideal morning.
Cool and grey, light rain caught in gusting wind; then a hot shower, close shave, and fresh coffee with toast.
Sometimes the Rubik’s cube of weather, habits, and rustic epicurism match up on all sides.
Rita Panahi on the media whores:
Accidentally have my radio tuned to ALPBC here in Qld and …. shock … Adam Harvey reported these very incidents. My gob is smacked.
I will leave it to you Knuckle Dragger to link Jackie Epstein’s take on the AFLW Awards. Maybe put your own spin on it. If the heading is anything to go by, should be a doozy.
Have at it sir.
My formatting failures continue to haunt my dreams.
I need a Bex and a good lie down.
It’s impossible to describe just how far my eyeballs rolled on that little gem.
Someone yesterday, mentioned Art Gurney, who was awarded the VC at Alamein.
He was a member of the 2/48 Battalion, which was formed from SA and WA, like the original from the Great War.
It was the most decorated Battalion in the Second AIF.
Percy Gratwick, Bill Kibby and Tom Derrick were also awarded the VC from 2/48.
Gratwick and Kibby also at Alamein, Derrick at Sattleberg NG.
Gratwick and Gurney were from WA, Kibby and Derrick from SA.
Derrick’s was the only VC award from the 2/48 that was not posthumous.
In October 1992, 50 years on, the Adelaide Advertiser reprinted its front page from 1942, after the battle.
Unfortunately, Tom Derrick was killed in 1945 at Tarakan.
(Another total waste of lives, but that self aggrandising, vile prick Blamey, wanted to suck up to the imbecile MacArthur, so 500 more Australians had to die.)
Derrick’s company were adamant that he should have received the VC at Alamein as well, but his actions were not observed by an Officer, hence ineligible.
(A kiwi named Hume was awarded VC and Bar from WWII. Very rare.)
At the end of the Alamein battle, less than fifty 2/48 men answered roll call.
They were in the key position and were told to hold their ground for two days.
They held their ground for almost a week.
My mum used to play golf in a comp, with two ladies on a Tuesday. They had married brothers, Jack and Ivan Braidwood. They were both 2/48 men.
When the reprint came out, I checked the casualties.
Both were listed as wounded.
Lest we forget.
Coupla months ago I came across this Chinese retailer TEMU .. a lot like ALIEXPRESS but only deals in small stuff no whitegoods type sizes ect … it tends to sell those nick-knacks (household/garden’hobby) that you see across the net and wonder where you get them ..
Anyway the main thing they do have going for them is “free to Oz for over $15 spend” & a guaranteed 8 day delivery or $5 refund on top of your goods …
The only thing I find strange about the site is the “recommendations” that greet you on the front page ….. for some reason instead of a different range it throws up mostlt the items you have already bought …..
Worth a look if you if your a “bargain” net shopper-holic …….!
Travelogue from the Birmingham Mail, 1957.
The open threat of extreme violence.
The Seven Network has a channel, 7Mate, dedicated to shows that appeal to blokes.
It’s a great idea as blokes are a target demographic for commercially successful television.
Blokes buy stuff that TV advertisers advertise.
But 7Mate is run by idiots.
Last night, it dumped one of its most popular weekly shows – Outback Truckers — to televise a women’s cricket match that almost no-one watched (because chicks’ cricket is second-rate rubbish).
In Australian commercial TV, 7Mate is clownworld.
Albo’s pet project gets another kick on the way down to its final resting place. Daily Telegraph, Angira Bharadwaj reporting:
Seems a rather large amount of Australians want it. Who commissioned the report or survey?
Is the $5.8 million spare change from big business to the failed referendum?
What the actual phuck is this truth-telling? I’ve heard it being said the last year and still have no idea. Voices on the ground. Does that mean your average black fella in the middle of Bumphuck Idaho or the Parkins, Dodsons and Langtons?
Albo will keep quiet about any mention of Macarena or whatever it’s called until the new year rolls around. Saving his skin is Handsome Boy, one more Christmas in the Lodge.
If there is $5.8 million already set aside for this shit, take it to the bank that it’s in the pipeline.
JC
The state bans illicit drugs, arrests and jails drug sellers, but also runs “safe” injecting rooms.
The state is schizophrenic.
Without looking at it (yet), I anticipate the following topics to be covered:
Fun
Celebration
Unwarranted statues
Where’s my Lance Franklin-esque bank account?
ACL injuries
Turkey basting
A good lawyer somewhere also should be able to mount a case about the department requirements to keep personal political statements out of the classroom.
Shouldn’t need a lawyer .. this is what we pay Ho Chi Minns big bucks for .. policy leadership! .. FFS!
Sure to work.
Xi Jinping Tells Chinese Women to Get Married and Make Babies (27 Nov)
Of course if he stopped persecuting Christians they might feel freer to form families and have lots of kids, and his problem would be solved.
That should have put her in hospital with alcohol poisoning.
A woman of many talents, including immunity to alcohol and the ability to walk a straight line whilst paralytic.
What about all the “superstars” that are there (according to Fox journalists)?
Some of them are nearly as good as 11 year old boys. I guess that makes them “superstars”.
Seriously though, why does a father encourage his daughter to play such games? Zero grandkids and dozens of ACL injuries are all the rewards he can expect.
When òne side can lie and accuse with impunity.
a formal truth telling mechanism
íafuera!
It’s the elite’s fear of what Muslims might do if not mollycoddled.
Indeedy Bespoke. When these Vampire quangos are exposed to scrutiny and plebiscites they self-combust- that’s why the Lizard People want them ensconced in temples of worship.
Damp outside. I thought it wasn’t supposed to evah rain again. Or was that snow?
Perhaps audiences should also be reminded of the consequences
for the hundreds of thousands of Proto-Israelis had the Arab League
prevailed in 1948.
Our Tone Deaf RGA Governor – Note She is in Hong Kong – Obviously a Strong Supporter of Climate Change
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock says Australian households are ‘in a pretty good position’ despite 13 interest rate rises
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has made a frank admission, conceding borrowers are ‘very unhappy’ with the central bank – but are coping well with higher interest rates.
Speaking at a central bank conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Ms Bullock said the RBA’s punishing 13 rate hikes had generated considerable ‘noise’ from politicians and the community at large.
‘People are very unhappy. The cash flow channel works very quickly in Australia, and it’s very prominent,’ Ms Bullock said with reference to the number of borrowers who had transferred from fixed loans to much higher variable rates in recent months.
‘But what I’d like to highlight is despite that noise, households and businesses in Australia are actually in a pretty good position. Their balance sheets are pretty good.
Through the pandemic, they built up large savings buffers, and they’re largely still intact.
‘Housing prices are rising again, much to everyone’s surprise, so that’s sort of helping people feel a little bit more wealthy.’
Governor Bullock said as higher interest rates had begun to curb inflation, the RBA needed to be ‘a little bit careful’ to not unnecessarily restrict economic activity.
‘We want to make sure that we keep inflation under control and we bring it back down to our band,’ she said.
The central bank would ‘also need to make sure we do that in the context of not imposing on the economy too much and raising the unemployment rate’.
Later in her remarks, Ms Bullock said businesses were able to pass through higher wages and costs to consumers as aggregate demand remained robust.
While the central bank was limited in its ability to respond to soaring energy prices, insurance premiums and rents, Ms Bullock said they did generate ‘second round effects’ that the RBA needed to respond to.
‘Wages haven’t got completely out of control in Australia, they’re running at about four per cent,’ she said.
‘But without any productivity growth, that’s actually resulting in a reasonable increase in unit labour costs in Australia.
‘So what I think we’re starting to observe is second-round effects of some of these costs. Businesses are finding that demand is sufficient and that they are able to pass those costs.’
The RBA board will convene for its final meeting of the year on December 5, where the central bank is widely expected to hold rates steady.
However, markets are pricing a 68 per cent chance of another rate increase to 4.6 per cent by June 2024.
Comments Not Kind
The vicious royal assassination that shames even Harry and Meghan’s odious cheerleader: MAUREEN CALLAHAN – who’s read Omid Scobie’s Endgame so you don’t have to – is horrified at its unblushing cruelty
B John
I didn’t make that comment. It must have been someone else.
Megan: You have it completely arse about face when you say we aren’t being forced to participate.
Indeed. Catholic hospitals are now obliged by governments to offer VAD. Not sure about abortion. They may be holding out for now.
The idea that the state legislates VAD but then leaves us to choose is false. The little kid whose parents in the UK wanted to access treatment in Italy but were denied by the UK govt is just the most recent example.
The Toulouse-Lautrec is amazing. The paintings lately have been out of this world.
Good Lord
Maybe the AFLW girls were in mind for the article.
Reckon he was smarter than Mr Integrity , Warren. Didn’t realise he was a spiffy 99 years old though.
The common sense majority is being cowed into silence by activist zealots
Small groups are being allowed to impose their views on green policy and identity politics on all of us
PHILIP JOHNSTON
Last winter there was misery in the Alps. A shortage of snow led to predictions of a disaster under such headlines as “Is this the end of skiing?”
They were accompanied by photographs of thin strips of artificial snow on slopes usually buried under feet of the white stuff. Over the New Year, parts of north-west Switzerland recorded temperatures close to 20C.
The BBC reported: “Many resorts are aware that they only have two options: close or adapt their business model to cope with mounting climate threats.”
Well, this year the northern Alps have more pre-season pistes open than at any time in recent history after days of heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures.
The point of this story is not to deny that there is a global warming trend, but not to confuse weather with climate.
Nowadays, every storm, blizzard, flood, dry spell, forest fire or deluge is attributed to climate change.
This means it is often hard to discern a long-term change from a short-term event. When fires in parts of the world where they have been commonplace for centuries – and are key to plant growth – are said to be solely the consequence of warming, people are being deliberately misled. This apparent inability to distinguish between the vagaries of the weather and climate change does not help in the debate about what to do about it.
Neither, in truth, do the annual jamborees organised by the UN for the past quarter of a century and whose latest iteration starts in Dubai tomorrow. Most people would regard a refusal to see every unusual weather event as a symptom of global warming as common sense. It is possible to acknowledge long-term trends without seeing normal autumn gales and winter storms in the context of climate change.
But the zealots think differently. A group called Climate Genocide Act Now, which is linked to Extinction Rebellion, is planning legal action against this newspaper for what it calls misleading and inadequate coverage of climate change. It wants the case heard, believe it or not, in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and says it has a professional legal opinion noting that policies causing climate change can be prosecuted as crimes against humanity.
This includes questioning the cost of getting to net zero, challenging the timetable for introducing electric cars and reporting on the difficulties of installing heat pumps. The failure to connect weather events like the recent Storm Ciaran to the broader narrative of climate change is another point of criticism, as are adverts encouraging people to take a foreign holiday.
“We’re planning to get a dossier of evidence covering six months, and submit a case to the International Criminal Court to say that this is evidence of incitement of crimes against humanity. We think we’ve got a chance of getting there,” the group’s leader said. At least it will be good work for the lawyers.
This is clearly a tiny group of fanatics, and yet such people increasingly wield an inordinate amount of influence in many walks of life, not least the arts world. Ahead of the COP 28 conference in Dubai, the actress Olivia Colman is appearing in a campaign video dressed up as a latex-clad oil executive, criticising the relationship between pension funds and the fossil fuel industry.
“The cash from your pensions has helped us dig, drill and destroy more of the planet than ever before. We’ve even managed to build a few little wind turbines to keep Greta and her chums happy,” she says. “Every little drop from your precious nest egg adds up, so while the global temperature may go up a teensy, weensy degree or two our profits are literally soaring.”
When it comes to misrepresentation, there is quite a lot in that statement. We have built more than a “few little wind turbines” and we need oil and gas to keep the lights on, so either we import it or extract it from our own territory. Our pension funds need to be profitable to sustain an ageing population. But I suppose these considerations don’t matter to the eco-fanatics, not least when the Bank of England itself has a specific climate change remit.
We give too much credence to these small but very vocal campaign groups. One of the most potent is Stonewall, which seems to have managed to bludgeon the public and corporate sectors into spending vast sums to conform to its demands for diversity and inclusivity. Most major companies employ people whose only (well-paid) job is to impose a particular ideology on its workforce.
The NHS, struggling to clear a record backlog of cases, employs hundreds of diversity officers while many businesses covet Stonewall’s imprimatur as a diversity champion. Schools and colleges still seem to be enrolled on Stonewall programmes to promote transgender inclusion. But its reach is wider still. Yesterday, we reported how the UK’s human rights watchdog, the EHRC, could be blacklisted by the UN apparently after Stonewall objected to the way the organisation defended biological sex.
Why do we allow these pressure groups so much influence?
The guilt generated by Black Lives Matter, an anti-capitalist movement that wanted to dismantle the police, has caused normally rational people to hand over their life savings to atone for their family involvement in slavery hundreds of years ago.
Universities ban speakers because they refuse to say a man can menstruate; the police arrest preachers for saying something disobliging about Pride marches; teachers are unwilling to tell parents that their eight-year-old boy wants to be a girl; and we are accused of genocide because we point out the cost of heat pumps.
It is telling that these pressure groups never take their climate change campaign on to the streets of Beijing or protest for trans rights in Jeddah or demand reparations for slavery from the oil-rich Arab nations.
They target the West because it provides them the latitude to make a very nice living from their insidious social engineering while the majority is cowed into silence.
I hesitate to say this, but there is a small chance it might snow here in the next few days, which is unusual this early in the winter though hardly unprecedented.
That’s another offence to be taken into consideration by the ICC in The Hague.
Rufus
That would have been Charles Durham.
Now we learn which governments stand up for their own people and which are outright traitors.
New Zealand Government will inform WHO it does not agree to International Health Regulations amendments
Slovakia will not be entering into any international pandemic agreements with WHO, Prime Minister says
Estonia notifies WHO that it rejects the Pandemic Treaty and amendments to International Health Regulations
And what of Australia? Have we already acceded? If not, I’m sure we will.
RBA governor Bullock in Hong Kong claiming Australian household balance sheets are “doing pretty well.”
Mmm…as in asset rich, cash poor?
‘Outback Truckers’ is great. Genius idea. Great camerawork.
Though there’s always rain up ahead on the horizon and ‘if we don’t get this load to the drop off and pick up the refill we could be in strife.’
And the thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands – I have never seen a number) of Jews expelled from the Muslim majority nations of MENA in 1948 and following years.
Let alone those murdered in the process.
Let’s have some real “truth telling”.
Big Australian not investing in Australia? Terry McCrann:
Government, get out of the way.
only elect the compromised
new adventures in tinfoil cattery: one gato’s theory on maintaining control of your political party
Charles Upham, V.C. and bar.
On occasion he would write letters to the editor in Australian newspapers. Brief, to the point, & usually correcting some correspondent or j’ismist on returned service matters, or WWII history.
The tagline, Charles Upham V.C. and bar (of some place in NZ) used to really stand out. One had the feeling that regardless of the pile of mail received at the newspaper, letters from double VC recipients, well, got read. And almost certainly printed.
Bruce O’Nuke:
Your comment about SF – I cut my teeth on SF and the person who said anyone who tries to predict the future will find it already discussed in an SF novel somewhere, certainly got it right.
I had the misfortune to read a couple of novels recently that were written by someone who was an ardent believer in Woke and multiculturalism and peaceful outcomes for everyone if only they had listened to each other. I read it all, waiting for the moment everyone woke up to reality and realised they had to fight the alien invaders – but it never happened and instead the protagonist managed to do a treaty that was entirely in favour of the aliens but brought about peace anyway.
What drivel.
So, Woke propaganda is entering the SF realm?
His surname led to the well deserved nickname among NZ farmers (he was one) & presumably most NZers, of “Up ’em and at ’em”
Jeff Bezos’ Koru sailing yacht has finally arrived in the US, and it’s so enormous that it did not fit next to other superyachts at the Port of Everglades. The $500 million vessel was finally docked next to gigantic oil tankers at the South Florida seaport.
Sorry, rushing to catch up with the overnight traffic, must have mixed it up!
Catturd ™
@catturd2
Reminder …
A Republican House and Senate majority wouldn’t give Trump 4 billion dollars for the Wall – but they have no problem giving Ukraine over $100 billon without blinking an eye.
Reason #45,907 I’m done with both parties. They both hate their voters.
Tucker Carlson
@TuckerCarlson
Ep. 41 Dublin in flames. What’s happening in Ireland will happen here, at scale. Steve Bannon explains.
This is typical Pali deflection, making them the victims and not the babies, children, women and many others they butchered and tortured to death on October 7th.
Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives
@dom_lucre
BREAKING NEWS: Elon Musk just shared an article referring to an ABC news host being arrested for child porn. He also shared this meme about Pizza Gate.
Oh, Praise be! The ugliest of the SATC sheilas is going to go on a hunger strike to demand Biden organise a ceasefire.
She’s only going to do it for two days though. It’s a five day hunger strike and Nixon and other assorted creeps will be taking turns. What bravery, what commitment!
Aaarrggh. That would be Charles Upham.
I blame either spellwreck or lack of coffee.
It was also the top-rating show on the network multi-channels last week.
So the geniuses at 7Mate dumped it for a chicks cricket match watched by almost no-one.
All because the 7 Network has the cricket rights and has to carry chicks cricket, which has virtually zero audience and is inflicting serious commercial damage on the network.
The big problem with blaming Boomers for everything that’s wrong with the world
A comedian’s rant about Boomers is still resonating today as a generational war rages on – but experts say there’s a big problem with the argument.
A few years ago, popular comedian Tom Ballard took to the stage at Melbourne Comedy Festival and asked the audience: “When the f*** are Baby Boomers going to die?”
While particularly pointed, the comic’s act of ‘Boomer blame’ is nothing new. A generational war has been waged for years now.
Earlier this year, youth website BuzzFeed ran a story titled “11 Things Baby Boomers Destroyed” that ascribed blame for everything from the economy to education investment and irreversible environmental damage that “has screwed future generations long after they are dead”.
And a growing cohort of younger political activists are pointing to the vast wealth of older Aussies as a sign the system is rigged.
Noted intellectualist, author and academic Clive Hamilton – a proud Boomer – said a “rich-poor divide is being blamed on an old-young divide and it’s just plain wrong”.
The Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Charles Sturt is alarmed by the increasingly “spiteful” tone of the Boomer blame game.
“Increased pressures in terms of housing and cost-of-living certainly makes the situations of younger people, particularly those less well-off, very acute,” Professor Hamilton said.
“There’s no denying that young people face serious difficulties. It’s just that it’s not Boomers who are to blame.”
The ‘gimme’ generation that wasn’t
In making their cases, some younger generations point to the apparent perks received by Baby Boomers when they were growing up.
Free university, for example, is dreamt about by those racking up huge HECS debts for their degrees, but Professor Hamilton pointed out that fewer than 10 per cent of Boomers benefited.
That’s because the vast majority of Boomers left school and went into trades – often gruelling physical occupations that didn’t pay salaries.
In 1966, tradespeople accounted for 21 per cent of the total workforce, while machinery operators and heavy vehicle drivers made up another 11 per cent. These days, those occupations account for 14 per cent and six per cent respectively.
Peter Abelson, an economist at the Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University, said younger Aussies are enjoying “arguably more pleasant working conditions”.
“There has been a major shift from blue-collar to white collar work,” Mr Abelson wrote in an article for The Conversation.
“The share of the workforce employed in generally less physically demanding professional jobs has doubled, while the share employed in personal service jobs nearly tripled.”
Professor Hamilton said the myth that Boomers are hoarding huge amounts of money ignores the fact that the country is set to undergo a historic transfer of wealth.
Demographer Mark McCrindle said those aged 55 and older have a combined $2.8 trillion and over the coming two decades, this will exceed $3 trillion – most of which will be passed on.
“Therefore, the decades ahead will see the biggest intergenerational wealth transfer in Australia’s history and many of the younger generations will be the main beneficiaries,” Mr McCrindle said.
Headline figures like that ignore the fact a significant cohort of Boomers don’t remotely reflect the “rich, smug, self-satisfied and selfish” characterisation that’s often made, Professor Hamilton said.
“A lot of Boomers out there are really struggling, and they always have. They didn’t go to university, they’ve never had well-paying jobs, if they were women, they were often out of the labour market, they have minimal or no super, and they’re going to be reliant on the age pension.
“There’s a hell of a lot of them. We’re talking about roughly half of the generation. To characterise them in the way some people do is actually really offensive.”
Ways young Aussies have it better
Over time, the growth in net disposable income per capita has meant that Millennials are about 51 per cent better off than Generation X was at their age, and 91 per cent better off than Boomers.
For example, young Australians are more educated than other generations in the past and thus have greater earning potential.
The proportion of men with a tertiary degree between 1975 and 2016 leapt from less than four per cent to 20 per cent, while for women is grew from two per cent to 24 per cent.
“Women are much more likely to be in paid employment than 40 years ago,” Mr Abelson added.
And a report on Household, Income and Labour Dynamics found being highly educated is likely to lead to higher levels of wellbeing, healthy behaviours, and social engagement.
Younger Aussies are also healthier and living much longer, with the extra years of life enjoyed by men who hit 65 surging from 12.3 years for a Boomer to 19.6 years for a Millennial, and for women who hit 65 from 15 years for Boomers to 19.6 years.
“And those figures are likely to understate how much better off their standard of living is,” Mr Abelson said.
“The quality and range of goods and services from food to cars to healthcare to computers to mobile phones with cameras has improved in ways figures can’t capture. Many didn’t exist in the 1970s.”
For example, young Australians are more educated than other generations in the past and thus have greater earning potential.
The proportion of men with a tertiary degree between 1975 and 2016 leapt from less than four per cent to 20 per cent, while for women is grew from two per cent to 24 per cent.
“Women are much more likely to be in paid employment than 40 years ago,” Mr Abelson added.
And a report on Household, Income and Labour Dynamics found being highly educated is likely to lead to higher levels of wellbeing, healthy behaviours, and social engagement.
Younger Aussies are also healthier and living much longer, with the extra years of life enjoyed by men who hit 65 surging from 12.3 years for a Boomer to 19.6 years for a Millennial, and for women who hit 65 from 15 years for Boomers to 19.6 years.
A piece of good news for a change. The girl has a damn good head on her shoulders.
The bus driver is toast, and rightly so.
Rosie’s link deserves another posting.
Israel Must Crush Palestinian Hopes
PS, re Upham.
He was awarded his first VC for actions in Crete in 1941. He was captured during the July engagements of First Alamein, and ended the war in Colditz.
When he was released, an officer congratulated him on his VC. Upham thought the congratulations were for the first VC, and was then informed about his second VC, of which he had been unaware.
Jeff Bezos’ Koru sailing yacht has finally arrived in the US, and it’s so enormous that it did not fit next to other superyachts at the Port of Everglades. The $500 million vessel was finally docked next to gigantic oil tankers at the South Florida seaport.
Ugly looking boat! .. Not into yachts but if I had that sort of money I’d want a boat that leaves an impression on the eyes not something that reminds me of an old Sydney ferry (green ones) with added masts …… LOL!
For the girls.
That was me. My Dad was in 2/24 at the same battle in Tel-el-Aisa where Stan Gurney was killed in the action that won him the VC. I have a cassette tape (remember them?) which I must digitise of my Dad recounting the capture of a German gun in that action. He went on to PNG after El Alamein as well.
One of my life’s great privileges was to spend a hot, dry day at El Alamein wandering through the museum and the stark, sun-baked cemetery. The only break from the harsh desert tones was the purple bougainvillea sprawling across and between the gravestones.
A true stoic, Dad was nearing the end of his life when the effects of war began to leak through. It’s hard to listen these days to his voice breaking during his recounting of the events he experienced on that tape
An interesting footnote is that my FIL, a 5 foot 4 inch Sicilian had been sent to join an Alpini brigade in the north, a brainwave of Il Duce who wanted to unite the South and North Italians in a forlorn attempt to break down their common suspicions of each other. He fought for the opposition in the same battles as my dad. There has been many family jokes about that over the years.
Despite their poor fighting reputation the Italians actually did an heroic job in the desert given the severe limitations they endiured. A stone monument on the road between Alexandria and El Alamein has the inscription with the Alpini soldiers that translated says “We were without luck, but not without valour.”
Lest we forget indeed.
My…as government stuff ups go, Clare O’Neill has excelled.
Ably assisted by the Solicitor-General, it would seem.
After the end of the Second World War, Upham was asked what his plans were for the future. He indicated a desire to take up farming. Popular subscription raised several thousand ponds for the purchase of a farm. Upham said he would apply for a “repatriation” block, and asked that the money be passed on to welfare funds, for the education of fatherless children.
Euthanasia needs neither affirmative nor proscriptive legislation. Common law has dealt with difficult issues like this for centuries. “Self defence” for example, has many of the same characteristics – not punishing the taking of a life because of the surrounding circumstances. This is not a case for black letter law.
ABC RN AM doing their bit for the narrative this morning.
I had to turn it off.
Black Ball
The most self confident generation ever. Aren’t they going to find their very first setback a challenge.
Put this up at end of old fred. I’m interested in what others think.
Here’s an extract from Hanania’s article linked by Rosie yesterday, that Roger said he would read later. I’ve just read it and drawing on other realpolitik in recent times, (let alone in the wars and massacres of Napoleonic times as Europe reconfigured, for which see ‘Europe Since Napoleon’ by David Thomson) he asks if the Two-State Solution should be made dead in the water? Should Israel get tougher and make it clear that Palestine has no future in Gaza? Is it true that nothing much will change unless the Pallies lose hope for their hatreds and does that automatically mean that Israel crushes them, in mind and spirit under Israeli rule, or wholly, by ousting them? I am conflicted here, what about other Cats? Do fading twentieth century (eg Japan) and early millennial analogies and calculations (eg Syria, Uyghurs in China) still apply? Or has the internet changed public access to perceptions too much for that?
He’s already envisaged that a Hamas revival would mean the slow death of Israel as a power, as economic decline and Jewish population drift out would occur. So time to be a Hawk, or not? I incline to the destruction of Hamas with pacification of the Gaza population with the help of Abraham Accord Islamics, which Hanania would regard as too weak.
AFR Publishes Full Letter (Link to michealsmithnews where you can read full letter)
Opinion
Dear STC, so long, and thanks for all the plays
Readers’ letters about Sydney Theatre Company actors’ pro-Palestine protest and the abandonment of Jews by the progressive left; the Coalition’s climate policies; Gina Rinehart’s politics and Bob Brown.
Dear STC,
I am 54 years old. I have been a patron, subscriber, supporter and fellow traveller of the Sydney Theatre Company for over 35 years.
My parents have been subscribers for my whole life. And my grandparents – all survivors of the Holocaust and refugees who came to Sydney to rebuild lives – were long-time subscribers to the STC and the Australian Opera and Sydney Symphony.
(Still on my to do list, Lizzie.)
Fun and celebration at the AWFUL awards is about how we can’t beat U15 schoolboys but get paid as well.
NSW drug law overhaul would allow six marijuana plants for personal use
Law being introduced to NSW parliament would allow adults to give pot to their friends as long as it is not sold
Growing up, our nearest neighbour a few kms away had been in the 2/24 then transferred over to 2/48. Can’t vouch for any of this but we understood he’d been at Tobruk then came back to PNG and the track/ trail.(some dispute about the correct term).
He had a close mate who worked in the Whyalla shipyards. Story was mates life was saved by neighbour at Tobruk. A nearby shell burst during one engagement partly disembowelled him but as he was lying on the ground they (how to describe this ?) repacked his insides and he recovered later. There was always a get together every year. Very close bond.
How was this measured given she didn’t seek medical attention? Did her boss have a breathalyser in the same cupboard as the free grog? Or does Parliament Hoyse security give you a blood test on your way out? Was it an educated guess from the cabbie/Uber driver that drove her sorry, drunk carcass home?
So many questions. Applying the Judge Judy rule: if something doesn’t make sense it’s most certainly a lie.
You could eliminate every Hamas operative in Gaza now and it won’t stop the millions of children and toddlers alive now from growing up to be terrorists. Or the tens of thousands of Palestinians in utero.
With the Palestinians in Gaza and many outside , when it comes to Israel you are not dealing with rational people.
Black Ball at 8:29.
The same survey “found” that 42% of voters were locked into Yes, with very few locked into No, and a yuuuge undecided lump in the middle.
Strange that the AEC survey with a sample size of 17,000,000 could only scrape up a 40% Yes vote.
The only worthwhile academic study out of this one looking into ANU’s sampling techniques.
You’d think the teachers would know that in 1948 there were no such people as the Palestinians.
Bell tolls for generations of students left behind
Money pumped into school education over nearly 20 years has led only to Australian students continuing to slide down the international rankings. Will the revised national curriculum make a difference?
Jennifer Hewett – Columnist
How many more generations of school children will become fodder in pursuit of failed education policy and practice?
The report this week into Australia’s national science curriculum is even more depressing given it recounts such a familiar litany of errors.
Even so, the authors at the Learning First education consultancy were shocked by the extent of the discrepancy between the “shallow and narrow” national curriculum available to Australian science teachers and students and that used in other much higher-performing countries.
It’s more evidence that the efforts of the Australian Curriculum, Reporting and Assessment Authority (ACARA) to develop and introduce a national curriculum from 2010 has attracted some of the worst features of Australia’s federal structure.
Ironically, the idea of a national curriculum came from an attempt by the Howard government to improve and standardise teaching of school subjects – with leeway given to states to adapt the basic model for local circumstances.
But given the need to finalise agreements between different state systems and governments, the national answer seemed to be to apply the lowest common denominator to produce worse outcomes for the majority.
One result is that Australian 15-year-old science students are now a year behind where their peers were in 2009.
No doubt the introduction of the new national curriculum was far from the only factor, but it was clearly a major influence.
And no one should pretend the dismal results are limited to the study of science or, more broadly, to a small tail of students or those from low socioeconomic backgrounds who are being left behind.
Of course, there will always be outstanding students and teachers who excel in any school.
Individual principals can also make a huge difference.
We should all celebrate that.
But this success should not be despite an education system or a national curriculum that leaves so many teachers and students woefully unprepared for what’s needed.
Yet, there’s little accountability or signs of imminent and dramatic improvement despite reviews being ordered regularly – including another into school education by a new federal Education Minister Jason Clare.
ACARA, for example, insists its national curriculum is “world class”.
But the Australian Education Research Organisation that advises the country’s education ministers believes a supposedly simpler and clearer national curriculum now being rolled out still “does not provide sufficient guidance to teachers and should contain more specific detail about the knowledge students are expected to attain”.
Teachers, the organisation says, should not be required “to locate or invent their own curriculum resource materials”.
This lack of adequate material easily available goes well beyond the stubborn resistance of many education faculties and state systems over decades to the clear benefits of teaching phonics being fundamental to ensuring literacy for all students.
That battle has only now largely been won in Australia – but the costs of delay are high and lasting for many of those who are now young adults.
Certainly, the substantial amounts of additional money pumped into school education over nearly 20 years has not produced any results other than Australian students continuing to slide down the international rankings.
If the Albanese government were to accede to the latest advertising campaign demanding it give more money to public schools, it would not make any difference to results unless there’s substantive change in the approach to teacher education and to the curriculum.
Badly short-changed
Instead, Australian school students and teachers have been badly short-changed – not in terms of funding but in terms of quality teaching standards and learning.
The results are not just evident in consistently sliding international rankings.
The head of the Australian Industry Group, Innes Willox, laments the common problem in the workforce of school leavers unable to follow instructions or to communicate properly.
Universities are only beginning to concede, for example, that most of their student teachers are not taught enough of the basics of teaching literacy and numeracy – nor the practical techniques for controlling a classroom and maintaining student attention.
Some schools are even rediscovering the benefits of placing desks in rows where students can see the teacher and focus more on teacher-led learning rather than having lessons being “student-led”.
The ability for students to work in groups, to develop critical thinking skills and to explore new areas themselves is obviously important.
But this must come from a secure base of knowing how to learn from teachers with the experience to get the best out of their lessons and their students.
That is often not the case, especially for new teachers who have gone through their university courses with remarkably little practical classroom time, or individual mentoring once graduated.
The report into the national science curriculum from foundation years to year 10 is therefore just one aspect of a more general failing.
But its detailed analysis is damning.
Ben Jensen, chief executive of Learning First and a long-time advocate of education reform, says science was the first subject chosen for benchmarking because the content is more easily comparable across international systems.
He argues bluntly it is clear the research on quality curriculum was not followed, that the breadth and depth of learning was not ensured and that mapping to ensure quality sequencing was not undertaken.
Variations by the states mean NSW has improved on the national curriculum to be closer to international standards while Victoria has actually further reduced what is covered.
The hard evidence reveals the hollowness of rhetoric about the importance of emphasising STEM subjects in creating a highly educated Australian workforce ready for the new demands of advanced manufacturing, sophisticated applications and the digital world.
State and federal politicians have approved the revised national curriculum for another several years.
Is the school bell ringing loudly enough yet?
Linking a couple of topics from recent days…
I’ve been reading Gunther Rothenberg’s The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon which I found in a second-hand bookshop – very enjoyable and informative and, it seems, the definitive modern book on the subject.
I dug up the author’s biography as I’d not heard of him before; some excerpts follow:
Wiki
What a mensch! (as the Americans would say)
Meanwhile In America!
Night of the Living Ed: Zombie Public Schools, Drained of Pandemic Lifeblood, Haunt the Land
By Vince Bielski, RealClearInvestigations
November 28, 2023
Call them “zombie” schools.
A significant but unknown number of public schools across the U.S., particularly in big cities, have lost so many students in the last half-decade that many of their classrooms sit empty.
Gone is the loud clatter of students bursting through crowded hallways and slamming lockers.
The harm from these half-empty schools is inflicted directly on all students in a district.
Without enough per-pupil state funding to cover their costs, they require financial subsidies to remain open, forcing district-wide cutbacks in academic programs.
“I visited one school that takes up an entire city block but there were only five classrooms used, plus a library, a computer room, and an afterschool room,” said Sam Davis, a member of the Board of Education in Oakland, California. “As our budget officer said, if you don’t have enough students for two teams to play kickball, there are a lot of other academic activities that are not going to be sustainable either.”
But nothing in public education is more controversial and difficult than closing a neighborhood school.
The protests that recently flared up in cities like Oakland and Denver over proposals to shut low-enrollment schools, which also tend to be the worst academic performers in districts, are just a prelude of the reckoning to come, according to interviews with school leaders, researchers, educators, and charter officials.
They are about normalising lesbian ‘marriage’
The Palestinians have had their own State since 1947. It’s called “Jordan.”
The AFR View
Policy drift hitting PM in the polls
The prime minister, who initially talked confidently of two terms in office to do things and of “changing the way politics operates in this country”, can no longer be sure of his grip.
Nineteen months later and with no big goals or purpose to hang onto, the Albanese government has arrived at the same drift that it once accused its Coalition predecessors of.
The momentum of winning office in May last year has long gone.
The prime minister, who talked confidently then of two terms in office to do things and “changing the way politics operates in this country”, cannot be sure of his grip just halfway through his first term.
The electorate senses it, and the malaise is hitting the polling numbers, which further undermine the Albanese government’s authority to argue and push for policy changes – if it had any to make.
A polling slump will only mean more bad decisions.
The one policy the government has pursued with real alacrity has been paying its dues to the trade union movement, with tranches of industrial relations legislation to restore union bargaining muscle, and by encouraging wage increases by diktat of the Fair Work Commission, not soundly based in productivity gains.
That has been little help with the government’s biggest problem of managing inflation, which has become a home-grown tax on everything and amplifies all other political discontents.
Culture war distraction
The government has had to deal with two socially divisive events this year: the mishandled Voice referendum, which it could have avoided, and the worst conflict in the Middle East in decades, which it can do little about.
The government was also left unprepared and guessing by a High Court decision on the release from immigration detention of former convicts who cannot be deported.
Some can now be returned to detention, but it wasn’t difficult to conflate migration, crime and national security in the public mind.
And the causes of the Voice and Palestine have become tangled up in the local culture and social media wars which fascinate a certain class of Australians, but which are a maddening distraction for far more voters for whom the pain of inflation and the rising cost of living is very real, and who feel they should be the focus of the government’s time.
In January, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was busy publishing a lofty 6000-word essay on “values-based capitalism”, which dressed up old-fashioned government interventionism in inclusive language.
It junked Labor’s Hawke-Keating legacy that put productivity and incentive at the centre of economic policy – and which will ultimately be the only cure for this current outbreak of inflation.
Yet by June, after 11 cash rate rises with Labor in office, Dr Chalmers put Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe on the spot to explain to the nation why inflation was so high.
The government has already had to scrap infrastructure spending that it has no chance of delivering effectively.
Pumping up demand with easy central bank money was a mistake. But if the economy has been running out of capacity to meet demand even with near full employment and rebounding migrant arrivals, then the best fix now should be obvious.
But both Labor and the previous Morrison, Turnbull and Abbott governments have refused to adopt the productivity agenda spelled out for years by both the Reserve Bank and the Productivity Commission, where Dr Chalmers has also recently changed the leadership.
Inflated commodity export prices and income tax bracket creep will deliver Dr Chalmers another revenue boost in next month’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, and pressure from lobby groups to spend on cost-of-living relief or for gestures such as cutting fuel excise that won’t really help.
The government has already had to scrap infrastructure spending that it has no chance of delivering effectively, underscoring that it cannot spend its way out of inflation.
It may soon reveal how it will deal with the unsustainable NDIS, which is sinking the government’s claim that care policy is somehow a growth policy that will pay for itself.
After the success of legislating carbon emission reduction targets, Labor Energy Minister Blackout Chris Bowen has to revert to more interventionist government direction at an open-ended cost to deliver the required investment in large-scale renewables.
Politics has become about governments promising to spend more and more on various social complaints while intervening more in a market economy that is expected to pay for it all.
It is when an activist tells you what the truth is going to be from now on, and if you disagree it is no longer ‘ignorance’ but malice which invites public humiliation, fines, and possible persecution because it makes some people feel ‘unsafe’.
The old idea of truth – that it is consistent with facts, and facts consistent with evidence – is outmoded white patriarchal stuff (like saying 2+2=4). If a truth does not advance the cause one of them is wrong. You guessed it, it is truth that has to go.
With all the Thread talk about Women’s Sport, I give you!!!!!!!!
Hilarious!!!! – Lady Ballers | Official Trailer – 2 mins 54 Secs
A ‘momentum’ that was largely the invention of the media.
Buckle up, Buckeroos.
The SR-72 is real.
Recent hints that Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division may have already delivered an advanced new spy plane to the United States Air Force have prompted a resurgence in speculation about a secretive aircraft known to many as the SR-72.
we dont need him
got our own polymath right here
would beat the shit out of those omaha mongs
Yeah. Just look at the recent history. Hamas. Islamic Jihad. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (yes they’re still around). Hezbollah. Fatah/PLO. Then you get all the upstarts like ISIS, Al Qaeda and a whole alphabet of various other Al thisses and thats.
Extirpating Hamas is just a temporary pruning of the lantana. However it’s also clear from history that you can cow muslims sufficiently that they go into a sort of torpor for a long time. That I think is what Israel has a chance of doing, and the Abraham Accords suggest that is underlaying the lack of will from the neighbouring states for more biff.
Unfortunately Biden, because he is run by his staffers who are extremely hostile to Israel, is undermining Israel’s war effort increasingly badly.
Source: Biden Wants Hamas Intact, in Power After War, Pressuring *Israel* on Tactics (28 Nov)
Not really. You have to compare how the Greatest Generation bequeathed wealth to boomers to get house downpayments and so on.
Boambee John:
Blame both!
Spread the load!
If Steve can’t fix this radiator with a cowpat and some gaffer tape, he could be stranded here till the dry season – with a film crew, a caterer, five support vehicles and a helicopter.
they rub your noses in it
it is hardly different to their pronoun games
mask mandates and lockups
etc
your enemy is in yr family, yr neighbor, yr workmate, and yr grand kid’s teacher
definitely j’ismists
and increasingly it is politicians of all stripes all the way to local govt
their heads are full of gibberish and post-structuralism/intersectionality brings them what they think is perfect power
not “for” themselves … so much as power “over” you
and this is always the way in a cultural revolution
it all comes from the same place and seeks to go the same way … marxism
it isn’t that yr actually powerless
the whole point that you are seen to be powerless in so many little ways
power is capillary said Foucualt
They’re waiting for the society-wide Gestalt Moment that they are craftily pressing for
internalize it
give up
celebrate their fncking insanity
join them
… cut yr actual or rhetorical dick off
this is exactly what mUnty does when he visits
you are the “agonistic other” and without your destruction they cannot truly achieve their self-identity
yr the wind that fills their sails
and the Israel to their Palestine
they need you dickless … so that they can be restored
it is insanity
Hanana actually argues the opposite. Destroy all hope of a Palestinian state and the ferocity of resistance would start to decline, especially over the generations. Hatred needs hope as its fuel, he argues, claiming that when a population is almost entirely rabid in hatred then a big stomp on them won’t make much difference to the hatred, so why not do it? Show enormous strength and offer nothing and acceptance of reality might follow. He uses the example of the Uighur Muslims in China (while recognising the communism is a bad exchange for loss of their religion).
I think a lot depends on how other Muslim states react. They don’t always support each other, in fact they very often don’t buy in at all, as with massacres in Syria. If they did, then Jordan would be Palestine by now, and Egypt would have a Palestinian rump. Israel’s enormous military strength and a willingness to use it to destroy Palestinian hope – that’s his solution to the pure hatred that exists right now. Destroy hope. In my view, the unwillingness of other Muslim countries to get involved right now should go quite a way to putting the Pallies in their place re their hatred and hopes; except that Western useful idiots, especially in the US, won’t let that happen.
Where they’ve proven to be such trouble that the king won’t allow any more in.
He will, however, provide passports to any Palestinian who wishes to emigrate to the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, etc.
Hence the new push for the localisation of “truth-telling” rather than the imposition of a commission from above?
Israel Victory Project
Perfectly said Lizzie. Do the Japanese hate the Americans? No. As soon as it was clear they couldn’t beat the US then their individual psyches turned to how best to get on with life. Right now, Palestinians think they can win and it consumes them.
Last year the Saudis on the back of the Abraham Accords started pushing a proposal known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine. Basically a merger of the PA areas, Gaza and Jordan into a single state. It was getting a bit of quiet traction.
I suspect Hamas had this in mind when they planned the Oct 7 atrocity – as a way of derailing it. Which has been successful since the Saudis had no choice but dump all their cautious diplomacy with Israel, as their own population would put all of the House of Saud’s heads on pikes if they didn’t.
The story here is that a newborn survived 37 days in the rubble of a home destroyed by the IDF – until rescued by heroic Gazans.
Technical note: The average human can survive for a maximum of 7 to 10 days without water in cool conditions; newborns consume fluids more rapidly than adults. Rule of thumb is, without feeding, a baby can survive up to a week in reasonable conditions.
A cynic might think that, at 37 days without fluids (and looking in mint condition in the video clip), it’s almost as if Miracle Baby was planted for the media.
Some big falls around with this weather system.
“Old mate just back there tipped out 172mm” said the lady droving a large mob of cattle along the Cobb Highway between Deniliquin and Pretty Pine. Which explained the inland sea all around us.
It makes sense to us reasonable people. But where is Lehrmann’s lawyer challenging all this? I hope he hasn’t wasted his money.
Yes I know, and I’m saying he’s wrong. And, it won’t work. As I’ve said, applying reason to Pallies is a wasted effort. It is what it is.
Old Ozzie:
I’ve probably got another 10 years. Not a problem. If my sisters and brother are still alive it gets divvied up between them. If not, I’ll give it to the government to pay off the national debt, and the Gen Xers will get what I got from my parents – sod all.
Stories my Nanna Told Me.
An inconvenient truth..
20-year-old Ohio man arrested for allegedly lying about being victim of anti-Palestinian hate crime: cops
CTIL Files #1: US And UK Military Contractors Created Sweeping Plan For Global Censorship In 2018, New Documents Show
President Trump’s Latest “Motion to Compel Discovery” Exposes Foreign Interference in 2020 Election in “One of the Worst Cybersecurity Incidents in History”
The war on free speech goes global with a bombshell
Lesbianism does not seem to be conducive to good football.
First off, how the AF would she know how anyone is coping well with interest rates? She is surrounded by sycophant, tax recycling public serpents who are reassuring her…my mortgage? Nah, it’s all good, not a struggle at all.
Secondly shut up and get a clue.
They don’t live in, or ever visit, the real world where the rest of us reside.
Children.
The 12 year old boy who saw his father murdered was held in solitary confinement for 16 days before being moved to a place with other people from his kibbutz.
According to some, that isn’t torture.
They experienced horrible things while in captivity which are not being released right now out of sensitivity to the families of the hostages that are still being held
My “Burning Tesla” calendar has arrived.
*snork*
More trouble at mill.
Allegations fly in Magnis’ boardroom battery factory coup (Paywallian)
I smell an epic disaster. Gigafactories are very very expensive, and if a wannabe planet saving ASX minnow is trying to build one in New York then the mess is going to quite messy. The green bubble is looking quite Poseidonish.
Barry
Common sense prevails as it has done for centuries. We have no need for government interference in 90% of cases.
McCann via Blackball:
And not just a sulking capital strike. BHP has its Queensland coal assets on the market – Blackwater and Daunia are on the way out of the door.
Whitehaven’s acquisition price will factor in Queensland’s world-leading coal royalty – so those mines are now on the track to run out on sustaining capital only. No multi-billion-dollar pit extensions or growth in the service industries. (Actually, Whitehaven has also bought an option on the Palacechook Government being heaved out next year and replaced by a LNP Government that will wind the coal royalty back. Although they probably wouldn’t pay much for that.)
Meanwhile, BHP will take the capital released from the sale and invest it elsewhere in the global smorgasbord of mining opportunities. For them, the value loss in Queensland will be made up for by value creation somewhere else.
The Top Men who run Australia have very, very little idea of how capital decisions are actually made – and therefore, by extension, a similarly solid understanding of what the consequences of political brainfarts and tax-grabs might be.
The 37 day baby story got amplified in certain parts of the muslim msm but doesn’t seem to have gotten much coverage in the West, because somewhat obviously, it’s palliwood on stilts.
Is the purpose to show the muslim world that the Palestinian cause is righteous and allah is allowing miracles to strengthen resolve?
What then, do fake miracles tell you hamasis?
Yeah, the momentum of a dead horse being pushed across the line by the staggeringly inept, electrickery powered Green-Teal calf- dozer.* And assorted indie ratbags riding popgun.
* Not big enough to be a bull.
“Last year the Saudis on the back of the Abraham Accords started pushing a proposal known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine. Basically a merger of the PA areas, Gaza and Jordan into a single state. It was getting a bit of quiet traction.”
Bulldust. First I’ve heard of that.
This one, Katz?
Israel Must Crush Palestinian Hopes
yep
these clowns literally re-imagine whatever suits their arument
see the connection with Palestine/Makkerata/occupied territory?
wanna know the awful truth? … the real territory that you occupy that want a foothold in … is your own mind
wasn’t very long ago now that my own son with faux-concern looked me in the eye and condescending pronounced me guilty of “epistemic violence”
that’s right … I think wrong
thou shalt not commit epistemic violence
Palaszczuk’s alma mater is the LSE.
I almost expect nationalising the mines to become ALP policy before long.
Knickerless turning on the waterworks already
Superb imagery.
I was foolish enough to engage briefly with a terrorist on extwitter who doubted that gazan civilians took part in the massacre because they hadn’t seen any footage
After scoffing at video evidence I linked, I realised my error, called them what they were and muted them.
The videos I linked were mostly CCTV of civilians entering a kibbutz and then stealing motorcycles and tractors.
I’d read about one being an man on crutches, didn’t see him but did see an old man with a walking stick hurrying in to get a piece of the action.
Israel must most definitely crush Palestinian hopes.
Jorge:
I mentioned in an earlier post that the human body was a marvellous bit o’ kit that could survive some damn rough handling.
First time I participated in an operation – not as the patient – the surgeon, a wonderful old bloke by the name of Fred, a Queens Surgeon, he opens up this ladies belly and starts pulling out intestine, long lengths of it while firing questions at the Intern assisting…
“What’s going to come out next, missie?”
“Which way is it to the stomach?”
“What’s that artery there?”
“Why do the French rehydrate through rectal catheters rather than IV lines?”
The last was something he’d experienced in Vietnam, and I never was really sure if it was common practise – I know why, but not if he was pulling the poor bloody interns legs.
He also did ward rounds smoking a cigar, and you could tell the junior in the mob by the fact they carried the ash tray and tried to position it as he waved his arms around.
Cassie – It’s been regularly covered in Arutz Sheva. That’s where I read of it. Many articles since the date of the Al-Arabiya piece – which is effectively Saudi state media.
Elon’s three points were.
Kill all the terrorists.
Change the education system.
Make it possible to be prosperous.
Bibi pointed to a couple of islamic countries that are moderate suggesting change was possible, don’t remember all but he mentioned Bahrain and said Saudi Arabia was improving.
Megan:
That’s what the questions about her weight and height would have been about. BMI and 10? vodkas? then work out BAC.
Not true, Dot.
The pattern for every boomer of my aquaintance – and there were many – was get married*, rent for one year saving every available cent for a deposit on a house in one of the newer/cheaper developments. We rarely, if ever, went to restuarants or bought take-away food. Our entertainment was mainly movies or parties in our own homes.
Boomers’ parents were still establishing themselves and their households, generally on one income only. Add to that, Boomers’ families were bigger, the contraceptive Pill not available to their parents. Very few could have afforded house downpayments to four or five children.
It was the boomers children and grandchildren who were likely to be helped with house deposits.
*I knew only one couple who lived together before marrying.
Another interesting thing reading twitter posts by gazans (thanks Google translate) they hate Israel but Assad nearly as much, apparently he is still butchering civilians around Irbil.
Of course the world has stopped caring about what goes on in Syria for years.
Assad facilitates Hezbollah.
It’s complicated.
Cassie – It’s been regularly covered in Arutz Sheva. That’s where I read of it. Many articles since the date of the Al-Arabiya piece – which is effectively Saudi state media.”
Again, rubbish.