Open Thread – Wed 29 Nov 2023


At The Moulin Rouge, The Dance, Toulouse-Lautrec, 1890

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OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 11:41 am

What have they done to Who? (Dr. Who, that is.)

Dr. Who is a British institution. The sci-fi show about a benevolent alien who travels through space and time, repeatedly saving the world, originally ran on BBC from 1963 through 1989 and then was rebooted in 2005.

At its best, it’s incredibly fun and very imaginative.

At its worst, though, it’s leftwing garbage. It is, as I said, a BBC production.

When the show introduced a female iteration of Dr. Who in 2017, it seemed to have hit peak wokedom.

Wrong.

We’ve reached a new peak with a three-part special edition of Dr. Who for the show’s 60th anniversary, which completely embraces gender madness.

The male Dr. Who always had a female British-based human sidekick who traveled with him. In the last season I watched, the human sidekick was a lesbian. But still, it was always a gender-binary thing. I’m guessing that the female Dr. Who probably had both male and female sidekicks but, again, they were male and female.

In 2023, that’s insufficiently woke.

This time around, for the special three-episode 60th-anniversary edition with David Tennant, the most popular Who of all, Dr. Who has an ostensibly female/non-binary sidekick.

Even better, the biologically male actor playing that part is a “transgender” woman of color!

Apparently, they couldn’t find a qualified person who was also confined to a wheelchair.

That’s bad enough but, in one of the episodes, that same sidekick chides Dr. Who for assuming an alien being’s gender:

Salvatore, Iron Publican
November 29, 2023 11:41 am

OMG, someone has hacked the Shark Quiz on the Courier Mail website.
All the answers are wrong.

Sacrilege.

Boambee John
Boambee John
November 29, 2023 11:44 am

Barry
Nov 29, 2023 9:46 AM
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.

Leftards want euthanasia in black letter law so that it can be expanded to ever wider categories, such as angst-ridden teenagers.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 11:44 am

A MISGUIDED TRUCE

Several weeks ago, anti-Semitic demonstrations broke out around the world, calling for the destruction of Israel and for a cease fire between Israel and Gaza–i.e., an end to Israel’s counter-offensive.

The demonstrators got their wish, and so far, the cease fire is playing out as I had feared. Israel’s military momentum is gone, and Israel has lost control over the situation.

All focus now is on the hostage/prisoner exchanges. That puts Hamas in the driver’s seat, and the terrorist regime likely can drag out the cease fire almost indefinitely by dribbling out hostages a few at a time.

Having gone down this path, it is hard to see a basis on which Israel’s government can withdraw from the process.

So, despite brave assurances from some Israeli officials that the offensive will resume as soon as a brief truce is over, that eventuality is starting to look remote.

Meanwhile, U.S. support for Israel is draining away.

Joe Biden is leaning on Israel’s government not to resume its offensive and to be more sensitive to civilian casualties–a suggestion that ought better be addressed to Hamas.

Congressional Democrats are talking about conditioning ongoing aid to Israel on that country’s obeying international law.

Which, of course, it does, but the intent is clear.

A few weeks ago it seemed incredible that Hamas might remain in power in Gaza, given Israel’s fury over the satanic events of October 7. Now that appears like a real possibility.

If Israel’s offensive is suspended indefinitely, if events dwindle into a prolonged hostage for prisoner exchange in which potentially thousands of Palestinian criminals and terrorists are let go, and if Hamas (or essentially the same elements under a different name) remains in control of Gaza, it will be a searing defeat for Israel and a diabolical triumph for Hamas.

The sneak attack of October 7 will have proved a rousing success, and more attacks and more taking of hostages will be virtually guaranteed.

Worse, if Israel fails to stand up for its absolute right to defend itself, it may compromise its ultimate ability to fight for its own survival as attacks by its Islamic enemies and the Left intensify.

Perhaps this reading of the situation is too pessimistic.

Maybe the current truce will be short-lived, and Israel will get back to the business of defeating–no, destroying–its mortal enemy.

I sincerely hope so.

But at the moment, I do not like the direction in which events are moving.

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
November 29, 2023 11:44 am

always had a female British-based human sidekick
1. Lore states said femme is the Doctor’s companion, not the yankeefied “sidekick”
2. Ace was a gal

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
November 29, 2023 11:46 am

BMI and 10? vodkas? then work out BAC.

Bar might not put full measure in the vodkas !

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 11:47 am

“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 can’t see the Saudis propping up the Hashemites over themselves. Why not a bin Saud scion running the KIngdom? Not feasible in that the Hashemites would need to bow out? Okay. Why would Hamas, originating from the labs of the MB and now supported by Syria and Iran (and intimating conversion to Shia) now acquiesce to the King of Jordan?

It would be contingent on Hamas tapping out.

Now you can’t always assume people act rationally but you can assume they try but their judgements are not always sound.

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
November 29, 2023 11:47 am

3. There is no “non-binary, transgender” bullsh*t. There is only transvestitism, and English drama has a quite long-standing tradition of laughable drag.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 29, 2023 11:47 am

Again, rubbish.

Cassie – If you had followed the link you would have seen the articles on Arutz Sheva’s website. Like this one, which is the top of the list:

The Saudi Peace Plan: The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine (July 2022)

I doesn’t bother me if you disagree with the proposed plan, especially since it has pretty much been snookered by Hamas anyway, but it is a real thing.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 11:47 am

THE JIHAD ONE-TWO

The 10/7 attack, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, has revived debate on the nature of Islam.

Is it true that “Islam is peace,” as President George W. Bush said after 9/11?

Or is it basically a jihad against all non-Muslims, starting with the Jews? Fortunately, these questions have been explored in an accessible and entertaining way.

“There were half a billion Moslems in the world, right?” says screenwriter Burt Nelson. “If we had our Bible epics why couldn’t they have their Koran epics?” So Burt gets busy reading the holy book of the Muslims.

“Reams of Allah is great, Allah is one, Allah is supreme,” Nelson finds.

“And suddenly you run into, You are forbidden to take in marriage married women, except captives whom you own as slaves.

And then more Allah is great and Allah is merciful, until you come to,

Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other and because they spend their wealth upon them. Good women are obedient. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them.”

The Bungonia Bee
The Bungonia Bee
November 29, 2023 11:49 am

Graham Richardson doesn’t really change his spots.
“People like Albo, they think he’s the sort of bloke they wouldn’t mind having as a neighbour. I think he’s going to be around for the long term.”

Bespoke
Bespoke
November 29, 2023 11:49 am

Leftards want euthanasia in black letter law so that it can be expanded to ever wider categories, such as angst-ridden teenagers.

And the economic benefits to welfare getting rid of burdens.

Boambee John
Boambee John
November 29, 2023 11:49 am

Jorge

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).

Definitely not Kokoda, which was over before El Alamein started. The first engagement of the 9th Division in the SW Pacific was the landing east of Lae in September 1943, almost a year after the Kokoda Campaign ended.

Tom
Tom
November 29, 2023 11:51 am

Knickerless turning on the waterworks already

Brittany obviously thinks theatrical emoting is a tactic that works equally well on judges and juries.

She is revealing herself to Judge Michael Lee as an underhanded snake — and there will be no jury to save her in the Lehrmann defamation case.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
November 29, 2023 11:52 am

So the geniuses at 7Mate dumped it for a chicks cricket match watched by almost no-one.

This is like the wife cleaning up your shed and holding book club in there.
A sacrilege.

Alamak!
November 29, 2023 11:52 am

Truth-telling ….

Low-grade cultural conflict along the lines of Mao-era struggle sessions. A political process using physical violence and public humiliation designed to identify, isolate and blame the ‘racists’ who, naturally, should be taxed due to their wrong thinking.

Cassie of Sydney
November 29, 2023 11:53 am

There is no way the Hashemites would agree to merging Jordan with the West Bank and Gaza. That would entail absorbing millions of Palestinians who despise the Hashemite monarchy and seek its overthrow.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 11:54 am

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.

This might even be true in aggregate.

Nothing beats looking at the data. Until I looked for it, I didn’t have an empirical reference countering the economic fable about the benefits of the black plague.

What I know anecdotally is that if boomers got on the property ladder early enough in a government job they actually benefitted from negative real interest rates over many years. I would extrapolate that hundreds of thousands of mortgages were paid off in a very short time in the early 1980s.

Humans tend to make their own problems almost as fast as we solve the human condition problems. Our current industry policy is to wipe out as much primary industry as possible and quarantine as many as possible into the capitals in government sector work.

I don’t think we were as silly say in the 1950s and 1960s, despite having some bad policies then like very high income tax rates and so on.

I think the early boomers benefitted more than the mid to late boomers.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 11:57 am

It doesn’t bother me if you disagree with the proposed plan, especially since it has pretty much been snookered by Hamas anyway, but it is a real thing.

If it relied on Hamas derailing the talks and blowing themselves up (suicide by the Israeli State as the regional cop) then it would be ultra mega ancient astronaut level double 36DD chess.

Alamak!
November 29, 2023 11:58 am

I think the early boomers benefitted more than the mid to late boomers.

The wonders of QE leading to asset inflation were not generally understood then, probably not even now by most media writers and talkers.

Roger
Roger
November 29, 2023 11:59 am

I doesn’t bother me if you disagree with the proposed plan, especially since it has pretty much been snookered by Hamas anyway, but it is a real thing.

King Abdullah kiboshed it a month or so before 7 Oct.

I doubt the Hashemites would ever accede to a Saudi initiative, esp. one that involved the status of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 29, 2023 11:59 am

Dot – The background was geopolitical. In 2022 Saudi and Iran were in a quite chilly cold war – in that context it makes sense for Saudi to try to remove Iranian influence from the Palestine mess – since Iran has been backing Hamas, even though they’re supposed to be Sunni. The Yemen war was also fairly exothermic, and the Houthis had been attacking Saudi oil refineries with Iranian missiles.

Since then Saudi and Iran have decided to tamp down their rivalry a bit, and Trump was no longer around to be badass.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
November 29, 2023 12:00 pm

hzhousewife Nov 29, 2023 11:46 AM
Bar might not put full measure in the vodkas !

The actual outcome of a left-leaning govt reforming their liquor act.

It actually makes a very good series of case studies on how a govt of clueless laypersons make legislative change to achieve a certain outcome, however in practice their lack of knowledge causes the opposite outcome.

Under Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen it was technically quite difficult for a pub to gyp (short pour) a spirit drinker.
ALP threw Joh’s evil National Party out, promptly implemented changes, because “short pouring” was endemic.

A coupla few years later, the ALP premier was forced to concede that spirit pours in Qld were not as precise as under Joh, & it was now actually quite difficult to pour accurately.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 12:00 pm

If I get called up on Gallifrey, then I’m opting for K-9 and Romana II.

rosie
rosie
November 29, 2023 12:04 pm

Hamas aren’t dribbling out out hostages, they are delivering them in the numbers as required by the terms of ceasefire agreement.
They tried to swap in two elderly instead of mothers on Monday (wanted to hang on to the mother of the three year old twins!) but Israel wasn’t having any and they released the mothers.
Certainly there are eight children who should have been released before today, some might be dead and Kfir and Ariel appear to be the trump cards to protect the terror nest in the South but Israel is not weak, it’s the pounding they have given hamas thus far that has lead to the ceasefire.
I believe hamas though they could trickle out two here and there to prevent a ground invasion, when that didn’t happen they though they could engage the Idf in tunnel warfare to their advantage.
So far no good.
In fact if the numbers are accurate they have done very very badly, perhaps 60 IDF killed to somewhere between 3500 and 5000 hamasis (that might include the 1500 killed on 7 October)

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 12:04 pm

Wally Dali
Nov 29, 2023 11:47 AM

3. There is no “non-binary, transgender” bullsh*t. There is only transvestitism, and English drama has a quite long-standing tradition of laughable drag.

A Single Bucket for the Ladies?! | Upstart Crow | BBC Comedy Greats

Boambee John
Boambee John
November 29, 2023 12:06 pm

Figures
Nov 29, 2023 10:51 AM
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.

Recall the (possibly apocryphal) story of the Japanese businessman who met the US occupiers with proposals for logistical support. When asked how he knew to draw up such plans under the propaganda system that kept most Japanese ignorant of the progress of US forces towards Japan, the response was that he noticed that the glorious victories of the Imperial Forces were occurring ever closer to the Home Islands.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 12:08 pm

Inflation falls to 4.9pc as clothes, supermarket cost pressures ease

Michael Read – Economics correspondent

Falling clothes prices and an easing in supermarket cost pressures delivered an unexpectedly sharp fall in inflation last month.

Annual inflation fell to 4.9 per cent in October from 5.6 per cent in September, as price pressures for consumer goods moderate because of falling demand, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

The monthly consumer price indicator was lower than economists’ expectations of a 5.2 per cent outcome and cements the market’s view that the RBA board will almost certainly keep the cash rate on hold at 4.35 per cent at its final meeting of the year on December 5.

With markets pricing just an 11 per cent chance of a rate rise next week, Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock said on Tuesday the RBA was in a period where it had to be “a little bit careful” with further tightening.

“We want to make sure that we keep inflation under control, and we bring it back down to our band, but we also need to make sure we do that in the context of not imposing on the economy too much and raising the unemployment rate so much,” she told a high-powered gathering of central bankers in Hong Kong.

Underlying price pressures also eased in October. Excluding volatile items such as fruit, fuel and holiday travel, inflation fell to 5.1 per cent from 5.5 per cent.

Supporting the RBA’s inflation-fighting efforts is a higher Australian dollar, which has appreciated 2.2 per cent on a trade-weighted basis since the start of November because of US dollar weakness.

Expectations the US Federal Reserve is done with rate rises has pushed the Australian dollar up to US66.6¢ from US63.2¢ since the start of the month, which will put downward pressure on the cost of imports if sustained.

Economists had said a stronger-than-expected fall in inflation in October was possible, because of the over-representation of the low-inflation goods sector in the latest CPI figures.

Goods inflation has eased sharply over the past year thanks to a normalisation in supply chains and efforts by consumers to cut back on discretionary items.

Clothing and footwear prices fell by 1.5 per cent in the 12 months to October, while household furnishing price inflation was just 0.4 per cent.

Inflation also eased across most food items, except for volatile fruit and vegetable prices.

A sharp decline in petrol price inflation subtracted 0.3 percentage points from headline CPI, as the one-off increase in fuel costs caused by the reintroduction of the full petrol excise in September 2022 dropped out of the annual calculation.

Electricity prices rose 10.1 per cent in the year to October, though the increase would have been larger were it not for state and federal government bill rebates.

Falling demand and easing pressure on material costs pushed annual inflation in the cost of building a new home down to 4.7 per cent, which was well below the 21.7 per cent peak reached in July 2022.

While the RBA has had some progress taming inflation, price pressures remain intense across the labour-intensive services sector.

Rents have climbed 6.6 per cent in the past 12 months as strong demand from a surge in migrants and a lack of supply creates an acute shortage of rental properties.

The cost of insurance and financial services has jumped by 8.6 per cent over the past year, due to strong price rises across car and home insurance policies.

The RBA does not expect inflation to return to its 2 per cent-to-3 per cent target band until December 2025.

Former RBA governor Philip Lowe said on Tuesday central banks would suffer a credibility hit if they took any longer to get inflation back within their respective bands.

“Many countries now are saying that inflation won’t get back to target until the end of 2025. That’ll be four years with inflation above target … and if central banks allow that timeline to be pushed out even further into 2026, the community will rightly say, ‘Are they serious?’”

Boambee John
Boambee John
November 29, 2023 12:09 pm

Bruce of N

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.

Do a territorial swap, Gaza for the settlements on the West Bank, to give a contiguous Palestine.

Or simply pay the Gazans to move to the West Bank.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 29, 2023 12:10 pm

I suspect there would have been a lot of yummy Saudi money on the table for the proposal, since it was a Saudi proposal and that’s how they do things.

Jordan isn’t flush with cash, and has to pay for the Royal Army somehow. With security guarantees and fiscal support it looked like it might be doable. The problem of the Palis doesn’t particularly change if Jordan resumes ownership of the West Bank, since more than half the population of Jordan is already Pali. But the Black September method does require a loyal Army to be successful.

Given the demographics I don’t like the Hashemite monarchy’s chances in the long run. But who knows? Things can change overnight easily in that part of the world.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 12:14 pm

Chanticleer

Remote work, red tape and AI: Top CFOs name big risks

The country’s top financial officers believe corporate Australia is heading towards a likely economic slowdown in good shape. But there are risks ahead.

The big takeaway from Australia’s top chief financial officers at The Australian Financial Review’s CFO Live event is that corporate Australia is heading towards a likely economic slowdown in good shape.

While the rapid rise in interest rates has been the big story in capital markets in the past 18 months, Dexus CFO Keir Barnes, Virgin Australia CFO Race Strauss, Coles Group CFO Charlie Elias and Endeavour Group CFO Kate Beattie, all expressed a determination to keep investing.

That reflects the fact that corporate balance sheets remain conservatively geared, and have faced relatively little pressure as rates have risen.

Elias says a series of near-death experiences during the GFC, when he worked at BlueScope Steel, have left him with important lessons about managing through economic cycles.

“It just underscored that cash flow generative investments that return well above your cost of capital are always going to make sense, regardless [of] whether interest rates are higher or lower.”

The investments these companies are making, which have a clear focus on technology that can help reduce costs and boost productivity, will warm the heart of Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock, who calls for a lift in productivity growth at almost every public appearance. But our CFOs see other risks to productivity that need to be addressed.

Few will be surprised that Dexus CFO Barnes called for a return to the office, but her point that patent registrations in Australia have fallen to their lowest levels since the 1980s speaks to the risk that the nation’s culture of innovation is weakening.

‘Business of connection’

But it was Endeavour’s Beattie who spoke most passionately about the risks associated with remote work.

The liquor retailing and pub giant is in “the business of connection”, Beattie argued, but those connections have become harder in a post-COVID world.

She said Endeavour was working “to make sure that we continue to foster, both in our workplaces and in the way we engage our businesses, with both our team and our customers, to make sure that we’re continuing to create places and spaces for people to come together and connect.

“Because at the end of the day, that drives productivity, but more importantly, that’s what drives people’s sense of purpose in life.”

Virgin’s Strauss painted a fascinating picture of the airline’s comeback and the need to balance a huge investment program with keeping finding ways to cut costs in a market where he says the carrier’s prices are 30 per cent lower than its rivals. But Strauss wants a more even playing field.

“We love competition, we want more balanced competition … we want better competition across the aviation sector, across all aspects, because it’s not entirely balanced. That’s really what’s keeping me up at night.”

Red tape

Dexus CFO Barnes’ big worries are mainly external to the business, including the risks associated with geopolitics and the potential for a period of sustained high inflation.

But she also questioned whether Australia was doing enough on red tape. The low vacancy rates in industrial property were in part a reflection of strong demand “but a portion of that is also driven by delays in getting planning approvals or rezoning applications.

“And that’s important because that translates to higher rents, which in turn impacts businesses and their ability to invest in the future. We also see that play out in terms of the housing market.”

Streamlining approvals is vital to driving investment, she says, whether across real estate, infrastructure or housing.

Coles’ Elias agrees: anything that governments can do to lower the cost of doing business, including the removal of red tape, will help.

But Elias also sees a role for technology to help solve the country’s productivity crisis.

At Coles, that means finding ways to deploy AI to help make the supermarket giant run its business better, reduce waste and lower costs.

“The more that we can facilitate the economy through investment in technology and digital, I think it’s a real productivity enhancer.”

Frank
Frank
November 29, 2023 12:17 pm

What the actual phuck is this truth-telling?

Ancient aboriginal tradition directly translating as jihad, but with emphasis on dreamtime mysticism.

Miltonf
Miltonf
November 29, 2023 12:20 pm

My God the Bullock is an odious mediocrity. We are governed by efette trash with trash ‘degees’.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 12:20 pm

The RBA governor has copped a lashing after insisting at an overseas jaunt that Aussies were “doing fine” despite 13 interest rate hikes.

Tone deaf’: RBA governor Michele Bullock says Aussies ‘doing fine’ despite 13 rate rises

Ms Bullock took home $828,313 in base pay, bonuses, superannuation and other payments as deputy governor before she was promoted to the top job in September, according to The Guardian.

Leading pollster Kos Samaras took to X to declare Ms Bullock’s “tone deafness was off the charts”.

He told news.com.au it was “abundantly clear” the last few interest rate rises were causing serious financial pain for everyday Aussies.

He said while many older Australians are “doing fine” or even prospering, “for many younger families their personal battle with the RBA’s blunt monetary policy is akin to the sort of pain experienced by Australians in the Great Depression”.

“Only this time many get to experience this type of stress while having a job,” he added.

He urged the RBA to be more careful in its communications.

Journalist Brian Wilson reacted to the comments by revealing that another three businesses in his town were closing.

“If @RBAInfo Governor cares to venture out Canberra she might avoid the embarrassment of attributing inflation to haircuts and dentists,” he wrote.

Former South Australian senator Rex Patrick quipped the “office tower she works from is covered in ivory panels” along with a picture of the building.

Vicki
Vicki
November 29, 2023 12:22 pm

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.

Describes us perfectly.

We bought a block of land in an outer suburb & began building as soon as we had a DA & some money. In those days Councils did not take a great interest once the BA went through. As a result, we designed our house in 3 stages & moved into the first stage (garage + living room + laundry + small bathroom) as soon as it was built. That allowed us to save faster (no rent) with every cent going into building products. Not surprisingly, we ended up owning our house in record time.

Owning the house allowed us to borrow a reasonably large sum to establish our own business. But don’t tell me the interest rates were universally low in those days. Maybe for housing – but our overdraft reached 22% at one stage. Mind you, we had worked out butts off & were still making enough profit to start investing in property.

I imagine our story is not uncommon. It was helped, not by parents, but my taking risks, living frugally for many years, and working our butts off by building our house and the business. And somehow in the middle of all that, also with a small child, I completed a PhD – mind you ithe latter took 10 years.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 12:23 pm

Annual inflation fell to 4.9 per cent in October from 5.6 per cent in September, as price pressures for consumer goods moderate because of falling demand, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

doubt

She said Endeavour was working “to make sure that we continue to foster, both in our workplaces and in the way we engage our businesses, with both our team and our customers, to make sure that we’re continuing to create places and spaces for people to come together and connect.

“Because at the end of the day, that drives productivity, but more importantly, that’s what drives people’s sense of purpose in life.

Pure cap. If you’re not making things or not dealing with customers, then you are an overhead that can be reduced somehow.

Your productivity and sense of purpose in lifeis driven by your employer buying office phone privacy booths (wagie cages)?

This is madness and just chum for older Australian readers who don’t like WFH as a choice.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 12:25 pm

I haven’t looked up Bullock’s education, miltf.

Don’t trash her “degee” – she may do more reputational damage to her alma mater than we can imagine.

Sirocco
Sirocco
November 29, 2023 12:25 pm

testing

Lysander
Lysander
November 29, 2023 12:25 pm

So the geniuses at 7Mate dumped it for a chicks cricket match watched by almost no-one.

One thing I’ve noticed recently is how 7, 9 and 10 put on the worst possible re-runned reruns of shows, and lowest interest shows, at the same time as the their primetime news.

To anyone with half a brain, they’re doing this to “force” you to click onto their news channel, swallow their tripe and justify big invoices to advertisers.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 12:25 pm

Tesla superchargers are now more expensive than petrol or diesel for non-Tesla EV drivers

More Tesla supercharger sites may now be open to non-Teslas, but you will pay for the privilege of using them.

Most Tesla sites charge $0.85 per kWh – 40 per cent more than 150kW/350kW rapid charging at an Evie or Chargefox station ($0.60 per kWh).

While this still makes a 50kW charge a $42.50 exercise, as opposed to a $102.50 cost for filling a 50-litre tank with $2.05 per litre of petrol or diesel, vehicle efficiency in a touring environment can make a road trip in a non-electric car a more cost-effective option for many drivers.

Electric cars are most efficient in an urban environment where they can benefit from regular regenerative braking. On a touring cycle, efficiency is governed by driving behaviour and external environmental factors like inclines and temperature variations.

That said, an average electric vehicle will return around 20kWh/100km on a touring cycle. If the driver recharges at a Tesla site, it will cost around $17 per 100km. Even a more efficient vehicle like a Hyundai Ioniq 6 will cost $14.45 per 100km if it averages 17kWh/100km.

With 95RON petrol and diesel both about $2.05 per litre, a petrol car that averages 7.4L/100km will cost $15.17 per 100km, and a diesel car that averages 5.7L/100km will cost $11.69 per 100km.

Robert Sewell
November 29, 2023 12:25 pm

Rosie:

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.

There was, on day 1, a video of a big fat arab old bloke swishing a scimitar and demanding to know where the Jews were being held captive.
Never saw it again.

Miltonf
Miltonf
November 29, 2023 12:28 pm

Bullock is une iirc. A light weight institution if ever there was one.

Miltonf
Miltonf
November 29, 2023 12:29 pm

UNE plus LSE. Say no more.

Kneel
Kneel
November 29, 2023 12:37 pm


“teachers can proudly and safely wear Keffiyeh to work with backing of NSW Teachers Federation”.

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?”

Nah, this is the woke version of “safe”, which means we will attack anyone who diverges from the official version of what is “OK”. “Safe” means you now know what the official version of “the facts” are, and so therefore won’t make a mistake.*

Never forget that for such people your words are violence and their violence is “free speech”.

* Official facts may change without notice. If such occurs, you should immediately and without question support the new version of reality we supply, and we highly recommend you delete any social media posts referencing the “old” reality, or you might get “cancelled” and/or described as “far-right” or “alt-right” – and you don’t want that, now do you? You might end up as persona non grata at the coolest parties, and then where would you be? Exactly. Obey, pleb!

C.L.
C.L.
November 29, 2023 12:38 pm

A MISGUIDED TRUCE

Logic tells us two things. First, there is no tactical advantage for Hamas in releasing all of the hostages. Some will always be kept; and Hamas will make sure many of these are among the most vulnerable.

Second: The corollary is that at some point Israel must make the difficult decision to press on with its plan to exterminate Hamas, regardless of the hostages. If – understandably – it cannot or will not make that decision, it follows that Israel’s original goal is unachievable.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 29, 2023 12:38 pm

11m ago
Higgins ‘in denial’ in weeks after alleged rape
Ellie Dudley
Ellie Dudley

Brittany Higgins says she sent an email to Bruce Lehrmann saying she was “phoning a friend” because she was “in denial” about the alleged rape.

The court has previously been shown an email sent by Ms Higgins to Mr Lehrmann asking for his help on a work task in the days after the alleged assault.

The email opened: “Hi Bruce, I’m phoning a friend – need some help with the task Drew set me. I’m hoping to utilise your parliamentary network to get portfolio stats from whichever offices you can.”

Asked why she used the phrase “phoning a friend”, Ms Higgins said: “I don’t know.”

“I think because I needed (help), I was just trying to defuse the situation and make it seem as normal as possible,” she said.

“I was still in denial about everything and I needed help with a work thing and … I thought if maybe I appeared benign and downplayed everything that had happened and pretended that the rape never happened that, I don’t know … It was easier to email than to ever talk in person.”

Bespoke
Bespoke
November 29, 2023 12:38 pm

Moby Dick is saved!

Damon
Damon
November 29, 2023 12:38 pm

Chick cricket attracts the same audience as junior sport in general: family and friends. Nothing against it, but that’s the fact.

C.L.
C.L.
November 29, 2023 12:41 pm

Chick cricket attracts the same audience as junior sport in general: family and friends.

Also lesbians.

Don’t forget them.

Real Deal
Real Deal
November 29, 2023 12:42 pm

People like Albo, they think he’s the sort of bloke they wouldn’t mind having as a neighbour. I think he’s going to be around for the long term.

He’ll be around on the public trough whatever happens, Richo. Just like you.

As to wanting him as a neighbour, he would be the sort of neighbour who double parks across your driveway. And in response you would tip your dog poo over his fence because you dislike him that much.

C.L.
C.L.
November 29, 2023 12:44 pm

“People like Albo, they think he’s the sort of bloke they wouldn’t mind having as a neighbour. I think he’s going to be around for the long term.”

Richo was retailing Albo as ‘the neighbour who’d lend you his Victa’ two years ago on Sky. Get some new material, Graham.

JohnJJJ
JohnJJJ
November 29, 2023 12:45 pm

Dot Avatar
Dot
Nov 29, 2023 11:47 AM

(Hamas) and intimating conversion to Shia)

Woo there, where did you see that?

Bespoke
Bespoke
November 29, 2023 12:51 pm

Ever since Hamas attacked Israel at the beginning of October, some real ugliness has been exposed here in the United States. As we have examined here many times in the last several weeks, it’s pretty easy to pick a side in this conflict. Unfortunately, a disturbing number of our fellow citizens are picking the wrong side.

Robert Sewell
November 29, 2023 12:55 pm

C.L.

Nov 29, 2023 12:41 PM
Chick cricket attracts the same audience as junior sport in general: family and friends.

Also lesbians.
Don’t forget them.

How could we forget them? Just the chance would be a fine thing.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 29, 2023 12:55 pm

Court adjourns as Higgins breaks down

Brittany Higgins broke down in tears in the witness box while describing a conversation she had with her father after the alleged rape.

Ms Higgins said she remembered telling her father something “bad” had happened at work, and told him they could talk about it later.

Asked why she didn’t tell her dad exactly what happened on the night of the alleged assault, Ms Higgins began crying so hard the court could not properly hear her response.

The court took an early lunch adjournment, and will return at 2pm.

duncanm
duncanm
November 29, 2023 12:58 pm

always had a female British-based human sidekick

Nope – there have been both male and alien Dr sidekicks.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 29, 2023 12:59 pm

Cough up Fauxfax.

Court Says Media Outlets Defamed Conservative Economist, Orders Them To Pay Massive Settlement (29 Nov, via Lucianne)

An Australian judge is ordering two media outlets to pay American economist Peter Schiff more than half a million dollars for defaming him.

It’s the latest fallout in a bizarre scandal in which the IRS and the governments of five other countries joined together to target Schiff, a frequent guest on conservative media, with the “biggest tax evasion investigation in the world.”

Despite poring over every detail of a bank he ran in Puerto Rico, authorities failed to come up with a single charge. But government agents apparently leaked the existence of the investigation to the New York Times and Australian media outlets The Age and 60 Minutes, both of which are owned by Australian media giant Nine. The journalists took Schiff’s advocacy for low-tax policies as evidence that he would break existing tax law.

Half a mill seems light, perhaps a hundred mill would better deter them from lying about righties.

duncanm
duncanm
November 29, 2023 1:02 pm

Jordan didn’t want to integrate the Pali’s 1950 through 1967, why would they now?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 29, 2023 1:03 pm

Brittany Higgins broke down in tears in the witness box

Salty salty tears. I do love it when wymminses play that card.
Femme fatale training seems to’ve been completed successfully.

Boambee John
Boambee John
November 29, 2023 1:04 pm

Dot

What I know anecdotally is that if boomers got on the property ladder early enough in a government job

Not as easy to do then as now, and the high-powered jobs required a degree, something that only a (small?) minority of Boomers had.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
November 29, 2023 1:05 pm

Court adjourns as Higgins breaks down
Brittany Higgins broke down in tears in the witness box while describing [an alleged] conversation she had with her father after the alleged rape.

Fixed it.

Diogenes
Diogenes
November 29, 2023 1:08 pm

Chick cricket attracts the same audience as junior sport in general: family and friends. Nothing against it, but that’s the fact.

Had to laugh the sports presenter telling us that the awful (the correct pronunciation of AFL) women’s grand final sold out in just a few days. They are going to pack 16,000 into the stadium.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 29, 2023 1:12 pm

[AWFL] women’s grand final sold out in just a few days

What’s the chance of a nil all draw? Especially if it is raining.

Robert Sewell
November 29, 2023 1:13 pm

Boambee John
Nov 29, 2023 1:04 PM
Dot

What I know anecdotally is that if boomers got on the property ladder early enough in a government job

Not as easy to do then as now, and the high-powered jobs required a degree, something that only a (small?) minority of Boomers had.

Remember that home loans were rationed out. We moved to Qld and after a year we got one – built a 4 bed Jennings home in Chermside for $40k. That’s when Chermside was almost the bush.

rosie
rosie
November 29, 2023 1:13 pm

The corollary is that at some point Israel must make the difficult decision to press on with its plan to exterminate Hamas, regardless of the hostages.

Yes, in context though they commenced their ground invasion when only four hostages had been returned and one rescued so they have already established that they have the resolve.
If hamas stop delivering 10 live hostages a day then it’s on.
I think Israelis will want the IDF to crush hamas when hope of live hostages evaporates.
We already know at least three were murdered inside Gaza, including Noa Marciano while inside the shifa hospital, apparently with the acquiescence of hospital staff.

The Bungonia Bee
The Bungonia Bee
November 29, 2023 1:14 pm

When Ariel Sharon gave the Palis Gaza in 2006/7, it was a chance for them to show that they deserved a state of their own.
They blew it big time. Again and again. This last effort is the last nail in the coffin of Pali dreams. There’s no way they deserve a state of their own, certainly not anywhere near Israel.

Zafiro
Zafiro
November 29, 2023 1:15 pm

Chick cricket attracts the same audience as junior sport in general: family and friends. Nothing against it, but that’s the fact.

https://www.mcg.org.au/whats-on/latest-news/2020/march/records-tumble-as-australia-claims-icc-womens-t20-world-cup MCG 2019

lotocoti
lotocoti
November 29, 2023 1:16 pm

Elbow is apologising for a Kraut drug marketed by a Pommy pharmaceutical company.

The Bungonia Bee
The Bungonia Bee
November 29, 2023 1:18 pm

The resentment towards the boomers is chronic and unbecoming.

JMH
JMH
November 29, 2023 1:19 pm

Tom:

She is revealing herself to Judge Michael Lee as an underhanded snake — and there will be no jury to save her in the Lehrmann defamation case.

I’ve been mightily impressed as to how good her memory has been with regard to recalling small details of the event if, as she has testified, was so shitfaced she couldn’t stand up straight. I can’t wait for Lehrmann’s Counsel to get stuck into her. The Court better have a pallet of Kleenex out the back!!

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
November 29, 2023 1:22 pm

Been out and about this morning and on the 12pm news comes Albo apologising for thalidomide. WTF, he think this distraction squirrel will draw us away from his other f&$k ups then LOL.

Boambee John
Boambee John
November 29, 2023 1:22 pm

Robert Sewell
Nov 29, 2023 1:13 PM
Boambee John
Nov 29, 2023 1:04 PM
Dot

What I know anecdotally is that if boomers got on the property ladder early enough in a government job

Not as easy to do then as now, and the high-powered jobs required a degree, something that only a (small?) minority of Boomers had.

Remember that home loans were rationed out. We moved to Qld and after a year we got one – built a 4 bed Jennings home in Chermside for $40k. That’s when Chermside was almost the bush.

IIRC, there were big gaps of bushland between Chermside and Petrie or Sandgate in the late 1960s.

Johnny Rotten
November 29, 2023 1:23 pm

Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.

– Woodrow Wilson

Bespoke
Bespoke
November 29, 2023 1:24 pm

The resentment towards the boomers is chronic and unbecoming.

Not to be confused with friendly banter.

C.L.
C.L.
November 29, 2023 1:29 pm

The national Christmas tree in Washington has fallen over.

Miltonf
Miltonf
November 29, 2023 1:29 pm

Thalidomide? More than half the population wouldn’t know what the little mediocrity was talking about.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
November 29, 2023 1:33 pm

Thalidomide? More than half the population wouldn’t know what the little mediocrity was talking about.

Albanese can never be accused of being in touch with the Australian population.

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
November 29, 2023 1:33 pm

How I would have partied in the 1970’s if my mortgage was 6.25%, not 17.5%.
I never had a mortgage bellow 12% for my home or my business. People were not crying in the street they just got on with it.
These people crying about 6.25% interest are just woke leaners and bludgers.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
November 29, 2023 1:36 pm

Sob, sob, Dad something bad happened when I was pissed as a fart again. It was bad, we’ll talk later. You haven’t been splashing your arse about again? What! not no knickers? I can’t remember? I’ve got a plan, I’ll burst into tears, that always works. I’ll write a book about how to get 3mill with only one ghunt working for me. Don’t forget to save a bit for Jenny Craig and watch out for chancers, whenever there’s cash about they’ll be there.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 29, 2023 1:36 pm

The national Christmas tree in Washington has fallen over.

Trump sabotaged it. That’s the only possible explanation.

Kneel
Kneel
November 29, 2023 1:45 pm

“With 95RON petrol and diesel both about $2.05 per litre, a petrol car that averages 7.4L/100km will cost $15.17 per 100km, and a diesel car that averages 5.7L/100km will cost $11.69 per 100km.”

And running that same petrol car on LPG at $1.00 per liter will cost $7.40 per 100km, while at the same time burning a fuel that would otherwise be burnt as a waste gas by the oil refinery.

Figures
Figures
November 29, 2023 1:47 pm

I was still in denial about everything

And, by sheer unadulterated coincidence, this denial ended at the precise moment she realised she needed to throw Lehrmann under the bus to save her job.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 29, 2023 1:47 pm

Victoria, the place not to be.

Major cruise company to pull ships from Melbourne port following major tax hike (Sky News, 29 Nov)

A major cruise ship company will be pulling several of its cruises from Melbourne, in protest of the Victorian government’s decision to increase port fees.

Carnival Australia’s Princess Cruises will visit other interstate docks from 2025 following the Victorian government’s move to increase port fees.

This is after Dan the anti-tourism Man hit AirBnB rentals with a 7.5% tax in September. Do not vacation in Victoria, it’s a Marxist pesthole.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
November 29, 2023 1:48 pm

C.L.
Nov 29, 2023 12:38 PM

A MISGUIDED TRUCE

Yes.
A wicked choice made infinitely worse by China’s grandstanding in the UNSC for the ME audience and the swine around the western world pandering to their Palestinian-adjacent.

How anyone thinks that a Hamas-releases-the-hostages is in any way viable eludes me. It would be tantamount to kicking an ants nest – then lying on it.

What is firming up as an Iron Rule for me is that anyone proposing a ceasefire ‘because hostages’ or ‘a two state solution’ either gets their cues from New Idea, is taking the piss, has a deep-set aversion to Israel, or (if a state actor) is playing cynical geopolitical chess against US interests.

Figures
Figures
November 29, 2023 1:50 pm

Thalidomide? More than half the population wouldn’t know what the little mediocrity was talking about.

Apologise for thalidomide but not for the covid vaccination program which has resulted in vastly more harm – and was actually coercive.

Bespoke
Bespoke
November 29, 2023 1:50 pm
Bruce
Bruce
November 29, 2023 1:50 pm

A Feral Grubmint “Truth Telling Commission”

Shades of the last days of Seth Efrika.

Zippster
Zippster
November 29, 2023 1:51 pm

Asked why she used the phrase “phoning a friend”, Ms Higgins said: “I don’t know.”

Hadn’t occurred to her to cry wolf yet is the obvious conclusion

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 29, 2023 1:53 pm

I can’t wait for Lehrmann’s Counsel to get stuck into her. The Court better have a pallet of Kleenex out the back!!

The security guard, who discovered La Brittany on the couch, next morning, stated during an interview that La Higgins declined both medical assistance, and an ambulance. Lehrman’s Counsel should make something of that, surely?

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
November 29, 2023 1:53 pm

Thalidomide? More than half the population wouldn’t know what the little mediocrity was talking about.

I know exactly what Thalidomide is, but I had to look to see how it in any way connected with Handsome Boy. Next up, he needs to make ‘a full and unreserved apology’ for the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Lysander
Lysander
November 29, 2023 1:54 pm

So Knickerless’ team need to prove “the event” happened in order for Ten to win the defamation trial, right?

In any sane court, a “Her Vs Him” argument is never going to win given there’s simply no evidence, period.

JC
JC
November 29, 2023 2:03 pm

he lasted about a week after the election.

The_Real_Fly
@The_Real_Fly
·
47m
NEW BASED ARGENTINIAN PRESIDENT MILEI HAD LUNCH WITH BILL FCKING CLINTON YESTERDAY***

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 29, 2023 2:05 pm

Shades of the last days of Seth Efrika.

REgarding the “Truth and Reconcilliation Comission”, Archbishop Desmond Tutu told “Pik” Botha – “The Old Crocodile” that he should go on his knees, and beg forgiveness from the Comission.

Botha relied that a true Afrikaner only knelt before God, and he didn’t quite see Tutu in that role..

Bruce
Bruce
November 29, 2023 2:06 pm

@Old Lizzie:

The “Samson Option” is a real thing.

Nuke them all; let Yahweh sort them out.

rosie
rosie
November 29, 2023 2:07 pm

There was always going to be a hostage negotiation, in fact, it started immediately.
What is odd is how many Bibi haters said he wouldn’t bother to get any.
Guess they were wrong.
I hope they get them all back, including the two men who have been held for up to nine years.
Then destroy hamas, then built the Iron Wall.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 2:12 pm

Bruce of Newcastle
Nov 29, 2023 1:47 PM

Victoria, the place not to be.

Major cruise company to pull ships from Melbourne port following major tax hike (Sky News, 29 Nov)

A major cruise ship company will be pulling several of its cruises from Melbourne, in protest of the Victorian government’s decision to increase port fees.

Carnival Australia’s Princess Cruises will visit other interstate docks from 2025 following the Victorian government’s move to increase port fees.

This is after Dan the anti-tourism Man hit AirBnB rentals with a 7.5% tax in September. Do not vacation in Victoria, it’s a Marxist pesthole.

BON,

VictoriaStan Not a Place you would Invest!

Victoria to triple vacant home tax after Greens win tweaks

Gus McCubbing – Reporter

Victoria will triple its new tax on Melbourne properties not used for three years after the state Labor government reached an agreement with the Greens.

Treasurer Tim Pallas surprised the property industry last month when he announced the government would expand its tax on vacant homes to include areas outside Melbourne and long-abandoned plots in the city to try to ease the housing supply crisis.

The vacancy tax currently applies only to houses in Melbourne’s inner and middle-ring suburbs that have been unoccupied for more than six months, but would expand to include the whole state from January 1, 2025, he said in October.

The Greens on Tuesday said they had secured tweaks with Labor to increase the tax rate from 1 per cent of capital improved value to 3 per cent

Capital improved value includes the values of the land and buildings.

The median house price in Melbourne for the September quarter was $934,000, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, meaning the tax on the median-price unused home could increase from $9340 to more than $28,000 a year.

A Victorian government spokesman said tax would be applied at 1 per cent of capital improved value in the first year that a vacant dwelling is unoccupied, 2 per cent in the second consecutive year and 3 per cent from the third consecutive year.

Mr Pallas on Tuesday said: “Our reforms will provide more homes for families across the state – it’s vital that the legislation passes.”

The Victorian government previously said about 900 homes in Melbourne’s inner and middle rings were captured by the tax, and that 600 to 700 were expected to be added statewide under the changes.

But tax experts said they believed the government had underestimated the number of homes.

The new tax begins from January 1, and will be collected from the start of 2025.

The Greens said they had also secured a tweak that would force owners of properties that may be empty to prove someone lives there, bringing the total of homes potentially affected up to 5000.

Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam said: “If Labor wants to continue passing their housing statement through parliament, they’re going to need to work with us on the kinds of solutions that will fix this crisis.”

Victorian shadow treasurer Brad Rowswell said: “No one should be surprised that the government has done a dirty deal with the Greens.”

“The new and increased taxes in this bill will punish Victorians at a time when they can least afford it.”

Real Estate Institute of Victoria chief executive Quentin Kilian urged the government to use a carrot approach rather than a stick to cracking down on land banking.

“We know that incentivising people to use the land, rewarding them and encouraging them, will get the land use happening a lot quicker. Assuming they’re all in a position to do so, but choosing not to is nonsense,” he said.

Victorian executive director of the Property Council, Cath Evans, agreed.

“We encourage the Victorian government to focus their attention on delivering policy outcomes that incentivise the construction of new homes, reduce the burden on business and allow the property industry to get on with delivering the housing supply that Victorians need and expect,” she said.

“Victoria already has the heaviest property tax burden of any state in the nation.

The reality is that this is creating an economic environment where Victorian businesses are struggling to attract capital investment to our state – jeopardising the capacity for our industry to build more homes.”

The period that properties can be deemed vacant will start on January 1, with applicable tax changes commencing in 2025.

The Property Council says they have secured protections for existing holiday-home owners regardless of ownership structure.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
November 29, 2023 2:17 pm

Lysander Nov 29, 2023 1:54 PM
So Knickerless’ team need to prove “the event” happened in order for Ten to win the defamation trial, right?

Not necessarily.
As I’m led to understand it, Lehrmann has to prove Ch10 & the Amphibian of Mosman defamed him.

It could go very bad for him. As it did for BRS. Ch9 didn’t get anywhere near proving BRS committed a war crime, BRS simply wasn’t able to substantiate that he’d been defamed.

By that yardstick, Lehrmann has to prove a negative, i.e. he has to prove he didn’t rape BH, or else his case fails.

Pogria
Pogria
November 29, 2023 2:17 pm
Frank
Frank
November 29, 2023 2:18 pm

The resentment towards the boomers is chronic and unbecoming.

Shaping the battlefield in preparation for death duties probably.

Lysander
Lysander
November 29, 2023 2:19 pm

Doesn’t seem very fair Salva!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 2:19 pm

South Australian council becomes the first since the Voice referendum failure to dump Welcome to Country

. Regional council voted to axe Welcome to Country
. Ritual was banned from meetings and official correspondence

The council’s decision also comes just days after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson called for a ban on Welcome to Country after the referendum loss.

She said she wanted to hold leading Voice architect Professor Marcia Langton to her vow made in April that a No vote would end her performances of the ceremony.

‘We can only hope this promise is lived up to,’ said senator Hanson in a post on X of a speech she was unable to give in Parliament because of a censure motion.

She claimed Australians, some of them Indigenous people, were ‘sick’ of the ritual.

‘They’re recited at the beginning of every parliamentary sitting day, every council meeting, and every zoom meeting held by public servants,’ she continued.

‘We hear them at the conclusion of every domestic flight – you can hear the groans in the cabin every time.

‘They have effectively lost all meaning for their constant repetition.

‘Australians – including many Indigenous people – are sick and tired of them. They are sick of being told Australia is not their country.’

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
November 29, 2023 2:22 pm

Apologies to all, (especially to Capt C. Upham), for the error of the name of the dual VC awardee, C. Upham.

I got the name wrong of the chap I was thinking about as well. (Having a shocker).
His name was Clive Hulme, not Hume. Awarded the VC on Crete.

Only three men have been awarded “two” VC’s.

Incredibly, according to War History online, the second to do so,
Captain N.G. Chavasse, was related to the Uphams.
What are the odds?

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 2:23 pm

Frank
Nov 29, 2023 2:18 PM

The resentment towards the boomers is chronic and unbecoming.

Shaping the battlefield in preparation for death duties probably.

The Dumb Point about that is the the Young Moaning about Boomers, would be the ones losing with Death Duties

Australian High School & Uni Education is Graduating Stupid Young unable to understand Consequences!

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
November 29, 2023 2:25 pm

Then destroy hamas, then built the Iron Wall.

Make it 700 feet high, Game of thrones style. …maybe not make it of ice. Make it from the ruins of Gaza.

Siltstone
Siltstone
November 29, 2023 2:28 pm

Pogria @2:17
If only the 95 year old lady had told the NSW police to “gas the Jews” they would have ensured her safety and comfort.

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
November 29, 2023 2:29 pm

Oh and by the way, the BOM said drought this summer, Australia wide.
Must be my imagination but looks like floods all over the eastern states and more rain to come.
If these pricks can’t forecast this years weather how can they forecast it for the next century???????>?

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 2:30 pm

Miltonf Avatar
Miltonf
Nov 29, 2023 12:28 PM

Bullock is une iirc. A light weight institution if ever there was one.

???

If you hate all universities, what exactly is a heavyweight institution?

Even “the best” uni for engineers (Peace Be Upon their Name) has wokified unnecessary liberal arts crap and chemistry for dummies.

They know more about oppressed vaginas of colour than how concrete works.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 29, 2023 2:31 pm

POLL – Should Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil apologise or resign over the asylum seeker crisis?

Both?

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 2:34 pm

Death duties would cause me to become a fire-breathing secessionist and sov-cit.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 2:35 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Nov 29, 2023 2:31 PM

POLL – Should Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil apologise or resign over the asylum seeker crisis?

Both? – Currently at 44% – Resign – 41%

Lysander
Lysander
November 29, 2023 2:35 pm

BOM dropped a bomb for Perth last week and said all week it’d be between 38 and 40 degrees.

Each day, they were consistently wrong by 2+ degrees with one day being wrong by 7 degrees.

rosie
rosie
November 29, 2023 2:36 pm

When Mr fafo first burst onto the palliwood screen I had a peep at his instagram account, pre massacre videos had perhaps views in the hundreds, low thousands, now he had over two million followers.
I suspected this was about money for him, otherwise why the everywhere man?
Mr fafo instagram superstar

rosie
rosie
November 29, 2023 2:38 pm
Frank
Frank
November 29, 2023 2:38 pm

OldOzzie
Nov 29, 2023 2:23 PM

Maybe so, but there would be a large contingent of government sponsored influencers if it was a nefarious plot. No shortage of whores around on the internet and the clever young things that infest the parliamentary media wing seem to think it is the way to go. Twitter was like manna from heaven for them.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 2:40 pm

I’m not blaming boomers.

My schtick is this: history repeats.

Both generations have had help from their parents and faced very poor macroeconomic policies. Some in each generation have benefitted greatly. It is fascinating but you have to remind yourself others are suffering because of it.

Some boomers benefitted from negative real interest rates for a span of many years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Some millennials and younger benefitted from being pre-approved for loans and ready to borrow with substantial savings right before the latest monetary accommodation by the RBA during COVID. (Those who got in late are paying overs on the real estate and if they were marginal now face 7 – 9% on P&I up from 2-3% on IO loans).

“It’s tough out there”
“Haven’t we been here before”
“People will need to move to less salubrious suburbs”
“Swings and roundabouts”

A shout-out to the Rag and Famish crew!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 2:42 pm

You can Trust Biden & America to Stab You in the Back!

Washington warns Israel against renewed Gaza offensive

The message comes as Israel threatens to hit southern Gaza with ‘the same amount of power and more’

By Rozina Sabur, DEPUTY US EDITOR, WASHINGTON and Nataliya Vasilyeva,
MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT, JERUSALEM
28 November 2023 • 10:13pm

Israel “cannot” unleash an offensive on southern Gaza on the scale it did in the north, the US said on Tuesday, in its strongest warning yet to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The stern rhetoric came with the implicit suggestion the US is shifting its position on the Israeli offensive.

It comes as the families of Israeli hostages said their relatives had been moved from house-to-house by Hamas in the southern city of Khan Younis to avoid detection and have been supplied with little food.

Hamas released 12 more hostages last night, 10 Israelis and two Thai nationals. Two of the Israelis are dual Argentinian nationals and another is a dual Austrian national.

The youngest, 17-year-old Mia Leimberg, was released alongside her mother Gabriela, 59, and the family’s dog, a shih tzu named Bella.

The others were named by Israeli media as Ditza Heiman, 84, Tami Metzger, 78, Ada Sagi, 75, Ofelia Roitman, 77, Noralin Babadila Agojo, 60, Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, 36, Clara Marman, 62, and Meirav Tal, 54.

Hamas ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said it had been involved in the release of some of the hostages.

Journalists at the scene of the handover confirmed that members of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s armed wings were present.

In return, 15 Palestinian children and 15 women were released from Israeli jails in the fifth night of exchange. Many of those released had not been convicted of any charges.

Hit back harder

Israel has vowed to renew its offensive once the fragile truce comes to an end.

Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, said its forces intend to hit back harder than before, fighting in the “entire” Gaza Strip with “the same amount of power and more”.

Khan Younis is expected to be a key target of Israel’s next offensive.

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza and one of the alleged architects of the Oct 7 attacks, is among those rumoured to be hiding out in the city, amid speculation the group could make their last stand in the area.

However, the city has also become a refuge for Palestinians driven out of the north by Israeli strikes.

An offensive in Khan Younis, which has seen its population of around 200,000 double in the last few weeks, would involve yet another mass displacement.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have dropped flyers in southern Gaza encouraging civilians to flee to a dedicated “safe zone” – the small coastal spot of al-Mawasi.

Critics have noted it would be impossible for Gaza’s more than two million residents to mass in the area, which is roughly the size of Los Angeles’s LAX airport.

Around 15,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli offensive began, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

International aid groups have also warned a lack of food, power and water has caused dire conditions in the small coastal territory, with disease rampant amid poor sanitary conditions.

No red lines

Washington said it had reinforced its stern warnings to Israel over the next stage of its offensive “from the president on down”.

During a briefing in Washing, a senior US official said: “We cannot have the sort of scale that took place in the north, replicated in the south.

“It will be beyond disruptive. It will be beyond the capacity of any humanitarian support network, however reinforced, however robust, to be able to cope with.”

Israel must operate with far greater precision and avoid “significant further displacement” of civilians, the official said.

The expected campaign must avoid attacks on critical infrastructure and humanitarian sites including hospitals in south and central Gaza, according to Washing and “has now 80 per cent of the population of the Gaza Strip”.

It comes a month after the White House said it had set no “red lines” for Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct 7 attacks, when they killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and seized around 240 hostages.

Details of the conditions some hostages endured were shared with The Telegraph after their release.

Osnat Meiri said she was shocked to see her aunt, 78-year-old Ruti Munder, and cousin 55-year-old Keren Munder when she met them in a hospital outside Tel Aviv on Friday night.

The pair were released in the first group of hostages alongside Ruti’s grandson, nine-year-old Ohad.

“They were a lot thinner, they were very tired and they were undernourished,” she said. “They were themselves but there was that terror you could see in their eyes.”

While some hostages were kept in Hamas’s sprawling network of tunnels, the Munder family were taken to the city of Khan Younis.

They were shuttled from one house to another without beds to sleep on, with some of the residences clearly commandeered from civilians.

Her aunt told Ms Meiri, one flat they moved to had been so hastily abandoned by its residents the washing machine was still running.

Food allocations were gradually cut as the IDF offensive disrupted supplies.

Meanwhile, the heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agencies met Qatar’s prime minister in Doha on Tuesday to discuss a possible deal to extend the truce between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.

A source briefed on the visit said Bill Burns, the CIA chief and David Barnea, head of Mossad, met prime minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani to “discuss the potential terms of a deal” beyond the two-day truce extension.

rosie
rosie
November 29, 2023 2:46 pm
OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 2:50 pm

Many on the ‘progressive left’ are ‘no friends of Israel’: Rowan Dean

Sky News host Rowan dean says many on the “progressive left” are “no friends of Israel”.

“The days of Jews having their best friends on the left … are well and truly behind us,” he said.

Mr dean says many on the left “increasingly and tragically” have turned on them.

“The progressive left in particular,” he said.

“There are many on the progressive left who are no friends of Jews and no friends of Israel.

“it’s all to do with the basic philosophy – neo-Marxist oppressor vs oppressor.”

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
November 29, 2023 2:50 pm

Big_Nambas

Nov 29, 2023 1:33 PM

How I would have partied in the 1970’s if my mortgage was 6.25%, not 17.5%.

Are sure you aren’t thinking of the late ’80’s?
If you were paying 17.5% in the 70’s you must have been borrowing from the Gambinos.
In fact, in the late 70’s and early 80’s funds were rationed based upon savings records, and mortgages taken out in the early 80’s were capped at, I think 10.5% or 11.5%, so never copped Keating’s big whack in the late 80’s.

areff
areff
November 29, 2023 2:54 pm

How long does a bruise take to fade?

Ms Knickerless claims she was bruised during couch maneuvres with Lehrmann (although it might have been the stairs) on March 23. Eleven days later, it is still visible to be snapped, albeit “with the contrast turned up”.

Lysander
Lysander
November 29, 2023 2:57 pm

Pretty sick sh!t from the Greens:

https://greens.org.au/news/media-release/duttons-backseat-driving-continues

Labor’s attempts to amend last week’s rushed and shoddy anti-refugee legislation with more rushed and shoddy anti-refugee legislation is just further proof that Peter Dutton is running the show, the Greens say.

Everyone knows Dutton has a fear of driving due to a massive car crash when he was a copper.

Real Deal
Real Deal
November 29, 2023 2:59 pm

how can they forecast it for the next century???????>?

Quite so. Warragamba Dam is currently 91 percent full. A lot of rain in the catchment and more to come. It could spill over by Christmas. El Nino is biting hard somewhere, I suppose.

Zatara
Zatara
November 29, 2023 2:59 pm

Chick cricket attracts the same audience as junior sport in general: family and friends.

Perhaps they should adapt, as US female football did, to Lingerie Leagues?

Alamak!
November 29, 2023 3:00 pm

Ms Knickerless claims she was bruised during couch maneuvres with Lehrmann (although it might have been the stairs) on March 23. Eleven days later, it is still visible to be snapped, albeit “with the contrast turned up”.

The data on the phone and image itself could have verified the claim. It was noted by Police that complainant refused to hand over phone for a long time and it had been scrubbed of much content and metadata once it was shared. See here

Figures
Figures
November 29, 2023 3:02 pm

Not necessarily.
As I’m led to understand it, Lehrmann has to prove Ch10 & the Amphibian of Mosman defamed him.

Channel 10 is pursuing a truth defence. They have pretty much accepted that they damaged his reputation (although they may try and argue the extent of such damage).

The thing is though, how is this any different to the astonishing laws that provide the accuser anonymity but not the accused? The government loses the case and they are obliged to pay a huge compensation to the accused because they’ve ruined his life. Of course, this just encourages prosecutors to be even more dishonest and not forthcoming with exculpatory evidence. So more and more innocent men are thrown in prison.

FMD. Is there a single figure in authority in this country who isn’t a disgusting imbecile?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
November 29, 2023 3:03 pm

Clive Hulme VC son was Denny Hulme F1 world motor racing champion. Denny died at the Bathurst 1000 race when he pulled over going down Conrod straight having a heart attack. I read something years ago that Charles was up for a third VC but can’t find the reference now so it may have just been talk.

C.L.
C.L.
November 29, 2023 3:03 pm

Many on the ‘progressive left’ are ‘no friends of Israel’: Rowan Dean

He misses nothing.

Alamak!
November 29, 2023 3:08 pm

Lehrmann has to prove a negative, i.e. he has to prove he didn’t rape BH, or else his case fails.

I had thought defamation required a) a reputation capable of being besmirched b) activity by another party that would lead an “average” person to assume a gap between persons public reputation & reality

Whether Bruce did or didn’t do something cannot be established in this court unless both agree or 3rd party has evidence to share.

/IANAL

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 3:12 pm

Central Intelligence Agency

Senior CIA official posted pro-Palestine image on her Facebook page

Rare public political statement comes amid dissent over White House’s handling of Israel-Hamas war

A top CIA official posted a pro-Palestine image on Facebook two weeks after Hamas attacked Israel, in a rare public political statement by a senior intelligence officer on a war that has sparked dissent within the Biden administration.

The CIA’s associate deputy director for analysis changed her Facebook cover photo on October 21 to an image of a man waving a Palestinian flag that is often used in stories criticising Israel. The Financial Times has decided not to name her after the intelligence agency expressed concern about her safety.

Posting an overtly political image on a public platform is a very unusual move for a senior intelligence official.

It comes as tensions rise inside the administration about whether President Joe Biden should put more pressure on Israel to bring an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

In a separate Facebook post, the senior intelligence official also published a selfie with a sticker saying “Free Palestine” superimposed on the photograph. One person familiar with the image said it was posted to Facebook years ago and long before the current conflict.

“The officer is a career analyst with extensive background in all aspects of the Middle East and this post [of the Palestinian flag] was not intended to express a position on the conflict,” said the person familiar with the situation.

This person added that the senior official had also published posts on Facebook taking a stand against antisemitism. 

The CIA official did not respond to an attempt to reach her via LinkedIn but after the outreach on Monday, the pro-Palestine images and unrelated posts from the past year and a half were deleted from her page.

Four former intelligence officials expressed surprise that one of two associate deputy directors reporting to the head of analysis would post an image on Facebook showing her apparent political views on a divisive issue.

The CIA official has previously overseen the production of the President’s Daily Brief, the highly classified compilation of intelligence that is presented to the president most days.

The deputy CIA director for analysis and his two associates are also responsible for approving all analysis disseminated inside the agency.

“The public posting of an obviously controversial political statement by a senior analytic manager in the middle of a crisis shows glaringly poor judgment,” said one former intelligence official, who added that some intelligence community members were concerned that the post expressed a bias that could undermine the analysis directorate.

In a statement the CIA said: “CIA officers are committed to analytic objectivity, which is at the core of what we do as an agency. CIA officers may have personal views, but this does not lessen their — or CIA’s — commitment to unbiased analysis.”

The former US intelligence officials said the image raised concerns on several levels, including the fact that the CIA has strong relations with Israeli intelligence. “Given the CIA’s longstanding incredibly close relationship with the Israelis in a liaison capacity, this would be highly irregular for a senior agency official,” said a second former official.

The revelation came as CIA director Bill Burns arrived in Qatar for meetings with the head of the Israeli spy agency and the prime minister of Qatar, which has been involved in brokering a deal to release more of the hostages that Hamas is holding in Gaza.

“Given the role director Burns is playing in the ongoing crisis in Israel, social media activity along these lines by a senior US intelligence officer reflects exceptionally and surprisingly bad judgment,” said a third former intelligence official.

A fourth former official said the posting of the image appeared “biased from somebody who is supposed to be fundamentally unbiased”.

Biden’s strong support for Israel as it has pressed its deadly campaign to respond to the October 7 Hamas attack has divided staff in his administration.

Senior officials have hosted listening sessions with staff at the White House, state department and other agencies in an attempt to understand and try to quell their concerns about the president’s approach. 

Dozens of US diplomats lodged formal protests over Biden’s approach via the state department’s so-called dissent channel this month. Hundreds of other government employees, including political appointees, signed other public and private letters calling on Biden to seek a ceasefire and allow more aid into Gaza.

Underscoring the polarising nature of the US response to the conflict, New York police last week arrested Stuart Seldowitz, a former state department official who served in the White House during the Obama administration, over several offences, including an alleged hate crime after he harassed a halal food vendor. Universities are also struggling to deal with escalating tensions on campuses between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups.

Biden has pursued a policy of pressing for limited ceasefires — now in their fifth day — under which Israel has agreed to brief pauses in its military campaign in exchange for the release of hostages. Hamas has released 74 hostages, mostly Israeli women and children, as well as nationals from Thailand, the Philippines and other countries.

The success of this effort has granted Biden some respite from pressure inside his administration. But US officials have made clear that they expect Israel will begin its military campaign again in the coming weeks once efforts to free hostages are exhausted, raising the possibility of further discontent from staff.

calli
calli
November 29, 2023 3:15 pm

The national Christmas tree in Washington has fallen over.

Is this code? Has the Sniffer carked it?

Gabor
Gabor
November 29, 2023 3:16 pm

If these pricks can’t forecast this years weather how can they forecast it for the next century???????>?

You are missing the point.
That’s the easy bit. Who is calling them up if they are wrong?

Salvatore, Iron Publican
November 29, 2023 3:17 pm

Thank you, Figures:

Channel 10 is pursuing a truth defence. They have pretty much accepted that they damaged his reputation (although they may try and argue the extent of such damage).

rosie
rosie
November 29, 2023 3:18 pm

If you are wondering why you sometimes see hamas terrorists firing rockets etc in bare feet. Mo said a man in dusty feet will not go to hell.
I suspect he’s wrong about that.
Erez Calderon being taken hostage, terrorists in casual clothes accompanied by a boy not much older than Erez.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 3:18 pm

America’s hellbent on self-destruction.

Last night a US city council (Oakland City) voted on a resolution to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

A city council member tried to insert language condemning Hamas.

This was the reaction…

rosie
rosie
November 29, 2023 3:19 pm

Of course it could have been take your child to work day in Gaza that Saturday.

areff
areff
November 29, 2023 3:21 pm

Fiona Brown, who basically called Knickerless a snake in an interview with Albrechtsen, will make a very interesting witness, For starters, Brown says she didn’t cry, “he was on top of me!” until their Thursday meeting, not Tuesday as she claimed today.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/fiona-brown-brittany-higgins-former-manager-reveals-betrayal-and-backstabbing-in-bruce-lehrmann-rape-claim-saga/news-story/a514baa19634e1f4375a925c2aff9736

Delta A
Delta A
November 29, 2023 3:23 pm

Higgins is using her best Christine Blasey Ford voice; the maltreated little girl constantly on the verge of tears.
Heart-wrenching. (Not.)

H B Bear
H B Bear
November 29, 2023 3:25 pm

Victoriastan’s plan to tax itself to recovery looking shaky.

H B Bear
H B Bear
November 29, 2023 3:26 pm

Breaking down in tears is not a power move.

Bespoke
Bespoke
November 29, 2023 3:27 pm

I’m not blaming boomers.

I do.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 3:29 pm

Bob’s Electric Car Warning: You’re Basically Buying Your Wife a Coal-Powered Ride!

Billionaire mining financier Robert Friedland recently gave a 40-minute speech on green energy, electrification, metal scarcity, and more.

It’s fair to say the hairy armpit crowd aren’t going to be too happy with Bob. Here’s some nuggets to chew on, summarised by a gent on Twitter X.

For the life of me, I can’t recall who it was now, so credit is due to the mystery tweeter who summarised Bob’s speech.

What does “energy transition” mean?

. “You have a billion people that burn firewood to live. They have no access to electrical energy.”
. “We’re burning more coal and more oil today than in the history of the world.”
. “We spent $4T putting up solar panels for hydrocarbons to still capture 83% of energy source.”
. “You’re not going to stop global warming by buying an electric car.”

On electric cars and EV batteries

. “With current lithium-ion technology, the destruction we cause, the global warming gas we cause, we might as well sit on our chairs and do nothing.”
. “You just bought your wife a coal-burning car by buying an EV.”
. “The current generation of EV batteries will be toast in 2-3 years.”
. “I would short every lithium company in the world.”
. “We’re going to kill the lithium hydroxide business over time.”

– Common metals vital for the transition

– Womb to tomb examination of net zero

– Two competing paradigms

– A very difficult time

– We need to reinvent the mining industry

– Energy consumption

– Importance of copper

– Importance of Saudi Arabia

– Audience Q&A

– On knowing where things come from

“People don’t realize where things come from. As people live in urban environments, they forget where things come from.”

“We need to communicate the importance of mining and humanize it as an activity.

We need to mine in the United States. We need to figure out what should be mined, where we’re allowed to mine, and how.”

Bruce
Bruce
November 29, 2023 3:29 pm

“Then destroy hamas, then built the Iron Wall.”Like the old tale,

“Gaza” is built on sand. The more observant may have noticed the expensive (aid money financed,) engineered shoring holding up the Gaza tunnels.

How hard would it be to literally “salt the earth” by simply piping the Mediterranean into “Gaza”?

On a different Universe, Israel built and successfully operated very successful greenhouse farms in the regain. These were systematically destroyed by the “Gazan” death-cultists.

And then give the place the “Mediterranean lawn” treatment.

Just keep an eye out for the Twelfth Imam.

Alamak!
November 29, 2023 3:33 pm

a song for bruce … aint gonna bump no moar

H B Bear
H B Bear
November 29, 2023 3:36 pm

Lysander at 2:35

BOM dropped a bomb for Perth last week and said all week it’d be between 38 and 40 degrees.
Each day, they were consistently wrong by 2+ degrees with one day being wrong by 7 degrees.

Not their greatest work. Of course, it disappears without trace unlike the forecast armargeddon.

Big_Nambas
Big_Nambas
November 29, 2023 3:37 pm

Are sure you aren’t thinking of the late ’80’s?
If you were paying 17.5% in the 70’s you must have been borrowing from the Gambinos.
In fact, in the late 70’s and early 80’s funds were rationed based upon savings records, and mortgages taken out in the early 80’s were capped at, I think 10.5% or 11.5%, so never copped Keating’s big whack in the late 80’s.

Not sure where I said I was in Australia in the 70’s. I was in Canada and interest rates were well over 17.5% at times but certainly well over 12% all the time.
I started borrowing in Australia in the late 80’s and never paid under 12%. until I retired in 2009.

JMH
JMH
November 29, 2023 3:41 pm

The national Christmas tree in Washington has fallen over.

I blame a cat. They have priors!

Alamak!
November 29, 2023 3:42 pm

a song for brittany … (every time I turn around) back in court again

Apologies for anyone offended by the musical asides … this tawdry (non) event and its lying (both) non-entities just depresses me the more time and money it consumes.

H B Bear
H B Bear
November 29, 2023 3:44 pm

… and mortgages taken out in the early 80’s were capped at, I think 10.5% or 11.5%, …”

13.5% from memory. There was a distinction between trading and savings banks. Lots of cocktail loans to make things work. The first revolving lines of credit appeared in the early 90s and were quite exclusive.

Muddy
Muddy
November 29, 2023 3:45 pm

The Mesozoic/mainstream/legacy media has re-positioned Gazans as the victims not because they have any interest in such people*, but to deprive Israeli Jews of the label, with the intention being to normalise the murder of selected groups of humans.

It is socially unacceptable that those chosen for elimination be recognised as victims, so they must be re-purposed as ‘oppressors.’ Oppressors have no rights, and are barely human, therefore whatever is done to them is ‘for the common good.’

I’m inclined to think that Israelis are simply a handy test-run. Klimate De-triers, Anti-Waxxers and others (conservatives?), will follow.

* The media is using Gazans as a parasite uses a host: To steal the nutrients necessary for survival before moving on to the next host.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
November 29, 2023 3:45 pm

The national Christmas tree in Washington has fallen over.

Bidenomics. The `toon was correct!

cohenite
November 29, 2023 3:48 pm

If briternee was the most ever shit faced person to be shit faced how can she remember what happened?

duncanm
duncanm
November 29, 2023 3:48 pm

Brittany Higgins broke down in tears

Strong wimminses! (Except when circumstances otherwise require)

shatterzzz
November 29, 2023 3:48 pm

The expected campaign must avoid attacks on critical infrastructure and humanitarian sites including hospitals in south and central Gaza, according to Washing and “has now 80 per cent of the population of the Gaza Strip”.

It happened 79 years ago but seems the US leadership has selective memory when lecturing others ……..

22 February, 1944 .. part of an American bomber force on route for the Messerschmitt factory at Gotha, Thuringia was recalled .. the formation decided to drop their bombs instead on another German town ..
Not realising that they had just crossed the border of the Netherlands, the American bomber crews destroyed a large part of Nijmegen and killed over 800 people that day ..

duncanm
duncanm
November 29, 2023 3:49 pm

The security guard, who discovered La Brittany on the couch, next morning, stated during an interview that La Higgins declined both medical assistance, and an ambulance. Lehrman’s Counsel should make something of that, surely?

Indeed!. I want to hear more from the guard, who appeared to vanish after her TV interview.

Did she even give evidence in the previous trial?

cohenite
November 29, 2023 3:50 pm

OldOzzie
Nov 29, 2023 3:29 PM
Bob’s Electric Car Warning: You’re Basically Buying Your Wife a Coal-Powered Ride!

Billionaire mining financier Robert Friedland recently gave a 40-minute speech on green energy, electrification, metal scarcity, and more.

Outstanding. Money and the media are going to kill this global frying bullshit and it has to start somewhere. The really sad bit about it is once again we are reminded that a large chunk of the population are effectively brain dead.

H B Bear
H B Bear
November 29, 2023 3:51 pm

I’m not blaming boomers.

They aren’t helping. Clearly RBA impacts (pretty crude at the best of times) are even less effective than ever.

duncanm
duncanm
November 29, 2023 3:55 pm

Big_Nambas
Nov 29, 2023 2:29 PM
Oh and by the way, the BOM said drought this summer, Australia wide.

Indeed they did. Only two weeks ago.

Pogria
Pogria
November 29, 2023 3:56 pm

“Siltstone
Nov 29, 2023 2:28 PM
Pogria @2:17
If only the 95 year old lady had told the NSW police to “gas the Jews” they would have ensured her safety and comfort.”

Siltstone, you’ve nailed it.
“Gas the Jews” is an “Access all Areas, Stay out of Gaol” pass.

H B Bear
H B Bear
November 29, 2023 3:56 pm

If briternee was the most ever shit faced person to be shit faced how can she remember what happened?

That was always going to be the problem. Hard to see where they were going with this. 3rd Party witnesses may give some indication. Neither Brittany nor Bruce have been particularly impressive witnesses.

shatterzzz
November 29, 2023 3:58 pm

HUGHIE speaks!, actually, he’s yellin’ .. cats’n dogs, thunder & lightning ..! sooo dark out here in Fairfield, NSW the street lights have come on …………

Muddy
Muddy
November 29, 2023 3:59 pm

From one of Old Ozzie’s links above:

Several weeks ago, anti-Semitic demonstrations broke out [my bolding]…

No.
Pimples break out.
These ‘demonstrations’ were planned and resourced.
They were also enabled (to put it kindly) by the vast majority of the western media.
The same media which chose to suffocate any breath that contradicted the dominant Covid-19 narrative (from which they derived oodles of taxpayer’s money).
They have the ability to squeeze the flow of information on any subject they choose (6th of Jan, anyone?).
They choose to provide oceans of oxygen to the promotion of homicide.
They CHOOSE to ACTIVELY SUPPORT the public demand for MURDER SQUADS.

A touch hyperbolic, do you think?
No.
The media makes snuff films, and they consume their own product.

Pogria
Pogria
November 29, 2023 3:59 pm

I have had thunderstorms, high winds for a short time, torrential rain and hail today.
sigh…

Alamak!
November 29, 2023 4:04 pm

Did she even give evidence in the previous trial?

Other folks who could have provided evidence:

– Other Customers in the bars (not office mates)
– Uber drivers
– Staff working at Bar/Club on the night
– Anybody else working in Parliament that time

Plus
– no register receipts for the whole evening?
– only excerpts of CC Cams?
– no security gear in Reynolds defence office?
– no parliament computers or networks accessed during the event timeframe?
– phone locations not checked? (they both had multiple phones)

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 29, 2023 4:09 pm

What’s the chance of a nil all draw? Especially if it is raining.

Quite high.

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 29, 2023 4:10 pm

As to wanting him as a neighbour, he would be the sort of neighbour who double parks across your driveway. And in response you would tip your dog poo over his fence because you dislike him that much.

See also one Daniel Andrews.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 4:12 pm

– no security gear in Reynolds defence office?

Azazel.

Or do I mean Zafiro?

Alamak!
November 29, 2023 4:14 pm

Azazel.

Or do I mean Zafiro?

These are brands or models for motion detection?

/IANAS*

*I Am Not A Spook

rosie
rosie
November 29, 2023 4:16 pm
Mother Lode
Mother Lode
November 29, 2023 4:20 pm

Thalidomide?

When I was in primary school in the 70’s we had a thalidomide kid. No arms, although from one shoulder there a bit of a stump and a single finger.

He had his own special desk and a swivel chair, and had shoes with clips so he could take them off and use his feet for grabbing books, turning pages, and writing. Never heard a single kid give him shit or even make joking references when he was not around. Great at soccer, which I only realised later was quite remarkable since you actually do use your arms a lot in that game for balance running or kicking, or counterbalancing torsional forces for a big kick.

I found out later he drowned on a family holiday – knocked over by a large wave and unable to right himself.

Still, I would like to think that although he cannot have helped but be aware of being different he never felt like an outsider. I would also like to think that his parents, who decided not to send him to a home where there would be professionals to compassionately tend to his disabilities but instead kept him at home, realised that they gave him as normal a life – family, friends, confidence, and ambitions, as he could have had.

Weird thing, also, looking back…those were the 70’s, a time so much despised these days for its supposed lack of caring and humanism, appreciation of otherness.

For it is the pin-point virtue of our time now to think that Ministry for the Disabled then you can’t have cared for the disabled; without a budget for battered wives then you thought it a matter of sport, without a bureaucracy for Aborigines you were genocidal.

It LOOKS logical – you take an individual, reduce them to a series of standardised disadvantage scores, address the scores, and assume everything will work out for the individual.

And our elites will never admit their inferior outcomes because anything they cannot insert themselves into is, by any dialectical analysis, inferior.

These morons will believe that, if people sometimes trip while walking, then a Department of Walking – laying down rules of how to walk, policed by inspectors, charging for licenses and fines, with working groups ‘researching’ and producing reports on how people should walk, with a minister standing in parliament accusing the opposition of wanting people to fall over and scrape their entire faces off, all the while there are armies of people standing at the pedestrian crossings waiting for permits who know it is ridiculous but also know the vindictiveness of a bureaucracy that sees its raison d’être to exist in nothing but control – is the only possible strategy.

P
P
November 29, 2023 4:24 pm

‘Not right’ for Catholics choosing VAD to receive Eucharist, bishops advise
The Catholic Weekly

Catholics who seek to end their lives by euthanasia should not receive the anointing of the sick and the Eucharist, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has said in a pastoral document published as Voluntary Assisted Dying came into effect in NSW.

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 29, 2023 4:27 pm

Um, the beat goes on. Stephanie Bennett in the Courier Mail:

Queensland’s child safety department is set to face a major class action case from more than 100 First Nations families alleging racial discrimination, multiple failures and generational abuse.

In a case set to draw parallels with the Stolen Generation, the department has been accused of refusing or failing to reunite family relationships, failing to support children within the system to learn and practice their culture, language, or maintain their connection to Country, and failing to place children with Indigenous family members.

It was also claimed that in some instances, family information was not passed on.

Cairns-based Bottoms English Lawyers Special Counsel Jerry Tucker is leading the class actions which cover First Nations parents and children across Queensland.

She said the cases focused on the department’s actions once a child is removed, “specifically the actions taken when placing a child in the care of others, and actions taken when families attempt to reunite with removed children”.

“We expect that the evidence will demonstrate a deeply concerning culture of failing or refusing to reunite or restore family relationships between removed children and their parents, even after the parents have wholly or substantially complied with the Department’s stipulated conditions,” she said, with the action filed in the Federal Court earlier this month.

The case’s parent lead applicant Aboriginal man Brett Gunning – who was removed from his own biological mother at 30 days old – said he had spent more than 10 years attempting to reunite with his three kids.

“DOCS kept moving the bar. I kept reaching their milestones and then once I did, they kept moving the bar higher and higher. I could never obtain my children,” he said.

“This is just intergenerational abuse of my family, from my grandfather to my mother, my mother to me, now me to my kids. Four generations. I’ve suffered greatly with depression; I’ve had to leave everything behind.”

Madison Burns, the lead applicant for the children’s case, was taken into care at birth, and subsequently placed in multiple foster homes, residential group homes and even motels until she was 18.

“DOCS saw me deteriorate. As a kid, you start blaming yourself. You start getting into your own head that it’s me – and that’s why they won’t tell me why this stuff is happening to me,” she said.

“I know nothing about my culture. I have dark skin and I know I’m Aboriginal and that’s it,” she said.

”When DOCS told me there were no foster carers, and residential group homes were full, I would ask ‘why remove us if you can’t even give us somewhere to go?’”

She also claimed Child Safety refused to tell her of her First Nations relatives.

Ms Tucker said the applicants were seek both financial and non-financial remedies from the Queensland Government.

“They want a well-resourced consultation process designed to facilitate the restoration of family relationships for those impacted by the Department’s actions,” she said.

“They want training for staff to interact with First Nations families in a trauma-informed and culturally sensitive manner.

“They want a formal and public apology for the Department’s child removal practices. They want financial compensation. “But most of all, we want to remedy the negative effects of the Department’s actions on generations of Queensland families, including the significant intergenerational trauma which has followed the Department’s actions.”

A department spokeswoman said: “we are aware of this matter which is before the Federal Courts and it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this stage”.

Now not to put it brusquely, but I call bullshit.
My parents have had twin boys since they were 4 months old, they are 20 now. They have always had their biological mother to talk to, and other siblings. But biological mother was a hardline alcoholic, not as bad now but the damage was done.
There are other instances around town of older black fellas taking care of kids who are grandchildren. They’ve always had that opportunity to know who their parents are.
So Mr Gunning would need to be careful not to put his money into something like a lawsuit that could well prove fruitless.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 29, 2023 4:31 pm
Zafiro
Zafiro
November 29, 2023 4:37 pm

Little touch of red on the neck, eh, Lucy?

As per a commenter there: “How many tobacco plants can I have?”

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
November 29, 2023 4:38 pm
Vicki
Vicki
November 29, 2023 4:39 pm

I have had thunderstorms, high winds for a short time, torrential rain and hail today.

Ditto. Only 16mm in it here. But very welcome. Slashed a paddock early this morning – so will have some fresh growth that the cows will appreciate next week.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 29, 2023 4:41 pm

Premier supports department facing potential class action over over-represented Aboriginal kids in State care
Rebecca Le MayThe West Australian
Wed, 29 November 2023 1:20PM

Premier Roger Cook has thrown his support behind the Department of Communities after lawyers flagged a potential class action alleging too many First Nations children had been placed into State care due to “widespread racial discrimination”.

Shine Lawyers announced on Wednesday an investigation into claims that child protection departments in WA, NSW, South Australia and Victoria had unnecessarily removed Aboriginal children from their families from March 1992 to present.

A spokeswoman said WA cases included a mother having her child taken into out-of-home care after she asked for help buying baby formula and a young woman being abused in a group home, kicked out, falling pregnant then having her child removed.

The firm’s class actions special counsel Caitlin Wilson said an alarming number of Indigenous children who never should have been separated from their families were being forced into the foster system.

“There have been countless reports and inquiries, yet in the past 10 years alone, the over-representation of Aboriginal children and/or Torres Strait Islander in out-of-home care has increased in every jurisdiction in Australia,” Ms Wilson said.

“Children are being deprived of cultural and family connections. They suffer inter-generational trauma and struggle with mental health issues, all of which is preventable.”

Mr Cook said he had not yet had the opportunity to look at the claims but believed the Department of Communities did a great job protecting vulnerable kids and making sure they received the care they needed.

“But I’ve noticed that there are still people as part of the original Stolen Generations that are looking for justice, that are looking for recognition, that are looking for the same sort of things that we provided for the Stolen Wages claimants yesterday,” Mr Cook told reporters.

“And we are very much looking forward to engaging them in relation to how we can move forward and adjust the future.”

The WA Commissioner for Children and Young People’s latest snapshot of the State’s youths revealed those in out-of-home care who were Aboriginal had jumped from 45.7 per cent in 2011 to 58 per cent in 2022.

The department is being sought for comment.

Shine Lawyers said it intended to file complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission, a necessary step before starting court proceedings.

The firm had a major win on Tuesday with the State Government formally apologising to Indigenous West Australians who were paid little or nothing for working in institutions, on farms and on cattle stations from 1936 and 1972 as part of a long-awaited, $180.4 million compensation settlement.

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 29, 2023 4:43 pm

Good Lord Zulu Western Australia as well.

Vicki
Vicki
November 29, 2023 4:45 pm

We have been invigorated by the amazing tunnelling rescue of the 41 trapped miners in India. They brought in a senior mining/tunnelling Australian engineer who was working in Slovenia (I think).

We heard him speak on SBS India this morning. So Australian, so funny. He swore to his wife in Oz that he wouldn’t go into the very narrow tunnel that had been bored for the rescue. But, of course, she saw him on TV in that very tunnel! Busted!

He will, rightly, be a hero in India for the rest of his life. He said that in slight tremor (& this tunnel is in the Himalayas) would have destroyed the tunnel & anyone in it. The rescue of everyone of the trapped miners was a miracle – although also a triumph of engineering. So proud that an Australian was the chief engineer who made it happen.

Lee
Lee
November 29, 2023 4:49 pm

The blackface story is imploding. The boy in question’s name is Holden Armenta and his grandfather (not father) is on the Chumash Tribal board.

As conservative commentator Matt Walsh points out, some of the media is trying to make the boy out to be a “racist,” by showing only the black side of his face, not the red half.

Red and black are clearly his team’s colours; you only have to look at his jersey.

Diogenes
Diogenes
November 29, 2023 4:49 pm

13.5% from memory. There was a distinction between trading and savings banks.

1984 We applied to a building society, which converted to a bank during the settlement period. Because it was a building society approval, and not a bank approval, we got whacked with the full 18% . We sold our house because we would have had units on all sides. During settlement, we got a letter saying the Feds changed their minds for cases like ours and our rate was capped at 13.5%, and the extra repayments would be applied to the capital. Interest rates had come down by this point. … To this day I cannot stand tuna casserole and savoury mince because that is what we had been eating a lot of just to keep a roof over our heads.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 29, 2023 4:52 pm

Daily Mail.

South Australian council becomes the first since the Voice referendum failure to dump Welcome to Country

Regional council voted to axe Welcome to Country
Ritual was banned from meetings and official correspondence

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
November 29, 2023 4:53 pm

For it is the pin-point virtue of our time now to think that without a Ministry for the Disabled then you can’t have cared for the disabled;

I should also have said ‘pinhole focus’.

Top Ender
Top Ender
November 29, 2023 4:53 pm

Cairns-based Bottoms English Lawyers…

Should change the name to Bottom Feeders Lawyers.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 29, 2023 4:57 pm

Comment, from the Oz.

Brad
2 hours ago
(Edited)
When a serving Qld police officer (Juvenile Aid Bureau, Child Abuse Unit), I had to deal with shocking cases of child abuse in aboriginal communities. The activist class have a lot to answer for. In my experience, their activist bleatings often have little relationship with grim reality.

P
P
November 29, 2023 4:58 pm

Zafiro
Nov 29, 2023 4:37 PM

Little touch of red on the neck, eh, Lucy?

As per a commenter there: “How many tobacco plants can I have?”

Mid 2001 my husband and two sons visited Amsterdam for two weeks and he showed the boys where he went to school, the church where their grandfather was choirmaster, the little shop where he would buy his lunch each day when he was an apprentice carpenter. The church is now a mosque and they let the three of them in to look around. It was hard for my husband but even worse was when he wanted to sit down and enjoy a cigar. The coffee shop had a sign ‘NO TOBACCO’. Plenty of people smoking but not tobacco. So the three of them sat in the gutter in front of the shop while my husband smoked his cigar. Our sons do not smoke.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 5:02 pm

Dear Lord Dottington IV:

On behalf of the NSW State Executive and our Parliamentary Team, I would like to thank all the members who participated online.

Motion Three – To amend the NSW Constitution and change the NSW Party name to “Libertarian Party (formerly Liberal Democrats)” passed with flying colours!

We officially launched the name change on our social media platforms this week and we are currently in the process of registering the name change with the NSW Electoral Commission.

The State Executive along with John Ruddick are excited to launch into the 2024 NSW Local Council elections with our new name and re-brand.

The Libertarians are coming!

If you have any questions regarding the minutes of the SGM, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours in Liberty, Gemma Noisoi, Libertarian Party (NSW) Secretary.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 5:04 pm

Tuna Casserole? You can’t make it the same way anymore without the Continental Tomato and Vegetable soup.

Dot
Dot
November 29, 2023 5:07 pm

As for the ragu, bless Aldi for cheap steaks and a bit of Italian cookery. I’d rather have mince as hamburgers or rissoles with gravy.

I remember Devon, but not fondly.

cohenite
November 29, 2023 5:12 pm

rosie
Nov 29, 2023 4:42 PM
Caroline Glick
Hamas is offering all the hostages in exchange for a full ceasefire. In other words, if Israel agrees to lose the war, and accept Hamas’s survival, it will give us the hostages.
If Israel takes this deal, we will be on the fast track to national destruction.
(But then)

Very glad to hear that
@bezalelsm
rejected this possibility and war cabinet opposes it.

What Israel should do is what hampus and the rest of vile islam does: lie, see Taqiyya.

So Israel says to the butchering bastards: yeah, we’ll stop the War; and when every last hostage is returned then it obliterates hampus and the pallis.

Zippster
Zippster
November 29, 2023 5:15 pm

Boy is No Knickers looking Porky – Definitey Piled on the Kilos

a 7 figure bank account will do that to a chick

Johnny Rotten
November 29, 2023 5:16 pm

Zelensky Lives in Luxury – Top Aides Acquire $75 Million Yachts

“As the people of Ukraine continue to suffer under his rule, Zelensky is living a lavish lifestyle. The former comedian is said to have properties around the world. So while he is begging the world to “do their part” and fund his war, he is using much of the funds for his own pleasure. Two of his associates, Boris and Serhiy Shefir, are taking the fall after it was discovered that people acting on behalf of Zelensky purchased two yachts worth $75 million.

The yachts named “Lucky Me” and “My Legacy” were purchased in Abu Dhabi and Antibes in October 2023. The names alone are an insult to the people. Zelensky has repeatedly fired top-level officials for misusing foreign aid while hiding his own wrongdoings. Zelensky is listed in the Panama Papers, and the fact-checkers try to divert people away from this fact. I estimated last October that he had $100 million stashed offshore, which was a conservative estimate as others were claiming the figure to be closer to $850 million.

Zelensky purchased a $5 million property in Egypt under his mother-in-law’s name, Olga Kiyashko. “A suspicion is creeping in that Ukrainian bureaucrats, with the help of their relatives, are stealing financial aid to Ukraine from the West,” the political scientist continued. He stressed that Ukrainian corruption is to blame and that egocentric officials who prioritize personal gain over care for their own people infest and control Kyiv’s political system,” Egyptian political scientist Abdulrahman Alabbassy commented. It is said Zelensky owns a $35 million home in Sunny Isles Beach, FL, but I have not been able to verify the claim.

His people are skilled in hiding money and assets. Before he was installed as president, Zelensky gifted the majority of his stake in numerous businesses to Serhiy Shefir who later became his top consultant and is now one of the two brothers taking the blame for purchasing the luxury yachts.

Zelensky’s victory in Ukraine will be looked upon as the Judas who sold his country for 30 pieces of silver. The corruption in Zelensky’s government is perhaps the greatest in the world. He is leading men and women to slaughter while half the population has fled. There is no strategic benefit to the Ukrainian people, and Zelensky’s promises of ending corruption and peace with Russia, for which the people voted, have been ignored. The volatility will rise sharply from 2024; a critical target will be 2026.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/corruption/zelensky-lives-in-luxury-top-aides-acquire-75-million-yachts/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

The Bungonia Bee
The Bungonia Bee
November 29, 2023 5:21 pm

The media (even Sharri) are piling on to Bullock as a seamless segue from piling on to Lowe.
It’s not the Reserve Bank’s job to make things better for Jo and Josephine Average, it is their job to rein in rampant inflation and keep it in the target range 2-3%.
Governments have the job of managing everything else, including our trading position in world trade terms, which means not kneecapping mining and agriculture, and not destroying our huge advantage of cheap and reliable coal-fired power.
Governments have done just that, and continue to f*ck up our power system. But it’s Bullock or previuosly Lowe who have to be the whipping-persons?
We have ideologically driven government across the board and the results will reflect that. There’s no dodgy left policy that the Reserve Bank can counter, really.

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