Open Thread – Wed 6 Dec 2023


Summer Day, Ivan Shishkin, 1891

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Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 8, 2023 9:27 pm

My fave so far. Hamas beach party

What’s the local lingo for “FIRING SQUAD Ready! Pick your target’s, lads! Rapid! Go On!.”

Pogria
Pogria
December 8, 2023 9:29 pm
Cassie of Sydney
December 8, 2023 9:30 pm

A very close female friend rang me yesterday to tell me what happened when she met up with a mutual friend of ours for their weekly walk. Whilst walking in a park in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, this mutual friend suddenly stopped and burst out crying. He is 65 years old. My friend was rather taken aback, it’s unusual to see a grown man cry, and she tried to console him. She asked him why he was crying, and he said that he was shattered by what happened in Israel on 7 October. This man’s mother had survived Auschwitz, a Hungarian Jew rounded up in late 1944. But then he said something else to my friend, he said “you and Cassie have always been right about so much, and for too long I either ignored you both or dismissed you both as right-wing nutters”.

I do feel somewhat vindicated. I have long ranted to him and other friends about political and cultural stuff, such as how the serious threats to Jews here in Oz don’t come from theatrical groups of Grampian Nazis strutting around in Sound of Music clothes, rather it comes from the far-left, the not so far left, and adherents of Islam. Whilst it is nice to hear someone admit I’m right, deep down I wish I was wrong about everything, but I’m not.

This mutual friend is now reading The Australian and watching Sky News. Sometimes it takes something so awful to happen for people to finally yank their heads out of the sand.

Zatara
Zatara
December 8, 2023 9:33 pm

How disgusting looking must a terrorist be if the IDF made him wear a t-shirt while everyone else is getting a tan?

WolfmanOz
December 8, 2023 9:33 pm

Rabz
Dec 8, 2023 9:17 PM
DNA samples gathered (allowing subsequent documentation of their crimes committed on October 7 2023) and then summary executions.

It’s the only way to be sure.

If that makes me a bad person, I don’t give a shit.

Mighty vengeance is owed.

As I understand it Israel doesn’t have the death penalty.

I believe Adolf Eichmann is the only person the State of Israel has ever executed.

I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong, but it would go to explain why terrorists are jailed in Israel (along with those just released in exchange for hostages).

Cassie of Sydney
December 8, 2023 9:35 pm

I believe Adolf Eichmann is the only person the State of Israel has ever executed.

I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong, but it would go to explain why terrorists are jailed in Israel (along with those just released in exchange for hostages).”

Correct.

WolfmanOz
December 8, 2023 9:40 pm

Thanks Cassie – I knew you’d know for sure.

The events of Oct 7 may present a change in action on how Israel deals with these scum.

Zatara
Zatara
December 8, 2023 9:42 pm

I believe Israel still has the death penalty on its books although not for civil crimes.

The death penalty was retained for war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, treason and certain crimes under military law during wartime.

cohenite
December 8, 2023 9:44 pm

Stochastic inputs can be part of a stable model e.g. Climate. The model states cycle but follow some kind of normal distribution and “chaos” is possible in parts of the whole. There is a bunch of published stuff and even python code on this topic.

These enable us to understand what climate is but not predict it; so there is that. The other aspect is alarmism makes no sense at the input stage. If alarmism was a human it would be joe biden.

Winston Smith
December 8, 2023 9:46 pm

will

Dec 8, 2023 6:23 PM
Left it in the hands of paint tinter to match up with 4 liters of same product.
Got home to find the new 4 litre paint is water based.
Winston. Paint technology has come a long way since you were a lad. Water based is as good as an oil based enamel.

AAArrggh!
You deny me my Lived Experience in the paint factory?
Begone, you Satanic Schemer!

No, seriously, the issue is the paint underneath the the new layer. If I go with a water based paint, then the skirting boards need to be removed, stripped of paint and repainted. And being a lazy bastard, I ain’t doing that.!
In fact the only reason I’m painting the skirting boards is because with the old carpet and lino still in place, I don’t need to cut in the edges, but the door frames and doors can still be painted in place.

Delta A
Delta A
December 8, 2023 9:47 pm

This is the biscuit press I bought years ago.

Thanks, calli.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 8, 2023 9:48 pm

The death penalty was retained for war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, treason and certain crimes under military law during wartime.

Be an honor you’d be quite willing to forgo – the first person, executed by the State of Israel, since Adolph Eichmann.

Petros
Petros
December 8, 2023 9:49 pm

It beggars belief that people could not see how the antisemitism of the left would eventually become a real threat. Kudos to you, Cassie, for trying to wake them up.

Rabz
December 8, 2023 9:51 pm

adolf eichmann is the only creature the State of Israel has ever executed

Soft.

Time to get tough. Again.

Although, the extra judicial long overdue ending of various pointless existences has been indulged in by the Zionist state on occasions in the past.

There now needs to be more of it, you wonderful people of Moses and Jesus.

You know you want to – and now more than ever need to.

The Lord of the ol” Testament would not even think about condemning youse for engaging in these righteous actions of mighty vengeance, I tells ya! 🙂

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
December 8, 2023 9:52 pm

Best to ask Dr BG, he would be able to give a much better answer than me. If he could be arsed.

It would be unkind to deprive anyone of the pleasure to be obtained from exploring these issues on your own. It’s all explained, usually badly, on the interwebzy thingo. Sorting it out is very satisfying.

MatrixTransform
December 8, 2023 9:54 pm

BBQ

f’king legend !

Winston Smith
December 8, 2023 9:54 pm

calli

Dec 8, 2023 6:37 PM
Water based is as good as an oil based enamel.
Just had a brainwave. You can buy an undercoat that you can apply to an oil finish and then paint with water-based.
Your shed will have to wait.

That’s two coats, Calli.
I repeat – I’m a lazy bugger.
An oil based coat gives a superior gloss and impact protection from drunk old farts that ding lots of edges.
The description above may – or may not – describe Uncle Bob, who is well known among the family for encouraging whisky tasting nights among male members of the family.

Winston Smith
December 8, 2023 9:57 pm

Calli:
The shed is zincalume. All 20 x 30 meters of it.
They can paint it when I’m dead.
And put it in th eEulogy.

John H.
John H.
December 8, 2023 10:01 pm

Eating Your Way To Risk? The Major Impact of Diet on Alzheimer’s Disease

The lesson is obvious: less meat, more plants.
I was surprised to see TMAO come up in the study. It is produced by gut bugs exposed to various compounds, especially carnitine and choline. It is also associated with cardiovascular disease. However the data tends to dance around on that compound. The difference may lie in individual differences in microbiome species.

Our estimate suggests that the rising trend of obesity, due to consumption of meat and ultra-processed foods, is the force driving dementia. Although our personal risk of Alzheimer’s disease can be reduced with diet, it is expected that those who continue to eat the Western diet will continue to have a higher risk.

They are fat over there, highest rate in the OECD. I suspect though that obesity is a proxy for a lousy diet. For all the claims about optimal diet a wide variety of plant foods(many coloured plate), maintaining good weight, optimizing glucose levels, and avoiding processed foods, are fundamental although I am believer in people post 60 judiciously using supplements.
The Western diet is just plain wrong. Too many grains, too many additives, too much red meat, not enough fish, too many calories, too many micronutrient deficiencies.

They have a point. Early onset Alzheimer’s is already rising.

BCBS researchers found that rates of the disease increased 373% in the 30 to 44 bracket, 311% in the 45 to 54 bracket, and 143% in the 55 to 64 bracket.?

Although researchers didn’t elaborate on what could have caused these startling increases, they did announce several linked medical issues. One of which was the fact that “57% of individuals with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease filled an antidepressant medication the year prior.”

The antidepressant issue might be explained by research a few days ago that found long before Alzheimer’s is diagnosed serotonin levels diminish and that increases the expression of toxic proteins. On the other hand though in the USA popping psychotropic drugs is standard fare. That country loves all kinds of drugs.

Winston Smith
December 8, 2023 10:04 pm

Bruce of Newcastle

Dec 8, 2023 6:48 PM
Paging a Mr Hamilton. Will Gil “The Arm” Hamilton please come to the reception desk!
Japan’s First-Ever Conviction For Illegal Organ Trafficking Shines Light On Forced Organ Harvesting (8 Dec)
Who had organlegging on their 2023 bingo card? I’m now going to have to reread all those Larry Niven books.

Odd that it gets mentioned – I was thinking this morning of the punishments available to the Israeli State of the terrorists who committed Capital Crimes on the &/10 . Well first there’s hanging, then there’s the firing squad. And I thought of the Organ Banks.
Then I thought of the wood chipper.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 8, 2023 10:04 pm

This mutual friend is now reading The Australian and watching Sky News. Sometimes it takes something so awful to happen for people to finally yank their heads out of the sand.

This is why I get angry at people like Michael Gawenda.
When it starts to hit close to home, he has his Road to Damascus moment.
But, as editor of the Age, he fed and enabled this bullshit for decades.

Rabz
December 8, 2023 10:05 pm

“you and Cassie have always been right about so much, and for too long I either ignored you both or dismissed you both as right-wing nutters”

Wow – that’s one mighty administration of a Cluebat.

Cats, that’s a 65 year ol’ collectivist breaking down in tears finally having the good grace to admit he was wrong and his critics were not.

I will remain alive and kicking until my stupid siblings (if they haven’t carked it in the meantime) finally admit I was right and they were wrong.

I’ve got all of the rest of the decade at least. Do you?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 8, 2023 10:10 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okhd_ijkI6k

This one’s for any of you turret heads out there.

Winston Smith
December 8, 2023 10:11 pm

Cassie of Sydney

Dec 8, 2023 7:28 PM
Nope. There’s a bit psychology behind it as well. Half-nekkid blokes – especially sans footwear – are way less likely to jack up, let alone fight back once surrendered.”

Yes.

Depends on the culture – I can think of at least one personage who would love to have that happen, so then they could prance around waving their willy at all and sundry.

Cassie of Sydney
December 8, 2023 10:22 pm

This is why I get angry at people like Michael Gawenda.
When it starts to hit close to home, he has his Road to Damascus moment.
But, as editor of the Age, he fed and enabled this bullshit for decades.”

Yep.

Winston Smith
December 8, 2023 10:29 pm

Bespoke:

The IDF have enough on their hands without vigilantes complicating things. And who are these people? Not the civilians packing lunches cleaning uniforms and guiding the border while the IDF fights.
Again it is easy to brave when your safe in Australia. Don’t be a keyboard commando.

Stop deflecting and start supporting.
The IDF would have no problems with these people – in fact I doubt it even surfaces on their radar unless it’s with the civil affairs bureau.
And it’s nothing to do with your stupid “Keyboard Kommando” epithet -It’s about standing up and making your voice heard..

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 8, 2023 10:31 pm

LOL!

Cassie of Sydney
December 8, 2023 10:32 pm

On 7 October 2023 Palestinian Nazis jubilantly paraded the raped and desecrated corpse of Shani Louk through Gazan streets whilst ecstatic and excited onlookers spat on her lifeless body.

Today, IDF soldiers stripped Palestinian Nazis and paraded them through Gazan streets.

The Torah insists, ‘Justice, justice shall you pursue‘. Justice for Shani, justice for ALL the men, ALL the women and ALL the children who were raped and slaughtered that dreadful day.

MatrixTransform
December 8, 2023 10:33 pm

Whilst it is nice to hear someone admit I’m right, deep down I wish I was wrong about everything, but I’m not.

Apollo, cursed Cassandra with the gift of prophecy
she would always be right
and no one would ever believe her predictions

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 8, 2023 10:35 pm


I can think of at least one personage who would love to have that happen, so then they could prance around waving their willy at all and sundry
.

But enough about Albo

Winston Smith
December 8, 2023 10:35 pm

Cassie:

This mutual friend is now reading The Australian and watching Sky News. Sometimes it takes something so awful to happen for people to finally yank their heads out of the sand.

That’s why I want the film – ALL the film released.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
December 8, 2023 10:35 pm
Winston Smith
December 8, 2023 10:39 pm

ZK2A:

Be an honor you’d be quite willing to forgo – the first person, executed by the State of Israel, since Adolph Eichmann.

I’d sell tickets – high priced ones, and I reckon I’d sell all of them.

132andBush
132andBush
December 8, 2023 10:41 pm

Today, IDF soldiers stripped Palestinian Nazis and paraded them through Gazan streets.

Willing to fight to the death so they can meet the 72 virgin goats…
… just not today.
Pity they surrendered before the missile was called down.

JohnJJJ
JohnJJJ
December 8, 2023 10:42 pm

Then I thought of the wood chipper.
I believe Israel still has the death penalty on its books although not for civil crimes.

You must understand the enemy. They will die a martyr. I hope you all saw the 70 year old Israeli talking about shooting them.. He said they weren’t scared, they didn’t care, if they fell down they kept going.
If you execute them they will gladly die. As a martyr performing Jihad, they have ensured their family will enter Paradise.
There are ways of doing this that mean they will go to hell. ( it is not pigs – pigs are regarded the same as rats are in our culture).
Remember Amrozi who killed over 200 innocent people in Bali. He was smiling as he was led away to be executed. The strength of their belief is foreign to the modern West. We ignore this at our peril.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 8, 2023 10:46 pm

Today, IDF soldiers stripped Palestinian Nazis and paraded them through Gazan streets.

None of them could claim to be perky.

John H.
John H.
December 8, 2023 10:47 pm

JohnJJJ
Dec 8, 2023 10:42 PM
Then I thought of the wood chipper.
I believe Israel still has the death penalty on its books although not for civil crimes.
You must understand the enemy. They will die a martyr. I hope you all saw the 70 year old Israeli talking about shooting them.. He said they weren’t scared, they didn’t care, if they fell down they kept going.
If you execute them they will gladly die. As a martyr performing Jihad, they have ensured their family will enter Paradise.

Not if the shooter is female. Death by females should be the goal of the military. I wonder if that applies to trans women.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 8, 2023 10:48 pm

Catching up on matters Britnah.
It seems, as suggested by many here, that in her interactions with Police and counsellors, her big concern was keeping her jerb.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
December 8, 2023 10:49 pm

bons
Dec 8, 2023 5:18 PM

Agree. Thousands of Hamas prisoners will be an ongoing nightmare and vulnerability for Israel.

Indeed.
Perhaps the best thing to do is:

Take their kit off them;
Collect their names and identity details;
Give their details to UNRWA;
Post same details online;
Turn them loose in Gaza.

Let Hamas sort out the problem of what to do with the non-jihadi plump ones, scared and not willing to be martyred for the cause.

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 8, 2023 10:52 pm

What you should immediately notice is that they’re not being slaughtered or tortured. In this regard, the Israeli approach is very different from what happens when Arabs get their hands on enemy soldiers that they don’t intend to keep alive as hostages for bartering. In 2000, when West Bankians got hold of two Israeli soldiers, they ripped them apart and showed their blood-stained hands to the cheering crowd.

Rabz
December 8, 2023 10:54 pm

Today, mighty IDF warriors stripped fat stupid stinkee palestinian rubble bunnies and paraded them through gazan goat tracks in the full view of the bag headed slags that have stridently urged them to sacrifice their pointless existences for a supposed mythical being that never existed in the first place.

A great day it was. 🙂

Rabz
December 8, 2023 11:04 pm

IDF soldiers stripped Palestinian Nazis and paraded them through Gazan streets

Reminiscent of Heeresgruppe Mitte finally making it to Moscow in mid ’44 …

Zatara
Zatara
December 8, 2023 11:05 pm

He said they weren’t scared, they didn’t care, if they fell down they kept going.

They wouldn’t be the first muslims that went into “battle” hopped up. I’d make a significant wager that there are some interesting postmortem blood test results in the IDF files.

If you execute them they will gladly die.

And yet they are now surrendering in droves.

Because it’s no fun anymore. They don’t get to play assassin (a term whose origins are in Shia Islam). They don’t get to strut around playing the warrior.

But most of all, they aren’t getting a nice quick, “glorious”, painless death. Instead they are suffering pain and humiliation. That takes courage, not bluster.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 8, 2023 11:15 pm

Prince Harry loses legal challenge in libel claim against Mail on Sunday

Duke of Sussex is suing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over an article regarding his legal challenge against Home Office

Hannah Furness,
ROYAL EDITOR

The Duke of Sussex has lost a bid to have the Mail on Sunday publisher’s defence to his High Court libel claim thrown out by a judge.

The Duke is suing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over a February 2022 article about his legal challenge against the Home Office following a decision to change his publicly funded security arrangements when visiting the UK.

The Duke’s lawyers have said the story, which claimed he “tried to keep details of his legal battle to reinstate his police protection secret from the public”, was “an attack on his honesty and integrity” and would undermine his charity work and efforts to tackle misinformation online.

ANL is contesting the claim, arguing the article expressed an “honest opinion” and did not cause “serious harm” to his reputation.

In March, the High Court heard the duke’s bid to strike out ANL’s “honest opinion” defence or grant judgment in his favour on it.

In a written ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Nicklin refused to “strike out” ANL’s defence.

The judgment comes a day after the High Court finished hearing the Duke’s claim that the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) to change the degree of his personal protection was “unlawful and unfair”.

A different judge’s decision in that case is expected at a later date.

Mr Justice Nicklin was previously told The Mail on Sunday first reported that the duke was taking legal action against the Home Office in January 2022.

A press statement issued on Harry’s behalf at the time said he and his family were “unable to return to his home” due to the lack of police protection needed in the UK.

It added: “The Duke first offered to pay personally for UK police protection for himself and his family in January of 2020 at Sandringham.

“That offer was dismissed. He remains willing to cover the cost of security, as not to impose on the British taxpayer.”

In a Home Office document prepared for a February 2022 preliminary hearing in the Duke’s security claim, the department said his offer of private funding “notably was not advanced to Ravec” at the time of the duke’s visit in June 2021, or in any pre-action correspondence.

The Mail on Sunday article claimed this was “a crushing rebuttal to Harry’s initial public statement that implied he had always been willing to foot the bill”.

Justin Rushbrooke KC, for the Duke, said in written submissions for the March hearing that ANL’s defence to the libel claim “rests upon two provably false premises” relating to the press statement.

The first was a suggestion that the duke had allegedly made a false claim over his willingness to pay for police protection in the UK, while the second was he had allegedly stated his case against the Home Office was over a refusal to let him pay for this security.

He told the court it was “absolutely obvious” that the January 2022 press statement “makes no claim that the claimant (the Duke) made an offer to Ravec or the Home Office or that his judicial review proceedings were to challenge a refusal to accept it”.

Dismissing the Duke of Sussex’s bid to have ANL’s “honest opinion” defence to his libel claim thrown out, Mr Justice Nicklin said: “Overall, it is not fanciful that the defendant will be successful, at trial, in demonstrating that the public statements issued on the claimant’s behalf sought to promote the judicial review claim as his battle against the Government’s (perverse) decision to refuse to allow him to pay for his own security.

“There is a real prospect that the defendant will succeed in demonstrating that this was a misleading description of the issues in the judicial review claim, arguably promoted because it was hoped to show the claimant’s judicial review claim in a positive light, whereas a portrayal of the judicial review claim as the claimant trying to force the Government to reinstate his, taxpayer-funded, state security risked his appearing in a negative light.”

Andrew Caldecott KC, for ANL, previously said the bid to end their defence without a trial was “wholly without merit” and that “the whole case is built on sand”.

He added: “The claimant was responsible for press statements that said he would pay for security when he had never expressed any willingness to pay until after the judicial review.”

John H.
John H.
December 8, 2023 11:16 pm
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 8, 2023 11:26 pm

My older children are different from their North American cousins. My twenty-year-old daughter is about to give birth to our first grandchild, after volunteering in a hospital for a year. My not-Orthodox-by-choice daughter and her boyfriend spend much of their precious few shabbats home from the army together with their families—grandparents included—without giving it a second thought. My twenty-three-year-old son plans to marry his sweetheart within the year, even before beginning undergraduate study, which only comes after yeshiva study and combat service. Israeli kids grow up with a sense of belonging, an awareness of obligation. They are the ones protecting our communities and policing our borders. They are shaping the national discourse and raising up the next generation. They know that they are needed, that their lives and choices matter, and that they are not alone.

From P’s link earlier today re a Canadian family that moved to Israel. You sense this when you go to Israel – that the community, as apart from the polity, is strong, resilient and highly inclusive of all members, at the familial level and also the wider communal level (such that 29% of Israeli Arabs are joining Jewish volunteer groups supporting the nation and the IDF, pulling together in a time of national emergency).

All the young people in their twenties that we spoke to a few years back travelling in Israel were so positive, assured, generously helpful and decent. As were young people around me in Australia in my own youth, the 1950’s, and the early 60’s before the later 60’s rebellion rot set in. Marriage was still an accepted norm, and usually in the early twenties. Both Hairy and my first husband were bridegrooms at age twenty-one. Those first marriages both floundered on the rocks of ‘self-actualisation’ by all involved, an unrealistic hippie selfishness bred in universities then, as now.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 8, 2023 11:31 pm

Prince Harry loses legal challenge in libel claim against Mail on Sunday

Poor Hazza – I wonder if he ever reflects on the fate of the last member of the Royal Family, to give up his status as an Admiral, in the Royal Navy, to become Third Mate, to a Baltimore tramp…

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 8, 2023 11:37 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR7vzDJbxo4

Aunty Mary

Had a canary

Up the leg of her drawers…

Rabz
December 8, 2023 11:50 pm

The Institute of Public Affairs, Cats – they ain’t perfect, but they are out there laying into collectivists at every available opportunitee … 🙂

Rabz
December 9, 2023 12:00 am
Rabz
December 9, 2023 12:01 am

Unlike me good self, I tells ya! 🙂

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
December 9, 2023 12:04 am

The Institute of Public Affairs, Cats – they ain’t perfect, but they are out there laying into collectivists at every available opportunitee … ?

I’ll be renewing my membership just before Christmas.

Rabz
December 9, 2023 12:11 am

As relevant as ever – “through it all, we closed our eyes …” 😕

Rafiki
Rafiki
December 9, 2023 12:15 am

So the lip-reader expert will give an account of what Lehrmann said to Higgins while they stood at a table – something like “they’re all yours” while pointing to 2 or 3 drinks – contradicts Lehrmann’s evidence that he didn’t say anything like that. Where does this get the defence?
First, it is another piece of Lehrmann’s plan to get Higgins drunk, so that he could rape her. OTOH, it’s only a slight piece of evidence to support such a plan, although joined up with other pieces it takes on a greater significance. In the end however the PH video shows that she was not very drunk when they entered the Minister’s suite.

Secondly, it is another piece of evidence to argue that Lehrmann is, at least, an unreliable witness. Maybe even a lying one. OTOH, Lehrmann can build a much stronger case that Higgins is unreliable, or a liar. The revelation, via the Deed, that there are several points where what she said in the Deed is inconsistent with her evidence at the defamation trial, will count against her. Justice Lee has said as much.

I would be surprised if this lip-reader’s evidence has much impact on Lehrmann’s case. Maybe the defendants are planning to use evidence of Lehrmann’s lack of credibility to the end of mitigating the damages award. Or maybe just to give Higgins’ rusted on supporters something to hang their hats on. Or maybe in some way to bolster their public interest defence. Of course, that defence may get up irrespective of the weight of the lip-reader’s evidence.

Rabz
December 9, 2023 12:23 am
Rabz
December 9, 2023 12:30 am

Being a bit too ethereal here however – although there will not be a wasted gram of fat:

I’m the Sun in your eyes

Ozzee Brunettes – just definitive. 🙂

Rabz
December 9, 2023 12:48 am

Cats – you just want to be with a goil

Gorgeous, she is- she is driving you crazee …

So you hatch a plan – which doesn’t involve li’l Scottish eight year olds, FFS … 😕

JC
JC
December 9, 2023 1:03 am

This, this attitude is the reason we’ve been treading water for the past 20 years.

Wayne Swan
@SwannyQLD
·
7h
BHP has deliberately underpaid workers despite massive profits.

Average BHP wages and salaries:

AU$116k
Avg. Base Salary (AUD)

AU$11k
Avg. Bonus

BHP has one of if not the the highest rates in the world for a large corp outside of US tech.

Bazinga
Bazinga
December 9, 2023 1:57 am

They’re also woke AF

JC
JC
December 9, 2023 2:02 am

Bazinga

You’re obviously referring to their support of the YES vote. Look, it’s both deplorable and understandable at the same time. Their operations are in remote areas and they have to deal with aboriginal issues much, much more than others to the likes of Westpac for instance. Give the miners a little slack on this issue.

JC
JC
December 9, 2023 3:28 am

I didn’t respond to Mad Karen’s (aka JMH) accusations the other day so here it is.

Dover asked for people to donate for the upkeep of the site, and like others here who have sent him money for this purpose, we want to see the site going in order to keep rightwing views in continuance.

This worthless skunk suggests responding to the request and sending few hundred dollars a year for upkeep is corrupt and dishonest. He accuses Dover of corruptly promoting cash for comment. What a junkyard pos of shit.

I bet that not a single one of the battered wives crew have sent a dime.

Let’s try a little transparency. I sent Dover exactly 300 bucks for upkeep back in October, which I done every year since it began.

Has:

Wodney
Driller
Turtlehead
Barking Toad
Mad Karen
and the other battereds

sent even a nickel over the past 3 years of operation?

JC
JC
December 9, 2023 3:47 am

Moreover, there’s this.

I would estimate the rough cost of running the operation would be around $10,000 a year to be done properly. If you take the personal time and effort Dover puts into running the site, the cost would be closer to at least 30K just to break even (my estimate only).

How about the users/commenters sending him donations to operate the site and help him defray the cost? In the interest of complete transparency, I will from now on announce my donation and when I send it (next October). How about others doing the same?

If Mad Karen and the others want to demonstrate their interest in the site and that it’s not just self-interested trolling, then post the donation you’ve made or will make.

This also applies to others here. If you really want to keep the site going and have it perform better, then make a donation to help things along. The site doesn’t run without money, unfortunately, and even if people have their differences, they can also ignore their personal prejudices and make a donation to help things along.

I think it’s unfair have the site owner take most of the burden if you believe the site has worth and rightwing ideas need to be promoted as well as explored. Send him a donation!

Gabor
Gabor
December 9, 2023 5:05 am

Images emerge of Palestinian captives stripped and bound in Gaza + commentary.

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 9, 2023 6:29 am

$10,000 a year to be done properly

$300 , Max.

Gabor
Gabor
December 9, 2023 6:32 am

Setting up a WordPress blog. $0 to whatever you want.

CharlieP
CharlieP
December 9, 2023 6:54 am

Because I missed the request for donations, please give details on how to accomplish same. I lurk but read the blog most days and mostly appreciate the points of view expressed. Happy to donate.

Gabor
Gabor
December 9, 2023 6:59 am

Ps; I think Dover’s time would be far more valuable than the hosting costs.
I wouldn’t do it even if I could.

JC
JC
December 9, 2023 7:04 am

Gabor
Dec 9, 2023 6:59 AM

Ps; I think Dover’s time would be far more valuable than the hosting costs.
I wouldn’t do it even if I could.

And there’s that, which isn’t insignificant either.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 9, 2023 8:34 am

I am grateful for the blog, mostly. Therefore I donate, a hundred dollars irregularly (when I remember, I like to keep it opt in or out), because that seems fair, roughly on the same general level as membership of the IPA, CPAC, Quadrant, etc but not as much as costs for the Spectator, SkyNews and The Oz. There are always lots of calls on anyone’s income, so not everyone can donate, but do so if you can, even $25 can help. Dover’s time is valuable and there are other hidden costs. Click Support on the header bar to get details of how to contribute.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 9, 2023 8:52 am

ps, I don’t think Dover shows any financial favoritism at all in his moderating of comment here. That should not and does not come into it, which is why this blog survives and thrives as a free and public site of more than the economic commentary which was its foundation. Over the years I think Sinclair axed more people than Dover ever has, but neither has wielded the axe for a differing opinion, only ever for relentless disruption, and both rely on the blog being self-policing. As an aside on that, in the early days JC stoushed very valiantly to stop left-wing Keynesian trolling. I suspect some of his ‘stoushing’ now is simply reliving those glory days and I say just give him space, he’s earned it, walk around it.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 9, 2023 9:01 am

Small Christmas Party lunch here today for grandson and his American mother who are departing to her family in Upstate New York’s snowy countryside shortly.

I have things to do still, decorations, presents, table-setting for 8, and .. food!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 9, 2023 9:42 am

Taxpayers entitled to truth on Higgins’ $2.4m payment

One does not need to be a genius to work out the bigger the payout agreed by the Albanese government to Brittany Higgins, the worse it looked for the Liberals.
By janet albrechtsen
December 9, 2023
10 minute read

On February 11, 2021, just a few days before Brittany Higgins aired a rape allegation against Bruce Lehrmann on The Project, the former Liberal staffer texted her then boyfriend. “I’m just stressy that this will all become a litigious matter now,” she wrote to David Sharaz.

That would prove to be an understatement. This tawdry national debacle, arising from Higgins’s allegation that Lehrmann raped her in Parliament House on March 23, 2019, is into its fourth year, with more to come in 2024, and has become one of the nation’s biggest legal gorge fests.

Just about every person involved has had their interests represented by lawyers. Not just Higgins and Lehrmann, or just Higgins’s former bosses, Linda Reynolds and Fiona Brown. Lehrmann’s barrister, Steve Whybrow SC, and former ACT director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold had senior lawyers defending their interests at the board of inquiry earlier this year. To top it off, former judge Walter Sofronoff KC, who conducted that inquiry into claims of political interference, has had to engage lawyers to defend him from claims by Drumgold in litigation slated for next year.

We, the taxpayers, are the only people who have not had our interests represented. That needs to change next year because our interests need protecting.

Whatever the result of the defamation trial by Lehrmann against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, taxpayers will want to know the truth behind the $2.445m payment to Higgins by the Albanese government in December last year. That’s how much taxpayers were effectively forced to deposit into the pockets of Higgins and her lawyers when the commonwealth inked a secret settlement on December 13.

Brittany Higgins’ compensation

$400,000 for hurt, distress and humiliation
$1,480,000 as a capital payment for loss of earning capacity
$220,000 for medical and like expenses arising from the alleged sexual assault
$100,000 for past and future domestic assistance
$245,000 to cover legal costs
TOTAL: $2,445,000

WHAT THE COMMONWEALTH SIGNED OFF

Without any admissions of liability, the parties have agreed to resolve all claims by Ms Higgins against the beneficiaries (apart from) … Bruce Lehrmann; Senator Linda Reynolds and Senator Michaelia Cash.

Higgins testified on Tuesday that “the commonwealth admitted that they breached their duty of care and that they didn’t go through proper processes, so that’s actually why they settled with me”.

In fact, the deed of release, dated December 13, 2022, expressly states that the parties have agreed to resolve all claims between them “without any admissions of liability”. That acknowledgment is repeated later in the deed.

The deed, now public after being tendered this week during the defamation proceedings, was settled with a series of annexures that detail only Higgins’s version of events.

Higgins was paid $1.48m for loss of earnings calculated over 40 years of claimed incapacity; $400,000 for hurt, distress and humiliation; $220,000 for medical expenses; $100,000 for “past and future domestic assistance”; and $245,000 for legal costs. This settlement was reached just days after the then DPP decided not to proceed with a second trial against Lerhmann.

This settlement was reached despite the fact Higgins’s claims about the behaviour of senators Reynolds and Michaelia Cash and Reynolds’s then chief of staff, Brown, were hotly contested at the first trial, which ended due to jury misconduct. And they remain contested. Nor do we know if the commonwealth made any investiga­tion at all about the reasonableness of Higgins’s claim for 40 years of lost income or any of the other amounts claimed by Higgins, although given the speed and lack of formal proceedings with which the matter was settled, taxpayers are entitled to ask questions about these matters, too.

The settlement was made in haste, in secret, and with many serious legal and political questions left unanswered about the conduct of Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Anthony Albanese, along with the Department of Finance and the Attorney-General’s Department.

It’s curious to digest this deed in tandem with the defamation trial in Sydney.

The commonwealth’s deed has attached to it a document titled “Events complained about”. Higgins claimed that Brown “made it clear by her words and demeanour that the events of March 22-23, 2019 must be put to one side and that the claimant needed to remain silent about the sexual assault, in order to keep her job/career … In that context the claimant felt she had no choice but to abandon pursuit of the complaint of sexual assault with the AFP.”

In court on Tuesday, Justice Michael Lee asked Higgins to explain precisely what Brown said or did. “You’ve given a lot of evidence about what you felt,” the judge said. “I want to know what she said or what she did, which you said amounted to an obstruction, so you had to choose between your career and making a complaint to the police?”

Now there’s a judge who knows how to test claims.

Brown told The Australian earlier this year that after Higgins alluded to sexual activity, Reynolds suggested that Higgins might wish to speak with the Australian Federal Police. Brown found the phone number, checked where the AFP offices were and offered to show Higgins where they were located.

Why didn’t the Albanese government test the veracity of Higgins’s claims before shelling out more than $2.4m to her? An investigation is needed to determine the links between Higgins and her partner, Sharaz, with the Prime Minister, Dreyfus, Gallagher and any other Labor MP or person on their behalf.

Higgins claimed in court last week it was not her intention to damage the Morrison government. That is at odds with texts between her and Sharaz, whom Higgins started dating before her interview in February 2021 with The Project.

On March 26, 2021, for example, Higgins said of Morrison: “He’s about to be f..ked over. Just wait. We’ve got him.” It is believed Higgins was referring to her and Sharaz’s belief Morrison’s office had been “backgrounding” against them. Sharaz – who Higgins said in court last week had a “grudge” against the Coalition at the time they met – made frequent disparaging remarks in his texts to Higgins about the then prime minister, at one point telling Higgins: “I still hate the c…”.

The tranche of text messages seen by this newspaper revealed Higgins and Sharaz had directly enlisted the support of senior Labor figures to pursue her allegation of rape and her allegation that the Coalition government tried to cover it up – these claims were unproven at the time the Albanese government paid Higgins over $2.4m, and they remain unproven.

We know the Attorney-General muzzled Reynolds in her defence against Higgins’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit, threatening to tear up an agreement to pay Reynolds’s legal fees and any costs awarded unless she agreed not to attend a mediation.

We know the deed signed by the commonwealth and Higgins included a release from any past, exist­ing or future claims against the commonwealth. But the release by Higgins specifically excludes Reynolds and Cash from certain future claims.

Was the Albanese government leaving the door open for Higgins to make future claims against Reynolds, knowing this would cause more political problems for the senator and the Liberals?

This matter and its referral by Reynolds to the National Anti-Corruption Commission two months ago is the first and biggest test for the newly created NACC. It’s not about Reynolds. It’s about the proper administration of government and taxpayer funds. To cut to the chase: did the Albanese government agree to pay Higgins a multimillion payment in secret in return for what they perceived to be services rendered for her role in bringing down the Morrison government by taking her allegation to the media before formalising a police complaint? Once Higgins decided to do that, the then Labor opposition went hell for leather in parliament, and in the media, to destroy Reynolds, Cash, Brown and especially Morrison.

Once the Morrison government was defeated in May last year, the new Albanese government was free to settle with Higgins. One does not need to be a genius to work out the bigger the payout agreed by the Albanese government to Higgins, the worse it looked for the Liberals.

It is also important to remember the rape allegation is separate and distinct from Higgins’s allegations against Reynolds and Cash. Millions of dollars have been spent on the conflicting claims in the he said/she said battle. Taxpayers are entitled to be fed up with this part of the saga. But we should be engaged on the fact the commonwealth didn’t spend a dollar testing the conflicting claims between Higgins on the one hand and Reynolds, Cash and Brown on the other.

We are entitled to understand what kind of potential precedents are being set by the commonwealth’s handling of these cases. A payment to former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller was settled by the Albanese government in July last year. Miller, who worked for former Liberal minister Alan Tudge and Cash between 2016 and 2018, had filed a complaint with the Department of Finance alleging bullying, harassment and discrimin­ation at work, and made high-profile allegations against Tudge. She was paid $650,000, which included $300,000 for hurt, distress, humiliation, dislocation of life, loss of professional standing and impairment of personal dignity. Were Miller’s claims checked? Or was this another payment waved through for political reasons?

The Australian understands that before this settlement, and after The Project interview, Miller left a voice message on Higgins’s phone, asking whether she might be interested in being part of a possible class action, presumably against the commonwealth. That does not appear to have eventuated, with Miller signing off on a deed of settlement in July last year, five months before the commonwealth settled with Higgins. What other similar payments have been made that we do not know about?

We know the payment to Higgins, and the manner in which it was done, stands in stark contrast to how military veterans are treated when making claims for mental impairment or physical injury suffered in the course of their work.

This week Barnaby Joyce put this question on notice to the Albanese government: “In respect of veterans’ compensation and other payments: For each of the past 10 years how many veterans or dependants received compensation since the current government took office? For each month, how many veterans or dependants received compensation or other forms of payments totalling at least $2.3m? In each case, what was the time­frame from the lodgement of the claim, to approval for payment? Without requesting identifiable personal information, to what injuries, conditions or circumstances did each payment relate?”

We await the answer.

The political questions about this payment are as murky as the legal ones. Taxpayers are entitled to know whether the deed settled with Higgins complied with the Legal Services Directions. It is not enough that we have a few throw­away lines from the Attorney-General that everything is hunky dory. As an 18-year-old Mandy Rice Davies quipped once, he would say that, wouldn’t he.

If the department responsible for this settlement did not test the veracity of Higgins’s claims, how can the department, on behalf of the commonwealth, be meeting its obligations to act as a “model litigant” under the Legal Services Directions? Appendix C to those directions, headed Criteria For Settlement, includes this direction: “Settlement on the basis of legal principle and practice requires the existence of at least a meaningful prospect of liability being established. In particular, settlement is not to be effected merely because of the cost of defending what is clearly a spurious claim.”

An investigation is needed to ascertain whether the department followed the additional criteria set down in those guidelines that apply to settlements over $100,000. Without that, how can taxpayers be satisfied that public money is being paid for valid claims?

Given what we already know about this secret payment by the Albanese government, and the questions it raises about the improper administration of government and possible misuse of taxpayer funds, if the NACC does not launch a full-scale investigation, many will be forced to ask whether this new body is nothing more than a political show pony.

Speaking of which, why didn’t the teals demand a NACC investigation into this secret, uncontested payment to Higgins given they based their election campaigns on cleaning up politics with an anti-corruption commission?

Before it’s over there will be many political, legal and moral lessons from this frightful saga. While many issues remain hotly contested by the various protagonists, there is less room for disagreement about one matter. This expensive, damaging public farce began when two young staff members decided to enter Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019, in a serious breach of security rules.

The potential political karma is clear, too. The merciless exploitation of Higgins to damage the Morrison government might turn into a political nightmare for the Albanese government.

In the meantime, taxpayers face their own nightmare. We have funded a criminal trial, a public board of inquiry, paid for the courts and judges to accommodate myriad defamation actions, watched as our elected representatives have had to spend time on this debacle. Surely we are entitled to know whether the Albanese government’s secret $2.4m payment to Higgins that relied only on her claims was corrupted by politics.

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