Open Thread – Wed 13 Dec 2023


The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus, Rubens, 1634–1636

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Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 13, 2023 10:45 am

Gotta keep their Gaza market share for hard wearing sports undies?

Sportswear giant Puma ends sponsorship of Israel national team (12 Dec)

Sportswear giant Puma is terminating its sponsorship agreement with Israel’s national football team.

The German firm insisted the decision to cut ties was made long before Hamas’s October 7 attack and the subsequent war in Gaza, but the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement described the move as a “win” for their cause.

I head Dylan Mulvaney is available, Puma peoples, maybe you could call him for a nice photo shoot in several sets of your yoga pants. And perhaps some 1936’s German Olympic Team sporty uniforms too, that would go down well with the Left.

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 10:49 am

This latest decision is but the most recent in not reading the electorate at large.

Or they can read the electorate but they just think they know better.

Their own pollsters advised them to can the Voice but they persisted.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 13, 2023 10:50 am

Perplexed

Apart from the anti-Christian bias which seems to go with all things today, I wonder if there is also a push by employers for this? No penalty rates for staff on weekends and public holidays. Staff can be scheduled to have their weekends whenever the employer says.

On the flip side, I have no problem as a Christian in taking Christmas Day and Good Friday off as leave without pay. As long as every other religious holiday is treated the same.

Also, non-Christian folk are quite welcome to go to work on those days and earn money. Single time rate of course.

Abolish all public holidays, add the relevant number of days to annual leave, able to be taken as single days if desired. You want Christmas Day? Take it off your annual leave? Usman wants Eid? Take it off annual leave? Noel Pearson wants Sorry Day? Take it off annual leave.

Winston Smith
December 13, 2023 10:51 am

DrBeauGan
Dec 12, 2023 11:27 PM

What was the RoI on the icecream btw?

I don’t have the faintest idea what you are talking about. Are you confusing me with someone else again?

Beaugy, that’s Sanchez confusing himself with someone funny. He rarely is, and is locked into a mindset that got him adoring looks from the girls in Year 7. He continues it here whenever JC lets him off the leash.

Dot
Dot
December 13, 2023 10:55 am

To Brisvegas now, for a week or so of outdoor pursuits!

Let’s leave “Dogging” in Darwin shall we, Mr “The Face of NT News, 2018”?

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 10:57 am

I stopped watching during the Michael Clarke era.

Strange parallels between Pup and John Howard. I blame Lara Bingle. Who also gave us SloMo?

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 13, 2023 10:57 am

flyingduk
Dec 13, 2023 9:36 AM
Duk isn’t considering the upsides for Israel, besides the systematic destruction of Hamas and bringing many of the terrorists to justice ….. no more Hamas means no more brainwashing with Farfour and Neehoul etc.

1) Hamas will be damaged but not destroyed, it will reconstitute, or be replaced by something similar. Voids get filled.
2) Hamas is a symptom of the problem (1400 years of clashing religious ideologies), not the cause of the problem, ‘eliminating’ it will not change that.
3) For every terrorist ‘brought to justice’, more will be created by the process, many more…

Still no sign of your alternative strategy for Israel.

Isit a bit like the saying “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like”?

In this case, you don’t know much about strategy, but you know what you don’t like.

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 10:58 am

Strange parallels between Pup and John Howard. I blame Lara Bingle. Who also gave us SloMo?

Talk about an axis of evil.

Real Deal
Real Deal
December 13, 2023 11:02 am

Border is a NSWelshman who switched to QLD c. 1980.

I knew you’d pick that up, Roger. Was trying to get a snick past the keeper!

Yes, when Border made his Test debut in 78/79 he was one of our own in NSW.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 11:02 am

This Channel 10 chap has tied himself into a bunch of knots.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 13, 2023 11:03 am

Wilkinson set to take the stand
Joanna Panagopoulos
Joanna Panagopoulos

Bruce Lehrmann v Network Ten will begin on Wednesday with further cross-examination of The Project’s producer Angus Llewellyn before Lisa Wilkinson is finally expected to take the stand.

Mr Lehrmann’s barrister Matthew Richardson SC spent much of Tuesday grilling Mr Llewellyn about how he verified the information Brittany Higgins’ gave him and Ms Wilkinson ahead of The Project broadcast.

At the centre of this questioning was the much-discussed photo of a bruise which Ms Higgins claimed was “caused by Mr Lehrmann during the rape” and was taken a couple of days after the alleged assault.

The interview that aired in 2021, detailing accusations that Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins on March 23, 2019, but not naming him as the alleged attacker, is the subject of Mr Lehrmann’s defamation proceedings against Network Ten and Ms Wilkinson. Mr Lehrmann has consistently denied raping Ms Higgins.

Mr Richardson is expected to cross-examine Ms Wilkinson at length about the steps she took to check the credibility of Ms Higgins’ claims.

On Tuesday Mr Richardson asked questions about whether or not it was inappropriate for Ms Wilkinson to tell Ms Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz: “I’ve so got Linda Reynolds in my sights now” during a five-hour pre-interview with the pair.

Yesterday afternoon, the court was handed a copy of the recording of a conversation between Ms Higgins’ solicitor, Leon Zwier, and Mr Sharaz, allegedly captured by an onlooker in the Park Hyatt hotel last week, about how she should respond to questions under oath.

Mr Lehrmann’s legal team served a subpoena on Sky News on Tuesday for the tape and there are likely to be further developments on Wednesday about the contents of that recording.

If Mr Zwier’s advice were communicated to Ms Higgins, it would be a potential contempt of court, in defiance of a federal court judge.

Mr Zwier told Sky News his comments were made on the common understanding that no one would speak to Ms Higgins about her testimony, and there is no suggestion Mr Sharaz passed on the advice.

Through its ‘qualified privilege’ defence, which the court is hearing this week, Network Ten will claim that in publishing material that was defamatory it, as a media organisation and its journalists, behaved professionally, reasonably and in the public interest when airing the rape allegation against Mr Lehrmann

Should be rather amusing…

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 13, 2023 11:04 am

alwaysright
Dec 13, 2023 10:05 AM
Oops, that was supposed to say “story linky here”.

Consonants are a problem, b vowels are a bigger problem. e.g. Knackerless when one meant to write Knickerless.

Not really a problem, both descriptors are accurate.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 11:05 am

Judge Lee getting very snippy with Mr Llewellyn trying to run the show.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 11:07 am

I’m no lawyer.
Can Saint Lisa just dump everything on this Channel 10 moron?
“I was profoundly misled by everyone”.
She & Channel 10 lose but it makes her costs claim against 10 stronger?
How does it all work?

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 11:07 am

I knew you’d pick that up, Roger. Was trying to get a snick past the keeper!

😀

Thommo being another one, of course.

And more recently Khawaja.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 11:07 am

Judge Lee getting very snippy

Very.

JC
JC
December 13, 2023 11:09 am

Team moron Inc. appears to be making its way to the site.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
December 13, 2023 11:10 am

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Dec 13, 2023 10:11 AM

Ivy League is now Poison Ivy League.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 11:13 am

Alex Berenson
@AlexBerenson

Not a parody, apparently even flooding tunnels filled with terrorists (about as low-risk for civilians as possible) is unacceptable to Hamas apologists like LMNOPI. Israel can defend itself, as long as it actually doesn’t defend itself.

https://x.com/AlexBerenson/status/1734692554724032734?s=20

Twitter link shows someone asking for an environmental impact study.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 11:15 am

Roger I thought the beef with Galileo was a bit more nuanced, the Pope was his sponsor but he was extremely rude and mocked his lack of understanding of the science in his paper, nor was it the theory itself at issue but his stepping into a theological issue, because he argued for the theory without offering any proof *not very sciencey).
Anyhow the entire Saga is just a cudgel for the rubbish ‘the church is antiscience’ narrative.

Nevertheless it was a churchman, Nicholas Copernicus, who first advanced the contrary doctrine that the sun and not the earth is the centre of our system, round which our planet revolves, rotating on its own axis. His great work, “De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium”, was published at the earnest solicitation of two distinguished churchmen, Cardinal Schömberg and Tiedemann Giese, Bishop of Culm

Lysander
Lysander
December 13, 2023 11:17 am

Usman Khawaja is planning to wear shoes during the Perth Test against Pakistan that are emblazoned with slogans supporting Palestinians caught in the fighting in Gaza.

Well, I was already done with Captain Climate Cummins and after what they did to Justin Lanager… looks like I’m gonna be rootin for the Pakis! Talk about ironic.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 11:19 am

The most cricket I’ve watched in recent years was a youtube video showing every ball of the Maxwell innings.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
December 13, 2023 11:20 am

Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.

– H. L. Mencken

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 11:20 am

Mr Llewellyn is about to say “the vibe”.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 11:20 am

God bless Walter Kirn.

Walter Kirn
@walterkirn

Harvard is like someone who stumbled into a ditch but instead of admitting it and climbing out of it decided to build a house there

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 11:21 am

Egypt flooded tunnels in 2015 iirc with raw sewage.
Did anyone demand environmental impact statements then?
It is extraordinary how many weapons the IDF is finding, some might suggest it points to an extraordinary collapse of hamas in northern Gaza.
Egypt are also constructing additional barriers along the border, though that is most likely to prevent Palestinian civilians from entering Egypt and have a demilitarised zone of sorts having already demolished a lot of structures close to the border.
They clearly need to do more about the tunnels.
I’ve read there up to a thousand smuggling tunnels into Egypt still.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 13, 2023 11:21 am

Twitter link shows someone asking for an environmental impact study.

Tell them it has already been done by a guy called Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 13, 2023 11:21 am

It sounds like the mini series ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ might be pretty good.

The Drinker recommends it, noting that it is not in fact fully faithful to the earlier movie and perhaps even the book, and the director was clear about that, but they have not made the changes ideological reasons.

This scene about what to do when life gives you lemons to show just how cynical and self-serving the family patriarch has been is a tantalising example.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 11:22 am

Mr Llewellyn is about to say “the vibe”.

Save that for the High Court.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 13, 2023 11:23 am

flyingduk
Dec 13, 2023 10:33 AM
Still waiting for your recommended alternative strategy for Israel to be successful.

I stated at the outset that whilst I understand the Israeli need to strike back, I dont think there is a winning strategy for Israel in the long term.

Finally found this.

If you “dont think there is a winning strategy for Israel in the long term”, then, as Lenin said, “What is to be done?” Do Israelis line up at the cattle cars, and go quietly into that good night? Do they move elsewhere? If so, where?

Putting aside the inextricable historical link between Jews and the region under contention, are they to be denied the kind of access that other indigenous peoples have to their ancestral homeland? Is the Western Wall to be dismantled and taken to a new homeland?

Can you, in short, offer some kind of practical solution, or can you do no better than bland platitudes? Because if there is no practical solution, then you are accepting the option of endless low level war.

Makka
Makka
December 13, 2023 11:24 am

The Fall of the House of Usher’ might be pretty good.

You won’t be disappointed. Bloody and creepy at times. Well over 8 out of 10.

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 11:25 am

Roger I thought the beef with Galileo was a bit more nuanced…

No doubt, rosie.

Had he kept his head down it would have all passed over.

I simply wanted to correct BeauGan’s outrageous statement.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 11:25 am

Bibi mentioned I think in his discussion with Elon that is is possible for muslims to deradicalise and pointed to a couple of the more prosperous Islamic countries as examples.
We all have to hope that is also possible in Gaza.
The West should heed the wakeup call, one only has to watch a few of the ‘sermons ‘ delivered by radical preachers here and in the UK.
No doubt muslims have some nice Christmas gifts to give the West in the next couple of weeks.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 11:26 am

Working off transcripts is tough. Ask anyone who employs sarcasm on the Internet.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 11:26 am

Indeed, Roger but it’s what you would expect from ignorant bigots.

Bar Beach Swimmer
December 13, 2023 11:28 am

BJ:

Because if there is no practical solution, then you are accepting the option of endless low level war.

Or, on the face of it, Israeli capitulation to those who surround them.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
December 13, 2023 11:29 am

One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute.

– William Feather

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Feather

MatrixTransform
December 13, 2023 11:29 am

I don’t get why Duk’s statements are so controversial or polarizing

the man agrees with what Israel is doing now but that he also thinks it probably isn’t a long term solution
what’s the problem with saying it?

when did this joint become such so bloody anodyne and luke-warm?

all I see is a bunch of people visiting their own angstiness on the man rather than the message

youse may or may not recall (or care) that my own position on the issue was that Israel must “cut the head off the snake”
personally, I still think that’s true but already running for thousand(s?) of years with no end in sight
of course it’s a short term strategy

if you want to minimize the risk of a bunch of devilish freaks in para-gliders descending to murder your innocents
then yr gonna have to find the snakes even at the risk of making things worse by drawing other forces, or having the void filled by something even worse

it’s just the way it is … and no, I don’t have a long-term strategy either

for the people suggesting that saying the bleeding obvious is some how equal to jew-hatred or baiting or being literally worserer than hitler
… seriously, that isn’t even an argument

seems like both side to the discussion are seeking a long term strategy.

Cassie, Katz, BJ … what do youse reckon is a long term strategy ?

alwaysright
alwaysright
December 13, 2023 11:31 am

Hypothetical :

While all the guys are down at the pali soccer game, American troops move into the pali town and butcher, rape, behead and disembowel the women and children. Then parade the bodies of the dead around LA to the cheering masses.

What would be the cricketers response?

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 11:32 am

Can only hope that a consequence of this exposure of ivy league schools is that they are significantly less valued by potential employers in the future because that’s what they are all about.
If I were a benefactor I’d be either encouraging starting new colleges or endowing those that produce graduates with critical thinking skills.
Anyone that says ‘my truth’ gets an instant fail from me.

Rabz
December 13, 2023 11:33 am

ex-test players they employ, who also tend to have limited vocabularies. Ian Chappell was particularly bad in that respect.

Ian “I can’t hear a f*cking thing” Chappell was indeed appalling – particularly his habit of continually stating the bleeding obvious and his annoying uptalking (e.g “the grass is very grEEN”, the ball is very roUND”), but that pair of infuriating idiotic imbeciles Tony “mail order bride” Greig and Bull “I’m a big nosed Victorian” Lawry (always in the box together) were infinitely worse. Staggering stupidity even greater than the sum of its parts.

On the very rare occasions I watch cricket nowadays, the commentary is always off.

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 13, 2023 11:34 am

Cassie, Katz, BJ … what do youse reckon is a long term strategy ?

Admit the errors made in the last century and correct them by returning to the original Mandate borders for the Jewish state and complete the second part of the population transfer that began post 1948 when Jews were ethnically cleansed from Arab/Muslim lands.

Kneel
Kneel
December 13, 2023 11:34 am

“The guy [Al Gore] has made more money peddling his silly slideshow and acting as a guru on a nonsense theory (has he ever used scientific terminology other than degrees and years? ‘Cos I don’t think he knows any) than he ever would have taking Chinese money and lobbyist presents as President.”

He made a fortune in fossil fuels, made noise about AGW, sold his fossil fuel interests and made investments in RE, then lobbied for Gov subsidies. Go the subsidies, which increased the value of his RE investments, which he sold some part of, getting his original investment back while still being able to milk Gov subsidies. Nice, eh?

Meanwhile his own houses (mansions more accurately – yes, more than 1) and travel (to tell us all how we must reduce CO2 output and how urgent that is) spew hundreds of times more CO2 into the air than an average “working slob” American he denigrates for their “pollution”.

MatrixTransform
December 13, 2023 11:36 am

What would be the cricketers response?

appeal to the umpire?

Arky
December 13, 2023 11:36 am

MatrixTransform Avatar
MatrixTransform
Dec 13, 2023 11:29 AM
I don’t get why Duk’s statements are so controversial or polarizing

..
Foreskins.
People will defend their team on this issue with a visceral hatred that makes Northern Ireland troubles, Hutus and tutsis, the sunni- shia thing or Collingwood – Carlton seem like tea parties in comparison.

Lysander
Lysander
December 13, 2023 11:37 am

LOL!!! Trump hijacks NBC coverage. It starts off sounding like a typical news report by NBC but gets better:

https://x.com/LaCivitaC/status/1722390782387089643?s=20

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 11:39 am

The Channel Nine commentary team was one thing that used to unite Australians. Before they went looking for the remote to mute them.

MatrixTransform
December 13, 2023 11:39 am

katz,
I agree but
where exactly does the political will come from to achieve it?

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 11:40 am

Three weeks ago but still true.
A two state solution, which of necessity jnvolves an acceptance that Israel has the right to exist.

The path to peace in Gaza lies in defeating Hamas
24 Nov 2023|Justin BassiIsrael–Hamas war

The prospect of an exchange of hostages taken by Hamas and prisoners held by Israel, to be accompanied by a pause in fighting, is of course welcome news. It’s a constructive moment in the tragic seven weeks that began on 7 October.

The question is what happens once the exchange takes place. For all the temporary relief, the so-called truce cannot be permanent given that Hamas’s control of Gaza is the foremost obstacle to long-term peace. The negotiation has come about because Israel’s response to the October terror attacks and hostage-taking has put Hamas under immense pressure. Indeed, this is why Hamas took the hostages—anticipating an unyielding Israeli military operation, the terror group knew it needed leverage to extract concessions from Israel such as today’s hiatus in fighting and create domestic challenges for the Israeli government.

It is also why Hamas won’t return all the hostages (releasing about 50 but keeping 180). It is looking to hold on to its bargaining chips in the hope that Israel will be persuaded by a global community tired of the horrors of war to extend the pause indefinitely. Indeed, once Israel resumes its operations, Hamas will no doubt claim that it’s the Israelis who are restarting the conflict without justification. In pushing this strategic messaging, it will draw on the Iran-backed web of proxies to exploit the genuine global sympathy for Gazan civilians while also stoking the flammable fringes of the debate occupied by less well-meaning participants such as antisemites.

The discussion of a ceasefire inevitably appeals to our urge to find a modicum of optimism amid the carnage, but it doesn’t change the reality that Israel faces: Hamas does not want peace; it wants the extirpation of the Jewish state. The group’s long-term strategy is a fight to the death—backed by regional benefactors and sympathisers—to bring about the demise of the Jewish state.

A truce that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza will not be a permanent solution but merely a temporary pause in which Gazans remain controlled by a terrorist group that will abuse civilian infrastructure and resources to rebuild, rearm and return to its stated objective of destroying Israel.

Most other aspects of this immensely complex political problem involve difficult, but negotiable, trade-offs in which the parties could make compromises. That goes for territorial borders, the status of refugees and even the presence or otherwise of Israeli settlements.

Israel cannot continue living with a Hamas-controlled Gaza. The untenability of having Hamas on Israel’s border has long been clear. However, to dismantle and disarm the group was always going to involve grievous civilian bloodshed and the inflaming of anti-Israeli opinion—a prohibitive proposition for Israel prior to 7 October.

Yet now Israel finds itself facing this task anyway, which is a reminder to the world that tolerating the intolerable—even grudgingly, because the alternatives are too difficult—is never sustainable in the long term. This was demonstrated on 7 October.

The world should absolutely insist that Israel follow the rules of armed conflict. We should hold it to account if it fails to meet that standard. We should expect higher standards of democratic, law-abiding societies than we expect of lawless terrorists.

But we must also understand that we can’t hold a law-abiding society to an unfeasible standard that goes beyond international law and leaves it with no assured pathway to guarantee its future security, which is what we would be doing if we ask Israel to accept the continued control of Gaza by Hamas. We would be asking Israelis to live in perpetual fear of their state—as well as themselves and their families—being attacked and wiped off the earth.

We can demand that Israel minimise civilian casualties and hold it to account when it fails. (The very fact that the civilian toll is the foremost consideration serves as an important reminder that Israel is at war with Hamas, not Palestinians.) But we cannot demand that it enter a truce that relies on the word of terrorists whose raison d’être is Israel’s destruction. The group that carried out the 7 October attacks is not transforming into a peace-abiding actor.

As invaluable as the laws of armed conflict are, there is no goal of international law that says a nation must accept, in perpetuity, such a grave security threat as Hamas poses to Israel.

And Israel can’t keep Hamas at bay forever. Even accepting that 7 October represented a colossal intelligence failure on the part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the ruthless determination of Hamas will always drive it through whatever cracks it can find in Israel’s defences. And however sophisticated Israel’s security apparatus might be, all armour has vulnerabilities.

Hence the pathway to long-term stability and security cannot begin with the continued rule of Gaza by Hamas.

So where does this leave us? Nobody pretends that Israel’s military operation will automatically create peace.

What Israel must do is disarm Hamas and neutralise the extreme threat that it poses, while it embarks on a renewed and genuine effort at a long-term peace solution. However difficult that will be, it is the only way forward.

It needs to convince the Palestinian people and its regional neighbours that it is genuine about finding a pathway to peace. Acknowledging the anger that is building among Palestinians and Arabs as a consequence of the costs of its pursuit of Hamas, Israel will need to demonstrate a heartfelt effort that may not sit well with all individual Israeli citizens in the wake of 7 October. It will be monumental, but it is the only way. A two-state solution—however cynically it has been abandoned by some in Israel, intentionally sabotaged by Iran and its proxies including Hamas, and despairingly written off by many objective commentators—remains the best hope.

There will be no quick fix. It will require Israel to work over the long term, including with the US and Arab countries, to persuade the majority of Palestinians that Hamas and its ideological confederates were only ever an obstacle to peace and, in fact, an obstacle to a Palestinian state becoming a reality. Only by neutralising Hamas will this process have a chance.

And while many people will argue, rightly, that an ongoing conflict risks creating more extremists, terrorism, like all security threats, takes both intent and capability. Sadly, there are many people and organisations worldwide who mean harm against Israel and often the West more broadly. These individuals and groups are prevented from succeeding by being denied the capability.

To allow Hamas to control Gaza is comparable to accepting al-Qaeda’s control of land in Afghanistan or Islamic State’s control of territory in Syria and Iraq. There are reasons the military battles to degrade and destroy the operational capabilities of these terrorist groups were and remain so important. Allowing them to plan operations from ungoverned spaces is a fundamental obstacle to long-term peace.

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 13, 2023 11:40 am

for the people suggesting that saying the bleeding obvious is some how equal to jew-hatred or baiting

I’m surprised at the inability here to read plain English. He was accused of Jew-baiting for his constant prodding to rile Jews, not for the contents of his comments.

Other than that, the content of his comments are just personal opinions based on stereotypical views of Jews and Arabs, and ignorance of many aspects of their history. He can have his worthless opinions – they’re inconsequential, and he only wants a response so he can prod a Jew again. The game is well known, but apparently not to those who think they know how to recognise antisemitism.

Cassie of Sydney
December 13, 2023 11:41 am

“I don’t get why Duk’s statements are so controversial or polarizing

Do you read his stuff?

Oh come on
Oh come on
December 13, 2023 11:41 am

Mr Zelenskyy impressed on the senators that Ukraine could win the war against Russia, telling them he was drafting men in their 30s and 40s in a show of strength for the battle.

Tapping into that demographic is going to make all of the difference! If you believe this garbage, you are a fool. Or maybe you need to read outside of the ABC.

He showcased his country’s embrace of the West by pointing to the Christmas season, telling US politicians it was the first year Ukraine would celebrate on December 25 rather than the day Russians mark the holiday.

Banning churches and imprisoning clergymen – it’s the Western way! Well, he might be in the vanguard here. Or maybe there’s a Covid lockdown going on as well as a war over there, as we’re fine with that during an emergency.

Also, turning your back on your own country’s traditions makes you contemptible.

Mr McConnell said afterwards Mr Zelenskyy was “inspirational and determined”.

And then silently stared into the distance for 90 seconds before being ushered away from the podium?

Look at the people big-upping Zelensky. They are the absolute worst people. Draw your own conclusions.

Changed conditions in US
It is Mr Zelenskyy’s third visit to Washington since the war broke out in February 2022, including a quick trip just a few months ago as aid was being considered.

His surprise arrival days before Christmas last December drew thunderous applause in congress, his daring first wartime trip out of Ukraine.

At the time, members sported the blue-and-yellow colours of Ukraine, and Mr Zelenskyy delivered a speech that drew on the parallels to World War II as he thanked Americans for their support.

But 2023 brought a new power centre of hard-right Republicans, many aligned with Donald Trump, the former president who is now the GOP front-runner in the 2024 race for the White House.

Well, not really. If there was a one page bill that authorised more money to Ukraine, it’d be on the desk of the President’s handlers for signing before the day is out. There is still a majority in congress that’d fund Ukraine. It’s just the minority (which has always been there, even at the peak of the Zelensky hysteria – although we’re only talking about a handful of votes) is growing inexorably as it becomes increasingly obvious that the war is lost and no one wants to back a loser.

I’ve thoroughly revisited the conservative dogma regarding the collapse of the Saigon government and the overrunning of South Vietnam in 1975, ie. but for perfidious Congress abruptly cutting off aid to Saigon, the South Vietnamese would have been able to defend themselves. This is utter piffle. The ARVN was done by that point, absolutely cactus. No more good money after bad.

Also, Ford could have bombed the shit out of the attacking Commies and that would have slowed their progress down significantly – far more than more money for weapons would have – but he decided not to, and bleated about Congress instead. He knew the South was done. This unfortunate fact is often overlooked.

Yes, the fall of Saigon was terrible. We should stay out of other people’s business. Evidently, we don’t learn.

Anyway, Congress needs to end funding for Ukraine just as it did in 1975 when Vietnam was obviously a lost cause. No more 30 to 40 year olds (or whatever remains of the Ukrainian population that can be forced into a uniform) should be dying in this unwinnable war. It is deeply immoral to allow this to continue. It’s an outrage, really.

Muddy
Muddy
December 13, 2023 11:41 am

According to Reuters, the claimed death toll in Gaza is now about 17,500 (presumably including armed combatants?).

Given the population of the territory (2.1 million?), this seems to be a remarkably ineffective attempt at genocide, considering the military resources Israel has at her disposal.

It is also alleged (from dubious sources) that civilians have constituted approx 62% of Gazan deaths, so we might remove one third of that 17, 500 total, leaving us with 10, 250-ish.

My few remaining vege-maths abilities therefore arrive at a ‘genocide’ rate of … ummm … (Not cognitively functioning this morning, but you get my drift, right?).

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 13, 2023 11:42 am

I agree but
where exactly does the political will come from to achieve it?

Firstly, by dropping the stupid “two state solution” when as a solution it’s based on a fake assessment of the problem,

Cassie of Sydney
December 13, 2023 11:43 am

“Katzenjammer
Dec 13, 2023 11:40 AM”

I think you’ve said it best.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 11:43 am

It does make sense to incorporate the ‘west bank’ into Israel proper, resettle those whose festering hate is insurmountable and grant Israeli citizenship to those who wish to emulate the benefits enjoyed by their Arab Israeli brothers.

Gilas
Gilas
December 13, 2023 11:44 am

This morning at the FCA, Angus Llewellyn has been doing an uttely brilliant impression of the cluelessly arrogant hick.

He refused to acknowledge any contradictions in Hoggin’s testimony prior to The Project broadcast (something the judge had already established last week).
He didn’t deny that his superior saw these inconsistencies (as anyone with an IQ over 60 would have), and who had emailed him accordingly on these specific contradictions.
He couldn’t explain how this difference in comprehension was addressed (We spoke++ over the telephone over two weeks about all aspects of the interview), no details or recollection.

All the while denying there was a potential issue, while making smart-arse remarks, both to counsel and the judge.

Unique performance. Made Hoggins and Brucie look really good.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 11:45 am

Maybe Egypt could be persuaded to take back the Gaza Strip.

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 11:46 am

On the very rare occasions I watch cricket nowadays, the commentary is always off.

In ye olden days it was not unknown for people to watch the TV with the sound off and ABC radio – usually Alan McGilvray – turned on.

Real Deal
Real Deal
December 13, 2023 11:47 am

I’ll stick my neck out here, but some years ago Nein actually had Peter Sterling doing some commentary on a test match or ODI. I thought he was excellent. Knew his stuff, didn’t play that stupid banter crap, was understated and informative. He just wasn’t an ex-cricketer.

Back in the day sporting presenters were multi-skilled. Guys like Norman May and Rex Mossop called League and Union, but also commentated Cricket, Swimming, Motor Sport and Tennis.

Even the great E.J. Whitten presented World Championship Wrestling.

Lysander
Lysander
December 13, 2023 11:49 am

From sadness through to glee
The tunnels will fill with sea.

C.L.
C.L.
December 13, 2023 11:50 am

the man agrees with what Israel is doing now but that he also thinks it probably isn’t a long term solution
what’s the problem with saying it?

Apart from the obvious Keynesian riposte to the fallacy of “long term” solutions to anything…

It would be useful if the sensible sausage wing of Gaza war-gamers would explain what Israel should have done after 7 October. All I see from them here is wack-a-mole.

Make a case, using sentences and paragraphs. Post an essay to the main page.

GO!

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 13, 2023 11:54 am

I think you’ve said it best.

In many ways it’s just another of the local civil wars left over from the collapse of empires in the Great War. It took until the 1990s to sort out the invented country of Yugoslavia with its provinces of the dissolved Ottoman and Austrian empires. The British invention of Czechoslovakia solved their division peacefully. Iraq is another, not yet resolved to the satisfaction of three regional/cultural populations.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 13, 2023 11:54 am

Dot:

‘face of the NT News, 2018’ and dogging?

I think you’re confusing me with testpattern.

shatterzzz
December 13, 2023 11:55 am

https://x.com/AlexBerenson/status/1734692554724032734?s=20
Twitter link shows someone asking for an environmental impact study.

Surprised Ed Husic hasn’t demanded Luigi, urgently, fund “learn to swim” lessons for HAMAS …

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 13, 2023 11:55 am

From sadness through to glee
The tunnels will fill with sea.

From the sea to the tunnels
Please hand me a funnel.

Arky
December 13, 2023 11:57 am

Yes, the fall of Saigon was terrible. We should stay out of other people’s business. Evidently, we don’t learn.

..
That sounds like the lesson that was “learnt” after the first world war, with much more compelling reason than the current circumstances warrant.
The real lesson is that vast chunks of the world have no intention of staying out of our business.
..
You either pick up the responsibility or you concede the field.
The field is everything from the oilfields of arabia to the canals and locks that are pinch points in world trade; from the copper mines in Africa to the rubber plantations in Asia. From the breadbasket of Eurasia to the silicon chip foundries in Taiwan. From the people smuggling routes in South America and the Mediterranean to the poppy fields of Afghanistan.
In other words, it’s everything that currently makes your life possible, and every possible threat to it.

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 13, 2023 11:58 am

I just cancelled my Kayo subscription. I was hoping to watch some of the Windies vs. Poms T20 that is underway and looks a good game.

It’s not being broadcast.

They are however showing the SAf vs Bangladesh and NZ vs Pakis womens matches later. Pfft.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 11:59 am

In ye olden days it was not unknown for people to watch the TV with the sound off and ABC radio – usually Alan McGilvray – turned on.

No longer a recommended solution.

Lysander
Lysander
December 13, 2023 12:00 pm

Too many Cats here are exploring rational and diplomatic solutions when you’re literally fighting against the embodiment of irrationality.

It’s like a violent meth-addled, axe wielding bandit broke into your house (and his meth head family, which is very large, are going to keep coming to your place, wave after wave) and you defend yourself against this villain but you’ll sit down and have a cuppa with the next “wave” – even a cuppa with them outside the gate while they down more meth? Nup.

Forget Western rationality, it’s too idealistic in this situation.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 13, 2023 12:06 pm

Indeed Lysander.

Empires, and the safety and security of those therein were not built on handpattery.

Modern Western rationality appears to be built on the premise that we are better people – more refined and evolved.

We’re actually not, and shouldn’t be seen in that light.

Also worth noting that not one single handpatter and apologist for every issue that degrades the West has done absolutely anything to build it.

John
John
December 13, 2023 12:08 pm

The Judge is running the interrogation now. Is that unusual. The nitwit seems to be befuddled every instance of time. This looks like a tragic comedy show. How do such nongs get these jobs?

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 12:09 pm

You would have to say things aren’t going well for Ch 10. You have to wonder why they chose to go down with the (pirate) ship? I know Tom has a theory, which would appear to fit what is unfolding. Ch 2 and 9 waved the white flag.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
December 13, 2023 12:09 pm

Back in the day sporting presenters were multi-skilled. Guys like Norman May and Rex Mossop called League and Union, but also commentated Cricket, Swimming, Motor Sport and Tennis.

Even the great E.J. Whitten presented World Championship Wrestling.

Even the Great Lou Richards (VFL) commentated Lawn Bowls at the Auckland Commonwealth Games. His co-commentator (name escapes me) said that it really wasn’t Lou’s cup of tea. As one of the games was in the crucial final moments. Lou says ‘ Did you know Auckland is known as the City of Sails?…and my wife has been to every one of them!’

shatterzzz
December 13, 2023 12:10 pm

It does make sense to incorporate the ‘west bank’ into Israel proper,

Gotta be kidding ..! FFS! ..
The only difference between FATAH & HAMAS is in the names ..
FATAH has the same hate manifesto as HAMAS ……

Oh come on
Oh come on
December 13, 2023 12:12 pm

resettle those whose festering hate is insurmountable

Where?*

Maybe Egypt could be persuaded to take back the Gaza Strip.

No, they won’t be persuaded.

A fair criticism of the Israelis after the ’67 war is that they made a huge strategic error in annexing Gaza and the West Bank. Would have been better if Egypt and Jordan kept them (minus East Jerusalem and any other territory that geographically benefits Israel’s defence – sucks when you lose a war, consequences, sorry!).

I realise it’s easy to say in hindsight, but I’ll also say it wouldn’t have taken a genius to recognise at that time that the populations of these lands would cause future problems for Israel.

*ask Neo-con Nikki aka War Karen (that’s a good one, gotta say) – how about the US?? Maybe Australia? Why not, Penny? Where’s the harm in a couple of million more Labor voters?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 13, 2023 12:13 pm

Hmmm…can you make a dog whistle with a foreskin?

There once was a man from North Dawskin
Whose dog sadly had had its jaws pinned
So with threats near and stark
The dog did not bark
But would whistle alarm through his foreskin.

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 13, 2023 12:13 pm

I agree but
where exactly does the political will come from to achieve it?

Firstly, by dropping the stupid “two state solution” when as a solution it’s based on a fake assessment of the problem,

The false assessment is that it’s a territorial problem. It’s not. Islam views Jews having national rights is a theological travesty that must be dissolved, that will be dissolved. If it’s not done in one year or in one generation, it will be done in another.

The philosophical and sociological case for Return to Zion began with the re-admission of Jews to England in the mid 1600s, and after a few centuries of international discussion and debate it resulting in international law under the League of Nations acknowledging that part of the Levant as rightfully the place for Jewish sovereignty. That argument was settled back then. Full stop. Israel is probably the only country in the world that was debated for a few centuries then was recognised by right before being established.

shatterzzz
December 13, 2023 12:14 pm

The Fall of the House of Usher’ might be pretty good.

I watched it last week and, for the luv of me, can’t remember what it was about .. LOL!
tempted to refresh my memory on IMDB but ……… duuuuuuuuh!

Lysander
Lysander
December 13, 2023 12:14 pm

Modern Western rationality appears to be built on the premise that we are better people – more refined and evolved.

We’re actually not, and shouldn’t be seen in that light.

+1 KD! But I think we actually are more civilised, evidently. It’s just that we, incorrectly, think “all societies are equal.” It’s like a dumbarse Bruce Pascoe argument that the locals were as advanced as, say, the Romans (what did they ever do for us? :P).

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:16 pm

The Judge is running the interrogation now. Is that unusual.

It’s what Justice Michael Lee does.
He’s a busy man.
Cuts through all the parlour games the KC’s & SC’s like to play.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:16 pm

Channel 10 mistook the “truth” defence with the “idiot” defence.

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 12:16 pm

Too many Cats here are exploring rational and diplomatic solutions when you’re literally fighting against the embodiment of irrationality.

There’s a chap on You Tube who asks Israelis and Palestinians (for want of a better term) questions sent to him by viewers.

One question to Palestinians was, ‘Before Islam came, were your ancestors Jewish or Christian?’

Most responders answered that they had always been Muslim.

‘What, even before Mohammed?’ ‘Yes…always Muslim.’

Only one young woman, not wearing a hijab, conceded that her ancestors would have been either Jewish or Christian.

Not a scientific poll, to be sure, but probably reflects the prevailing worldview.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
December 13, 2023 12:17 pm

There once was a bar maid from Sale
On her breasts were the price of an ale
And for those who were blind
On her behind
The same was repeated in braille.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 12:17 pm

How do such nongs get these jobs?

Frontline.

John
John
December 13, 2023 12:18 pm

Is the clown under oath?

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:19 pm

Lysander
Dec 13, 2023 12:00 PM
Too many Cats here are exploring rational and diplomatic solutions when you’re literally fighting against the embodiment of irrationality.

This is a really good summary of where the civilised world is at this point in time.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 13, 2023 12:19 pm

Firstly, by dropping the stupid “two state solution” when as a solution it’s based on a fake assessment of the problem,

The Palis have rejected five attempts at a “Two State solution since the 1930’s – what makes anyone think they are interested in such a solution, now?”

Oh come on
Oh come on
December 13, 2023 12:19 pm

The real lesson is that vast chunks of the world have no intention of staying out of our business.

Because we won’t stay out of theirs. And by that, I include importing vast numbers of them to live among us. The number of people who want to destroy us simply for existing is actually rather small.

I tell a lie. The Western left is quite populous.

Frank
Frank
December 13, 2023 12:19 pm

Can you make a dog whistle out of a foreskin?

It would never work, poor canine embouchure.

John
John
December 13, 2023 12:20 pm

Can he just get up and walk away?

Lysander
Lysander
December 13, 2023 12:20 pm

The false assessment is that it’s a territorial problem. It’s not.

Interesting Katz, particularly after I watched a few Israeli scholars debate the history of the territory; and on this very line of thought. They remarked, and it was the first time I’d ever heard it, that you have to ask yourself: “Where (and why) did Britain, and the powers that be, want to establish a State that would be democratic, stable and prosperous.” They demonstrated that yet another Islamic State (as evidenced in many other nearby places) simply was not tenable. I’ll need to have a bit more of a read about this later…

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 12:22 pm

But I think we actually are more civilised, evidently. It’s just that we, incorrectly, think “all societies are equal.”

This is also the lazy assumption behind mass immigration from the third world.

shatterzzz
December 13, 2023 12:22 pm

Too many Cats here are exploring rational and diplomatic solutions when you’re literally fighting against the embodiment of irrationality.

What is really frightening is how quickly the “left” has managed to embrace terrorism .. be nice , negotiate, even surrender but pleeeze, pleeze stop fighting them .. FFS!
Pre BAT FLU, remember 2019?, terrorism was abhorred by all but now ….. duuuuuuuuh!

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 13, 2023 12:22 pm

Brazilian science is focusing on the important topics.

Survey results suggest men with expensive cars seen as having a higher mating value (Phys.org, 12 Dec)

A team of behavioral scientists at Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, in Brazil, has found via survey results that people view men who drive luxurious cars as having a higher mating value and other positive attributes. In their study, reported in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the group conducted two surveys involving people driving expensive cars.

Sounds like the experimental work and data collection was a lot of fun.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:23 pm

This is all what Kushner deduced from the study trips & focus groups the US funded across the middle east.
Hence the pivot to doing trade deals with the rich arabs.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 12:23 pm

The Judge is running the interrogation now. Is that unusual.

Need to be careful. Parties and counsel are allowed to run their case as they see fit but the judge has ultimate say in their court. I would not expect Lee J to have any issues.

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 13, 2023 12:24 pm

I realise it’s easy to say in hindsight, but I’ll also say it wouldn’t have taken a genius to recognise at that time that the populations of these lands would cause future problems for Israel.

West bankers were pleased at first to be free of the repression under Jordan. In Gaza, Israel began construction of improved housing for the refugee camps, but was ordered by the UN, on a resolution by Saudia Arabia, that they had no right to alter conditions. Gradually until the first intefada, the Green Line became blurred – Jews and Arabs moved back and forth in daily activities. Jews enjoyed “slumming it” at Arab cafes on weekends, and Arabs enjoyed the benefits of Israeli run medicine and education. Remember the well educated Jerusalem residents for negotiators of the Madrid Conference compared to Arafat and his cronies for the Oslo Accords.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 13, 2023 12:24 pm

Serious inconsistencies in Ms Higgins’ account’
Joanna Panagopoulos
Joanna Panagopoulos

Network Ten producer Angus Llewellyn has pushed back on suggestions he ignored inconsistencies in Brittany Higgins’ story about whether she would lose her job if she went to police with the rape allegations.

The court heard, during one of their pre-interview meetings, Lisa Wilkinson asked Ms Higgins: “You were told you’d lose your job if you proceeded with the police charges?”

Ms Higgins responded: “Not explicitly, but it was clear. It was … you can proceed with this, we’re not going to stop you, but you just don’t have a job.”

Ms Higgins had earlier told Mr Llewellyn and Ms Wilkinson that Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown said they were “not going to stop her” if she went to police.

Ms Higgins: “(Ms Brown) said if you choose to proceed with police … that we wouldn’t stop you … I remember that and I remember thinking, that’s nice. And that was the one thing she said to me, and then that line, that very specifically crafted line, was used again by Ms Reynolds, that exact same line.”

There was another instance where Ms Higgins said Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown said they would be “supportive” of her if she went to police.

Mr Llewellyn was asked by Matthew Richardson SC: “I want to suggest to you, Mr Llewellyn, that what she was saying was contradictory, do you agree or disagree?

Mr Llewellyn: “I think, once again, your question is faulty. It’s murky, opaque territory.”
Justice Michael Lee interjected: “Are you saying that, at the time the program was broadcast you had, to use your words no proof of an allegation that she was being told that if she proceeded with police charges, that is pursued the rape allegation, that she’d lose her job?”

Llewellyn: “I did not have proof. So yes.”

Mr Richardson then read out the opening words of The Project broadcast.

“The opening words of this program were: ‘Tonight claims of rape, roadblocks to a police investigation, and a young woman, forced to choose between her career, and the pursuit of justice.’ You remember that? And you approved of that, didn’t you?”

Mr Llewellyn: “It wasn’t me that wrote that introduction … It’s very accurate … That was the implication that she was given.”

Mr Richardson: “I want to suggest to you, Mr Llewellyn, that by this point, there were serious inconsistencies in Ms Higgins’ account of what Reynolds and Brown were saying, do you agree or disagree?

Mr Llewellyn: “Disagree.”

Mr Richardson: “You didn’t identify (the inconsistencies), I suggest to you.”

Mr Llewellyn: “Yeah, I don’t think there were any.”

They also played a video of Ms Higgins talking about her meeting with Ms Reynolds in her office in an extended interview for The Project. Ms Higgins said they indicated both that “we would support you” and “we won’t stop you” if you go to police.

After playing that, Mr Richardson said: “She was unable to articulate anything that had actually been said or done that put her under pressure not to go to the police.”

Mr Llewellyn: “The right words (by Ms Brown and Ms Reynolds) are being said but the implication was, you know, this is your, what did she say ‘this is a side project of mine’.”

Mr Llewellyn: “Ms Brown is a very smart, clever, respected operator and so is Minister Reynolds, they wouldn’t say something overtly like that. And that’s why … we’ve listened carefully to how it was explained.”

Cassie of Sydney
December 13, 2023 12:25 pm

“There’s a chap on You Tube who asks Israelis and Palestinians (for want of a better term) questions sent to him by viewers.

One question to Palestinians was, ‘Before Islam came, were your ancestors Jewish or Christian?’

Most responders answered that they had always been Muslim.

‘What, even before Mohammed?’ ‘Yes…always Muslim.’

Only one young woman, not wearing a hijab, conceded that her ancestors would have been either Jewish or Christian.

Not a scientific poll, to be sure, but probably reflects the prevailing worldview.”

I’ve seen that one Roger, I regularly watch those Youtube videos produced by Corey Gil Shuster. Corey is your atypical American/Israeli leftist, although I dunno how he feels since October. Anyway, his videos are always interesting viewing, and more often than not, highly disturbing viewing. Corey goes into towns such as Ramallah and Bethlehem (with a translator) to ask thorny questions of Palestinians (note….he NEVER enters Gaza) As for that particular episode, that last woman he asked, well, I suspect she’s a Christian, hence her accurate answer.

As for the Muslims he interviewed in that particular episode, a core tenet of Islam is that everyone, from Abraham, Isaac downwards were ALWAYS Muslims, NOT Jewish, not Christin…hence if you convert to Islam, you are regarded as simply “reverting” to Islam. Islam is the ultimate supremacist religion.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 13, 2023 12:25 pm

Having Watched Oppenheimer yesterday with Grandsons

Absolutely an amazing movie – Incredible Acting & Stella Cast

Today Elder Grandson showed Extras from his Apple TV Oppenheimer Purchase

The Making of Oppenheimer

Worth Watching & currently available on youtube

Would highly recommend watching

The Story of Our Time | The Making of Oppenheimer (2023) Blu Ray Featurettes

1 hr 25 Mins 12 Secs

From the Comments

– Haven’t seen a behind the scenes of a film this well put together and with this much care put into it since the LOTR and Hobbits.

– This film was an absolute masterpiece. Easily by a very wide margin the best film so far of the 2020s and it’s not even close. Will be hard for any film to come close the rest of the decade.

– Cillian was born to play Oppenheimer, the resemble is impressive and absolutely nailed. I hope this movie gets the main important nominations it really deserves at the Oscars.

– I saw it twice in IMAX. During the lead up to the bomb being detonated. My heart was beating out of my chest. It was an incredible experience.

– I don’t change my all time favorite movies list often, but Oppenheimer made it to #4 for me. It only lies underneath Alien, Inception and Interstellar, and I am currently reworking those 4 in my mind to account for sentiment and nostalgia.

It’s quite possible on subsequent rewatches Oppenheimer might dethrone one if not all of those movies.

It’s a movie that very much like great inventors, painters and musicians… their time of recognition with be most vibrant after their time.

Digger
Digger
December 13, 2023 12:26 pm

it’s just the way it is … and no, I don’t have a long-term strategy either

There is a solution but it is a tad controversial… keep doing what they are doing until there is no movement.

Then expand Israel from the river to the sea.

Oh come on
Oh come on
December 13, 2023 12:26 pm

As for WW1, that is a fantastic example of how we should have stayed out of other people’s business. That ought to have been a continental European war between Germany, France and Russia. The UK ought to have continued to remain Europe’s balancing power rather than a principal belligerent. And it also should not have dragged the US into it, either.

Nothing good for the English-speaking world came out of the ashes of WW1. We continue to wrestle with its horrendous legacy today.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:27 pm

E153: In conversation with Jared Kushner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EFk40AbO94

With reference to Kushner discussing the background to the Accords.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 12:28 pm

Can you make a dog whistle out of a foreskin?

No but you can make quite a good duck caller.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 13, 2023 12:28 pm

Bolding fail, sorry!

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 12:29 pm

I’ve seen that one Roger, I regularly watch those Youtube videos produced by Corey Gil Shuster.

Yes, that’s the guy, Cassie.

Arky
December 13, 2023 12:30 pm

Because we won’t stay out of theirs.

..
We have substantial investments over many centuries in theirs.
Railroads in India. Hawker Typhoons in China. The men left on the field after the charge of the light brigade. The carnage on the Somme. The oil rigs and infrastructure that built a global energy network. The engineering feats that mean few ships have to round the horn.
The end of piracy in most of the world’s oceans.
It didn’t all magically poof into existence.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 12:31 pm

Britnah complaining that any AFP complaint would be “sort of my side project” and “wouldn’t be an office thing”.
Two things:-
1. Contrary to fear of losing her jerb (all jerbs would be spilled after the election), she was trying to extract a priority promise of a jerb after the election from Brown and Reynolds;
2. Britnah was angling for Reynolds to ring the AFP Commish and run it from the top.

Cassie of Sydney
December 13, 2023 12:31 pm

“Yes, that’s the guy, Cassie”

I like his stuff. I watch them regularly.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:33 pm

As for WW1, that is a fantastic example of how we should have stayed out of other people’s business. That ought to have been a continental European war between Germany, France and Russia.

Bloody oath.
Niall Ferguson’s live special on the BBC saying that the Brit’s should have stayed at home didn’t go down well with all the veteran’s family’s in the audience wearing their fathers & grandfathers medals.

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 12:33 pm

I like his stuff. I watch them regularly.

How he holds his tongue at some points…I don’t know.

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 13, 2023 12:35 pm

Where (and why) did Britain, and the powers that be, want to establish a State that would be democratic, stable and prosperous.

Britan’s involvement in well being of Jews in ‘Palestine’ has precedents going back a couple of centuries before the Balfour Declaration. I have a study of clauses in treaties between the European Empires where one empire or country was acknowledged as protector of rights of minorities in another empire. France for Christians in the Syrian provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Russia for their Eastern Orthodox, and Britain for Jews. It’s a publication of the Jewish Historical Society of Great Britain, 1904, before the Great War, before the Balfour Declaration, before the Mandate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_affair

One instance was when Sir Moses Montefiore appeared in the Damascas court in 1840 to defend Jews who had been accused of murdering and using blood for their Passover matzo.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 13, 2023 12:36 pm

Two birds in one.

Extremely rare half female, half male bird captured on film (Phys.org, 12 Dec)

A striking and extremely rare half female, half male bird has been spotted by a University of Otago zoologist.

Professor Hamish Spencer was holidaying in Colombia when an amateur ornithologist John Murillo pointed out a wild Green Honeycreeper with distinct half green, or female, and half blue, male, plumage.

“Many birdwatchers could go their whole lives and not see a bilateral gynandromorph in any species of bird. The phenomenon is extremely rare in birds, I know of no examples from New Zealand ever.

“This particular example of bilateral gynandromorphy—male one side and female the other—shows that, as in several other species, either side of the bird can be male or female.

“The phenomenon arises from an error during female cell division to produce an egg, followed by double-fertilization by two sperm,” he explains.

Literally male on one side and female on the other. The ultimate siamese twins. Quite healthy too. Just in case you hadn’t yet seen everything that biology can come up with. You science term of the day, Cats, is “bilaterally gynandromorphic” which should be used strategically for maximum effect during Christmas dinner.

C.L.
C.L.
December 13, 2023 12:37 pm

I presume that’s his real phone number…

https://twitter.com/ArchRose90/status/1734692189647855917

LOL.

MatrixTransform
December 13, 2023 12:37 pm

Foreskins

old feminist joke:

Q: What do you call that useless flap of skin attached to a man’s penis
A: a man

Oh come on
Oh come on
December 13, 2023 12:40 pm

If these things materialised with the consent of the peoples of the lands they were in, there would not be such an issue. I’m not saying they were always imposed, but also that we really don’t have a great track record on this front.

Hell, we’re still doing it today. Look at Africa. We don’t do colonialism anymore, oh no. We provide aid and NGOs – but only if you rainbow up the place and impose a selection of modern liberal values.

No wonder these countries are welcoming Chinese money and turning away the Yanks. The strings the Chinese attach are not great but there’s more dignity in it than having a bunch of purple haired freaks lecturing your subsistence farmers about queering their agriculture.

We just can’t help ourselves.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:40 pm

Post BBC special, Ferguson went into more depth on a podcast I listened to.
Key points, if the Brit’s stayed home:
1) The Germans would have belted the Frogs in quick fashion;
2) No Hitler;
3) Unlikley the Bolshevik’s would have been the ascendant party in Russia;
4) A more orderly collapse of the Ottoman empire.

File under WTF knows.
Fascinating to hear a historian going on about it though.

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 13, 2023 12:41 pm

clauses in treaties between the European Empires where one empire or country was acknowledged as protector of rights of minorities in another empire. France for Christians in the Syrian provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Russia for their Eastern Orthodox, and Britain for Jews.

Golly geee. that’s just like the Sykes Picot division, based on Ottoman Empire treaties from before the Great War.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
December 13, 2023 12:41 pm

Fair Shake
Dec 13, 2023 12:17 PM

There once was a Man from Gotham
Who took out his balls to wash ’em
His wife said, “Jack, if you don’t put ’em back
I’ll stand on the buggers and squash ’em”

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 12:43 pm

As for WW1, that is a fantastic example of how we should have stayed out of other people’s business. That ought to have been a continental European war between Germany, France and Russia.

It’s complicated, as they say.

As a result of its continental forays in the early 19th C., Britain had become the chief guarantor of Belgian neutrality in the post-Napoleonic period. Once that was violated by the Germans, their entry into the war was more or less assured, as a moral argument to do so had been provided.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 12:46 pm

Pay out Sancho!
About 15 minutes ago I said to Mrs P, “What odds the number he had to contact Lehrman is out by one digit?”
Bingo!
Llewelyn playing funny buggers with the “attempts to contact Lehrman for a right of reply”.
Including hotmail addresses provided by Fatso Sharaz.
FMD.
On the matter of Sharaz talking up contacts with Katie Gallagher and the desire to drop the bomb during a sitting week, Llewelyn can’t say whether there was an intent to politicise it.

Arky
December 13, 2023 12:46 pm

“We should have made friends with militaristic Germans in 1914 and everything would have been better” as precursor to the coming argument “We should continue to make friends with militaristic China and everything will be better”.
And “Our time is over anyway, lets just hand the world to Beijing”.
World weariness, cynicism and responsibility avoidance don’t work well in private life, I doubt they are a good policy for what was until recently “the world’s last remaining superpower”. That didn’t last long eh?
There has be some happy medium between the gung-ho triumphal, arrogant attempt at remodelling the world in our own image and an existential despair that it all ain’t working out too good.
Somewhere between “We came, we saw, he died”. And “No wonder they hate us”.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:48 pm

Over the previous 500 years treaties & alliances weren’t always adhered to.
I wonder why when we hit 1900 they became the most important thing on the planet after oxygen ?

Tom
Tom
December 13, 2023 12:48 pm

Maybe Egypt could be persuaded to take back the Gaza Strip.

An excellent suggestion, Rosie.

It’s astonishing to me how Israel was tricked or deluded into allowing an occupation of territory inside Israel by an elected terrorist organisation whose stated aim is to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people.

The key to what happens next is that there can be no terrorist organisation running part of Israel.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi muscled his way into power in a coup against radical muslim lunatics.

Giving him Gaza would shift what’s left of Hamas into a few rag-tag platoons at war with Egypt instead of an army inside the Jewish homeland at war with Israel.

Oh come on
Oh come on
December 13, 2023 12:49 pm

We should have made friends with militaristic Germans in 1914 and everything would have been better” as precursor to the coming argument “We should continue to make friends with militaristic China and everything will be better”.

Hey! A strawman has just been viciously murdered!

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 12:50 pm

I get a sniff from discussions before stumps last night and before lunch today that there is a schism between the positions of Ten and the Cane Toad.

Bear Necessities
Bear Necessities
December 13, 2023 12:52 pm

There was a policeman from St Kilda Junction
Who lost the use of his sexual function
For the rest of his life he satisfied his wife
With the intelligent use of his Truncheon

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:54 pm

On the matter of Sharaz talking up contacts with Katie Gallagher and the desire to drop the bomb during a sitting week, Llewelyn can’t say whether there was an intent to politicise it.

I liked how the lawyer kept saying “Is that your serious answer” throughout the morning.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 13, 2023 12:55 pm

“It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone
It’s not unusual to have fun with anyone”

One in three UK men open to having more than one partner, study shows (Phys.org, 12 Dec)

A third of UK men are open to the idea of having more than one wife or long-term girlfriend, according to a new Swansea University study.

In contrast, only 11 percent of women surveyed would be open to the idea of a polygamous marriage if it were legal and consensual.

After the Brazilian study about expensive cars here is another amazing finding from the world of science. I suspect though there might be a bias in the dataset due to the Welsh roots of the study. We should ask Sir Tom about it.

(The song caused a bit of a stir back in 1965 when it was released.)

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 13, 2023 12:55 pm

Hey! A strawman has just been viciously murdered!

Many…many lols.

Roger
Roger
December 13, 2023 12:57 pm

I wonder why when we hit 1900 they became the most important thing on the planet after oxygen?

Good question. In this case British honour was certainly involved and anti-German sentiment had been brewing for some time due to Germany’s naval build-up and several other factors.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 13, 2023 1:00 pm

I can’t recall precisely how (but someone might have heard) but, according to AJP Taylor the accepted mode in Europe was that nations would rattle the sabres a bit, perhaps eventually declare a war and then begin mobilising, and negotiate an agreement before their armies actually met.

What the Germans did that upset this courtly dance that gave time for busy diplomats to scurry too and fro and formulate some agreement was their declaring war and attacking at the same time with the Schlieffen Plan. Trust those grotesque uncouth Prussians to commit such a glaring faux pas.

Well, that is what I remember of what I read probably 35 years ago.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 1:01 pm

It’s complicated, as they say.

The vast interconnectedness that existed under principalities and kingdoms clearly did not suit the evolving nation states. Unable to sort it out over lunch at the club.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 1:01 pm
Boambee John
Boambee John
December 13, 2023 1:02 pm

Bar Beach Swimmer
Dec 13, 2023 11:28 AM
BJ:

Because if there is no practical solution, then you are accepting the option of endless low level war.

Or, on the face of it, Israeli capitulation to those who surround them.

“Never Again” means that there will be no capitulation.

As long as the major Arab nations don’t join in the fight, Israel can smack Hamarse, IJ, Hezbo, et al down effectively when they get too stroppy. There will be ongoing pain and casualties, but the continued existence of Israel will not be threatened.

If the major Arab nations join in with the full force of their conventional armies, the problem is more substantial, but the record of conventional Arab armies against Israel is not good. Unless their performance is much improved, there would be higher casualties, but the nation of Israel would survive.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 1:02 pm

Worth repeating …

C.L.
Dec 13, 2023 11:50 AM

” the man agrees with what Israel is doing now but that he also thinks it probably isn’t a long term solution
what’s the problem with saying it?”

Apart from the obvious Keynesian riposte to the fallacy of “long term” solutions to anything…

It would be useful if the sensible sausage wing of Gaza war-gamers would explain what Israel should have done after 7 October. All I see from them here is wack-a-mole.

Make a case, using sentences and paragraphs. Post an essay to the main page.

GO!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 13, 2023 1:02 pm

Interesting Reading Quadrant – The Swan, er, Cuckoo of Avon

Four hundred years ago this month, the twenty-five-year-old Sir Edward Dering bought two copies of the First Folio of thirty-six plays by William Shakespeare. The price was £2 for the pair, not cheap but not especially expensive for a noted book and manuscript collector. And Dering was quite a collector. At one time he owned the oldest extant English roll of arms, a thirteenth-century vellum scroll displaying the coats of arms of 324 knights who owed service to the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Dering presumably pinched the roll when he was serving as Lieutenant of Dover Castle from 1629 to 1635. He used the roll to improve his pedigree, erasing the arms of one Nicholas de Crioll (Warden, 1263) and replacing them with those of a fictitious ancestor of his own. He also owned an original 1215 Magna Carta that eventually made its way to the British Library via that most famous of all English manuscript collectors, Robert Cotton. It is one of only four copies remaining today.

An amateur dramatist, Dering is the first known person to have put on a private household production of a Shakespeare play: an abridged version of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, which had first been published in 1599-1600. Dering’s hand-written abridgement dates to 1623, the same year he bought his First Folios. It seems that the theatre was, along with collecting, one of Dering’s passions. Dering’s surviving account book notes no fewer than twenty trips to the London theatres in the short period between May 1623 and November 1624, and while in town he purchased some 240 individual playbooks, most of them in batches of a dozen or more. These would have been used for read-throughs at country parties at Surrenden House, his estate in Kent.

On December 5, 1623, Dering saw a play, bought two playbooks, dropped off a volume at the binders, and visited the Barbican bookshop of Isaac Jaggard at the sign of the Half-Eagle and Key, where he bought an unspecified collection of Ben Jonson’s plays and the aforementioned “2 volumes of J Shakespear’s playes”—the “J” apparently being a slip of the hand, prompted perhaps by his recording of the Jonson purchase immediately underneath. These two volumes were the first two First Folios ever bought, so far as our records reveal. And they were bought hot off the presses: the Bodleian didn’t get its copy until January. Of Dering’s two First Folios, one remained in the family library until its liquidation by his nineteenth-century descendants. The other is believed by many to have landed at the University of Padua.

From the Comments

– Marlowe has nothing to do with writing Shakespeare’s works. They were written by Sir Henry Neville (1563-1615). This can be shown to be the case as convincingly as this can be. In particular, the handwriting in Hand D of Sir Thomas More, now universally regarded as by Shakespeare, and the only play manuscript by him which survives, is identical with Neville’s handwriting in his letters. There are many other strong reasons which show that Neville was the real author. I have just written a long article about this which I will be happy to send you.

My email is [email protected]. I am a frequent contributor to Quadrant- you can trust me. (Emeritus Professor) Bill Rubinstein.

Review of THE TRUTH WILL OUT by Brenda James and William D. Rubinstein

The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare by Brenda James and William D. Rubinstein. Harlow, England: Longman, 2005. (360 pages)

TWO-Paperbacks on the heels of half a dozen biographies published just this year about the author of the Shakespeare canon, whoever he was, comes yet another, this one confidently revealing the name of the playwright—Sir Henry Neville, a politician and landowner who, the authors claim, chose for his pseudonym the name of a distant kinsman whom he paid well to be his “operative in the theatre.”

Brenda James, a Warwickshire native and sometime lecturer in English at Portsmouth University, and Dr. William D. Rubinstein, a New Yorker now teaching modern history at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, have put together an attractive and highly-publicized brief for the first new candidate for the authorship in several decades.

They have brought new documents to light and assembled a host of facts, and more than a few speculations, to support their claim that Neville, who was England’s Ambassador to France for two years until May 1601, began writing history plays around 1590 and, over the next twenty years, produced the entire Shakespeare canon, including the narrative poems and the sonnets.

Those who do not believe the Stratford theory will be pleased to find in The Truth Will Out another stinging demolition of the argument that a Warwickshire businessman with ambiguous theater connections wrote the plays and poems that bear his name.

Throughout the book, the authors frequently refer to the yawning gap between the biography of Shakespeare of Stratford and the manifest education, knowledge, and experiences of the author of the canon.

On the other hand, they summarily dismiss the claims of all other candidates—Bacon, Marlowe, Stanley , Rutland , Mary Sidney, and Edward de Vere.

The case for Neville rests on two categories of evidence.

In the first are his dates, his social class and circumstances, and his experiences, all of which appear to comport with those of the author of the canon. In the second category are his alleged associations with several Elizabethan documents, one discovered by the authors themselves.

At best, Sir Henry Neville’s dates (c. 1562-1615), circumstances, and experiences do not rule him out as the hidden Shakespeare.

He was related to several noble families, was educated at Oxford , and became a Member of Parliament at age twenty-two.

As a teen-ager he spent four years on the continent, visiting France , Germany , Vienna , and Italy , although only Padua , Venice and Rome are mentioned in Italy . He also paid a brief visit to Scotland .

As a wealthy courtier and then Ambassador to France for two years, he was familiar with the intrigues and personalities of the court and with the political and social issues of the time.

Neville was something of a scholar and a linguist who, the authors claim, “was fluent in French and Spanish, and was able to read Italian, German, and Dutch,” as well as Latin and Greek.

But after this, the fit between Neville and the author of the canon begins to break down.

To account for Shakespeare’s knowledge of the law, the authors first minimize it, and then explain that Neville, although never trained in the law, “was continuously immersed in legal matters, especially those concerning real estate and local government.”

The single lame assertion that Neville “might have gone frequently to London , and it is highly probable that he would have visited the local theatres” is the only biographical information offered to connect him with plays or the theater. (On this score, it appears that there is more evidence for the Stratford man.) Shakespeare’s considerable knowledge of ships and maritime language is explained with this sentence: “ . . . it is difficult to believe that as a young man Neville did not take an interest in the trading vessels of the great Gresham mercantile enterprise which must have been very prominent in the port of London .” Neville’s mother was a Gresham , a great-granddaughter of James Gresham, founder of the family’s trading company.

The most important episode in Neville’s life was certainly his involvement in the futile Essex plot and rebellion of 1600-1601.

Neville was arrested, tried, convicted, deprived of his office of Ambassador, fined £ 10,000, sent to the Tower, and barely escaped execution.

He and the Earl of Southampton, Neville’s “lifelong friend and political ally,” were the only two Essex conspirators neither executed nor freed.

The two remained in prison for almost two years until the accession of James I, who released them both. Neville eventually regained his property, escaped the bulk of his fine, and returned to Parliament. But he spent the rest of his life trying to recoup his financial and political fortunes.

Considering the biography that the authors present, Neville’s interests, aspirations, and activities do not seem to be those of a writer, much less of a thoroughgoing man of the theater.

The authors admit that his “major ambition in life was to gain high political office.” It seems hardly credible that the conservative and Royalist author of the Shakespeare canon would take part in a conspiracy against Elizabeth, a legitimate queen for over forty years.

It is also significant that the authors cannot cite a single verse, poem, sonnet, play, masque, or even a prose work that has come from the quill of Sir Henry Neville, except, of course, the Shakespearean oeuvre , which he chose to conceal.

However, none of the above facts disqualifies Neville outright.

What might be, according to the authors, direct evidence that he was Shakespeare is to be found in several Elizabethan documents.

The Documentary Evidence

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 13, 2023 1:04 pm

Matrix

Cassie, Katz, BJ … what do youse reckon is a long term strategy ?

See my comment at 1302. I don’t share Dok Duk’s pessimism.

But if that fails, the Middle East will become a wasteland.

John
John
December 13, 2023 1:04 pm

Can Saint Lisa just dump everything on this Channel 10 moron?

Indeed. Couldn’t our beloved Lisa just plead ignorance of what was going around her? Hey, I’m just an auto-cue reader. I know nuffink, nuffink! It mightn’t be a good look, but wouldn’t it minimise her legal fees?

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 13, 2023 1:05 pm

Actually the Egypt option seems a semi-logical solution.

The Bungonia Bee
The Bungonia Bee
December 13, 2023 1:05 pm

The Guardian:
Ed Husic says Israel action in Gaza ‘very disproportionate’ and children shouldn’t bear brunt of conflict.

No sense of the situation (dare I say context?) at all.

Gilas
Gilas
December 13, 2023 1:07 pm

We saw Michael Lee angry about an answer Angus gave to Richardson..
To a suggestion by the KC that Fatty Shiraz was making this a political issue involving the Liars, Angus answered “Maybe?”.
To which Lee jumped: “Is that a serious answer?” with an expression to match.

Angus, clueless as usual, then made some denial/excuse of Sharaz’s stated intent, and answered “no.”

Many more examples of glib, f@cked-if-I-know and whatevers from this pompous arse.

Best entertainment since Breaking Bad!

It does look like Toad will be up this arvo..

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 1:08 pm

ftb at 12:54 – that’s the sort of thing that draws adverse comment in judgements.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 13, 2023 1:08 pm

This semms a little odd.
Why would you want pictures of messages from a second phone rather than the originals forwarded??
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2023/dec/13/bruce-lehrmann-defamation-trial-live-news-stream-defamation-trial-day-15-brittany-higgins-the-project-tv-network-10-lisa-wilkinson-federal-court-australia-youtube-latest-news-updates-today-ntwnfb
Affidavit reveals texts between Llewellyn and Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz

The affidavit also shows the process The Project team took in getting the story to air, including interactions with Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz.

On 29 January 2021, Sharaz sent Llewellyn a WhatsApp message.

Sharaz:

Brittany quit.

Llewellyn:

Can you get b to screen shot all those [Michaelia Cash] messages please? And if it includes the Cash number even better to back that up.

Get photos of the phone, take photos with YOUR phone please of the messages.

On 15 February 2021, Llewellyn sent a WhatsApp to Higgins.

How are you doing? You know the country will be amazed when they hear how strong and just you are tonight. If this helps you get a fair hearing that’s going to be damn well the right outcome. But it’s undoubtedly going to help others we’ve never heard of.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 1:08 pm

feelthebern
Dec 13, 2023 12:54 PM

On the matter of Sharaz talking up contacts with Katie Gallagher and the desire to drop the bomb during a sitting week, Llewelyn can’t say whether there was an intent to politicise it.

I liked how the lawyer kept saying “Is that your serious answer” throughout the morning.

That and Justice Lee giving him the school ma’am “You’re only wasting your own time here, and you’ll be kept in until you answer” and the repeated “Answer the counsel’s question. It’s Yes, No or I don’t recall.”
Even though Mr Llewelyn is not a direct respondent to these proceedings, I think he might get a mention in Justice Lee’s review of this little melodrama.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 13, 2023 1:08 pm

As of the 19th century the Europeans did not have to squabble over bits of Europe for resources, it was the age of Empire, and there were vast swathes of the Earth available much more easily – so they swooped upon Africa and the Far East. Much easier to win fights there.

The Industrial Revolution also meant that the amount of land did not make you a wealthy or powerful nation. You got food and ore from your overseas holdings.

I suppose that is why Russia looked so quaintly backward compared to the rest of Europe. Still a nation of land owners and peasant farmers.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 1:10 pm

Gotta be kidding ..! FFS! ..
The only difference between FATAH & HAMAS is in the names ..
FATAH has the same hate manifesto as HAMAS ……

You deliberately left out the first part of my comment so you could have a whack.
I said that would involve resettled (somewhere not in Israel) those whose hatred was implacable presumably all fatal hamas and all other terrorist group member and allowing those who would live in peace with Jews to remain.
They do exist.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 13, 2023 1:11 pm

Matrix

PS, remove all Pallies from Gaza, by paying them to relocate to the West Bank. Once the Pallies are all located together, getting a sane (relatively) PA might be possible.

But even they will need regular bribes or threats.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 1:14 pm

Gilas
Dec 13, 2023 1:07 PM

We saw Michael Lee angry about an answer Angus gave to Richardson..
To a suggestion by the KC that Fatty Shiraz was making this a political issue involving the Liars, Angus answered “Maybe?”.

We didn’t quite get our “You can’t handle the truth!” moment, but close.
Lllewelyn may as well have stood up and shouted “Yes, it was a malicious stitch-up from the get-go!”
He is adding about $10k to the damages bill every time he opens his mouth.
I suspect when this is done he’ll be lucky to be producing Laz-E-Boy massage chair commercials for Prime TV in Tamworth.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 13, 2023 1:15 pm

Ed Husic says Israel action in Gaza ‘very disproportionate’ and children shouldn’t bear brunt of conflict.

Disproportionate? What a ridiculous man. Unless your objective is to just keep the war going one side has to outmuscle the other. Both sides are in it to win.

Where did this idiot buzzword ‘disproportionate’ come from? Universities, I suspect. Honestly, those morons should be compelled to speak a special new convoluted rubbish language. They should not be allowed near English.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 13, 2023 1:15 pm

Bullock’s interest rate communication job just got harder

The disclosure of RBA board votes and public remarks by board members will make it more challenging for Michele Bullock to control the central bank’s message.

John Kehoe – Economics editor

Michele Bullock faces a more challenging task communicating the Reserve Bank of Australia’s outlook on interest rates and the economy than past central bank governors.

The Statement on the Conduct of Monetary Policy released last week by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and agreed to by the RBA board commits to two significant changes in central bank communications.

The changes were recommended by the independent review of the RBA.

First, unattributed votes by the nine board members will be disclosed after each meeting from about July next year when the specialist monetary policy board is due to commence.

Second, board members (except the Treasury secretary) will all be expected to conduct at least one public speech or “engagement” each year.

Not all RBA board members will feel comfortable delivering a full speech on monetary policy, so they instead will likely opt to appear on panels at conferences to answer questions.

Publishing unattributed votes and public remarks by eight board members (the Treasury secretary gives other speeches in that capacity) has the potential for more divergence.

With more people talking, more often, there will be more potential for slip-ups and variations.

More contestability

The review entices board members to contest monetary policy more vigorously.

The new communication and transparency measures are a departure from the governor almost single-handedly controlling the flow of information from the central bank about monetary policy.

Traditionally, the governor has been the chief spokesman for the bank, and board members have not revealed if they have different views to other board members.

The new communications regime will make Bullock’s task more challenging than her predecessors Philip Lowe, Glenn Stevens and Ian Macfarlane.

The RBA board under Stevens and beyond has generally been a consensus-driven model, with governors going around the board table and asking for the views of each member. A private vote is held when it’s a close call.

Soon, the focus of the markets and media will inevitably turn to the tally of unattributed votes. It remains to be seen if members change their voting behaviour in the knowledge that a split vote will be disclosed.

One unappreciated factor is that even in the event of say, an 8-1 vote count, it may still be a very close call overall. A majority of members may only marginally favour a policy action.

Communications out of central banks are usually carefully calibrated.

Even under the current regime of set speeches by the governor, deputy governor and assistant governors, it is not always easy to keep a consistent and coherent message.

The governor and deputy governor sit just a few metres away from each other and talk virtually every working day.

To be sure, robust debate and transparency can be a good thing in the formulation of public policy.

A more open regime will put more pressure on board members to ensure their monetary policy decisions are fully informed.

Board members will have more direct access to RBA economists to conduct research and spend more time at the bank by arriving Mondays before the eight Tuesday board meetings a year.

Central banks overseas, such as the US Federal Reserve, disclose the vote count and economic forecasts of members. They also give speeches outlining their personal views on the economy and outlook for monetary policy.

The additional information gives Fed watchers a broader understanding of the dynamics at play and contestability over monetary policy.

The difference is that Fed members are full-time professional economists, generally with a deep understanding of monetary policy and economics.

The six external members on the RBA monetary policy board will be expected to spend the equivalent of one day a week in the role.

Importance of appointments

Based on the previous appointments by the Labor and Coalition governments, board members are typically more generalists drawn from business, academia and community groups.

It remains to be seen if Chalmers adopts the spirit of the review’s recommendation to appoint experts in open-economy macroeconomics, the financial system, labour markets and the supply side of the economy.

His first two appointments – former Fair Work Commission president Iain Ross and former unionist turned businesswoman Elana Rubin – look like standard appointments of a Labor government. Coalition governments made similar appointments of businesspeople.

Bullock will need to figure out a way to handle the new communications regime. In the event of a crisis or public confusion, people will look to her to give clarity to the public and politicians.

The new regime will also test the quality of our media.

The US is typically well served by the diligent reporting on the Fed by the likes of The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times.

These publications, with their specialist central bank reporters, embrace the diversity of views among Fed members while providing clear guidance on the likely direction of monetary policy.

Where diverging views emerge in Australia, the temptation for some media may be to sensationalise that there is a “showdown” between board members heading into meetings, or that it’s “X versus Y” on interest rate deliberations.

Reasonable people can have differences of opinion. Debate and contestability is healthy.

But Bullock will have to work out how to handle the new communications regime to avoid unnecessary confusion and perceptions of conflict among board members.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
December 13, 2023 1:17 pm

COP 28 ‘Talk Fest’ still going on and on and on……………………………..

Soon to be a ‘Cop Out’ by the Oil and Energy Producers. What a complete farce and waste of time and money and energy by all involved.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-67674841

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 1:17 pm

Mole at 1:08.

“To lose one phone can be considered unfortunate. To lose two looks like carelessness.”

(To avoid any Harvard or Gold Braid Sleeve accusations, I borrowed the essence of that line).

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
December 13, 2023 1:17 pm

Knuckles are you going to taste the deights of the ex-missus just to remind yourself how lucky you are. I had maccas the other day in unusual circumstances, first time in 9 years, reminding myself I’ll be deaad before I ever have it again. I was crook for a day and how come people pay an exorbitant amount for crap?

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 1:17 pm

Sharaz fingerprints all over the crime scene. Looks like a job for CSI.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
December 13, 2023 1:17 pm

In the driver’s seat of our fire truck watching a chopper dump water on a modest stubble fire.
All under control after a bit of hot work along the fire edge. Mopping up smokies under trees.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 13, 2023 1:18 pm

Actually the Egypt option seems a semi-logical solution.

Not to the Egyptians. They’ve been hyperbolic about the idea, and not in a good way.

I suppose, if you could move the 2 million ferals out of the place, that Egypt would condescend to resume ownership of that stretch of useless sand. But that’s the problem: 2 million nutters living on it that Egypt absolutely doesn’t want to have to own.

Alamak!
Alamak!
December 13, 2023 1:19 pm

This semms a little odd.
Why would you want pictures of messages from a second phone rather than the originals forwarded??

Whoever was “advising” Bri seemed to have the idea that screenshots of images would be good enough as evidence, while avoiding that pesky metadata that might prove when & where the photos were taken. Not good advice as the screenshots provoked people to go “hmmm”, even Lisa W.

All fits a pattern that written comms could not be trusted, or might be used against St Brit the LibAvenger. And also the belief that anything police received would go straight to Libs including but not limited to the Evil Ogre Dutton.

Farcical and self-defeating. Something that is a “he said/she said” case because no confirming, objective evidence is now tied in knots because St Brit the LibAvenger appears to be nothing more than a greedy, “lying cow”.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 1:21 pm

It’s astonishing to me how Israel was tricked or deluded into allowing an occupation of territory inside Israel by an elected terrorist organisation whose stated aim is to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people.

Not only that but to provide it with essential infrastructure that was subverted into waging war against Israel.
In practical terms Egypt could run Gaza as a sort of separate but not really equal fiefdom, and being muslim subjugating muslims the world could return to the same don’t care mode as it does with all other muslim countries.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 13, 2023 1:21 pm

Of the people you want to change the RBA board process, Jim Chalmers and this mob of Liars would be close to the top.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 13, 2023 1:21 pm

Ed Husic says Israel action in Gaza ‘very disproportionate’ and children shouldn’t bear brunt of conflict.

Albo and Wong should send Husic to Gaza to sort out the issue.
Let him take as long as he needs.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
December 13, 2023 1:23 pm

Ed Husic says Israel action in Gaza ‘very disproportionate’ and children shouldn’t bear brunt of conflict.

That’s pretty close to being as dumb as Squalid Alley & his “Contract of War” statement.

They’re only saying this crap when the side they support is having the stuffing knocked out of it.

Alamak!
Alamak!
December 13, 2023 1:26 pm

It’s astonishing to me how Israel was tricked or deluded into allowing an occupation of territory inside Israel by an elected terrorist organisation whose stated aim is to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people.

Hamas was enabled and supported by Netanyahu as a way of weakening the PA. Blowback of a bad policy is his to explain to Israeli citizens.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
December 13, 2023 1:28 pm

Johnny Rotten
Dec 13, 2023 12:41 PM

There once was a lady from Leeds
Who Swallowed a packet of seeds
Before very soon, her tits were in bloom
and her c@#! was all covered in weeds.

Perplexed of Brisbane
Perplexed of Brisbane
December 13, 2023 1:28 pm

Bruce of Newcastle
Dec 13, 2023 12:22 PM
Brazilian science is focusing on the important topics.

Survey results suggest men with expensive cars seen as having a higher mating value (Phys.org, 12 Dec)

Sounds like the experimental work and data collection was a lot of fun.

Sounds like the thesis on the effects of the shadows of high-rise buildings at the Gold coast on positions of beachgoers during the day. I would expect eskies full of beer and binoculars would have been de rigeur experimental equipment.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 1:29 pm
rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 1:31 pm

Hamas was enabled and supported by Netanyahu as a way of weakening the PA

Was this in 2006 when Hamas won the election, started a civil war with Fatah and then threw them out of tall buildings?

Alamak!
Alamak!
December 13, 2023 1:33 pm

Hamas was enabled and supported by Netanyahu as a way of weakening the PA

Was this in 2006 when Hamas won the election, started a civil war with Fatah and then threw them out of tall buildings?

Both of these events can and did occur. One does not rule out the other.

Jorge
Jorge
December 13, 2023 1:35 pm

Anyhow the entire Saga is just a cudgel for the rubbish ‘the church is antiscience’ narrative.

Indeed. The Galileo saga might make one think that he monopolises the history of astronomy. There are thirty five features on the surface of the moon commemorating Jesuit scientists.

It would be a mistake to think that the Jesuit names are on selenographs only because other Jesuits put them there. Rather it was a convergence of astronomers’ opinions over three centuries: map makers before and after Riccioli confirmed the decisions again and again that these 40 men deserved this honor. This is not surprising. Recent histories emphasize the enormous influence Jesuits had not only on mathematics but on the other developing sciences such as astronomy. Historians of science always listed a surprisingly large number of Jesuits among the greatest scientists and mathematicians of all time. They were at the cutting edge of the sciences. For instance, by the time of the suppression in 1773, of the world’s 130 astronomy observatories, 30 were operated by Jesuits. Furthermore Jesuit names are still being added to the list by the I. A. U.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 13, 2023 1:37 pm

The Grauniad is sad and depressed.

At Cop28 it feels as if humanity’s shared lifeboat is sinking. There are only hours left to act (12 Dec, via Lucianne)

As time runs out in Dubai, it feels as though the lifeboat of our shared humanity is sinking. And fossil fuels are also not the entire story here. The “home” the majority of us will return to when Cop28 is over is not the home we once felt safe in. Many of our homelands are already being decimated by extreme weather. Huge changes are already with us and even more are inevitable – even if countries had agreed to a fossil fuel phase-out. So we must adapt.

We can adapt? Who knew? Alas that sudden glimmer of pragmatism doesn’t last:

But to those at Cop28, I say this: people around the world are watching you – including people who have watched their children die as a direct result of your decades of inaction.

There is nowhere to hide.

Here’s who she is:

Vanessa Nakate (wiki)

Inspired by Greta Thunberg to start her own climate movement in Uganda, Nakate began a solitary strike against inaction on the climate crisis in January 2019. For several months she was the lone protester outside of the gates of the Parliament of Uganda.

Yep, she’s a black Greta. Be afraid, be very afraid.

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 1:38 pm

Then explain how Netanyahu enabled and supported Hamas since then.

C.L.
C.L.
December 13, 2023 1:47 pm

Sharaz fingerprints all over the crime scene. Looks like a job for CSI

*sunglasses off*

The only power he’s exuding now…

*sunglasses on*

…is the power of one.

YEEAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

shatterzzz
December 13, 2023 1:49 pm
Arky
December 13, 2023 1:57 pm

Hey! A strawman has just been viciously murdered!

..
Someone proposed we’d be better off without involvement in WW1.
That’s impossible to know.
My idea here is that the groundwork of ideas is being laid to give the CCP the greenlight for whatever it wants in “it’s region”. That strawman deserves a massacre.

shatterzzz
December 13, 2023 2:02 pm

Ed Husic says Israel action in Gaza ‘very disproportionate’ and children shouldn’t bear brunt of conflict.

Ed Husic a total political non-entity lays a claim to media fame thru being a musso …….
and now playing it for all it’s worth ……..

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 2:07 pm
Muddy
Muddy
December 13, 2023 2:10 pm

Re the Great War and staying out of it:
German Pacific territories above and below the Equator would have seen Australia involved anyway, in the absence of the Royal Navy. As would the hunting of German merchant cruisers targeting our exports to the Motherland.

Arguably, our losses and experiences in the Middle East and Europe set in place a solid foundation for our WW2 contribution (despite the capacity degradation of the intervening period).

shatterzzz
December 13, 2023 2:11 pm

rosie Avatar
rosie
Dec 13, 2023 1:24 PM
another mass surrender in Gaza, don’t know whether in the north or south this time, no opportunity to discuss underwear habits in this photo.

And this from the accompanying comments ….. LOL!

People got mad when I suggested they were going to surrender when they ran out of other peoples food to steal…..

C.L.
C.L.
December 13, 2023 2:13 pm

Should not be a police officer:

Video: Gold Coast police officer in hospital after alleged violent attack in Parkwood.

What happens when somebody’s life depends on her winning a tussle?

rosie
rosie
December 13, 2023 2:17 pm
John
John
December 13, 2023 2:20 pm

His brazen resentment in having to answer the Judge’s questions is palpable.

JMH
JMH
December 13, 2023 2:20 pm

I suspect Mr. Llewellyn might be about to find out he is no longer a producer employed by Ch. 10. Probably about 5 pm today.

Zippster
Zippster
December 13, 2023 2:22 pm
Figures
Figures
December 13, 2023 2:30 pm

I can only presume Wilko and Channel 10 have spent the past year looking solely at feminist twitter and thinking their case couldn’t lose.

C.L.
C.L.
December 13, 2023 2:33 pm

Game, set, match.

Network Ten producer Angus Llewellyn admits in a five-hour interview with Lisa Wilkinson, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz that he knew Bruce Lehrmann would be identified as an alleged rapist.

Figures
Figures
December 13, 2023 2:33 pm

What happens when somebody’s life depends on her winning a tussle?

Cue Johanna to say that it was all the fault of her male partner.

John
John
December 13, 2023 2:33 pm

Can he plead the 5th Amendment?

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
December 13, 2023 2:37 pm

JMH
Dec 13, 2023 2:20 PM
I suspect Mr. Llewellyn might be about to find out he is no longer a producer employed by Ch. 10. Probably about 5 pm today.

I had no idea that Ch 10 had such a person called a ‘Producer”.

What do they produce? Drivel, it would appear.

Bespoke
Bespoke
December 13, 2023 2:38 pm

MatrixTransform
Dec 13, 2023 11:29 AM
I don’t get why Duk’s statements are so controversial or polarizing

I thought it tame for the cat.

No one has called him Anti-semitic.

calli
calli
December 13, 2023 2:38 pm

Decided to watch the live stream of Lvs Ten.

That Llewellyn guy is an utter piece of work. He couldn’t sleep straight in bed. He obviously didn’t want contact with BL. Using old work numbers, not using current numbers…what a slug.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 13, 2023 2:39 pm

That noise you heard was simultaneous forehead slaps in the channel 10 boardroom and insurers offices.

The Project producer accused of giving Lehrmann ‘absolutely minimal time’ to respond to Higgins’ accusations

Llewellyn is back in the witness box after lunch and has been played audio of a conversation he had with Brittany Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz about when to contact Lehrmann about the story before the program aired.

In the audio, Llewellyn says: “We would go to him and we would go to ministers [Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash]. Obviously, if we’re making accusations we have to give everyone reasonable chance to reply. And reasonable can be pretty iffy, as long as it’s not five minutes before broadcast and if it’s 10 minutes, which will be OK.”

Llewellyn said he was “using a bit of humour” at the time to put Higgins and Sharaz at ease because they were visibly anxious about Lehrmann being contacted.

Richardson put it to Llewellyn that it was his state of mind that he wanted to “give Mr Llewellyn absolutely minimal time” to respond.

Llewellyn replied: “I disagree, no, no I disagree, I sent him a very detailed request on the Friday and asked for an interview.”

John
John
December 13, 2023 2:41 pm

Can Lehrmann also attach Llewelyn to this case? He must have a home or two somewhere.

flyingduk
flyingduk
December 13, 2023 2:42 pm

Boambee John
Dec 13, 2023 10:57 AM

Still no sign of your alternative strategy for Israel.

You are going to have a long wait if you refuse to read my answer to that at 1033 good sir.

Isit a bit like the saying “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like”?

In this case, you don’t know much about strategy, but you know what you don’t like.

No, I said I dont see that there is a winning strategy for Israel, not that I dont understand strategy.

Its a bit like (Titanic designer) Thomas Andrews telling Captain Smith ‘she must surely sink’ when he learned the extent of the titanics damage…. he wasnt saying ‘I dont know anything about the Titanic’ …. he was saying “am an expert on this ship and ‘I dont see any way we can save it”.

C.L.
C.L.
December 13, 2023 2:42 pm

Kill shot:

blockquote>Network Ten producer Angus Llewellyn admits in a five-hour interview with Lisa Wilkinson, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz that he knew Bruce Lehrmann would be identified as an alleged rapist.

During that conversation on January 27, 2021, which was played for the court on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Llewellyn could be heard saying ‘If we didn’t name [Mr Lehrmann], we might as well have named him.

‘So many people would have been able to identify him.’

He then told Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz that he would have to reach out to Mr Lehrmann for comment prior to broadcast.

At that moment, Mr Sharaz – who used to be a journalist – gasped and said, ‘Oh’.

Mr Llewellyn told the court Ms Higgins also looked surprised in person.

The producer said: ‘We have to give everyone a reasonable chance to reply.’

Mr Sharaz then asked if that meant asking for comment on a Friday afternoon.

Mr Llewellyn replied: ‘”Reasonable” can be pretty iffy – as long as it’s not five minutes before broadcast. Ten is fine.’

The group then laughed.

Not laughing now are you, dickheads?

C.L.
C.L.
December 13, 2023 2:43 pm

Kill shot:

Network Ten producer Angus Llewellyn admits in a five-hour interview with Lisa Wilkinson, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz that he knew Bruce Lehrmann would be identified as an alleged rapist.

During that conversation on January 27, 2021, which was played for the court on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Llewellyn could be heard saying ‘If we didn’t name [Mr Lehrmann], we might as well have named him.

‘So many people would have been able to identify him.’

He then told Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz that he would have to reach out to Mr Lehrmann for comment prior to broadcast.

At that moment, Mr Sharaz – who used to be a journalist – gasped and said, ‘Oh’.

Mr Llewellyn told the court Ms Higgins also looked surprised in person.

The producer said: ‘We have to give everyone a reasonable chance to reply.’

Mr Sharaz then asked if that meant asking for comment on a Friday afternoon.

Mr Llewellyn replied: ‘”Reasonable” can be pretty iffy – as long as it’s not five minutes before broadcast. Ten is fine.’

The group then laughed.

Not laughing now are you, dickheads?

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 13, 2023 2:45 pm

C.L.
Dec 13, 2023 2:33 PM

Game, set, match.

Network Ten producer Angus Llewellyn admits in a five-hour interview with Lisa Wilkinson, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz that he knew Bruce Lehrmann would be identified as an alleged rapist.

I do not know why Ten haven’t just settled this.
He states on tape that the show will identify Lehrman or narrow it down to a vanishingly small group of males, (at which point social media will go to work).
He then says that defamation action will be largely neutralised because Lehrman will be tainted by being labeled as a wapist.
FMD.

calli
calli
December 13, 2023 2:46 pm

Chortle. “There may have been dozens of male staff who followed Reynolds” from Home Affairs to Defence Industries.

Dozens.

What a dissembling pow.

Alamak!
Alamak!
December 13, 2023 2:46 pm

Network Ten producer Angus Llewellyn admits in a five-hour interview with Lisa Wilkinson, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz that he knew Bruce Lehrmann would be identified as an alleged rapist.

Does this tip the case from “careless, but believed in the truth of the matter” to “malicious and avoided checking because it might ruin the hit job”?

/IANAL

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