Open Thread – Fri 15 Dec 2023


The Luncheon, Claude Monet, 1873

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wal1957
wal1957
December 15, 2023 11:11 am

Pauline Hanson Please Explain this week is hilarious and true…again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYK1KuLWK-Q

Winston Smith
December 15, 2023 11:11 am

There are already rules about respiratory protection and industrial dusts. There is a Dust Diseases Board in NSW since 1983.
Why aren’t the rules being followed?

Perplexed of Brisbane
Perplexed of Brisbane
December 15, 2023 11:11 am

Roger
Dec 15, 2023 9:47 AM
Headstones will be produced how?

Not a problem…they’ll ban burials, on account of the environment.

The left is partial to cremation.

Roger
Roger
December 15, 2023 11:13 am

It’s about fear, it’s about intimidation, it’s sexist, it’s, everything is implied, everything’s in secret,’’ Ms Wilkinson says on the tape.

She wasn’t captured by Brittany, she’s captured by her ideology.

Higgins was just a means to an end.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 15, 2023 11:13 am

A covert recording between Brittany Higgins’ lawyer and David Sharaz will not be released

Bruce Lehrmann’s barrister Steven Whybrow SC told the Federal Court on Friday that he will not tender a covert recording between Brittany Higgins’ lawyer Leon Zwier and her fiance David Sharaz.

A segment aired by Sky News Australia featured recordings of Mr Zwier having a discussion with Mr Sharaz on Monday last week in the lobby bar of Sydney’s Park Hyatt Hotel.

At that time, Ms Higgins was in the middle of cross-examination and therefore barred from speaking to her lawyers.

Breaching that rule could amount to contempt of court.

According to the Sky News article, tendered in court on Tuesday, Mr Zwier could be heard giving Mr Sharaz advice on how Ms Higgins should respond to questions about her compensation payment on the witness stand the following morning.

Sky News was subpoenaed over the matter and provided the full recording to the court earlier in the week.

In court on Friday, Mr Whybrow said the quality of the recording was not good enough to create a transcript of the conversation.

‘In relation to the Sky News subpoena, can I indicate we don’t have an application in these proceedings.

‘The context and the quality is not sufficient for us to make applications.’

‘There’s only a draft, [written] by myself, and it’s probably not verified or objectively confirmed.’

JMH
JMH
December 15, 2023 11:13 am

10’s legal department might be needing changes of underwear right now!

Bazinga
Bazinga
December 15, 2023 11:13 am

Will no one rid us from this Albotross around Australias neck?

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 11:14 am

Did you put out enough clues to identify Lehmann?
NO!!
Did you think you might identify someone else falsely..
I had advice..

Hiding behind privilege

I didnt personally receive that advice..
Channel 10 legal department would be careful…

Real Deal
Real Deal
December 15, 2023 11:16 am

Trying to watch Barry Humphries memorial service on YouTube.

Can’t say I really enjoy Dickie Wilkins hosting it, however having that abomination of a local member of mine, Tony Burqa speak has made me switch off. How Barry would have hated that political creep speak at his own service.

Winston Smith
December 15, 2023 11:17 am

Jorge:

Imagine the outrage if someone declared they were getting together a citizen security operation to car patrol the streets of Jewish areas like Caulfield. Doing it because police had shown they had no understanding or capacity to match the threats.

As soon as it was formed, the police would jump on it because they have a monopoly on protection. And they will enforce that monopoly even if it costs lives.
However, a Security Company patrolling with armed members from the Muslim Community? Foine, mate foine.

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
December 15, 2023 11:17 am

Toad might be an unabashed lying full-of-it full-on malicious ignoramus.

Ya think! Such entertainment this morning, especially as LW has just adamantly declared how experienced and professional her team is.

Roger
Roger
December 15, 2023 11:17 am

Will no one rid us from this Albotross around Australias neck?

Which one?

We’re carrying quite a few around atm.

Chris
Chris
December 15, 2023 11:18 am

In the 4 bed ward next to me was a 28 year old young man who was on oxygen and struggling to breath. He said he worked with cutting stone for benchtops.

FMD. The mining industry has had silicosis recognised and controlled starting in the mines before1920 and continuously improving since with water injection drilling, dust suppression, particle monitoring on personnel, sealed cabs and PPE.

Its a massive cockup caused by the sloppyness of Government HSE professionals, who should have warned subbies what their new materials could do to them and make sure they read the MSDS for granite.

Digger
Digger
December 15, 2023 11:18 am

I said hang on Im a Trump fan and rolled the conversation back to another topic.

I never miss an opportunity to tell those who are obviously anti-Trump that I am a Trumpster… I then ask them “What did Trump do wrong when he was president” and that is a question they can never adequately answer because they rely 100% on what they hear in the media which is all bluster and hatred with no meat…

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 11:18 am

I want a “Scooby Doo” moment, when our intrepid Lisa Holmes unmasks the wicked government conspirators.

You’re not alone. So do Ch 10, their barrister and Chrysanthou.

Tom
Tom
December 15, 2023 11:19 am

You couldn’t make this up: somehow unfunny television hack Richard Wilkins got appointed to MC the Barry Humphries memorial service at the Sydney Opera House this morning.

His first duty was a welcome to country on behalf of the blackfellas.

The ghost of Barry Humphries resisted the urge to make one last entrance and lampoon the absurdity that some faceless clown had assigned to Australia’s greatest satirist.

PS: as if that absurdity wasn’t enough, the tribute to Humphries is presented jointly by the NSW and federal governments, so sleazebag Tony Burke from the Elbow clownshow got to make a speech and they’re just played an Elbow video (as the PM obviously has a pressing overseas travel schedule to maintain).

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 11:19 am

My god I hate the dinosaur media.

Charnel Tang, Channel Nein!, Sex Boobs & Schizophrenia, Aussie Bolshie Collektiv & Spewin’ all deserve the fate of Ole’ Yella.

Print media is often worse. Channel Nein like to double down through their subsidiaries like Stank and “News” papers.

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 11:22 am

10’s legal department might be needing changes of underwear right now!

Or to learn to code before AI takes their new jobs.

Federal judges don’t send people to prison much in this country…the stench of perjury and contempt is rank however.

This is the circus we didn’t ask for but deserved.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 11:24 am

Will no one rid us from this Albotross around Australias neck?

Which one?

JC
JC
December 15, 2023 11:24 am

Don’t you ever complain about anyone on here throwing “racist” abuse at you again you snivelling brat.

Fck Juan.

Anyone who starts the racist abuse with me gets it back in spades. Go back through the back pages , which you have, and then come back and apologise. See what your crooked pal has said. While there check out Driller’s comments you biased buffoon.

C.L.
C.L.
December 15, 2023 11:26 am

I can resist everything except temptation.

– Oscar Wilde

And the Catholic faith, to which he converted at the very end.

Digger
Digger
December 15, 2023 11:26 am

I’ve just joined up to the Tucker Carlson Network ($A14 per month)

Tucker Carlson is pretty good but he lets himself down significantly with his outlandish outburst of confected and very loud laughter from time to time… credibility washes out the door a bit when he does that from my perspective…

He takes on serious topics in a serious manner and is mostly pretty good at it but those outbursts certainly detract from the seriousness…

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 15, 2023 11:27 am

Tom

Dec 15, 2023 11:19 AM
You couldn’t make this up: somehow unfunny television hack Richard Wilkins got appointed to MC the Barry Humphries memorial service at the Sydney Opera House this morning.

His first duty was a welcome to country on behalf of the blackfellas.

Tom from the AFR for you.

We apologise for this email, which may offend everyone

A newspaper expresses regret for mentioning the merry, the dead, the Romans and Barack Obama.

Guy Kelly

A content warning: The following word may be triggering to anybody living with elafiphobia, the fear of antlered grazing animals.

Dear

A content warning: the following word is a catch-all term which does not acknowledge individuality, please proceed with caution

All,

We hope this finds you well. Though if you are not well, or well is not how you wish to be found, know that we at the Telegraph respect how wellness can be both a subjective term and exist on a spectrum. That said, we apologise for opening in this manner.

We will take learnings from the experience.

Equally, we hope you received our various correspondences preparing you for this email invading the safe space of your inbox.

We appreciate it can be tricky to be found by an email if you did not give prior consent to being found.

We regret how this looks.

To begin with, we would like to forewarn you that in a few sentences’ time, mention will be made of a recent third-party email which discussed the action or fact of an individual no longer being alive.

(We wish to apologise for using the word “party” in the above paragraph. We appreciate that not everybody enjoys parties, and certainly not three of them. We will endeavour to use a more inclusive term, such as “gathering”, in future.)

It has been brought to our attention that His Majesty’s Treasury sent a missive (mercifully, not a misterive) to staff last week announcing the passing of former chancellor Alistair Darling by first cautioning that the blog pertains to the subject of death, which some recipients “may find difficult to read”.

The Treasury’s content warning was a good start.

However, the Telegraph would have gone further and made it clear the email is also potentially triggering to anybody unable to use alleys, stairs, or has been called “darling” by, for example, a sexist or a taxi driver.

The Civil Service, being both civil and of service, is always at the forefront of innovation in how we can be more respectful to our fellow humans and huwomen and huothers.

To that end, lately it has also begun inviting staff to add a voice recording of them saying their name to their email signatures, “to help others get the pronunciation right”.

When they are mispronounced, an advisory note continued, “it can make people feel unseen”.

So “if you feel comfortable doing so”, making a recording remedies this. The clip should be found just after one’s pronouns and before one’s job title, assuming you are happy to identify with a job title.

This was all sent by somebody called “Sam”.

For years, people had been assuming their name was pronounced “Ethel”, or just called them “mate” to avoid embarrassment.

Thanks to a short clip confirming it rhymes with “ham”, no longer does this happen.

This is progress. But remember, as Barack Obama said, “there is no straight line to progress”.

(Historical context note: Barack Obama is a divisive figure whose acts, especially those relating to drone attacks affecting innocent civilians and the wearing of vests under smart shirts, are rightly considered problematic to modern historians.

We are also happy to acknowledge that occasionally there is, in fact, a straight line to progress, such as the A15 between Riseholme roundabout just north of Lincoln and Horncastle Lane roundabout near Welton Cliff, built as it is atop a former Roman road.)

((Historical note to the historical note: Really sorry for mentioning the Romans.

We will be providing free counselling in meeting room 2.4 for anybody affected by this error.

Carthaginian colleagues are encouraged to attend.))

The Telegraph is pleased to be joining the Treasury in updating its email guidelines, beginning with this notice.

It is our intention that with this new approach, emails are both clearer and more inclusive to you, the readers.

Or to use a term we will be trialling from 2024, “content consumers”. It is not right that we keep using such a presumptive word as “reader” when so many of you do, in fact, have the paper read to you by your valets.

Wishing you a merry – nope, sorry, nearly slipped up again there.

Wishing you a pleasant end-of-year time off when you could or could not be celebrating anything.

As usual at this time in December, we will be offering one-to-one support for any staff who have lived experience related to conceiving a Wonderful Counsellor, Prince of Peace, Bright Morning Star or King of Kings immaculately, or anybody who has given birth in a shed next to a bowl of myrrh.

Thanks,

A content warning: the following word is gender normative

Guy

A content warning: victims of a specific australian outlaw, gang-leader and police-murderer active in the mid to late 1880s may wish to skip this last part. As might anyone affected by a tv host called lorraine

Kelly

Click to see how I pronounce my name. He/Him, Hi/Ho

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 15, 2023 11:27 am

He should have prepared a farewell video tape from Sir Les Patterson for his funeral.

Winston Smith
December 15, 2023 11:27 am

Arky

Dec 15, 2023 10:08 AM
JC
Dec 15, 2023 8:27 AM
Paranoid Junior Cretin has got it all ‘wong’ again.
lol He’s the one with the wong, because he couldn’t get a white.

..

Don’t you ever complain about anyone on here throwing “racist” abuse at you again you snivelling brat.

It got all offended when I likened his behaviour to “Mafiosi thug” and played the race card.
I’m still trying to work out why ‘Mafiosi Thug’ is racist but “Limey Crook’ isn’t.
I’m sure we’ll be informed in the very near future.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 11:27 am

A 268-page transcript of Lisa Wilkinson’s five-hour discussion with Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz has been released by the Federal Court.

As someone who remains joyfully ignorant of the sausage making process I’ll pass on this one.

Johnny Rotten
December 15, 2023 11:29 am

Anyone who starts the racist abuse with me gets it back in spades.

You Fat Arse racist. Pompous Windbag to boot. And crook. And Big Nose. And………………………………….

Paranoid Junior Cokehead or Cockhead. Take yer’ pick.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 15, 2023 11:35 am

feelthebern
Dec 15, 2023 11:09 AM

Lee’s interjection.
Saint Lisa’s response.
It’s over.

Re the “advice”.
And Lee’s made it clear re privilege.

Quite so.
Paraphrased …
“You don’t have to detail the contents, but you will tell me that, firstly, you either got advice or not, and, if you did, who provided that advice.”

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 11:38 am

Toad on its hind legs making a speech about the immaculate St Brit-knees..

Lawyer: Returns to black and white statement.

Toad: “but i feeeeeellll”…

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 11:39 am

Sssshhhhh everyone.

She’s about to say something stupid.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
December 15, 2023 11:42 am

I reckon ALP is goorne in QLD even with KAP/PHON siphoning of votes, no amount of polishing a turd will help. The lurch left with Miles will lose seats north of the Burnett. Oh and Sky News should have inserted Cameron Milner is a former ALP member as well as a lobbyist at the head of GXO strategies:

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/huge-opportunity-for-a-new-way-forward-for-the-queensland-labor-party/video/a0d39c36ef791a16c17598199fa5a8ac

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 11:42 am

Breaking for morning tea is quite civilised. They really should call it smoko.

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 11:43 am

A nice way to let someone reconsider if they want to commit perjury or not.

JC
JC
December 15, 2023 11:46 am

Calm down wodney you’re going to have a toilet accident.

Turtlehead’s always trying to stoke stoushes. What a perfect job as a male nurse.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 15, 2023 11:47 am

H B Bear
Dec 15, 2023 11:27 AM

A 268-page transcript of Lisa Wilkinson’s five-hour discussion with Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz has been released by the Federal Court.

As someone who remains joyfully ignorant of the sausage making process I’ll pass on this one.

That little piece of fillem is gold.
I have no doubt they taped it all for the spin off series “How Lisa Brought Down the Patriarchy”.
If “the talent” requires tapes to be taken as memory joggers in future, I think we will see the introduction of “working tapes” which, in the interests of the environment, will be quickly recycled when the story goes to air, or is ditched.
I think it has been noted here before, but it is worth repeating … discovery is a bitch.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 15, 2023 11:49 am

thefrollickingmole
Dec 15, 2023 11:38 AM

Toad on its hind legs making a speech about the immaculate St Brit-knees..

Has she forgotten already?
Justice Lee told the editor yesterday not to, well, editoralise.

Gilas
Gilas
December 15, 2023 11:50 am

Toad Bunions repeatedly contradicting previous testimony she gave, playing dumb to repeated versions of the same question, making speeches..

Hasn’t thought about or learnt and corrected what she did wrong yesterday.

Again, made Angus look good.

JC
JC
December 15, 2023 11:50 am

I’m still trying to work out why ‘Mafiosi Thug’ is racist but “Limey Crook’ isn’t.

Both are ethnic slurs, turtlehead. It’s about equal to calling you a male nurse, and being dumped in a home. Not very bright are you?

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 15, 2023 11:51 am

H B Bear
Dec 15, 2023 11:42 AM

Breaking for morning tea is quite civilised. They really should call it smoko.

I don’t know what you call it at your club, but at 36 Collins we refer to it as “elevenses”.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 11:52 am

I think it has been noted here before, but it is worth repeating … discovery is a bitch.

Certainly a lot more rewarding than in my day when it was like doing a jigsaw with half the pieces missing, nobody wrote anything down, no emails and your were looking for scraps among any correspondence that did exist.

Digger
Digger
December 15, 2023 11:53 am

There are already rules about respiratory protection and industrial dusts. There is a Dust Diseases Board in NSW since 1983.

The makeup of the board does not instil confidence in me. I have worked in various aspects of respiratory protection for over 50 years and yet I do not see one person in that board who carries a stated level of experience or knowledge in respiratory protection particulate filtration or products. There are plenty of medical experts, academics, unionists, legal practitioners, OHS administrators but there appears to be no visible actual respiratory protection experts… wierd.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 11:54 am

“How Lisa Brought Down the Patriarchy”.

Currently shelved.

Bar Beach Swimmer
December 15, 2023 11:56 am

Richardson referred again to the story of young woman “forced to choose…” – which Wilkinson said again was how Higgins felt. But the title of the program was not that this is what this young woman thinks/feelz. This was portrayed as fact.

Britnee said at one point that she is the most uninteresting part of her story and Lisa showing that is true.

It’s all about politics and sub-text and despite plain English responses from the PMO’s office about Reynolds and Brown’s support of Higgins, they are not, and should not, be believed..

amortiser
amortiser
December 15, 2023 11:56 am

Re the metadata. Lisa probably thought the photo was taken by a box brownie or a Polaris.

Roger
Roger
December 15, 2023 11:57 am

I reckon ALP is goorne in QLD…

It’s the LNP’s to lose, certainly.

But they’re quite practised at that.

C.L.
C.L.
December 15, 2023 11:57 am

It has been brought to our attention that His Majesty’s Treasury sent a missive (mercifully, not a misterive) to staff last week announcing the passing of former chancellor Alistair Darling by first cautioning that the blog pertains to the subject of death, which some recipients “may find difficult to read”.

The Americans – the occultish enthusiasts of Halloween* – use “passed” instead of died and this is now becoming the norm in Australia.

I remember a wonderful old-school journo-cum-lecturer of mine mocking a fellow student who’d submitted hard news copy that included the phrase “passed away.”

“No,” he said, “the gentleman died. He’s dead.”

Americans cannot bring themselves to say “toilet” either. That word is more obscene than F or C in the US. In the States, they’re called “rest rooms.” Who TF rests in a dunny?

————
* Loosely related Scotch-Irish origins bla bla bla. I know.

Bar Beach Swimmer
December 15, 2023 11:58 am

I’ve been to the beach and come back to see that I’ve missed nothing with Lisa’s testimony; she’s an unimpressive witness.

Johnny Rotten
December 15, 2023 11:58 am

Go back through the back pages , which you have, and then come back …………………………..

– and see what Junior Cockhead Cokehead has said to start all the ‘argy bargy’. It’s all there for all to see. Short term memory loss or what?

Get off to Fat Pizza and stuff yer’ fat face. Fat head.

I do like “Mafioso Crook”. It has a nice ring to it. Along with paranoid Pompous Windbag.

Down Thumbs galore await you. Check them out Dickhead. You know it makes cents even though you like the nickels and dimes. Septic.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 15, 2023 12:00 pm

AFTER THE ATROCITY VIDEO

My friend Steve Hunegs of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas invited me to attend a showing of the atrocity video compiled by the IDF in the aftermath of the October 7 massacres and atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.

I am grateful to Steve for the invitation and for opening his home to his guests. Other reporters in attendance included Reid Forgrave of the Star Tribune, Matt Sepic of Minnesota Public Radio, and Alex Steil of the Minnesota Daily along with some prominent Minnesotans who asked not to be identified for professional reasons.

Our viewing of the video was subject to the terms of a confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement that allows us to describe the contents.

Several of the clips compiled in the video have previously been posted to social media. I think we have included several on Power Line.

I know I have commented on the sadistic glee of the Hamas madmen that is apparent throughout the 45-minute video.

They shriek in ecstasy as they perform their barbaric deeds.

They take sensual pleasure in committing acts from which we recoil in disgust and horror.

I wondered as I watched the video:

Has Dementia Joe or blind Tony Blinken seen this? (Kelly Jane Torrance notes in her column that Biden has seen it.

If so, what are they doing hectoring Israel, yammering about a two-state solution, and disparaging a country acting in self-defense while in the throes of a crisis that goes to its reason for being?

If that’s the best they can do, why won’t they shut up?

Biden’s yammering about a two-state solution is unreal in the context of the reality underlying the video.

The two-state solution: it isn’t gonna happen.

The “solution” is part of the problem. A people must have civilized norms and civil institutions on which to predicate a state. It can’t be created ex nihilo or ex worse than nothing.

Israel exists as a homeland and refuge for the Jewish people.

The events of October 7 undermine its reason for being.

Thus the war on Hamas in which it is currently engaged.

No government freely elected by the people of Israel can tolerate what Israel withstood on October 7.

There can be no return to the status quo ante or its functional equivalent under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority, whose president for life himself supports terrorism with funds generously provided by his supporters among the Biden administration and elsewhere.

As I say, the two-state “solution” is part of the problem.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 15, 2023 12:02 pm

Bazinga
Dec 15, 2023 9:56 AM
Can’t engineered stone be prepared by robot or by persons in positive pressure safety gear or under wet conditions to make it safe? Why did they go straight to elimination?

Thye hate the thought of the proles having access to modern conditions.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 12:02 pm

I got a chest X-ray before joining Rio Tinto in the late 80s for dust and asbestos for their hard rock mining in the Pilbara. Went to some funny old place up near RPH on the hill. The majors were certainly concerned about it then.

Bazinga
Bazinga
December 15, 2023 12:03 pm

Will no one rid us from this Albotross around Australias neck?

Which one?

Can someone whip up a photoshop superimposing Albanese’s head on one of those Albatrosses?

That one.

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
December 15, 2023 12:04 pm

“What did Trump do wrong when he was president” and that is a question they can never adequately answer ……”

Well Digger, lets see.

He funded the shutting down of the US economy.
He failed to put Fauci in gaol, or even fire him AND did everything he suggested.
He killed millions in the US, by bringing in an untested, experimental drug and telling all and sundry “ya gotta get the shot!”.
He did nothing at all, to try and put that bitch Clinton in gaol, despite saying he would.
He did nothing to stop the 6th January protesters, from attending, despite the fact it was obviously a trap and an attempt by the Dem’s to show their power. Even as they rot in prison, he still does nothing to help them.
He funded NY and Calif to get them through the “lockdowns”. Without that funding they would have gone broke, ……, which they both deserve!
He did nothing to stop the sham of “mail-in” voting.
He surrounded himself with idiots in office.
Still, he grifts money from idiots, who think he will solve the problem.

If Biden tried to do what Trump did, there would have been significant resistance.
Because it was Trump, people thought it would be different.
Many of them are now dead, thanks to Trump.

He is a member of the UniParty, he IS the problem.

JC
JC
December 15, 2023 12:04 pm

Down Thumbs galore await you.

Lol. Almost too painful to bare, woddenhead.

Eyrie
Eyrie
December 15, 2023 12:04 pm

From the old OT
Winston Smith
Dec 14, 2023 9:14 PM
Johnny Rotten
Dec 14, 2023 8:20 PM
Winston Smith
Dec 14, 2023 8:15 PM
Something similar happened to me and I have not been back to that Pub ever since and never will. Friends have also done similar.

I go back there, but I realise the owner was not given a choice about the issue.
In fact what the government did is a form of civil conscription whereby the government coerces a business to carry out a government function.
I thought Civil Conscription was not allowed under our Constitution, but it appears it can be cancelled whenever the government feels like it.
Can someone else provide information on this?

CASA does this by forcing people who want to parachute, fly gliders or ultralights to join a so called Part 149 organisation. The people who run these are sometimes paid so have no interest in shoving CASA’s responsibilities back to it, unlike the Australian Balloon Federation who told CASA to shove it. CASA simply issued all ABF authorisations as CASA authorisations and will simply delegate issue of new ones to a few Authorised Persons.
It is as if you have to join the NRMA etc. to hold a Driver’s licence.
The people running the Part 149 Organisations are happy to use the threat of government violence to enforce membership. This makes them no better than slaveowners.
I have a salutory tale of a poor paraglider pilot persecuted by CASA and the Part 149 organisation concerned for simply not being a member of it..

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 15, 2023 12:05 pm

Megafauna, yum!

People, not the climate, found to have caused the decline of the giant mammals (Phys.org, 14 Dec)

It is well-known that numerous large species went extinct during the time of worldwide colonization by modern humans. Now, new research from Aarhus University reveals that those large mammals that survived also experienced a dramatic decline.

By studying the DNA of 139 living species of large mammals, scientists have been able to show that the abundances of almost all species fell dramatically about 50,000 years ago.

“We’ve studied the evolution of large mammalian populations over the past 750,000 years. For the first 700,000 years, the populations were fairly stable, but 50,000 years ago, the curve broke, and populations fell dramatically and never recovered,” he says

Always nice when someone publishes the bleeding obvious. The Greens and the first nations mafia aren’t going to be happy with this finding though. We should ask Bruce Pascoe about it too, just for a bit of fun.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 12:05 pm

Re the metadata. Lisa probably thought the photo was taken by a box brownie or a Polaris.

An excellent opportunity to recall when Mr Bittered Sav joined Team Waffleworth and still had Jana Wendt’s fax number.

Johnny Rotten
December 15, 2023 12:06 pm

Get Ready for a 1986 Repeat of a Real Estate Crash?

“Whenever those in Congress mess with real estate, they have ALWAYS, and without exception, caused a major crash. The Entire Savings & Loan (S&L) Crisis was a catastrophic disaster that wiped out nearly one-third of all the 3,234 savings and loan associations in the United States between 1986 and 1995. I previously mentioned that hedge funds were created by a regulation conflict between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). If you obeyed one, you went to jail with the other.

Back in the 1980s, we began the S&P500 Report when futures started to trade. We had to refund everyone’s money and shut down the report because these two agencies were fighting over who had the regulatory power of stock index futures. We could not provide analysis as long as the two agencies fought for power. It came down to a Supreme Court decision that finally said forecasting was free speech – SEC v Lowe. Nevertheless, in funds management, you could not hedge for a client domestically because if you had a stock portfolio and you thought there was a crash unfolding, you were only allowed to hedge 17% for anything more than that made you a futures fund – rather than a stock fund. The only way to trade everything was to move offshore, and these were called Hedge Funds, which you were not allowed to do domestically. To this day, you have separate funds domestically, each claiming they are the best, forcing the decision onto the average person.

The S&L crisis was also created by Congress’s persistent quest to regulate things they do not understand. Once more, there was a conflict and mismatch of regulations regarding S&Ls v banks. Congress had imposed restrictions on S&Ls with the creation of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932, which included such caps on interest rates on deposits and loans. They also directed that S&Ls should be lending into the real estate market and banks should be focused effectively on businesses. The banks still could do mortgages.

The market conditions moved into deflation between 1981 and 1985 because Volcker raised rates at the Fed to 14% to stop inflation, which caused capital inflows to buy bonds, sending the dollar to rise dramatically on international markets. The British pound crashed from $2.40 to $1.03 by 1985. However, the regulations on how much interest an S&L could pay meant they could not compete with the rates that the Fed adopted, and nobody in Congress noticed until 1982. The S&Ls experienced a massive capital outflow, and they were left with low-interest long-term mortgages.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, which was intended to correct the conflict between high interest rates and caps on the S&Ls. The reform eliminated loan-to-value ratios and interest rate caps for S&Ls. In addition, it also allowed them to hold 30% of their assets in consumer loans and 40% in commercial loans for the first time. The S&Ls began paying higher rates to attract funds. S&Ls also began investing in commercial real estate, which had tax advantages with regard to amortization.

As always, the Democrat’s constant hunt to punish the rich with every breath they take caused the entire S&L crisis of the 1980s. The Democrats only see the money dangling in front of them and nothing else. They pushed through a landmark 1986 Tax Reform Act that reduced the top personal income tax rate from 50% to 28%. However, in a bitterly divided Congress, as usual, demanded a compromise and that the income tax cuts were to be paid for by raising the rate on capital gains from 20% to 28% and limiting the deductibility of real estate losses for passive investors. The braindead unintended consequences undermined the entire real estate market and took down the S&L Industry in the process.

The S&L crisis demonstrated that those in government NEVER understand the private sector. They created the business model of the S&Ls whereby they made 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, which Roosevelt invented to solve the real estate collapse back in the Great Depression. To provide those loans, S&Ls depended on a deposit based on DEMAND that could be withdrawn within 30 days. When the Fed raised rates to 14% in 1981, the S&Ls were in trouble and lost deposits when they were prevented from paying higher rates. That was not lifted until the Reagan 1982 reform. This is the basic banking model using on-demand money to lend out long-term. To this day, the Fed directs the “Model Risk,” which you can review at SR 11-7: Guidance on Model Risk Management.”

More at –

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/markets-by-sector/real_estate/get-ready-for-a-1986-repeat-of-a-real-estate-crash/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

And I await Junior Cockhead Cokehead’s considered response. Obtuse abuse aside that is…………………………

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 12:06 pm

H B Bear
Dec 15, 2023 12:02 PM

I have been told a story about those xrays.

Apparently they were thinking of reactivating the x-ray requirements back around 2000.
They went to do a bit of a review of previously taken ones to find that most had been wrecked through being stored improperly.

Alamak!
December 15, 2023 12:08 pm

Re the metadata. Lisa probably thought the photo was taken by a box brownie or a Polaris.

This was way back in 2019. State of the art then was the pin-hole camera

LW doesn’t seem to be up to date on this moderne tech

Muddy
Muddy
December 15, 2023 12:11 pm

OldOzzie
Dec 15, 2023 11:27 AM

Love it. Thanks for posting that.

I wonder how long it might be until we return to pictograms for official written communication purposes? (Given that ‘language’ is violence now).

Tom
Tom
December 15, 2023 12:12 pm

The Americans – the occultish enthusiasts of Halloween* – use “passed” instead of died and this is now becoming the norm in Australia.

One of my pet hates.

Nothing symbolises the death of journalism as a source of knowledge about the world than its recent inability to describe death in plain language. FFS, s/he died; s/he did not pass away like an absent thought in some rotting mind crippled by Alzheimer’s disease.

Roger
Roger
December 15, 2023 12:13 pm

People, not the climate, found to have caused the decline of the giant mammals

The single subject about which Prof. Flim Flammery has been correct.

Should’ve stayed in his lane.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 12:13 pm

Mole – I think Rio were just careful because of the coal operations over East and it was a company wide procedure. They do hit asbestos in the ore from time to time I understand but it never seemed to influence what we did that far down the chain.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 12:14 pm

Toad claiming “she knows nuffink” and isnt informed …

Roger
Roger
December 15, 2023 12:15 pm

That one.

The Albotross!

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:16 pm

He did nothing to stop the 6th January protesters, from attending, despite the fact it was obviously a trap and an attempt by the Dem’s to show their power.

This is a lie perpetuated by the far left US Democrats.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 15, 2023 12:16 pm

Winston

As soon as it was formed, the police would jump on it because they have a monopoly on protection. And they will enforce that monopoly even if it costs lives.

The rozzers have a monopoly on “protection” but are not legally obliged to provide “protection”. George Orwell lives!

Muddy
Muddy
December 15, 2023 12:16 pm

Apropos of nothing:

Workplace fatalities by gender, 2021:

Males: 163
Females: 6

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:18 pm

It looks like Lisa has been given the sticky foot.

If she degenerates into a series of “You, you, you, you…” affectations she’s likely screwed.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
December 15, 2023 12:20 pm

Pirate’s missus throwing everyone at CH10 under the bus. Except herself of course.

She keeps digging that hole deeper. Bit like the Kerrrigan boy.

Johnny Rotten
December 15, 2023 12:21 pm

The Truth About the S&L Crisis

“Some have asked if there wasn’t also a lot of fraud behind the collapse of S&Ls. Many allegations were that they squandered money buying expensive art, etc. They did not tell the public that the art more than doubled in value. Take the prosecution of the poster boy Charles Keating (1923– 2014). A Federal judge overturned the California state court conviction of Keating, ruling that jury instructions by the judge in the state court, Lance A. Ito, had been flawed.

The prosecution of Keating centered on the outrageous claim that he issued bonds, knowing that he would ultimately fail. NEVER in my decades of dealing with people and institutions have I ever encountered someone with legitimate company-issued bonds, knowing that would be an S&L crisis years later. Keating’s prosecution was simply legal persecution so that the government could blame the private sector, not Congress, which changed all regulations.

There was the Keating Five, who were US Senators accused of corruption in 1989 for intervening in Keating’s case. This was spun into a major political scandal involving Senator Alan Cranston (Democrat of California), Senator Dennis DeConcini (Democrat of Arizona), Senator John Glenn (Democrat of Ohio), Senator John McCain (Republican of Arizona), and Senator Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Democrat of Michigan). This was an investigation of Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan Association by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), which then backed off taking action against Lincoln.

Eventually, the fraud that Keating was charged with in his Lincoln Savings and Loan collapse of 1989 cost the government $3.4 billion. The bondholders amounted to 23,000, and the government claimed they were defrauded because Keating knew he would eventually fail. The substantial political contributions Keating had made to each of the senators, totaling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention at the time.

Finally, after a very lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle had all improperly interfered with the FHLBB’s investigation of Lincoln Savings. Cranston received a formal reprimand. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly. Nonetheless, they were criticized for having exercised “poor judgment,” whereas anyone else would have been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.

All five senators eventually completed their terms of office. Both John Glenn and John McCain ran for re-election and won. McCain later even ran for President, but thank God he lost.

Anyone who looks closely at the conviction of Keating is confronted with the plain fact that this was a political prosecution to provide the cover for Congress in this attempt to shift all the blame to the private sector portraying the owners of these S&Ls as greedy rich people seeking to make money.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/uncategorized/the-truth-about-the-sl-crisis/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

BTW. For the uninitiated, this is NOT Investment Advice.

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:22 pm

Dale or Wayne Wilkinson?

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:22 pm

Saint Lisa : I’m a super serious (non tabloid) journalist.

Also Saint Lisa : Everything of consequence & all decisions & legal advice were someone else’s responsibility.

Morsie
Morsie
December 15, 2023 12:22 pm

I remember a Mel Brooks interview with the other English Michael ( Aspel?).
He says to Mel.you lost your father at an early age

Michael we didn’t lose him says Mel,he died

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:23 pm

“It was a google doc”.

Similar to Ros Kelly and her whiteboard.

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:24 pm

Take the prosecution of the poster boy Charles Keating (1923– 2014). A Federal judge overturned the California state court conviction of Keating, ruling that jury instructions by the judge in the state court, Lance A. Ito, had been flawed.

Unless that claim was made on a civil rights basis, that isn’t how it works. Otherwise, that “Federal Jurdge” was a Supreme sitting alone.

JMH
JMH
December 15, 2023 12:24 pm

Thinking ahead, how will it be possible for 10’s and Wilkinson’s Counsels to present final submissions that could be taken seriously? An impossibility, I think.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:24 pm

Are they going to have to get the producer back to ask him about what LW knew ?

calli
calli
December 15, 2023 12:25 pm

Dale or Wayne Wilkinson?

Going to the pool room. Along with…

“You make me sound like a cheap tabloid journalist”.

Could work it up in petit point.

Lee
Lee
December 15, 2023 12:25 pm

Americans cannot bring themselves to say “toilet” either. That word is more obscene than F or C in the US. In the States, they’re called “rest rooms.” Who TF rests in a dunny?

Or “bathroom.”

Apart from possibly in one’s own home, who has a bathtub in the same room as the toilet?

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:26 pm

“It was a google doc”.

OH BOY! SHIT IS GONNA GET REAL!

I’M PRETTY SURE THE CHANGES CAN BE TRACKED AND THE VIRTUAL MACHINES LOG ALL FILE AND ASSET CREATION.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
December 15, 2023 12:26 pm

HB. Coal mines in Queensland ditto. Unions made a big deal about dust again about 10 years back and the chest x ray was changed to an x ray that could only be processed in the US by a single doctor, which I thought hmmm. Kerching, now seeing as the medical and xray is every 5 years now.

I am probably about 3 years off needing another. Same coal board medical that has gone from several pages when I started out to 18 pages at last count.

Unions like to think they are about safety but for some poor bastard to have advance mesothelioma at 28yo I am wondering for all their bluster where are they? Certainly in my industry certain contractors are known for dodgy safety ethics and watched like a hawk, however I do know said bulk of dodgy contractors works come from players that have a cavalier attitude to safety.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:27 pm

I’M PRETTY SURE THE CHANGES CAN BE TRACKED AND THE VIRTUAL MACHINES LOG ALL FILE AND ASSET CREATION.

This is correct.
Every change logged.

Not Uh oh
Not Uh oh
December 15, 2023 12:27 pm

Has Lisa tried crying yet?

Bar Beach Swimmer
December 15, 2023 12:27 pm

Earlier: “I was having my hair and makeup done”.

calli
calli
December 15, 2023 12:29 pm

Dunno nuffink.

Finally! The Truth!

How golden and beautiful and perfectly rounded it is, ripe for plucking and savouring.

Chris
Chris
December 15, 2023 12:29 pm

Could work it up in petit point.

I LOLed

Morsie
Morsie
December 15, 2023 12:29 pm

South Korean carer says we are still not that badly off.Back home she would be in a tiny WINDOWLESS apartment with a two hour commute after being required to pay a bond of two years rent

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:30 pm

I’m sure even with certiorari (claiming no/wrong jurisdiction) you’d be unlikely to cross streams Federally; if so, it would be to an appellate court (US Court of Appeals) not the US District Courts – still unusual for a single judge to make such an order over a jury where the defence didn’t claim so from the outset.

alwaysright
alwaysright
December 15, 2023 12:30 pm

“I had to eat!”

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 15, 2023 12:31 pm

1m ago
Reynolds ‘lying through her teeth’ said Wilkinson
Joanna Panagopoulos
Joanna Panagopoulos

Lisa Wilkinson has responded to questions about a text she sent to her producer Angus Llewellyn ahead of The Project interview being aired, in which she said: “(Linda) Reynolds lying through her teeth”.

The text was sent at 2.46pm on February 15, 2021 as Ms Wilkinson was watching Question Time in the Senate. The Project was set to broadcast their interview with Brittany Higgins that night, but Samantha Maiden had already published a story outlining Ms Higgins’ allegations that morning.

Matthew Richardson SC: “In a contest between Reynolds and Higgins, you are always going to believe Ms Higgins’ evidence, do you agree or disagree?”

Ms Wilkinson: “Untrue.”

Matthew Richardson SC: “You could not be objective, I suggest, in terms of making a fair assessment of the evidence concerning the role of Minister Reynolds in this affair?”

Ms Wilkinson: “Disagree.”

Justice Michael Lee asked Ms Wilkinson what made her form the view that Senator Reynolds was “lying through her teeth”. She responded that she could not say what she was specifically viewing when she made those comments.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 12:31 pm

The real battlelines in any upcoming civil war.

https://twitter.com/frollickingmole/status/1735471985231380516/photo/1

calli
calli
December 15, 2023 12:32 pm

How good is this? Takes me back to Q&A interruption lotto.

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:33 pm

bern

Only know because I am playing around in Azure. The backend is unglamourous and everything is accounted for or has an activity based costing attached to it.

I hope this Google doc is pursued to the ends of the earth.

Cassie of Sydney
December 15, 2023 12:36 pm

This morning, leaving home, I saw a young boy on a bicycle riding down the middle of the street, no helmet, nothing. It was something I used to do with my sister, in fact we rode our bicycles to school. However this morning, seeing the young boy, I was quite taken aback by the sight because such sights of children being children are not common anymore, particularly in the inner-city of Sydney.

Seeing the boy on the bicycle distracted me from my other major thought this morning, and that is how we don’t just live in a stupid country now, we live in a dangerously stupid country. But perhaps it’s worse than stupid. I believe we are living in a societal quagmire of profound ignorance and brain-dead mediocrity. I was alerted to this ignorance and mediocrity last night when watching Sharri on Sky. She exposed three different female “influencers” who are prominent on Tik Tok, and all three have many followers. Watching the clips of these three bimbos, my jaw dropped at their staggering imbecility, their staggering ugliness, their staggering putridness and their staggering wickedness. Verbal sludge gushed out, like a dirty cascade, from the mouths of these three young ‘Australian’ women when they were talking about Zionism, Jews, and Israel. It’s like the Holocaust never happened. One of them was a particularly ugly female by the name of “Abbie Chatfield”. Chatfield has said publicly that she’s won’t platform “Zionists”….as though Zionism is akin to Nazism and so on. I felt sick watching her. I confess to never having heard of this putrid female until last week, and clearly I have not missed anything. All thee females were a coven of noxious evil. And I ask, is this the normal mindset of young women in 2023? Because if it is, we’re in deep trouble.

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:37 pm

Martin Armstrong is an even worse legal historian than he is an economic forecaster.

From wiki.

In 1993, Keating was convicted on 64 counts of fraud and conspiracy as a co-conspirator with his father in the collapse of American Continental and Lincoln Savings and Loan Association (see savings and loan crisis).[7][8] The younger Keating was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison and $97.3 million in restitution but remained free on bail pending appeals.[9][10]

In 1996, U.S. District Judge John Davies overturned their convictions, ruling that the jury in the 1993 case was prejudiced by rulings against the elder Keating at the state level.[10] In April 1999, federal prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain with the elder Keating in which all outstanding charges were dismissed against his son.[7][9][11]

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:37 pm

Google docs are great.
Or the ones I have participated in have been.
When you show all edits, it shows the mark ups.
Then you can see who & when the changes were made.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:38 pm

“It wasn’t my job”.

Saint Lisa’s “I don’t hold a hose, mate” moment.

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:38 pm

mole

Thoughts on the Panzermolepede idea I brought up earlier?

Winston Smith
December 15, 2023 12:38 pm

JC:

JC
Dec 15, 2023 11:50 AM
I’m still trying to work out why ‘Mafiosi Thug’ is racist but “Limey Crook’ isn’t.

Both are ethnic slurs, turtlehead. It’s about equal to calling you a male nurse, and being dumped in a home. Not very bright are you?

So, you’re admitting to making ethnic slurs, are you? Well, of course you are.
It looks like you need to send an email to Sancho for rescue. Mate.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 12:38 pm

Booom….

Was the statement where a security guard asked Brite-knees if she was allright and she replied yes removed from the program..

alwaysright
alwaysright
December 15, 2023 12:39 pm

Pineapple on barbied steak. Anyone?

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:39 pm

AWWWW SHEEEEEIT.

will
will
December 15, 2023 12:40 pm

This is 15 minutes you have to view.

Jordan Petersen’s discussion on 20th Century history with a message for current “circumstances”.

Muddy
Muddy
December 15, 2023 12:40 pm

More 2021 statistics (ABS):

Suicide: Male – 2, 358. Female – 755.
Motor vehicle accidents (fatalities): Male – 917, Female – 289.
Assault (Fatalities): Male – 152, Female – 61.
Drug-induced deaths: Male – 1, 069, Female – 635.
Alcohol-induced deaths: Male – 1, 156, Female – 403.

* Obviously this is a cherry-picking of statistics, however my point of course, is that the whole ‘privileged patriarchy’ claim is bollocks. I don’t subscribe to either side of the ‘we have it worse’ double spit-bubble.

Dot
Dot
December 15, 2023 12:41 pm

One of them was a particularly ugly female by the name of “Abbie Chatfield”. Chatfield has said publicly that she’s won’t platform “Zionists”….as though Zionism is akin to Nazism and so on. I felt sick watching her.

She’s a talentless moron with decent looks. You’re not missing out on anything.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 12:42 pm

Panzermolepede

Can I be first in the molepanzercentepede please.
The other way round leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 12:43 pm

Rockdoctor- no doubt there were some dodgy contractors and operators around then. Not sure it would be the case today. Seems like ancient history now.

caveman
caveman
December 15, 2023 12:43 pm

“You make me sound like a cheap tabloid journalist”.

LW mistake is declaring that she is a serious journalist, with serious comes knowing responsibilities. I would have made it known to the world that I am the best cheap tabloid journalist , people then expect you to be unreliable and full of sh!t.

Tom
Tom
December 15, 2023 12:44 pm

* Obviously this is a cherry-picking of statistics, however my point of course, is that the whole ‘privileged patriarchy’ claim is bollocks.

Quite so, Muddy. The numbers you presented at 12.40pm don’t lie.

Winston Smith
December 15, 2023 12:46 pm

Digger

Dec 15, 2023 11:53 AM
There are already rules about respiratory protection and industrial dusts. There is a Dust Diseases Board in NSW since 1983.

The makeup of the board does not instil confidence in me. I have worked in various aspects of respiratory protection for over 50 years and yet I do not see one person in that board who carries a stated level of experience or knowledge in respiratory protection particulate filtration or products. There are plenty of medical experts, academics, unionists, legal practitioners, OHS administrators but there appears to be no visible actual respiratory protection experts… wierd.

I worked with asbestos every day for about 7 years, and got involved with the Board when I was about 40.
It was …interesting.
I filled in a form which ‘put me on the books’ had an appointment with a respiratory nurse, who performed a vitalograph*, and …that was it.
Never heard from them ever again.
Only old fart nurses will recognise this machine, or know how it works. Straight off Noahs Ark that one.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 12:46 pm

Toad torpedoed…. brain smoking… her “coverup” element of her defence listing, burning brightly in the night.

Bar Beach Swimmer
December 15, 2023 12:47 pm

Is this the “Danger, danger, Will Robinson, moment”?

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
December 15, 2023 12:47 pm

There once was a chap from Nantucket
The cat-blog he determined to f#@k-it
But for the lack of a wit
He could only down-tick
And his posts were like sh!t in a bucket

duncanm
duncanm
December 15, 2023 12:49 pm

I do wonder whether the stone ban is an arse-covering exercise on behalf of the CFMEU and/or grubbinments.

After all – the risks have been known for centuries, and yet the industry (mostly subbies?) has been exposed.

Major stone bench suppliers are on top of OHS.

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 15, 2023 12:51 pm

How good is this? Takes me back to Q&A interruption lotto.

2:46pm is a little early to be hitting the office fridge. Unless you had just got back from lunch.

johanna
johanna
December 15, 2023 12:54 pm

Just watched the tribute to Barry Humphries, co-sponsored by the Vicco and NSW gubbmints, at the Opera House.

Somebody decided that featherbrain Richard Wilkins should host it, but fortunately he stuck to his carefully vetted script, plus his ‘jokes’ mostly fell flat.

It could have been worse, but most of it was rather bland. A bunch of ‘celebrities’ like Elton John and Rick Stein and Rupert Murdoch said a few words. The appearance of Murdoch will undoubtedly enthuse the non-talents who took his name off the Melbourne Comedy Festival award.

Chris Minns (NSW Premier) wasn’t too bad, but Albo was excruciating. He started by talking about the differences between the Lower and Upper Houses, and laboriously tried to claim that Humphries was an example of bringing the two together. It was simply awful, and goes to his judgement and the quality of his advisers.

How hard is it to craft a speech honouring a great artist, without bringing politics into it?

I suspect that Barry would have hated the fact that no gladioli were thrown into the audience afterwards.

The pomposi took over, alas. He would have wanted them to rain from above – thousands of them! Very Dada.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:56 pm

Saint Lisa’s lawyer was desperate to coach her over the lunch break.
DENIED !!

johanna
johanna
December 15, 2023 12:56 pm

Oh, forgot to mention that King Chazza also did a clip.

There’s something forgettable about him. 🙂

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:58 pm

Bugger.
That changed.
She does get to be coached over the lunch break.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 12:59 pm

2:15pm return.

calli
calli
December 15, 2023 1:04 pm

What’s for lunch?

Toad in a Hole?

JC
JC
December 15, 2023 1:05 pm

So, you’re admitting to making ethnic slurs, are you? Well, of course you are.

Absolutely, nurse Betty Turtlehead. It works both ways though. I would have thought even a slowpoke imbecile like you would’ve figured this out .

It looks like you need to send an email to Sancho for rescue. Mate.

Are you sentient? For years you’ve grovelled to people to help you, with the latest being the only Anzac at Lone Pine, but you have issues when others find you just as objectionable as I do? You really think people can’t see your hypocrisy?

By the way, senior positions in nursing are sister and matron. What’s the equivalent for male nurses? Do they carry the same titles? Would you be Sister or Matron Betty Turtlehead? Fair dink question.

JMH
JMH
December 15, 2023 1:07 pm

Hansard has been produced and Lisa asked what part of Reynolds’ answers does she consider the Minister was telling porkies! Sent off to read the two odd pages thoroughly during lunch break. Her testimony on this little matter should be good!

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
December 15, 2023 1:07 pm

Compulsory viewing at 2:15pm.

His Onner has explaned to Pirate’s Missus to read appropriate paragraphs in Hansard over lunch as she will be questioned on return about what in Senate question time prompted her to send a message to poducer that “Reynolds is lying through her teeth.

Her performance today has been even worse than yesterday (or better, depending on your point of view). Hole is getting deeper.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
December 15, 2023 1:08 pm

Snap JMH!

Johnny Rotten
December 15, 2023 1:08 pm

The galactically famous James Kirk

Seduced all the girls with a smirk.

When asked by what right

He enjoyed this delight,

He replied, “It’s no right. It’s a perk.”

Real Deal
Real Deal
December 15, 2023 1:10 pm

Joh, I actually wanted to go to Humphries’ memorial service, but missed out on tickets. Glad I did. You summed it up well. Tony Burqa? Albo? Apparently most of the family wanted Wilkins but some didn’t.

Bruce Beresford spoke well, but all the rest I saw was disappointing.

JMH
JMH
December 15, 2023 1:10 pm

Snap JMH!

Your post wins, BT.

STJOHNOFGRAFTON
STJOHNOFGRAFTON
December 15, 2023 1:11 pm

Penny has, fait accompli , already donated big-time to the Palestinian cause on ‘our’ behalf. But before you donate personally to the Hamas afflicted Palestinians watch who really gets your donation:
https://youtu.be/OUMl58i4m0w

C.L.
C.L.
December 15, 2023 1:15 pm

What’s for lunch?

Toad in a Hole?

Give up, everyone.

Calli wins the internet today.

Gilas
Gilas
December 15, 2023 1:15 pm

Other brilliant examples of self-harm under oath.

Bunions, apart from denying the bleeding obvious when SHE was responsible, has made repeated claims that “others” in The Project team were responsible for edits, questions and responses that she claims she wasn’t privy to, or couldn’t recall.
She did so repeatedly, ad nauseam, both yesterday and today, especially in the last session.

Lots of “senior people”, Angus Llewellyn, Channel 10 lawyers, Channel 10 Legal Dept… anyone but Bunions..

Therefore:
1) Channel 10 are calling Dr. M Collins about settling.
2) Even if it wasn’t, despite yesterday’s trainwreck testimony, Bunion’s media career is now over.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 15, 2023 1:17 pm

Flying QANTAS A380 in all four classes to Australia and back! Including FIRST CLASS

Done ’em al with Ql, although First Class is long gone for us these days. Only worth it now if we are seriously not well, never simply for the cachet, we’ve decided. This First Class looked rather unimpressive, simply a bigger seat/bed, without much privacy; Emirates and Air Canada Business both offer more privacy than this in their Business carels.

Interesting to see the newest interior styles, not all Qantas or other A380s are as updated. I’d like to see this show doing other airlines, so you can get comparators. Qantas combined First and Business Airport Lounges are some of the best still, when many these days are huge and impersonal, like a Westfields. Less useful for networking (if that’s important) than in the past I suspect.

If you are flying Economy out of Sydney to Singapore (which we did to Malaysia recently) you can have a great time with a G & T and a beer for him, looking out over the whole airport, as this dude did. Who needs a special lounge then? They are often not easy to find and over-rated given that airports are well supplied with food and drink outlets these days. You can also spend more time shopping.

It all set my travel bug a-biting though. I enjoy the long-haul plane travel in and out of Oz, the sense of excitement at going somewhere ‘away’. I can be happy in any sort of seat and with any sort of meal, as long as I can have that initial G & T. Business Class is always a treat, as they spread out the cloth for your meal or at night come to make up your bed, but you pay a lot for that cosseting sleep. Less crowding for the much nicer toilets is also the big bonus in Business. And of course, in Economy there is always the chance of getting a fattie next to you taking up your armrest room. Not getting that is the major advantage of Premium Economy. Shrieking and bothersome children can happen in any class but some airlines are giving a no-kid choice in Economy now at the back of the cabin. Keeps it at some remove, as in the other class categories. They also sell ‘long legroom’ seats by the door in the Economy cabin.
Some American Airlines are also making real fatties buy two seats. Well done there, I say.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 1:24 pm

) Even if it wasn’t, despite yesterday’s trainwreck testimony, Bunion’s media career is now over.

The ABC would still employ her.
Or more likely commission her production company with a juicy contract so they wouldn’t have a salary to disclose.

areff
areff
December 15, 2023 1:25 pm

An Elsie update: Thank God there are decent people in this world like Winston Smith, who has agreed to take her while I’m away.

She’ll be flying to his local airport next week for collection.

Thank you, Winston, from the bottom of my heart.

And thanks, too, to all the Cats who expressed their sympathy both here and in private correspondence.

Frank
Frank
December 15, 2023 1:26 pm

Even if it wasn’t, despite yesterday’s trainwreck testimony, Bunion’s media career is now over.

She might emulate Kieth Olberman and develop a youtube channel, sell it as an exciting pivot into new media.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 15, 2023 1:26 pm

Roger
Dec 15, 2023 12:13 PM
People, not the climate, found to have caused the decline of the giant mammals

The single subject about which Prof. Flim Flammery has been correct.

Should’ve stayed in his lane.

He then went ga ga on Gerbil Worming, in a successful attempt to get back on the invite list to all the best dinner parties.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 15, 2023 1:28 pm

Rinehart calls for tax cuts, criticises renewables and ‘eyesore’ solar panels

Edmund Tadros and Maxim Shanahan

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has demanded a cut to taxes in Australia, including state payroll taxes and the fuel excise, and bemoaned the spread of renewable energy projects and “eyesore” solar panels after being named The Australian Financial Review Business Person of the Year.

Her polemic came after former UK prime minister Boris Johnson told the audience of almost 200 chief executives, managing directors, chairmen and directors that there would be “a lot of positives” if Donald Trump were elected for a second time in 2024, particularly in foreign policy.

Five other corporate titans were named Australian Financial Review Business People of the Year at the inaugural dinner event: Robin Khuda, CEO of data centre company AirTrunk; Vik Bansal, CEO of Boral; Sam Hupert, CEO and co-founder of ASX tech firm Pro Medicus; Lynas Rare Earths chief Amanda Lacaze; and AustralianSuper chief investment officer Mark Delaney.

The event, hosted by Financial Review editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury, was held at The Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency overlooking Darling Harbour in Sydney.

Mr Khuda expressed thanks for the award but joked he’d been advised by his lawyers not to comment on a rumoured multibillion-dollar IPO of the company he founded just six years ago.

Mr Bansal thanked friends and colleagues for helping make him “a better leader and a better person”, and acknowledged that he had made a remarkable corporate comeback after departing his previous ASX role as CEO of Cleanaway amid concerns about his leadership style.

Mr Hupert, who co-founded medical imaging software group Pro Medicus in 1983, said he was proud of the way the company had grown into a global powerhouse and had inked deals with major hospital groups in the US such as the Mayo Clinic.

He also joked that the company, which has a market capitalisation of about $9.7 billion, had grown its staff numbers from about 100 to 115 thanks to software being very “scalable”.

An energetic Ms Lacaze referred to herself proudly as “Mining Barbie” and reminded the audience that while Australia used to ride “on the sheep’s back”, it today “stands on the miners’ shoulders”.

She added that the sector “should not be attacked, undermined or nobbled because all the [public] services you enjoy are paid for by the mining industry”.

Mr Delaney said it was “a bit unusual” to receive the award, before noting that the “magic” of superannuation was that it “allows everyone in Australia to participate in the wealth created by Australian businesses … essentially democratising capitalism”.

The investment chief was at the centre of one of the year’s biggest (non) deals, helping to blow up Origin Energy’s attempted $20 billion takeover by two private equity firms. He told the audience: “we came up against the big end of town, but it was clear where our duties and responsibilities were.”

After being awarded the top prize, Mrs Rinehart thanked the other executives for their speeches and noting that Ms Lacaze’s defence of the mining sector had been “terrific”.

“It has been a challenging year for our primary industries, with many more interventions from the government,” Mrs Rinehart said.

“Many come from people in the city, who don’t understand the importance of those in agriculture.”

She strongly criticised payroll tax and the fuel excise, and said Australia should “roll out the red carpet” to investment by removing red tape.

Mrs Rinehart said that renewable energy projects could result in one-third of Australia’s agricultural land being “taken over” and suggested that “eyesore” solar panels should be placed in “city parks and rivers” rather than in rural areas.

Her new year’s wish was for the media to provide “more common sense” and to “not ignore what Blind Freddie can see”, she said

Johnson backs net zero

Mr Johnson surprised many in the audience by saying that “net zero is unequivocally the right way to go”, after Rishi Sunak’s UK government earlier this year reversed some of the former prime minister’s key climate policies.

Mr Johnson said he thought the days of coal power were limited, but “we’re going to depend on gas for an appreciable length of time”.

“Whatever your views about the science of climate change, you intuitively start to see that humanity is having a colossal impact on what is a quite fragile and small ball in space,” Mr Johnson said.

“If we can insure ourselves against that by going towards green technology, which will deliver millions of good, high-skilled jobs, then what’s wrong with that? It may take longer than we think, but I think [net zero] is the right path. I’m sticking up for net zero.”

The UK leader said it was the “constitutional duty” of the prime minister to have a good relationship with whomever was US president at a given time, and there could be “a lot of positives” if Donald Trump were elected for a second time in 2024, particularly in foreign policy.

“You can make a very strong case that Trump, by being robust, was of more value to the world than the Democrats by being flexible and soft,” Mr Johnson said.

He pointed to Mr Trump’s initial arming of Ukraine, his “tough” stance on North Korea, and the development of the Abraham Accords to argue that “the bad guys of the world will know that they will have strong president in the US”, if he is re-elected.

Mr Johnson questioned whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have occurred under a Trump presidency.

“I would be amazed if [Vladimir] Putin had done what he did in February 2022 with Trump in the White House.

But none of this should be taken to mean I don’t think [US President Joe] Biden has done a very, very good job in a lot of situations.”

Mr Johnson also argued that the controversial policy for Britain to exit the European Union, which he championed, helped speed up the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and saved lives.

Affordable housing a major issue

Mr Johnson also said centre-right politicians in the West needed to realise the seriousness of the housing crisis.

“Centre-right people need to realise that the biggest single problem for young people is that they cannot buy a home,” he said.

“They cannot get the keys to a place in the same way that people of my generation could.”

He expressed befuddlement at the inability of young Australians to buy a home.

“It took me four hours to fly across the country … is there a problem with your housing laws?”

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 15, 2023 1:29 pm

They also sell ‘long legroom’ seats by the door in the Economy cabin.

Our travel agent put us onto that lurk thirty years ago. Worth every cracker.

Regarding children – cite you the couple that flew first class, while their children, and the nanny, flew economy…

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 15, 2023 1:30 pm

Bar Beach Swimmer
Dec 15, 2023 12:27 PM

Earlier: “I was having my hair and makeup done”.

I’m ready for my close up, Mr De Mille.
I was hoping Richo would adopt an incredulous tone and go with :-

“Hair and make-up? At 3:30? For a 6:30 show? It takes that long?”

Regrettably, he just padded up and let it go through to the keeper.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 15, 2023 1:31 pm

What we learned this morning
Joanna Panagopoulos
Joanna Panagopoulos

– Lisa Wilkinson said she believed 80 hours was a “reasonable” amount of time for Bruce Lehrmann to respond to the allegations of rape against him, put to air at 7pm on Monday, February 15, 2021.

– Ms Wilkinson said she “still believed” Brittany Higgins’ career would be impacted if she proceeded with a police investigation. “I don’t think she would have been a valued member of the Liberal Party workplace if she had proceeded with that police investigation,” Ms Wilkinson told the court.

– Ms Wilkinson admitted The Project “excluded things” they felt were “possibly coloured” by Ms Higgins’ trauma from the alleged assault when it came to then-Minister Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown.

– Matthew Richardson SC suggested it was “unreasonable” to broadcast allegations about Minister Michaelia Cash telling Ms Higgins to “suck it up … before you leave”, when she wasn’t given an opportunity to respond to them. Ms Wilkinson said it wasn’t her job to put questions to Minister Cash but that they said “very strongly” that Minister Cash’s office disputed the fact she found out about the allegations in 2019.

Lisa Wilkinson denies always believing Brittany Higgins’ evidence over Linda Reynolds despite accusing the Senator of lying during question time in the Senate.

johanna
johanna
December 15, 2023 1:32 pm

Real Deal
Dec 15, 2023 1:10 PM

Joh, I actually wanted to go to Humphries’ memorial service, but missed out on tickets. Glad I did. You summed it up well. Tony Burqa? Albo? Apparently most of the family wanted Wilkins but some didn’t.

Bruce Beresford spoke well, but all the rest I saw was disappointing.

What struck me was how bland it all was. Here was a guy, larger than life, annoying people left, right and centre, and they mainly wanted to talk about him as an art collector,

His essentially conservative politics were carefully airbrushed out of sight.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 15, 2023 1:33 pm

feelthebern
Dec 15, 2023 12:38 PM

“It wasn’t my job”.

Saint Lisa’s “I don’t hold a hose, mate” moment.

I made that very point to Mrs P as we were listening to it.
One gets the impression that Lisa was just the tea and bickies girl on the team.

Vagabond
Vagabond
December 15, 2023 1:35 pm

Fair Shake
Dec 15, 2023 12:47 PM

There once was a chap from Nantucket
The cat-blog he determined to f#@k-it
But for the lack of a wit
He could only down-tick
And his posts were like sh!t in a bucket

Another young chap from Nantucket
Had a d*** that was so long he could suck it
He said with a grin
As he wiped off his chin
“If my ear was a cnut I could fcuk it!”

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 15, 2023 1:38 pm

Gen Z are scaling back on eating out because they have ‘menu anxiety:’ They’re too scared to talk to waiters and inflation-bloated bills freak them out

If you invite Gen Z out to a meal, don’t expect them to turn up if they haven’t seen the menu.

Gen Z, who are currently aged between 11 and 26 years old, lost out on large gatherings for a handful of the formative years because of COVID and lockdowns, with many still suffering social anxiety as a result.

Studies have found that this has exacerbated itself in professional settings, for example a 2023 report revealed nine in 10 graduates say they avoid in-person work events because of social anxiety, and nearly a quarter are uncomfortable speaking up in team meetings and sharing their ideas.

But this social anxiety is also impacting young people’s social life—according to a recently published study, it’s even stopping them from enjoying eating out.

The study, conducted by British restaurant chain Prezzo, asked more than 2,000 people about how at ease they felt while eating out.

The group that reported the most ‘menu anxiety’ was Gen Z, with 34% of 18 to 24 year olds admitting they ask other people at the table to speak to waiters on their behalf, because they are too nervous to talk.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 15, 2023 1:38 pm

There was a young belle of old Natchez

Whose garments were always in patchez

When comments arose

On the state of her clothes

She replied ‘When Ah itchez, Ah scratchez.”

Ogden Nash.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 15, 2023 1:40 pm

thefrollickingmole
Dec 15, 2023 12:38 PM

Booom….

Was the statement where a security guard asked Brite-knees if she was allright and she replied yes removed from the program..

Yes.
Apparently that was “disappointing”.
Like an accidental spill of Chateau Lafite on the shag pile.
Like others, I was interested in Justice Lee’s intervention to indicate that his assistant had helpfully turned up Hansard and wanted to know which counsel would be putting the questions to Toad about the “lying through her teeth” reference to Reynolds, giving Toad the lunchbreak to come up with an answer.
I am still hopeful we might get at least one “it’s the vibe” out of this case.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 15, 2023 1:44 pm

All thee females were a coven of noxious evil. And I ask, is this the normal mindset of young women in 2023? Because if it is, we’re in deep trouble.

I just put ‘children of Gaza’ into Google and up came the most extraordinary set of tall stories about the IDF shooting women and children in cold blood in a massacre in a school, and then other pieces of Goebels-quality propaganda about the IDF and injured children. I think it is this sort of thing that these stupid bimbos watch. They are also brainwashed by all of our media to believe anything that Hamas provides, including numbers of dead and injured women and children. They fail to comprehend that this is a WAR and that injuries and deaths happen in war. They have no comprehension of why this war is happening, and certainly no information on the Oct 7 pogrom in Israel of Jewish teenagers and babies, women, and old people that lit this conflict.

Muddy
Muddy
December 15, 2023 1:44 pm

Pets.
There are days (months?) when I would be content with just my dog for company, areff. It is only being a touch over-dramatic to state that she has saved me these past few years, for which I am grateful beyond words. I would happily be an angel of vengeance upon those who intentionally mistreat their pets.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 1:47 pm

Show me you understand nothing about business, despite relying on those businesses for your funding..

Australian Unions
@unionsaustralia
Multi-millionaires are so detached from reality, they don’t even realise: passing on costs to consumers means less money to buy their products.

Working Australians are heading into a holiday season plagued by a cost-of-living crisis, and attitudes like this exacerbate it.

get that, passing on costs so as not to go broke will send you broke.. or something.

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 15, 2023 1:52 pm

Could someone kind please post the link to the Court where The Amphibian is getting grilled? Had it yesterday but now can’t find it…

Winston Smith
December 15, 2023 1:53 pm

JC:

Are you sentient? For years you’ve grovelled to people to help you, with the latest being the only Anzac at Lone Pine, but you have issues when others find you just as objectionable as I do? You really think people can’t see your hypocrisy?
By the way, senior positions in nursing are sister and matron. What’s the equivalent for male nurses? Do they carry the same titles? Would you be Sister or Matron Betty Turtlehead? Fair dink question.

What an odd and angry little man you are, JC.
And what an odd and angry world you’ve created for yourself.
Perhaps it’s time for your monthly injection of Fluphenazine?

Johnny Rotten
December 15, 2023 1:53 pm

Commander Montgomery Scott

Was doin’ a lassie quite hot.

She wanted Warp Drive

He said, “Snakes alive!

Lass, impulse is all that I’ve got!”

billie
billie
December 15, 2023 1:54 pm

Lehrman Defamation Hearing – live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acBXa4jvW2Q&ab_channel=FederalCourtofAustralia

it’s lunch at the moment, play resumes at 1415 ESDT

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
December 15, 2023 1:57 pm

Johanna @ 1:32

What struck me was how bland it all was. Here was a guy, larger than life, annoying people left, right and centre, and they mainly wanted to talk about him as an art collector,

His essentially conservative politics were carefully airbrushed out of sight.

Very sad “celebration” of the life of a great Australian.

RIP Sir Leslie Colin Paterson.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 15, 2023 1:57 pm
Bespoke
Bespoke
December 15, 2023 1:57 pm

Sancho Panzer
Dec 15, 2023 7:11 AM
Don’t chuckle me champ!

Yes mam.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 15, 2023 1:57 pm

They also sell ‘long legroom’ seats by the door in the Economy cabin.

Booked one of those a while ago.
A Karen in the row opposite got the usual questions, “Do you feel capable of opening the exit door in an emeregency, yada, yada …”
I couldn’t hear exactly how she replied, but the gist of it was a shopping list of ailments, allergies and intolerances. The flight attendant then asked her to move and be replaced by someone who would commit to operating the door. She got very antsy at being asked to move. Idiot. What did she expect when she effectively answers “No” to the safety question? Actually, I think she expected a sympathetic ear about all her afflictions.
After they got that sorted, the exasperated attendant turned to our row, “Do you feel capable of …”
Me : “You call evacuate and you’ll never see that door again”.
Thank you.
We’re off.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
December 15, 2023 1:59 pm

All thee females were a coven of noxious evil.

Amazing how these evil threesomes of ugly witches keep cropping up — like Shakespeare knew something — we had the Senate threesome: Wong, Kennelly and Gallagher, we have Graceless Tame, Knickerless Piggins and The North Shore Amphibian, then the TicTok Three I saw last night. Made me shudder they did.

Frank
Frank
December 15, 2023 2:00 pm

passing on costs to consumers means less money to buy their products.

As in wages costs to those that consume: employers.

Gilas
Gilas
December 15, 2023 2:00 pm

feelthebern
Dec 15, 2023 1:24 PM

) Even if it wasn’t, despite yesterday’s trainwreck testimony, Bunion’s media career is now over.

The ABC would still employ her.

Dammit!
You’re right, How could I miss that?
Her appalling performance under oath would be seen as a positive by the Ultimo bolsheviks.

Johnny Rotten
December 15, 2023 2:04 pm

There once was a lady from Bude
Who went for a swim in the lake.
A man in a punt
Stuck his pole up her nose
And said “You can’t swim here, it’s too dangerous.”

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
December 15, 2023 2:04 pm

From that document attached where Brittany is interviewed by Lisa, about the gathering to go to the pub, Brittany says
0:25:28.3
Brittany:
We were all going into it with like, we were about to be jobless in like six weeks, whatever, enjoy
Canberra while we can. Like that was the entire mentality. Like, I wasn’t wedded to the Liberal Party,
I thought I would be there for six months.

Hmmmm.

Gilas
Gilas
December 15, 2023 2:08 pm

Vagabond
Dec 15, 2023 1:35 PM

Another young chap from Nantucket
Had a d*** that was so long he could suck it
He said with a grin
As he wiped off his chin
“If my ear was a cnut I could fcuk it!”

This is why the Cat is required reading!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 15, 2023 2:10 pm

This is why the Cat is required reading!

Always the epitome of culture and decorum!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 15, 2023 2:10 pm

‘Terrorist sympathiser’ allegedly helping Palestinians settle into Australia

Sky News host Sharri Markson has exposed a “terrorist sympathiser” allegedly helping Palestinians settle in Australia amid the war between Israel and Gaza.

Australia has granted visas to 860 Palestinians fleeing the conflict in the Middle East.

The Opposition has expressed concern over the government’s ability to ensure people who have terror affiliations are not allowed into Australia.

Laura Allam claimed to be helping the Palestinians arrive in Australia through her non-government organisation AJF Org.

Ms Markson exposed “extremist content” posted on Ms Allam’s social media accounts, including a comment about plans to “avenge the martyrs in Jenin and Gaza.”

“It is a jihad of martyrdom or victory,” Ms Allam wrote on her Instagram post.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong was approached for a comment on the issue, with a spokesperson saying: “The Australian Government does not engage any NGOs in providing consular assistance to individuals seeking to leave Gaza”.

“People who obtain Australian visas are subject to appropriate identity, security and character checks,” the statement continued.

The Sky News host doubled down on the Coalition’s security check concerns, questioning how the government is ensuring Palestinians “share our values” and won’t import “hatred of Jews”.

“Instead of signing Australia up to a biased United Nations motion demanding Israel stop its war against Hamas, Albanese should make sure he is protecting Australian citizens,” Ms Markson added.

“Make sure he isn’t providing safe passage to Australia for Hamas terrorists or sympathisers.”

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 2:12 pm

If this Channel 10 case doesn’t meet the threshold for maliciousness, what would ?

Delta A
Delta A
December 15, 2023 2:12 pm

An Elsie update

So glad to hear that, areff. I’m sure many Cats would have been happy to look after her, but their own fur buddies said NO!

I’m sure our ten month old kelpie would have loved her to stay here, but the prissy poodle is very territorial.

Good on you, Winny.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 15, 2023 2:14 pm

My money is on “I know how politics works” in response to the first bouncer from Richo after lunch.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
December 15, 2023 2:16 pm

City of Stonnington under fire for its ‘Make Merry’ campaign, with ‘inclusive’ festive displays omitting the word Christmas

A council in Melbourne which covers the city’s wealthiest suburbs has come under fire for its “inclusive” festive decorations which omit the word Christmas.

City of Stonnington council in Melbourne’s inner south-east has drawn the ire of hundreds of residents over its festive decorations which omit the word Christmas.

The council – which covers wealthy suburbs Toorak, Kooyong, Armadale and Malvern – instead has a “Make Merry” campaign which is designed to be “inclusive”.

But a petition which by Friday morning had attracted more than 200 signatures urged the council to reconsider the move, and bring back “Merry Christmas” on signs.

“While we appreciate efforts to promote inclusivity, we believe this change may unintentionally diminish the cultural and religious significance of Christmas for many residents,” the petition reads.

“Christmas is a time-honoured celebration, and the phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ has long been embraced as a warm and traditional greeting.”

The council also faced the wrath of 3AW Breakfast fill-in host Mark Allen who told listeners: “What does ‘Make Merry’ mean? It doesn’t even make sense”.

“If there’s anybody out there from Stonnington, please call in and tell me what’s offensive about the word Christmas,” he said.

The council has defended the campaign – which features across street signs and flags – arguing it was put together following feedback from residents and businesses.

City of Stonnington – which also includes South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor – said it celebrates Christmas through its carol events and placement of Christmas trees.

“The ‘Make Merry’ campaign was developed in response to feedback from residents and businesses that articulated the need for an inclusive way to acknowledge the different celebrations held in December,” a council statement said.

“The decorations aim to bring a festive feel to Stonnington’s commercial precincts and support our local businesses and traders by attracting visitors to our shopping precincts.

“The motifs on the design are symbols associated with celebrating Christmas. Council also hosts two Christmas carol events, celebrates Christmas within our libraries and has Christmas trees in high-profile locations, including the 12m tree in Prahran Square.”

Some of the signs have since been vandalised, with the “Make” crossed out and Christmas written in capital letters below, to make it read “Merry Christmas”.

“The City of Stonnington is disappointed by the vandalism of Council’s festive decorations. These decorations are for the enjoyment of all community members, residents and visitors to Stonnington,” the statement said.

“While we understand some residents may have differing views about the wording on the decorations, property vandalism is unacceptable.

“Residents can provide feedback to the council online, by phone, email, mail or by visiting a council service centre.”

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
December 15, 2023 2:17 pm

This is why the Cat is required reading!

Copied/pasted and shared by email to many – after spelling corrections 🙂

Roger
Roger
December 15, 2023 2:18 pm

The ABC would still employ her.

I don’t think the staff collective would be too keen on that.

A number of them would have to go for the ABC to afford her.

calli
calli
December 15, 2023 2:18 pm

I’m so glad, areff. I’ve been worried about Little Cat.

Would have had her in a heartbeat, but we are away for 12 weeks on and off next year. Even in those circumstances, could have farmed her out to Mum (for much needed company – she had to have her poor old rag doll moggie euthanised earlier this year) but by that time she will, hopefully for her and us, be in assisted care.

I am concerned about a moggster going to “Barky”. Take care, small feline. 😀

calli
calli
December 15, 2023 2:19 pm

The ABC would still employ her.

Of course they would. They have plenty of money.

Ours.

Winston Smith
December 15, 2023 2:20 pm

Old Ozzie:

The study, conducted by British restaurant chain Prezzo, asked more than 2,000 people about how at ease they felt while eating out.
The group that reported the most ‘menu anxiety’ was Gen Z, with 34% of 18 to 24 year olds admitting they ask other people at the table to speak to waiters on their behalf, because they are too nervous to talk.

Oh, FFS.
How are they going to cope with having to dig their own foxholes and go without Uber meal delivery when they get called up?

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 2:20 pm

AT THE TIME.

Key point, Saint Lisa, as the good justice pointed out.

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 15, 2023 2:21 pm

Settle down Victoriastanis it’s extra investment! For what remains to be seen. Herald Sun:

The cost of building the North East Link — already Victoria’s most expensive road project — has blown out again to now weigh in at $26bn.

The project was first spruiked in 2016 to cost just $10bn but was later revised to $15.8bn when designs were locked in.

On Friday, Premier Jacinta Allan — formally the Minister responsible for the project — revealed that its cost had blown out even further.

The announcement was made just hours before Treasurer Tim Pallas is due to hand down his budget update.

Ms Allan said the North East Link cost overrun — which she branded an “extra investment” — would add to the state’s already hefty debt levels.

“The extra investment that comes with this … will add to those debt levels,” she said.

Ms Allan also sought to blame the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine as key factors for a “massive escalation” in building and material costs.

“The business case that was put together back in 2017 for this project was put together before the pandemic and before the war in Ukraine,” she said.

“The consequences of those global events have seen additional investment and costs being added across a whole range of things and this project is no different.”

Inflation and external factors, however, only contributed to about one third – $3.1bn – of the $10.3bn blowout, according to the government’s own cost break down.

The main contributor — $6.4bn — to the increased cost has been driven by the government’s decision to expand the project including longer tunnels, improved interchanges and a rail tunnel extension.

Taxpayers will also be slugged an extra $780m to pay for compliance notices from the environment effects statement which sets out noise and air-quality requirements.

“As we added scope to the project, we needed to invest more in the project,” Ms Allan said.

Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman David Southwick said “things have gone from bad to worse” under Ms Allan’s leadership.

“She is renowned for her cost blowouts, but the scale of this latest blowout should shock all Victorians,” he said.

“This project has blown out by more than $1 billion a month since a cost update was provided in the May budget. The scale of this blowout demonstrates that Labor’s major project budget figures can no longer be believed.

“Every Victorian is paying the price for Jacinta Allan’s gross mismanagement which has sent Victoria broke and means more debt and higher taxes for years to come.”

The North East Link project will connect the M80 Ring Rd with the Eastern Freeway.

Ms Allan also announced the awarding of two key contracts, which had previously been delayed due to wrangling over the soaring costs, on Friday.

The contract for a package of works to upgrade the Eastern Freeway, which includes connections to the North East Link road and a spaghetti junction interchange, will cost $5.7bn.

Industry briefings in late-2018 put the estimate for that section of works, which had its designs altered since then, at $2-3bn.

A contract for the M80 Ring Rd connection, which includes an interchange at the Greensborough Bypass, was signed for $3.8bn.

When first put to the market, the northern section package was estimated at between $600m and $1.1bn.

The project is still expected to open in 2028.

Add this to the ruinable energy malarkey currently phucking over not just Victoriastan but the whole country.
Last bloke leaving turn the lights off. By not riding your exercise bike to get the dynamo running. FMD

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 2:22 pm

This is the difference between the BRS case & what we saw just then.
The judge in the BRS allowed all kinds of shit in.
This one, Michael Lee : What was known, AT THE TIME.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 2:23 pm

Toad claims one “lying through her teeth” from Hansard.

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 15, 2023 2:23 pm

Cassie: we live in a dangerously stupid country…

Yesterday heard of a friend’s work Christmas party this week. They had two supervisors appointed to monitor people’s behaviour, alcohol intake, and so on. And yes, they are all – supposedly – adults.

Then again, it was in Canberra. Was that where the lady who embarked on a sexual shenanigan and brought down a light fitting on top of the bed sued her employer for damages?

Tom
Tom
December 15, 2023 2:25 pm

RIP Sir Leslie Colin Paterson.

The only time attending the theatre when I have literally wet myself laughing. IMO, Sir Les was Barry’s greatest creation — did all the stuff that Dame Edna dared not do.

Roger
Roger
December 15, 2023 2:28 pm

The cost of building the North East Link — already Victoria’s most expensive road project — has blown out again to now weigh in at $26bn.

The project was first spruiked in 2016 to cost just $10bn but was later revised to $15.8bn when designs were locked in.

That’s funny…big projects under Palaszczuk usually came in at 170% over budget too.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 2:29 pm

I believed miss Hoggins…

Thats it.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
December 15, 2023 2:31 pm

and brought down a light fitting on top of the bed sued her employer for damages?

No that was a work-away-from-home excursion, involving vigorous sex with a person not her husband; not Christmas shindig but all her Christmases did come at once because the workplace insurer paid up. Trollops rule.

Winston Smith
December 15, 2023 2:34 pm

Calli:
I am concerned about a moggster going to “Barky”. Take care, small feline. ?
Elsie will be flying, we used to fly Fatso and Buddy when we drove across the Nullabor and up to Fitzroy Crossing/Paraburdoo. Fatso would just sleep, but Buddy would get stir crazy by day 5.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
December 15, 2023 2:34 pm

Spectator Magazine just landed — front cover — Wow

calli
calli
December 15, 2023 2:37 pm

Winston, it was a very poor pun about her destination. 🙂

areff
areff
December 15, 2023 2:37 pm

The Reynolds “backflip”: Initially, at the criminal trial, she said she didn’t know about any “rape”, which Mrs Pirate says was contradicted by a subsequent revision of evidence as laid out in her lawyers’ statement.

Well, Brown testified only that she told Reynolds of Ms Piggins’ “he was on top of me” without any mention of rape. Indeed, Brown testified at the same trial that she didn’t know about any rape, only that something ungentlemanly had gone on during a PH security breach.

Mrs Pirate is an oily specimen.

johanna
johanna
December 15, 2023 2:38 pm

Thanks for the Ogden Nash, Zulu. BTW, great to hear that Mme Zulu is on the mend.

Ogden had something special about understanding animals, way beyond David Attenborough.

The Lion, his royal highoness
Is married to – the Lioness

and

The cow is of the bovine ilk
One end is moo, the other milk.

We learned that when I was ten years old. It was fun.

Guess what the unfortunate kids are getting nowadays?

How Whitey massacred saintly Aborigines. How ‘fossil fuels’ are destroying the planet. Why tending the ‘organic garden’ is more important than the three Rs.

Apparently there is a bit of pushback against classrooms without walls, ignoring phonics etc. That’s because they failed, as hundreds of years of education experience foretold that they would.

I c an only assume that Ministers of Education went through the ‘un-education’ mill themselves to fall for such nonsense.

Remembering something else in Mr Dawson’s class when I was ten:

By channels of coolness the echoes are calling,
And down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling:
It lives in the mountain where moss and the sedges
Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges.
Through breaks of the cedar and sycamore bowers
Struggles the light that is love to the flowers;
And, softer than slumber, and sweeter than singing,
The notes of the bell-birds are running and ringing.

Bell Birds, Henry Kendall.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
December 15, 2023 2:38 pm

Interesting line from the Jurdge…

“was it appropriate to use Shiraz as the conduit for communication with Hoggins”.
Following a line about manipulation of vulnerable people.

Very cosy emails between Shiraz and Toad.

johanna
johanna
December 15, 2023 2:42 pm

No matter how many times I try to fix it, thanks to WordPress, once you put a foot wrong, your blockquotes are doomed.

Tom
Tom
December 15, 2023 2:43 pm

That’s funny…big projects under Palaszczuk usually came in at 170% over budget too.

That’s because under Labor governments, big infrastructure projects are jobs for maaaates in the CFMEU who finance the ALP.

Note: the ALP no longer represent the working class, just the 8% of the private workforce who are members of unions. The unions no longer need members to pay the bills as that’s bow taken care of by compulsory superannuation management fees.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 15, 2023 2:43 pm

So now it’s videos & audio recordings for the rest of the day.

Winston Smith
December 15, 2023 2:46 pm

What are the chances of Jasper hitting the west side of Cape York and picking up water then going south east?
Anyone got any ideas?
(I’m hoping we get a bit of rain next week.)

mizaris
mizaris
December 15, 2023 2:46 pm

Always the epitome of culture and decorum!

Culture and meconium maybe.

Johnny Rotten
December 15, 2023 2:46 pm

Add this to the ruinable energy malarkey currently phucking over not just Victoriastan but the whole country.

Last bloke leaving turn the lights off.

No need to turn off the lights as they will simply have run out of energy and turned themselves off.

Delta A
Delta A
December 15, 2023 2:47 pm

No,no! I can’t sit through two hours of poor Britz.

That’s the end of my court viewing until Monday.

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