Open Thread – Wed 3 Jan 2024


The First Mourning, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1888

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Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 12:07 pm

So how did other nations deal with this?

They (France & Germany) license Islamic preachers.

You step over the well drawn line, you lose your license.

Re Islamophobia, put it to a plebiscite then.

And Burn is in ASIS, not ASIO.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 12:11 pm

How a big new solar farm became a stranded asset

A perfectly good solar farm will be dismantled in 2024 just seven years after its high-profile launch.

Bureaucrats insist it was a good use of taxpayers’ money.

Peter Ker – Resources reporter

Under a blazing sun in outback Western Australia, preparations are under way to remove more than 34,000 solar panels.

They were made to last a quarter of a century, but here at Doolgunna, they’re about to be ripped out of the ground after barely seven years of powering the nearby DeGrussa copper mine.

It’s a humble end for a 20-hectare solar and battery project that was launched in a blaze of publicity in 2015, when federal taxpayers agreed to provide almost half of the $43 million construction cost, plus lend a further $15 million at concessional rates.

Owned by French giant Neoen, the DeGrussa solar and battery hub was described by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) in 2015 as “the largest of its kind in the world”.

Planeloads of politicians, investors and media flew to Doolgunna over the subsequent few years to marvel at the novelty of a mining company embracing renewable energy as the solution to its off-grid power needs.

The solar farm provided Sandfire Resources with up to 20 per cent of the energy required to power the DeGrussa mine. It reduced diesel consumption, cut emissions and funnelled a steady stream of large-scale generation certificates to Origin Energy.

But in 2024, the party will end.

Sandfire has extracted the last of DeGrussa’s copper, and in this remote part of Australia, there are no other customers to buy such vast quantities of solar power.

The planes now bring technical workers charged with decommissioning the project, as Neoen plans to remove the panels and rehabilitate the site.

Soon, red dust will be all that remains of the $20.9 million of taxpayers’ funds invested into the project by ARENA.

So, was it really worth it?

The legacy of the DeGrussa solar project isn’t particularly impressive when measured in dollars.

Market disclosures by Sandfire over the past seven years suggest a total of 80,687 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions were avoided at DeGrussa because the mine consumed solar power rather than diesel.

Based on the $20.9 million committed to the project by ARENA, each tonne of greenhouse gas avoided at DeGrussa cost the taxpayer about $259.

That’s dramatically higher than the $32 a tonne carbon price implied by the market price for Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) in December.

Neoen doesn’t appear to have made a major windfall out of the project either; accounts filed to ASIC over the past seven years suggest it earned about $28.6 million of revenue by selling power to Sandfire.

Only when ARENA’s $20.9 million grant is added, does the project’s revenue exceed the $43 million construction cost.

Neoen’s DeGrussa subsidiary paid just over $7 million of cumulative dividends over the seven-year period.

But Neoen has further costs ahead as it works to decommission the site after just seven years.

“Neoen is intending to remove the solar panels, as well as the rest of our facility and to rehabilitate the site,” said a spokesman for the French company.

It is not yet clear whether the panels will get a second shot at life at a new site.

“Neoen’s preference is for the solar panels to be reused as they remain in good condition. Neoen is currently investigating opportunities to find a second life for the solar panels and for the other main components such as the inverters, transformers and the battery pack.”

The short lifespan of the DeGrussa solar farm was the major reason it was not financially attractive; had the panels generated and sold power for 25 or 30 years, the return on investment would have been better.

But the loss of its major customer – the copper mine – was not a case of misfortune, and nor was it a surprise.

ARENA was well aware the copper mine was scheduled to shut as early as 2021 when it decided to pump $20.9 million of taxpayers’ funds into the solar farm.

Considered a trailblazer

ARENA believes the DeGrussa solar project should not be judged on financial metrics alone; the agency reckons it was a success because it helped to demonstrate how solar and storage could displace diesel at a remote mine site.

“This was one of the first off-grid renewable energy projects built in Australia, and one of the first renewable facilities used to power a mine,” says a spokesman for ARENA.

“The solar and storage facility provided most of the mine’s daytime electricity needs – offsetting up to 20 per cent of the daily diesel consumption of DeGrussa’s mining operation.”

ARENA reckons DeGrussa should be considered a trailblazer that provided valuable lessons for those building the wave of solar farms that are now springing up across the Australian mining industry.

“Because of the success of these early investments, projects are now being constructed without ARENA grant support,” says the spokesman.

Huge solar farms and batteries are becoming increasingly common at remote Australian mine sites.

Rio Tinto installed 100,000 solar panels beside the Gudai-Darri iron ore mine it built between 2019 and 2022; those panels provide about 65 per cent of the mine’s energy needs.

Over the next three years Rio will spend $US600 million on solar and storage for its Pilbara iron ore mines.

BHP has just finished installing 70,000 solar panels plus batteries across a 90 hectare patch of land near its Western Australian nickel mines, under a partnership with TransAlta.

Fortescue has spent vast sums on solar and transmission lines in the Pilbara and should commission its new 100 megawatt solar farm at North Star within a year.

Native title custodians like the Yindjibarndi people have also revealed plans to host large-scale solar on their ancestral lands and sell the power to nearby mining companies.

Proof of concept

Most of these new solar farms are attached to mines that will run for generations; Gudai-Darri is scheduled to produce iron ore for more than four decades.

Fortescue’s Iron Bridge magnetite project will need power from the North Star solar farm for more than 20 years.

So why did ARENA opt to fund a project like DeGrussa with such a short lifespan?

A spokesman for ARENA says DeGrussa was judged as having “high merit” when the agency went looking for solar projects to support.

“ARENA ran an open program aimed at reducing the reliance on diesel at off-grid and remote sites, with the DeGrussa project considered a success,” he says.

Grattan Institute energy director Tony Wood says DeGrussa is likely to have provided valuable lessons for solar developers and investors.

“It just shows that when you are using government funding to undertake activities where the intention is to prove up a concept, or drive down costs of undeveloped technology, it is always going to be something that in hindsight could have been different,” he says.

“But at the very least it has proved the concept.”

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 12:17 pm

…when federal taxpayers agreed to provide almost half of the $43 million construction cost, plus lend a further $15 million at concessional rates.

Taxpayers never had say in it.

Bureaucrats made the deal and politicians signed off on it.

Robbing the poor to give to the rich.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 3, 2024 12:17 pm

Thanks OO.

Petros
Petros
January 3, 2024 12:18 pm

Mary thought he said Prince of Darkness.

rosie
rosie
January 3, 2024 12:19 pm

Racv offers annual insurance for multiple trips iirc

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 3, 2024 12:20 pm

Maersk has now paused Red Sea transits indefinitely

If the Suez Canal is going to be avoided by world-wide shipping that would suggest “someone” has to do something about it.

Usually means the USA, but in this case maybe the coalition of naval ships that has recently been stood up. Australia couldn’t join in although the Seychelles did with a rinky-dink force of patrol boats.

rosie
rosie
January 3, 2024 12:21 pm

Literally no one at Harvard gives a sh*t about what conservative Twitter thinks. She’s gone because the faculty revolted, probably because they could no longer enforce rules about plagiarism.

here

rosie
rosie
January 3, 2024 12:22 pm
Petros
Petros
January 3, 2024 12:23 pm

I’ve often wondered that, too, Duk. Presumably there is constant CCTV footage of the baggage handling areas at airports here in Oz. Wonder if they have that at Denpasar. It seems a reasonable argument that one’s bags were not in one’s possession the whole time. Having said that, didn’t she make an inexplicable overnight trip to Sydney before flying on to Bali, when there were cheaper, direct flights available from Brisbane?

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 12:24 pm

Megan
Jan 3, 2024 1:19 AM

The Intern’s Friend, aka “a hard dog to keep on the porch” as described by The Hildebeast

About time his name was made public. An open secret yet the media kept insisting there was nothing to see.

It’s interesting watching this in context of who is going to be the next Democrat nominee.
It won’t be Biden. The party machine is against him.
It won’t be Hillary. She’s finding it hard to keep herself in the spotlight.
It won’t be “She Who Speaks in Riddles.”
Does anyone know who the book speaks for?

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 12:28 pm

If the Suez Canal is going to be avoided by world-wide shipping that would suggest “someone” has to do something about it.

Don’t look at Xi.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 3, 2024 12:30 pm

So why did ARENA opt to fund a project like DeGrussa with such a short lifespan?

Diesel gensets just get picked up and taken to the next mine.
Can’t do that with stupid solar panels, not so easily anyway.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 12:33 pm

Bungonia Bee

Jan 3, 2024 7:01 AM
Now lefties are getting “swatted”, up to and including Soros – there are many games that conservatives will learn to play.

The Left are complaining about swatting but who thought of it and started doing it? The Left of course – complaining of others doing what they have done for years, and are now getting the shits about it.
Tough titties, idiots.

cohenite
January 3, 2024 12:33 pm

Dot
Jan 3, 2024 10:36 AM

Ghislaine’s twins were are good as the AT&T girl who has been stanned into an anime MILF by thirsty SIMPs online.

Outstanding gibberish dottie.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 12:33 pm

Biden is streets ahead, followed by Newsom.

cohenite
January 3, 2024 12:40 pm

New year: after 3 jabs just got my 3rd dose of fauci’s virus. Head feels like a nail has been driven through it; nose like a faucet and a crackly cough. Mate prescribed me anti-virals on account I’m over 90 years old and after 2 days feeling a lot better. The anti-viral is called Lagevrio, the weaker of the 2 recommended AVs; the stronger one, which name I forget works even quicker but has a strange relapse rate. Cost of the AV is normally $1100. Per prescription $7.00!

I’m a big supporter of vaccinations but the chunk virus and this bullshit vaccine has really undermined every ones’ faith in vaccinations.

Any way, my new year wish is 5 minutes alone with fauci.

Dot
Dot
January 3, 2024 12:42 pm

Any way, my new year wish is 5 minutes alone with fauci.

Razzlekhan. She even dropped a pro social distancing rap.

Oh come on
Oh come on
January 3, 2024 12:47 pm

Jane and her children finally escaped in 2018.

Her abusive ex-partner was jailed for a number of offences, including persistently engaging in family violence, after several years of court proceedings.

Jane said she and her children were now safe but wished someone had intervened earlier.

“If there were people in my life that noticed, nobody said anything,” she said.

“It’s like, ‘Your business is your business’, and that’s it.”

Jane said there were many times when somebody must have heard or seen her being physically assaulted.

She said the culture of “staying out of other people’s business” needed to change.

“Scream. Shout, ‘Hey, man. Get the hell off her. It’s wrong’, because it’s going to make them stop,” Jane said.

“How is it normal to bash your wife, or your girlfriend around, all because she doesn’t comply?

“Turning a blind eye to it is not the answer.”

This is wrong. 99% of the time it won’t make them stop. We have all heard the anecdotes of the victim and their assailant turning on the intervening party in such circumstances, and I’ve seen it happen myself. If you humiliate some bloke bashing his wife or girlfriend or whatever, she’s usually going to pay for that later.*

My view about this kind of thing has changed in recent years. I’m not intervening in some domestic between adults I don’t know, no matter how ugly (I’d call the cops but that’s as far as it goes). Going further than that is taking a hell of a risk with no discernable benefit, especially as a bloke – you could easily end up attacked or arrested and potentially both. I’m not going to risk a criminal charge by involving myself in other people’s messy business. I have my own family to consider and that is the bottom line. Sorry but disharmony between strangers is not my problem. And there’s no way I’m going to make it my problem.

Also, one would be rather naive to presume a woman in an abusive relationship is going to reevaluate her life choices because some stranger decided to white knight for her.

*this describes the relatively rare form of violent domestic relationship in which the female partner is totally dominated by a violent and/ or controlling male, which is pretty much the only kind of domestic violence acknowledged by the White Ribbon types

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 3, 2024 12:48 pm

Dot
Jan 3, 2024 11:47 AM
Filed under “going real good”…

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/left-wing-climate-group-quietly-training-judges-handling-global-warming-cases

A little-known judicial advocacy organization funded by left-wing nonprofits is quietly training judges nationwide on preparing for cases related to climate change…

Ah yes. Special interest groups coaching judges.

If it were conservative groups coaching on cases related to free speech or the Second amendment, the screeches from that “judicial advocacy organization” would be heard by the Pioneer satellite, waaaay beyond the solar system.

cohenite
January 3, 2024 12:48 pm

Outstanding titties dottie.

calli
calli
January 3, 2024 12:53 pm

You don’t look a day over 80, cohenite.

cohenite
January 3, 2024 12:54 pm

Dot
Jan 3, 2024 11:47 AM
Filed under “going real good”…

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/left-wing-climate-group-quietly-training-judges-handling-global-warming-cases

A little-known judicial advocacy organization funded by left-wing nonprofits is quietly training judges nationwide on preparing for cases related to climate change…

Ah yes. Special interest groups coaching judges.

We’ve already seen that here with nincompoop judges starstruck by young shithead activists who come before them. Then there are the young darkies out on parole for their 10000th offence who finally kill some poor bastard and in all the hand-wringing no mention is made of the judicial hacks who let the young mongrels out repeatedly. All this combined with he Judicial attack on Trump has really undermined faith in the legal system

JC
JC
January 3, 2024 12:56 pm

Top Ender

Jan 3, 2024 10:41 AM

Given that there are many travelling Cats, anyone got a recommendation for travel insurance for an entire year?

Chubb. You can buy an international policy, but it’s expensive. Could be as high as 25k. But check because all you may want is hospital cover as that’s the killer.

JC
JC
January 3, 2024 12:57 pm

Any way, my new year wish is 5 minutes alone with fauci.

Fauci is a cut owl. Dude!

Oh come on
Oh come on
January 3, 2024 12:59 pm

when federal taxpayers agreed to provide almost half of the $43 million construction cost, plus lend a further $15 million at concessional rates.

Oh yes I clearly remember agreeing to this. We all had a big federal taxpayer meeting and made a collective decision.

I know it’s a turn of phrase that means publicly funded, but it still grates.

It sounds like a stupid scheme, anyway. Surely the mine operators had a pretty solid idea of the life span of the mine.

Arky
January 3, 2024 1:00 pm

Chinese soldiers fighting in the Ukraine.
Sounds like speaking pretty standard mainland Mandarin.
One company.
“Volunteers”? Doubt 100 odd Chinese soldiers are going anywhere without Beijing knowing and agreeing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJR4DuuIMgU

cohenite
January 3, 2024 1:00 pm

Cut owl.

You bet.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 3, 2024 1:04 pm

Outstanding titties dottie.

Funny that a woman with such very developed ‘assets’ trawled for guys who would not be interested in that bounty.

Oh come on
Oh come on
January 3, 2024 1:07 pm

But check because all you may want is hospital cover as that’s the killer.

Yup. I recently purchased travel insurance from Tick, a Sumitomo brand -the most basic cover (which was basically hospital and one or two other extras) for 2 weeks in Vietnam cost $33 per adult, 3 kids included. Crazy not to, given the cost of repatriation if you come a cropper.

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 1:10 pm

Happy 2024 comrades!!! Hope everyone has a great year!

(First day back today and feeling the bitter weight of Mondayitis)…

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 1:13 pm

North African illegal immigrants on a boat think they’ve found safety when a Libyan vessel passes by….

https://twitter.com/Justice_forum/status/1742189548350685473

But… it just keeps going… 😛

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 1:17 pm

Makes “sense”

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/02/ray-epps-jan-6-trial-jail-00133559

DoJ argues a six month sentence for Epps (while others rot away in gaol for years)

vr
vr
January 3, 2024 1:20 pm

Chubb. You can buy an international policy, but it’s expensive. Could be as high as 25k. But check because all you may want is hospital cover as that’s the killer.

Chubb is who AMEX uses for insurance on travel paid for with AMEX cards

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 3, 2024 1:20 pm

As a matter of habit we have long taken going to Epstein’s island as being equivalent to going there to molest minors.

I gather he had a compound which means that there would be areas set aside for different things.

Might not the kiddy thing be relegated to one place while others might be palatial guest accommodation, pools, etc. and that there may have been guests lured there by these things, who went to the island in response to threats of blackmail, or invited by Epstein for to plan some criminal enterprise or other, or even those who thought he was just some guy with some financial proposition or other?

When would everyone have found out just what loathsome things went on there before which some may have gone there unaware and not made aware?

Fifty times, like Bill Clinton, pretty strongly suggests he was attracted to the unique ‘attractions’ of the place, but there will be politicians and business people and so on who just visited as if it was a sort of resort where they talked business.

Honest question.

I suspect this will be the excuse proffered for a lot of people on the Lolita Express manifests. It might even be true for some.

We know the Democrats are nervous already because they are trying to connect Trump to Epstein.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 1:27 pm

132andbush:

I found out yesterday there is a chance of wind towers going up in this area south of Horsham. Seriously picturesque rural landscape with the Grampians as a backdrop.

I’m surprised none of the towers have been sabotaged – not the ones on private land, but the ones in the National Parks. You can bet if the towers were something the Greens didn’t like, they’d be falling like those Japanese domino contests.

cohenite
January 3, 2024 1:32 pm

We know the Democrats are nervous already because they are trying to connect Trump to Epstein.

Yep; yet Trump is the only one who isn’t connected.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 1:35 pm

Go on, have another go at me about where I live and how. Show just how much of a snob who should be in the Teals who you are.

She has the self-awareness of a dead gnat. She insults so many people. She’s a sick puppy.

Cassie, I took this to be comment about the person who wrote that quote re you, not a comment about you from John H.

Fast moving blog, as I said, and so easy for misapprehensions to occur. Now I don’t know if I was right in my assumption, or not.

If it was a comment against Cassie, then I will stick up here for her again, as she has done so often for me, for she is completely distressed by the recent exampling of intolerance on this blog. Cassie is, like me and Hairy, someone who has got by in life on her own efforts, not inheriting anything. She is also right to resent the ‘rich Jew’ libel that always accompanies Jewish people who settle close by each other and some of whom, but by no means all, by dint of thrift and intelligence and luck, do well. Luck in life is variable, we all know that. If we can’t accept that here, and be kinder to each other about the circumstances of all, then we might as well all pack up and go home.

Zafiro
Zafiro
January 3, 2024 1:36 pm

You can bet if the towers were something the Greens didn’t like, they’d be falling like those Japanese domino contests.

How might I sabotage or drop one?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 3, 2024 1:38 pm

Yep; yet Trump is the only one who isn’t connected.

I remember reading that Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago and banned him for life when he found out about Epstein being a sleazy creep to one of his staff.

There was a time Epstein was a player before his true vile nature was known.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 1:39 pm

As Cassie has said, she lives on her own efforts and sometimes struggles financially. One thing I do know though is that she is rich – culturally rich, and never, ever envious of those who are better off. She belongs to a fine and ancient culture. She is rightly proud of that, especially in these anti-Semitic times.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 1:41 pm

I’ve just come in from a great dance class and am full of the joy of life.

I’d like to share it around on this fine Sydney day, even though our street was parked out when I got home, and I had to use our secret parking spot. Not our garage, which is full of stuff. 🙂

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 1:43 pm

Riiiiiiiight…..

The number of young Londoners being radicalised by extreme Right-wing material online and other terrorist ideology is “really on the rise”, Scotland Yard’s counter-terror chief has warned amid continuing fears about the risk of an attack in the capital.

So, Benbrika good, right-wing (as in, believe in a traditional family/two genders etc) bad.

Got it.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 1:43 pm

Luck in life is variable, we all know that.

And envy is the thief of joy.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 1:53 pm

Shades of the Inadvertent Truth from the Past!

WSJ Opinion – These Drugs Are Helping Our Coronavirus Patients

The evidence is preliminary on repurposing two treatments. But we don’t have the luxury of time.

By Jeff Colyer and Daniel Hinthorn

March 22, 2020

A flash of potential good news from the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic:

A treatment is showing promise. Doctors in France, South Korea and the U.S. are using an antimalarial drug known as hydroxychloroquine with success.

We are physicians treating patients with Covid-19, and the therapy appears to be making a difference.

It isn’t a silver bullet, but if deployed quickly and strategically the drug could potentially help bend the pandemic’s “hockey stick” curve.

Hydroxychloroquine is a common generic drug used to treat lupus, arthritis and malaria.

The medication, whose brand name is Plaquenil, is relatively safe, with the main side effect being stomach irritation, though it can cause echocardiogram and vision changes.

In 2005, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showed that chloroquine, an analogue, could block a virus from penetrating a cell if administered before exposure.

If tissue had already been infected, the drug inhibited the virus.

shatterzzz
January 3, 2024 1:54 pm

Thinking on the cheat’s “baggy green” going walkabout .. about 15 months ago I came home after a Sunday bike ride to find two (2) gi-nourmous cardboard cartons at the door .. both addressed to me but from a Melbourne suburb address .. tried to contact the company but couldn’t find any listing on the net so tried the transport company on the paperwork .. “Yep, we delivered ’em to the address listed and we’ve been paid so do as you like with them” ….
Upshot is they are still sitting in a spare room .. unopened .. according to packaging details (from internet search of description/ID numbers) they combine into a high end lounge (around $4 000) .. LOL!

dopey
dopey
January 3, 2024 2:01 pm

John Lyons, ABC: Under pressure from the United States, Israel is realising it must stop its saturation bombing of Gaza.

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 2:03 pm

2024: Big year for elections:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/12/2024-elections-around-world/

USA, India, Mexico, South Africa,… 2 Billion voters going to the polls.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 2:07 pm

Indolent:

The law passed the state Legislature and was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. Retailers that don’t comply with the law will initially be fined $250, followed by $500 for repeat offenders.
California Assemblymember Evan Low, D-Silicon Valley, said an 8-year-old inspired him to introduce the bill.
New California laws taking effect in 2024
“I was inspired to introduce this bill after 8-year-old Britten asked, ‘Why should a store tell me what a girl’s shirt or toy is?’” Low said in a statement. “Her bill will help children express themselves freely and without bias. We need to let kids be kids.”

From “Stories my nanna told me”.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 2:11 pm

She’s gone because the faculty revolted, probably because they could no longer enforce rules about plagiarism.

Absolutely. If she can do it, every single student can do it. Too many doing it, and the whole enterprise comes tumbling down.

It’s in a pretty shakey state right now, so the academics are circling the wagons.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 2:12 pm

Those Yemenis are certainly collecting Ws atm.

Er…what are “Ws” in this context?

Jorge
Jorge
January 3, 2024 2:15 pm

Fifty times, like Bill Clinton, pretty strongly suggests he was attracted to the unique ‘attractions’ of the place, but

Has Hillary been asked about the dawg let off the chain or do we assume they have such busy lives that neither knows where the other is for days at a time ? How much did she know ?

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 2:15 pm

ZK2A:

What’s the doctrine of Islam which says lying to unbelievers is acceptable?

That would be the “Lying To Unbelievers Is Acceptable.” doctrine.

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 2:18 pm

I need a little more convincing on the “taqiya” line of “lying is acceptable” to fool infidels.

It just seems too easy to paint everything you don’t agree with someone on, as a lie or tactic…

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 2:19 pm

Jan 3, 2024 11:14 AM
Well, that was a format stuff up.
The last 5 lines are mine:

From several weekends ago, I gather the culprit is either known by admin or can be known.
The fact that nothing is being done to stop the practice is disappointing. Because as noted earlier – “Drive enough good people away and what are you left with?”

Vicki
Vicki
January 3, 2024 2:20 pm

WSJ Opinion – These Drugs Are Helping Our Coronavirus Patients
The evidence is preliminary on repurposing two treatments. But we don’t have the luxury of time.
By Jeff Colyer and Daniel Hinthorn
March 22, 2020

Ivermectin, unlike Hydroxy, has little, if any, known side effects in humans – in spite of the dire warnings on animal IVM products.

While it is no longer banned from off label prescription by our TGA – try getting a GP to give you a prescription or a pharmacy to fill it!

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 2:24 pm

Bruce of Newcastle
Jan 3, 2024 11:56 AM

Does anyone see this rooster admitting he may ever pose any threat, ever again?

I noticed he didn’t recant from Islam, convert to Christianity or become a guru, Shinto priest or Confucian monk. So I am a tad sceptical of his claim to be harmless.

“These people lie.” It’s their culture. They imbibe it with their mothers milk.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 2:29 pm

Roger

Jan 3, 2024 12:07 PM
So how did other nations deal with this?

They (France & Germany) license Islamic preachers.
You step over the well drawn line, you lose your license.

Re Islamophobia, put it to a plebiscite then.
And Burn is in ASIS, not ASIO.

So what happens when a non licenced Imam preaches violence in the Friday afternoon sermon (Asr) ? They drag him out of the pulpit?

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 2:30 pm

Elbow is angling for four-year terms: “It’s difficult for a PM to effect change in three year terms”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/03/anthony-albanese-four-year-election-terms-australia

Did he forget they had three PMs in six years, by choice?

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 3, 2024 2:31 pm

“These people lie.” It’s their culture. They imbibe it with their mothers milk.

They sure do. Anything to combat the infidels – especially Jews and Christians.

Like politicians, you know they are lying , because they are speaking.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 3, 2024 2:32 pm

My son ordered some stuff off Amazon. 4 things $400 worth. What was sent was 10 similar but really high end. Sold off what he didn’t want and still had money left. Someone would have got sacked.

Mallee Miss
Mallee Miss
January 3, 2024 2:34 pm

Even if he is telling the truth, there are other members of his immediate and extended family who also have “interesting” views and histories.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 2:35 pm

Coming Joe Biden coup and the Michelle Obama-Gavin Newsom election gambit

Elite Democrats will reject the president, and Republicans must be prepared

President Biden will not be on the November ballot.

With each new Biden family revelation and new poll finding Donald Trump will beat Mr. Biden like a drum, the inevitability of Mr. Biden stepping aside grows.

Yet Mr. Biden will not step aside before the end of the Democratic primary season. Instead, without real opposition, Mr. Biden will be poised to accept his coronation at the Democratic National Convention in August in Chicago.

Democratic strategists now plotting the Biden coup see this uncontested primary season as an essential element of a winning November strategy. As Richard Nixon once advised, run to the right to win the Republican nomination but run back to the middle to win the general election.

In this case, by avoiding a hotly contested Democratic primary cycle with numerous candidates trying to out-“woke” one another, the eventual ticket that runs in November will not be burdened with extreme positions in a primary campaign anathema to the American center.

How will Mr. Biden will be persuaded — or forced — to step down in favor of a brokered backroom deal Democratic convention? Mr. Biden wants a grand legacy of his White House days and full pardons to keep him and his family out of prison.

On the legacy front, Democratic strategists will confront Mr. Biden with the reality that if he gets trounced in the general election by Mr. Trump — as polls say he will surely win — Mr. Biden’s place in history will be beside Jimmy Carter as the most hapless president of the modern era.

If Mr. Biden still resists this pressure, key leaders within his party and the legacy media will take Mr. Biden down and thereby clear the path for a fresh ticket. They fear a new Trump presidency as surely as Brutus put the knife to Caesar.

On the pardon front, Mr. Biden will wait until after the November election and before he resigns to pardon not just the prodigal son Hunter but also his brother James, who is generally regarded as the consigliere in the Biden crime family. As for Mr. Biden’s pardon, he will quietly step down before Inauguration Day and let Kamala Harris do the dirty deed as part of the deal.

Vice President Harris certainly won’t lead the replacement ticket in November. Her numbers are almost as bad as Mr. Biden’s, and she has the worst quality a politician can have: unlikability.

Instead, Kamala will agree to go quietly into the same bad night as her boss. The quid pro quo will be the promise of dibs on the next Supreme Court vacancy.

The dream ticket among the Biden coup crowd os most likely Michelle Obama-Gavin Newsom.

Michelle is the anti-Kamala. She has a robust favorability rating that crosses party lines and a relatively low unfavorability rating.

Michelle will be expected to bring back the Black vote, particularly Black women, now running for the exit from Mr. Biden. She will also appeal to the more moderate elements of the Democratic Party who remember with revisionist history fondness the mediocre presidency of Barack Obama.

Mr. Newsom will be a youthful face. The California governor’s broad mission will be to ensure no progressive defections to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or millennial or Generation Z defections to either Mr. Trump or Mr. Kennedy.

Any effective Republican counter-strategy must smoke the Biden coup out early.

This means making Mr. Biden vigorously deny he will drop out while making candidates waiting in the wings — particularly Mrs. Obama and Mr. Newsom — deny they will participate in the Biden coup.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 2:36 pm

Elbow is angling for four-year terms: “It’s difficult for a PM to effect change in three year terms”

This bloke doesn’t realise how low his political credit has sunk.

So what happens when a non licenced Imam preaches violence in the Friday afternoon sermon (Asr) ? They drag him out of the pulpit?

The mosque is held responsible. Non-compliant mosques are closed if necessary.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 3, 2024 2:38 pm

Luck in life is variable, we all know that.

Except for socialists, for them it’s always bad luck. Amazing how that happens.

Vicki
Vicki
January 3, 2024 2:38 pm

As some will know, we are currently house minding daughter’s house. Besides being a gigantic thing – it is totally digital. I am sitting in the enormous office with its wall size photographic of waves and a lone surfer (it is on the Northen Beaches of Sydney), at a desk of some 5m replete with many devices I wouldn’t have a clue how to operate.

All I want is a pen (I have supplied the pad)to make some notes. Do you think I can find a pen in this digital enclave? Not on your nelly. Had to search my handbag and lo …..a pen!

The one interesting thing on this endless desk is a book propped up (for me?) – “This is Lean. Resolving the efficiency paradox” by Niklas Modig & Par Ahlstrom. Ah…the new paradigm…efficiency through digitalisation, no doubt. A world where pens have no place.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 3, 2024 2:38 pm

Release the holiday season distraction squirrels:

Anthony Albanese says Australians deserve an explanation as to why the Howard government committed the nation to war in Iraq, with an independent investigation ordered into the Morrison-era failure to hand over all the 2003 cabinet documents for release.

“Australians do have a right to know what the decision-making process was, and my government, believes that this mistake must be corrected, that the National Archives of Australia should release all the documentation that has been provided to them, having accounted for any national security issues, of course, upon the advice of the national security agencies.

So, hidden documents, guiltily covered up by the Morrison Government to protect the Howard Government?
Gotcha.
Bang to rights.
Being corrected by Team Albanese.
Under investigation by the former head of ASIO.
Who on the Opposition Front Bench was involved in this egregious breach of trust?

Whoops. An apparent paperwork farcup by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (prop. A.N. Albanese)

“The 2020 transfer of a small number of additional 2003 Cabinet records did not take place as it should have due to apparent administrative oversights by the Department, the Archives and security agencies,” the department said in a statement. “These oversights were likely as a result of COVID-19 disruptions at the time.”

The department says the missing records were found on 19 December this year. The department jointly inspected the records with the archives on 22 December 2023.

Apparently not very well covered up, then.
More ‘stuffed in a filing cabinet’ than hidden from view.
And not found until 18 months after Morrison was given the arse.

Handsome Boy fiddling with himself, while Canbra burns…

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 3, 2024 2:38 pm

Who’s going to admit to having the cheating houso midget ranga’s baggy green except SBW, after all he’s already had his missus.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 2:40 pm

The most overrated and underrated U.S. presidents: Barack Obama, Calvin Coolidge

For conservatives, it’s maddening to see periodic polls of historians ranking American presidents from the greatest to the worst.

These rankings tell us more about the far-left bias of historians than they do about the effectiveness of our presidents.

A recent poll of American history professors rated Barack Obama as one of the greatest American presidents and Donald Trump as one of the worst. Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson are almost always rated “great” presidents, while Warren Harding and Ulysses S. Grant are rated “failed” presidents.

Roosevelt and Wilson vastly expanded government spending and power, while Harding and Grant cut the size of the government in Washington.

Almost comically, the historians rate the bumbling and incompetent Joe Biden higher than Mr. Trump — even though, according to virtually every leading indicator, the economy did substantially better under Mr. Trump.

In order to counter this liberal/progressive view of political leaders, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity polled more than 100 of the most influential conservative thought leaders — a list that includes senators, members of the House of Representatives, governors, think tank scholars, business leaders, and prominent conservative writers and economists.

The question posed was: “Who would you rank as the single most overrated political figure in history, and who would you rank as the single most underrated?”

We received responses from 120 of these top conservative leaders.

Note: This was not a survey of the worst and greatest presidents, but rather, who do they believe the history books rate too highly or poorly.

Most Overrated

1. Barack Obama
2. Franklin Roosevelt
3. Woodrow Wilson
4. John F. Kennedy
5. Joe Biden

For the most underrated category, the winner by a smaller margin was Calvin Coolidge. Here are the top five vote-getters:

Most Underrated

1. Calvin Coolidge
2. Donald Trump
3. Ronald Reagan
4. Dwight Eisenhower
5. Bill Clinton

calli
calli
January 3, 2024 2:43 pm

The pen is mightier than the laptop.

Just wait for a power outage and see.

Also on power failure – how to open a garage door when there’s no alternative access? Hmmmm.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 2:44 pm

Something to consider Lizzie.
Is it possible that your relative with the affliction finds your administrations, however well intentioned, just a little bit stifling?

lol, Sancho. Which one, with which affliction? There’s such a choice that I doubt that I spread myself around too thickly on any individual one. I’ve been trying to rid myself of their demands for years, but it’s not in my nature to bluntly turn people away. Ask Hairy.

I guess you mean my just-diagnosed autistic son, and his son, my 20 year old grandson, in your comment above. What drove this adult son of mine to seek his diagnosis is his realisation when I turned 81 that I may not be around forever, so I told him, and he might be wise to seek other recognition and help, as he can’t fill in his own forms. That panicked him. What drove my grandson to ignore us at Christmas wasn’t malice, nor thinking me too intrusive, it was simply being twenty as Dot suggests, and a little lacking in social graces like facing up to it when you’ve made a boo boo. We’re fine together again now. Other grandparents will understand. 🙂

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 3, 2024 2:44 pm

Elbow is angling for four-year terms: “It’s difficult for a PM to effect change in three year terms”

I used to like the idea of four year terms until the 2020 US election. Now I want 3 month terms. Makes it harder if you have to steal an election every 3 months.

Besides which most governments these days seem to betray their promises in about two months (eg. that $275 we were promised), so three months is about enough to polish your baseball bat ready for the next innings. And if pollies are focused on being re-elected every three months they’ll have less time available to inflict damage.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 2:45 pm

Vicki
Jan 3, 2024 2:38 PM

As some will know, we are currently house minding daughter’s house. Besides being a gigantic thing – it is totally digital. I am sitting in the enormous office with its wall size photographic of waves and a lone surfer (it is on the Northen Beaches of Sydney), at a desk of some 5m replete with many devices I wouldn’t have a clue how to operate.

All I want is a pen (I have supplied the pad)to make some notes. Do you think I can find a pen in this digital enclave? Not on your nelly. Had to search my handbag and lo …..a pen!

In my digital sitting in Manly – DIL has amazing storage and pencil & paper easily found – was going to watch Netflix “Drive to Survive” but Son’s profile is set for German Audio, and did not want to change his settings – Their Digital is fully automated

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
January 3, 2024 2:48 pm

And if pollies are focused on being re-elected every three months they’ll have less time available to inflict damage.

Difficulty being, the same public servants persist, and they, I think, can be just as destructive. A new politician every three months will not improve the Health Department, or BOM.

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 2:49 pm

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? 😛

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
January 3, 2024 2:50 pm

In my digital sitting in Manly – DIL has amazing storage and pencil & paper easily found – was going to watch Netflix “Drive to Survive” but Son’s profile is set for German Audio, and did not want to change his settings – Their Digital is fully automated

lol ! Do you not just have to say out loud ” please program in English” and thy will will be done ! All this stuff is meant to be SO EASY !

Vicki
Vicki
January 3, 2024 2:50 pm

The anti-viral is called Lagevrio, the weaker of the 2 recommended AVs; the stronger one, which name I forget works even quicker but has a strange relapse rate.

Hadn’t heard of Lagevrio, cohenite. The other one you referred to is probably Paxlovid, which has a reputation of being associated with rebound Covid.

Dot
Dot
January 3, 2024 2:50 pm

No. Change it all to Hmong.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 2:51 pm

Zafiro

Jan 3, 2024 1:36 PM
You can bet if the towers were something the Greens didn’t like, they’d be falling like those Japanese domino contests.

How might I sabotage or drop one?

Zafiro, normally they just knock the first domino over, and it knocks over the next one, and so on. There are some really complex domino falling over patterns in the link I provided.

Vicki
Vicki
January 3, 2024 2:52 pm

Oh – I have discovered that Lagevrio is another name for molnupiravir. Right.

P
P
January 3, 2024 2:58 pm

Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg is 21 today.

I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, OCD and selective mutism. That basically means I only speak when I think it’s necessary. Now is one of those moments.

— Greta Thunberg, Stockholm
November 2018

Vicki
Vicki
January 3, 2024 3:00 pm

In my digital sitting in Manly – DIL has amazing storage and pencil & paper easily found – was going to watch Netflix “Drive to Survive” but Son’s profile is set for German Audio, and did not want to change his settings – Their Digital is fully automated

Old Ozzie – you have clearly a more acceptable setting. But I sympathise with you re the the automated settings. I am terrified to touch any of their stuff.

As it is, husband took 10 minutes to get the TV going. At least he recalled the code for the door!

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 3, 2024 3:01 pm

I do hope we aren’t advancing “Schapelle is innocent” theories here.
The old man was a “trader” and the local Balinese brudder-in-law was supposed to shepherd it through at the other end.
Clearly his pay-offs didn’t hit the mark.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 3:01 pm

What Purpose does Hamas Serve?

Money is fuel. It makes things happen, no different than natural gas, diesel, coal, or nuclear materials.

A perfect example of this truism is the Gaza Strip, where Hamas built its evil empire on the surprisingly generous contributions of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, Iran, and other individual countries.

Gaza is the singular example of a totally welfare-supported state that would collapse without this eternal ‘humanitarian aid.’

To my knowledge, no other such completely dependent national entity exists.

That makes Gaza an artificial statelet with little hope for future prosperity.

Why does Gaza merit this special status?

Why is Gaza not allowed to evolve or devolve towards its natural state of productivity like all other states?

Its status as a beloved ward of international bodies becomes evident from the wails of pain emitted in sympathy for the Gazans by people like Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

He had no words of comfort for Israel immediately after October 7th.

It appears to be the contention that even before the holocaust of October 7th, prosperous Israel has always been the cause of Gaza’s poverty.

Now, even more so now that the war against Hamas is in full swing, Israel must prevent the starvation of the Gazans by expediting aid to both the civilians and the vicious thieving Hamas terrorists who use the international aid for themselves, hoard it, or put up for sale the stolen food and supplies to ordinary Gazans.

We need to ask who profits from the perennially impoverished Gazan population.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 3:04 pm

Roger:

The mosque is held responsible. Non-compliant mosques are closed if necessary.

That’s an interesting response. But won’t they just move on to another mosque? What happens now with the radicals?
(I’m asking because I wasn’t aware the authorities have been making this tactic known -that I was aware of anyway.)

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 3:08 pm

US EV clampdown will mean shake-up for Asia’s battery makers

Switching to South Korean and Japanese battery suppliers could mean higher costs for automakers

Tax credits on electric car purchases in the US just became much harder to score.

The number of electric vehicle models qualifying for a bung of up to $7,500 is down from 43 to 19 after new battery sourcing rules took effect on Monday.

The ramifications will reach far beyond the newly excluded automakers.

EVs whose battery components are built or assembled by a country identified as a “foreign entity of concern”, which includes China, no longer qualify for a tax credit.

That leaves a long list of popular models ineligible, including the Tesla Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive, BMW X5 xDrive50e, Audi Q5 PHEV 55, Volkswagen ID. and the Nissan Leaf.

Some automakers are still confirming eligibility.

Getting back on the approved list will come at a cost — one that is likely to increase in the near future.

Chinese EV battery makers account for more than two-thirds of the world’s supply.

The world’s largest maker, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL), has a 37 per cent share of the market.

Its 50 per cent plus growth in capacity last year means it is one of the few suppliers that can produce batteries at the scale and price needed to keep up with the rapidly growing EV market.

The restrictions will get tougher, with rules on the source of crucial battery materials such as refined lithium set to tighten further in 2025.

China has about two-thirds of the world’s lithium refining capacity.

But switching battery suppliers to South Korean and Japanese rivals, which charge more, could mean higher costs for automakers.

Those are likely to rise further as capacity constraints and higher demand bite.

The tax credits, which allow buyers to claim the credit at participating dealerships at the point of sale, had succeeded in cutting the price of popular EV models to levels comparable to petrol counterparts.

For Nissan, say, that has been crucial. Net sales in the US, its biggest market, are more than double levels at home.

Longer term, more battery manufacturing should move to the US. But building capacity is expensive and takes years. Automakers fighting a war for market share in the US EV market will need to overhaul supply chains at the expense of short-term margins.

Shares of CATL are down a third in the past six months, underperforming peers.

Despite CATL’s dominance in the sector, shares trade at 13 times forward earnings, less than a third that of South Korean LG Energy Solution.

That gap should persist as long as tensions between the US and China remain high.

shatterzzz
January 3, 2024 3:11 pm

Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg is 21 today.

Turning 76 today I could have got by without this info “sharing” … duuuuuuuuuuuh!

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 3:12 pm

Tesla overtaken as world’s most popular electric vehicle maker by little-known Chinese rival BYD (who Elon Musk once LAUGHED at while saying they were not a competitor) – but why can’t you buy one in America?

Tesla has lost the No1 spot as the world’s biggest electric car maker to BYD – a Chinese company that is little-known in the US.

Elon Musk’s Tesla said today it had delivered 484,000 cars in the final three months of 2023. It was more than analysts had expected.

But it was below the 526,000 battery-only cars handed over by BYD – short for Build Your Dreams – in the same period, the Chinese company reported on Monday.

Most Americans will never have heard of BYD, let alone seen one of their cars – which tend to cheaper than Tesla’s – on the roads.

BYD cars are not sold in the US, and there are no plans to do so – despite it being backed by American investment guru Warren Buffett and plans to expand into other foreign markets.

There is not a ban on BYD in the US, as there is on other Chinese companies such as smartphone maker Huawei.

But tariffs that benefit US carmakers mean it is not worth BYD selling cars in the US.

The company already exports around 150,000 cars a year, including to Singapore – where it is the best-selling EV brand – as well as Thainland, Brazil and Mexico. BYD also sells in the UK and Germany and plans a bigger push into Europe in 2024.

‘The US market isn’t under our current consideration,’ Stella Li, a senior vice president at BYD, said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Part of the reason is the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s bill aimed at boosting domestic manufcturing of EVs. It heavily favors American automakers – meaning it is too expensive to BYD to operate in the US.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 3:12 pm

Also, Sancho, Hairy and I run away from home regularly on our trips. Which can go for a couple of months at a time. He enjoys the travel and he loves to drag me away from the wider familial situation for a break.

And if I’m a little upset around Christmas, put it down to my second son showing many signs (not just one) of being on the illicit drug-use merry-go-round again. Amphetamines in the past, I’ve had to hospitalise him as he was psychotic, but now the suggestion is heroin. That does keep me awake at night. He ended up on the streets and in Long Bay prison hospital with amphetamines. I hope its not heroin now. I thought he was over his demons, but maybe not. Polydrug use, it’s a recurrent syndrome, and hard to battle for family as much as for the individual. He’s on his own for a while now, I told him at New Years, at least until the violent texts demanding more money and abusing me stop, after such a pleasant day at Christmas too.

I did drug counselling of families caught up in this morass for two years when I retired twenty years or more ago. It is far more common and causes so much distress Australia-wide than anyone uninvolved would ever believe. The stories I heard from almost-defeated parents, siblings and children about family members on drugs, its a terrible scourge. America is even more full of it, and it’s Fentinel there.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 3:13 pm

Although BYD is little-known in the US, it got some media attention a year ago when it introduced a ‘moonwalking’ SUV.

The Land-Rover-style YangWang U8 has a four-motor drive system that allows it to drive sideways – handy for getting into and out of tight parking spots. See video

Bill P
Bill P
January 3, 2024 3:14 pm

will
anything valuable and/or irreplaceable should be in carry-on
He should have just worn one.
Shouldn’t need a spare to lose.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 3:15 pm

Happy Birthday, Shatterzzz. And many more of them.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 3:16 pm

hzhousewife:

lol ! Do you not just have to say out loud ” please program in English” and thy will will be done ! All this stuff is meant to be SO EASY !

What I’ve noticed is as the equipment gets “easier” to use, it just gives the opening to more nonsense admin stuff.
For example, now that nearly everyone has mobiles and internet contact, the amount of multiform sign on demands are being made. The security issues are chewing up more and more time and effort, and demanding more ways to sign on.
So what happens when you lose your mobile phone that is set up to allow you to sign on after you get a confirmation code?
This is no longer ‘easy’ or ‘time saving’, this is complexity for the sake of complexity.

Dot
Dot
January 3, 2024 3:16 pm

I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, OCD and selective mutism. That basically means I only speak when I think it’s necessary.

No, it means you’re a narcissistic arsehole blaming very minor mental illnesses for having an awful personality and being unlikable.

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 3:19 pm

With Elbow’s pending Luxury Car Tax (luxury being that it is petrol powered), I wonder how long it is until insurance companies no longer insure petrol cars?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 3, 2024 3:26 pm

She also suffers from Condescending Scowlism, and Progressive Indoctrination Disorder.

Dot
Dot
January 3, 2024 3:28 pm

Sancho Panzer
Jan 3, 2024 3:01 PM
I do hope we aren’t advancing “Schapelle is innocent” theories here.

I am. I know about her family too. If the Balinese cops did too, well that raises other questions.

What she was guilty of was not paying a bribe and playing possum, regardless of whatever else happened. Her trial was a shit show, other Aussies just paid the bribes; furthermore having weed illegal is a joke in current year. If the law isn’t enforced equally then it has no merit or credibility. This goes further than discretion, obviously.

We don’t even know if she would have been found guilty in a clean court system, civil code or common law type under criminal justice procedure – you can’t trust cops who are known to take bribes and we don’t know the silly buggers played with other family members. The Sunday Smuggler being published in 2002 undermined many Australians’ confidence in the Indonesian criminal justice system.

A very selective form of Sharia law exists in Indonesia. Bali is less inclined to that but it is like the township of Amity in JAWS. It is a very peculiar place.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 3:28 pm

I used to like the idea of four year terms until the 2020 US election. Now I want 3 month terms. Makes it harder if you have to steal an election every 3 months.

Yearly would do me, Bruce o’Newc. If only we could ….

Albo would be long gone. So would Bowen and Net Zero.

I’m dreaming I know.

Dot
Dot
January 3, 2024 3:29 pm

Inequality in pursuing prosecutions also raises the issue of an inability to conduct trials in a fair manner.

Obviously.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 3, 2024 3:29 pm

So…the opening salvo of Albo’s new campaign to lower the cost of living consists of increasing a tax rather than reducing one.

It’s brilliant!

It is the last thing anyone would have expected!

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 3:35 pm

I organising for a group of old friends to come here on Australia Day, Jan. 26th for a BBQ. We’ve spent many other Australia Days in the past at theirs, all in different homes, all good fun. But one invitee, happy to come, seems dubious re that day we once all celebrated gleefully. Poor aborigines, it upsets them. Oh dear. I hope it doesn’t turn into an argument. It was never like that even a few years ago. Zeitgeists are funny things. Can’t really uninvite her now. I’ll be putting the flag out, I warned her.

bons
bons
January 3, 2024 3:35 pm

The issue is not three, four or five year terms.

The issue is that the little creep wants Fixed terms.

It is a Labor special. A failed government can proceed to wreck the joint and nothing can be done to stop them. The previous NSW Labor Government is Exhibit A, and the Chook’s hen shed Exhibit B.

He is so predictable.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 3:42 pm

Also on power failure – how to open a garage door when there’s no alternative access? Hmmmm.

Ours has a key lock that you pull out on a wire which trips it from auto to manual, so you can get in. You can also turn it to manual from the inside.

Suits me. I have a horror of what the garage man called ‘coffin garages’, where people have been sealed in, and some, a long way from help, have died calling out for it.

Jorge
Jorge
January 3, 2024 3:44 pm

Force a mosque to close here and the screeching would be at banshee level. The UN would be calling for embargoes and penalties.

Yet try to open a church in Saudi or Pakistan or Indonesia or Malaysia.

Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
January 3, 2024 3:45 pm

Lizzie.

Albo would be long gone. So would Bowen and Net Zero.

I’m dreaming I know.

Never forget that it was the treacherous Libs and Nats that signed us up to Net Zero. Never forget!

amortiser
amortiser
January 3, 2024 3:46 pm

ARENA reckons DeGrussa should be considered a trailblazer that provided valuable lessons for those building the wave of solar farms that are now springing up across the Australian mining industry.

So being a “trailblazer” justified the use of other people’s money, not theirs.

I see the story indicated that this would not be repeated but it did indicate that Aboriginal enterprises may build the infrastructure in future. That is shorthand for the taxpayer fronting up with the money but having it hidden away in the $30 billion of Aboriginal spending.

calli
calli
January 3, 2024 3:47 pm

There’s a hell of a lot of damage a PM can do in three years. Just look at Kevin07.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 3, 2024 3:47 pm

M Lode at 1:20.
I think you have to approach all things Epstein from the perspective that his core business was blackmail.
And this goes right back to his early 20’s as a teacher (with forged credentials) and when he first shook-down Leslie Wexner. It doesn’t make sense that Wexner, a hard-bitten Jew who made his living in the rag-trade, would voluntarily sign over big chunks of his assets to Epstein because he simply liked him.
It has been noted a number of times here and elsewhere that Epstein projected an image as a hot-shot trader but was virtually unknown on Wall St.
Given the charmed life he had in avoiding scrutiny for both financial malfeasance and sexual deviancy, along with the unexplained wealth, he was up to something, and that something was blackmail.
I think he carefully cultivated a couple of different types.
Firstly there were the uber-wealthy and randy types who could be easily set up for blackmail.
Secondly there were the “connectors”. The high profile types like Prince Driller and Crimton were cultivated, not for the direct blackmail benefit, but for the doors they might open to access more blackmail targets.
His New York house had more surveillance than the Louvre, in every room, and a room full of monitors and recording equipment.
The island was probably a way of lulling some of them into a sense of “diplomatic immunity”. Epstein made a big deal of showing how the local authorities were in his pocket and he could act with impunity there.
I don’t think many went there thinking they were having a business meeting, or just a holiday in the sun.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 3:48 pm

Lizzie, at 2.44. Six downticks already? Why?

Speak up please.

Surely you have something to say for yourselves rather than pure negativity?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 3, 2024 3:48 pm

Although BYD is little-known in the US

Newscorpse papers just lurve BYD, at least the Tele in Sydney does. The number of EV wank articles they run is ridiculous. Presumably they’re paid advertorials.

Chris
Chris
January 3, 2024 3:49 pm

Inequality in pursuing prosecutions?

Politico is all sympathy for Ray Epps…

The fact that its Politico and how late in the piece (after years of Justice system abuse for Jan 6 guided tour participants) makes me think this prosecution is a coverup for the FBI. Epps ‘six months’ is basically witness protection.

Dot
Dot
January 3, 2024 3:51 pm

Who here is seriously going to buy a BYD?

Polestar make the best EV, but EVs suck still.

An Ineos 4×4 is my current dream car. A touch more affordable than a Quadrifoglio Giulia.

amortiser
amortiser
January 3, 2024 3:57 pm

Lysander
Jan 3, 2024 3:19 PM
With Elbow’s pending Luxury Car Tax (luxury being that it is petrol powered), I wonder how long it is until insurance companies no longer insure petrol cars?

It’s more likely that ECVs (electric combustible vehicles) will be uninsurable before ICE vehicles.

In the last 12 months or so there have been 3 motor vehicle marine transporters that have caught fire resulting in billions of dollars in damage. In every case the fires were unable to be extinguished. They had to burn themselves out.

In addition a multi level car park at a London airport was destroyed along with hundreds of vehicles when a ECV caught fire. Furthermore, 3 golf clubs in Australia have suffered serious fires when lithium ion batteries being stored caught fire.

Unless this combustion problem is solved, insurance companies will implement exclusions for such fires or the premiums will become prohibitively expensive.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 4:00 pm

Cassie believes there is a more sinister element to the downticking whereas I am sticking to the ‘idiots unable to argue’ viewpoint. But she may be right.

That said, I’m off for a while. Will leave downtickers to their own devices.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
January 3, 2024 4:06 pm

Never forget that it was the treacherous Libs and Nats that signed us up to Net Zero. Never forget!

Indeed, Mark. A very depressing thought that is too, if one lets it be so.

Fortunately, joy has landed upon me today, and I’m not going to worry over things I cannot change. I’ll just optimistically look forward to the small things that might get better, with no great hopes for anything major as yet.

billie
January 3, 2024 4:09 pm

She’s gone because the faculty revolted, probably because they could no longer enforce rules about plagiarism.

Nah, I reckon it’s because big money supporters were talking about suspending their donations.

Nothing to do with the education side of things since they set what are and are not the standards.

Her supporters said that Gay had erely been lean in her assigning of citations for the work she wholous bolous lifted from other people. So, all good there eh .. nod nod wink wink.

I believe Baz Obama said she was so affected by other people’s work, that she “reused it”, which is not plagiarism but admiration .. jeez, what has the USA become?

Some of Gay’s “work” was done in the 1990s before the internet enabled plagiarism checks and she just never thought anyone would dare challenge her, after all, racism!

There’s been talk for years about her plagiarism apparantly, but her performance at a House Committee on Anti-Semitism recently was too much for backers of Harvard.

She is the recipient of much misguided affirmitive action and this is what it gets you, a thief and scammer promoted on feels not capability (or morals!).

Indolent
Indolent
January 3, 2024 4:09 pm
Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 3, 2024 4:10 pm

having an awful personality and being unlikable.

Too polite Dot. Carnt comes to mind.

Vagabond
Vagabond
January 3, 2024 4:14 pm

It’s interesting watching this in context of who is going to be the next Democrat nominee.
It won’t be Biden. The party machine is against him.
It won’t be Hillary. She’s finding it hard to keep herself in the spotlight.
It won’t be “She Who Speaks in Riddles.”
Does anyone know who the book speaks for?

Michelle Obama/Newsom.

It’s the dems’ only hope and the rest of the world’s nightmare.

They will leave the switch as late as possible to minimise the opportunities for adverse publicity and home truths from the republicans

Pogria
Pogria
January 3, 2024 4:16 pm

The Stupid, it BURNS!
I have never understood how people who are easily scammed, have lots of money to be scammed out of.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 3, 2024 4:19 pm

Watching the muslims fold at the SCG on Ch7.

TV in the other room on Fox Cricket.

Ch7 is about 3-4 seconds behind Fox. Heard the out call from Fox commentators while on Ch7 Starc was about 4 strides before delivery.

ABC radio used to be like that. Hear the fall of wicket on radio while outside then jump up to see it “live” on Packers channel. That’s in days gone by when I listened to their ABC.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 3, 2024 4:23 pm

It won’t be Hillary. She’s finding it hard to keep herself in the spotlight.

Finding it too hard to keep on her feet more likely. Like Dementia Joe.

JohnJJJ
JohnJJJ
January 3, 2024 4:25 pm

Lysander
Jan 3, 2024 2:18 PM
I need a little more convincing on the “taqiya” line of “lying is acceptable” to fool infidels

Taqqiya, I believe is more of a Shia concept. The numerous Shia sects have always been a minority in Sunni lands. Hence they pretended to be Sunni, and that was OK by Allah.
The Islamist don’t lie, they tell the truth of Allah. They say they are no longer a threat because that is what Allah wants them to say. So our sophisticated intelligence services, of course, believe them. It is easy to find out, just have a few muz clerics in the room when they are questioned. There are other ways to find out the truth. Use Islam against them.
ASIS, right, thanks for correction.

billie
January 3, 2024 4:27 pm

Roger:

The mosque is held responsible. Non-compliant mosques are closed if necessary.

What balls you have sir!

I can’t see the tolerent masses just accepting that and moving on but that’s just me.

I like the cut of yer jib though

We should put you in charge for a week or two and see how it goes.

So, shuts Lakemba Mosque for non-compliance, what’s the next step when the masses come questioning why this has been done?

I understand academically what you are saying, but we all know the reality is it never would happen, not here in Australia, we have no way to enforce such an “attack on islam”

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 4:31 pm

Michelle Obama/Newsom.

Send the asteroid.

Michael Obama? God help us all.

billie
January 3, 2024 4:32 pm

I thought it would be Michelle Obama at the last election but didn’t realise it doesn’t matter because the cheating and fixing of elections in the USA is trivial.

You have government agencies in the USA who are well used to manipulating government elections all over the world, it’s not like it’s new to them.

Newsome, don’t know but it sounds legit, but Michelle, yep.

They can provide so much misdirection as a Mutt and Jeff act, that no one will notice what happens at the ballot.

Chris
Chris
January 3, 2024 4:32 pm

Will leave downtickers to their own devices.

Very good.
IMO they are individuals who love the high leverage the free act of one click has on others emotions. Ignoring them is much the best response.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
January 3, 2024 4:33 pm

Any hour now for the Epstein list.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 4:35 pm

That’s an interesting response. But won’t they just move on to another mosque? What happens now with the radicals?

They’re put on notice. If they commit a crime they cancel their residency or rescind their citizenship and deport them.

Chris
Chris
January 3, 2024 4:40 pm

Michael Obama? God help us all.

Another Flight 93 election.

Oh come on
Oh come on
January 3, 2024 4:42 pm

Gosh that unearthed a long-forgotten childhood memory – my oldies watching the cricket on a muted TV whilst listening to ABC radio commentary.

The ABC used to create good stuff not all that long ago. For some reason, Blue Murder is featured on Netflix. I’d forgotten how good it is.

Great cars, too – loads of steel you almost never see on the road these days. It was made in 1995 depicting the events of the early 80s, so more XD/XE/XF Falcs than you can poke a stick at.

JohnJJJ
JohnJJJ
January 3, 2024 4:43 pm

billie
Jan 3, 2024 4:27 PM
Roger:
The mosque is held responsible. Non-compliant mosques are closed if necessary.

What balls you have sir

Despite what it looks the Muz are not a united block. There are many schisms (albeit not obvious to the Faranji I.e. us). Also they will back down if presented with a committed superior force. Shock and awe works.
Close problem mosques by all means..but stand your ground. They do it in Muz countries.
Our problem is the stand your ground and a committed force.
All we have is Allegra Spender.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 3, 2024 4:45 pm

Arrogant bowling crap to number 10 batsman and getting hit for six.

Just bowl at the stumps gumbies!

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 4:46 pm

P

Jan 3, 2024 2:58 PM
Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg is 21 today.
I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, OCD and selective mutism. That basically means I only speak when I think it’s necessary. Now is one of those moments.
— Greta Thunberg, Stockholm
November 2018

Such a frigging pity the mutism isn’t permanent.

Oh come on
Oh come on
January 3, 2024 4:46 pm

Is it just me or is RFK Jr’s campaign dying in the butt?

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 4:49 pm

Biden is the bookies’ favourite @ c. $1.25

As far as the money is concerned he’s a shoo-in.

If Biden drops dead in the meantime it’s Newsom.

calli
calli
January 3, 2024 4:49 pm

Heh. I see Michael Smith is still calling him “Therapeutic” Albanese.

I wonder how many in mainstream Australia remember the circumstances in which the term originated? 😀

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 3, 2024 4:50 pm

Popular Perth pub forced to start charging for costly no-shows
Sarah Brookes
By Sarah Brookes
January 3, 2024 — 2.00am

Listen to this article
3 min

The peak association representing hospitality venues in WA has backed moves by an increasing number of pubs and restaurants to impose reservation rules to shield their businesses from costly no-shows.

It follows the Parkerville Tavern in the Perth Hills revealing it was implementing new rules for large bookings after a series of nasty surprises during the festive period.

The tavern management said in a social media post that they would require a card pre-authorisation for those making a group booking of nine or more, and would charge $10 per head if the reservation was cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice or the patrons failed to turn up at all.

They said in the lead up to Christmas a group of 45 booked five tables for Sunday lunch and did not come. In the same week, a group of 30 and another group of 20 booked for a popular Sunday session, and also failed to materialise. On Christmas Eve, a group of 30 booked and didn’t arrive.

“It’s one of your busiest days, you’ve had to turn people away and one of your young crew members have just bared [sic] the brunt of an angry customer being told they’ll have to wait for a table – and a group of 24 don’t turn up,” the post read.

“Not only is this disruptive and disappointing on busy days when we have to turn customers away because we think we don’t have room, it also means on quiet days we may roster an unnecessary amount of staff on, expecting groups to turn up, who don’t show.

“We have made the decision to introduce a no-show policy for groups of nine or more.”

Some no-shows simply gave the excuse that they “just couldn’t make it” and the pub was being forced to take action as it could no longer bear the cost of these occurrences.

No money will be debited from customers’ cards when making the booking, only if they break the new rules.

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 4:50 pm

Michael Obama

I can see the headlines in the lead up to the erection now:

-Michelle Comes Out Swinging,
-Cohones! Michelle Wins Taco Eaters,
-Obama’s Trans-Atlantic Spread!

calli
calli
January 3, 2024 4:51 pm

Such a frigging pity the mutism isn’t permanent.

If only she could add agoraphobia to the list of complaints.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
January 3, 2024 4:52 pm

Thanks, Sancho.

I knew blackmail was a core business for him but had assumed he tried to diversify – even into legitimate deals using insider knowledge he had access to from his blackmail victims.

Partly bacause I know at least Trump had, at one point, had called him a ‘great guy’ -assuming therefore that not everyone knew what he was about at once.

calli
calli
January 3, 2024 4:53 pm

They said in the lead up to Christmas a group of 45 booked five tables for Sunday lunch and did not come. In the same week, a group of 30 and another group of 20 booked for a popular Sunday session, and also failed to materialise. On Christmas Eve, a group of 30 booked and didn’t arrive.

It’s quite a neat way for competition to destroy a business. Another form of “swatting”.

Damon
Damon
January 3, 2024 4:53 pm

“Given that there are many travelling Cats, anyone got a recommendation for travel insurance for an entire year?

If you play bridge, it’s worth looking into the ABF’s policy options. It will cost you a membership (obviously), but i think they’re reasonable value.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 3, 2024 4:54 pm

Send the asteroid.

Michael Obama?

Wookies are very good navigating asteroids. I saw it once.

Millennium Falcon Asteroid Field Scene

Maybe try something else. Tribbles maybe. Lefties are very Tribblish.

Muddy
Muddy
January 3, 2024 4:54 pm

I do hope we aren’t advancing “Schapelle is innocent” theories here.

I don’t know about the bogan princess, but I was told at the time, from three QPS sources (then junior, but now all mid-ranking), that the family was VERY well known for their *ahem* activities. These same sources also eventually proved to be correct with their intimations of what was happening with Brett Cowan prior to the formalities being made public. (Not that they named him or provided any details to me).

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 4:54 pm

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare

Jan 3, 2024 3:28 PM
I used to like the idea of four year terms until the 2020 US election. Now I want 3 month terms. Makes it harder if you have to steal an election every 3 months.
Yearly would do me, Bruce o’Newc. If only we could ….
Albo would be long gone. So would Bowen and Net Zero.
I’m dreaming I know.

Recall elections would do the job.

Crossie
Crossie
January 3, 2024 4:55 pm

Unless this combustion problem is solved, insurance companies will implement exclusions for such fires or the premiums will become prohibitively expensive.

Amortiser, the insurance companies will simply do what they have been doing for decades with floods. They will simply raise insurance premiums on all policies. It will even be pushed as equitable and the right thing to do, particularly for the environment in which we should all have a stake.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 4:56 pm

France & Germany are further down the “how to deal with Islam” path than we are, for obvious reasons, but also due to their histories (secularism in France & the Holocaust in Germany).

In Europe it’s the public forcing the stricter regime on the political elites. They want their countries back thank you.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 3, 2024 4:56 pm

billie
Jan 3, 2024 4:09 PM

She’s gone because the faculty revolted, probably because they could no longer enforce rules about plagiarism.

Nah, I reckon it’s because big money supporters were talking about suspending their donations.

Of course it is.
I think the plagiarism gave them another lever, but this was all about the money.
I don’t know how the donations work, but I’ll bet some of the big “donations” are held outside Harvard and an annuity paid in every year. No doubt some big money was about to walk.
Watch this space.
Given the board backed Gay after the debacle in Congress, it is hard to see them all surviving.
I think JC is right. The appointment of the next CEO will be the tell.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 4:57 pm
Tom
Tom
January 3, 2024 5:02 pm

Is it just me or is RFK Jr’s campaign dying in the butt?

RFK can’t win over Democrats because he reminds them what they should stand for instead of what they currently stand for — power at all costs.

The Barack Obama-Cenk Uygur backroom running the Biden puppet presidency are interested only in power, not principles.

The 2024 election will therefore be a measure of the extent to which the Obama-Uygur backroom will cheat to retain power, with Trump by far America’s most popular popular politician since Abraham Lincoln.
.

Crossie
Crossie
January 3, 2024 5:02 pm

calli
Jan 3, 2024 4:53 PM
They said in the lead up to Christmas a group of 45 booked five tables for Sunday lunch and did not come. In the same week, a group of 30 and another group of 20 booked for a popular Sunday session, and also failed to materialise. On Christmas Eve, a group of 30 booked and didn’t arrive.

It’s quite a neat way for competition to destroy a business. Another form of “swatting”.

I can see where substantial deposits will be demanded via a credit card for all bookings over 5 or 6 people.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
January 3, 2024 5:06 pm

calli
Jan 3, 2024 2:43 PM
The pen is mightier than the laptop.

Just wait for a power outage and see.

Also on power failure – how to open a garage door when there’s no alternative access? Hmmmm.

I remember opening the the warehouse door with a chain on a pulley. A garage door would be a piece of piss if the manufacture offered it.

Pogria
Pogria
January 3, 2024 5:08 pm

It’s quite a neat way for competition to destroy a business. Another form of “swatting”.

Calli,
that was my very first thought. It isn’t the first time it’s been done.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 5:08 pm

FYI:
Our power has been off for an hour now, so I decided to give the setup a run.
Poifekt.
Crank that aircon up. All 4 running, two freezers, two fridges – ones the beer fridge. God hates XXXX getting warm – run the jug for a cuppa.
Let’s see. What else can I play with?
Lights!
They’re all LEDs, engine note didn’t even change.
Toaster? No, that’d be silly.
OK. Silly season it is.
Genset gets busy with toaster & jug and circuit cuts out. Genset goes back to dozing. OK, the circuit doesn’t like it. All the other items not on this circuit continue as designed.
This is fun.
Cost is about – according to past use – 7 liters over 24 hours running genset at 8 hours/day in 4 x 2 hour increments.

Crossie
Crossie
January 3, 2024 5:09 pm

Given the board backed Gay after the debacle in Congress, it is hard to see them all surviving.

SP, the whole board will need to go as none of them can be trusted. The more bad publicity comes their way the more it will be obvious that they are all grubs which the donors will not be able to overlook.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 3, 2024 5:09 pm

Mother Lode
Jan 3, 2024 4:52 PM

Thanks, Sancho.

I knew blackmail was a core business for him but had assumed he tried to diversify – even into legitimate deals using insider knowledge he had access to from his blackmail victims.

Partly bacause I know at least Trump had, at one point, had called him a ‘great guy’ -assuming therefore that not everyone knew what he was about at once.

I think some marks didn’t even know after the blackmail started.
It goes like this.
Young girl turns up at party and takes a shine to rich old codger.
Old codger follows his dick-intuition and does the deed.
Nek minnit, Epstein is on the phone, “OMG! OMG! That girl at the party (just the sister of an acquaintance) is only 15! Her father is hopping mad and threatening to go to the cops. Yeah, yeah, I’ll see what I can do to sort it out.”
The old codger is then paying for “an Ivy League education and a house”.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 5:10 pm

So, shuts Lakemba Mosque for non-compliance, what’s the next step when the masses come questioning why this has been done?

The masses? They’re a noisy minority.

Teargas & rubber bullets if public order is violated.

The state is authorised to use violence to protect citizens.

What’s your alternative, to cower before people exhorting terrorism?

As for a public outcry, repeated surveys show the majority of Australians have a dim view of Islam and if domestic terrorism ramps up again the authorities will be forced to act, just as in Europe.

Crossie
Crossie
January 3, 2024 5:12 pm

Also on power failure – how to open a garage door when there’s no alternative access? Hmmmm.

I just flip a lever that disengages the electric motor and the door can be opened manually.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
January 3, 2024 5:14 pm

Top Ender re Annual Multi Trip Travel Insurance

https://www.choice.com.au/travel/money/travel-insurance/review-and-compare/international-travel-insurance

shows 27 Providers Multi Trip with OneCover up to 100 & AHM up to 85, Alliance up to 100 & Covermore up to 99

Big Choice

We used AANT Basics – Toiko Marine for one trip travel Insurance to Japan for my Wife with her Sister this year

calli
calli
January 3, 2024 5:15 pm

Thanks Old Ozzie. That was very informative, especially the analysis of the damage to the JAL plane. Looks as if they landed right on top of the Dash 8.

On the garage door, I was talking about access not egress. Once you’re inside the garage you can unhook the door from the motor and raise it manually. But you have to get in first.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 5:17 pm

Billie:

I believe Baz Obama said she was so affected by other people’s work, that she “reused it”, which is not plagiarism but admiration .. jeez, what has the USA become?

Has anyone had a look at Obamas published work?
I remember there was a fair bit of using others speeches in his own.
Perhaps a bit of the Streisand Effect here?

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 5:19 pm

Vagabond
Jan 3, 2024 4:14 PM

Michelle Obama/Newsom.
It’s the dems’ only hope and the rest of the world’s nightmare.
They will leave the switch as late as possible to minimise the opportunities for adverse publicity and home truths from the republicans

I don’t think Michelle Obama as President would be tolerated.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 3, 2024 5:21 pm

Captain Climate doesn’t seem happy.

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 5:23 pm

Claudine Gay has released an independently written statement:

“I fought the law and the law won”

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 5:25 pm

JohnJJJ
Jan 3, 2024 4:25 PM

Lysander
Jan 3, 2024 2:18 PM
I need a little more convincing on the “taqiya” line of “lying is acceptable” to fool infidels

Taqqiya, I believe is more of a Shia concept. The numerous Shia sects have always been a minority in Sunni lands. Hence they pretended to be Sunni, and that was OK by Allah.
The Islamist don’t lie, they tell the truth of Allah. They say they are no longer a threat because that is what Allah wants them to say. So our sophisticated intelligence services, of course, believe them.

JohnJJJ:
How can I say this without being impolite?
This is a distinction without a difference. It’s Religious sophistry that belongs in the ‘Angels dancing on heads of pins’ sophistry.
Or in other words, it’s just plain bullshit.
(Not you – the argument.)

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
January 3, 2024 5:25 pm

I don’t think Michelle Obama as President would be tolerated.

If he wore Lycra, we would see his cock.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 3, 2024 5:26 pm

Lysander
Jan 3, 2024 5:23 PM

Claudine Gay has released an independently written statement:

“I fought the law and the law won”

Nobody knows de trubble I seen?

Zafiro
Zafiro
January 3, 2024 5:28 pm

For some reason, Blue Murder is featured on Netflix. I’d forgotten how good it is.

I hadn’t.

“They like it hard and fast. None of this continental stuff.”

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 5:28 pm

billie
Jan 3, 2024 4:27 PM

Roger:

The mosque is held responsible. Non-compliant mosques are closed if necessary.

What balls you have sir!

I can’t see the tolerent masses just accepting that and moving on but that’s just me.

Mind you, if our Lords and Masters were to require an excuse to clamp down on Islam in Australia generally, they’d do precisely that. Close a Mosque – especially a big one, and watch the reaction!
Light blue touch paper and stand back.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 5:31 pm

On the garage door, I was talking about access not egress

If the door doesn’t have a discreet external access mechanism for that purpose in an emergency always carry a set of house keys.

Cassie of Sydney
January 3, 2024 5:31 pm

They said in the lead up to Christmas a group of 45 booked five tables for Sunday lunch and did not come. In the same week, a group of 30 and another group of 20 booked for a popular Sunday session, and also failed to materialise. On Christmas Eve, a group of 30 booked and didn’t arrive.

The standard here in Sydney at fashionable restaurants is that for any booking you will be asked to leave your credit details. There are clear terms and conditions now that if you don’t turn up you will be charged an amount for a no show. If the booking is for over 10 people, upon making the booking you will be debited an amount between $50.00 and $100.00 per person. So, say you are booking a table for 10 people you will be debited an amount of $500.00 or $1,000 at the time of the booking, and this amount, of course, will be deducted from the final bill when you’ve bothered to turn up to wine and dine. I have no problems with restaurants doing this for large groups.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 5:32 pm

(comma after emergency)

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 3, 2024 5:32 pm

Pakis go from 4/47 and 5/90-ish to 9/300.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 5:33 pm

And so on.

OK; “wins” then.

Cassie of Sydney
January 3, 2024 5:34 pm

Taqqiya, I believe is more of a Shia concept. The numerous Shia sects have always been a minority in Sunni lands. Hence they pretended to be Sunni, and that was OK by Allah.

Correct, JohnJJJ. Just like Mutah is only practised by Shia, it is not practised by any of the Sunni schools.

Cassie of Sydney
January 3, 2024 5:38 pm

Claudine Gay’s resignation echoes what I’ve been saying for a long time, that for all the woke wank permeating through the West, there is still one thing that matters and that’s the……

DOSH

Gay’s position only became untenable because people started pulling and/or threatening to pull the money.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 5:40 pm

Just like Mutah is only practised by Shia, it is not practised by any of the Sunni schools.

It’s recognised & permitted by Sunni jurists but not with fellow Muslims; Shia permit one to resort to it with fellow Muslims of other sects.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
January 3, 2024 5:43 pm

Has anyone had a look at Obamas published work?
I believe his uni work has been locked into archives for 200 years.

Roger
Roger
January 3, 2024 5:47 pm

Has anyone had a look at Obamas published work?

I don’t believe he published anything under his own name while a student.

Winston Smith
January 3, 2024 5:50 pm

ZK2A:

The peak association representing hospitality venues in WA has backed moves by an increasing number of pubs and restaurants to impose reservation rules to shield their businesses from costly no-shows.
It follows the Parkerville Tavern in the Perth Hills revealing it was implementing new rules for large bookings after a series of nasty surprises during the festive period.
The tavern management said in a social media post that they would require a card pre-authorisation for those making a group booking of nine or more, and would charge $10 per head if the reservation was cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice or the patrons failed to turn up at all.

Good on ’em. This booking at several different venues and deciding on the night which one you would honour, is a prick act done by selfish bastards who don’t give a damn about anyone else.

Lysander
Lysander
January 3, 2024 5:52 pm

Well, I asked ChatGPT is taqiyaa lying – and I think it’s lining itself up for a job at Harvard:

In the context of taqiyya, the term “lying” may be misleading, as it implies dishonesty without justification. Taqiyya is more accurately described as a form of permissible concealment or dissimulation

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 3, 2024 5:53 pm

Bummer. Goat got Jamal one run short of the highest Paki last stand against Australia.

Last wicket stands are one of the nicest things about long form cricket. Michael Whitney, who is a bunnies’ bunny, once batted for two hours to save a Sheffield Shield final. By surviving to a draw NSW won the Shield. It was such a fine blood-pressure raising last wicket stand that by stumps we had in our department about 20 postgrads crowded around a transistor radio, mesmerized by every ball. Including me.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 3, 2024 5:55 pm

Good on ’em. This booking at several different venues and deciding on the night which one you would honour, is a prick act done by selfish bastards who don’t give a damn about anyone else

It was considered impossibly “cool”, amongst the “beautiful people” at one time – “I can get us into A, B, C, or D. Where do you want to go?”

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
January 3, 2024 5:55 pm

Sky News joins into the anti-Elon Musk story.
Musk’s takeover of Twitter, renaming it X, has enraged the left.
We now get regular stories about its devalued net worth due to advertiser withdrawal etc. It’s really “the swamp fights back”, because they can’t do what they want to do if they don’t have all the MSM and high profile places like Twitter/X onside.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 3, 2024 5:56 pm

(I’ve been keeping an eye on the free ESPN website. That way I don’t have to watch or listen to woke rubbish, and the text commentary is very quick and good.)

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
January 3, 2024 5:56 pm

Well, I asked ChatGPT is taqiyaa lying – and I think it’s lining itself up for a job at Harvard:

In the context of taqiyya, the term “lying” may be misleading, as it implies dishonesty without justification. Taqiyya is more accurately described as a form of permissible concealment or dissimulation

Next question – Who permits it?

Muddy
Muddy
January 3, 2024 5:56 pm

I propose that when Cats write of the United Nations, they choose to preface the phrase with a suitable adjective – such as ‘controversial’.

This is optional, of course, but is also exactly what our ideological opponents do to us.

Lee
Lee
January 3, 2024 5:58 pm

Heh. I see Michael Smith is still calling him “Therapeutic” Albanese.

I wonder how many in mainstream Australia remember the circumstances in which the term originated? ?

I have never read Michael’s reason for calling him that, but have always assumed it was because of Albo’s visit to a Thai rub and tug.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 3, 2024 5:58 pm

Warner taking strike. One over left in the day.

Please, please let the planets align.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 3, 2024 5:58 pm

Shit.

billie
January 3, 2024 5:59 pm

The masses? They’re a noisy minority.

Teargas & rubber bullets if public order is violated.

The state is authorised to use violence to protect citizens.

What’s your alternative, to cower before people exhorting terrorism?

I have said already I don’t have a solution but I believe confronting islam is not going to work because we don’t have the balls to stick to our guns. It would be huge to get the community to stand fast against this intolerent minority.

It won’t be a single event, it will be a crusade against those who insult islam .. where do you reckon that’s going to lead? To round table negotiations with tea and lamingtons?

A couple or riots or even one big riot and it will be all over and our pollies will be screaming for peace – imagine, world opinion! eeek!.

I don’t want our police and agencies, even the military cowering away from confrontation, but they will and you and I both know it.

There is no backbone or spine to take this on, clearly or they would have by now, there has been ample reason to.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 3, 2024 6:01 pm

The only reason muzzies do the shit they do in Western countries is because we let them. Ohhh… I don’t like being called a wascist. Nothing to do with being wascist. Its called being a soft cock. Recently in bunnings carpark busy as can be, I pulled into a park. ME type gives me a mouthful, your indicator wasn’t on so how did I know? Another mouthful. I walked towards him F off C. With that he took off. Generally I’ve found they don’t like being stood up too. So I do. Also applies to other arseholes as well. I don’t look 70 maybe that has something to do with it. Probably the way I
carry myself. They’re not tough by themselves, even a few. Be wary but not afraid.

Cassie of Sydney
January 3, 2024 6:03 pm

So, now Qantas staff on planes are Palestinian activists.

  1. “Because the [US] economy is so slow, that’s why they’re cutting rates, Patricia.” As opposed to in reverse for 6…

  2. The articles about whether Hezbollah will retaliate are disgusting.Its like the rocket barrage doesnt exist and Hezbollah is just sitting…

  3. I’d add will as the party is dominated by it’s left faction now. Was less of a problem under Howard…

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