Big change from the Labor Party, who picks union hacks, who know S.F.A. about farming, and who can’t be bothered…
Open Thread – Weekend 6 Jan 2024
- The more you gets the less you eats
- Open Thread – Weekend 23 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 21 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 18 Nov 2024
- From darkness to the promise of light
This armchair General is a Bombastic twit. The British soldiers would be lucky to last a couple of months fighting…
Trump picks new Secretary of Agriculture – farming background, Ag Degree, 4 kids, Texan and more https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/president-elect-donald-trump-nominates-brooke-rollins-as/
Pam will reform the department not by blowing up the DOJ but by doing it in a responsible way by…
Global boiling advocates are nuts: example 1: Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos Pour Millions into a ‘Climate Vaccine’ for Cows…
Boo.
That answered my question on the OT.
Passenger plane crew who support the mob who entered the world political stage by hijacking passenger planes. They’re nuts.
From the OT.
Quite so.
A quality discourse.
Must have been National Ladyboy Day or something.
Here’s hoping for more of the same.
There’s a new major superpower rising in Europe
Huge military spend. Same as Germany.
Sancho Panzer
Jan 6, 2024 2:03 AM
Sure.
Looks like National Ladyboy Day is over.
Pity.
Johannes Leak.
Christian Adams.
Michael Ramirez.
A.F. Branco.
Matt Margolis.
Gary Varvel.
Al Goodwyn.
Chip Bok.
Henry Payne.
Matt Margolis #2.
One of my younger brothers who is down on his luck and in poor health had a centrelink interview yesterday. The woman who interviewed him claimed to be aboriginal, he asked her how do you qualify, is it parents, grandparents etc?
Her response “Just tick the box, that’s all”.
He is now aboriginal.
Sky News (again!):
Happily running a never-Trump academic and agreeing with him that Trump was involved in an insurgency, the 2020 election was fine and proper, Trump will burn the USA to the ground, Trump uses language that is shocking and unprecedented, gives tax cuts to the rich. And what’s all the fuss about the border? The USA is obliged to do something for asylum seekers.
A January 6 Special!
gives tax cuts to the rich.
If this retard was asked about the impact of the SALT deduction limits on the real wealthy that Trump brought in, I doubt whether they would know what was being discussed.
That stewardess looks like she would have been one of the hijackers.
Germany has run out of other people’s money.
Germany Ends Electric Vehicle Subsidies Immediately (5 Jan)
You can only defy the laws of market economics for so long, before they exert themselves again.
Yeah, they’re gaslighting on weather again too.
Extraordinary levels of extreme weather made 2023 the Earth’s hottest year on record – here’s why 2024 could be even worse (Sky News, 6 Jan)
What rot. The weather was fairly ordinary in 2023. Some floods, that’s about all. Drought and flooding rains someone wrote in a poem once.
Passenger plane crew who support the mob who entered the world political stage by hijacking passenger planes. They’re nuts.
I doubt very much whether the bush pig pictured would even know what river and what sea.
Here’s the unsavoury and unpalatable truth, none of this is surprising to me, everything is now “political”, which is just how the left like it. There has been a very deliberate and targeted campaign across the west over the last decade to politicise everything, and it has worked, very successfully, mainly because the right have been too cowered to speak up and fight back. We’ve seen this ‘politicisation’ with the SSM campaign, with Pride infesting everything, and recently with da Voice.
The Jew haters once hijacked airplanes, now the Jew haters mob greet you when you board. How long before they separate Jews from the non-Jews, as at Entebbe?
Not long, I’m sure.
Johannes Leak nails it.
I see the end of subsidies in Germany and sfw’s comments as bookends, one at government, the other at personal level.
Always seek the best return for your investment.
Badge wearer not happy being reported. My badge is for a captive audience only – the passengers.
Meanwhile in The World is Burning Up news.
In a country where over 50% are electric plug in vehicles, I wonder how many had battery failure at the super low temperatures? The report is very careful not to mention the deadly elephant in the room.
Qantas’s new CEO Vanessa Hudson is dealing with the rampant politicisation of the company under Alan Joyce, who ended up doing the Qantas brand massive damage by giving insider treatment to PM Anthony Albanese and getting Elbow’s son into the Chairman’s Club while he was (successfully) lobbying the government to restrict new capacity competition from Qatar Airways.
In her previous life, Hudson was Qantas’s CFO. Rule 1 for competent CFOs should be: go woke, go broke.
I wish her the best of luck in pulling the company out of the brand-damage death dive inflicted on it by her predecessor.
why gazans are perennially short of safe drinking water
I’ve been ruminating on Sancho’s comment last night and have come to the same inevitable conclusion.
The Qantas hostie wants the photographer doxxed for punishment. How that punishment expresses itself will be none of her business, she can walk away from it with clean hands.
Doesn’t work that way. Since she is appealing to Christians, she might care to open her Bible and have a look.
Not to mention the quick draining of batteries when the absolutely necessary heating is switched on. The alternative is literally freezing to death, when temperatures go down to -40C as they did in some places last week.
At least in an ICE vehicle the battery recharges while you are driving, instead of running down.
let me finish a
Have a rather large family gathering at our place yesterday, two nurses, a former police superintendent, an IMB executive, two lawyers, a few domestic engineers including an 88 year-old, and a lady who fosters aboriginal children even though she is non-aboriginal — to a man and woman they all supported Israel all disgusted with the NSW police and the current ineptocracy at all levels of government- so the feeling out there is definitely not for the death cult.
But it’s not “political” in the old sense, they’ve defined left as moral and right as immoral.
Extraordinary levels of extreme weather made 2023 the Earth’s hottest year on record – here’s why 2024 could be even worse (Sky News, 6 Jan)
I could count on my fingers the number of nights I’ve NOT slept under the doona since early November plus several days where the jumper(s) were back on .. and this is in western Sydney (Fairfield) ……!
Ha! Albo, Bowen and the rest of the gang in Canberra are better than Germans, they can deny reality indefinitely.
Calli, for a supposed Christian she doesn’t seem to know anything about it. She is not excusing or justifying her actions but seems to be inciting revenge on a person she wronged. Sounds like another religion where they encourage that.
Sounds very religious.
Out w/ ‘carbon footprint’ — In w/ ‘climate shadow’ – National Geographic: ‘Forget your carbon footprint—your climate shadow is what really matters’ – Calculates your ‘spiritual & moral reckoning’ (5 Jan)
I think these people have been eating funny mushrooms a bit too much lately. Still nothing unusual happening in the real-world climate data.
the old man was laid to rest yesterday
but not before the entire funeral procession of about 100 cars took a final lap of the race track
slowest lap he ever did
There it is, the new green catechism. How is this not a religion?
More on the cold weather in Sweden:
It’s too COLD for electric busses: EV busses cancelled as Sweden experiences the coldest weather this century (5 Jan)
This cold weather is causing trouble for public transport. You see, the city of Skellefteå where they “only” had -34C this morning, have been investing in electric busses, to save the climate of course! Their goal is to replace all diesel busses with electric as soon as possible.
Back to horse drawn sleighs then.
Qantas is employing ex All Black front row’ers!?
Matrix,
sounds as though you all did Dad proud. The parade at the track would have been an awesome sight. xxxoooxxx 😀
Qantas is dead to me.
As an unabashed admirer of the English language, I hate, hate, hate TheirABC’s mutilations of same in the interests of ‘inclusiveness.’ Not only is it ugly, it creates ambiguity when correct grammar would make the meaning perfectly clear.
Take this example:
While Chloe is obviously a young woman, the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’ are replaced by ‘they’ and ‘their’ throughout the article. As a result, in the quote above it is not clear what refers to her and what refers to her parents.
Further, her femaleness is obliterated, denied and generally downgraded by the vandalism of calling a woman ‘they’. Way to go, third wave feminists!
On the bright side, I read somewhere that J K Rowling has had a record breaking year for her Harry Potter empire, despite the mewlings and whinings of the radical trans lobby. Joanne is laughing all the way to the bank. 🙂
Peter Yu – a Yawuru leader from the Kimberley and vice-president of the Australian National University – told The Weekend Australian that Ms King’s plan was welcome and it was time to talk about industry investment in remote communities. However, he said this must be accompanied by a labour-force strategy in remote communities. This was necessary so that people would have the means to pay for their homes.
“It can’t be seen as a training scheme or work for the dole ,” Professor Yu said.
“I am talking about real jobs … the taxpayer pays tradespeople quite enormous amounts of money to travel from regional centres and sometimes capital cities to do work in the remotes (and) the government overindulges in consultants and private sector services for remote communities
Perhaps the reason that there are no indigenous tradies in remote communities is that, like the good Perfesser Peter Yu, they have seen that they have no future there, and have moved away, and assimilated into the mainstream Australian community?
Peter Yu a perfesser at the ANU now eh- wasn’t he a bit of an agitator back in the 80s?
Condolences, Matrix.
Your story reminds me of something I heard about a dedicated Summernats fan yesterday (the motel is chockers with fans and support staff.)
This guy had been going every year with his best mate since the first one – both of them stayed here. Sadly, he died a few years ago. In keeping with his wishes, his mate informally buried some of the ashes at Exhibition Park and scattered the rest in the air during the grand final of the burnouts. Nobody noticed.
Dedicated motor sport fans are very serious about it.
pogs
it was his passion
the bloke was full-speed and well loved
would have been an even bigger turnout but people are still only just finding out
for him Bathurst was like a holy day
he would have loved the lap
Have they made Tim Anderson a perfesser yet?
Religion of Peace strikes again:
200 reportedly killed and 300 wounded in an attack on a Christian village in Nigeria’s Plateau state over Christmas.
FBI Court Filing After Mass Search and Seizure of Innocent Americans’ Treasures Hints It Knows It Did Wrong
johanna
Jan 6, 2024 8:20 AM
As an unabashed admirer of the English language, I hate, hate, hate TheirABC’s mutilations of same …
Very early this morning the Year 12 girl reading the news struggled a bit with Biden returning to Des Moines. Her version: Daze Maynz.
Same, same.
Real Ben Garrison Cartoons
@GrrrGraphics
‘My Little Phony” – Nikki Haley#trojanhorse #NikkiHaley #MAGA #Trump2024 New #bengarrison cartoon
Ron DeSantis continues to swirl around the poll drain. Therefore the GOP establishment has switched trojan horses in midstream.
The RINOs want Nikki Haley, who is doing her best to win over a very suspicious MAGA Republican base. They have good reason to be doubtful of Nikki’s MAGA credentials—she is the proverbial ‘Trojan Horse”—a MAGA phony.
Pelosi says states, not voters, should be able to decide who is on a ballot
Meanwhile, saw a family friend off to SYD yesterday.
Flight was 45 minutes late.
I also note QANTAS has lost its official “world’s safest airline” status to Air NZ.
A couple of people have said that I’m highly sensitive to Covid news. It’s not Covid I’m sensitive to, it’s the experimental drug and its possible long term effects.
Bill Gates Insider Warns of Massive Population Plunge in ‘Highly Vaccinated Countries’
bern
I asked a very technical question about early super release on Reddit and the autistic screeching was ridiculous. Blanket NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! with no explanation and lectures about super being “for retirement” and not “creating wealth”.
Perish the thought that some people might want to retire early by making a lot of money by being good at investing.
Then there’s the idiots who try to promote communism and deny it is communism when called on it, who tell you (I am adequately qualified to know) that *you* know nothing about communism.
Then there’s the “MY PROPERTY WILL NEVER GO DOWN AND MY BANK WILL DEFINITELY GIVE ME A MORTGAGE HOLIDAY OR APRA WILL DEFINITELY GIVE EVERYONE A 24 MONTH HOLIDAY” retards.
Tards, tards, tards.
So many tards on Rettarddit.
Judicial Watch Files $30 Million Wrongful Death Lawsuit against U.S. Government on behalf of Ashli Babbitt’s Husband and Estate
Starsky and Hutch reduced by 50%.
David Soul brown bread.
I hope he leaves me his jacket.
Or was that the other one?
How’s it plucking, Jorge?
All French American place names ought to be said in French, but with a Louisiana French accent.
It’s all syrup.
In terms of wokesness though, which australian airline is better? I’ll be fcked if I ever travel on a towel airline. Last June, we traveled on Swiss Air, or whatever it’s called now, from the US to Switzerland and then Portugal. (Wifey did the bookings to save a couple of hundred dollars and 359 hours in the flight time to demonstrate she’s a real economizer.) They had the exact same gender and skin color quota for the staff. At least though, there was no welcome to the country on arrival, obviously because the indig and the folks living there are the same give or take.
The welcome to the country thing is one of the most offensive things ever devised. It’s appalling how we can even tolerate this freaking this putrid nonsense.
Resistance is the only way.
St. Louis backs off mask mandate for city workers
Obviously worried by the failure of EVs in a hard northern hemisphere winter, TheirABC strikes back!
Typical ‘journalist’ – doesn’t know the difference between a battery and a generator. A battery has a finite amount of power in it, whereas a generator makes power as and when required, numpty. This is the exact same lie that proponents of ruinables keep repeating.
Further, it’s a very expensive battery – at least $60k – compared to the cost of a generator and fuel. I don’t know exactly, perhaps others call fill in the blank. But, I do know it ain’t $60k+.
Plus, when the power does come on, your car may not be able to take you very far, if anywhere at all,
What a bargain!
absurdity theater goes from tragedy to farce
life in the DEI singularity
and added couple of hundred dollars and 359 hours
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene??
@RepMTG
The FBI raided Epstein’s island in 2019 and confiscated tapes and evidence of child rape and human trafficking.
If the FBI was legit the child rapists would be in jail but instead they hide the evidence & protect the rich and powerful elites in order to keep them under control.
Laura Loomer
@LauraLoomer
In case you needed any more evidence that @NikkiHaley is a globalist, Uniparty puppet, did you know that in 2008, she attended The World Economic Forum (WEF) in China?
She claims to be tough on China, but she is very entangled with the CCP.
He was, yes.
Catturd ™
@catturd2
Enemy of the people.
The Australian version of the war on drugs is going swimmingly (pun intended). A few weeks ago they found an estimated $1 billion haul in a Sydney flat.
using their cars as generators.
yes what a load of shite- they’re using the charge in the car battery which then won’t be available to drive the effing car. Legacy meja, please hurry up and die.
RFK jnr? Wow!
WEF and excess deaths
Implicated by a massive bullshit artist. Epstein was a fraud and most of the sex stuff was for him. He wanted to become like Xander Drax and live on the moon or something, the ranch was set up to impregnate 20 women a year.
He was a nut. Who dresses up as a sailor with the commissioned rank of Commander, with a SEAL operator badge and stolen valour medals?
Pretty sure it’s all been handed in, too.
Someone who posts plagiarised articles maybe?
The stupid…it burns!
Exactly how long can a fully charged EV power a home? And where do they think the fairy dust that charged it up originally came from? And when the EV is dead as a post and the outage is still on and you need something like say, food, shank’s pony is your only option.
Something tells me these clowns would not be good in an emergency.
L. Ron Hubbard?
How do you run 240v AC equipment off DC batteries of 400 to 800 volts?
JC
Jan 6, 2024 9:14 AM
Many years ago there was an attempt to smuggle in a couple of hundred kilos of hash via a boat into Port Gregory.
During the transfer from ship to shore via dingy the smugglers lost a whole load when they tipped the boat over.
The Feds were waiting and picked them up.
Dad was trawling for prawns nearby and the boat was commandeered by the police to assist in dragging up and down the bay to recover the sunk hash.
Our skipper at the time Zorba (bless his heart) was a mindless drug hoover of the first water, it must have been like a knife to the guts as each package came up in the nets straight into the waiting arms of the coppers.
He definitely was a pedo who procured lots of young girls to exploit.
But the money?
Where did that come from?
Had to be blackmail, given the massive inexplicable “gifts” and his free run at avoiding jail for so long.
When his NY house was raided in 2019 I think his stash of blackmail material was gone.
David Soul is brown bread.
The cunning, bottom-feeding DC political establishment has repurposed the Epstein scandal to smear its ideological enemies, including RFK jnr and Donald Trump.
By next week, being named in the Epstein files will be a badge of honour — and innocence.
Yes. The same types who were horrified and sickened with what was done to Cobby and Balding and Morse shrug off the Israeli atrocities.
There can only be one reason. Jewish.
The same thinking as what is done to women in Africa and closer to home right here. Black.
Oh, and good morning to you, my little slave butterball!
Beautiful day in the bay today.
Also…Twelfth Night. All those decorations come down today, packed away lovingly for December 1.
Things have changed at Qantas over the past 30 years.
I had a friend who applied to become a flight attendant when she was 21 and they turned her away – too young, or at least too fresh out of uni. They wanted people with some experience dealing with people and unexpected situations. They wanted people with a bit more maturity who could keep their heads in case of an emergency.
She tried again a few years later after working here and a couple of jaunts when she lived and worked overseas.
Qantas had seminars on grooming so they looked meticulous at all times and gracious in dealing with passengers. But as you would hope a lot of it was aircraft procedure and safety – including major crises. In fact, she said that some of the materials seemed to her afterward to have been pointedly shocking and horrifying. She speculated that they were deliberately so to continue weeding out those who might not be up to the job or who still thought the job was a life of globe trotting glamour while waiting for a pilot to propose.
She said that the above was why Qantas tended to have older flight attendants than other airlines and none that were of a slight physique.
Well it looks like Qantas has wound back on its deportment standards as well as standards of, shall we say, physical and physiognomic agreeableness, which we all know do have an effect on people’s responsiveness.
But there seems to have been a complete rethink on the safety front. When my friend was trained one of the things she had to do was blocking passage ways and even bulkheads with her body. Anchor her hands at a couple of strong points and resist people trying to dislodge her.
Judging by the Pali-pal flight attendant I would say the new approach is for flight attendants to stopper bulkheads like a cork. I would think even a catastrophic depressurisation by loss of a door would be within her abilities – I think she could withstand a pressure differential of 2 or 3 atmospheres. Unless she had a bucket of KFC for morning tea and wiped her greasy fingers on her uniform, but that is probably addressed in the newly freed training time.
Hey, dot ! Where y’at ? Gumbo good there ?
Mine’ll make you slap your mamma.
John Pilger was a charlatan and a fraudster.
The Dimmocrats who run New York have suddenly decided to apply Mother Teresa’s ethics to the sharkpool known as the NYC real estate market. Fancy! After all these years!
After detailed investigations of the tens of thousands of agents, developers and middlemen in this apparently pristine pool, they found a villain, a bad apple. Guess who?
It’s an extraordinary case, because there is no complainant. Nobody says they lost money or were dudded. The NY government took it upon themselves to prosecute Trump in a case where there are no victims.
I bet there are plenty of cases of real estate fraud in NY where there are real victims, but it seems that the rabid anti-Trumpers have other priorities.
Need a late Chrissie/NY prezzie or just short of post holiday reading material ..?
Get into Big W NOW! .. a not to be missed BAAAAARGAIN …. LOL!
https://ibb.co/THcFddF
Curiously, flight attendants on JAL are slight, small and perfectly groomed. Some even have trouble closing the overhead lockers…enter the 6’3” Beloved in white knight mode!
Yet they managed to evacuate a burning aircraft using just three slides and loud hailers for directions.
Break it to them gently…a coal mine.
Apparently one of the reasons they’ve lost their “world’s safest airline” status (determined by a points system) is a decline in cabin crew training standards.
Australia’s only solar panel maker plots $100m expansion plan
Simon Evans – Senior reporter
Tindo Solar, the country’s only manufacturer of solar panels, says it wants to build a $100 million factory in a six-fold increase in its capacity as it attempts to compete in a growing local market dominated by cheap systems imported from China.
Tindo chief executive Richard Petterson said the new plant in one of the country’s eastern states was part of a strategy to increase scale.
The company has been manufacturing solar panels in Adelaide since 2011. Over that time, the rooftop solar market has grown rapidly, although Tindo is also hoping to export its products.
Mr Petterson said many of the panels produced in China and exported to Australia needed replacing after a decade, while Tindo’s had 25-year guarantees. “Our panels are designed to last 30 years,” he told AFR Weekend.
More than 3.4 million households in Australia have rooftop solar panels, and the strong uptake is putting pressure on commercial wind and solar farms in the electricity market at certain times.
Wind and solar farms often take a bigger hit than coal-fired power stations, with grid-scale renewable generation getting squeezed out of the market as power from rooftop solar panels on sunny days causes wholesale prices to dive.
Tindo, which is owned by South Australian businessman Glenn Morelli, is discussing funding the new plant with the assistance of incentives from the federal government, and is also exploring its options with NSW and Queensland.
It aims to tap into the push by the federal government to develop more manufacturing capacity in the renewable energy sector under the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund.
Mr Petterson declined to comment on the specific locations being considered for the proposed plant, but said regional centres close to ports in Queensland and NSW were at the top of the list.
He said more than 90 per cent of solar panels used for rooftop installations in Australia were sourced from China, and in the past year there had been an increase in cheap, imported panels hitting the market.
“Australia is a dumping ground for cheap panels,” he said. Chinese panels were often 30 per cent cheaper than systems manufactured in Australia.
Tindo says it aim is to have the new plant, capable of producing 1.9 million panels annually, running in 2025.
“We are able to mobilise quickly,” Mr Petterson said, adding that the new plant would employ 250 people in advanced manufacturing jobs. He said government incentives were important for the economics to stack up, to support private funding.
Mr Petterson said Tindo should not be the only solar panel manufacturer in Australia. “We know if the government gets the settings right, there should be more than Tindo”.
The existing Tindo manufacturing facility is at Mawson Lakes in northern Adelaide, and has an annual capacity of 360,000 panels. The plant employs 65 people. The company sells most of its panels and systems to Australian customers, but has a growing export business to Vietnam for commercial solar projects.
Data from electricity market analysts this week showed rooftop solar eroding the market share of wind and solar farms to near zero on days of subdued demand for power from the grid.
Clear, sunny days have accelerated generation from household solar panels, regularly pushing wholesale prices close to zero or below. This causes other generators to switch off until demand and prices for grid power recover.
While coal plants also ramp down to reduce exposure to negative prices, they have to maintain a minimum operating level, so account for almost all of grid-connected generation still running at those times.
Roger
Jan 6, 2024 9:37 AM
John Pilger was a charlatan and a fraudster.
Somewhere in hell, Pilgers nads are aching at the kicking that article just gave them.
A nice takedown of an awful shonk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug5IHeEUVDA
What is happening is horrific and I don’t mean to downplay the stress and suffering for Jewish people.
However, I see the common factor as the ethnicity of the perpetrators – muslims – rather than that of the victims.
There’s an organisation called ‘UN Women” (of course there is!).
Here’s their remit (or as it’s called these days, their “mission statement”):
‘UN Women is the UN organization that delivers programs, policies and standards to uphold women’s human rights and ensure their full potential.’
Well, ‘UN Women’ has just appointed its ‘UK Champion’ for 2024.
A trans male.
To add insult to injury, he (also ‘a person of colour’) ignited a race debate in the UK in 2017 by claiming all white people were raised to be racists.
Shut it down, Donald. Dynamite the buildings. Salt the earth.
Nails him. And necessarily so.
Just curious – I’m not likely to own an electric car in the foreseeable future (or preferably ever). What did he use to “simply” attach these appliances to his car? The cigarette lighter? Jerry-rigged 3-pin plug? Alligator clips? Duct tape? And presumably they weren’t 240V appliances.
Snap K!
That’s fine. Just don’t expect to use a blanket 15% tax rate inside super to do it. Want those tax rates? Move to Singapore or Dubai and enjoy the social safety net that accompanies them.
A suspected Russian origin ‘double extortion’ hacker attack on Victoria’s court system files in December has just been reported.
Dot, I am keen to know what the investment is that you want to make outside super that can’t be made inside super.
I’m no expert, but a pic accompanying the story appears to indicate a bidirectional charger.
RACV article on bidirectional charging, from July. Says vehicle-to-grid not yet available in ‘straya but vehicle-to-load is, but only for a very few models.
https://www.racv.com.au/royalauto/transport/electric-vehicles/bidirectional-charging-explained.html
One with a 15% tax on earnings.
Sounds kinky. Probably a Sydney thing.
Wall Street Journal (via the Paywallian):
Footage surfaces of Labor minister Tony Burke discussing Hamas terrorist attack
A senior Labor minister has been accused of making “deeply offensive” comments about Israel, with Sky News revealing footage of Tony Burke speaking at the at the Woodford Folk Festival about the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
Last Thursday, Mr Burke was being interviewed by The Saturday Paper’s Chief Political Correspondent Karen Middleton at the Woodford Folk Festival in regional Queensland.
He told a cheering audience the history of the Middle East “did not begin on the seventh of October” – the day of the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
“Mr Burke then appears to suggest his audience could make comparisons between Israel’s actions and that of the Holocaust, when drawing comparisons between contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis meets the very definition of antisemitism put forward by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance,” Sky News Senior Reporter Caroline Marcus said.
“Weaponising the trauma of the Holocaust against the very people who were killed in their millions by it is not only wrong and racist, it’s sick.
“Suggesting that, without outright condemning that type of comparison, is disturbing.
“Mr Burke may be careful not to use the word “genocide” himself – but he certainly far from rejects it and he actively leads a receptive crowd to draw that conclusion – which, of course, they dutifully do.
“Mr Burke is trying to walk both sides of the street – he can’t condemn hate speech, while simultaneously encouraging radical protesters to draw the most hateful and unsubstantiated conclusions about the Jewish state”
Starsky and Hutch reduced by 50%.
David Soul brown bread.
I hope he leaves me his jacket.
Or was that the other one?
His jacket was that beige long cardigan thing. You can have it. Sad news. He also played Ben Mears in the original Salem’s Lot miniseries/movie. His ex Julie Nickson was quite a looker.
Supreme Court to Decide if Trump Can Be Removed from Ballots
“The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether former President Donald Trump can be prevented from standing for president because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. This is fantastic news, for we need the Supreme Court to decide this question simply for the sanity of the nation. The Court acknowledged they need to reach a decision quickly, given the fact that primary ballots across the country will begin soon. The court agreed to take the case from Colorado stemming from Trump’s role in the events that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol.
I seriously doubt that many will accept the Supreme Court decision. As I have said, “insurrection” would have required Trump to violently attack the capital. Even proposing a violent attack on the sidelines is sedition, but that is not covered in the 14th Amendment. It is a fairly basic law that you cannot violate the Constitution by pretending to uphold one provision. Trump was not trying to overthrow the Constitution, he was asserting that he really won. That is not the same as “insurrection” in the context of the Civil War, which was to overthrow the Constitution.
I personally would be shocked if the Supreme Court agreed and kicked Trump off the ballot. It would be a very dark day for such a precedent to allow anyone to make such an allegation, never charge the person, and never put them on trial to prove their theory. That would be the end of the United States and the Constitution, regardless of who is running. We just cannot go there.
Of course, if the Supreme Court overrules Colorado, the LEFT will claim it did so because most are Republicans. I am not sure if the Supreme Court’s decision would be accepted any more than the final vote in November.
It’s getting worse. Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry is also the target to remove him from the ballot because of claims he violated the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment Insurrection Clause by simply supporting Trump’s “false” 2020 election fraud claims. So, anyone who supported Trump in Washington they want removed from office. This is not what democracy is about – it’s totalitarianism. You are talking revolution at that point if there is absolutely no rule of law left.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/rule-of-law/supreme-court-to-decide-if-trump-can-be-removed-from-ballots/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
Albanese has a ‘plan for disappointing the nation’ with cost-of-living relief: Caroline Di Russo
Sky News Australia host Caroline Di Russo says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has a plan for “disappointing the nation” with his proposed cost-of-living relief.
“Yes, a plan for disappointing the nation,” Ms Di Russo told Sky News host James Macpherson on the government’s suggestion cost-of-living relief is on the way.
“The fact is – what are they going to do?
“There needs to be more – we know that they can’t just hand out money because that is inflationary, and we go around the mountain again.”
The Prime Minister told a press conference on Wednesday cost-of-living relief is his government’s “priority” for 2024, with more details to come.
News.com.au reporting Biden comparing Trump to Nazis for saying ‘illegal immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country’. Trump’s full comment:
Meanwhile in Australia there’s a lot of anger at the High Court releasing detainees with serious criminal records into the community. But in America illegal immigrants with serious criminal records just walk straight over the border and Americans are just meant to suck it up or else they’re literally Hitler.
Huge regulatory risk with super. I wouldn’t put money you can’t afford to have the rules changed on (or at least grandfathered) inside. I expect there will be significant political pressure to decrease the tax efficiency of super over time. Over my half life time pretax contributions have gone from unlimited to $50k pa to around $27k pa.
From Courier Mail. As one poster comments Geelong just happens to be seat of Defence Minister Marles.
“There have been concerns of job losses at Rheinmetall’s factory in Redbank after the federal government awarded a tender to build infantry fighting vehicles to competitor Hanwha and its Geelong-based factory.
South Korean defence contractor Hanwha won the contract, worth between $5bn and $7bn, to supply the Australian Army with 129 infantry fighting vehicles”.
I thought Reinmetal was the only one making the new vehicles.
calli, and apropos of JAL trolley dolleys:
The banzai charge is a proven winner.
Bus conductors are 9 wickets down.
A nasty little run chase of 130-ish beckons.
I am now wildly optimistic that Warner will be stumped while leaving his crease via a long shot from the keeper, Bairstow-style. For 1.
Red states are lining up to ban Biden from the ballot under either the 14th or the 25th. We’ll see what Scotus decides to do. Roberts of course detests Trump and has been fleeing terrified from the 2020 election fraud which is the core reason for this whole mess. Well it’s come to his desk now, he can’t get out of it. I hope Scotus does better than the lefty Israeli High Court, who decided to become unelected dictators this week.
Stick it on ya multi and retire.
Some beautiful classic cars been seen around here recently thanks to Summernats. Two lots that I like – the curvy 30s/40s ones and then the big 50s/60s ones, especially with fins. Love the fins.
First time I ever hit 100 mph was on the back of a Norton 750 under the tunnel of Sydney airport, in 1971. Still remember it, it was a blast.
As I have mentioned before, in the 1980s I paid an employee extra to pick me up each morning in his powder blue Pontiac Parisienne.
It was like driving to work in your apartment, it was huge and very comfortable. He had it because (apart from the fact that he loved it) the capacious boot and backseat held his band’s gear. I’m not saying, but the band(s) he played in would be recognised by a lot of people here.
The EV crowd seriously underestimate the cultural power surrounding ICE vehicles, especially in countries like Australia and the US, where long distances come into play.
Summernats gets bigger every year.
Soeth it goeth, killjoys. 🙂
Bruvvas will look after Burqa. He’s delivered in spades for them.
Staging by Leni Riefenstahl?
Cool post, johanna!
Correction, the other bloke wore the knitted cardigan. I think it was Starsky. Or Hutch.
Not really like that, I have a possible solution to an unrealised first-world problem, hit the books tomorrow etc.
DavidH
Jan 6, 2024 10:43 AM
RACV article on bidirectional charging, from July. Says vehicle-to-grid not yet available in ‘straya but vehicle-to-load is, but only for a very few models.
https://www.racv.com.au/royalauto/transport/electric-vehicles/bidirectional-charging-explained.html
DavidH,
thanks for that Bookmarked – good explanation
There was a guy on an old Norton who used to commute into the city the same way as me. Would leave my 600 behind at every set of lights. Loud and fast.
‘Socialist ideology’: Victoria has the most public servants but produces ‘worst levels of service’
Sky News host James Macpherson says the Victorian government’s “socialist ideology” is why the state has the highest number of public servants but produces the “worst levels of service”.
Figures released this week show the number of Victorian government employees has jumped 60 per cent over the past 15 years; by comparison, the NSW public service grew by 28 per cent over the same period.
Productivity Commission figures published in The Australian seem to indicate the more staff the Victorian government employ, the worse results the Victorians – who pay their wages – get compared to other states.
“You create a massive state administration that is ideologically committed to the utopian fantasy that the state will create a much fairer and more efficient society than free enterprise,” Mr Macpherson said.
“The reality, though, is that people use the power of the state to create secure, high-paying, low-accountability jobs with no pressure to be efficient or effective.
“What you end up with is a bankrupt state full of very happy, Labor-voting public servants. Or, as some like to call it, Argentina.”
Unless you spent a lot on mods and were happy to root your EV warranty, you’d plug a 12/240 volt inverter into the car 12v lighter socket.
You can buy big beefy 3000W ones for a few hundred dollars, which theoretically would run a house for a day or so.
Unfortunately, the typical 12v power output from the lighter socket is limited to around 150W, which won’t let you run very much at all* – but for longer.
* If old mate really was running an air fryer, he must have installed an auxiliary 12v outlet off the main battery pack (cost, $k’s) and flung away any OEM warranty on $25,000 worth of EV component.
Now this is a car.
https://www.streetmachine.com.au/events/sickest-vl
The Interior needs to be two-tone red IMO.
Footage reveals Labor’s Tony Burke making ‘deeply offensive’ comments about Isreal-Hamas conflict at Woodford Folk Festival
A senior Labor minister has been accused of making “deeply offensive” comments about Israel, with Sky News revealing footage of Tony Burke speaking at the Woodford Folk Festival about the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
Patrick Hannaford – Digital Reporter
Fashion week at the SCG.
(From the Tele. The story itself is paywalled unfortunately.)
The best method governments can use to reduce the cost of living is to reduce the taxes and charges they levy on citizens — for example, the 46c/l in fuel excise.
There is little chance of Australia’s socialist government reducing such taxes as the utopians aim for the abolition of capitalism and the expansion of government to become a more crushing burden than it already is.
Elbow’s carpetbaggers are still debating whether they’ll even legislate the latest relief from tax bracket creep.
Why should they? They have no skin in the game. Outside of the public service, only 8% of Australian workers are union members, while unions are swimming in superannuation cash — Paul Keating’s parting gift.
The Postil Magazine
Uniting Wisdom With The Soul – Vivida Vis Animi
The Russian Art of War: How the West Led Ukraine to Defeat
January 1, 2024 Jacques Baud
We are very happy to bring you this excerpt from Colonel Jacques Baud’s latest book, The Russian Art of War:
How the West Led Ukraine to Defeat (L’art de la guerre russe: Comment l’occident conduire l’ukraine a la echec).
This is a detailed study of the two-year old conflict in which the West has brutally used the Ukrainians to pursue an old pipedream: the conquest of Russia.
The book is being translated into English, and we will update this page when it is published.
In the meantime, we provide a generous excerpt, along with a detailed Table of Contents, to give you a taste of this very important and much-needed book.
Russian Military Thought
Throughout the Cold War period, the Soviet Union saw itself as the spearhead of a historical struggle that would lead to a confrontation between the “capitalist” system and “progressive forces.” This perception of a permanent and inescapable war led the Soviets to study war in a quasi-scientific way, and to structure this thinking into an architecture of military thought that has no equal in the Western world.
The problem with the vast majority of our so-called military experts is their inability to understand the Russian approach to war. It is the result of an approach we have already seen in waves of terrorist attacks—the adversary is so stupidly demonized that we refrain from understanding his way of thinking. As a result, we are unable to develop strategies, articulate our forces, or even equip them for the realities of war. The corollary of this approach is that our frustrations are translated by unscrupulous media into a narrative that feeds hatred and increases our vulnerability. We are thus unable to find rational, effective solutions to the problem.
The way Russians understand conflict is holistic. In other words, they see the processes that develop and lead to the situation at any given moment. This explains why Vladimir Putin’s speeches invariably include a return to history. In the West, we tend to focus on X moment and try to see how it might evolve. We want an immediate response to the situation we see today. The idea that “from the understanding of how the crisis arose comes the way to resolve it” is totally foreign to the West. In September 2023, an English-speaking journalist even pulled out the “duck test” for me: “if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.” In other words, all the West needs to assess a situation is an image that fits their prejudices. Reality is much more subtle than the duck model….
The reason the Russians are better than the West in Ukraine is that they see the conflict as a process; whereas we see it as a series of separate actions. The Russians see events as a film. We see them as photographs. They see the forest, while we focus on the trees. That is why we place the start of the conflict on February 24, 2022, or the start of the Palestinian conflict on October 7, 2023. We ignore the contexts that bother us and wage conflicts we do not understand. That is why we lose our wars…
In Russia, unsurprisingly, the principles of the military art of the Soviet forces inspired those currently in use:
. readiness to carry out assigned missions;
. concentration of efforts on solving a specific mission;
. surprise (unconventionality) of military action vis-à-vis the enemy;
. finality determines a set of tasks and the level of resolution of each one;
. totality of available means determines the way to resolve the mission and achieve the objective (correlation of forces);
. coherence of leadership (unity of command);
. economy of forces, resources, time and space;
. support and restoration of combat capability;
. freedom of maneuver.
It should be noted that these principles apply not only to the implementation of military action as such. They are also applicable as a system of thought to other non-operational activities.
An honest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine would have identified these various principles and drawn useful conclusions for Ukraine. But none of the self-proclaimed experts on TV were intellectually able to do so.
Thus, Westerners are systematically surprised by the Russians in the fields of technology (e.g., hypersonic weapons), doctrine (e.g., operative art) and economics (e.g., resilience to sanctions). In a way, the Russians are taking advantage of our prejudices to exploit the principle of surprise. We can see this in the Ukrainian conflict, where the Western narrative led Ukraine to totally underestimate Russian capabilities, which was a major factor in its defeat. That is why Russia did not really try to counter this narrative and let it play out—the belief that we are superior makes us vulnerable….
– Correlation of Forces
– Structure of the Doctrine
– The Special Military Operation in Ukraine – The Correlation of Forces
– The Objectives and Strategy of Russia
– Ukrainian Strategy
– The Notion of Victory
While taking a razor to free business from red, green and black tape.
Husky and Starch’s car was a red Ford Gran Torino.
Sort of goes with Joh’s Summernats commentary.
In other news, just been down to Mum’s to dispose of (relocate) a snake. She thought it was a red belly (eyesight not too good). One look at its little white beard told me it was an olive tree snake.
It was reading Cayley’s “What Bird is That?” and got spooked by the cover kookaburras. So it hid in the bookshelf. 😀
Ha ha haaaa.
Hamas opener gorn. LBW, 0, Joe Burns-style.
Hamas operative gone LBW first ball!
Uh oh, Brave browser just did an update which is a full-grade faceplant.
If you are using Brave the problem isn’t you. Dropping shields works, if you dare. Otherwise even my modem page doesn’t render unless I do that.
Helen D, my comment on attitudes to crime wasn’t about the perpetrators, but the casual way certain members of the community fob off and ignore crime, provided the victim is not particularly important to them, or even what they consider to be a class enemy.
As for the perpetrators, it’s world wide for that particular group. Everyone knows it, but only some are prepared to call it.
Speaking personally, it’s a little too soon for snake stories, calli.
Why do we give any contracts to continental European countries for major defence projects? They don’t buy much of our stuff eg agricultural products. The free trade agreement fell through. It’s largely a one way street with them, in their favour.
CFMEU were picketing a developer a couple of buildings up from my usual cafe last year. A couple of suitably adorned late model dual cab Rangers blocked the view from passing cars. They have long since worried about fines.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
January 1, 2024 Fyodor Dostoevsky
A fresh translation of Dostoevsky’s short story, which was first published in 1877.
I am a ridiculous fellow. They call me crazy now. That would be a step up in rank, if I were not still as ridiculous to them as I was before. But now I am not angry, they are all nice to me now, even when they laugh at me—and then they are especially nice. I would laugh with them myself, not at myself, but out of love for them, if I were not so sad to look at them. Sad because they don’t know the truth, and I know the truth. Oh, how hard it is to know the truth all alone! But they won’t understand it. No, they won’t.
And earlier on, I used to feel very sad because I seemed ridiculous. I didn’t just seem ridiculous, I was ridiculous. I’ve always been ridiculous, and I’ve known it maybe since I was born. Maybe as early as seven years old I knew I was ridiculous. Then I went to school, then I went to university and well—the more I studied, the more I learned that I was ridiculous. So, for me all my university learning seemed to exist only for that purpose—to prove and explain to me, as I went deeper into it, that I am ridiculous. Similarly, as in science, so it went in life.
Ukrainian Post-Mortems Starting To Appear
by Larry Johnson Jan. 5, 2024
The war in Ukraine continues to grind on and Ukrainian troops are falling back all across the 600 mile front. Not a good start to the New Year for Zelensky and the future is bleak at best. Russia is methodically destroying Ukrainian factories set up to manufacture military tactical clothing, ammunition, drones and vehicles. Repair facilities also have been hit and obliterated. Ditto for military training facilities aka bases. Ukraine’s recent use of cluster munitions on Belgorod and Donetsk killed a few civilians but enraged Putin and his military commanders. In response Russia has unleashed a devastating series of missile, drone and rocket attacks across the breadth of Ukraine and vowed to keep doing so. So much for Western hopes of building manufacturing plants in Ukraine to keep it in the war.
Panic among Western analysts about Ukraine’s looming defeat has escalated. Robert Clark, writing in the U.K. Telegraph, wailed his lamentation in an op-ed titled, Ukraine’s new year may end with a brutal Western betrayal. Clark blames Western leaders for Ukraine’s debacle:
That would be the same media which records as absolute truth every word from Mizzz Knickerless and the Cane Toad.
‘UN Women is the UN organization that delivers programs, policies and standards to uphold women’s human rights and ensure their full potential.’
Well, ‘UN Women’ has just appointed its ‘UK Champion’ for 2024.
A trans male.
To add insult to injury, he (also ‘a person of colour’) ignited a race debate in the UK in 2017 by claiming all white people were raised to be racists.
Shut it down, Donald. Dynamite the buildings. Salt the earth.”
Indeed. But it’s actually worse, if that’s possible. The hideous creature, this male, is a pervert. HE no doubt still has HIS little cock attached to HIM but in the meantime HE has had so much breast, lip and hair enhancements that HE makes a Barbie doll look like a real woman.
This pervert is a serial fetishist, everything about HIM is fabricated, from HIS name to HIS body. HE mocks all women. Every woman on the planet should be insulted.
By the way, this pervert’s social media is full of Jew hatred and pro-Pallie stuff.
Someone please, please send HIM to Gaza.
But we shouldn’t be surprised that this pervert has been appointed by a UN body, They go silent when real biological women are raped, murdered, mutilated and kidnapped. Why? Because those women are Jewish. And no doubt the pervert, aka ‘Munroe Bergdorf” heartily approves of that!
The UN is beyond redemption, it is FILTH.
He is batting a yard out and running at them, so that is a possibility.
Petros
Jan 6, 2024 11:33 AM
Why do we give any contracts to continental European countries for major defence projects?
They don’t buy much of our stuff eg agricultural products. The free trade agreement fell through. It’s largely a one way street with them, in their favour.
Petros,
because the State & Federal Public Servants selecting the Continental European Countries get to go on jollies to the European Counties, where they are wined & dined extravagantly, and one must not forget the non stop on going follow up post visits after selection, during implementation and maintenance – Ministers also enjoy the same jollies and benefits
Why Buy Australian & miss out on all of the above!
Albanese government must spend ‘well into the billions’ to deal with flood of asylum seekers arriving by plane, a former immigration official has declared
New data shows more than 2,000 asylum seekers are arriving by plane every month – many from conflict-free countries – but former immigration department official Abdul Rizvi says the government will need to spend “well into the billions” to deal with the problem effectively.
Patrick Hannaford – Digital Reporter
The Albanese government will need to spend billions of dollars to stem the flow of asylum seekers arriving by plane, a former immigration department official has declared.
The number of asylum seekers arriving by plane have skyrocketed since the pandemic, with most coming from conflict-free nations.
The latest data shows more than 2,000 asylum seekers arrived by plane every month between August and November last year.
This is more than double the monthly rate arriving during the previous government.
According to former immigration department deputy secretary Abdul Rizvi, the number of asylum seekers currently in the country is unlikely to decline unless the government is prepared to spend “well into the billions to deal with this problem effectively”.
The eleven ADF people we sent are ready for anything!
‘Comprehensive statement’ sees Australia working with allies in the Red Sea: Albanese (Sky, 6 Jan)
And if the very strong statement doesn’t work he’ll issue another very strong statement.
I’ve never seen such a brazen attempt to get mileage out of a commitment as risible as ours is.
Douglas Murray – a disappointingly gullible war supporter hitherto – now says it’s time for a negotiated end. Ukraine cannot win.
calli
Jan 6, 2024 9:25 AM
Who dresses up as a sailor with the commissioned rank of Commander, with a SEAL operator badge and stolen valour medals?
L. Ron Hubbard?
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was indeed a naval officer but never rose to the rank of Commander. He only reached Lieutenant and was removed in disgrace as commanding officer from the two vessels he served in during WW2.
SEALS didn’t become a thing until 1962.
His only awards were:
Awards
Navy Pistol Marksmanship Ribbon
Navy Rifle Marksmanship Ribbon
American Defense Service Medal
Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal
American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Here’s an interesting looking little book published a few months ago that has just come to my attention: Israelophobia by Jake Wallis Simons (198pp. Constable, 2023).
My boyriend Mick’s Norton Commando 750 did the business, oh yes. And the sound. OK Harleys have their sound, but Nortons also had an unmistakeable sound, excellent. Vroom, vroom! 🙂
That said, it is sheer luck that I am still around. I must be in Napoleon’s category of ‘lucky’ prospective promotion prospects
Looking back – boy oh boy.
Silly question…
There is a property in Feraldton which was, around 2014 put up for sale at over a million dollars.
They withdrew the attempted sale and the property has been boarded up and unused for at least 20 years.
Looking at the laws regarding squatting and taking possession, would it be possible for me to stick a young relative there , living fairly inconspicuously, pay for power/water/ change locks etc and run the clock for the 12 years to try and take possession of the place?
I have some looking to do on whom the actual owner is, the property has a heritage listing, Im assuming the owners plan is for it to fall into enough disrepair to knock it down or it to have an accident of some sort.
Assuming the owner isnt “coffin cheaters inc” whats the possible downside to doing this??
Time for The Five (Fox News) to give Jessica the flick. She is becoming so ardently pro-Biden and anti-Trump she lies all the time. It’s all very well to have someone on the panel to try to justify Democrat idiocy and malevolence, but she has gone too far.
Harley Davidsons sound like agricultural machinery. British bikes and MGBs sound superb.
Providing you stay upright bikes are fine. Only dropped mine once – probably sub 40kph after I lost the front wheel on some blue metal. Dropped instructor’s bikes twice which was fine.
BON
Hope the eleven ADF people we sent are ready for anything! – are ready for this, however as Tim Sharpe says at the end of this article – Hope is not a strategy.
Red Sea War: Houthi drone boat detonation opens a new chapter
Missiles, USVs, pirates – just one thing is missing from the Bab-el-Mandeb shooting gallery
TOM SHARPE
Yesterday, the ongoing disruption of shipping in the Red Sea took an interesting turn. The Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV), a threat well known to anyone who has operated in the Gulf in the last few years – and very well known to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, some of whom have taken up residency on the bottom as a result – made its appearance in the southern Red Sea.
So far, details are scant. Vice Admiral Cooper, the US Fifth Fleet commander based in Bahrain, said:
“This was a one-way attack, unmanned surface vessel that had launched from Houthi-controlled territory, had transited out to international shipping lanes, clearly with the intent to do harm. Fortunately, it detonated. It’s unclear who the target vessel was…”
It’s a significant development for Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), the international naval effort whose aim seems to be something like “providing sufficient reassurance to shipping companies to restore the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea”.
First, it’s clear that the Houthis show no sign of slowing down, despite a joint statement from the governments of the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore and the United Kingdom on 3 December that this must not continue.
The entirely defensive nature of OPG coupled with ‘stern warnings’ isn’t deterring the Houthis.
Second, the USV explosion will not help reassure the major shipping companies such as Maersk, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd and Evergreen who have elected to route around the Cape of Good Hope rather than run the Houthi gauntlet through the Bab-el-Mandeb chokepoint.
For the big shippers, the strait truly is living up to its name: the Gate of Grief.
It is important to note that despite the big companies currently not making the transit, many ships still are.
Whilst container shipping numbers are down 20 per cent, overall numbers are down by only a few percent.
This reflects the complexity of the shipping business and the sheer number of vessels of all sizes and types who are happy to take the risk, do not believe themselves to be under threat and in some (probably illegal) cases, may even be assured of protection.
However, whilst ‘the big ones’ are wobbling, short-term rates for container shipping have increased by 173% from mid-December.
This and other costly trends are only going one way and will do so until the situation settles.
The arrival of USVs on the scene will not help.
Third, the USV provides a tactical dilemma for the warships of OPG who are tasked to defend against the differing threats there.
I postulated a while ago that these ships will be operating in air defence boxes up the eastern side of the Southern Red Sea in which they have responsibility for providing cover from missiles and drones, and that occasionally, they would be detached to provide escort cover for specific ships. This methodology was confirmed yesterday by Admiral Cooper.
The USV threat changes a couple of things.
First, it puts more emphasis on the requirement for persistent fast jet and helicopter cover – these are the best ways to deal with USVs.
Aviation fuel bills for OPG just went up.
Second, the ships in the boxes nearest where this threat is based now have to deal with both air and surface threats.
This can be done concurrently but with as little as thirty seconds warning time for the very fastest missile threat, it is not easy.
On its own, a single USV isn’t a problem.
However, send a swarm of them and it is a different matter.
And swarm tactics are Navy Warfare 101 for the country that is both training and supplying the Houthis.
Added to this is the vast amount of small boat traffic zipping around there anyway, fishing, smuggling and who knows what else.
Under normal conditions you have to be on your guard because these things are fast, low in the water and don’t paint well on radar, but it used to be reasonably safe to assume that they’re not packed with explosives and heading for you.
Now, the warships will have to assume that they are.
Finally, and perhaps most important, is the nature of the damage a USV would cause if it got through compared to the Houthis’ missiles.
The latest missile and drone figures (courtesy of @Schizointel) show that in the last months, the Houthis have fired 14 anti-ship ballistic missiles, one anti-ship cruise missile, six land attack cruise missiles and 72 drones.
Of these, the ships of OPG have defeated six ASBMs, six LACMs and 60 drones.
This impressive strike rate of 77 per cent shows two things.
First, the ships there are doing an outstanding job in a complex multi-threat environment and second, there is no such thing as a ‘probability-of-kill’ of 100 per cent. Hollywood leads you to believe there might be, real warfare does not.
So far, the missiles that have snuck through and struck targets have not been catastrophic.
The fire on the chemical tanker MV Strinda on 12 December was probably the worst but the crew did an excellent job to bring it under control, no one died and there was no spillage.
However, if a USV hits a vessel it will likely hole it at the waterline. It will be carrying a large explosive charge and even a double-hulled vessel is likely to be pierced. Best case, whatever is behind that hole spills into the Red Sea. Worst case, the ship sinks and people die. If the ship is an oil tanker or gas carrier, you’re looking at a major explosion.
Clearly, a 77 per cent reassurance isn’t enough for the major carriers just yet.
So we need to ask: what is enough, how many ships and aircraft does that take, and how long can it be sustained?
While OPG remains entirely defensive in the face of this steady stream of attacks, it’s hard to say that a sustainably reassuring solution is achievable, no matter how much excellent work goes into improving civil-military liaison at sea.
So the Houthis will continue to excel at keeping their activity sub-threshold, sapping resources and sowing discord. It’s a very effective operation.
Meanwhile, quite apart from destructive warfare from the Houthis, actual pirates are making a comeback.
The Houthi helicopter hijack of Galaxy Leader on 22 November stole the headlines but MV Ruen has been at anchor off Somaliland since 14 December.
Yesterday another vessel was taken 460 nautical miles to the east in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
The old game of seizing ships to make money, as opposed to making a political point, has begun again. That this is emerging as an issue for the first time since 2017 isn’t a coincidence.
It will also probably not be that long before a mine is seen (either real or imagined) in the Bab-el-Mandeb. The main strait is several hundred metres deep, so not a good place for moored or seabed mines, but drifting unmoored floating mines can be released anywhere.
They’re illegal under the Hague Convention, and ironically enough Iran did sign up to this back in 1907, but today’s mullahs haven’t felt bound by this in previous Gulf mining campaigns.
The one good thing about drifting mines is that they’re much easier to see and dispose of (by simply shooting them so that they sink or blow up) than other kinds of mine. An even better method is destroying the craft that lays them. Even so, in big enough numbers mines could be a real problem.
So OPG continues to take shape in the face of a diversifying threat, masses of ongoing liaison work across the vast shipping sector, countries joining, countries joining with caveats/agendas and countries who have vested interests there but are not bothering.
We must give OPG time – the threat, merchant vessel complexity and political uncertainty demand it. Ultimately though, a purely defensive naval operation is unlikely to deliver sustainable reassurance.
An operation which was allowed to make offensive strikes into Houthi territory, I believe, could deliver such reassurance: but thus far the White House has declined to cross that line and those allies which could act have decided to follow the US. In my view, the emergence of USVs won’t change that – but it will if one gets through.
Hope is not a strategy.
Tom Sharpe is a former Royal Navy officer and surface combatant warship captain, with experience in the Gulf and Red Sea
But, Russia is no match for western industrial might. Besides, Russia is incurring 50,000 dead per day and cannot continue to grind through her young and win. Who has the better weapons and the most technologically advanced tanks? Putin has to be stopped because he has 5 yachts and a palace in Sochi and intends to invade Poland, Latvia and Finland.
What say you dotty?
In Good Governance news:
Republic on ice after Indigenous voice referendum failure
[Unlinkable OZ]
But, still we have an Assistant Minister for Non-Priority Former Priorities.
Shirley there must be other matters of State of higher priority (or lower non-priority) just crying out for Mr Thistlethwaite’s steady hand. The 2000 Sydney Olympics Learnings Review or 2035 Eid Celebrations Committee spring to mind…
Nor can Russia.
Apparently one of Putin’s doubles was poisoned this week, which suggests some interesting stuff going on under the hood.
Not much going on on the ground, except PBI dying. Those Ukie antipersonnel drones are really nasty.
Putin has to be stopped because he has 5 yachts and a palace in Sochi and intends to invade Poland, Latvia and Finland.
He looks good semi-naked on a horse though.
I’m surprised you haven’t stuck him on a cute owl link, Cronkite.
How many yachts is enough? Five sounds like too many.
You’d have to say Albanese is the best thing conservatives have going for them atm.
Russia has already won. The final shape of their victory in Ukraine is playing out, but the west is trying to find ways of walking away to salvage careers and reputations. All the bs with sanctions and supporting Ukraine to the death has only displayed how corrupt and greedy western leaders have become. Of course Putin is no saint (what national leader is?) but using Federal Debt to fund the industrial slaughter of tens of thousands of Ukrainians in order to cover the Biden family’s corruption is an obscenity.
Question for ZK2A or other West Australians: did I read that the live sheep trade has resumed and a vessel loaded around Xmas to set sail for Saudi Jan 24, if so has it left and where will it unload given the sea lane troubles in the region?
The AFR View
Time to cut through the planning nightmare
Housing is becoming a political headache, perhaps an intergenerational tragedy too. Yet there are things that are in the hands of politicians to change.
Demand for housing is set to become this pre-election year’s big political headache, yet the construction of new houses has sunk to its lowest level in a decade.
The cost of land, labour and materials has soared so much that in the midst of so much demand, developers cannot make enough money out of meeting it. Builders cannot afford to build, and would-be buyers cannot afford to buy.
AFR Weekend’s front page story reports that house prices jumped by 8 per cent nationally last year even as home buyer mortgage rates rose 13 times in 19 months.
A panel of housing experts believes price rises will ease to 4 per cent in 2024, but lack of savings or fewer fixed-loan deals may mean affordability does not change so much.
The price of roof tiles has increased by 62 per cent in two years, with window frames and steel reinforcements keeping pace.
Subcontractors, short of skilled people, are going broke meeting demand because productivity collapses and costs rise if they try to spread themselves across too many houses.
Treasury forecasts expect this slump to continue for several years.
It means that the housing target that the federal and state governments set last year in a high-profile national cabinet meeting, of 1.2 million new homes by 2029, now looks both unachievable and insufficiently ambitious.
Australia is instead more likely to be 175,000 short by 2027.
Some pro-migration economists are so afraid of the housing squeeze that they want to narrow the door on the flow of new arrivals – Australia’s traditional driver of growth – because of the risk of an “intergenerational tragedy” in housing terms for those already here.
Some developers believe that councils have an ingrained culture of saying no, and state governments should just take over.
The surge of migration last year only puts population growth back on the pre-pandemic trajectory.
Yet the intergenerational concern is valid.
Years of cheap money in the wake of the global financial crisis boosted the purchasing power of new buyers, but pumped up the prices of houses even faster.
Baby Boomers may be retiring with substantial built-up housing wealth, but a generation locked out of property ownership could change the shape of our politics in ways that should frighten both major parties.
Home ownership has slumped from its peak of 73 per cent in 1966 to 63 per cent, changing the way younger voters feel about society.
Many experts blame NIMBY councils, too keen to maintain the quality of life for current property owners and voters at the expense of future ones, dragging their feet on new approvals.
They believe Australia could have built 1.3 million more homes than it actually did over the last 20 years, keeping ahead of the population wave, particularly if more medium-density building on brownfield sites had been approved earlier.
On Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged more development and densification in his own inner-western Sydney electorate.
The most recent problems of the building industry are the same as in previous years.
Home builders have to compete with resources booms or, more recently, state government infrastructure bonanzas for materials and workers.
So housing for new migrants, attracted here by all the growth, comes last.
But the real long-term root cause of shortages is the planning system and land costs.
Councils have building controls and environmental rules running to hundreds of pages that can be used to slow down approvals.
Rezoning of land may happen once a decade, subject to lengthy reports and appeals.
Development of new land on city fringes can be just as slow, because of either developer land hoarding or slow connections to water and utilities, depending on who you believe.
Some developers believe that councils have an ingrained culture of saying no, and state governments should just take over. But that might make it even harder to win local community support for development.
One big immediate gain would come in winnowing and simplifying planning documents.
And taxes that make up a considerable portion of the price tag on a new house need to be reduced, or made more efficient.
None of this depends on the big forces of monetary policy or migration: it’s a red-tape problem, in the gift of politicians to fix should they want to.
If Mr Albanese is looking for a lasting legacy, then some kind of federal leadership on constipated approval systems might be a good place to start.
This is what I mean. Jack Smith, as deserving as any leftie of a hollow point, was told by the Judge to desist and a stay was put on his persecution of Trump. He ignored this and continued issuing subpoenas, arresting people and so on. Trump, poor bastard, who obviously thinks there is still a legal system in place, has asked for further adjudication, as if that counts for anything.
Now it turns out that Smith’s appointment has no legal basis at all. Garland could not appoint him without either the house or senate creating the position. Neither did. There is no legal standing for anything Smith does. Do you think that will matter. The legal system is in chaos. And this chaos will be really apparent when the SC hands down its Judgment in the Colorado debacle.
Is Sydney a Hay town?
I see that we have the online equivalent of the old Grik/Italian men sitting outside coffee shops arguing about politics. It was the process of argument that they enjoyed. None of them knew a thing about what was actually going on.
The sudden flowering of expertise about geopolitics here has been wondrous to behold. Whou’d a thunk it?
There are people here who claim to know, understand and predict what China is doing, not to mention those who do the same for Russia, the US and the EU. Mostly conflicting.
Join the queue at the DFAT cafeteria coffee station, being careful not to make eye contact with the staff.
Just be pro Indonesia, and promotion is assured.
Warner 50!
I don’t think it will matter much, Cronkers. Even if the nasty-looking banana head is found to be non-compliant, Garnish will make it so by either replacing the banana head with someone who is while he runs the show in the background. It could slow things down, though, long enough for when Trump is in the oval office and has banana head and Garnish on charges of legal abuse. It’s not big, but it could be.
Bus conductors are 9 wickets down.
Very outdated reference there.
More in the lines of…
Amazon Courier
Uber eats deliverer
IT Consultant / Engineer
Warlord
I am now wildly optimistic that Warner will be stumped while leaving his crease via a long shot from the keeper, Bairstow-style. For 1.
How’s that optimistic outlook looking?
BITCOIN & the Cryptotrap
COMMENT: Hello Martin
I believe you are correct in what you say about cryptocurrency. I used to trade them but now they are changing the regulations in line with the UK government guidelines. Anything to keep track of you and your finances.
Thank you
All the best
Maria
REPLY: They are using Cryptocurrencies as they were doing with the vaccines. Those who refused the experimental vaccines were those who they saw as potential threats. They are looking at the cryptos the same way. Look, they are going after $600 transactions on any cash app. Even my bank wanted to ensure I had no income other than what they saw deposited in my account. This is the hunt for money. They will declare computers generating cryptos “banks” and require you to report event transactions eventually $600 or more, and if not, apply the same regulations and threaten you with 20 years in prison for money laundering. It is no longer worth it using a cash app.
If you want to trade BITCOIN, do it in the futures. I still believe that BITCOIN was started covertly by the government to get everyone accustomed to their end goal – CBDCs and total control. They could block you from even donating to Trump under this scheme. You will never get through the court system in time to declare the act unconstitutional.
BITCOIN is merely bouncing to retest to the former uptrend line from below. January is a crucial timing target for a high.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/cryptocurrency/bitcoin-the-cryptotrap/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
JC Avatar
JC
Jan 6, 2024 12:12 PM
I’m surprised you haven’t stuck him on a cute owl link, Cronkite.
Cute owls, bless them, are so passé. Fembots are now the thing. Here is one with Elon.
That claim has to be measured against Putin’s strategic goals at the outset.
Not only has he failed to achieve those goals, Russia’s strategic position is now worse.
If this is a victory, it’s a Pyrrhic one.
You would have said the same thing about SloMo and the Liars. Hard to be optimistic about Australian politics.
Just wait until the Presidential campaign gets into full swing.
The place will be awash with lizard types yelling, “It’s Happening!”.
I can hardly wait.
Some pro-migration economists are so afraid of the housing squeeze that they want to narrow the door on the flow of new arrivals – Australia’s traditional driver of growth
PONZI!!!!
Not for Austfailure the hard graft of increasing productivity, why do the hard yards when you can just import GDP number in bulk?
Has anyone heard Merv Hughes’s bus conductor story?
“Ticket please!”
Chuckle.
Everything else you said is true.
No.
Xi has already won.
You got played, Vlad.
One big immediate gain would come in winnowing and simplifying planning documents.
Description:Alterations and additions to residential development – Alterations and additions to a dwelling house including a swimming pool
Application Type:Development Application
Status:Approved
Submitted:31/05/2023
Exhibition Period:09/06/2023 to 23/06/2023
Determined:07/08/2023
Link Stamped Plans 08/08/2023
Link Notice of Determination 07/08/2023
Link Assessment Report 07/08/2023
Link Development Engineering Referral Response 30/06/2023
Link Landscape Referral Response 08/06/2023
Link Ausgrid Referral Response – OH and UG Cables 07/06/2023
Link Notification Map 06/06/2023
Link Report – Waste Management 30/05/2023
Link Plans – Landscape 30/05/2023
Link Plans – Master Set 30/05/2023
Link Plan – Survey 30/05/2023
Link Report – Statement of Environmental Effects 30/05/2023
Link Report – BASIX Certificate 30/05/2023
Dr F at 12:04.
Just a minor point, but I see the Oz has started to refer to The Voice as the voice.
When you’ve lost your capitalisation …
Dr Faustus
Jan 6, 2024 12:04 PM
In Good Governance news:
Republic on ice after Indigenous voice referendum failure
[Unlinkable OZ]
Labor has junked plans to hold a republic referendumin the next term of parliament,
That’s because they won’t be in Feral Guv’ment by then.
There’s a one off shipment of 55,000 sheep going to Saudi Arabia – the future of the live sheep trade is still up in the air.
From one who has spent most of her working life deep inside the bowels of Canberra’s illustrious PS water cooler labyrinth. pondering the great questions like ; what stationary do we need for the next order?
During a test match against India (iirc) the batsman was sledging Hughes.
“Hughes…you’re too fat to be a cricketer. You look like a bus conductor.”
Hughes bowled him next ball, whereupon, as the batsman walked past, Hughes held out his hand to him and said, “Ticket please!”
Classic.
Who got played?
When our childhood home got built there was not even deep sewerage or keeping on the street. Both retrofitted while we were there.
Shithouse, is how it’s looking.
A day of national shame.
Sitting at a bar in Ft Myers, Florida, drinking a beer not promoted by a trans (yeunglings) and waiting for a rack of baby back ribs while three fetching young women on the opposite side evidently don’t have daddy issues because not one has come across and suggested trans-pacific congress
Their loss.
God I love America. Been belting down highways at85mph without slightest fear of being booked . Now getting acquainted withmy
New US phone — go pro — which i think I like better than my iphone.
Ribs have arrived. Another beer too
Life is good
Also