Tom Stiglich.
Open Thread – Weekend 6 Jan 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 16 Sept 2024
- No, Your Holiness, killing babies and border control are not the same
- Open Thread – Weekend 14 Sept 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 12 Sept 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 9 Sept 2024
Matt Margolis.
Brett Lethbridge.
Peter Broelman.
Mark Knight.
The Malthusians
January 1, 2024
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865).
This essay was published in 1848. It was translated into English by Benjamin R. Tucker and published in 1885.
Dr. Malthus, an economist, an Englishman, once wrote the following words:
“A man who is born into a world already occupied, his family unable to support him, and society not requiring his labor, such a man, I say, has not the least right to claim any nourishment whatever; he is really one too many on the earth.
At the great banquet of Nature there is no plate laid for him.
Nature commands him to take himself away, and she will not be slow to put her order into execution.”
As a consequence of this great principle, Malthus recommends with the most terrible threats, every man who has neither labor nor income upon which to live to take himself away, or at any rate to have no more children. A family, that is, love—like bread, is forbidden such a man by Malthus.
Dr. Malthus was, while living, a minister of the Holy Gospel, a mild-mannered philanthropist, a good husband, a good father, a good citizen, believing in God as firmly as any man in France. He died (heaven grant him peace) in 1831.
It may be said that he was the first, without doubt, to reduce to absurdity all political economy, and state the great revolutionary question, the question between labor and capital.
With us, whose faith in Providence still lives, in spite of the century’s indifference, it is proverbial—and herein consists the difference between the English and ourselves—that “everybody must live.”
And our people, in saying this, think themselves as truly Christian, as conservative of good morals and the family, as the late Malthus.
Now, what the people say in France, the economists deny; the lawyers and the littérateurs deny; the Church, which pretends to be Christian, and also Gallican, denies; the Press denies; the large proprietors deny; the government, which endeavours to represent them, denies.
The Press, the government, the Church, literature, economy, wealth—everything in France has become English; everything is Malthusian.
Russia lost in March 2022. They’re just digging the hole deeper now.
News today is they are actually buying Nork ballistic missiles to fire at Ukraine. That is completely at the bottom of the barrel. Why would you bother? Not only are those missiles inferior to V2s but they often misfire. Hamas, using water pipes, arguably is a more reliable rocket builder than the Norks are.
They squirreled away AFVs and ammunition for 80 years and have now burned through all those stockpiles. There’s nothing left to create a modern combined-arms tactical combat force strong enough to break past the defensive trenchlines. And the Ukies in the last few weeks have now started to deploy Patriots and F-16s with some success, which given the shortage of airframes the Russians are suffering makes tactical air support even harder than it has been.
Meanwhile the Ukies are building a shedload of antipersonnel drones, which they can do since they have abundant access to Western electronics.
Unfortunately Putin can’t do the logical thing without being assassinated. So he keeps on trying to teach the horse to sing, day after day hoping for some miracle.
I don’t quite get the blackmail angle about Epstein. If he was threatening so many powerful people with blackmail, as the story goes, the creep would have had to have lived in a reinforced concrete bunker to avoid being murdered. This doesn’t appear to be the case. Seeing several vids of him carousing around, he didn’t have an army of security guards around him when out on the street, etc.
If he were to have blackmailed so many powerful people, how come he was still alive until only a few years ago?
I’m not saying it’s untrue, but it just doesn’t feel right.
Rum, sodomy and the lash losing their appeal?
This is complete bullshit.
Several first world and other governments globally have tried to ban BTC and gone to extremes to try to control it.
If this is a victory, it’s a Pyrrhic one.
The war should have ended within 6 months. Ukraine (and by extension the EU) should have given away the least territory possible and resorted to the time honoured diplomatic tactic of LYING to Putin about Ukraine being kept at arms length from NATO etc.
In the meantime making the border with Russia as hard as possible with massive infusions of equipment.
Ukraine would have a million less casualties (Wounded as well as dead) and Russia would be faced with a much, much harder nut to crack if they tried again.
The war has been a massive transfer of cash for Russian/Ukrainian lives.
I know. As I’ve said before. Australia is like the aging dependable wife you’ll always love, while America is the crazy freaking mistress too hard to handle at times.
If he were to have blackmailed so many powerful people, how come he was still alive until only a few years ago?
Its only favours to a mate unless the actual blackmail takes place.
If your mate needs a couple of lazy million thrown at him so you can keep attending “interesting” parties, its a small price to pay.
Ive laid out my ideal operation before, a similar operation aimed at Uni flogs, lots of free drugs/booze and poon all filmed and stored for usage 20 years later.
Re-posted from ol’ fred:
“The original justification for speed cameras was to prevent accidents in specific locations. “
Can’t say about Vic, but in NSW the justification was that more than 50% of fatal crashes had “speeding” as a significant factor.
A perusal of the fine print elucidates that “speeding” includes both exceeding the posted speed limit, as well as “driving too fast for the prevailing conditions, even if less than the posted limit”.
Upon request the (then) RTA advised me in writing that the ratio of “exceeding the posted limit” to “too fast, even if less than posted limit” was about 1:7 – that is to say, even if draconian enforcement or other measures completely eliminated all driving in excess of the posted limit, “speeding” related fatalities would likely not decrease by more than 15% and probably less than that. I made both my local MP and the minister aware of this information at the time (early naughties), and nothing changed.
They are manipulating you with definitions, and making important what they can measure, rather than measuring what’s important.
Clearly using “the physics” as justification is also incorrect – that is “you should go slower because faster equals more damage and deaths when you crash”. That’s clearly incorrect because it would imply that the roads with the highest speed limits (motorways) are the most deadly, when in fact they are the safest.
It is well known from many international studies, including some in Australia, that the speed limit that creates the most compliance and the least fatalities is the “85th percentile” – that is, the speed that 85% of drivers will not exceed when there is no guidance (no posted limit etc). Yet no government in Australia uses this as the basis for what speed limit should apply to any or all roads – not a single one uses worlds best practice in this regard. I leave it to the reader to infer why.
Like the tanks and elite training program that were harbingers of Russia’s collapse in Ukraine’s Great Summer Offensive?In the last month Ukraine has lost ground all along their Front. They should negotiate a settlement that will end the slaughter of Ukraine people. Russia isn’t going anywhere. And please, don’t give a lecture on rewarding evil or some such. There are no saints in any of this. Just more death and squalor for the pawns under the guns and bombs.
Wake up to yourself Bruce. The war in Ukraine became a massive money laundering exercise. And the US and EU is running out of OPM and arm twisted support to keep it alive and grinding. on.
mole
Increasing the wealth (via social security) of migrants imported from Third World sh1tholes, while reducing per capita GDP, and reducing the wealth of/impoverishing those born here.
My position has always been that Putin had justification to annex the two Russian majority regions in the Donbas and would have gotten away with it. It would have been part of the border reset process after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine would have had little option but to adjust. Instead, in a fit of nationalistic hubris, he overreached.
As far as Starsky & Hutch fashions go, Huggy Bear was always the front runner.
I had a bit of a chuckle about Bandana Man and his fellow travellers on referendum night.
The movement had sidelined Bandana as the public face and adopted a very conciliatory “voice of reason” tone.
Betty 2.0 had shuffled off and their time had come.
Until Luigi the Unbelievable blew the whole thing up.
… Winston Churchill (I always attribute).
Of course, had da voice got up by a good margin, I have no doubt he wouldn’t have waited for any second term to give the referendum a run. In fact, if da voice polling numbers held up, I reckon he would have put it on the same ballot.
What a victory for mini-me Gough that would have been.
Comrades.
They are probably already doing it to themselves on Tik Tok or something similar.
Although the Covid crisis has abated, the implications of the government’s vaccine policy are still being felt. So for Indolent, and all those who still resent what we had to suffer, this article on the Substack of the “Mid-Western Doctor” is illuminating. The latter has come to the conclusion that the adverse effects on some individuals almost certainly came from a panicked and fault ridden vaccine manufacturing process.
A Midwestern Doctor from The Forgotten Side of Medicine
This is the conclusion of the good doctor:
Throughout Operation Warp Speed, everyone’s focus (e.g., that of the media, the pharmaceutical industry and the drug regulators) was on getting the vaccine made, not ensuring that it was safe or effective.
For this reason, it became acceptable to mass produce a fairly non-understood technology and simultaneously cut corners on each step in the process so its orders could be filled in time to win the race to produce the first vaccine (e.g., in hindsight it’s almost comical those tested lipid nanoparticles didn’t have mRNA in them and many other vials were simply saline).
Likewise, it was known since early in the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out (due to VAERS) that different vaccine lots had radically different toxicities, which in turn showed the vaccines were not following the basic standards (e.g., good manufacturing processes) drug regulators always enforce for pharmaceutical products.
In short, I believe by far the most plausible explanation I’ve seen for most of the issues with the COVID-19 nanoparticles was simply poor quality control. This in turn I believe was made possible both by the global climate of fear which the media created around COVID-19 and the increasing tide of corruption within the Federal Government.
Conclusion
During COVID-19, many were presented with each of these choices:
•Should I isolate myself from the world to “avoid” COVID-19, or should I live my life and accept the risk of getting COVID-19?
•If you get COVID, should you risk going to the hospital or try to treat it with an allegedly effective treatment at home?
•Should you get an experimental vaccine or risk getting a severe case of COVID-19?
•If you will be fired for not vaccinating, is the risk of being harmed by the vaccine enough to take on the economic consequences of being fired?
In each case, one was required to make a difficult (and high stakes) choice in the face of uncertain information. Now that the information is much clearer (in all cases the former choice was “wrong”), it’s easy to judge those who made the “wrong” choice, but I believe it’s critically important to remember how different things were back then when much less of this scam had been exposed.
In turn, I would argue the people who went against the narrative at that time had the following in common:
•The courage to break from the herd and to be willing to take on the risk of making the “wrong choice.”
•A willingness (or eagerness) to work with uncertain information rather than becoming paralyzed by the ambiguity over what the right thing was to do.
•A mental flexibility that allowed them to change their position once it was no longer supported by the existing evidence rather than obstinately doubling down on the position they had already committed to and psychologically invested themselves in.
In the years to come, I expect we will face many more perilous trials where it will be critical to correctly navigate an unclear and immensely complex situation. In this article, I tried to share a few examples of how I have done this over the last few years in the hope they can provide some insights for you on how to do this as well.
Livin’ the dream, Areff!
Keep it up!
re…Air Hostess’s….Thai Airways has the most feminine and attractive air hostess’s of any airline in the world…simply Stunning. Singapore Airlines comes a close second. And thats all I have to say about that.
An aftershock following that geo-political earthquake was the metaphor I had in mind.
The climate religion.
The Welsh government recently brought in 30 kph speed limits for urban areas. Yes 30 kph, 20 mph. Insane. At first they claimed it was safety-related but leaks from the bureaucracy proved it was another climate change idiocy.
The population are currently vandalizing the signs and ignoring the stupid speed limits. But you can be sure this sort of crap will find its way to Australia.
Some say it is the blackest in Australian sport.
I saw someone on Twatter today saying that the DSC sticker on Warner’s bat stands for “Dead Set Cheat”.
Snork!
Kneel
There are several local roads where I never drive as fast as the speed limit, and others where staying below the limit requires a conscious (sometimes distracting) effort.
BoN, I wondered what had happened the Brave. Thanks. This site comes up OK through.
Lady Bracknell.
(A Famous Five character.)
I am very pleased that with the benefit of perfect hindsight and almost total ignorance, I can tell Vlad and whoever has his hand up Biden’s arse right now, how they should have conducted their affairs over the last few years.
JC- I think the theory is that Epstein had set up a release of material if something were to happen to him and it was the FBI raid that removed that material. I guess someone would have had to find out where the material was and ensure there weren’t copies and had the ability to direct a raid take place without someone tipping off Epstein.
Not something that would be remotely feasible today with block chain and cloud storage… but, if you ignore all the other ducks that need to line up, that lartucular objection can be met with the likely lack of technical savvy.
Not sure I believe it, but like so many other things these days, there is a great deal of convenient disinterest in certain things and that sort of approach doesn’t ease speculation.
Not that bat-poo-crazy theories like Pizzagate are any help other than to build strawmen to attack.
First Chinese junk (boat) leak for 24
Yes it is that. Also its a graveyard for Russians. I don’t know what the casualty ratio is, it’s hard to tell. On WW1 experience you’d think about 1:1. But since Russia has run right through their humungus artillery ammunition stockpile and the Ukies are now mass producing antipersonnel drones I suspect the Russians are getting the worst of it lately. Also a lot of the Russian artillery ammunition that was stockpiled was contact fused, which wasn’t optimum for trench warfare. The Ukie drone operators can pilot AP drones through ridiculously small windows and such, with deadly results. The rate of technological advance in this war is similar to what happened in WW1 and WW2 – we here in Australia are so far behind it’s silly.
Bloody hell.
Stupid DRS. The cheat, for the time being, remains.
For all those who think that the UKR is winning the war with Russia –
“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:
The mood in 2024 is very different. The counter-offensive failed to deliver a decisive blow to Putin’s forces in the south. Russia’s economy has withstood Western sanctions, rapidly militarising to provide an ongoing stream of munitions to the front. Ukraine, meanwhile, is undergoing one of the largest aerial bombardments since the war began, and its united front is beginning to fray as conscription takes its toll. . . .”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/ukrainian-post-mortems-starting-appear/
Pakis doing what their Indian betting bosses demand.
Word puzzle – only politicians find this difficult if not impossible to solve.
-We’re building nuclear subs to protect our trade routes from…….
-We’re building a national renewables grid
overwhelmingly reliant own imports from……
So will the Supreme Court, just wait and see. They will invoke the principle of federalism.
A kid in kindergarten would have caught the last fluff.
“I also note QANTAS has lost its official “world’s safest airline” status to Air NZ.”
I never did understand why Qantas decided to reduce its own service staff and outsource servicing, instead of “up-selling” best in world servicing to other airlines.
“Emirates – serviced by Qantas”, eg – surely that would be a selling point for up market airlines? Clearly the passengers aren’t complaining about the ticket price being too high because they are getting French Champaign instead of generic “sparkling wine”, so why would they object to a mild increase for best in world servicing and safety?
Bloody bean counters…
Calli, mine have already been packed up and stowed away.
Bruce of Newcastle
Jan 6, 2024 1:09 PM
The Welsh government recently brought in 30 kph speed limits for urban areas. Yes 30 kph, 20 mph. Insane.
BON,
we have 30 kph here in Manly and the 3 people up heavy mountain e bikes are travelling along the beachfront on shared pedestrican/bike path easily doing 40 kph passing the cars alogside them restricted to 30kph
Go Figure?
Good bloke Merv. He bought me a couple of beers once. Beating him at pool. A mate and I were playing doubles against him and Dean Jones. It was at a big place in Kings Cross called Oz Rock.
John Brumble
That’s interesting. The FBI raid may not have been as terrible and insidious as it appeared at first. Perhaps, but I don’t know for certain. When Epstein first went up against the law in Florida for messing with underage girls, it’s perceived to have been a slap on the wrist for his behavior. I recall that Trump’s secretary of labor (?) was forced to resign because of the light sentence Epstein received when Trump’s cabinet member was the senior prosecutor or whatever on the case.
My recollection is that a dude may not face charges for sex with an underage minor if the girl is found to be a hooker.
Perhaps the FBI was notified about Epstein’s behavior and blackmail threats and took away what was in the safe because none of the blackmail “victims” had committed a crime. Again, this is just speculation and thinking out loud.
This will be a drop in the bucket compared to the multitudes of munitions and arms systems that Russia’s industrial cities have been producing. Cope.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
Please add my name to the list of seething, bitter, resentful, praying-for-angels-of-vengeance individuals whose quality of life have been substantially decreased due to the Lords and Ladies of Fire (‘Burn the little people! Burn them! Hear them scream! Yes!’).
Should be clearer
My recollection is that a dude may face lessor charges for sex with an underage minor if the girl is found to be a hooker.
On “speeding” fines, I just copped a $240 hit for a reading of 59 adjusted to 56.
Yep, turned off 60 limit road onto a 50 limit road. Same conditions.
What an idiot I am to concentrate on what some imbeciles on the road are doing in order to avoid them. Instead of nervously looking for speed limit signs and my speedo.
GRRRRR!!
France stopped funding Islamist schools and accepting foreign-appointed imams in 2024!
C O P E
Citizens of a democracy should inform themselves and express views on matters of international affairs that our governments have involved us in or may do so in the future.
The alternative is to submit to being a mushroom, which is more akin to the model of citizenship which applies in dictatorships.
LOL. Nothing’s happening. Geolocated advances are measure in metres. The Russians are still trying to surround and cut off Avdiivka, and have been edging their flanks forward a few hundred metres each week. Snails can go faster. I hate to think of the number that have died for those few metres. As to the rest of the front, zilch.
The cheating houso ranga gawn LBW.
Fck off you grub.
The GEH from Perth to Kal is riddled with this kind little trap in / out of the many small towns along the way. WA cops love them.
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Jan 6, 2024 12:48 PM
Slim pickings for navy as it struggles to recruit
Andrew Tillett
Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh said on Friday the government was looking to recruit additional personnel from “friendly” nations, including expanding opportunities for Five Eyes partners the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, as well as Pacific nations.
However, he insisted this would not involve poaching personnel and was subject to security clearances and citizenship requirements.
Zulu,
the bleeding obvious, at least for the Army, is to follow the UK Lead of recruiting Nepalese Gurkhas with offer of residency – even Brunei has a Gurkha Reserve Unit (GRU) is a special guard and elite shock-troop force in the Sultanate of Brunei.
The Brunei Reserve Unit employs about 500 Gurkhas.
The majority are veterans of the British Army and the Singaporean Police, who have joined the GRU as a second career.
There is a large Nepalese Presence in the Northern beaches and they make good Australians – Better than Middle Easten Muslims
Have you go your first passport yet , dotty? There’s a whole world outside your text books and snippets of think tank articles.
Finally.
A new day dawns.
Sancho Panzer
Jan 6, 2024 1:42 PM
Sancho choking back bitter tears of sorrow/rage that the midget ranga houso bunnings sandpaper aisle cheat didnt manage to get
a: A ton
b: Score the final runs to win the series with a boundary…
At least you will always have Sonny…
That’ll work…UK navy recruitment is down 20% and they’ve just decommissioned two ships on account of it. I don’t expect the others are doing much better.
Most serious blackmailers consider this contingency.
They leave the victim* with the impression that copies of the material are held in secure locations and will appear in the mainstream media (and now social media) should anything untoward should happen to the blackmailer.
If you believe you are the only person being blackmailed (or one of a few) it is a big step to have someone knocked, knowing you would be looked at a suspect and probably face child abuse charges as well as murder charges.
…
* If “victim” is the right word for a middle-aged pervert who screws a 14 year old.
Now we endure days of homage to the Ranga Cheat, who delivered us the most embarrassing moment in Australia’s cricket history.
As Pol Pot would say, “it’s the 1st of January, year 0001”.
How big is the Nepalese navy?
I think i see a flaw in your plan.
From a few in the media, yes.
But my prayer mat will remain rolled up in the cupboard.
Along with many thousands of others, if Soshul Meeja is anything to go by.
Yeah, fair points Sanchez
I saw someone on Twatter today saying that the DSC sticker on Warner’s bat stands for “Dead Set Cheat”.
DSC stands for David’s Sandpaper Cricket. LOL
Haha. High precision warfare is deadly. You should watch some of the vids, they’re terrifying. The drones sound like giant carnivorous mosquitos.
Russia is ramping up production, but they have run out of people to run the industries. That’s why they’re scratching to buy from the Norks and the Iranians.
I don’t know enough about what China is doing. My impression is they are sending chicken feed to Russia just enough to keep things sweet, but not enough to give Russia what they need to win. That would fit with Sino-Russian relations for the last few centuries – geopolitically they are rivals as well as fellow travelers.
Russia seems to have a different doctrine for drone warfare to the Ukies. The Shaheeds are excellent, but fairly vulnerable to some cheap AA stuff the Ukies got off the Germans. The Ukranians as I’ve been describing have invested heavily in antipersonnel drones though – which appear to be about bleeding the Russian Army. That’s been a consistent strategy they’ve been using throughout this war.
You predicted over a year ago that Russia would make literally thousands of T-14 Armata tanks in their vaunted Soviet built, Soviet era industrial cities, it didn’t matter that Russia has 1/30th the industrial capacity of the EU and USA; that this new tank army would most certainly and imminently crush the wholly unpopular Zelensky dictatorship in a pincer manoeuvre.
None of that is true.
What a complete and utter failure of predictive ability.
Maybe you should suck it up, admit you were wrong, publicly apologise and say “ I like eating crow, I love it with Aldi brand soy sauce”!
Austfailures second most punchable face has a hot take..
Richard Denniss
@RDNS_TAI
There’s no good evidence that outsourcing essential services is a good idea. Whether it’s to a big 4 consulting firm or a much loved charity, the fact is it’s usually more efficient and equitable for governments to do things in house. Great piece by
@StephenLongAus
#auspol
He must have his income managed by government, after all, the evidence proves they will do it better than him.
JC and areff, I think this sums it up.
Have a great year away, areff!
Sure Bruce. Begging for money in South America of all places isn’t desperate at all. But still funny. You , like dotty, have been predicting Russia’s imminent collapse in Ukraine for over a year and all that’s happened is Ukraine losing territory and lots of blood. Perhaps your professed Christian values might come to the fore and support a solution that stops the pointless slaughter asap.
His luck in that innings was starting to bother me. I’m glad that mad dude Sajid Khan got him eventually.
Lightish green outfit on Mel McLaughlin is phwoar!
“There are several local roads where I never drive as fast as the speed limit, and others where staying below the limit requires a conscious (sometimes distracting) effort.”
Indeed.
Another obvious benefit of (almost) always using appropriate speed limits is that where the limit seems too low, drivers will tend to obey it anyway – “Wow, all the other limits seem right, but this one seems low – must be something I don’t know about so better obey it anyway…”
And updating for improved vehicle safety wouldn’t hurt either – are you seriously going to suggest that 110km/h on the freeway was safe when we were driving EH Holdens, but the same road/conditions can’t be driven at least as safely at 130km/h in pretty much any car manufactured this century? ABS, traction control, inertia reel seat belts, air bags, crumple zones, disk brakes all around, significantly better tyres and suspension/handling, better and safer seats… the list goes on. And none of that matters?
The original justification for speed cameras was to prevent accidents in specific locations.
In the Northern Territory the Labor government changed the open speed limit on some sections of the Stuart Highway to 130. Some police during the debate argued that the open speed limit was safer because it meant less time spent on the road = less fatigue = less crashes.
Didn’t matter.
thefrollickingmole
Jan 6, 2024 1:50 PM
How big is the Nepalese navy?
Same size as the Swiss and Austrian Navy.
the fact is it’s usually more efficient and equitable for governments to do things in house.
They can’t do anything in house apart from incompetence, corruption, lethargy, stone-walling, red tape, green tape, more tape, and all round SFA.
No I haven’t. I’ve been saying I don’t know which will collapse first. I’ve also been saying that it’s WW1 trench warfare all over again and nothing much has been happening, except for the poor bloody infantry suffering as they must.
Ukraine hasn’t lost territory for a year. Some tiny moves hither and fro is all that has happened. Russian soldiers meanwhile are dying in droves. Ukrainian ones too. Seems pretty futile.
I do, I do! Putin should withdraw to the pre-2014 Ukrainian border, whereupon the war would be over and the dying would stop.
It would actually be a good thing for Russia, since they could then rebuild rather than suffer death from a thousand mossie bites like they are now. But I can’t see how this can happen in a way that allows Vlad to remain Tsar, or for that matter still breathing.
C’mon Davey, show us some more emoeshun!
Wise words now from cricket’s No1 Hamas supporter in Aussie.
Apparently road crash data for year upon year has been studied to death.
Allegedly, the results of those studies reveal that speeding doesn’t actually cause more crashes – but it does (Captain Obvious moment coming) increase the severity of crashes.
It is said by some that other factors, including grog, drugs, climate and particularly road conditions make establishing speed alone as a factor in increased road deaths extremely challenging – so much so, that governments have thrown it in the too hard basket and relied on ‘yeah, speed. That’s pretty much it’ to guarantee their revenue stream.
Fever dream nonsense.
The only predictions I have made are:
1. Russia would overrun Ukraine by June 2022. I was wrong.
2. Russia is (and will be) much weaker from now on and China will dominate them, this is bad for Russia and the west. This is already correct.
Where are the thousands of new Russian tanks?
They. Don’t. Exist.
They. Were. Never. Built.
OldOzzie
Jan 6, 2024 1:43 PM
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Jan 6, 2024 12:48 PM
Slim pickings for navy as it struggles to recruit
Andrew Tillett
Apparently, the RAN had to go get British Sub Mariners for the Collins Classless Submarines as there were not enuf’ Aussies who wanted to go ‘Down Under’.
The forgotten Australian-built cars: Citroen ID 19
The story of how one of the world’s most iconic cars came to be assembled in Australia involved a mixture of government policies, price pressures and the end of the iconic Traction Avant.
Few people realise that one of the world’s most iconic vehicles, the Citroen DS – well, its less ostentatious sibling, the ID 19 – was assembled in Australia by Continental and General between 1960 and 1966.
However, in a uniquely Australian twist, the ID 19 was bolted together in the very Germanic sounding town of Heidelberg, just 10km west of Melbourne’s CBD, alongside rival products from Renault.
Dot
Jan 6, 2024 2:23 PM
Dotty. The UKR has lost as the West is gradually withdrawing. Follow the money and the DEBT.
Dr Dennis of the Australia Institute (for a PhD he is) once told a gathering of university alumni that the miners he wanted to sack needn’t worry about their livelihoods. Look, he said, at the growth of coffee shops.
Has he ever tried telling that to an audience of miners?
“US/EU is gradually withdrawing (Jan 2024).”
*I agree in this year, late 2022, with Marty Armstrong, that Russia will smash the UAF to smithereens in a pincer movement*
Completely different.
That was the line which was run by his defence in Florida, but it has no standing in most jurisdictions.
The Florida thing was a total fix, particularly the indemnity “for evah, and for everybody associated with him, even without listing those named”.
Which provided him another blackmail angle.
“Play your cards right and I will make sure the indemnity covers you.”
Navy was recruiting dockyard police from Britain in the late 1970’s and, when Royal New Zealand Air Farce phased out it’s jet fighters, Royal Australian Air Force snapped up several fighter pilots..
Re collapses. In WW1 both Austria and France went very close to collapsing at times, and Russia finally did. The trench war in Ukraine is creepily similar to the Somme et al. Modern AT has neutralized AFVs, and modern AA has done likewise for air support. Therefore the theatre defaulted back to the King of the Battlefield, where Russia had an initial massive advantage. That’s now dissipated since they can’t manufacture artillery ammunition fast enough, and they can’t produce the sorts of high precision weapons systems Ukraine has been able to inveigle off of their sugar daddies.
Top Gear Showing the Irrelevance of Braking Distances from Highway Code on Northen Territory Highway
Highway Code on Braking Distances & Speed – 1 Min 53 Secs
From the Comments
What people fail to realise is that the Highway Code was written back when cars had pathetic drum brakes with no power assistance and no ABS, and with crossply tyres and not modern radials
Even with reaction time factored in, the Highway Code massively overestimates the distance needed to stop.
It isn’t 1931 anymore and it badly needs updating to reflect the actual distances that modern vehicles can stop in, even average ones would stop miles behind the highway code’s stopping distance
Driving in NT under 130Km/hr – most people in 4WDs adjusted their speed to around 115-120 Km/Hr
Driving on Hume Highway to Melbourne it is a ridiculous creep to overtake over many kilometres as everyone has their cruise control set to 110km/hr
Why not make it like Europe 130km/hr when dry , 110km/hr when wet (although only in Switzerland & France was it obeyed) – Italy Austostrada – What Speed Limit?
NAMES ON A LIST
There has been a lot of media excitement about the release of unredacted versions of documents from the ultimately-settled defamation lawsuit that Virginia Giuffre brought against Jeffrey Epstein’s friend and collaborator Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015.
The release has been done in batches, and news accounts indicate that more than 170 individuals referred to in the documents as “John Doe,” etc., have now been identified.
Some casual consumers of news may have the impression that we are talking here about Epstein’s “client list,” but that is not the case.
I have no idea whether such a list exists.
Rather, these are names that a witness mentioned in a deposition or a document, in some cases in a completely innocent context.
Moreover, no one should assume that anything said in a “court document” is true.
On the contrary.
Witnesses testifying in depositions and authors of emails and memos get many things wrong.
In a deposition, witnesses are specifically permitted to testify to hearsay.
Such testimony is obviously of questionable reliability, apart from its lack of admissibility in court.
An excellent case in point is the story about Bill Clinton storming into the offices of Vanity Fair magazine and demanding that the magazine not publish an expose on his good friend Jeffrey Epstein.
This story got lots of media play yesterday, but it turns out to be false.
It was based on an email written by Virginia Giuffre, the accuser of alleged Epstein clients like Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz:
Only it turns out that Giuffre was wrong. It wasn’t Bill Clinton who stormed into the Vanity Fair office, it was Epstein himself.
The New York Post, having more or less fallen for Giuffre’s version yesterday, has the corrected story today.
It is a useful reminder that not everything that anyone says, that happens to fit your political predilections, turns out to be true.
And also of the fact that a person’s name being mentioned in a lawsuit stemming from appalling misconduct doesn’t necessarily mean that person is guilty of anything.
Finally, it is a warning against assuming that everything that Virginia Giuffre says must be true, since she was a victim.
Any day now….
Who predicted what?
Let’s be very clear about this.
That’s an easy one, our politicians are dreadful snobs, they want to be wined and dined by the right people when they get to Europeans particularly France. They have no intention of being ordinary tourists.
Roger
Roger, Civil disobedience would give the Victorian government the opportunity to “make an example” of several citizens. Just to drive the message home that the government is running things – not the citizenry.
Do not underestimate the lessons learnt by them watching the Obama/Biden government get away with murder after the so called Jan 6th “Insurrection.”
Winston Smith
Jan 6, 2024 2:29 PM
Petition for dismissal of cabin crew of Qantas flight.
This is about people who have politicised a non political part of society.
It needs to stop.
Who, Ukraine or Russia? It took until 1917 for this sort of thing to really bite in WW1. That would be 2025 for the current fiasco.
Ukraine has no say in any of this, it’s all up to Russia. Like it was all up to Germany in WW1. And for similar cultural reasons they couldn’t back down.
OldOzzie, I should have read your comment before putting fingers to keys.
Indeed.
And when I mentioned ignorance I referred to that created for us all by the media as well as my own ignorance, as a citizen who determined not to join the #mob caring about Russia/Ukraine – beyond hoping that Vlad would come a gutser.
Rational ignorance. I know enough for my position and can resume avoiding war vids, cute owl links and ABC articles and instead care about things that matter more to me. Volunteer mushroom, on this issue, I am.
But the US could lean on Russia during the negotiations.
Which they should have done almost two years ago. It seems US elections have consequences all over the world.
Done!
from AP’s feed on The App Formerly Known as Twitter
D’ya think maybe the reason they can’t be prosecuted is because they were the legitimate electors as chosen by the State Legislature?
Naaah.
Will she change her mind if Texas and Florida declare that Biden is ineligible, because 25th Amendment?
Had that been the case, the opportunity to launder Billions through Ukraine “aid” would would never have occurred.
I wonder if the farewell to the Midget Cheating Houso Ranga will be a reprise of Pup and Lara.
Will he get a message from Sonny Bill’s cast-off about two hours after close of play, “Davey! Where are you?!? The Marie Claire photo crew are waiting!”.
The next Big Thing will be his “memoir” which will bucket all and sundry around Australian crickit for the dastardly treatment of the little houso battler.
Of course, unfettered by any need to “keep it together for the team” any longer, his targets will return fire.
This is what I meant about “a conscious (sometimes distracting) effort”.
PS, on the roads where I travel always below the speed limit, I have never been tailgated or given a “hurry on” blast of the horn. Maybe the 15% have never been behind me?
Crossie:
Yes, she made a bullet and is now passing it around for someone else to fire. It’s the cowards way of fighting – sets the scene and walks away guilt free.
OO
Go wider. Raise a “Foreign Infantry Regiment”, serve with distinction (nothing worse than short AWOL) for five years, and gain residency.
Most people expected Russia to win. That was the way to bet. What most people didn’t know is that the Russian military has huge corruption, morale, and hardware problems. It is now obvious that Russia is no threat to NATO and given Poland and Germany’s huge spending spree, together with Finland joining NATO, the purported NATO threat is now much larger than before the war. Russian recently lost top line fighters to Ukrainian SAMs, a ridiculous state of affairs at this point in the war. It trotted out tanks so old NATO would use those for target practice. It doesn’t have a single stealth fighter, the much touted Armata is a design NATO has been fielding for 20+ years. Within hours of being deployed it lost a 250 million dollar battlefield surveillance hardware. It boasts about building 20 SU-57s with fiberglass for radar absorption. Stealth requires incredibly tight tolerances and I seriously doubt that is possible with fiberglass. It has a recruitment problem much worse than in the West.
The cost\benefit ratio is a huge loss for Russia.
Ok for Brave browser users there’s a workaround for the weird stuff which started happening earlier this morning.
Settings->Shields->Content Filtering->untick “Easylist Cookie”
Immediately worked for me, although I don’t understand what the underlying problem is. I just found this answer on a Reddit. I love the Internet.
“It is said by some that other factors, including grog, drugs, climate and particularly road conditions make establishing speed alone as a factor in increased road deaths extremely challenging…”
They are very adroit at using “partial statistics” and other “mal information” (“true, but not helpful”) to get their way.
Aside from my previous post re “speeding”, the one I am seeing now is “Doing 65km/h in a 60 km/h zone doubles your chance of crashing”.
Let’s assume for the moment that they indeed have accurate data about this (doubtful, but anyway…) and it shows that, for example, 60% of crashes happen at 65km/h, 30% at 60 km/h and the rest at some other speed. Therefore, your risk is doubled, right?
Maybe.
But what about those who don’t crash? If 70% of all drivers do 65. 20% do 60 and the rest do something else, then obviously you are more at risk of crashing if you drive at 60 because you are part of the 20% that have 30% of the crashes, while those doing 65 are part of the 70% that have 60% of the crashes.
Therefore, they omit this vital information and use the partial data as an excuse to punish what are in fact safer drivers.
Not saying this the actual data, or even the actual usage in this case, but this is the sort of thing they do – they look for what supports what they want to do anyway, lie by omission, and gas-light you into believing their fantasy can be made reality if only they try really, really hard, and you accept their version of “truth” without question.
You would think that with such overwhelming support, financial, technological and weapons advantages, Ukraine would have easily expelled Russia a year ago. And yet , it has not. But, any day now…
She is not much worse than was Juan Williams whom I couldn’t stand. Harold Ford, the alternative Democrat on the panel, is much more reasonable.
Crossie
Project management staff are the real danger. Not only does their recommendation affect the political decision, but they will also be the ones posted to supervise the project where it is contracted.
It isn’t just Europe vs the rest, I recall rumours that one project went one way because the US state in which the competition operated was (less desirable) redneck country.
NB, corridor gossip only, I was never directly involved in procurement.
Makka
Jan 6, 2024 3:22 PM
John H.
Jan 6, 2024 3:16 PM
You would think that with such overwhelming support, financial, technological and weapons advantages, Ukraine would have easily expelled Russia a year ago. And yet , it has not. But, any day now…
All it needs is Western Media BS and a Hollyweird Film and you can conquer the World. LOL.
Meanwhile, back to reality………………Ruin A Balls won’t work either.
Trump Appeal Obliterates Colorado Supreme Court Decision
Some insurrectionists wear black robes.
The question of eligibility to serve as President of the United States is properly reserved for Congress, not the state courts, to consider and decide,” Donald Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court decision reads.
“By considering the question of President Trump’s eligibility and barring him from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court arrogated Congress’ authority.”
Indeed, the brief notes that when cases arose questioning the eligibility of John McCain, Barack Obama, and Sen. Ted Cruz, the federal courts uniformly ruled that the Constitution gives Congress and not the courts the power to determine eligibility.
Beyond this, Trump’s lawyers note that the ruling overturned by the entirely Democrat-appointed Colorado Supreme Court “ultimately concluded that section 3 was inapplicable to President Trump because he never took an oath ‘as an officer of the United States.’”
In other words, he takes a different oath than officers of the United States, and the Constitution excludes the president when speaking of officers of the United States.
The Colorado Supreme Court, which remained unbothered when the state elected a former private in the Confederate Army as Colorado’s governor and later as a U.S. senator, judges Donald Trump as ineligible for office for delivering a speech more than a mile away from the Capitol on Jan. 6.
However disgraceful the conduct of so many on Jan. 6 strikes even some Trump supporters, sensible people can differentiate between a war that killed more than 600,000 people and a protest-turned-riot in which not even the worst of the rioters fired a shot.
Then-President Trump told supporters, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Selena Zito famously observed of Trump in 2016, “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”
Here Trump’s enemies demand the courts disregard his actual words and instead assume he spoke in code intelligible to QAnon Shaman but mysterious to less advanced beings unable to decipher words beyond their actual meanings.
Recall these same people insisted that Trump’s supporters bludgeoned a Capitol policeman to death when he actually died of a stroke, minus evidence of any head wounds the next day.
They took the riot seriously but not literally.
The New York Times falsely claimed that “pro-Trump supporters attacked that citadel of democracy, overpowered Mr. [Brian] Sicknick, 42, and struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials.
With a bloody gash in his head, Mr. Sicknick was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support.”
None of this happened — as the postmortem and lack of criminal charges indicated — but Democrats bizarrely placed this falsehood in their bizarre post-presidency articles of impeachment anyhow.
They took the riot seriously but not literally.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blamed the riot for “almost 10 dead.” But this includes law enforcement officers who committed suicide as distant as months later, a protester who overdosed on fentanyl, two men not in the Capitol who suffered heart attacks, and an unarmed, 115-pound woman shot dead by a Capitol policeman. Siegfried died the next week — why not include him in the tally as well?
AOC took the riot seriously but not literally.
Progressives take the Constitution neither seriously nor literally.
Americans are not buying liberals’ narrative
Like green shoots poking up through snow in early spring, more signs of resistance are emerging every day.
We may be witnessing a massive rejection of the grim future fashioned for us by ruling elites, whose narrative of radical change is collapsing.
Americans are not buying what they’re selling.
They told us to endure endless rounds of COVID-19 shots, which are not only ineffective but may be harmful.
Pfizer and Moderna stocks have plummeted because Americans have weighed the outcomes and gone natural. Millions of doses are stockpiled.
With the exception of a few transgenderism enablers, more parents than ever are refusing to allow doctors to experiment on their children.
Nearly 1 million epidemiologists and public health scientists who have signed the Great Barrington Declaration recommend “focused protection.” They predicted that COVID, like influenza, could not be contained and that the best policy is to safeguard the vulnerable while not imposing shots, school closings and lockdowns on the rest of the population. Events have proved them right.
The elites ordered us to abandon our miraculous, fossil-fueled energy grid in favor of windmills and solar panels.
That isn’t happening. Natural gas and oil companies are investing heavily in new production, especially in the Permian Basin in Texas.
They know the windmill fantasy is fading.
Electric cars and trucks are sitting by the thousands in dealers’ lots despite $7,500 in federal giveaways for each purchase and Democrats’ mandates prohibiting sales of gasoline-powered vehicles within the next decade.
Electric cars are expensive, glorified golf carts.
They’re OK as a second vehicle in an urban area with lots of recharging stations.
Some Tesla owners love them. But they’re not practical on long trips or in the hinterlands, especially in areas where temperatures can plunge near zero.
On top of that, batteries wear out. After an eight-year warranty, replacement can cost owners $5,000 or $20,000 or even more.
And what happens if everyone recharges daily? In California, electric vehicle owners were told not to plug into an already overtaxed electric grid.
Fewer people than ever believe that wind and solar energy will make up for closing power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.
We like reliable electricity. It makes modern life — including food production, medicine, science, heat and air conditioning — possible. It alleviates poverty for billions.
The elites have lied to us about climate science, demonizing carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant that causes global warming despite no evidence of that.
The Earth has had far warmer periods with no human greenhouse gases.
Plus, plants love carbon dioxide, and warming oceans mean more rain for crops. India is having record grain harvests.
Having just turned 76 (last Wednesday) thought I’d check all the bits upstairs are still intact by filling out a 7 generation family chart I bought for $4 on TEMU .. 3 hours later and all filled in …… the noggin is still intact .. LOL!
What the Poot needs now is for China to get frisky on the Siberian border.
With great regret, he will have to compromise in Ukraine so that troops can be re-deployed to face the far greater economic threat of losing the resources of Siberia and direct access to the Pacific.
Brilliant
Hamas Productions with “West Is Next” Side Story
Coming soon. Through a tunnel under a theatre near you! – 2 Mins 20 Secs
Pelosi says states, not voters, should be able to decide who is on a ballot
Pelosi is a yesterday person. Begone you ex-political corrupt TART.
Simple solution to ever changing speed limits, especially in rural Australia and lower speed limits in regional towns.
Cruise control.
Saved me many a ticket travelling from Melbourne to regional Queensland.
I also use it in 40km zones eg Arden St North Melbourne where it now 40k all the way to Maribynong Creek, for some inexplicable reason.
Boambee John
Jan 6, 2024 3:38 PM
Russia has at least 20 times more nukes so the Chinks will be very wary. For now.
Apparently, the RAN had to go get British Sub Mariners for the Collins Classless Submarines
I lived in Neutral Bay late60s/early 70s opposite where the subs were stationed there .. 70% of the enlisted crews were ex British sailors ……….
Roger @ 12.56pm
Putin overreaction.
What about Democrat interference in the election in 2014.
The 14,000 deaths of”ethnic Russians” from 2014 to 2021.
Further the effeminate and envious westies killing Gadaffi for no good reason when they did. Putin was next.
LOL. Ukraine has a third the population of Russia. That’s why they use a defensive posture, since traditionally being on defense has a 3:1 force multiplication factor. Even more with fortifications.
The vacillatory stuff coming from the WH and EU has allowed Ukraine an excuse to cease silly offensive actions. The Great Offensive™ was only ever about keeping the sugar daddies sweet, something which I said from the beginning. Of course the UGS thought ok it might have a chance of working since the Russian Army tactical doctrine was so hopeless, but I doubt they ever really thought it would be all that successful. Attacking at odds of 1:3 ain’t good even with a local superiority.
It’s abundantly clear the UGS strategic doctrine is to bleed Russia white, and has been that from April 2022 – after the initial phase of the war stabilized. Their AP drone tactics are the latest example of that doctrine.
Every k over is a killer.
Kg that is.
Further the effeminate and envious westies killing Gadaffi for no good reason when they did.
Remember the lesbian bitch- ‘we came, we saw, he died’. Evil.
OldOzzie
Jan 6, 2024 3:35 PM
Americans are not buying liberals’ narrative
Like green shoots poking up through snow in early spring, more signs of resistance are emerging every day.
We may be witnessing a massive rejection of the grim future fashioned for us by ruling elites, whose narrative of radical change is collapsing.
As I have said before –
World Population in1850 AD was around 1.2 Billion people.
World Population predicted for the end of 2023 AD to be 8.2 Billion people. (They are still counting but can’t keep up fast enough as people are being born too quickly. LOL).
Alleged World temperature rise over that period of time – 1.5 degrees centigrade
So my analysis states that this warming is NO DANGER to humans. In fact, this warming has helped humans to populate the Planet. It hasn’t killed them off quicker than they are being born.
So Fark Off the UN and all the other Grifters and Con Artists.
CO2 Rules OK. And long may it continue.
Green the Planet.
Opinion The Long View
Great reversals in markets are now under way
Investors at risk of overlooking a shift in longstanding trends in 2024
JOHN PLENDER
It is, on the face of it, a paradox. Markets in October were mired in pessimism as inflation remained stubbornly high and investors feared that central banks would keep policy interest rates higher for longer.
By December, those same markets were gripped by euphoria thanks to seemingly dovish statements on interest rates by Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell that appeared to promise earlier rate cuts than previously expected. And now in January, equity markets have made a rocky start to the year.
The key to understanding these extreme swings in sentiment is to be found in the mechanics of data dependent monetary policy.
This causes investors to revise and re-revise endlessly their trading strategies based on intense parsing of central banking rhetoric and on expectations of how ageing incoming data of variable quality will influence central bankers’ rate setting.
Within this backward-looking, shaky policy framework, short-termism is endemic.
And the risk is that markets overlook longer term fundamentals. That risk will be especially high in 2024, which will witness continuing reversals in longstanding economic trends.
Despite the markets’ cheery recent assumption about waning inflation, the protracted era of ultra-low interest rates is surely over.
Yes, short-term rates will fall in 2024 as inflation continues to decline.
But the longer term is another matter.
For a start the central banks’ commitment to shrink their balance sheets after the extended period of quantitative easing means that they will be withdrawing their buying power from public markets just as government borrowing requirements are running at peak levels.
A broader threat to the Panglossian “free lunch” view of government debt born of negligible real interest rates since the 2007-09 financial crisis relates to the reversal of several positive supply shocks to the world economy since the 1980s.
The most important concerns the impact of the rise of China and other emerging markets on the global labour market.
This led to a glut of labour that depressed wages in the developed world.
One result was reduced investment as companies substituted labour for capital, which helps explain the dismal productivity record since the crisis. Another was quiescent inflation (for which central bankers breezily took credit).
Yet now the global labour force is shrinking.
Since the pandemic labour’s bargaining power has increased and will increase further as workforces go on shrinking in ageing advanced countries and also in China and Korea.
The surge in wages now encourages companies to substitute capital for more costly labour.
Other economically benign effects of globalisation such as cross-border supply chains are being de-risked in the face of geopolitical confrontation.
This brings resilience at the cost of economic efficiency. Meantime, protectionism is on the rise.
All of which is dismal news for growth.
Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff argues that even if inflation declines it will probably remain higher for the next decade than in the decade after the financial crisis.
He cites factors including soaring debt levels, increased defence spending, the green transition and populist demands for income redistribution.
Hard to argue with that, although there is an open question as to how far technologies such as artificial intelligence might offset these inflationary pressures.
Do not expect China to come to the rescue on either the growth or inflation front as it did after the financial crisis.
Its former growth model, substantially driven by the property market, is structurally challenged now and China is expected henceforth to import less.
One of the most profound impacts from the reversal of ultra loose monetary policy turns on the profitability and finances of the corporate sector in the advanced countries.
A study by the Fed’s Michael Smolyansky shows lower interest expenses and corporate tax rates explain more than 40 per cent of the real growth in corporate profits from 1989 to 2019 for S&P 500 non-financial firms.
That is an eye-catchingly large number and the picture will be similar across the developed world.
In today’s fiscal bind, the scope for more corporate tax cuts is minimal and interest rates are not going back to near-zero.
So prepare for a long-run slowdown in corporate profits growth and stock returns.
After these great reversals the new normal for investors will include a very challenging monetary landscape with heightened volatility and higher long bond yields than in recent years.
Against a background of burgeoning public debt, stringent official interest rates now contribute to uncomfortably high government borrowing costs.
Political pressure on central banks may thus intensify.
Meantime higher rates and bond yields in the no longer ultra-loose monetary regime will impose continuing strains on the financial system, putting the central banks’ goals of inflation control and financial stability potentially in conflict.
It seems questionable whether market practitioners have taken all this toxic matter on board.
That is also my traffic philosophy, quicker at the destination less chance of an accident. There is another plus for arriving at you destination quicker, you free the road for other users, eases the congestion and traffic jams.
It hasn’t been overwhelming. They just got the F16s, which haven’t been used and those are old stock with poor radars; though they will be very effective missile trucks and ground attack aircraft; possibly even SEAD depending on the model. Ukraine doesn’t have enough Patriot batteries to sustain coverage. It is obtaining Hawk SAMs, used in the 1967 war by Israel, though hopefully updated; but only short range low altitude SAMs. The tanks are few in number and most were old stock. The HIMARs are very effective and good to use up all those AMRAAMs the USA was probably going to dismantle anyway because of shelf life issues. Additionally it isn’t just hardware that does the job, NATO countries will train crews for months to just to become capable. Ukraine made a huge mistake going up against fortifications. What Russia needs to address is the appalling state of its military and recognize that it doesn’t have a ghost of a chance against NATO. That it had to obtain weapons from NK and China is laughable.
There was no overwhelming support, it was a trickle and remains so.
1. Dakar Rally, Prologue
Highlights and best moments of the Dakar Rally 2024 Prologue. Saudi Arabia.
SBS on Demand – No AdBlockers
Just one of my reasons for being very opposed to ridiculously low speed limits (20-30kph), imposed by mainly Green councils, is that you are actually spending much more time on the roads, thus you can become bored and distracted easily, lose concentration, thus causing more accidents.
It is ridiculous.
I have set up the butcher’s paper easel again.
Because of the way the DRS rules are created there are two differing scenarios covering
LBW decisions.
1. Given not out on the field. DRS has to show at least half the ball hitting the stumps for it to be overturned. This equates to the ball passing through an imaginary rectangle around the stumps of 348 square inches.
2. Given out on the field. DRS must show the ball clearly missing the stumps to be overturned. This represents a rectangle of 454 square inches, which is 30% larger.
Either test the technology for accuracy and use it, or piss it off.
The problem is that if they allow any part of the ball clipping the stumps to be out under DRS, LBW dismissals will sky-rocket.
Warner’s first DRS showed just under half the ball hitting the top of middle stump.
Are they telling us that ball tracking is potentially out by 1.4″ over a distance of 5-6 feet?
Should the greens succeed in lowering the Earth’s temperature it would be catastrophic on several fronts. Colder climates would lead to more droughts that would adversely affect agriculture in the form of shorter growing seasons. Colder climate would result in less land available for agriculture thus requiring greenhouses and expensive use of heating. Finally, colder climate simply means greater need for energy to heat homes, workspaces etc that renewables are nowhere near able to provide.
Which has now run almost dry.
Times: U.K. Arms Stockpile Reduced to “Nothing” (3 Jan)
Faced with the choice of guns or butter pollies in the UK spent everything on green rubbish instead. If China has been engineering this scenario in readiness for a tilt at Taiwan they’ve been extremely successful.
John H.
Jan 6, 2024 4:01 PM
The UKR has run out of Human Power (Manpower). No amount of Drones can replace them. Game over in 2024 IMHO.
Certainly rum and the lash. Sodomy still going strong in various parts of this wide brown land (no pun intended).
Roger
Jan 6, 2024 11:26 AM
Apparently taking a razor to the excessive weight of Australian bureaucracy is indistinguishable from demolishing all the airports, hospitals, and ports.
It’s a very dishonest claim, but it’s no more than I expect from some.
Which is why most bingles occur during peak hour bumper to bumper traffic. People fidget and do other things and suddenly there is a four or five car pile-up.
The advantage of open speed limits is that people go and speed in a much safer place than around town. The road toll went up when the NT abolished the open speed limit roads.
6/01 @ 12:55 Frolicking Lobe
Out of interest, do you have any photos of a boys surf/beer weekend from the 80s with engineering students with a group flys eyes photo ?
If you have please email it to me for a family nostalgia night.
Got picked up on the bike between Norseman and Kal from recollection. Given I had spent days the wrong side of 130kph I shoudn’t have any complaints.
Dover
Love ?? your art works.
Interesting chat with a neice who loves art and paints abstract art.
Showed me a photo of her art work, which was different shades of maroon on a page with a square insert of the ocean to the bottom left.
I asked if she could paint landscapes, still life’s or portraits “ oh no” she politely replied.
It just hit me Tom Woolfes comment on art, ?? if it needs to be explained it is not art – you are being treated as a mug, as the smart arses laugh at you when they sell their “pieces”.
Agreed. It was never realistic for Ukraine to last in a sustained war. Not my point. Russia has lost too much because Putin wouldn’t back down. What has Russia gained in all this? Some dirt, that’s all.
Performance of the unionized Australian work force, during World War Two.
“One study revealed, on average, that Australian professional stevedores unloaded between FIVE and NINE (my emphasis) tons of cargo, per hatch, per hour while unschooled American soldiers unloaded TWENTY FIVE tons per hatch per hour.”
“In one embarrassing instance, a gang of stevedores became so drunk and belligerent on pilfered liquor, that the Army had to pay them to stop unloading the booze.”
“Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941 – 1943” pages 2012, 202.
The researchers found that one month after treatment, participants had average reductions of 88% in PTSD symptoms, 87% in depression symptoms and 81% in anxiety symptoms. On average, participants had mild-to-moderate disability before treatment and no disability one month after treatment, as assessed by a survey about their cognition, mobility and other functions.
Took ’em long enough to realise the potential. Small trial, a pilot trial. How can people be so naive as to think that because something is illegal it mustn’t have therapeutic value? Ironic that modern psychiatry is relying on what shamans have known for centuries if not millennia. Big boost to a growth factor. That opens up a whole new way of thinking about mental health.
Standard Labor MO – any talk about reducing the budget of a department is characterised as ‘slashing’ the number of frontline workers – usually nurses and teachers, but it can be anyone.
The fact the bloated scleroic bureacracy behind them increased by some percentage without a corresponding increase in quality of service would be a great point to make…if you could find the politician courageous enough to make it.
I would have to say that to the extent the increase in the size of a bureaucracy affects the frontline workers, it will be to act as more of a check on them and make them less efficient in accordance with the needs of the new bureaucracy. The rest is just make-work stuff, research that is never understood, plans that are never carried out, righting social injustuces that despite the SMH and the ABC cannot in practice be found.
Is that a new kink thing?
The US does governing, even in a crisis, on a strictly need to know basis.
Crickey, I don’t know how much longer that kunt jessica tarlov can continue on The Five. Today it was a toss up between Watters, Gutfeld and Judge Janine as to who was going to smack her in the mouth. Tarlov is a typical leftie who supports biden and hates Trump.
NBC: “Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since New Year’s Day,” but the Biden admin didn’t disclose it until tonight — and “refuses to say how serious his condition was or why he was not able to perform his duties”
10 to 1 the bastard is transitioning.
“Hello Sailor”.
cohenite
Jan 6, 2024 4:54 PM
NBC: “Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since New Year’s Day,” but the Biden admin didn’t disclose it until tonight — and “refuses to say how serious his condition was or why he was not able to perform his duties”
He needed a brain transplant. They realised that he never had a brain in the first place so it had to be done asap. The brain has come from a recently deceased Mountain Gorilla.
Lol! Zulu!
That was hilarious. I sense a definite hat tip to Mel Brookes. Just perfect, particularly “I Feel Pretty”.
Wake up qwerties. Hamas is not your friend.
New year new me.
Pure highly refined dotanium, irresistible to certain species.
Becoming a single mum by choice (SMBC) was one of the hardest yet best decisions I’ve ever made.
SMBC – A new way to be a special snowflake.
…
In late 2017, I started trying to conceive at home, with a known donor.
She got a root.
…
By the time my son was born I had $40,000 in savings. I’d been made redundant in late 2018, receiving a payout that helped boost my savings.
I was in a new job within three months, though, making sure that my new job had paid maternity leave so that I could take time off with my baby.
Im getting a real public serpent vibe here…
…
For me and many other SMBCs, financial considerations are a big factor in the decision to have a child.
For single parents, whilst there is help from Centrelink, you are limited in the income you can make while you aren’t working.
Taking any form of maternity leave requires careful planning, because it’s not financially feasible to stay at home for long without savings to top you up.
Maternity leave and financial support were the biggest considerations for other SMBCs that I spoke to.
“Before I become a SMBC, I moved from a contract job to an ongoing one to ensure I would qualify for workplace maternity leave, as well as government paid parental leave,” says Sarah, surname withheld for privacy.
“I had money saved up to finance my fertility treatment as I didn’t want to have to dip into my super or take out a loan. Once I was pregnant, I saved as much as I could, as I knew I wanted to be able stay home with my baby for as long as possible.”
Personally, I spent the first year at home with my son. This consisted of 17 weeks of a mix of annual leave and maternity leave from my workplace and then 18 weeks of paid parental leave (PPL).
…
Understanding what Centrelink payments you’re entitled to is also important, as these can help complement your work income. It can be a mine field, but the extra income really makes a difference.
Dot paying the Batchelor tax trice over, once for a pubic serpent position, 2nd time to raise someone elses crotchspawn….
Faark. A10 week old from plane Boeing. 737 Max.
No deaths.
Section of Plane Blows Out During Alaska Airlines Flight – LIVE Breaking News Coverage
Russia comes out of this a far fitter, more lethal adversary, that has successfully ironed out its weaknesses and successfully integrated new tech into their military system, and strengthened its military-industrial base and supply chains. Also, the ‘some dirt’ here incl. the most fertile and resource rich areas of Ukraine and before the end of it will probably also incl. Kharkov and Odessa.
The ABC just doing its usual thing pushing anti man, anti family, marxist propaganda. A tax payer funded nest of vipers. Fox not much better judging by earlier posts.
I’m paying for this?
Oh okay. Carry on.
Sancho- (re: Ball tracker)
More than that in some cases.
The main issue I see with the technology is the broadcasters’ insistence in using a picture of a single cricket ball to show where the ball goes.
What it actually delivers is a probability of the ball being in certain places. It’s a fuzzy blob somewhat wider than the ball -and the ball could be anywhere in that fuzzy blob with varying degrees of certainty.
The pretend ball shown on the screen is the middle of that blob.. except not all probability distributions are normal. That’s why you regularly see the pretend ball (particularly a swinging, seaming or bouncing ball) being shown in a spot that is very, very clearly not where the ball was going to go.
To me it’s not so wrong that it’s not fair.. and it is the same for everyone… and predictably wrong if it is. I think people would be a lot more comfortable with the technology if the broadcasters were a little more honest with its limitations (particularly after hitting the pad shortly after bouncing).
Don’t get me started in snicko, though. I’ll believe snicko the day they show it on more balls that are clearly not out and there’s no sound. Bats creak. Pads clack. In that environment, what on earth business do sound engineers have picture-sound matching based in anything?
Love hot spot, though.. ‘specially now they’ve sorted out the hot weather issue.
Far fitter? It lost a large number of officers and generals. It takes years to recover from that. It lost some top line aircraft and it aircraft manufacturing is woeful. It lost thousands of tanks, hundreds of thousands of troops dead or incapacitated. It still can’t build a modern tank, it is relying on aircraft that are cold war relics. One of its much lauded S400 systems committed suicide. The new 250 million dollar tech lasted less than a day. It lost its Black Sea flagship and probably a few others. The F16s will make its Black Sea fleet more vulnerable. It can’t access premium quality chips because TSMC has stopped orders from Russia and its own fab facilities are decades behind that. It has strengthen NATO to a level not seen since the Cold War. It’s airforce wouldn’t last a week against Eurofighters, Gripens, F-35s, F15s, F16s. It doesn’t have a navy to speak off, its only aircraft carrier will never set to see again and it was always a useless ship for modern warfare. It will take years for Russia to redeem these losses and its military tech is mostly still in the previous century.
That dirt will always need constant defending and as any occupying force knows insurgency is an ongoing problem. It is not as if Russia lacks dirt so the small amount gained doesn’t add much because there will be so much trouble defending it.
Hello Admiral Rachel Levine.
Ffs. “On” not “in”.
This is an important discussion between Tucker & Bret Weinstein on the proposed global signing of an agreement to implement the WHO works health agenda in May. Scary stuff.
https://sashastone.substack.com/p/tucker-talks-to-bret-weinstein-on?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#media-1ae959f4-c84b-4e41-879a-dadfbf922194
All nations should ignore the US.
They had no business sticking their snouts into the Ukraine/Russia war. They sent mega billions into a corrupt Ukrainian regime but were too stupid to realise that fact..
What pisses me off more is they think they have the right to dictate to Israel how they should run their war against an enemy that cannot be reasoned with,
The US is no longer the superpower it may have been decades ago.
My advice to Israel: Extend the middle finger. You are dealing with morons, not stratigists.
It’s just a flesh wound.
I’ll bet good money the child is raised with the same sense of entitlement.
Father? What’s that?
That Alaska Airlines blowout – if there is a reason to wear your seatbelt in flight, this is it.
I can’t believe how dumb some people are not to do it.
The cost\benefit ratio is a huge loss for Russia.
Russia has, during the conduct of its invasion and subsequent war with Ukraine, found out that it is out gunned, out smarted, out numbered, out technolgied and represents absolutely no threat to NATO. NATO is massively more powerful. The productivity, sustainment, technology gap and massive population difference makes Russia’s bluster about taking the fight to NATO pure folly.
A nation with one quarter the population, one tenth the military might, a small percentage of their GDP, under trained and under equipped military equipment has held them at bay and inflicted considerable damage for two years.
Look not at what Ukraine had access to from the west during this stoush, but what Ukraine did not have access to, to understand how weak Russia is. No 4th or 5th generation western fighter aircraft, no frontline western helicopters, no late generation air to air or air to ground missiles, no A10’s, no frontline late generation armour, no GPS artillery, no long range precision weapons just to start.
Russia can only depend on it’s nukes and their use would see them obliterated.
Sorry if this question has been answered 100 times already but given that truth is the first casualty of war, how do you earnest people know anything about what either side is really doing or losing in the Russia-Ukraine(et al) war?
John H and BoN, how do you know Russia is losing?
dover and Makka, how do you know Russia is winning?
Jeez, Tickler, I’ll follow that story up elsewhere.
That guy has never heard the expression “Dead air” before.
Only have to see one of those videos with people stuck to the ceiling to realise it is a good idea. Even opening overhead lockers can be a problem. I saw one guy take a briefcase straight to the bridge of the nose. Made a bit of a mess.
JC, re Epstein, 1 conspiracy theory is Mossad had some to do with his bribery material – as in he was the patsy for them to obtain and use it, and made sure it be known he was protected by them. I guess foreign intelligence services would have greater interest in getting signifcant leverage over some politicians and wealthy as opposed to just Epstein doing this for himself. We’ll never know.
Former chief scientist Ian Chubb has called for dementia sufferers to be allowed access to voluntary assisted dying through a legal framework permitting seriously ill Australians to leave advanced directives outlining when they wish to end their life.
Professor Chubb has spoken out following the death of his wife, Claudette, from dementia at 75, saying she “would have hated knowing what was in store for her when she was capable of thinking about it”.
As the ACT government considers what will be the most liberal euthanasia framework in the country if enshrined into law, Professor Chubb has called for the scheme to include dementia, arguing that a legal mechanism could be designed setting out when a patient wanted to die.
We did warn about the slippery slope, and for our warnings we were mocked, smeared and ridiculed, but it isn’t even a slippery slope, it’s a fast slide into ‘let’s kill people’. What next, euthanasia for influenza sufferers?
By the way, how does someone who is suffering from dementia have the mental capabilities to request euthanasia? I refuse to call it “voluntary assisted dying”, that’s just a nice cosmetic name for euthanasia or more truthfully…..the murder of inconvenient people.
My brother in law’s mother has dementia. She keeps thinking there are soldiers in her front garden (she witnessed terrible things during World War II) trying to steal her shoes and money.
But I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to die.
Ukraine wins by not losing. Russia loses by not winning.
Just like the Italo-Greek War. Think about it.
Their appeal is becoming more selective 😉
Sancho Panzer
Jan 6, 2024 6:10 PM
Steve trickler
Jan 6, 2024 5:30 PM
Faark. A10 week old from plane Boeing. 737 Max.
Jeez, Tickler, I’ll follow that story up elsewhere.
That guy has never heard the expression “Dead air” before.
I only spent 5 minutes watching it. Waitiing for Blancolirio
to chime in.
It’s all loss for Ukraine even if they win.
Not many young troopies left to go home and raise families.
Truth is the first casualty but not all the truths. There is plenty of evidence. Russia has fielded 50 year old tanks, that is beyond dispute. That Ukraine’s offensive has been a complete failure, that is beyond dispute. I am arguing Russia has lost too much for little gain. No country has won, it is a disaster for both countries.
From Flightradar
Or not permanently “plugged” maybe.
The plug door has been around for a long time and is designed to fit tighter the higher the pressurisation differential with the atmosphere outside (the interior surface is larger than the exterior hole).
So, to pop off at FL160 (halfway to cruise) is a little disconcerting.
I blame the MacDonnell Douglas accountants.
‘What does not kill me makes me stronger.’
There’s a slight parallel with the Russo-Japanese War, since the Ukies have been sinking the Black Sea Fleet with increasing ability. After Russia lost that war the 1905 Revolution occurred, and that was a near run thing.
Russia now is very different socially from Russia then, but she still has bits that may fall off if circumstances align. Especially in the Caucasus.
Crazy Karen is now angry at the US. Pissed off, it is. The penetrating intelligence from this alien being is way beyond any intelligence ever encountered on earth. Incredible.
I don’t believe this for a second.
There is no parallel with the Russo-Japanese War.
Ukraine can’t win. Russia’s fertility rate is below replacement level and large numbers of men fled the country when the war broke out. As I previously stated, neither has won, the war has been a disaster, and both countries will require years if not decades to recover from the losses.
“I’ll bite your legs off!”
I wouldn’t be too blase about Russia in the future – at least regarding Western Europe. Both have serious population problems. However, the one important thing is that Russia has learned something about its own weak spots with respect to its military.
Dover
I read that a 1% increase in NATO’s military budget equals 25% of Russia’s.
“What this country needs is a short, victorious war to stem the tide of revolution.” – Interior Minister Vyacheslav von Plehve, 1904.
Didn’t work out well.
‘What does not kill me makes me stronger.’
Friedrich Nietzsche was never married.
Boambee John
Jan 6, 2024 3:14 PM
Whilst I think it’s a good idea, I’m also looking at the Roman cautionary tale of taking on foreign troops when your own people won’t defend their own country.
A better idea is to find out why your young men refuse to fight, and then fixing it.
But that may uncover some very unpleasant truths that the 10% refuse to fix.
Yeah. But I bet he looked into the abyss once or twice.
Katie Hopkins
EXCESS DEATHS: how much longer can this horror story be suppressed. Decent people need help
There are no parallels with the Russo-Japanese war.
If people insist on ‘parallels’, the more appropriate parallel is the Russo-Finnish war (Winter War) of 1939/1940.
I love getting downticks for writing the absolute unvarnished verifiable and historical truth.
(I wonder how many downticks I can get for this one? 😀 )
JC, the USA is far more demanding. What has happened in the Russian military would result in many US military officers spending decades in Leavenworth. There was much boasting when Eurofighters beat F 22’s in a Red Flag competition. What was not reported is that the Eurofighter was clean, no missiles or fuel tanks, and the F 22 had fuel tanks. In a war that would never happen. The US even uses stripped down F16s for fighter pilot training. Again, completely unrealistic scenario. The USA runs its simulations and war games with the odds heavily stacked against it.
All militaries have weak spots but the USA goes to extraordinary lengths to find those weak spots. There is not much Russia can do about its weak spots. It can’t access the best computer chips which is a huge impediment for both R&D and weapons manufacturing, the USA has been building stealth aircraft for decades and Russia hasn’t built one, the Patriot system is superior to the s400, a single fleet of the US Navy could take all of Russia’s navy. Many countries, even South Korea and Turkey, claim they building aircraft superior to the current Russian designs. The USA will soon be testing recoverable hypersonic aircraft, has at least 3 new air to air missiles much superior to current designs. Russia has a fundamental weakness. It is on its own. NATO countries collaborate and work together. Another big problem for Russia is that it is losing intellectual capital.
That’s excellent also Cassie. A lot going for it. As for the Russo-Japanese War the parallel is a larger country going after a smaller country which had better technology, and was underestimated by the upper echelons of the military and intelligence community. The technology that Ukraine has been fielding isn’t theirs of course, but the strategic effect has been similar. The other aspect is that the expectation was for a very quick result in both that war and this war. I’ve commented several times that Russia’s gambit in 2022 seemed to be based on Operation Danube.
Now that is asking for trouble. One of the funniest and tragic accounts of Russian military stupidity ever made.
The Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron – Voyage of the Damned
Learn from their mistakes JC? How long does it take them to learn the lesson?