Snap, BJ!
Open Thread – Wed 24 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
Shirt lifter also works well. There are shirt lifters and pillow biters everywhere. As my brother always says in diagnosing…
Piers Akerman: To our national shame, Australia is no longer a reliable ally and supporter of the rule of law.If…
How much did the CIA pay him?
The way you see the world is personal. Yarim-Argaev sees it through his own prism of experience. I wish I…
Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul – 25th January
St. Paul never recalled his wonderful conversion, from which have poured forth may blessings, without raptures of gratitude and praise to the Divine and His mercy. The Church, in thanksgiving to God for such a miracle of his grace, to commemorate so miraculous an instance of his almighty power and to propose to penitents a perfect model of a true conversion, has instituted this feast, which we find mentioned in several calendars and missals of the eighth and ninth centuries, and which Pope Innocent III commanded to be observed with great solemnity.
CNA
How Tolkien influenced the conversion to Christianity of his friend C.S. Lewis
ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 23, 2024
One of the most emblematic museums in the city of Rome, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, is currently hosting an exhibition on the life of the writer J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of “The Lord of the Rings” who played a decisive role in the conversion to Christianity of his great friend C.S Lewis.
After going to a general election he barely won. Contrast lying during an election campaign in Opposition. Too much Bacon from this j’ismist. Oh, they’re from Australia’s most trusted news source? That explains it.
“Others” in this case includes Chaya Raichik, who is Jewish…
ADL Alerts Law Enforcement to Matt Walsh, Chris Rufo, Libs of TikTok (24 Jan)
Who’s “we”…as far as I am aware Banducci has been the chief communicator in this debacle. Is he speaking for the board? Or trying to deflect blame from himself?
It makes you wonder how these doofuses get appointed.
Staging the tax cuts in 3 phases was politically boneheaded. And with the final phase effortlessly characterised as ‘tax cuts for the top end of town’, I’m surprised that anyone is surprised they’ve been worked over by an ALP government. It was inevitable that this would happen.
Possibly the high point of the Howard years. The reminder of which consisted of flinging pork at various interest groups in true UniParty fashion.
Dover – Why didn’t they go via Belarus? That’s the logical way to do a swap. It’s ironic this occurred very near when MH-17 was misidentified.
My immediate thought it that this was a mistake like MH-17, since the Ukies want their guys back as evidenced by many prisoner swaps over the last 18 months. Flying an airliner in a hot warzone is an extremely unwise action.
Well Russia has lost a large transport aircraft and its crew and Ukraine has lost many of their guys. Perhaps something will be learned by both sides.
WA Labor: tax changes could hurt Albanese in these seats in the west
Tom Rabe – WA political correspondent
The Albanese government’s move to overhaul the stage three tax cuts could see it punished by high earning mining workers across several seats in the crucial battleground state of Western Australia at the next federal election.
WA Labor insiders say Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s shake-up of the tax thresholds – after long promises no changes to the legislated cuts – could reignite a class war in the state caused by then leader Bill Shorten’s franking credit policy in the 2019 election.
Labor Premier Roger Cook refused to be drawn on the slated tax changes on Wednesday. But several Labor sources said the changes were likely to affect scores of fly in, fly out mining workers living in Perth.
“They rolled the dice on Albo over here because he’d taken away that class warfare and said he understood WA. This risks reigniting that class warfare that he had been able to quell after Shorten’s 2019 election,” one Labor source told The Australian Financial Review.
“The problem here is it’s coming at a time when it’s feeling a lot like 2012, the end of the last boom.”
The next federal election could be held as early as August 3 this year or as late as May 17, 2025. The importance of Western Australia to Labor’s hopes of securing a second term is reflected in Mr Albanese’s multiple official trips to the state in 2023.
More than 1000 mining sector jobs have been shed in WA this month as several nickel mines curtail their operations, while close to 1000 Alcoa jobs will also go by 2025 as the company shuts down its Kwinana refinery.
Both Labor and Liberal sources nominated Tangney, held by Labor by a margin of just 2 per cent, and Swan, held by Labor by 8 per cent, as seats where the tax policy changes could resonate.
Other Labor insiders did not believe a change to an income tax policy would anger voters as much as the current cost-of-living crisis, or even the federal government’s IR and environment policies, which were perceived as a drag on the state’s resources sector.
“The bigger threat here is the threat to industry rather than the individual. That really ignites people here,” a senior Labor source said.
WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam described any changes to the stage three cuts as a blow to the state’s aspirational workforce.
“This is a kick in the guts for anyone with aspirations to grow their income and especially for our resources sector workers who put in long hours in remote locations to try and get ahead,” Ms Mettam said.
Senior WA Liberal senator Michaelia Cash said WA’s mining workers would be hit disproportionately by the changes.
‘Milking us for all we’re worth’
“Mr Albanese and his government rely on the revenue from WA’s mining and resources sector but are happy to betray the workers who generate that wealth for our nation,” she said.
A senior WA Liberal source said the party would seize on Mr Albanese’s tax changes as evidence he was not delivering for the state. They said it only compounded industrial relations reforms and approvals processes that were hitting the resources sector in WA.
“The change in the stage three tax cuts is unlikely to wash well with non-progressive, higher earners in WA often associated with the mining industry and trades,” they said.
“People look at resource projects not getting approved, industrial relations changes that target labour hire, then something like this. You add them all together, people will say ‘you’re not standing up for us, you’re milking us for all we’re worth’.”
They said while scores of West Australians were earning relatively high incomes in WA, many of them were involved in more boom-bust, working-class jobs than those in a similar tax bracket to the eastern states.
That may make them more likely to feel the crunch of any tinkering to stage 3 by the federal government, which is anticipated to negatively impact those earning above $150,000.
So the Australian Open tennis won’t be doing anything to celebrate the national day, or one of (I find ANZAC Day to be more significant), yet find the time to hold Pride Day events. FMD
Top Ender
Flag pole with flag
you would have to dig the hole and cement it in, though
Stop it with the give-up-ism, Cory.
That’s how you led the Australian Conservatives, and on my dime too.
We will NEVER change the date. Work on that.
or this one, 1.6mm alloy instead of 1.0 on the previous
Masters of the Air, review: astonishing wartime epic will take your breath away
Somehow, Spielberg and Hanks have surpassed the thrills of Band of Brothers, with a superstar cast including Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan
Anita Singh,
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
It doesn’t take long for Masters of the Air (Apple TV+) to get going, and when it does: holy hell. If you have seen Band of Brothers, for which this is a companion piece, you’ll be braced for action. But the intensity of the aerial combat scenes featured here will take your breath away.
This is the story of the 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, an American unit sent to England in the spring of 1943. They were nicknamed “the Bloody Hundredth” on account of their losses. The drama’s cast is enormous, and there’s a reason for that. Many of the characters die, some of them before the first episode is done.
You can feel the love lavished on this project by producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. And you can feel the $250 million budget. That kind of money buys you James Bond director Cary Joji Fukunaga for the opening instalments, a man who knows how to film visceral action scenes. We’re right inside those tiny planes, under fire. To see a gunner trapped in the ball turret of a B-17 is to understand pure terror.
Men have their faces blown off, go down in burning aircraft, or are forced to bail out over enemy territory. And the men who witness all this happening to their comrades and somehow make it back alive have to go out and fly another mission tomorrow. What courage it must have taken.
The missions are wrapped into a nine-part series that takes us from 1943 to the end of the war, based on the 2007 book by Donald L Miller. It’s not all horror. The camaraderie between the men is what draws you in. The theme music, by Blake Neely, is so stirring that you’ll probably be reduced to a puddle by the closing bars. It’s also one of the best-looking dramas you’ll see, and I’m partly talking about the cinematography but mainly about the cast. There’s only one reason to put Jude Law’s son here, and it’s because he looks like a young Jude Law. Austin Butler, fresh from playing Elvis, is shirtless in the trailer because a shirtless Austin Butler will attract an audience beyond military history buffs.
Butler plays Gale “Buck” Cleven, whose friendship with John “Bucky” Egan (Callum Turner) is at the heart of the drama. Cleven is preternaturally calm, Egan is a loose cannon, but they have an unbreakable bond. They head a cast which is mostly made up of British and Irish actors, presumably because the series was filmed in the UK.
Band of Brothers famously launched the careers of young actors who went on to big things: Damian Lewis, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Tom Hardy. The casting director of Masters of the Air also has a pretty good eye, because here we have Butler (Elvis), Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) and Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who), who were little known when filming began in 2021 but are now the men-of-the-moment.
The stand-out performance, though, is from Northern Irish actor Anthony Boyle as Harry Crosby, a navigator who flies all of his missions while clutching a sick bag. Boyle narrates, in a faultless American accent, with lines based on the real Crosby’s memoir.
By necessity, the aerial scenes use CGI, which lends an air of unreality to some of the shots. But they do give a clear illustration of how these raids were carried out. While the British bombed by night, the Americans went in daylight and in combat box formation. “I want formations so damn tight you wouldn’t be able to slip a dime through our wingtips,” the 100th’s commanding officer tells them.
The quiet moments before the missions are the ones that get you. The crew being served a special breakfast – double rations of bacon, French toast and flapjacks, fresh grapefruit juice and “GI coffee” – which they dub “the last supper”. The padre standing at the door of the makeshift chapel to see them on their way. A pilot pinning a picture of his sweetheart in the cockpit; another making the sign of the cross before take-off then saying, “Ok, boys, here we go”.
It’s not perfect. Those unfamiliar with military history would be forgiven for thinking that the Americans won the war, with just a little help from the Soviets in the final furlong. The British appear only fleetingly, as moustache-twirling officers who sneer at their American counterparts and speak to them in patronising tones (“Never mind, old boy. It’s one for the higher-ups”). An episode featuring the African-American Tuskegee Airmen, while well-intentioned, feels tacked on to the main narrative. Butler is so pretty that all of his scenes look like a GQ photoshoot.
But even Butler’s character is devoid of Top Gun-style swagger. These were real people – ordinary men doing extraordinary things. As a testament to heroism, Masters of the Air is first-rate.
Masters of the Air premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday 26 January
Cory is no Farage.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Maersk ships in US Navy convoy forced to retreat under Houthi missile attack.
“The US arm of AP Moller-Maersk is suspending voyages through the Red Sea after two of its container ships came under missile attack while being escorted by the US Navy. The 6,200-teu Maersk Detroit and 2,474-teu Maersk Chesapeake (both built 2008) turned around in the Red Sea and were escorted back to the Gulf of Aden, said the company. . . . US Central Command, which coordinates the country’s military operations in the region, said three anti-ship ballistic missiles were fired toward the Maersk Detroit. One missile hit the sea, while the warship USS Gravely shot down two others. The two ships were carrying cargo and aid for the US government and were given protection by the navy for the passage through the Bab El-Mandeb strait, said subsidiary Maersk Line Ltd, for which the US military is a major customer on its US-flag ships.”
Why do the Houthis still exist?
I was naïve about Jew-hate, Musk tells Auschwitz
Tesla founder toured the death camp ahead of a major event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day
Elon Musk says the indoctrination of Gazan children “must stop” for long term peace to be achieved and continues to wear dog tags around his neck in support of the hostages still held by Hamas.
His remarks came during a conversation with conservative American commentator Ben Shapiro shortly after the pair toured Auschwitz death camp together.
The X owner and CEO of Tesla said: “The indoctrination of hate into kids in Gaza has to stop. When I was in Israel, that was my top recommendation. I understand the need to invade Gaza, and unfortunately some innocent people will die, there’s no way around it.
“The most important thing is to ensure that afterwards, the indoctrination where kids are taught from as soon as they can understand language, that their goal is to kill Israelis; if you’re told that from when you’re a toddler, you’re going to believe it, and that needs to stop.”
Musk and Shapiro appeared during a two-day event in Krakow, Poland, hosted by the European Jewish Association, the first major Jewish conference to Auschwitz since October 7.
Musk further admitted to being “frankly naïve” about the level of antisemitism today. He said: “In the circles I move, I see almost none. Two thirds of my friends are Jewish… I’m Jewish by association.” He added that the “pro-Hamas rallies” that took place in cities across the West, “blew” his mind.
Musk recently toured the territories surrounding the Gaza Strip that were invaded by Hamas. He says he brought with him to Israel “three strong recommendations” to achieve peace.
“Obviously, one has to get rid of Hamas fighters where reform is impossible, [where] their only goal is to kill Israelis, they ought to be killed or imprisoned, otherwise they will simply kill more Israelis.
Then the second thing is you’ve got to change the indoctrination in the schools so that kids are not taught to hate from the moment they are two years old.
And the third thing, which his a very hard thing to do in this situation, is conspicuous acts of kindness to the people in Gaza… It’s just that much harder to hate someone if they do nice things for you, even if they try to bite your hand when you’re doing it, keep doing it.”
Elon Musk has continued to wear dog tags around his neck in support of the hostages still held by Hamas, who he hopes are still alive, and says the “most shocking” thing to see in footage from October 7 was Hamas’s “delight in killing kids”, which requires “a level of indoctrination that is extremely intense.”
This is the URL for the Niall Ferguson discussion re his essay on the parallels between today’s intelligentsia that of the 1920’s and 1930.’s
It was put up by feelthebern three pages back.
Thanks Lizzie , it has taken some time as I am also involved in changing the Retirement Village Act that was written in very early days and and is biased towards the proprietors not the residents . For example our owner who owns 76% of building only has .075% of liabilities so we residents are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair building faults, illegal construction which he will be main beneficiary very unfair.
I don’t know. Have other swaps been conducted through Belarus. Not that I can recall. They had already decided the details, incl. where the exchange would take place and the date and time.
Job for today: build a flag pole for front of house.
This incident is getting a bit of coverage atm.
Jeez, Min.
Look, I know Equity (the legal term, not the made up collectivist w@nk) is the stalking ground of over-eager under-grad law students… but that sort of imbalance is surely begging for equitable estoppel.
Thanks Lizzie. Luv Ferguson. Another site I should visit more often.
After Bribe Recording Made Public – Arizona GOP Chairman Jeff Dewit Resigns
January 24, 2024 – Sundance
Yesterday an audio recording of Arizona GOP Chairman Jeff Dewit was released that shows him attempting to bribe and coerce Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake into backing away from the contest. Today, Jeff Dewit has resigned. [Letter Source]
I am not providing opinion or commentary on the claims within the letter, in part because I am just like you… an observer to a very serious story that is still unfolding.
“Rufus,
agreed would go with E-Type
Before marriage, owned & did up 4 MGs”
A glutton for punishment, eh? 🙂
If any Sydney based Cats have Jag servicing needs, I would highly recommend they go to Tony Arditto at Prospect – this man has forgotten more about Jags than most Jag dealer mechanics ever knew. I believe his son Anthony has now taken over – Anthony was service manager at a Jag dealer and knew things the dealer mechanics did not, so also well and truly on the ball. Not the cheapest, but knows the product inside out (especially the old ones) and does the job properly. If I owned one, it’s where I’d take it.
“Choose life, and fight for it”
Melanie Phillips – Jan 25, 2024
Something of priceless value is emerging on the battlefields of Gaza
Big Nambas:
It happens every year. Just like the call for a Republic.
They’re like nagging children – not sure what they want – but will keep demanding because it pays to do so.
You’d give them a good smacking and send them to their rooms to clean it up, but it would only allow them to sook about “Victimisation.”
No, they only want power without consequence, and that, BN, is the prerogative of the whore.
VIP Premium
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet As the Long Knives REALLY Come Out for Trump
STEPHEN GREEN
And so it begins.
The indictments, the kangaroo courts in New York and Georgia, the lies, the smears, and the panicmongering about threats to Muh Democracy™ were all just part of a warmup act for what happens now that Donald Trump has all but secured the GOP presidential nomination.
Spoiler Alert: Trump has the nomination, really. It’s secure. PJ Media’s own Matt Margolis has pre-written the inevitable “Nikki Haley Suspends Campaign” article because, c’mon, all it’s missing is the date, a few quotes from Haley, and a little gloating from Trump on Truth Social. As Kruiser put it in his post-New Hampshire Morning Briefing, “Here’s hoping that Nikki Haley decides that she wants to start her inevitable Girl Power Boozy Brunch Club with Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger sooner rather than later and gets out of the race quickly.”
But that’s today’s news. I’m here to give you tomorrow’s news.
Here’s a preview, courtesy of whoever is in charge of Drudge Report these days.
“Heeeeees Baaack!”
If you’re wondering whatever happened to the fine art of subtly slipping the shiv between your opponent’s ribs, it’s my sad duty to remind you that it was killed off during the Bush Derangement Syndrome pandemic of 2001-2009.
At the New York Times, Thomas Edsall frets — egads! — that “We Are Normalizing Trump. Again.”
Can one normalize that which had been previously normalized?
Was there an interim state of Trump re-denormalization?
Whatever the case, “Trump has steadily escalated his defiance of behavioral norms, [and] a substantial share of the American electorate remains willing to cast a ballot for him.”
Or do we re-remain willing, Mr. Edsall, now that Trump has been renormalized? Hmm?
“I braved a Trump rally in New Hampshire,” boasts this Dana Milbank headline in the Washington Post.
“He’s very confused.” Biden’s brain is fine, you see. Trump is basically a turnip already, according to Milbank.
Even the staid UK Telegraph went into Full Trump Panic Mode in the hours after New Hampshire voters effectively ended Haley’s bid.
Not included in the Telegraph’s pulse-pounding roundup were two columns with the headlines, “Nikki Haley can’t give up yet – it’s time to take the fight to Trump,” and “Only the courts can stop Trump now.” I’d remind you that this is a fairly conservative British paper — they won’t even have to live with President Trump. Even stranger, Trump was much more friendly to the UK than Obama or the Obama-run Biden White House ever were or will be.
I haven’t dared look at Twitter/X today because there’s only so much Trump Derangement Syndrome one columnist can expose himself to before having to demand hazard pay.
The thing is that everything I’ve shared with you today is more of the same stuff we’ve been inundated with since Trump rode that golden escalator into the GOP primaries more than seven years ago — just turned up a bit louder, with a slightly more panicked edge to the tone.
That will change, however.
On a recent-ish “Five O’Clock Somewhere,” Kruiser and I discussed what the Democrats will do to rig the 2024 election.
The only thing we could say for sure is what probably won’t work, and that’s more of the same we got in 2020.
Americans are over the pandemic panic, Democrats have topped out on the mail-in balloting (and Republicans are belatedly getting into the game), and there’s only so much fraud they can commit before people start marching on Capitol Hill — but for real next time.
Maybe we’ll get a major war.
Maybe a financial panic so bad that everything shuts down again.
Maybe they’ll do the seemingly impossible and lock Trump up.
Nobody knows for sure and, as I’ve written here before (humblebragging), I lack the imagination to plot like a Democrat who fears losing power.
But I feel there is something coming, and today’s panicked headlines were just a small taste.
What the hell is going on in the UK? The Conservatives are abysmal. Talk of war with Russia. Conscription. Etc. The absolute state of Anglophone governments.
John a rumble, I expect you have to look behind the Retirement Villagers Act. I suspect it was to make it more attractive to invest in retirement homes. As with longevity risk in superannuation it is a difficult area to make policy that works when people are dropping off the twig more or less randomly (not you Min hopefully).
Another post rendered meaningless by the propellor heads and “autocorrect”.
Freak waves wreak havoc on US Army missile-tracking island
Freak waves likely driven by offshore storms have hit Roi-Namur in the Marshall Islands, leading to major damage to a US base that will take months to repair.
The US Army Garrison-Kwajalein Atoll, which supports a space and missile defence test site, evacuated about two-thirds of the 120 American and Marshallese personnel who live and work there, the army said.
Video posted on social media showed a huge swell smashing windows and doors of an army building, and sweeping people from their feet on Saturday.
At least once that I can immediately find. It’s a logical option. Beograd is close to the frontline, within artillery range, so flying anything into that airport is a pretty serious risk.
Australians have a well earned reputation for buggery too, case in point: Sydney. Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course.
PM’s leadership is ‘dead, buried, cremated’: Dutton- TEAL MP Struggles to Back Tax Reform
Who by? Hamas isn’t very forgiving of such behaviour, they’d be my first choice. They were shooting hungry people wanting food. Since it’s ITV though I expect they’ll say it’s the IDF.
Min,
congratulations on the Geezer Porn! I will have two, one so I will know what the future holds as I still have a way to go, and the other for Macbeth when we have his 101st birthday party later this year. I haven’t forgotten Macbeth.
Fair Shake and Top Ender,
I had a lovely Flag Pole at the previous house. I want to do the same thing where I am now. A raised bed with the Pole in the centre and rosemary planted around it. It has always been important to me to have the rosemary as, you all know it stands for Remembrance.
Digger’s book so far has been great. I am up to the part where you are going through your training. I agree about the exercise that gave you the bad knees. I should have finished it in a weekend, but while the weather is good I have tons to do outside and then, as you know being a farmer yourself Digger, too knackered to read in the evening. Cheers all. 😀
I like your writing style Digs, spare, no unnecessary fill and straight to the subject.
Tolkien may have preferred it, but Lewis could not assent to papal infallibility.
Heh, Bear. My fault. I’d just assumed that “Act” was a mal-named Deed (of Incorporation or Partnership or something). Not an actual Act Act.
I went off to get some more flags for our street breakfast tomorrow. Nothing. Everything sold out. A reasonable mind might question the veracity of Woolworth’s claim that Australia Day stock doesn’t sell.
People obviously intend to make a strong statement tomorrow. The Voice has been an obvious turning point for peoples’ submission to woke.
All except two families in the street will attend. They are Melbourne expats who both were in local government. They will probably fly Greenpeace flags or black drapes in mourning for Virginia.
Islam cannot have a significant presence in Australia if we are to live in an open, secular, and cohesive society. We have seen the destruction it is causing around the world.
– Pauline Hanson
There are always other things to contend with, Min, when it comes to getting down to writing. My family take up a lot of my time and thoughts. Worries come in the early morning hours and I wake, then I have to sleep in, and then half the day is gone, and the evenings are taken up with watching TV with Hairy, for we enjoy our time together and the political fray on Sky, interspersed with the occasional serial or movie we enjoy. Then there’s health, shopping, friends, reading books and mags, home admin and travel. Everyone’s usual stuff.
I don’t know how we ever managed to fit in work, I say to him. He agrees.
You have to be determined to write and set aside dedicated time for a clear project. I am not sure I can be bothered half the time.
NiKKi FaiLeY
BY WILLIAMBANZAI7
“Don’t mess with uhhiminauhwemerica.”
Economist” Says $34 Trillion In Debt Definitely Not A Problem
The idea that debt is just “keeping track of our savings” is peculiar. But Kelton is a peddler of strange ideas.
Nothing to Fear?
Yet one media crown jewel informed listeners they had little to fear. NPR’s Leila Fadel asked Stephanie Kelton, a professor of economics at Stony Brook University, if Americans should “be afraid” of this mountain of red ink.
“No. They shouldn’t,” Kelton responded. “It’s the word debt that makes people afraid. And so when I think about this, you know, I look at this number, and I think, well, it’s just keeping track of our savings.”
The idea that debt is just “keeping track of our savings” is peculiar. But Kelton is a peddler of strange ideas.
For those who don’t know, Kelton, an advisor to Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential run, is a disciple.
Can’t teach them, can’t train them, can’t shoot them.
Abandon all hope.
Niall Ferguson summarises DEI.
Diversity means uniformity of outlook.
Equity is absent in woke, as there is never any due process
Inclusion simply means the exclusion of non-conformists.
Identity Politics – reduces all individuals to mere empty categories
Laughing out loud at Elbow’s Australian Press Club speech about how his regime is encouraging aspiration through tax bracket creep.
Can’t wait for questions from the adoring press pack.
How dumb is this guy?
Is he expecting consumers to believe that goods sold to celebrate Chinese New Year are produced locally?
He’s supposed to be some high flying marketing guru. Clearly failed upwards.
Daily Mail. Trophy wife of “Aboriginal” footballer slams ‘Australia Day.”
Anyone professing to be surprised at the Albansleazey/Dim Chambers backflip on Goose Morristeen’s stage three tax cuts is as stupid as they are.
About as unsurprising as the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening.
I was more curious about when and how the useless destructive z-grade mediocrities would announce it. Although the “audible in space” screeching emanating from teal electorates has been rather enjoyable.
Coles was sold out of Australia Day stuff two days ago when I went, but a local two dollar shop still had supplies. Worth checking there too.
Can have your party going flagless.
When I was a kid in primary school we used to draw the Union Jack on sheets of quarto paper using crayons. Had to have red and blue and leave white space.
When we got bigger we advanced on to the corner Jack and the Southern Cross.
Can’t have, not can.
Get your crayons out.
No, dickhead, it is a shit decision which no amount of explaining will fix.
The other shit decision is appointing an “Indigenous Advisory Board” which is compounded by yet another shit decision in appointing Adam Goodes to chair that group.
The only part of the story I buy is the lead time for ordering merchandise. They took this decision when the “sleepwalk” polling showed da Voice looking like a slam dunk. Australia Day was going to be axed after the landslide Yes vote. They had promised Goodes that and no-one wanted to tell him otherwise. But ordering merchandise for sale is only part of it. A bit of cheap bunting and balloons accompanied by advertising campaigns which actually use the phrase “Australia Day” doesn’t have a lead time of months.
LOL. Elbow says he can’t do anything about bracket creep because his trade union government is “concerned with the here and now” and won’t commit to further action on bracket creep in the future.
Translation: Elbow thinks the cost-of-living crisis is just a passing political fad that everyone will have forgotten about in the next few months.
Diversity equals Uniformity
Equity equals Zero Rights
Inclusion equals Exclusion
The Orwellian future is here now.
Those T-shirts emblazoned with the flag that he claims staff will wear…they wouldn’t happen to be …. imported …. would they?
😀
Heh, the new push for conscription is fun.
Can you imagine these woke snowflakes encountering a Lee Ermey?
Dud’s army: How on earth will Gen Z cope with conscription? (24 Jan)
Daily Telegraph has Therapeutic Albo sussed out.
Both Front Pages Brilliant – Saved for Future!
Has autocorrect been “enhanced” with some sort of AI alleged smarts. I seem to be getting lots of replacements of properly spelt English words which are totally in context with the preceding text with another word which autocorrect thinks I might want to use.
It is also amending words beginning with a capital letter. A properly constructed autocorrect function should recognise that you are probably typing a name of a place or person and not try to correct it.
Autocorrect is destined to go the way of Clippy.
Without any discernible big goals except ruining the energy and productive industries, Albo && Labor are now operating essentially on ‘ideas’ & feedback from the people around them such as Labor staffers, Unionists and Public Servants.
So, like this ‘decision’, everything is about spin for the in-crowd and balancing factions. We won’t be able understand the outcomes in rational ways – only true insiders can keep score and explain the game.
Crash and burn, another failed Labor government is now in progress. Will they do worse than those before them is the only question.
Jacinta Price on Captain Climate:-
Hard to argue with.
Why do the Houthis still exist?
For what it’s worth, in my experience the Yemenis are like the Pashtun Afghans. Tough, crazy, quite wiling to kill you if you have a gun. And they have been at war since for ever. Just ask the Brits.
Of interest they believe Yemen was the origin of the Queen of Sheba. The Muz also believe their front line troops that invaded everywhere in the 7th century were Yemenis. So they are not so easy to eliminate.
More on Captain Climate from Tony Moclair on 3AW yesterday:-
Thanks for the flagpole links Helen.
Have just found the special flag after much searching and put it along the front verandah rails. It’s a rather special one…
In 2006 I worked in the Al Faw palace in Baghdad. It was the height of the war so we got about in body armour most of the time – lots of banging and crashing all the time from gunfire. Anyway, it occurred to five of us – a US and Aussie team – that having a special souvenir flag would be good.
So we wrote home and had flags shipped in. Without asking anyone one day we made our way to the roof, a rather special spot as it had counter-battery radar on it. Also as the palace got mortared occasionally I supose we were being a bit silly. Anyway, we found a flagpole, and duly hauled 14 flags up to the peak for 30 seconds each, and then lowered them.
Then we signed them all, and I still have two – a US and an Aussie pair.
Woolworths CEO is demanded to resign by angry Aussies over Australia Day comment that is the final straw for many
. Australians want Woolworths’ CEO to resign
. The grocer will not stock Australia Day merchandise
In a memo to staff obtained by Daily Mail Australia, South African-born Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci told staff he was ‘deeply sorry’ they had to endure the backlash.
‘I want to personally apologise to all of you for the way our merchandising decision has been received – and how this has resulted in hurtful and inappropriate reactions directed at you, our team members,’ Mr Banducci wrote.
However, his apology failed to resonate with many Aussies, with some arguing that Mr Banducci inadvertently jeopardised his staff’s safety because of the supermarket taking a stance on Australia Day.
‘He should resign, he has put his staff in danger. He has failed in his duty of care to his staff,’ one said.
In the memo, Mr Banducci explained that unlike Australia Day, Woolworths puts up banners for other holidays, such as Chinese Lunar New Year and Diwali, because they’re ‘centred around connection over food’.
That comment was the final straw for hundreds of people, who pointed out our national holiday centres around food — highlighting the traditional Australia Day BBQ.
‘He thinks Australia Day isn’t also themed around food? How about throwing shrimp on the barbeque and also our obsession with lamb,’ one angry shopper said.
‘He needs to represent Australia or forfeit his job,’ another wrote.
‘I eat lamb, sausages, steak, salads, cheese and bikkies, bread rolls, Pavlova and lamingtons on Australia Day! Is that not food?,’ a third said.
‘I’m deeply offended that the CEO… can decide what he feels is appropriate for OUR Australia Day! How dare he,’ a fourth added.
Social commentator Prue MacSween told Daily Mail Australia Mr Banducci needs to go.
‘The bloke is clearly out of step with his customers and most Australians and should resign,’ she said.
‘As CEO, he has …. taken Woolworths in the wrong direction.
‘Aussies have checked out at the Woolworths checkout and it’s all because of his poor performance and misguided judgment.’
The money is good. It’s just the people who pay him that he doesn’t like.
A whiff of the world’s oldest profession there.
Jacinta Price just gets better. That is so funny.
Ironic that the Houthi state is basically North Yemen. Which was called the Yemen Arab Republic, at war with Marxist-Leninist South Yemen aka the “People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen” (giggle). Now the Shia north is at war with Arabs, whom they formerly were, and the south is now Sunni not Marxist. Go figure.
Get it right Albo: you’re not putting more money in middle Australia’s pocket. You’re taking less from it (which you’ll claw back through various other levies, taxes, rates and charges). I’d love to see an assessment of all the money we actually hand to governments.
It’s an oldie but a goodie. I believe I’ve used it here also. Almost impossible to attribute though.
If woolies wants to ignore Australia Day, then make it an ordinary work day – don’t pay staff holiday loading. I wonder if they’ll turn up for their shift or go on strike for the pay loading.
Worse even than that.
He allowed the low income tax offset to expire earlier this year. Which took more out of middle and low income people’s income than the tax cut he is giving back to them.
Somehow I doubt the MSM will take him to task for this bit of despicable mendacity though.
Fortunately the vibes I’m seeing is that the proles are not happy.
Labor MPs express concerns at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s tax caucus (Sky News, 25 Jan)
Always fun when Labor backbenchers start squeaking in exquisite agony. Their inboxes must be on fire right now.
When Woolworths and BigW stop selling all that awful Halloween stuff (it’s tawdry, awful, bad taste, cheap and nasty) I’ll be pleased. For the time being, refusing to stock Australian patriotic goods looks tawdry, awful, bad taste, woke and nasty.
Their inboxes must be on fire right now
Phrasing
I love it when Albanese attempts to deflect by attacking Dutton.
Just as Gillard created Abbott by constantly attacking his positions, the Marrickville thug has created Dutton as a political force.
In a very tight field, the Trot overtakes TLS in the hopeless stakes. Both campus adolescents, both never had proper jobs, both hopeless outside of their ideology, but the Trot can’t dance.
ABC: ” Taxpayers on $45k to $135k to receive an extra $804 per year. ” Do these idiots ever learn. You don’t receive anything from being taxed at a lower rate.
How very generous considering the LMITO has died on the vine and the 37% rate remains, along with the absurdly low top bracket of 180,001 AUD+
Geez, they’re so generous.
That’s why Luigi the Un-a-believable had Maria to do the dancing.
I won’t cast Blabbersak as “Maria”. Perhaps Gallagher, or one of the nodding dames behind him in Parliament.
For All That Changed, Hamas Is Still Hamas
by Matthew Levitt
Two decades after a landmark study on the group, it is clear that Hamas leaders never truly strayed from their core principle of prioritizing Israel’s destruction over the well-being of fellow Palestinians.
Over the last 18 years, since I wrote Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, Hamas has experienced significant change—just not in the ways many people expected it would.
Whereas some assessed that participating in Palestinian national politics or ruling the Gaza strip would moderate, or at least co-opt, Hamas’ inclination to violence, that did not prove to be the case.
The October 7, 2023, massacre demonstrated in the most visceral and brutal way that Hamas ultimately prioritized destroying Israel and creating an Islamist Palestinian state in its place over its governance project in Gaza, Palestinian national reconciliation, or the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution.
In the years since my book came out, Hamas experienced two transformational events.
The first watershed event for Hamas came in the wake of the group’s decision to participate in Palestinian national elections in 2006, resulting in Hamas winning 74 of 132 seats and ultimately leading a National Unity Government with Fatah.
This came after the August 2005 withdrawal of all Israeli settlements and military forces from the Gaza Strip.
Some predicted that by reconciling with their Palestinian political rivals in Fatah, Hamas would become more responsive to its own public and ultimately a more moderate movement, but that did not happen.
Indeed, in June 2006 Hamas operatives penetrated into Israel via tunnels dug from Gaza, ambushed an Israeli border patrol, killing two soldiers and injuring two more, and kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Hamas would hold Shalit captive for five years, releasing him in exchange for the release of 1,027 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Hamas and Fatah never reconciled their political visions, and as a result the political experiment that was the Hamas-led National Unity Government was short-lived.
Fatah sought to keep Palestinian Authority (PA) policies within the boundaries of the Oslo Accords, while Hamas worked to undermine such policies, with a particular focus on curtailing Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation.
Finally, in July 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip from Fatah by force of arms, leaving Fatah to control the PA and govern the West Bank.
Shortly thereafter, I met with PA officials in Ramallah who listed names of family members thrown from rooftops by Hamas militants in Gaza and showed me documentation of how Hamas tried to use West Bank businesses and PA departments to launder Hamas money when it led the National Unity Government.
Even after Hamas confirmed its propensity for militancy with its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip—this time targeting not Israelis but fellow Palestinians—some analysts believed that running the Gaza Strip would moderate Hamas or, short of that, that the group would be co-opted by virtue of the responsibility of governance, the daily grind of collecting garbage, and paying teacher salaries.
Hamas’ Islamic social institutions in Gaza and the West Bank, one author wrote in 2014, “advocated a moderate approach to change that valued order and stability, not disorder and instability.”
Again, that did not turn out to be the case.
And yet, assuming control of governance in Gaza did present Hamas with a stark choice.
It could continue to carry out acts of violence targeting Israel, knowing these would risk Israeli retaliation, or it could focus on providing for the needs and security of the residents of the Gaza Strip.
In the first few months after the 2007 takeover, the pace of Hamas slowed while the group consolidated power and took over governmental institutions.
But by December 2008 Hamas initiated the first in a series of rocket wars with Israel. By 2015, after three rounds of rocket wars, some still assessed that Hamas would prioritize survival over “resistance” (i.e. fighting Israel) and placed hope in periodic efforts to reconcile Fatah and Hamas, each of which failed as Hamas refused to give up its arms and abide by peace process commitments.
The second watershed event came on October 7, when thousands of Hamas operatives murdered some 1,200 people in Israel, wounded thousands, and took at least 240 people hostage, including nationals from more than 40 countries.
October 7 was a departure from Hamas’ established modus operandi, but an intentional one, which the group planned in careful detail.
Never had the group executed such a large attack, let alone employ such barbaric tactics.
In the words of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “Babies slaughtered. Bodies desecrated. Young people burned alive. Women raped. Parents executed in front of their children, children in front of their parents.” The attack, he concluded, “brings to mind the worst of ISIS.” Maps and documents seized from Hamas attackers on October 7 revealed the group specifically targeted elementary schools and a youth center.
In fact, October 7 was the war Hamas always wanted.
Coles was sold out of Australia Day stuff two days ago when I went, but a local two dollar shop still had supplies. Worth checking there too.
I bought some little Australian flags at the $2 shop today. They had a reasonable selection of Australia day merch including fake tatts (I can’t say I wasn’t tempted) and were doing a good trade.
All made “you know where” though.
Gosh it’s a stinker here at the Bay. Nearest stations registering 41C. Even the roos have retired to the shade, as have all the birds.
https://www.ventusky.com/?p=-18.91;150.01;6&l=gust&t=20240125/0400
Perfect.
Captain Alinta may well be having a fine old time castling second-rate Paki and third rate West Indian batsmen, but I expect his subject matter expertise may be lacking in areas including, but limited to the following:
Hard science
The Dewey system
Relative merits and benefits of Stone Age peoples being brought into the First World and more than doubling their life expectancies as a consequence
Cello manufacturing
Trains vs Trucks
Tarantino movies
Life in the ‘Booka
His opinion on subjects other than cricket are worthless.
So…unions don’t foresee their members ever reaching toward high brackets? I find this hard to believe in the sector where far and away most unionists are found: the public service. Any one of their rubber-stamp warriors can hope to be elevated to high paying gigs because some momentary fad creates a special department for which, by chance, they are a scientific holotype, or because like blind genetic mutation in nature some bland unimaginative comment they uttered fleetingly pleasured some bland unimaginative superior who thereafter marked them out as ‘on side’.
A true unionist still thinks they are saving an army of bent exhausted wage-slaves spilling from mineshafts like poisoned blood, individualism obliterated by black pitch and coal-dust – but they think this while lounging beside their pool in silk swimming trunks, drinking Moët & Chandon from a grotesquely elongated glass with ice and a crazy straw (as the Americans would call it) eating BBQ’ed sushi*.
Envy is only ever directed towards the tangible trappings of wealth but never the intangible taste.
The guy leading the shouting, shouts about more gunfire at 3:12 just before the gunfire happens, and he wasn’t among that small group with the flag. Where did he come from? Cameras seem to be positioned in ideal locations for each cut of footage. Groups of people return to the same street where the shooting happened. It has all the marks of Pallywood.
Because, you six mouth-breathing downtickers (so far), it’s a huge undertaking for someone of my age. My marriage and family come first. Always.
Let’s see how you fare, if you ever get there.
Miserable moaners often don’t make old age, and rarely age well.
lol. Nor could the Lying Slapper.
Thought Cats might like this one:
Why isn’t Lenin as reviled as Hitler?
James Bartholomew / The Spectator
20 January 2024
Around the corner from me is a barber’s shop decorated with black-and-white photographs of icons of the 20th century. James Dean is there with the usual cigarette hanging out of his mouth; Marilyn Monroe is perching on the edge of a pool table. A poster for the film Taxi Driver is alongside a photo of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack – and also a photo of Lenin.
I guess the aim is to appear edgy, alternative and rebellious. But obviously there is no image of Hitler. That would be unacceptable: Hitler was a fascist who invaded countries and killed millions of people. It would be tasteless to display an image of him. But Lenin is apparently OK.
This Saturday is the centenary of the death of Lenin and I asked Whitestone Insight to do an opinion poll to discover what people think of him. It emerges from this poll (of more than 2,000 people) that of those aged 18 to 24 who have heard of Lenin and have a view one way or the other, the proportion who have a ‘favourable or very favourable’ view of him is a terrifying 43 per cent. If you include all the young people polled, the proportion who approve of Lenin falls to 15 per cent, but that includes those who haven’t a clue who Lenin was and therefore couldn’t approve or disapprove.
The lie Lenin fans choose to believe is that if only he had lived, communist rule would have succeeded
Our poll tallies with those done in America, where many young people are also overtly keen on communism. The polls there reveal that 28 per cent of Gen Z and 22 per cent of millennials have a favourable view of ‘communism’ and that the percentage is rising every year.
This chimes with what we discovered a few weeks ago, talking to students and their teachers outside the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Lenin was ‘a very important person from history and we have a lot to learn from him’, said one woman I spoke to, confidently. Others agreed.
It is a curious phenomenon that Lenin is acceptable and even approved of whereas Hitler is beyond the pale. It is not exactly a secret that Lenin started off 70 years of communist rule in Russia which included two major famines, the Red Terror, the Great Terror and continuing poverty. The death toll of Soviet communism was in the order of 20 million. So how do people manage to think favourably of him?
I discovered from our SOAS conversations that the first thing admirers of Lenin do is kid themselves that he led a popular revolution removing a corrupt, tyrannical Tsarist regime. This is just not true. The February revolution could indeed be considered a popular revolution and the Tsar was indeed removed from power. But Lenin took no part in it. He was in Zurich and had to read about it in the Swiss newspapers. He did lead the so-called October Revolution, later the same year, but that was not a revolution. The fact that it is referred to as that in Britain is one of several ways in which Soviet propaganda has entered British textbooks. In reality it was a coup. In a rather chaotic series of events, some 10,000 Red Guards took control of Petrograd (now St Petersburg) and arrested the Provisional Government.
Then there is the idea that the coup somehow represented the ‘will of the people’. We have clear proof that it did not.
The Bolsheviks got only 24 per cent of the vote in the elections to the Constituent Assembly. The more moderate Socialist Revolutionaries received 39 per cent. To put it bluntly, the Bolsheviks lost. But Lenin did not care. Rather like Hitler, whose party incidentally got a higher percentage of the vote in Germany than the Bolsheviks did in Russia, he closed the Constituent Assembly and deployed armed soldiers to prevent anyone reopening it. The lie Lenin fans choose to believe is that if only Lenin had lived, communist rule would have succeeded. Lenin’s replacement by Stalin ruined it all.
But Lenin did all the things that Stalin did. Lenin began government control of agriculture, setting a fixed price that the government would pay for corn and other grains. The price was absurdly low because of the high rate of inflation. A shortage of food ensued. Lenin then requisitioned grain from peasants at gunpoint. These disastrous policies contributed heavily to death by starvation of at least three million people in 1920-21. Lenin implicitly recognised the part his policies had played by reversing them in 1921.
Meanwhile, he took advantage of the famine to steal from the church, seizing half a ton of gold along with a vast quantity of silver and precious stones in November 1921 alone. He stated that this was an opportunity to kill members of the bourgeoisie who resisted this expropriation. ‘The confiscations must be conducted with merciless determination… the greater the number of clergy and reactionary bourgeoisie we succeed in executing for this reason… [i.e. resisting church looting], the better.’ In two years, more than 30 bishops and 1,200 priests were killed.
Lenin created the Cheka, the Soviet secret police. His on-the-record instructions to kill include this written order following a revolt in Penza province: ‘Hang (absolutely hang, in full view of the people) no fewer than 100 known kulaks [peasants owning a little land], filthy rich men, bloodsuckers.’ Lenin did not engage in class war. He engaged in class murder.
Lenin set up the concentration camps which eventually became the Gulag. He issued a decree in 1918 stating that it was ‘imperative to safeguard the Soviet Republic from class enemies by isolating them in concentration camps’. Every provincial city was ordered to create one, and by the end of 1920 there were 107 of them. Lenin authorised the use of poison gas in 1921 to kill peasants in the Tambov uprising. Vyacheslav Molotov, a senior Soviet politician under both Lenin and Stalin, remarked that both leaders were ‘hard men… harsh and stern. But without a doubt Lenin was harsher.’
Lenin did not engage in class war. He engaged in class murder
Again and again the records show Lenin urging his colleagues to be more ruthless and to kill. Against all this, the defence is sometimes: ‘Well it was a time of civil war, so extreme measures were necessary.’ But why was there a civil war? Only because Lenin had mounted a coup that was contrary to the expressed views of the Russian people. Supporters of Lenin argue that he did some wonderful things. He issued a decree that women should have equal rights in 1917. But it was the Provisional Government that had already given women the vote, and it is not as if the Soviet Union was unique in conferring increasing rights to women during the 20th century. It was happening throughout Europe. It is noticeable that the first politburo included no women at all, and most people will be hard pressed to think of any woman who ever achieved a major political or business role in the Soviet Union.
There is anyway something grotesque about this sort of argument. It is reminiscent of the well-known justification for Mussolini’s dictatorship in the 1930s: that ‘he made the trains run on time’. You could say something similar about Hitler: ‘at least he righted the wrongs of the Versailles Treaty’ or ‘he gave the Germans back their self-respect’. Such arguments are obscene when juxtaposed with mass slaughter.
The final argument is that Lenin was an important historical figure. This is true. Robert Service, in his biography of Lenin, went so far as to say: ‘Without Lenin, there would have been no revolution in October 1917. Without Lenin, the Russian Communist party would not have lasted much beyond the end of 1921.’
But what were the consequences of his success? Russia endured 70 years of communist rule with all the deaths, savage torture, prison sentences and economic failure this caused. The secondary effects of the coup rippled through the 20th century far more than Hitler’s brief rule. Lenin’s success made Stalin possible. Stalin, in turn, made an alliance with Hitler in 1939 which freed both of them to invade their agreed shares of Poland. Stalin also invaded the Baltic States and grabbed as much of Finland as he was able. At the end of the second world war, Stalin invaded most of Eastern Europe, leading to more mass deportations, terror and murders. The Soviet Union also enabled the communist coups in China, Vietnam and elsewhere. Lenin created a template for similar coups around the world. The Soviet Union gave financial and military assistance to them.
In short, yes, Lenin was an important historical figure, I can agree with his young admirers on that at least. The communist regimes which emerged in his wake caused poverty, fear, oppression and the deaths of an estimated 80 to 100 million people. He was important in the sense that he was the most disastrous leader of the 20th century and the damaging effects of his coup continue to this day. His image should be as unacceptable as Hitler’s.
Great article. I recall someone once writing that Hitler was the most recognised tyrant because of the moustache. Though Lenin seems a memorable face. Is he still on display in Red Square?
Have I ever said how much I despise politicians and the bureaucrats who facilitate them? From The Speccie (sorry if already posted).
B. Bee, bloggie, send an email to me and Cassie, one of us will get it.
Dover can supply if asked nicely.
Hairy and I are off to the shops now with our Aussie Day BBQ list.
Take a deep breath while I’m away, mouth-breathers.
Some xtra O2 helps feeble brains.
An elderly man rear-ended a guy driving an expensive European sports car. Enraged, the guy hops out and confronts the old man. He yells,
“Look what you did to my car! You’re going to give me $10,000 right now or I’m going to beat you to a pulp!”
“Oh my…” the old man said nervously. “I don’t have that kind of money. Let me call my son.” he said with hope. “He trains dolphins and he will know what to do.”
“Dolphins!” the other driver huffed, while rolling his eyes.
The old man pulled out his phone, dialed his son, and just as his son answered, the irate man snatched the phone away from the old man.
“So, YOU’RE a dolphin trainer, huh?” The irate man yelled, “Well, your old man here just rear-ended my car and I need TEN GRAND right now, or I’m going to beat you AND your old man to a pulp!”
“I’ll be there in 10 minutes.” says the voice calmly on the other end.
Exactly 10 minutes later, a Jeep pulls up and a guy hops out and proceeds to pulverize the bully, leaving him in a heap on the side of the road. When he finished, he walked over to his father and said,
“For the last time dad, I train Seals… Navy Seals. NOT dolphins!”
Following the playbook initiated by Jacinda Ardern to give away sovereignty and equality of citizens in secret until its done. See how that worked out.
Calli, it’s worse than that, pretty much everything except fresh food is now made overseas. Yesterday I opened a new roll of gladwrap and thought I would just check whether it was still made in Aus. Nope, made in China. The Woollies CEO doesn’t seem to know from where their sale items are sourced but he thinks it’s his business to tell their customers how to vote and what they should do about contentious issues.
The opening of this clip is a butt ugly freak. Disgusting.
—-
Fleccas Talks:
This Week in Culture 176.
This Week in Culture 176
We should not change the date of Australia Day – the most important reason for which conviction is, in my opinion, because people who loathe Australia and wish to delegitimise its existence are pushing for us to do so.
It is an already all-too-well established pattern that any attempt to compromise with progressives is not received as an acknowledgement of their opinion, but as confirmation that you can be walked over. They don’t calm down after being ceded ground. They double down. They see your pattern of surrendering. They don’t respect you. They don’t care about you at all. People they disagree with are denied any humanity. Those people are shit who deserve whatever humiliation can be heaped upon them.
Add to this that they are invariably ignorant, poorly read automatons with very limited real world experience, who would presume (on the basis of a few uni tutorials with people similarly insulated by the protected and cosseted cloisters of academe) to impose their benighted ideas on the world despite them have nothing that could credibly be considered the least qualification for such an ambitious task.
Also they smell.
Transphobic?
No fears here.
Why is a fat-gutted white bloke talking into a microphone at the Gabba while an equally pale bloke blows into a hollow log? No sound on for me.
Capt’n climate clapped and smiled as you’d expect.
Different Video – https://nypost.com/2024/01/24/lifestyle/massive-waves-rip-through-south-pacific-us-army-base-cause-signifant-flooding-video/
If I have to sit through “Welcome to Country”, you can sit through “Australia Day.”
Of the many extraordinary aspects of the attack upon the St Pancras pianist by the CCP thugs, the standout was the behaviour of the copper who was wetting herself in anticipation of making a woke arrest.
Dr K is a successful self promoter and got himself off to bunches of interviews and panel shows all of which he steered towards the copper’s behaviour. Maybe there is still hope for the UK.
These CCP scum are well trained. Pulling out the race card demonstrated a perfect understand of British policing.
No doubt like other cats I have encountered other difficult to believe examples of Chinese total lack of understanding of the free world.
Taking a friend to the salt mine at Saltzburg we encountered a CCP tour group. Their goon announced “we have book you leave”. He was ignored but he made the visit hell by swarming.
Skiing in Japan we encountered three or four CCP groups who constantly pushed into queues and pulled kids out of the way. The Japanese police weren’t having any of that. They took them away and apparently gave them some fundamental advice concerning appropriate behaviour. In Australia the cops would probably arrest the lifties for race crimes.
Nice flag storyTop Ender. We have displayed in our rumpus room bar an Australian Red Ensign. I was given it by an American second cousin whom I met in the 80’s, he had owned a sailboat but had been diagnosed with bone cancer which killed him a year later. So the flag is meaningful to me. I don’t know the rules for flying it anywhere, so it stays indoors.
So The Australian Open is making a fuss for Pride (a very bizarre expropriation of a word – I have always been exceedingly pleased to be straight, I just never thought to wave it in people’s faces and demanding special treatment. I think they want people to treat them like they ought to be proud.)
Next year we should shower them with form letters and links to tiny groups with grandiose names (“The Australian National Committee…”, “The National Australian Congress of…”, “The National…Alliance of Australia”), for the cause of coprophagia.
You immediately judged them, didn’t you? That is precisely why they need support. Raising awareness and whatnot.
All the players could play in shorts with skid marks. They could change the blue surface for…another colour. Tennis Australia officials can stand around posing as ambassadors and allies of shit-eaters. Signs and placards could be daubed in thematic colours and smells.
And there could be a concession stand for hot
dogslogs.And there could be a flag – designed as a stylised piece of toilet paper.
But if you show the least hesitation…BIGOT!
The ball clearly hit Brathwaite’s bat before it hit his pads. I could tell that watching TV. The umpire gave him out. Reviewed and overturned obviously.
Who are some of these umpires in the latter day?
Dick French and Robin Baillache never made a mistake like that.
The same is true of the US military and intelligence services IIRC.
Mother Lode> Woke Olympics would surely feature log rolling along and other games of skill and fun.
B. Bee, bloggie, send an email to me and Cassie, one of us will get it.
Dover can supply if asked nicely.
Did that a day or more ago.
Pogria has my phone number for texting etc.
Instead, what I found were community members, businesses, and local leaders frustrated by the worst anti-social behaviour they had ever witnessed and being met with total apathy from elected officials.
While much of this sort of behaviour has been happening for years, I can’t help but think it is exacerbated now not simply because of the stupid change in policy re the cashless debit card, but because of the politicisation of The Voice.
No doubt like other cats I have encountered other difficult to believe examples of Chinese total lack of understanding of the free world.
There is only one way to deal with them. We encountered an abominable group of Chinese tourists on the magnificent heritage train in the Swiss alps between Interlaken & Montreux. They actually pulled down the blinds (the view was of no interest to them!), put their effects on seats beyond their seat allocation & played loud Chinese music.
Husband and I were outraged. We removed their things from the seats beyond their group & beckoned some standing passengers to sit down. After scowling at the group director, the music was turned down. Aussies 1 Chinese 0.
I passed on your contact details late last night, Bee.
The opening of this clip is a butt ugly freak. Disgusting.
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Fleccas Talks:
This Week in Culture 176.
This Week in Culture 176
FMD. I only made 47 secs.
Better Days folks … back when our Fiction was more reliable than Facts as presented.
But “If Not” at least it was funny …
But if there is a Sunday School moment it is about “phoneyness” and thinking you Know it All.
I have a strange feeling that When all the Veils are Drawn aside … “I Will realise that I know Nothing” The Bible give us a hint …
And I will go into the Next Life as I came into this …
naked.
Have Fun !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIqgsG4McOc
Thanks Dover.
Is there a cricket match on?
I find I’ve lost interest lately.
I bought some little Australian flags at the $2 shop today. They had a reasonable selection of Australia day merch including fake tatts (I can’t say I wasn’t tempted) and were doing a good trade.
Back in Sydney & husband has bought an Aussie flag at a dollar shop. Yea!
Have decided that we will install a permanent flagpole at the front gate at the farm to display the flag. We have driven across the USA & seen flags & thought they were a bit “twee”. Not any more! We need to get behind the nation, our culture & our heritage. We are at a crossroad in our history.
My father was a headmaster in England and then the dean of a college in Australia. We moved there when I was about five, so my education was in Australia, and I always felt I was Australian even though my passport was British.
– Olivia Newton-John
Mark Bolton
Jan 25, 2024 3:51 PM
How do you know that you will go into the Next Life naked? Personally, I would like to die in bed in my sleep wearing my best pajamas.
Her father was an MI5 agent, and a code breaker at Bletchley Park during Wobbly Wobbly Two.
He digs up dirt on Israel for +972 Magazine, almost unknown to Israelis and more extremist left than Ha’aretz,
Both my parents are English and came out to Australia in 1967. I was born the following year. My parents, and immigrants like them, were known as ‘£10 poms.’ Back then, the Australian government was trying to get educated British people and Canadians – to be honest, educated white people – to come and live in Australia.
– Hugh Jackman
This business in TX is a very interesting development.
Busy day. I took the day off so that I could have a long weekend. So, this morning I went to a Pilates class and then I walked all the way into the CBD and to David Jones. Whilst in DJs I bought a bad girl red Bobbi Brown lipstick, and then I caught the train to Kings Cross because I was going to a nail place at Potts Point (my nails are now a bad girl red). I walked out of the train station and decided to grab some groceries at Coles Kings Cross. Went down into Coles Kings Cross and was busy putting groceries in my shopping basket when and I (and others) heard an old codger yelling……”f*cking Albanese” and “lying Albanese” and he kept on repeating them. I went round the aisle and saw he was an old codger, in his late sixties or early seventies, and he continued shouting “f*cking Albanese” and “lying Albanese”. Now, I’m not usually one to engage such types but I said to him…”yeah, he is a liar”, and then the old codger said to me “yeah, he’s a f*cking liar with five houses”!
I walked up the escalators smiling.
Afterwards I went to have my nails done in Potts Point and I walked down Victoria Street to William Street and I saw him again, still shouting “f*cking Albanese”.
What a highlight! And isn’t it nice to know that even an old codger can see right through the lying, creepy and very sleazy Albanese!
Australia is always a place that is dear to me; it is always my second home, and I try to get there as often as I can, but it is not next door, you know.
– Garfield Sobers
My mother is currently flying an Israeli flag from her balcony in inner-city Sydney and tomorrow she will fly, proudly, the Australian flag next to the Israeli flag.
Actually Hugh, restrictions on non-European migrants had been relaxed some years earlier, much to the consternation of the Labor Party.
Mr 32% might have a problem. Remember- lying Liars lie. Lieborals too but not quite as blatantly. Presumably Albo got sign off by da bruvvas and Caucus. McCrann bells Chalmers impotence. A NPC.
Thank God for Truckers & Farmers
“The World needs to thank the Canadian Truckers. They have inspired so many around the world. The Farmers have staged massive protests in the Netherlands, then Germany, and now in France. Sources from even Southern France say it is impossible to get to work so many road are blocked.
At last, a US trucker convoy is preparing to head to several locations along the U.S.-Mexico border next week to draw more attention to President Joe Biden’s lax immigration enforcement policies Republicans have blamed for millions of illegal crossings.
“There will be a ‘Take Our Border Back’ multi-day trucker convoy from January 29th through February 3rd,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) wrote in an X post. “Routes will end at Eagle Pass TX, Yuma AZ, and San Ysidro CA.”
The U.S. convoy has been inspired by the protest movements in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. Truckers gathered around government buildings in Ottawa and border checkpoints to oppose the nation’s strict vaccine mandates. Trudeau passed an Emergency Act to oppress the people in a ruthless manner probably as he was taught by the World Economic Forum.
In response to the protests, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the nation’s “Emergencies Act” to effectively declare a form of martial law, leading to the clearing out of protesters by riot police and the arrest of leaders who also had their bank accounts seized.
In case you didn’t catch this – The Canadian Federal Court found that Trudeau’s decision to declare the Emergencies Act was ultra vires “unreasonable” and “unjustified” – and that the measures violated the Charter.
“1. The Respondent’s motion for an order striking the application for judicial review is
denied and the Court exercises its discretion to determine the matter notwithstanding
that it is moot in view of the revocation of the Proclamation and termination of the
associated Regulations and Order;
2. The Applicant is granted public interest standing to bring this application for judicial
review;
3. It is declared that the decision to issue the Proclamation and the associated
Regulations and Order was unreasonable and ultra vires the Emergencies Act;
4. It is declared that the Regulations infringed section 2 (b) of the Charter and declared
that the Order infringed section & of the Charter and that neither infringement was justified under Section 1
5. no costs were awarded”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/canada/thank-god-for-truckers-farmers/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
Maybe Australian Farmers and Truckers are next.
From the ALPBC executive producer school of “experts”.
If you have a Woolies Loyalty card, send it back.
@Bruce of Newcastle
Jan 25, 2024 12:26 PM
I don’t know. Have other swaps been conducted through Belarus.
At least once that I can immediately find. ~snip~
The whole thing pongs … I dont believe a word of any of it …
There must have been a prior deconfliction agreement ..Say “where was the plane going to land if it hadnt got shot down? Plane wouldn’t have left the runaway without such a vouchsafe…..
There is more to this…
Only Tories have five houses.
Being in your late sixties does not render you an “old codger.”
Here I am.
Uneventful flights, lucky to get near empty one Melbourne to Singapore so able to sleep across four seats, Singapore to Dubai was a little busier, lots of groups doing the Hajj, one of the men had that pagan black box they walk around embroidered on his white robes, iirc IS have had a couple of goes of blowing that up.
Dubai to Rome was mostly young Chinese in tourist groups but again I got three seats so could curl up and sleep.
Old hand at navigating to Trastevere (they’ve removing the battalion of parking spaces in from of Trastevere station and put a big pedestrian island with a kiosk so that is much easier to navigate) except for being simless, when I arrived at my destination numerous bells on the door offered no clues to identity of landlady but fortunately Eastern European lady arrived in a taxi and bustled me in in a great hurry with her husband driving a taxi waiting and then left with barely a word. I was worried there was a mix up as the apartment was clearly occupied, lots of personal stuff and the stove was dirty but she said si to my solo mio and left.
Couldn’t find a towel and the wifi didn’t match that on the listing and I trying to get the dlink to work when the door bell rang.
Was another guest who was staying in the apartment, an English woman. Having cancelled my original booking I hadn’t looked at the photos of the alternative my host offered me and behind the main door is a huge complex of several buildings with a central courtyard and many many apartments and no doubt many of those airbnb.
Eastern Europe assumed I was waiting for her and I assumed she was there to greet me.
Both wrong.
My friendly Italian landlady took me to the right place.
Mine is a very little one bedroom with a kitchen in a cupboard in the sitting room. Absolutely fine, very quiet and very close to Santa Maria in Trastevere.
It’s funny, I hate being in an empty house at home but feel very relaxed on my own here, the main entrance has a massive locked door, though they don’t bother locking the glass door at the bottom of this block, then there is a big security door to the shared foyer of these two little apartments and of course a key to my own door and I feel perfectly safe.
I shall venture out for mass and coffee in an hour or so when Rome starts to wake up.
@Johnny Lyden
Jan 25, 2024 4:05 PM
Mark Bolton
Jan 25, 2024 3:51 PM
How do you know that you will go into the Next Life naked?
~snip~
My entire point is that I dont know and never have ..
Oi! I turn 68 soon, girlie! 😀
On the sentiment, I’m with Sir.
Another good Speccie article:
America is seeing a tiny civil war in Texas
Lionel Shriver / The Spectator
20 January 2024
Pundits these days often warn that America may be on the brink of civil war. Finally, they’re right – except that in tiny Eagle Pass, Texas, forget being on the brink. In microcosm, civil war is already under way.
Once again playing immigration hardball, last week the Texas governor Greg Abbott, the vile, heartless Republican whose voodoo doll progressive Democrats poke pins in, sent the Texas National Guard to assume control of an Eagle Pass park used to process migrants and additional lands along the Mexican border. In so doing, the state militia is actively blocking the US Border Patrol from policing several miles along the banks of the Rio Grande. The intention, according to the Texas Military Department, is to block ‘organisations that perpetuate illegal immigrant crossings’. Those organisations would seem to include the federal government.
Now, Fort Sumter this is not. It’s hard to see conflicting jurisdiction over a park escalating into a four-year clash between rebel states and DC that ends with 620,000 American dead. Nevertheless, Abbott’s defiance of federal authority further ramps up the antagonism between a governor infuriated by federal inaction on what has become a siege of foreigners in his state and the Biden administration, whose relative passivity in the face of proliferating guests of the nation makes the President, in addiction terms, an ‘enabler’.
Constitutionally, only the federal government may fail to enforce its own immigration laws. What led to the deaths near that occupied park last weekend is disputed, but Homeland Security is clearly attempting to weaponise the drownings of three migrants, two of them children, as a demonstration that Abbott’s cavalier policies endanger human life. Texas has passed a bill making illegal immigration into its territory a state crime, a law on which the feds are asking the courts to slap an injunction before it takes effect in March. Texas has floated buoys in the Rio Grande to obstruct migrants refining their aquatic skills, which the Biden administration has sued to remove. Texas has strung concertina wire in great billows on the American side of the river, which the White House is also seeking permission from the court to cut. After all, these metallic tumbleweeds seem unfriendly.
But why are the Texas state government and the White House on opposing sides? Why wouldn’t both parties have a vested interest in controlling this chaos? Because, constitutionally, only the federal government may fail to enforce its own immigration laws.
You can understand the desperation on the ground. Under normal circumstances, Eagle Pass has a population of 29,000. Last December, 14,000 migrants arrived in this hamlet in a single day – swelling the population by 50 per cent in 24 hours. Use your imagination. Many of these arrivals are injured or unwell; the town’s small, beleaguered fire department gets around 50 calls per day, two-thirds of them regarding migrants in distress, and had to buy a fifth ambulance to handle the extra demand. All these incomers need to relieve themselves, and may not, er, find a convenient portacabin before they do so. They leave behind mountains of litter and even abandoned pets. They’re thirsty and they’re hungry. They’re usually broke and rarely speak English.
But the moment they set foot in your town, their problems become your problems: their disabilities, their mental illnesses, their lawbreaking, their drug-taking, their domestic abuse, their fights with one another, their gang affiliations, their lack of employable skills, their pregnancies or kidney dialysis, their children’s learning shortfalls or behavioural issues. Eagle Pass has yet to receive any federal aid to compensate the townspeople for a crisis not of their making.
This last December alone – in winter, when illegal migration commonly slows – 302,000 uninvited visitors were encountered at America’s southern border. Ten thousand migrants per day is an obliging number for the arithmetically challenged, as annualising that rate doesn’t even require pen and paper: 365 x 10,000 = 3.65 million immigrants/year. That includes neither get-aways nor the copious visa over-stayers who fly into the US and then disappear, of whom no government bureaucracy bothers to keep track (ditto in the UK).
It’s estimated that during Biden’s tenure, between eight and ten million immigrants have crossed the southern border and were bussed or flown all over the country at the citizenry’s expense. That’s a significant percentage increase for a population of 331 million. Yet, comically, the mainstream media persistently references the same ’11 million undocumented immigrants in the US’ statistic that journalists have cited for 25 years – although PBS did recently dignify the ludicrously outdated figure with ‘at least’.
Britons will recognise the pattern. An ineffectual or negligent central government ushers millions of strangers into the country who place severe demands on taxpayers and social services, but then leaves it to local authorities to sweat the pesky details. You know, little stuff like housing and supporting a multitude of whole families.
Progressives maintain that mass immigration is a net economic benefit. You’d think, then, that our friend Governor Abbott altruistically bussing tens of thousands of foreigners north to Democrat-controlled cities would make the mayors of New York and Chicago grateful. Surely they should be fighting over which city gets more terribly beneficial migrants. Funnily enough, these mayors seem rather cheesed off instead. Mayor Eric Adams has warned that 168,000 instant New Yorkers (only 37,000 sent courtesy of Governor Abbott, with more supplicants arriving daily) could destroy the city. During last week’s winter storm, officials moved 2,000 migrants from a tented airfield to the shelter of a Brooklyn high school. Never mind the education parental taxes pay for; the students were all sent home.
The free-for-all at the Mexican border may be the single biggest determinant of which party wins in November. For Biden, clips of uniformed Border Patrol agents helping thousands of interlopers through holes in Trump’s partially constructed wall – acting purely as a gracious greeting committee – presents an ominously telegenic spectacle. At present, what the US and Britain may have most in common is feeble if not complicit central governments waving in millions from all over the world, and enraged electorates who were never asked but whose unflagging hospitality is demanded anyway.
Bother.
I’m with Sir Shoutalot.
Good stuff, Rosie! I love Trastevere! And Santa Maria also.
Woolworth’s priorities – Chinese New Year gets a guernsey, Australia Day gets cancelled.
I was being affectionate when I called him an “old codger”.
Apologies, I found him refreshing. We need more old codgers like him!
I’m not daunted by the travel. People say, ‘It’s so far to Australia,’ and I say, ‘You get on the plane, you eat well, you sleep, you wake up – and you’re there.’
– Geoffrey Rush
Two nuns are being followed by a man during their walk. They quicken their steps, but at the same time the man is walking faster and getting closer.
“Even if we run as fast as possible, he’ll catch up with us soon,” fears one sister, “what should we do?” “It’s best if we separate, then at least one of us will get away safely,” answers the other.
They part, and while the man follows the first nun, the other reaches the convent unmolested. A short time later the first nun comes back.
“What happened after we broke up?” asks the second nun.
“Well, as expected, the man followed me and I ran faster.”
“And then?”
“Well, as feared, the man has caught up with me.”
“What happened then?”
“The inevitable, I lifted my skirt…”
“Oh God …”
“…and the man dropped his pants.”
“And then what happened?”
“The most natural thing: a nun with her skirt up can run much faster than a man with his pants down.”
Albo has taken a big bet. Gillard never came back from “There will be no Carbon Tax under the government Iead.”
BoM scientist sacked for secretly working from overseas
David Marin-Guzman – Workplace correspondent
A Bureau of Meteorology scientist has failed to get his job back after he was sacked for secretly working overseas for several weeks while telling his bosses he was working from home.
The Fair Work Commission rejected research scientist Diandong Ren’s unfair dismissal claim and backed the BoM’s case that lying to his boss about his location and accessing his employer’s systems from overseas without permission had put the Commonwealth’s IT network at risk.
The ruling recognised the importance of cybersecurity in employer policy requirements for working remotely overseas following the latitude granted to workers during the pandemic.
“While Mr Ren’s intentions may have been honourable in these circumstances, it is not for him to decide when and from where he can access the employer’s IT networks, without prior approval,” commissioner Scott Connolly said.
“I have also considered the serious potential breaches to Commonwealth IT networks and systems and I am convinced that this ground alone would have warranted the BoM to take decisive action.”
Mr Ren went on four weeks’ holiday from August to September 2022, and travelled to the United States.
But nine days after he was due back in Australia, Mr Ren’s supervisor noticed he had not been seen in the office, was unresponsive during work hours and failed to attend meetings, even ones he was supposed to chair.
When the BoM traced the IP address Mr Ren was using to log onto its network “from home”, the agency discovered it was coming from Austin, Texas.
Mr Ren claimed that was because he had left his personal computer overseas “running python and unix scripts”.
But when his supervisor directed him to provide evidence of his travel dates to the US, he did not do so.
Several months later, he claimed his return flight had been interrupted because of a positive COVID-19 test in Doha and that when he got back to Australia he had to quarantine and work from home for two weeks.
However, travel records provided by the Department of Home Affairs indicated that he did not return to Australia until October 6, more than two weeks after he was supposed to have returned.
The records showed that, even as he was under investigation for secretly working overseas, he had again travelled to the US for three months despite telling his supervisor he was working from home and despite the BoM refusing his request to take personal leave to visit the country.
The bureau alleged he had again failed to follow cybersecurity policies by accessing its network from the US.
Claimed his passport was stolen
Faced with the travel records, Mr Ren rejected he had gone overseas again and claimed his passport had been stolen after his return to Australia.
He told the FWC, “there exists slight possibility of identity theft” regarding the 2022 dates when he asserted he was quarantining in Australia.
Following nine months of investigations, responses and internal appeals, the BoM sacked Mr Ren for refusing to accept its rules for working remotely and accessing its IT systems overseas, with “potential implications for overall security and integrity of BoM’s systems”.
Management told Mr Ren he had been “deliberately evasive and untruthful” and it no longer had trust and confidence he would do his job.
Launching his unfair dismissal claim, Mr Ren argued he had permission to work overseas and that the BoM had installed programs on his device to access the network overseas.
He said he had been undertaking research in the US to assist his work role, even to the detriment of his family and personal relationships.
In any case, working remotely, including overseas, had been common practice among bureau staff, he argued.
The BoM accepted that during the pandemic it had provided some latitude to staff, including Mr Ren, to work remotely from home and overseas.
But it said this was done with its explicit knowledge, and employees still had to submit requests to work from remote locations.
Commissioner Connolly accepted Mr Ren “genuinely formed the impression” that he had BoM’s implicit permission to work from wherever was convenient to him.
He also accepted Mr Ren considered the formal process of requesting approval to work from home or overseas was not that serious and could be disregarded as long as he performed his duties.
However, he found the bureau had provided “compelling” evidence that it had made Mr Ren explicitly aware of its work from overseas requirements and the evidence was “overwhelming” he was in the US when he said he was in Australia.
He held the dismissal was not unfair, unreasonable or harsh.
Rotten, have you considered the Melbourne Comedy Festival? Only a couple of months now.
Chortle. The Beloved is four years older than me. I call him that all the time. He too is on the same page as the Kings Cross Shouter.
@OldOzzie
Jan 25, 2024 4:36 PM
I always vote One Nation First and then who to put down the ticket ? …. Where I live will always be Labour … so my Vote is what it is .
But my local member is Ane Aly … she and I had a good yack at the booth (The Voice Crap She was “For” .. I wasnt .. but she made her argument clearly and respectfully I disagreed politely) … I just thought she was a normie like me … I didnt know her role… but she is whip smart and just as dissident as me. She was totally across Media BS … I ran a few about all the times we have been lied to and she way across it all.
Progressives maintain that mass immigration is a net economic benefit.
And that is what both Labor AND Liberal governments have argued here. It is a crap argument. Even putting aside the now acknowledged divisive nation of “multiculturalism”, the net economic benefit is debatable.
Good on the Texans for taking on the disgraceful refusal of the Biden government to close the southern border as Trump proposed.
I was being affectionate when I called him an “old codger”.
And that is a lot more endearing than calling someone ‘an old fart’.
The law reports on unfair dismissal are probably your best bet for LOL moments on billable time.
Anything involving QANTAS or a miner is usually a good bet.
Don’t worry Cassie I call blokes old, who are, on reflection, possibly younger than me.
@Johnny Rotten
Jan 25, 2024 4:47 PM
Two thumbs there ! I remember being a third party where some one got called an expletive expletive Old expletive ..
Come back was “Not so much of the OLD sonny …
Old expletive just killed it …
I want those slippers!!!
Phuck off, troll.
I’m watching the Brisbane Test in the ad breaks on Foxtel, where I am feasting on Montana Wild where male and chickybabe ranchers are trying to keep newborn sheep and cattle alive up in Ben Garrison’s home state; High Arctic Haulers about supply shipping inside the Canadian Arctic Circle; and my new favourite TV show Outback Car Hunters, where a couple of dags in outback WA try to make money out of recycling car wrecks.
Couldn’t care less about the cricket while they keep trying to ram politics down my throat.
I see that grub Alex Greenwich has an omnibus bill before Parliament relating to recognition of trans and bi deviants.
Hidden within the Bill is wording that has alerted the Presbyterian Session to the following:
Anyone else been contacted by their parish on this issue?
H B Bear
Jan 25, 2024 4:44 PM
Rotten, have you considered the Melbourne Comedy Festival? Only a couple of months now.
I would not go to Melbum, Sictoria if you paid me. I might bump into Desperate Dan and his ilk. The Comedy Festival there is the State Guv’ment.
They have Mel McLaughlin interviewing some scrawny ugly dyke who used to play womens cricket. I can telll she is repulsed by this horrible thing.
When describing stroppy old buggers, I love the word Curmudgeon.
Christians urged to oppose NSW ‘equality’ bill
25 January 2024
Religious freedom is back on the agenda in New South Wales, with debate rapidly approaching on the “equality” bill introduced by the state’s independent member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
calli
Jan 25, 2024 5:13 PM
I see that grub Alex Greenwich has an omnibus bill before Parliament relating to recognition of trans and bi deviants.
Isn’t it always?
That is how they get away with legislation nobody would support if they knew about it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets up, maybe with some cosmetic amendments, there are enough imbeciles in parliament.
With all these wow just wow articles and extremely important developments I don’t know how Dover can manage to keep up.
One must have a scroll wheel to navigate this blog. I thank those contributors who post information we, the outsiders, need. I generally scroll the trivial ‘look at me’ stuff plus the nasty crap. Thank you to those who keep us all awake and on the pulse.
Terrorists Mock the USA While Crossing the Southern Border
“The argument that people crossing the US border, illegally, are simply dreamers searching for a better life is null and void. They can abide by US law and go through the immigration process, a process that was standard until Biden took office. There is an increasing number of KNOWN TERRORISTS entering the US, but Washington wants you to believe it is not a threat to national security.
A video has been circulating of a migrant walking across the border, taunting reporters with vague threats of terrorism. “If you are smart enough you would know who I am. But you are really not smart enough to know who I am,” the man stated, later saying, “But soon you’re going to know who I am. Very easy. Believe me, I am much bigger than that … You will see.” The man was not detained.
This is far from an isolated incident. In 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection caught 169 people trying to cross the border who are on the terrorist watchlist. Again, we must remember that the number of illegals reported are those who were processed or caught trespassing. The majority of bad actors are completely unaccounted for.
As of October 2023, 35,433 people with outstanding warrants or criminal convictions were caught trying to flee their country to avoid prosecution. This includes nearly 600 gang members, again, only the gang members who were not swift enough to avoid detention.
Worse, Border Patrol and Air and Marine Operations seized 27,293 pounds of fentanyl at the US-Mexico border. They estimate that this is enough fentanyl to kill off over 6 billion people. Fentanyl overdoses have quadrupled in the US in the past five years.
Some may recall how the mainstream media declared that it was a conspiracy that terrorists were infiltrating America. They went as far as to say that being on the watchlist did not mean that someone was dangerous or involved in terrorism. As CNN reported in March 2021:
“Facts First: There’s no evidence of a sudden rush of individuals on the terror watch list showing up at the southern border. The information that is available is vague and leaves many questions unanswered. That said, it’s entirely false to imply a small number of individuals on the terror watch list coming to the southern border is a new phenomenon. Furthermore, it’s worth noting that being on the FBI’s terror watch list does not mean someone is a terrorist or has proven ties to terrorists.”
Trump warned us after the attack on Israel that Hamas terrorists were crossing into America. Again, every news agency said that there were no evidence for his claims. Every attempt to warn the public that the US has been invaded is dismissed as a MAGA conspiracy theory.
The establishment, through the media, was buying these men time to enter the country without the masses becoming suspicious. Countless KNOWN TERRORISTS and violent criminals are within the US. What are they doing here?
It would come as no surprise if these men were awaiting next orders from a global organization seeking to dethrone America as the world’s leading superpower. We have been warned.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/terrorists-mock-america-while-crossing-the-border/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
LOL
We have hundreds of thousands of women on OnlyFans and hundreds of thousands more on Seeking as sugar babies, plus tens od thousands of IG “models”.
There are no restrictions unless you use a 19th-century business model. So I think it’s more about spitefulness. If you belonged to a property covenant, that would regulate whom could do whom to what and where.
Our local member, Kate Washington, will have to go on notice.
There’s an amusing saying up this way – Adelaide got all the churches and Newcastle got all the Christians.
The prostitution stuff is just smokescreen. Anyone with a functioning brain cell can see it.
It’s the other trans and prohibitive stuff that’s the meat of the bill.
Religious freedom is back on the agenda in New South Wales,
Australia already has Religious freedom – No need to change it at all. Along with no need to change “Freedom of Speech”.
I dunno. Look at s 28AA (1) (a) (iii) of the (Commonwealth) SDA.
the person engages in unwelcome conduct of a demeaning nature in relation to the person harassed; and
This is why I think the actual “wax my womanly balls” stuff was never going to fly.
Then there’s a heap of protections in s 37.
Nice try boy, until s 109 is repealed or rewritten in the Commonwealth Constitution.
This is rather odious.
If you want to get a sex change, pay for it yourself. Once you’re an adult!
Amazingly, Tasmania wanted to ban anyone born after 2000 from smoking tobacco.
Questionable.
Very questionable.
‘Equality’ bill puts religious freedom under threat in NSW in 2024
19C max today, with 20mm (so far) rain. Bom predicted 22C and <1mm.
This is the third time in a week that BoM has been crazy wrong. Granted, they were correct about 41C last Tuesday, but there were two separate, overnight downfalls – 10mm and 6mm – when nil predicted.
I'm certainly not complaining about extra rain – our trees, at three years, are growing magnificently – but I do feel for farmers who haven't yet harvested. Some local lucerne crops have grass and weeds growing up to the heads.
Breaking: following talks with the sous, the Australia Day menu has been changed from gourmet BBQ to roast lamb with a plethora of winter vegetables, as befits the predicted arctic conditions for the day.
I’m a stroppy(ish) old(ish) bugger, and I endorse this terminology.
LOL Kirally allegedly cat 3 heh. I live a few km off the coast, mate says there’s barely even any wind.
Both southrrn quadrants have been in marginal wind shear all day which is increasingl. JTWC last prognosis had the whole system in a marginally favourable conditions for intensification. Also stated outer parts of the system already interacting with land hours ago. Only just started have convection wrapping fully round the centre.
Cat 3 I’m skeptical till I see an eye (Older rule of thumb that a system is at cat 3). Could this be the BOM now attempting to arse cover?
Hear this, the vandalising and smashing of statues, like the burning of books, are revolutionary acts. And after they smash the statues and burn the books, they then start hunting down people to kill.
We are on notice. We are living in revolutionary times.
How good is Darrell Lea liquorice?
Oh, and by the way, I think too many people here take for granted Dover’s willingness to supply emails on request. Same for Sinc in the past. This is something nice that they do to be helpful to commenters. What is wrong with asking politely rather than just making an instruction? Manners maketh man, as the old lady over the road from us used to say. She was born in 1857 in India, during the Indian Mutiny, and taken to safety under a blanket in a dray. She told me about the bullets with pig grease on them that the Musselman’s didn’t like.
I am very angry about what was done to the statue of James Cook in Melbourne, very angry.
Hear this, James Cook was a great man, and perhaps the greater navigator in history, actually not “perhaps”….HE WAS THE GREATEST NAVIGATOR IN HISTORY. James Cook was a humane, kind and decent man, a man of science, a man of the enlightenment.
When describing stroppy old buggers, I love the word Curmudgeon.
And some of them are gerontophiliacs too.
Cook reminds me of Columbus Day.
Tony tells some truth about Italian pride and goes a bit too far as well.
We are on notice. We are living in revolutionary times.
Agree, the world wide push is on well in western countries at least
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley.
How good is Darrell Lea liquorice?
Bloody delicious and bloody fattening, which is why I avoid it like the plague.
This has gone past pride and into arrogance. If Greenwich is so proud of his lifestyle how come he is suing Mark Latham for accurately describing it?
Bungonia Bee, I have sent you an email.
FMD. I had to look it up.
In world history, the 21st century is the home of human depravity.
On BoM and how deceitful that organisation is (agenda to follow and all that) try this on. Two towns approximately 20 kilometers apart. I see frequent data copy pastes of min temps, max temps and even rainfall from one town to the other. I’m in the middle so I know bullshit when I see it.
Someone lurking doesn’t like James Cook.
I’ve eaten half a bag of it.
Because Australia Day.
‘Equality’ bill puts religious freedom under threat in NSW in 2024
Being pushed by a pervert, who happens to be my local member. He is a putrid disgrace. I’d truly love it if someone could drop him in the middle of Gaza.
My new word for the day: gerontophiliacs.
Thanks, Toady, for this new addition to my vocabulary.
Hope I can forget it as quickly as I came upon it.
Neil deGrasse Tyson ranked Cooks observations as the most important discovery since Galileo.
Will try dig up the clip from the Joe Rogan show where he said it.
Never some monkeypox when you need it.
Could this be the BOM now attempting to arse cover?
Poor buggers. They worked so hard for a disaster but the damn thing BOMbed.
And yes, there is no eye. It is a big slow moving depression – sounds a bit like me actually. Perhaps I should go into the weather business.
Anyone else been contacted by their parish on this issue?
No, but I’ve just received an email from my shul that says they are offering self defense classes.
I don’t recognise this country anymore. Jews are now being advised to take self defense classes.