Open Thread – Mon 29 Jan 2024


The Triumph of Divine Providence – Palace Barberini, Ceiling Fresco, Pietro da Cortona, 1633

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calli
calli
January 30, 2024 6:24 pm

On Babelfish…selling at Amazon.

Fiction becomes reality.

Dot
Dot
January 30, 2024 6:25 pm

Are you freakin’ kidding me I was just about to buy a new vacuum cleaner from Godfrey’s. Whats the chance of their e-commerce arm running properly right now under voluntary administration?

Dot
Dot
January 30, 2024 6:27 pm

That’s remarkably cheap, calli.

I may purchase a pair for travelling, to know who thinks I am a “farqin’ white dog”.

Rosie
Rosie
January 30, 2024 6:29 pm
Pogria
Pogria
January 30, 2024 6:32 pm

I have a particular loathing for anyone who throws things from a bridge. I don’t care if it’s a peanut. They deserve a hiding.
I mentioned concrete and reo in my earlier comment. In the early nineties, scores of young scum thought it was funny to throw rocks and full cans from bridges over roads. The nastiest of these resulted in the death of a truckdriver. The filthy scum lobbed a chunk of concrete with reo spikes sticking out of it from a bridge. It smashed through the windscreen and ripped through his chest almost ripping out his heart. He was dead before the truck smashed its way off the road. Typically, despite Australia wide outrage, they did barely any time.

miltonf
miltonf
January 30, 2024 6:40 pm

Yes Pogria- I always think of Mark Evans when heading out of Sydney on the Hume.

Indolent
Indolent
January 30, 2024 6:43 pm
Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
January 30, 2024 6:43 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Jan 30, 2024 5:48 PM
—————————
Isn’t he bawling that he’s just been expelled?

This young man is about to learn a valuable lesson, your actions have consequences.

Cudos to the young ladies who outed his lousy behavior.

What he did has now been viewed 13 million times on social media, if he hadn’t been outed he would have done this again in his quest for “clicks” and “likes” on social media.

Fvk him and his whiny arse.

Pogria
Pogria
January 30, 2024 6:47 pm

miltonf,
thanks for giving us his name. I hadn’t looked for the story as I haven’t forgotten what happened at the time. I am sorry I had forgotten his name. I was driving along Cowpasture road towards Wetherill Park late one night and someone threw a rock at my car from the side of the road. It made a large dent in the roof. Scared the crap out of me but I didn’t stop to check for damage until I made it to work.

Cassie of Sydney
January 30, 2024 6:48 pm

Further to pranks, a few weeks ago in Victoria a fourteen-year-old boy pushed an elderly fisherman off a pier late at night. The fisherman was unable to swim.

The fourteen-year old boy and his mates thought what they did was a hoot. They ran off laughing, fortunately onlookers were able to rescue the elderly man.

Sorry but there’s nothing ‘funny’ about pranks.

P
P
January 30, 2024 6:48 pm

Further to Rosie’s comment above.

CNA

There are about 25,000 Roman Catholics living in Turkey, including migrants from Africa and the Philippines, according to a 2022 report by the U.S. State Department.

Earlier this month, Turkish news outlet Anadolu Agency reported that 25 suspected Islamic State members were arrested in Turkey on Jan. 3 under accusation that they were plotting attacks on churches and synagogues.

Cassie of Sydney
January 30, 2024 6:49 pm

I have a particular loathing for anyone who throws things from a bridge. I don’t care if it’s a peanut. They deserve a hiding.

Yep.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 30, 2024 6:52 pm

The risk with the Future Fund with the Combet appointment isn’t the investment decisions.
The board have never gotten in the way of the CIO or investment committee previously & the chair is just one vote.
This has been through multiple internal restructures, internalisations of mandates, externalisations of mandates, lock stock the lot.

The real risk is Combet gives cover to Albo to grab himself a “dividend”.
Because of the explosion in public servant packages the event horizon where the fund in unencumbered keeps getting pushed out.
A “dividend” would mean the FF would be underfunded to the extent the liabilities would have to be accounted for in the federal budget.

Ultimately there has to be public sector pension reform where regardless of the size of the final package when someone retires, there’s no reason for a public servant to be dragging in more than 100k per year in retirement.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
January 30, 2024 6:53 pm

What’s the point of cheap instant translation when nobody can afford to freely speak?

miltonf
miltonf
January 30, 2024 6:56 pm

It’s called the Mark Evans bridge Pogria and I always feel touched by that memorial to a decent ordinary man when I see it.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 30, 2024 6:57 pm

‘Fvk him and his whiny arse.’

Wait for the upcoming squeals – at 110 decibels – from Mumsy:

‘You leave-a my good-a boy alone. He’s-a good-a boy. He no listen and-a skeeeny but good-a boy.’

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 6:59 pm

I’ve just finished reading Bernard Cornwell’s non-fictional ‘Waterloo.’ While it features practically the same content as the 6, 572* books on the same battle that have preceded it, one small nugget of information mentioned in passing among the last few pages has remained with me.

Apparently, the commanding officer of the British 23rd Dragoons, John Dawson, the 2nd Earl of Portarlington, was late arriving for the beginning of the battle on Mont St. Jean on the 18th, due, it is alleged, to having been distracted by a romantic dalliance the previous night in Brussels. While he eventually arrived – the time of arrival is not mentioned – and attached himself to an Hussars Regiment, charging with them at one point, the absence from his command in battle was seen as such a disgrace, that in the years following (he survived the battle itself), his fall from grace included not only resigning his commission, but a social disappearance that concluded with his death in an unnamed London slum.

Whether this story is apocryphal or not, I’m yet to research, but it reminded me of the state of post-modern ‘Western’ cultural critique, whereupon the stereotyped Caucasian male prior to the 20th Century is depicted as almost 100% landed gentry, flush with rights and privileges, and neither responsibilities nor social or economic consequences to temper the ‘patriarchal violence.’

The fact that the vast percentage of those slaughtered at Waterloo/Mont St. Jean/La Belle Alliance (as the British, French and Prussians labelled the sequence of events, respectively) were likely men whom, in their home countries, eked out a day-to-day existence, with little in the way of resources or perceived social value, seems never to deter the misrepresentation I mentioned above.

That only males were considered disposable in their tens of thousands, indicates that they – including the higher ranked individuals, whom, though they received greater mention in the historical record, were still regarded as acceptable losses for society’s larger cause – had far less value than is usually now assumed.

* Some dramatic license may have been used with this figure.

JMH
JMH
January 30, 2024 7:01 pm

Sorry but there’s nothing ‘funny’ about pranks.

Some pranks can be funny but dangerous pranks are something else. Unfortunately, nothing will be done. We no longer have those with the will or intestinal fortitude to administer necessary justice.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 30, 2024 7:01 pm

To be clear, Costello proposing & arranging taxpayer funding the Future Fund is the extent he should receive credit.
The board & chairs since inception have really done nothing despite what they & their boosters in the media would have you believe.
It’s all done to the CIO’s & investment committee.
Their asset allocation decisions since the final sale of Telstra has been top notch, but that will be tested over the coming years as they have so much in unlisted assets.
Similar to CBUS which owns so much office property but hasn’t seemed to have gotten around to revaluing their assets.
I’m sure they’ll get around to it, lol.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 30, 2024 7:04 pm

‘But I’m just a minor’

You’re old enough to legally have your cock chopped off son, so you’re old enough to cop a hiding for wrecking someone else’s charcuterie board.

Live with it, boy.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 7:04 pm

We no longer have those with the will or intestinal fortitude to administer necessary justice.

Dunno about that, Kez. Acid baths and shooting people in the back of the head appears to work for you. How’s that tight chest and taut muscles going whenever you’re on social media, you wicked little runt?

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 7:06 pm

but that will be tested over the coming years as they have so much in unlisted assets.

That’s going to be interesting, unpacking all that junk. I heard that the unlisted has kept them “afloat”.

Robert Sewell
January 30, 2024 7:09 pm

Has anyone used Microsoft Office 2021?
Is it of any use, and is it loaded down with crap I’d never use?
Has a lifetime guarantee – I don’t see a definition of ‘lifetime’.
Cost $70.00 – I assume USD.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 7:14 pm

CNN’s Investigations: Biased Expert Analysis.

I’ve only skimmed through the above, but it looks potentially interesting regarding the Israel-h@m@s conflict. It may feature – I think – one or two of the byline reporters on the link to the ‘Israel destroys Gaza cemeteries’ story that Rosie has linked to. (Having written that, everyone needs to make their own, reasoned analysis).

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 7:16 pm
Speedbox
January 30, 2024 7:17 pm

JC
Jan 30, 2024 6:13 PM
After you’ve spent the better part of 70 years running a delinquent system. It takes time to see progress. To transition away from communism and toward a semi-market economy can’t happen overnight.

100%. And in truth, it probably took a decade for the ‘new shoots’ to emerge. That first decade was a terrible period where those with money and political access screwed the State and the people. It was a dreadful time and a profound shock for those who previously lived under the USSR. There was a very real possibility of the Russian Federation breaking apart, beyond what had already happened, in the first few years.

The second decade (~2000 to 2010) Putin came to power and ‘steadied the ship’. Obviously not everyone is a fan of Putin (especially lately) but there is no doubt that under his stewardship, Russia consolidated. We should remember that Russia is a vast country (2.5 x Australia) with a relatively small population (~150m).

In the third decade and more, that initial consolidation was further built upon. Is it perfect? Nope. Would you and I have done some things differently? Yep. But somehow, despite everything, Russia has emerged from the rubble of the early 1990s and many cities and regions are virtually indistinguishable from those in the west in terms of industry, living conditions and social practices.

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
January 30, 2024 7:17 pm

Cassie of Sydney
Jan 30, 2024 6:48 PM

Further to pranks, a few weeks ago in Victoria a fourteen-year-old boy pushed an elderly fisherman off a pier late at night. The fisherman was unable to swim.

A quick check also shows he was on bail for other offenses, colour me surprised.

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
January 30, 2024 7:17 pm

Sorry but there’s nothing ‘funny’ about pranks.

Another “prank”, resulting in drowning this time.

JMH
JMH
January 30, 2024 7:17 pm

JC
Jan 30, 2024 7:04 PM

I note the blog’s resident abscess is spraying its putrid pus all over the page yet again. Someone needs to throw a small can of diesel over the thing and light ‘er up!

Obviously, a good dose of antibiotics incapable of achieving desired results.

FOAD you repugnant snotball.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 30, 2024 7:18 pm

I’ve just finished reading Bernard Cornwell’s non-fictional ‘Waterloo.’

Was the episode, from “Sharpe’s Waterloo”, about the fattest man in the Prussian Army, given the task of conveying the news of Napoleons advance, truth or fiction?

Crossie
Crossie
January 30, 2024 7:22 pm

One of Victoria’s most senior judges has become a victim of street crime after thieves stole his taxpayer-funded car that was left unlocked in a suburban street with the key inside.

Arrogance or dementia? If it’s arrogance then it serves him right, the young thugs don’t care if he was easy on them when hearing their case(s). An unlocked car with keys inside is an open invitation to theft. If it’s dementia then he has no business still being in that job and driving a government car or any car for that matter.

Robert Sewell
January 30, 2024 7:24 pm

JMH

Jan 30, 2024 7:01 PM
Sorry but there’s nothing ‘funny’ about pranks.
Some pranks can be funny but dangerous pranks are something else. Unfortunately, nothing will be done. We no longer have those with the will or intestinal fortitude to administer necessary justice.

Corporal punishment if they’re below 21.
Use a rattan cane.
Televise it.

miltonf
miltonf
January 30, 2024 7:24 pm

I despise the legal profession with its smug bonhomie

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 7:25 pm

Lol, and it’s off. Acid bath’s, back of the head shots and now diesel.

Kez, forgive me, but you recently said it’s “game on” and I responded that I’m game too. You also threatened Liz too because she dared to suggest you’re a dickhead with zero to add to any discussion.
This is going to be fun.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 7:26 pm

Honest Reporting.

I don’t normally like or frequent Twatter/X, but this is an interesting one which, a little down the page, states that 92% of Gaza’s water had been sourced from an aquifer beneath it. Therefore, the [admittedly old now] claims that Israel was the source of all water, and has shut all access off, is – if this info is correct, which I cannot vouch for – B.S.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 7:26 pm

Use a rattan cane.
Televise it.

That’s a porn genre Kez.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 7:32 pm

Sorry, last one:

Roughly one third down this page is a post that intimates a released Palestinians was starved while in Israeli custody. According tohttps://twitter.com/HonestReporting however, the man has stomach cancer, which explains his physical appearance.

Again, I’m not in a position to declare any information authentic or otherwise, but if the above is correct, this is a fascinating factoid to keep in one’s mind when trying to debate with the irrational (which is normally pointless, admittedly).

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
January 30, 2024 7:32 pm

JMH
Jan 30, 2024 7:01 PM
————————–
Some pranks can be funny but dangerous pranks are something else. Unfortunately, nothing will be done. We no longer have those with the will or intestinal fortitude to administer necessary justice.

There was a case at home recently about a YouTube nuffy called Jonny Somalia, he would be out and about usually in Tokyo or Nagasaki being a dick on trains, making threats to commuters and so on.

He eventually made 2 mistakes, the first was going onto a construction site in ?Tokyo and causing trouble dressed in black wearing a mask, (trespass on a workplace is kinda frowned upon)

The second was when he targeted a young female Japanese Vlogger who talks about food and fashion that sort of thing. She videoed him and people went nuts, him and his camera guy got punched up by an American expat who owned a restaurant, (i think it was in Osaka).

Eventually gets arrested and has found out Japanese law is not kind to expats, the police can hold you for 30 days (i think, it could be 90 days) but they can apply to the courts to have this extended, this can go on for years or until a person confesses their guilt, hence the 90% conviction rate for expat crime.

JMH
JMH
January 30, 2024 7:33 pm

JC
Jan 30, 2024 7:25 PM

Lol, and it’s off. Acid bath’s, back of the head shots and now diesel.

Kez, forgive me, but you recently said it’s “game on” and I responded that I’m game too. You also threatened Liz too because she dared to suggest you’re a dickhead with zero to add to any discussion.
This is going to be fun.

Oh, it;s game on alright and you will lose, like you always do, yet again.

Funny you mention Lizzie. I note you don’t go after others who expose Hyacinth for what she is. Funny about that. Too gutless to take on others, aren’t you but it exposes you for the obnoxious little runt that you are. Bitter and twisted little runt with no backbone.

JMH
JMH
January 30, 2024 7:38 pm

JC
Jan 30, 2024 7:26 PM
Use a rattan cane.
Televise it.

That’s a porn genre Kez.

You’re absolutely obsessed with me aren’t you, you spineless little maggot. Get professional help.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 7:39 pm

Speedbox

Yeltsin was a drunk and a one hit wonder when he stopped the coup, which was brave. He should’ve ended things there.

I had very high hopes for Medvedev , but he broke my heart. 🙂

He frequently said he wanted Russia to pursue what Heyak wrote about and he then just became a Putin groupie.

JMH
JMH
January 30, 2024 7:41 pm

Eventually gets arrested and has found out Japanese law is not kind to expats, the police can hold you for 30 days (i think, it could be 90 days) but they can apply to the courts to have this extended, this can go on for years or until a person confesses their guilt, hence the 90% conviction rate for expat crime.

Carpe – if only!

Luzu
Luzu
January 30, 2024 7:41 pm

Does anybody know if Jihad Dib is in any way related to Khaled Dib who was shot by a security guard in 2008 while trying to steal cash being delivered to the NAB branch in Parramatta?

Or are Dibs a dime a dozen in Sydney?

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 7:45 pm

You’re absolutely obsessed with me aren’t you, you spineless little maggot. Get professional help.

Interesting, hasn’t it been the other way around where you post about demonic stuff about me and I respond. Now, because you challenged me with “game on”, I’m obsessed?

You said you have “press clippings” and I’m obsessed? Get the fck out of here, you pathetic, evil pos.

You’re zero, in fact a minus.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 7:46 pm

Carpe – if only!

Agrees. Very agreeable.

KevinM
KevinM
January 30, 2024 7:46 pm

Robert Sewell Avatar
Robert Sewell
Jan 30, 2024 7:09 PM

Has anyone used Microsoft Office 2021?
Is it of any use, and is it loaded down with crap I’d never use?
Has a lifetime guarantee – I don’t see a definition of ‘lifetime’.
Cost $70.00 – I assume USD.

Using it and it is as good as the 365 if not better, less nagging for one, and no ongoing fee.
I didn’t pay nearly as much as $70, yes it’s US$.
Keep your eyes open, there are always better offers.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 7:51 pm

Oh, it;s game on alright and you will lose, like you always do, yet again.

LOL. Only winners talk like that. Really winners like you.

Funny you mention Lizzie. I note you don’t go after others who expose Hyacinth for what she is.

They all stopped, including you, until you game on’ed her the other day. When you were working in a gang, you acted really tough. Now, you sound like a skinny plucked chook.

Funny about that. Too gutless to take on others, aren’t you but it exposes you for the obnoxious little runt that you are. Bitter and twisted little runt with no backbone.

“Runt”? Copy cat. There’s only one evil little runt here and that’s you, champ.

Pogria
Pogria
January 30, 2024 7:56 pm

“a decent. ordinary man”

Miltonf,
my favourite kind of man.

Also,
the only funny prank is a whoopee cushion. never gets old. 😀

JMH
JMH
January 30, 2024 7:56 pm

Interesting, hasn’t it been the other way around where you post about demonic stuff about me and I respond. Now, because you challenged me with “game on”, I’m obsessed?

You said you have “press clippings” and I’m obsessed? Get the fck out of here, you pathetic, evil pos.

You’re zero, in fact a minus.

Nice try, you gormless pus-filled POS. Anybody reading your attacks KNOW you start them. All of them. Every time. You attacked me tonight. Again.

You’re obsessed with me. You need psychological counselling. You are a depraved, vindictive liar.

Do us all a huge favour and FOAD.

chrisl
chrisl
January 30, 2024 7:58 pm

Do yourself a favour ( as Molly would say ) and search for BO DIDDLY BEAT on Spotify
Dozens of songs by famous artists such as Springsteen, George Michael, U2, David Bowie, Pretenders.
All “ inspired “ by Bo Diddly
Extraordinary!

JMH
JMH
January 30, 2024 8:02 pm

They all stopped, including you, until you game on’ed her the other day. When you were working in a gang, you acted really tough. Now, you sound like a skinny plucked chook.

You should pay more attention, runt.

And now I’m bored with you. You do not present as any kind of challenge. You are so easily flogged, it’s really no fun anymore.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 8:02 pm

There is so much more of interest on that Honest Reporting X site, including, about 3/5 down the page, a Palestinian ‘freelance’ reporter working for Reuters *SPIT* who is describing the initial assaults on the 7th of Oct (he was there, at one of the kibbutz’s, but I’m unsure which one); he witnessed h@m@s abduct three Israeli citizens from a house and is retelling the event with a sickening degree of excitement.

Reuters.
This is one of many reasons why I refer to the media as the Filth Filter. Not because it filters OUT the filth, but because itself is the filth, the disease, the excrement, through which information is squeezed before it reaches an audience.

I was livid with the FilthFilter after the covidiocy (along with all of government, and practically every community organisation you can think of), but the degree to which the F.F. has not only enabled and encouraged, but CELEBRATED what happened to Israel … no words. No words suffice. May the faded shadow of what once passed for the fragments of their rented souls be consumed by demons and excreted into into the wine glass of their colleagues.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 30, 2024 8:05 pm

Angry Uncle at 7.56:

‘you start them. All of them. Every time.’

Angry Uncle, unsolicited, at 7.17:

‘resident abscess’
‘putrid pus’
‘FOAD’

You’re a funny old fellow. Now go and have your pudding.

cohenite
January 30, 2024 8:10 pm

87% of the voters in Dunkley will benefit from rub and tug’s tax break. The coming by-election will be a test of the sheeple: will they take the tax break and lick rub’s arse or will they understand the little shit is destroying Australia. If the liars hold Dunkley Australia is rooted.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 30, 2024 8:11 pm

Update from Hobart:

Four people, including three teens, have been taken into custody in relation to a drowning in Hobart on Monday night.

A Tasmania Police spokesperson has confirmed a 17 year old and a 25 year old, both female, were arrested following a search in the Glenorchy region.

Further searches in Claremont led to the arrest of a 17 year old and a 19 year old, both male.

It’s understood no charges have been laid at this stage.

Claremont is a well-known cesspit. Glenorchy is the home of the bogan.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 8:14 pm

Nice try, you gormless pus-filled POS.

POS? Copy cat. I wonder why you keep telling people you agree with them. It’s all you have.

Anybody reading your attacks KNOW you start them.

Sure, I started this one. Absolutely, and it will continue as long as it’s fun to get you looned up. You put up the challenge, and as I said, I’m game. You empty, evil runt.

All of them.

Nope, it’s the other way around, and you can lie as much as you like, but you’re not going to stick, as people know.

Every time.

This time.

You attacked me tonight.

I mocked you, and it’s funny watching you blow gaskets.

Again.

Nope, not “again.” This time, you pathetic little wimp.

You’re a fine one to talk, after the two years of ganging up against Liz in a posse, you cowardly pos.

You’re obsessed with me.

LOL. You’re such an old woman.

You need psychological counselling. You are a depraved, vindictive liar.

There’s nothing to lie about. The lying excuse doesn’t work, champ.

To repeat, you said it’s game on, and so it’s game on. I’m the honest party here.

Do us all a huge favour and FOAD.

Tongues? Have you called the number to book an exorcism?

Let’s agree, Kez. 🙂

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 30, 2024 8:15 pm

Muddy is “barber” hummus speak for aspiring rapper or footy player?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 30, 2024 8:18 pm

Somebody posted the bulletin a couple of days ago. Big fan, in my younger days.

Surprise hit of Woodstock came to represent the peace and love era

By THE TIMES
The Times
Updated 12:18PM January 29, 2024, First published at 12:00AM January 29, 2024
35 Comments

OBITUARY

Melanie Safka
Singer-songwriter

Born Queens, New York City, February 3, 1947. Died Nashville, Tennessee, January 23 aged 76

When Melanie Safka made her way to Woodstock in 1969, she was an unknown 22-year-old singer-songwriter without a hit to her name.

She must have been the only performer driven to the festival by her mother. When invited to play at what organisers described as “three days of peace, love, and music” she had imagined “a picnic with kids, families, arts and crafts”. As they hit standstill traffic, it didn’t occur to her that it had anything to do with the event at which she was booked to appear, and it was only when she arrived at the motel where the performers were staying that she began to realise what was happening.

“Sly Stone walked by and then I saw Janis Joplin in the lobby,” she recalled. “All of a sudden, I knew that traffic wasn’t just an accident ahead. It was something really big and I was going to have to sing in front of it.”

After she had been ushered into a helicopter to ferry her to the festival site, she looked down and asked the pilot what was the “mass of stuff” she could see on the ground. “People,” he told her, adding there was about 500,000 of them.

She had never played to an audience of more than a couple of hundred people, and panic began to grip her. “I can’t do this,” she remembered thinking. “They’ll throw tomatoes at me. I’m one person with a guitar and I’m not even that good a guitar player.”

The least known name on a bill that included Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, she was shown to a small tent and told to wait her turn. She waited all day and half the night, on several occasions told she was on next, only to be stood down again.

As her anxiety grew she developed a nervous bronchial cough that “sounded like the demons were coming out of me”. Joan Baez, who was in a nearby VIP tent with full hospitality facilities, heard her and sent over some herbal tea.

By the early hours it had started to rain and she began to hope her performance might be cancelled, but after Ravi Shankar had finished playing at about 1am, she was finally pushed on to the stage in a daze.

“I had an out-of-body experience. I was terrified,” she remembered. “I just left my body and watched myself walk on to the stage.”

Before she began to sing, the announcer told the crowd that if they lit candles, it would help to stop the rain. It didn’t, but by the time she had finished her seven-song set, the whole hillside was a mass of flickering lights.

She left the stage a hippie hero and with the chorus of a new song in her head. Inspired by the candles, the song became Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), which she recorded with a gospel chorus sung by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. It gave Melanie her first hit.

Joni Mitchell’s song, Woodstock, may be better known as a celebration of the fabled festival, but Melanie’s composition was at the time the bigger hit, reaching No.6 in the Billboard chart.

She went on to become a poster child for the “peace and love” generation, and it seemed no festival stage was complete without her. A year after Woodstock, a planned festival in Connecticut was cancelled because of a legal injunction and when 30,000 fans turned up anyway, Melanie was the only booked artist who defied the ban to play for them.

Her shows became noted for the audience lighting candles, resulting in fire departments sometimes refusing to license her gigs – and with songs such as Lay Down, Beautiful People, Peace Will Come (According to Plan), Brand New Key and What Have They Done to My Song, Ma, Melanie came to epitomise the innocence, joy and idealism of the era. “For a short period of time, there was a near-Renaissance on Earth. It felt like people, humanity, was winning,” she said.

She is survived by her three children, son Beau Jarred and daughters Leilah and Jeordie, all of whom are musicians and appeared with her on recordings and in concert. Husband Peter Schekeryk, her producer and manager, whom she married in 1968, died in 2010.

She was the daughter of Frederick Safka, of Ukrainian descent, and Polly Altomare, a jazz singer of Italian descent. Growing up in New Jersey she made her first public appearance aged four, singing on a radio talent show. As a 16-year-old beatnik, she ran away to California. Her father retrieved her and persuaded her to enrol at New York’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

She had no desire to act; singing was her true ambition. Her uniquely husky voice was a result of trying to imitate Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf: “But I got it wrong and became me.” She began singing in the folk clubs of Greenwich Village, and released her first album in 1968.

Her biggest hits came with What Have They Done to My Song, Ma, which was covered by the New Seekers, and the cutely jaunty Brand New Key, which went to No.1 in the US and No.1 in Australia in December 1971.

She continued recording prolifically and at the time of her death was at work on her 29th studio album, a “look what I’ve done to their songs” collection of covers of tracks by Radiohead, David Bowie, Morrissey and others. To the end, singing was at the very core of her being. “My voice and I share the same heartbeat,” she said. “I didn’t know it was a career. It was my life.”

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 8:18 pm

You are so easily flogged, it’s really no fun anymore.

The porn genre again. I bet he’s the submissive too, and same sex. 🙂

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 8:19 pm

On pranks.

Apparently, there have been several cases in recent years of social media stars or wannabees in Mexico badmouthing cartel bosses publicly. In at least two cases, the wannabees got their clicks. Not the desired type of click, however.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 30, 2024 8:25 pm

Cassie of Sydney

Jan 30, 2024 5:09 PM

I remember Peter Kidd, was I just me or did others also think he was revelling in the attention around the Pell lynching?

I thought his decision to broadcast the sentencing was vicious.

Along with the street theatre of handcuffing a 78 year old and doing the sex offenders registry paperwork in the dock.
Anyone else would have been processed over the next week or so.

Top Ender
Top Ender
January 30, 2024 8:25 pm

Another one!

James Cook University accused of ‘doing nothing’ in response to bully claim

By SARAH ELKS
SENIOR REPORTER
7:10PM JANUARY 30, 2024

A senior academic staffer has accused James Cook University of “basically doing nothing” after she complained that the head of the Indigenous Education and Research Centre had allegedly threatened to “spear” her if she didn’t increase enrolment.

The woman alleges Martin Nakata, the Townsville-based deputy vice-chancellor of Indigenous Education and Strategy, made the threat in front of staff and a student three times in two days, first on November 16 at a whole-department training day.

In a complaint to James Cook University’s human resources department and WorkCover Queensland, the woman said Professor Nakata had told her she needed to increase Indigenous enrolment from 670 to 1000, a target she felt was unrealistic.

“He’s a Torres Strait Islander man and because of that and because we’re the Indigenous centre, we have things on our walls, and one of the things is the spear,” she told The Australian.

“He points to the spear and says if you don’t reach that target, I’m going to take that spear off the wall and I’m going to spear (woman’s name).

“On the Friday he repeated the same comment, and later that day he repeated the same thing in front of a student.

“It flabbergasted me. Everybody felt very uncomfortable … they sat there in silence, I think in shock.

“I felt totally humiliated, and I was also quite dumbfounded.”

The Australian asked Professor Nakata for a response.

He did not comment but a JCU spokesman said: “(The) university is aware of the alleged incident. All such allegations are taken seriously and handled in accordance with the university’s policies and procedures.”

The woman said she had worked with Professor Nakata for more than five years and they had previously had a good working relationship.

She said she tried to resolve the matter unofficially, by emailing Professor Nakata and telling him she “respectfully requested him” to stop making the comments.

“He said he was sorry and it was just a joke,” she said.

The woman said she had accepted his apology and was keen to work together as normal, but her relationship with him had deteriorated to the point where he did not speak to her. “On a normal day I’d have to speak to him half a dozen times, so that means I can’t do my job,” she said.

The woman said she felt bullied, and made a complaint to JCU’s human relations department on December 3, after she had been contacted about the alleged incident by The Cairns Post.

She then made a claim to WorkCover.

“I went to HR and they’ve basically done nothing,” she said.

“He’s a very respected Indigenous academic and he’s very high-profile and I think they don’t know what to do.

“If it was somebody at a lower level, they would have been suspended or sacked. They are trying to work out how to make me want to go away.”

The JCU spokesman said: “JCU has endeavoured to meet with the complainant but scheduled meetings have had to be postponed due to respective leave commitments.”

The woman has been on stress leave and annual leave.

Professor Nakata is the first Torres Strait Islander to graduate with a PhD in Australia and his decades-long research career has focused on Australian Indigenous education.

He was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia in 2020.

Oz complete article.

shatterzzz
January 30, 2024 8:29 pm

I’ve just finished reading Bernard Cornwell’s non-fictional ‘Waterloo.’ While it features practically the same content as the 6, 572* books on the same battle that have preceded it,

My Great Grandaddy x4 (mum’s side) served in the British army from 1810 thru 1817 .. fought at Quatre Bras (Waterloo) and was awarded the Waterloo Medal ..
extract from his citation ……
https://ibb.co/Xjr10DV

bons
bons
January 30, 2024 8:30 pm

I realy want to dislike Littleproud, but currently he is talking the talk.

But he has a lot of baggage to discard.

Dot
Dot
January 30, 2024 8:33 pm

We don’t talk shit about Colonel Sharpe here, friends.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 8:34 pm

GreyRanga
Jan 30, 2024 8:15 PM

Muddy is “barber” hummus speak for aspiring rapper or footy player?

Correct, Mr. Ranga.
Though it can also be translated (dependent upon vowel pronunciation) as ‘plumber’ or ‘sole carer of elderly grandparents.’

Real Deal
Real Deal
January 30, 2024 8:38 pm

Cassie waaay up thread.

There is no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim and Dib’s loathing for Israel is well known.

I can’t remember exactly who Tim Blair was quoting years ago when he said how you can tell a moderate muslim:- they only cut half your head off.

Cassie of Sydney
January 30, 2024 8:38 pm

But he has a lot of baggage to discard.

True, but Littleproud doesn’t have nearly the baggage that the Beetroot has.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 8:38 pm

shatterzzz
Jan 30, 2024 8:29 PM

Very cool.

Pogria
Pogria
January 30, 2024 8:40 pm

Zulu,
thank you very much for the biography of Melanie Safka. I posted that she had died. I never knew anything about her. Her songs enriched my childhood but, as I grew up, I listened to others. Information about singers you loved was not all that easy to come by unless you had the coin to buy magazines. Late seventies I was into headbanger music!

My best to the memsahib. 😀

cohenite
January 30, 2024 8:41 pm

A senior academic staffer has accused James Cook University of “basically doing nothing” after she complained that the head of the Indigenous Education and Research Centre had allegedly threatened to “spear” her if she didn’t increase enrolment.

The woman alleges Martin Nakata, the Townsville-based deputy vice-chancellor of Indigenous Education and Strategy, made the threat in front of staff and a student three times in two days, first on November 16 at a whole-department training day.

Marty looks as though he wouldn’t have a good root in him let alone be capable of spearing some sheilas.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 8:41 pm

… his decades-long research career has focused on Australian Indigenous education.

His efforts have been highly (measurably) productive then?

Dot
Dot
January 30, 2024 8:49 pm

Downvoted by a Frenchman. What a pity.

At least Colonel Sharpe got to see Napoleon.

Cassie of Sydney
January 30, 2024 8:52 pm

Who is Hyacinth? If the commentator who used this name of Hyacinth is trying to traduce Lizzie, let me say this, Lizzie is nothing like Hyacinth.

I happen to know a lot of people here personally. Lizzie, Rabz, Dragnet, Rafe, Jupes and his wife, Gilas, Tinta, Vicki and others. They, like me, can all attest to the real Lizzie, a Lizzie who is nothing like the character ‘Hyacinth’. We value her friendship, and we appreciate her kindness, decency and formidable intelligence.

Lizzie has a good sense of humour, and she can laugh at herself but even she isn’t immune to getting depressed and feeling down when people who don’t know her constantly and obsessively traduce and ridicule her.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 8:55 pm

Further to my post towards the top of the page regarding a British officer at Waterloo, that esteemed source of all integrity – wakipedia – slightly contradicts Cornwell’s more florid prose.

John Dawson did in fact resign his commission following Waterloo/Mont St. Jean (I find the French title to be more geographically correct), however he was not as socially disgraced as novelist intimated, as he became an aide-de-camp to King George IV. He died at the age of 64 in 1845, at ‘his residence’ in Kennginton Road, London.

Pfff.
That’s the last time I trust a novelist!

Cassie of Sydney
January 30, 2024 9:04 pm

Along with the street theatre of handcuffing a 78 year old and doing the sex offenders registry paperwork in the dock.
Anyone else would have been processed over the next week or so.

Yep, it was very deliberate, designed to humiliate Pell even further.

I cannot convey how much I despise Kidd.

Further to that broadcasting (now nearly five years ago), I remember how, where I work, people rushed into the work kitchen (where there is a television) to watch the sentencing. On return I asked one of the young women……

“How was the lynching”?

She winced.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
January 30, 2024 9:05 pm

Shari trying to get a straight answer about Coalition support for Sleazy’s tax broken promise, from Anne Webster. A lot of waffle. Why do I get the feeling Dutton is going to get ?olled by this by Lib & Nat wets

Honestly is the coalition that stupid?

Louis Litt
Louis Litt
January 30, 2024 9:08 pm

Knuckles Knuckles Knuckes

MAFS last night – only saw the that best man’s speech and the honeymoon with the relax comment.
Cracking these two are goin to crash.
What do you reckon of this alpha male with the hair bun and and pants rolled up above the ankles.
The girl seems alriiight.
I got a real thirst right now -I’m crack open a VB right now

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 9:09 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

Was the episode, from “Sharpe’s Waterloo”, about the fattest man in the Prussian Army, given the task of conveying the news of Napoleons advance, truth or fiction?

I cannot help you there, Zulu, as I’m not sure I’ve seen a full Sharpe episode (though I know who the character is). Wellington did have a very capable Prussian liaison officer, but I don’t know anything about the latter’s physical appearance.

Indolent
Indolent
January 30, 2024 9:14 pm
Louis Litt
Louis Litt
January 30, 2024 9:14 pm

Knuckles Knuckes knuckles
Effin hell Tim and Lucinda – Tim run

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 9:15 pm

Rockdoctor
Jan 30, 2024 9:05 PM

Honestly is the coalition that stupid?

We might substitute the following for variety: ‘Does the Coalition have a pulse?

If the answer is in the negative – try not to waste too much time checking – roll them up in a dusty tarp and lob them onto the nature strip for the next council pickup.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 9:16 pm

Cassie of Sydney
Jan 30, 2024 8:52 PM

If envy was terminal, Satan’s spawn would have been dead in the womb.

Indolent
Indolent
January 30, 2024 9:23 pm
feelthebern
feelthebern
January 30, 2024 9:26 pm

I was reading a substack today about MKULTRA.
Most would know about the LSD experiments & what they did to people like the unabomber.
What most wouldn’t know that in total 86 institutions in the US & Canada participated in straight out torture of non consenting adults on behalf of the CIA & a few DoD entities.
Most of these poor souls are now dead so hopefully they can peace.
A very dark chapter in US history that was birthed from Dulles saying the Nuremberg Code didn’t apply to them.

will
will
January 30, 2024 9:27 pm

Honestly is the coalition that stupid?

that is, of course, a rhetorical question, right?

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 30, 2024 9:27 pm

Can find peace.

Cassie of Sydney
January 30, 2024 9:28 pm

Cary Grant took LSD when he was having therapy.

Dot
Dot
January 30, 2024 9:31 pm

feelthebern Avatar
feelthebern
Jan 30, 2024 9:26 PM

Operation Sea-Spray, its ramifications and polka dancing ought to terrify people.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 9:32 pm

Bern.
I’m not sure if I made the correct interpretation, but I read just recently that in the U.S., there has been a move to rewrite patient consent laws if it is perceived that the ‘greater good’ (my paraphrasing) will be served by not informing the patient of possible negative side effects.

Maybe it was someone here who posted that link? Indolent perhaps?

Dot
Dot
January 30, 2024 9:33 pm

Cary Grant took LSD when he was having therapy.

One of the books by David Southwell, Secrets and Lies or Conspiracy Files, has a rather strange and interesting insight to Cary Grant on LSD.

He saw himself as a giant phallic rocket as god’s gift to women, it launched, then he defecated until he was that defecation and he saw himself as a phoney and had an ego death.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 9:35 pm

They’re trialing LSD as a breakthrough drug for depression and anxiety.

LSD could be effective in treating anxiety, clinical trial shows

and

LSD: the new antidepressant?

There’s hope for Kez.

Dot
Dot
January 30, 2024 9:39 pm

Whoever invented unasked for 2FA is a real twit.

It just means I’ll buy on Amazon. It’s okay on a phone, but if I’m using a laptop, why bother with this redundant garbage? With all of the metadata, you can’t work out if I’m real or fraudulent?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 30, 2024 9:39 pm

I…..

I do not know why I am being consulted in matters relating to MAFS.

However, I did see an ad on the picture wireless this morning about a chap with a man bun asserting that he was an ‘alpha male’.

My initial reaction was twofold. One – that no, no with that giant black earring you’re not. Rather, that this fellow had the visage of a Gothic Priscilla, Queen of the Desert character, particularly when also sporting his Hello Kitty man bun.

Two – that this gentleman must be German.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 30, 2024 9:47 pm

They’re trialing LSD as a breakthrough drug for depression and anxiety.

It’s micro-dosing JC.
And it is promising.

What Dulles wanted was a system to brain wash 1000’s of people via a easily replicable system/treatment.
Loading punters up with LSD continually was just one of the things MKULTRA did.

Dot
Dot
January 30, 2024 9:52 pm

Hi Johnny R.

Don’t you get bored down ticking the cool kids?

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 30, 2024 9:53 pm

The CIA thought they got rid of all the MKULTRA files.
It wasn’t for CIA member Frank Laubinger literally going through basements full of documents where he found the docs the CIA didn’t destroy.
Shows how one person can make a difference, albeit well after the fact.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 9:54 pm

Do folks have a sense of what this firm makes a quarter, such as revenue and profits?

It’s actually mind-boggling.

Alphabet stock is up more than 8% this year, benefiting from investors’ enthusiasm over the company’s growing cloud-computing and AI business, plus improving sentiment about the market for digital advertising. The company’s quarterly results, due Tuesday, could offer clues about whether that can continue.

The consensus call among analysts tracked by FactSet is that the company, parent to Google and YouTube, should produce December quarter revenue of $85.2 bilion, up 11.5% from a year earlier. Profits are expected to be $1.60 a share.

Drilling down a level, the Street sees revenue from “Google Search and other” advertising of $48.1 billion, up 12.9%, with YouTube advertising of $9.2 billion, up 15.5%. Analysts see Google Cloud revenue of $8.9 billion, up 22.2%, which would mark a slight slowdown from the 22.5% growth reported in the September quarter.

Alphabet’s results, which will come two days before Meta Platforms turns in its fourth-quarter numbers, are expected to show improving performance in digital advertising overall. Deutsche Bank analyst Benjamin Black last week repeated a Buy rating on the company’s stock, lifting his target price

$1.60 a share represents just under US$19 billion profit for the quarter. That works out to over $200 million a day. Incredible.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 9:56 pm

Hi Johnny R.

Don’t you get bored down ticking the cool kids?

That’s his life and a few others. I’m very suspicious the rural sophisticate has been told how to do it.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 30, 2024 9:57 pm
JC
JC
January 30, 2024 10:01 pm

Incredible, Bern.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 10:07 pm

Bern

I’d wager Musk is going to be the first trillionaire. If his bet is right that people will begin to buy loads of robots when they start coming out in the next 5 years, Tesla will be at the forefront. The car business could end up being spun or sold off.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 30, 2024 10:10 pm

Can someone put GMH back on the track?
He keeps coming off at the same bend every time.

Oh come on
Oh come on
January 30, 2024 10:12 pm

Your tax dollars at work: ABC News’s lead story this morning was an advertisement for their documentary regarding events that happened a decade ago.

Liberal colleagues reveal inside story of Tony Abbott’s brutal demise

I watched the first episode of Nemesis. It wasn’t bad. Kind of a superficial presentation of the issues of the time. Reinforced my view of Trumble. Can’t stand the man. Morro came across as dippy.

Rosie
Rosie
January 30, 2024 10:12 pm

Someone I know is in the process of exiting the APS who is a member the PSS, (at a very low grade) not taking the life pension but rolling the lump sum into a private fund.
I imagine if the pension for life for those at executive level gets squeezed more of them will do the same.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 30, 2024 10:14 pm

feelthebern

Jan 30, 2024 9:26 PM

I was reading a substack today about MKULTRA.
Most would know about the LSD experiments & what they did to people like the unabomber.

I didn’t think he was part of an LSD experiment.
It was more aggressive gaslighting style interviewing over extended periods I thought.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
January 30, 2024 10:16 pm

‘Can someone put GMH back on the track?’

Shhh. He’s eating his pudding.

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 10:16 pm

Sancho Panzer
Jan 30, 2024 10:10 PM

Both LSD micro-dosing and an exorcism. LSD will help when it’s tied up to the bed and the priest starts spraying holy water over it. I wish I could watch.

Harlequin Decline
January 30, 2024 10:18 pm

On people throwing things of bridges etc at vehicles. They need to serve jail time.

When I lived in WA in the 70’s I was driving back from the Kwinana area around 8pm . As I passed a cutting in the road a rock was thrown at my car.

It hit the bonnet leaving a dent and then bounced over the roof.

I was ropeable, it could have easily gone through the windscreen.

Screeched to a stop, grabbed a tire iron and went after the bastards.

By the time I got to the top of the cutting the perpetrators were long gone so all I could do was profanely curse long and loud in their general direction.

When I got back to the car my passenger had the interior light on and was thumbing through the street directory.

I said ‘WTF are you doing?’

She answered ‘Looking for the shortest way to the hospital’

I said ‘For them, fcuk them!’

She said ‘No, for you!’

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 10:21 pm

He’s eating his pudding.

We still have some left over Christmas pudding. It’s delicious with thickened cream. I allow myself one dessert a week.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 30, 2024 10:23 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9alAuYr2g_8

Melanie Safka. Best version of “Ruby Tuesday” ever.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 10:25 pm

Apropos of nothing.
I may have mentioned this thought previously, but it just popped back into my head again: As electrickery becomes more expensive in a domestic sense, will we see a greater rise in accidents in the home requiring hospitalisation, particularly among the elderly?

JC
JC
January 30, 2024 10:29 pm

On people throwing things of bridges etc at vehicles.

Rocks, bottles, other assorted stuff? The woman living next to parents had a terrible marriage. She through herself over a highway walk bridge, was hit by a car and survived. Survived not by much though. You really would have to be an arsehole to do that to a poor driver.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
January 30, 2024 10:37 pm

I’m just finishing my celebration of Australia Day. Opened the last bottle of Taitinger. I stuck to Australian wines for most of it, but I went froggy at the end.

I’m very glad I’m Australian. This is a great country, spoilt only by politicians, bureaucrats and bushflies. Otherwise it would be paradise, and someone would come along and steal it.

Rosie
Rosie
January 30, 2024 10:41 pm
Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
January 30, 2024 10:53 pm
Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 11:19 pm

A youtube account is claiming the IDF has ‘tracked down’ Yahya Sinwar, but I can find no mention of it on the IDF’s Youtube page.

Can someone with access to X check please?

It’s quite possibly just click bait, but you never know.

Rosie
Rosie
January 30, 2024 11:21 pm

Reading that Khalid Dib story, someone dumped his body, dead or dying at a hospital without even ringing the hospital to say it was there, so family and friends thought they should riot at the hospital.
Non of the famous Dibs, Jihad or his two boxer brothers mention the names of their other brothers on their wiki parents.
Must be shy.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 30, 2024 11:24 pm

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/01/this-crap-was-the-lead-story-channel-10-news-in-melbourne.html

“A catastrophic day!” Words fail me, they honestly vooking do!

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 11:25 pm

I’m unsure of the date of this, but as of creation, 40 Israeli children were being held hostage in Gaza. This YouTube IDF short features the names and ages of these children.

Digger
Digger
January 30, 2024 11:26 pm

My Great Grandaddy x4 (mum’s side) served in the British army from 1810 thru 1817 .. fought at Quatre Bras (Waterloo) and was awarded the Waterloo Medal ..

Having seen your GGGG Grandfathers information I checked the discharge papers of my GGG Grandfather, fathers side (which I have a framed copy of) who also fought at Waterloo and received the Waterloo Medal in 1815. He was in the 1st Battalian, 91st Regiment of Foot, Commanded by Lt General Duncan Campbell.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 11:34 pm

Our downdicker certainly dislikes any critical mention of Gaza and h@m@s.

What else forms part of the pattern?

(Of course, I may be mistaken in thinking there is only one dd).

Rosie
Rosie
January 30, 2024 11:35 pm
Rosie
Rosie
January 30, 2024 11:37 pm

Two children still held hostage one year old Kfir and his four year old brother Ariel.
One of the women is a child according to Gaza definition (eighteen) but didn’t qualify for release as she was an IDF member.

Rosie
Rosie
January 30, 2024 11:41 pm

I’m on the Corsica ferry a five hour cruise, not worth getting a cabin so I got a €12 reclining chair, had a peek in there, looks like I’ll be on my onesome so up with the hoi polloi til I’m sick of sick of the kitchen chair.
Television is telling French taxi drivers are this week’s protesters.

Muddy
Muddy
January 30, 2024 11:51 pm

Thanks for clarifying that, Rosie. For a 1 year old & a 4 year old to remain hostage without international outrage is mind-blowing. With adults as bargaining chips, there can be no reason to keep the toddlers. Yet much of the planet ascribes a ‘good faith’ to an organisation which has objectively shown no such moral fortitude.

Oh, and to my downdicker/s: I’m tempted to write ‘Get in the ring, mofos’ but then that’s something you’d never risk, is it? But I perversely also need to give you credit for that; for not getting in the ring with an unknown opponent. What did you do before the internet? Whose animals did you torture? What a waste of pixels. *Sigh*

Bruce in WA
January 31, 2024 12:05 am

Michelle and Barack Obama are quietly planning a shock bid for her to become president, forcing Joe Biden out, rumours claim

If that does happen and by any slim chance she succeeds, it won’t be “God bless America”, but rather “God help America”.

RTWT

Digger
Digger
January 31, 2024 1:05 am

Michelle and Barack Obama are quietly planning a shock bid for her to become president, forcing Joe Biden out, rumours claim

I reckon that is a lay down misere… and because the US is fundamentally stupid she has a better than even chance of winning.

Muddy
Muddy
January 31, 2024 9:56 am

An indignant late-night tantrum gets me only 3 miserable downdicks. Pffft. What a disappointment. Obviously I’m yet to master the craft!

Serious question:
What date would be the latest a U.S. pres candidate could nominate?

Muddy
Muddy
January 31, 2024 9:59 am

Aaargh! Tis still the ye olde fred!

Kneel
Kneel
January 31, 2024 12:30 pm

“Has anyone used Microsoft Office 2021?
Is it of any use, and is it loaded down with crap I’d never use?”

Yes, yes and yes.
Try installing OpenOffice.org – it’s the free version.
Does word processor, spreadsheet and presentation just fine.
Saves in MS Office compatible formats – even more flexible in that regard than MS Office itself, as it can “back port” to older versions.

Kneel
Kneel
January 31, 2024 12:44 pm

“Or are Dibs a dime a dozen in Sydney?”

About as common a name as Mohammad.

Robert Sewell
January 31, 2024 1:16 pm

Muddy

Jan 30, 2024 10:25 PM
Apropos of nothing.
I may have mentioned this thought previously, but it just popped back into my head again: As electrickery becomes more expensive in a domestic sense, will we see a greater rise in accidents in the home requiring hospitalisation, particularly among the elderly?

The non use of lights at night time has certainly become a worry. I don’t have the stats for elderly falls, but wouldn’t be surprised at a rise.

Robert Sewell
January 31, 2024 1:33 pm

Bruce in WA

Jan 31, 2024 12:05 AM
Michelle and Barack Obama are quietly planning a shock bid for her to become president, forcing Joe Biden out, rumours claim

I think the plan was to get her to wait until the electioneering period was almost over so the pressure from the media could be curtailed. This may not happen if the media push hard enough for ‘stories’ in the next month.
She won’t have enough time to prepare physically and emotionally. The right wing media are going to be pushed into the background so as not to tax her abilities.

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  1. Boland started running off the field as soon as his stumps were rattled. If they can get Jaiswal cheap again,…

  2. Straya done for 338, a lead of 158. Perfect timing. The call centre operators will be subject to two hours…

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