Leaving the endless pager memes momentarily, this marketing video by the Royal Armoury in Leeds is a modern classic.
Open Thread – Wed 31 Jan 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 19 Sept 2024
- The Unnecessary War?
- Open Thread – Mon 16 Sept 2024
- No, Your Holiness, killing babies and border control are not the same
- Open Thread – Weekend 14 Sept 2024
Rabz on Penny Ping Pong @10:43am…. you vile incompetent arrogant lesbian slag Absolutely beautiful
I was envisioning some ACME style scanners. More than once and the operator gets a little zing. But conscientious scrutineers…
“civilian objects should not be weaponised” He means like schools, kindergartens, hospitals, residential housing and clothing. Right?
Too long on the red leather.
Haha, nice trolling!
Trump Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for Fourth Time. GOP Congresswoman Claudia Tenney Cites 2020 Abraham Accords (30 Jan)
She’s right of course, the Abraham Accords are probably the biggest thing in the whole history of the Nobel Peace Prize. Hopefully her nomination will have the committee squirming with embarrassment, at least a little bit.
Mr Panzer at 11.34:
Called it. Called it early.
It’s the same reason ice cream shops in Williamstown went up in flames.
The burger joint was linked to the baccy shops – owned by the same bloke who ‘fled overseas’ after throwing some anti-Pally sentiment into the public domain.
Naturally, I was called a bullshit artist for even suggesting this.
Bourne? Your thoughts?
Everything was used against me, even my years on IVF by low-lifes like Clive Palmer. Some days, I honestly don’t know how I managed to survive,” she wrote.
Don’t forget that Turnbull sucked up to Palmer so he could undermine Abbott. You’re known by the company you keep. That a pompous waffling windbag could schmooze with a corpulent, all you can eat buffet adjacent, elastic pants wearer like Palmer speaks volumes for the sort of character Turnbull was and is.
“Why is unemployment permanently high?”
To a large degree, because the dole pays people not to work.
Yup. Know of a bloke who has basically not worked for the last 20 years.
Occasionally the government forces him to do a “training course” but it leads to bugger all. Then sometimes they force him to get a low-pay job – say bottleshop attendant – but he never lasts as he disappears on druggie benders for weeks at a time.
At the age of 60 he owns a 25 year old car and the clothes he’s wearing. Plus the lighter for the smokes habit of 40 a day.
There’s no reason not to hold down a part-time job at a Bunnings but it’s easier to stare at the TV all day and do nothing for $400 a week. Plus family handouts.
Have you seen The Mocker in this morning’s Paywallian?
I have tried to post it but no luck so it needs someone with more expertise. It is hilarious, cuts their ABC right down to size.
“Hamas has won!”
You are off your tree if you believe they won anything.
Trouble at mill:
and
Ambulance chasers and clients behaving like bull sharks in Sydney Harbour. Chompity chomp chomp chomp.
Let’s hope they eat each other up. 🙂
Really? Thats worth talking about, compared with the rest of his termite activity?
F*** Trumble, f*** his fluffers in the media and f*** the snakes they rode in on.
Might have been mentioned earlier, but arrests have been made in the Burgertory “hate crime” fire in Caulfield.
Turns out one of them has also been charged with fire bombing a chop-chop baccy shop in Bendigo.
So it seems Mr Burgertory might have been subjected to “competitive market forces” not involving hamburgers.
Credit where credit is due. The officer in charge of the investigation said almost immediately that it had nothing to do with Middle Eastern politics.
Unfortunately, senior Plod remained silent whilst a rabid mob, whipped up by Mr Burgertory, descended on Caulfield.
Indeed, and that rabid mob of leftist and Muslim scum descended on Caulfield to intimidate Jews, whilst Plod stood by. It was a deliberately provocative act, on a Friday night (the Sabbath) outside a synagogue where insults were hurled at Jews. I still remain stunned by what I saw happen that night.
You should do a full blog post about what the centre right should do.
These units should be made compulsory in all Government buildings including schools and the parts of hospitals that have no ill people.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Karma isn’t a Christian concept found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but it’s what you get when you serially go after a person and accuse them of committing abuse at times when they can prove they weren’t even in the same country at the time of the fraudulently claimed abuse.
Or something. That’s what I heard a bloke in Bunnings say the other day.
flyingduk
Insurgents can only win against civilised nations.
Pushed hard enough, even the most civilised nation becomes ruthless. See Hamburg, Cologne, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagsaki.
No, I am not suggesting that Germany or Japan fought their wars as insurgents, only that they caused otherwise civilised nations to become ruthless. The effect of 7 October on Israel was to push it towards ruthlessness, against an uncivilised enemy that deserves it. Israel is not there yet, but another 7 October could be the trigger.
Building approvals miss forecasts
CommSec
@CommSec
Australia, building approvals (December 2023): -9.5% survey: +0.5%).
Building approvals for December missed expectations by a wide margin in a result the Australian Bureau of Statistics blamed on a decline in apartment approvals.
Daniel Rossi, ABS head of construction statistics, said: “Approvals for private sector dwellings excluding houses drove the December decline, falling 25.3 per cent. In 2023, there were 59,174 private other dwellings approved, compared to 73,041 in 2022. This reflects a 19 per cent annual fall.”
CBA calls house prices to climb 5pc in 2024
Commonwealth Bank’s senior economist, Belinda Moore, forecasts Australian house prices to climb to record highs in 2024, after the latest CoreLogic data showed national prices edged 0.4 per cent higher in January.
“Overall, we expect a lift in home prices of 5 per cent in 2024,” said Ms Moore. “But more modest price gains until an easing in interest rates from the RBA later in 2024 (our base case in September 2024 for the first cut). We do expect considerable divergence between capital cities.”
CBA expects the modest price rises to be driven by a lack of supply pushing up rents.
Ask your great grandparents about life in the Great Depression and listen closely to what they describe
I have NOT forgotten. My grandmother’s husband left her (with eight children) when the Depression began. Scarpered, & didn’t ever return. She managed by taking in a couple of boarders (dad was one of them & so met my mother)& washing and ironing for others. The proverbial “bread & dripping” was a staple, & she would send the kids to the local greengrocer for what were then called “specks”. They are now called “odd shaped etc fruit & vegetables” & I have no qualms about buying them at Harris Farm today. Good on them for offering them to the marketplace.
She was a grand lady (we knew her as “mumma-pumma) & lived well into her 90s. She had married a sharp, good looking young no-hoper – against the advice of her middle class merchant family. But she raised all eight of her kids in that terrible time.
BTW she was always in fear of the “welfare” officers taking her kids from her. Mum reckons she made them hide when she knew they were coming. You tell this to the do-gooders today who get into a lather when Aboriginal kids are rightfully taken from families who actually abuse them. They just close their ears. It is infuriating.
I assume you mean the photo of the black guy in handcuffs and escorted by police, Bruce?
World’s Strictest Teacher Sued for Banning Prayer at School – Katharine Birbalsingh
Well worth watching.
The Mocker: My dream for a culturally safe working environment at the ABC
As one who was both aghast and distressed to learn the ABC fosters an oppressive and dangerous environment for people of colour and other minority employees, I was relieved to hear that management has finally taken the first step towards ameliorating their Dickensian working conditions.
The driver for this was a no-confidence motion in managing director David Anderson passed last week by ABC employees who are also members of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA). One hundred and twenty-eight of them, to be precise, or around 2.6 per cent of the ABC’s workforce. Among other things, they have demanded management provide a “culturally informed process for supporting staff who face criticism and attack,” and take “urgent action on the lack of security and inequality that journalists of colour face”.
In response, ABC News director Justin Stevens emailed editorial staff, imploring employees to “stay united”. He announced he intends “holding listening sessions with culturally diverse staff in News” given they are “finding it difficult to freely express their views”. In addition, he has appointed Indigenous Affairs editor and Dja Dja Wurrung/Yorta Yorta woman Bridget Brennan to “co-ordinate an urgent piece of work” to examine “international best practice on providing support in culturally safe newsrooms and bringing ideas and recommendations to the News Executive.”
This move cannot come soon enough. According to MEAA acting chief executive Adam Portelli, “the progress that has been made in diversifying the ABC has gone backwards”. When I read that I checked ABC’s annual report for last year. To my horror there was scant reference to improving diversity. Aside that is from the ABC’s Diversity & Inclusion Standing Committee, the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Plan, the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, the Diversity and Inclusion Report, the News Diversity Advisory Group, the Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network, and the ABC’s partnership with an Indigenous organisation to ensure “supplier diversity”.
In fact, ‘diversity’ was mentioned only 73 times in the 284-page report. We are talking blink-and-you’ll-miss-it references. My dismay was compounded when I discovered that only 12.9 per cent of the ABC’s non-casual workforce are LGBTQIA+. Then there is the dastardly patriarchy. Women fill only 55.4 per cent of executive roles and 54.9 per cent of the ABC’s workforce. Indigenous employees make up 3.3 per cent and workers with a disability 5.4 per cent. If those figures represent diversity going backwards at the ABC, Adam Portelli, what on earth were they before?
Ah, you say, but the real issue is cultural diversity and empowerment. Well, no. Over a quarter of the workforce – 25.7 per cent – are in the “culturally and linguistically diverse background” (CALD) category. These employees occupy 20.4 per cent of executive positions. And 24.2 per cent are in content-maker roles. For the last five years they have had a dedicated network group (ABC Belong). Its charter is to “increase awareness and representation of cultural and linguistic diversity” in the workforce and content and “to provide a safe space for the CALD community and its allies to meet and support one another.”
Suffice to say this is not a workplace where the staff canteen offers only steak and three veg for lunch.
Nevertheless, there could be something in this cultural safety racket for yours truly. Having an Irish background, I tend to be forthright. It is very difficult, in fact nigh impossible, for me to hold my tongue in certain situations, particularly when grifters, race opportunists and censorious ideologues presume to tell me how to think and act. In the unlikely event I ever get offered a job at the ABC, I look forward to pointing out a few home truths both on air and internally. This of course will result in numerous complaints, but I need only to invoke my cultural safety immunity. All good?
Since the Brennan review has been announced, we have already seen an example of this playing out. The employee concerned is none other than Brennan. Appearing on ABC News Breakfast during a live cross on Australia Day, she went on an activist bent.
“For First Nations people, for my people, this is a very important day to remember our ancestors and those who fought for many decades to improve the living standards for our people and remember that it always was and always will be Aboriginal land,” she said.
So much for ABC editorial policies which require that presenters “Gather and present news and information with due impartiality” and forbid them from presenting analysis and commentary as ABC editorial opinion. But when that was put to the national broadcaster on the day, a spokeswoman made it clear that managerial gumption is non-existent at the organisation.
“The ABC backs her completely,” she said. In other words, Brennan has a culturally safe get out of jail card. Any guesses as to what her review findings will be?
In short, demands for a culturally safe workplace are sophistry. They hold that minority employees who screech oppression and victimhood have a higher calling. Culturally safe means editorial policies requiring accuracy do not apply to them, because what they say is their “truth”. Culturally safe means they do not have to answer to the ABC complaints process. Culturally safe means they get a platform for their prejudices, whether that is by accusing Israel of genocide, or browbeating white people about their privilege, or ranting about stolen land and reparations. Culturally safe means they are a victim of racism, misogyny, or Islamophobia when their extreme views result in audience backlash, and that ABC management must take urgent measures to ‘protect’ them. And culturally safe means that mainstream Australians, the very people these presenters despise, must fund their activism and livelihood.
This is what happens to public institutions where employee entitlement and management timidity define workplace culture. In a statement last week, outgoing ABC chair Ita Buttrose was outraged at the no confidence motion in Anderson, saying “It is abhorrent and incorrect that people would suggest that he has shown a lack of support for independent journalism and journalists”.
This is your legacy, Ita Buttrose. If only you had spent the last five years enforcing the ABC charter instead of being a cipher for a workers’ collective. The more you try to appease the entitled and the outraged, the more they will take advantage of you. That is human nature. Always has been, always will be.
THE MOCKER
The Mocker amuses himself by calling out poseurs, sneering social commentators, and po-faced officials. He is deeply suspicious of those who seek increased regulation of speech and behaviour.
Oz
Regarding the issue of the live sheep trade – the usual howler monkeys are whinging that New Zealand exports chilled carcasses, why doesn’t Australia. Point out that wages in New Zealand are lower then they are in Australia, and the conversation ceases….
Just wait till they have the new Sydney Harbour Tunnel exit there – Who did the Cost benefit on replacing something that already works perfectly?
‘Worse than before Christmas’: Further tweaks to be made to Rozelle interchange as gridlock returns
Transport officials have been forced into making further adjustments to ease traffic congestion in Sydney’s inner west after the NSW roads minister conceded tweaks made to the troubled Rozelle interchange had transferred the gridlock further up Victoria Road.
Morning radio was alight with angry callers on Thursday morning as Victoria Road was at a standstill and city-bound traffic crawled along the Anzac Bridge in back-to-school traffic.
“It’s a complete disaster, it’s worse than before Christmas,” one commuter, Matt, told 2GB’s Ben Fordham, saying it had taken him an hour and a half to travel 15 kilometres on Wednesday, and the problem had only got worse.
“It’s not sustainable … there’s a fundamental problem with the design of this thing.”
The worst of the delays were experienced between Gladesville and Drummoyne, with many callers angry about changes to the traffic light timing from Lyons Road onto Victoria Road. One caller, Zac, said the changes were causing problems for commuters.
“For many, it makes the morning commute worse,” he said.
Commuter John Verhelst told the Herald it took him half an hour to travel between the Gladesville and Iron Cove bridges.
Roads Minister John Graham, who was at the traffic management centre earlier this week as officials prepared for the surge in traffic, said the Rozelle interchange was working, but the changes made to ease congestion over the break were having an “unacceptable impact further up the road”.
“The problem has been transferred further up the road, and we’ll now have to really focus in on that issue to make this a better commute for people,” he said. “It’s a delicate balance and the transport management team are really working closely, looking at exactly how these lights change.”
Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne said the shifting of the bottleneck several kilometres back along Victoria Road to Gladesville and Drummoyne indicated there was a permanent problem with congestion along the corridor due to the interchange.
Strangely the Mocker article doesn’t have comments available for the readership.
Probably the moderators would too overwhelmed, and then there’s the problem that many of the moderators would be in there wanting the same as the ABC workplace vision for News Ltd newspaper.
The 100-metre try that found a Parramatta junior a worldwide audience
If this is the first time you’re seeing the destructive try scored by teenage Merrylands Rams prop Viliotu Masila, then you would appear to be in the minority.
135 million views and counting: The junior footballer who broke the internet
The Caulfield intimidation posse got the suburb wrong.
Somewhere more singlet-y and less yarmulke-y is indicated.
The News by Omission is always the best bit. Especially on the ALPBC.
From the country that gave us Great Danes.
38% of surveyed Danish dog owners put their dogs on unlicensed cannabinoids (Phys.org, 31 Jan)
An article on stoned dogs is something I didn’t expect to see reported in the daily science news. Danes are weird.
Totally nothing to worry about. ?
You mean like using your dog’s gabapentin if you have a bad back, right?
Can’t afford to buy a home? Consider yourself lucky
If you’re depressed because you’re priced out of the property market, here’s some unwanted consolation: you’re probably better off, at least as far as your sanity is concerned.
Saying this is considered blasphemy in modern Australia, where property ownership is what most people strive for. Well, as someone who has owned an apartment and now a house/money pit, I suggest you strive for something better.
Perhaps freedom and peace of mind, which in my experience do not go with property ownership.
Before people start screaming about how horrific the rental market is, let me just say: I know. I know. Renting has become an unbelievably expensive and soul-crushing experience.
But so is owning property.
Let’s start by talking about something every apartment and townhouse owner knows, yet no-one talks about in public: the nightmare that is owning strata.
You see, when you buy strata, you’re not just buying real estate: you’re buying into a whole new group of strangers who you are now tethered to, namely your new strata committee made up of fellow clueless owners.
At first, these people may seem lovely, perhaps even welcoming, but there’s no such thing as a group of random people who are all stable.
The odds are that at least one will be a complete bastard and another will be certifiable.
One will scream at you because you sided with someone else on the committee about a hallway repair job that, after nine months, has still not been repaired because no-one can come to a consensus, the odds are you too will want to go back to renting.
And don’t get me started on strata management companies. You might think you’re paying them to manage the building – you know, take care of repairs to common areas, provide sage advice, make sure everything doesn’t go to hell – yet it’s really you and the building committee (yes, the same group of lovely, balanced people I mentioned before) who are responsible.
What could go wrong?
Determined to be free, I sold my apartment and rented for a few blissful years, only to get evicted as the market continued, inexplicably, to boom. Yes, renting can turn to hell, and as with most renters, I mistakenly thought owning a home would be heaven.
Well, let me tell you: the eighties’ movie The Money Pit no longer seems like a comedy to me. It’s now more like a documentary.
LOL. FT yesterday:
Pushed hard enough, even the most civilised nation becomes ruthless. See Hamburg, Cologne, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagsaki.
I take Boambee’s point. Western woke may be bemoaning the fate of Gazans now, but wait till the home-grown Muzzies in their own country start to exercise some muscle.
Mmmm. Insurgents within the West. All bets off.
Thanks, Top Ender. I’m still laughing at the Mocker’s evisceration of the ABC. May there be much more of it.
FtB said:
I don’t understand how the cameras move as the people do, to better follow them. Is someone watching and recording? Does someone have control of the hospital cameras? AI? Set-up?
The system works.
Someone was asking about licencing the latest Windows Office .. this is a link to Office 2019 with alifetime licence for $US29.97 ..
No idea of the difference betwen 2019 & now due to upgrades but price wise a good deal ……
https://deals.majorgeeks.com/sales/microsoft-office-professional-plus-2019-for-windows
My original thought about the hospital was much…much inside assistance. That hasn’t changed as more info comes to hand. Good.
And Dover I apologise for getting tetchy over moderation for an innocent word. As Roger says, it’s “schmuck” from now on. 🙂
Thought for the day.
Yeah, I saw that. As you say, just trolling. It will get nowhere. Like so many other institutions once considered venerable it has been killed, gutted, and being worn as a skinsuit by the left trying to trade on its previous cachet.
It is now (at least as far as anything political can be read in – including Climate science now) a bauble for high profile left wing warriors.
Obama won the Peace Prize before he did anything, and he was not a peacemaker when he got in. Except kowtowing to Iran, letting them take American hostages (echoes of Carter) and sending them billions in cash on pallets.
But the comparison is telling.
The Mocker this week. Excellent and thanks TE.
Does anyone else wonder WTF “intelligence chiefs” are doing hammering out ceasefire agreements?
Why waste money on highly expensive foreign affairs ministries and such if “intelligence chiefs” will be doing critical international negotiations/agreements?
OO
No mention of demand driven by record levels of immigration affecting prices?
Mustn’t fart in the church of a “Big Australia”?
From a layperson and non pube – aren’t they the same thing?
Either that, or they will change the description to ‘cooperating with police’ giving the impression he is a good and civic-minded guy.
“Everything was used against me, even my years on IVF by low-lifes like Clive Palmer. “
I’m glad Credlin has written what she has, and her description of Fatso Palmer is accurate, all too accurate. Look, I’m not oblivious to the faults of the Abbott government, nor of Abbott himself. There were huge disappointments, Abbott was a big disappointment. His incessant gaffes, his weaknesses, and his capitulation over 18C has blighted his legacy but without a doubt he was being viciously undermined by his own colleagues, including many in his cabinet such as those three cockroaches, Pussy Pyne, Pussy Bishop and Mal Turdbull.
But back to Fatso Palmer, I could not believe that there were many people, even here, who thought him some kind of hero during Covid, and who supported his party in 2022. Fatso Palmer’s modus operandi, his raison d’etre and his political shenanigans have only ever been about himself and furthering his own ambitions, he doesn’t give a toss about this country or the ordinary people who live in this country. I was gobsmacked at how many people forgot those years from 2013 to 2015 when Fatso Palmer spent his whole time in Canberra deliberately stymieing the Abbott government. For that whole time he was vindictive, petty, nasty, disruptive, at the same time becoming the ABC’s favourite, he cosied up to the ABC and they fawned over him, not because they liked the fat bastard but because he was spruiking their agenda of being deliberately disruptive to the Abbott government. They loved that.
Remember how Fatso was the prized guest of the ABC at the midwinter ball, sitting at their table with then ABC shithead, Mark Scott? Has the ABC ever invited Pauline Hanson to sit at their table. Not on your nelly!
Fatso’ legacy? He gifted us the push pig from Tasmania, who’ll probably be there for life.
Hmmm.
Probability?
I don’t remember any reference to “probability” late last year when the Bureau of Mythology was predicting with absolute certainty that this would be the hottest summer evah.
Or that housing construction rates are collapsing.
House approvals remain at low levels (9 Jan)
Golly I wonder who is responsible for the dire lack of building approvals? It’s a mystery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnTZN2uU-DE
Question: Why do Britons despise their government?
Answer: Probably because their government despises them.
The son of former NSW premier Kristina Keneally has broken down as he avoided prison after he was found guilty of fabricating a statement that wrongfully landed a man behind bars.
Daniel John Keneally was found guilty of falsifying the official report in 2021 about a phone call he received while working as a police officer at Newtown police station.
He was found guilty in November last year.
Magistrate Rodney Brender on Thursday described Keneally’s offending as a serious “crime against public justice” as he sentenced him to a 15 month Intensive Corrections Order, which is a term of imprisonment to be served in the community.
That choking sound from the direction of Canberra is the entire staff of DFAT having a fit of apoplexy at the thought of the bosses of ONA, DIO, DSA, et al conducting international negotiations, and probably without even a decent cocktail party, much less a final banquet.
So the buggertory “hate crime” in Mosquebourne, err, wasn’t.
Well, colour me completely unsurprised. I noted at the time it sounded suspicious, although I was wrong about the possible perpetrator(s), having originally thought the loudmouthed moozley imbecile (BIRM) who owned the burger chain had damaged the shop (or had arranged for someone else to do it).
This is yet another example of the wonders (or in reality, the staggering stupidity) of anarcho-tyranny. Jewish people in another suburb who had nothing to do with the buggertory “non hate crime” ended up being physically attacked by angry moozley morons (BIRM) whipped into a hate filled frenzy based on a total falsehood.
Remember, moozleys lie about everything, so expect a lot more of this here in the immediate future.
May not matter in the greater scheme of things.
Builders can’t keep up with demand as it is, but apparently not many migrants have the requisite skills for the building trade.
Remember when we were going to be the clever country?
Now that’s a non sequitur, students.
Big thumbs up here.
😀
Patience please!
A major investigation has been launched over a “fake patient” scandal with a regional hospital accused of staging a full emergency department for a ministerial visit.
The Herald Sun has confirmed the matter was referred to both IBAC and the Victorian Ombudsman after Health Minister Mary Anne Thomas visited an urgent care clinic run by Colac Area Health in August last year.
The Department of Health is currently investigating the allegations that at least 10 patients, claimed to be Colac Area Health staff and family members, were admitted into a hospital bed where they pretended to be sick ahead of Ms Thomas’ visit.
“The Department of Health is aware of a complaint made and continues to investigate the allegations raised,” a department spokeswoman said.
“We’re working closely with Colac Area Health on the matter and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
Ideally in stocks.
Once upon a time serving a sentence ‘in the community’ involved the offenders being locked into stocks standing in the town square. Daily barrages of verbal abuse and rotten vegetables thrown by the citizens upon whom they offended followed.
Highly effective at modifying attitudes from what I understand and well worth a revisit IMO.
And that’s an oxymoron.
Bruce O’Nuke:
Exactly – the only people not afraid of the Uniparty are the ones who see themselves benefiting from it, and that’s why I don’t trust them. Their benefit comes at the expense of my rights.
This is quite bizarre. It’s not even Potemkin Village stuff.
It’s like out of a cult like Kenja Klowning or something. I hope the supple young nurses had their energy absorbed. I can help.
Are you saying, Roger, that the state administered trades training system isn’t turning out enough guys with requisite qualifications to be allowed to hammer a nail into a plank of wood? That’s terrible! Maybe they should be required to have a degree in nail hammering plus a diploma in DEI to be allowed on a building site. One can never be too safe and diverse.
Show him them the machine that goes “PING”.
Tom
Jan 31, 2024 7:49 PM
From Serpenza – The Chinese Economy is really this bad.
Unwatchable. These poor women.
Unless they say there is 0% chance or 100% chance of rain you could always argue that even if the low probability outcome occurs that is in line with the laws of probability.
If they say 15% chance of rain and it rains then it was just part of that 15%.
You need to get records of when they say 15% chance of rain and then see if there is actually rain in 15% of those times. Not sure if that really is the best method to evaluate forecasts against events, but it seems to me one way.
As inspired by Pallyweird.
How many police officers DOES it take to shut down a gospel singer?
New video shows FIVE of Met’s finest jobsworths threatening to arrest Christian singer on Oxford Street as onlookers say ‘shouldn’t you be trying to catch rapists and murderers?’
. Harmonie London, 20, was singing Gospel songs on Oxford Street in London
. A volunteer police officer incorrectly told her that she could not sing there
. New video reveals five Met Police officers threatened to arrest her
That too, apparently.
Mind you, there’s seems to be no shortage of tradies in this neck of the woods going by the projects going up in the local metropolis.
I suspect quite a few have come from Victoria.
calli
Jan 31, 2024 8:04 PM
Calli, you’re giving them what they want – attention.
Karma isn’t a Christian concept found in the Catechism
Yeah, but it’s lovely when it works good and hard.
Bruce of Newcastle
Feb 1, 2024 1:18 PM
Builders can’t keep up with demand as it is, but apparently not many migrants have the requisite skills for the building trade.
Are you saying, Roger, that the state administered trades training system isn’t turning out enough guys with requisite qualifications to be allowed to hammer a nail into a plank of wood? That’s terrible! Maybe they should be required to have a degree in nail hammering plus a diploma in DEI to be allowed on a building site. One can never be too safe and diverse.
BON, Roger,
‘They don’t put in the hard yakka’: Fed-up tradies turn on their own
Tradies are synonymous with getting their hands dirty and working hard, but those in the industry claim things have taken a drastic turn.
Tradies in Australia have become synonymous with getting their hands dirty and working hard, but a whole new generation of workers are changing that very image.
Generation Z have turned up with their workplace boundaries and are changing the industry, leaving their Millennial bosses fed up and exasperated.
Sydney plumber Tommo, 38, has become so exhausted with the lack of effort from young tradies that he doesn’t even bother with apprentices.
“They don’t want to put in the hard yakka,” he told news.com.au.
Tommo thinks it is partly because the Aussie trade industry is struggling to secure talent, so young workers can get away with a lot more than they used to.
“It’s so hard we have to take the s**t ones; we have to hang onto them because we need people in the job,” he explained.
He is not sure why Generation Z isn’t interested in working hard; he thinks maybe it’s a natural “evolution”, but he can’t quite understand their reasons.
“It’s more down to them. They don’t want to work too hard these days,” he said.
The plumber has found that they are generally unreliable and have a relaxed “it’ll be sweet” attitude towards work.
This means they are more likely to fail to get to work on time or be seen as an unreliable team member who isn’t willing to put in 100 per cent effort.
He said one of the worst experiences he had with a Gen Zer was one he literally had to pull out of bed in the mornings.
“You could not get him out of bed and you had to go to his front door and pull him out of bed. It was a daily occurrence,” he said.
Things got so dire that Tommo often had to enlist the guy’s mum to help get him out of the door in the morning.
Tommo believes this is partly because young people end up working in trades not because they want to, but because their helicopter parents are securing apprenticeships on their behalf.
“When I started my apprenticeship it was me that had to find the job, and these days half the stuff is done by parents trying to get their kid a job,” he said.
The result is that plenty of young people working in trades seemingly don’t want to be there.
Tommo said he and his fellow Millennial tradies would often discuss how easy Generation Z has it, but he admitted that’s just part of being the older generation.
“I think we had it a lot harder, but when you speak to older guys, they say they had it a lot harder,” he said.
Builder Steven, 28, believes that Generation Z is finding it more challenging to put in the hard yards when it comes to working in a trade because of social media.
He said that when young people are constantly being told there are quick and easy ways to make money online, working in manual labour for a living is a harder sell.
“They are probably thinking, ‘why am I working so hard for money’,” he pointed out.
The Sydney-based tradie said that, ultimately, when young people start in the tradie industry they aren’t bringing in the big bucks.
“I think they come into it thinking it’s going to be really good and then they do it and think why am I slugging it out all week not for the best money and conditions when I can just make money from an office,” he said.
Steven said that there were much “easier” ways to make money and plenty of them involved getting to sit in airconditioning.
He is bang on too, because there’s been a 5.3 per cent drop in apprentices in NSW, and more than 18,300 apprentices have withdrawn from their courses.
It isn’t just that young people aren’t prepared to work as hard. They are also far more likely to advocate for themselves and aren’t buying into the Millennial culture of overworking to the point of burnout over a job.
Steven has observed that they are more likely to go on stress leave or take a mental health day and, while it’s a big change from how the culture was when he started, he thinks it is a positive change.
“I was just brought up to get it done and the work has to be done,” he said.
On the other hand, Generation Z grew up in a culture where work-life balance was expected and normal.
“It has positive impacts and bosses need to understand an employee will never care as much as you, and rightly so, and they should do what they get paid for,” he said.
Newcastle-based builder Nathan Mcilveen, 26, said that the tradie mentality of “toughen up” is rapidly changing.
He said if a young tradie was being put down on site as part of some hazing, it isn’t tolerated.
“People call it out if someone’s doing something to a young bloke on site,” he told news.com.au.
Nathan said that older tradies in their late forties and fifties are often “angry” because they started their careers when things were much more backwards.
“Nowadays, we are more understanding about people if they need a day off or whatever, but older guys can get angry,” he said.
While the younger generation are improving the culture, Nathan still thinks they are “lazy” and he blames social media for telling young people they can make heaps of money with little effort, meaning actually working hard doesn’t appeal to them.
“They’ll do a week with the builder and then say, ‘No way am I doing this’,” he said.
Mr Mcilveen said it was because they think they can make money in an “easier” way and that’s why there’s such a shortage of young talent that are willing to get their hands dirty.
Founder of Western Sydney Youth, Amanda Rose, said that young people don’t need to change but rather the tradie industry needs a makeover.
“We need to provide young people with positive and practical experience in trades starting from the end of Year 9,” she said.
“The truth is society isn’t very nice to tradies – young apprentices are expected to work hard but struggle to see the long-term rewards, so we need to work together to change this sentiment.”
In fact, Ms Rose said that we need to provide Generation Z with more support.
“Increasing mentorship of apprentices, providing them with more support through the tough early years, and changing the way we think and speak about budding tradies are all great places to start,” she advised.
Was it U2’s Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For? Cat Stevens’ Morning Has Broken or Oh Mary Don’t You Weep by The Boss?
From the Comments
Hidden Video – Senior Biden White House Apparatchik ‘sings like a bird’ to James O’Keefe
BREAKING VIDEO: Top White House Cyber Official tells O’Keefe in Disguise “they can’t say it publicly” the White House wants to replace Kamala Harris and Confirms President @JoeBiden mental decline: “Biden is definitely slowing down.”
“I’m just telling you what I’ve heard…… pic.twitter.com/75Wdw03DHs
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) January 31, 2024
UPDATE – James posted this note last night in anticipation of today’s disclosure!
People familiar with the story coming out tomorrow keep texting me, asking me about fear. I’ve taken the time to write a careful response.
At 39, I’ve lived a good life. Whether it’s complete or not is not up to me. What happens next, I don’t know.
If there’s more to come here, so be it. I’ve learned the pursuit of truth requires extreme risk while operating without a safety net. I’ve experienced so much. I’ve lived ten lives compressed into a fraction of one.
That’s all that a man can hope for. Meteoric highs, extreme lows, and near-death experiences, Jail and jury trials, travels to every state dozens of times, adventures, travails, failures, betrayals, and loves lost and gained, repeated valleys, moving and climbing mountains, enduring multiple rebirths and renewals.
What I learned is written in three books, particularly American Muckraker, and filmed masterclasses, released and unreleased.
I’ve received love from a balanced family with honest parents and sincere grandparents who raised me to have a manically driven work ethic, all while believing in the best in people.
From my vantage point, that last thing is on the verge of extinction unless things fundamentally change.
I built a good organization from nothing, which did good things. I’m taking lessons from the first company and building a better one from nothing, which I know will do more extraordinary things.
Challenging Leviathan itself is hard enough.
Leviathan doesn’t like being challenged. But as nearly impossible as that is, the enemy and its injustice is no longer what bothers me.
An enemy can’t betray you. Only people you think are good can do that.
It has been an indescribable hell on earth for me to witness people go against everything they claim to believe in – everything good and right, in service to their love of money and power.
I’ve witnessed envy destroy people whose hearts I thought I knew.
I’ve seen an unhealthy obsession with comfort and safety from countless others.
These weaknesses stand between us and what we’re “up against.”
Which leads me to the video I’m about to release.
I’m not suicidal, but I’m also not afraid to die.
Now, I’m indifferent to the outcome and frankly numb to the consequences of truth-telling. I’ve adapted to faith over fear.
The mission is to discover other people whose principles are not for sale — who will do the right thing rather than talk about doing the right thing.
I’m tired of seeing 10s of thousands of people sliding into my DMs complaining to my team about how bad things are… and then they make excuses or do nothing.
I’m tired, Boss.
So here I stand; I can do no other.
As has been said, “If they’re gonna kill me, they’re going to kill me.” Let’s do this.
Let’s get 2024 started. Let’s inspire others to be brave.
Let’s raise the stakes. Let’s expose them all!
In Truth,
James
I wonder if it’s a big city thing, Ozzie?
I say that because every time we’ve had a tradie out in the five years we’ve been here – and that would be plumbers, electricians, a concreter and a carpenter/builder – they’ve had an eager apprentice in tow. Even the chimney sweep, in fact; I don’t know if that’s officially a trade, as in the UK, but he has a young fella with him learning the ropes.
By which, you mean a chimley sweep.
I don’t understand how the cameras move as the people do, to better follow them. Is someone watching and recording?
They’ve taken the raw footage from multiple cameras & edited into a longer video.
There are videos on line splitscreening 4 camera views that show most of what was in that longer video in real time.
It’s kosher.
This was one of the high lights of the DeSantis governorship.
Judge dismisses Disney’s lawsuit alleging retaliation by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/31/judge-dismisses-disney-lawsuit-against-florida-gov-ron-desantis-alleging-retaliation.html
Tax shielded assets in perpetuity is ridiculous.
All tax incentives should have an end date.
The way Disney got them in the first place would be subject to a RICO investigation if they attempted it today.
Londonistan continues down the Drain under Mayor Sadiq Khan
Acid attack thug targets mother and her two children in London’s Clapham South leaving her screaming ‘my eyes’: Manhunt continues after NINE people were hurt including hero passers-by and police who tried to help
The three victims are among nine injured as eight were rushed to hospital after the horror incident in south London , police said. This included hero passers-by who rushed to the family’s aid and police officers responding to the attack. Officers have launched an investigation after a suspected corrosive substance was thrown at the trio in Lessar Avenue, Clapham South. And the Met Police are now engaging in a manhunt, using a helicopter in their pursuit of the attacker. Beside the family three other people – who are all adults – were also rushed to hospitals after sustaining injuries.
Not sure if this has been noted here:
SA Employment Tribunal rules employer is liable for covid vaccine injury (pericarditis).
Eh?
.
‘We got it wrong’ Met Police admits as they apologise for PCSO who wrongly told gospel busker to ‘stop singing’
Jacob Rees Mogg speakes with gospel singer Harmonie London GB News
You know, I’m not lacking in sympathy for people, even those whose politics I don’t like. So, hearing the news of Daniel Keneally, he should count himself lucky, very lucky that he’s been spared time in prison.
However I have zero sympathy for Daniel’s mother, Kristina Keneally. I’m sure she’s embarrassed by what has happened to her son. Given her tawdry political history, her role in the Lehrmann affair, her ‘mean girl’ shtick, her dobbing in of Abbott during Covid, her eager and enthusiastic participation in the Pell lynching I find myself having zero sympathy for the woman. I hope she disappears.
You know. A chimbley sweep!
Europe is finished, condemned to death by its deluded, third-rate elites
The continent is incapable of recovering from its present economic, military and demographic crises
ALLISTER HEATH
It’s time to mourn the demise of old Europe.
The rot is too far gone, the decline too pronounced, the welfarism, decadence, pacifism and self-hatred too ingrained, the doom-loop unstoppable.
Once the world’s richest, most advanced continent, Europe is finished, its humiliating fall all too obvious to the rest of the world, if not to deluded Europeans.
Its self-inflicted pathologies – catastrophic economic failure, near-total geopolitical irrelevance, a migration and integration crisis, and a gaping democratic deficit – have now metastasised.
They have become too complex, too daunting for Europe’s third-rate elites even to consider tackling, and especially for the selfish, demagogic politicians who have presided with such insouciance over its social disintegration, “degrowth”, Potemkin militaries and appalling demographics.
Germany, France, the Netherlands and elsewhere are on the brink of social explosion, with farmers the latest to have become radicalised.
Any young, ambitious European would be better off moving to America, especially anti-woke Florida or Texas.
They will pay less tax. They will live better, happier, freer lives. They will be less likely to face total war. Their living standards will be drastically higher.
In the 248-year intra-Western contest between the US and Europe, there has been only one winner.
America is also sick, as witnessed by its own social decay, the rise of the woke ideology and the preposterous rematch of the geriatrics between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Yet unlike in Paris, Berlin, Rome or Brussels, enough remains of its capitalist spirit, its dynamism, its entrepreneurialism, its love of science, meritocracy and technology, to see it through its current troubles.
Europe’s greatest legacies to the world – capitalism, individual liberty, the rule of law and the “Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic” (or “weird”) values so brilliantly described by Joseph Henrich of Harvard University – will live on in the US.
But there is no way back for a European continent that has embraced nihilism, post-Christian paganism, illiberalism and the politics of envy, that believes that saving the planet requires shutting down successful industries and impoverishing its people, that cannot face down Islamist extremism and anti-Semitism, and that won’t reform its welfare state.
Even Brexit, the ultimate warning signal, failed to change anything.
Europe’s ruling class dismissed the UK’s departure as an aberration, an own goal by self-harming British eccentrics, and doubled-down on its failed policies.
It refused to listen to voters; no wonder their rage is becoming ever more combustible, inchoate and unfocused.
The EU population will peak at 453.3 million in two years’ time, then slump to 419.5 million by 2100, despite massive immigration, Eurostat predicts.
The population will age drastically, driven by a collapse in the birth rate.
Welfare states will implode, with taxes rocketing on the young to pay for healthcare and pensions for the old.
The Euro-elites’ only answer, even more migration, will empower potentially dangerous extremists.
In France, Germany, Belgium and elsewhere, the failure to integrate many recent migrants, and the ruling class’s answer – to lie that all is well – is paving the way for a cataclysm.
The rise of Germany’s AfD should worry us all. The European elections will see gains for populists.
The gulf in living standards between America and Europe keeps on widening.
In the final quarter of 2023, US GDP grew by an annualised 3.3 per cent; the Eurozone grew by zero per cent and the German economy shrank again.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine didn’t help, but Europe shouldn’t have become so dependent on Russian gas.
The continent’s high-tax, high regulation model has caused decades of under-performance, and now Emmanuel Macron, the EU and the Dutch and German governments are deliberately shutting down swathes of their agriculture to meet net-zero targets.
The Germans are destroying their car industry, and Europe will import Chinese electric vehicles instead.
Decades of “industrial strategy” and subsidies have failed to create a world-class European tech industry.
The continent’s economic suicide is already triggering an exodus of the best and brightest.
Europe’s geopolitical irrelevance is equally striking.
Its defence is being shouldered by long-suffering US taxpayers.
The French are nowhere to be seen in the fight against the Houthis; its army is a shadow of its former self, and wouldn’t last long in a real war.
The Poles and a few others are trying their best, but the German military is a joke, and all the great promises to rebuild European armies made in 2022 have meant nothing.
The continent is almost completely demilitarised, lacks personnel and hardware, doesn’t have the capacity to produce more of the latter, has zero long-term answers to contain Putin and has done nothing to prepare for the possibility of a second Trump victory.
It’s a disgrace.
It beggars belief that so many of the middle-class British Remainers and Rejoiners, who will help propel Labour to victory this year, are still so unfathomably ignorant about the true state of Europe’s economy and society.
Blinded by anti-Tory hatred, obsessed by shiny TGVs and the memories of their pleasant holidays in southern Europe, they assume that things must – just must – be better in Europe.
Almost all Labour MPs privately believe that the solution to our own lack of growth is to rejoin the single market or customs union, even though these have failed to save Europe’s own economies.
How can further increasing our ties with a zero-growth continent or a shrinking German economy do anything for Britain?
It can’t.
And how will the British Left respond to the rise of the far-Right in Europe? Will it still love Germany if the AfD is part of its government? Will it still love statist France if Marine le Pen is in the Elysee?
Britain is in an appalling state, but so is Europe.
The Brexiteers’ Euro-pessimism has been vindicated; the problem is that the establishment refused to use Brexit to break with Brussels’ regulatory philosophy and to reorient our economy away from stagnant EU markets.
Britain is therefore increasingly suffering from the same pathologies as Europe, and facing a similar terminal decline.
This isn’t an argument for more EU, but one for even less, as well as radical domestic change.
Europe’s gradual eclipse is accelerating, and it would be absurd for any British government to consider realigning the country with it.
Sydney plumber Tommo, 38, has become so exhausted with the lack of effort from young tradies that he doesn’t even bother with apprentices.
Just before Covid we had an addition to our farmhouse built. The tiling of the bathroom and a sandstone tiling of the verandah was the best job we have ever seen. One of the tiler’s “workmen”was a young woman who had topped her class in TAFE. She worked as hard as the blokes & the owner of the business reckoned she would probably take over the company when he was ready to quit.
No.
Is this some facet of popular culture?
If so, know that I’ve been largely out of sync with that for nigh on three decades now.
I was recently in a guitar shop trying out Mini Martin guitars, something small to take on holiday.
The young sales assistant boasted, “Now this is the model Ed Sheeran plays.”
“Never heard of him”, I replied.
The Mocker from the Oz.
Skippy Will Replace Kerry and Move into The White House
January 31, 2024 | Sundance
Interesting move and office location in yet another election year. In 2022 Joe Biden appointed John Podesta as the “Clean Energy Czar,” essentially giving him control over doling out the $326 billion in Green New Deal, aka “Inflation Reduction Act,” money provided by congress. At least that was the pretense of the purpose.
BTW we also had a fabulous young painter who painted the entire addition by himself. He was literally covered in tats (well at least what we could see!) and was just as fastidious with his paintbrush. He spent days rubbing back and fixing nail holes before he even started.
Some time later we saw him in town & he told us that he now worked in the local coal mine since he could earn a lot more money.
West country, Roger.
They’re Englishmen who don’t know they’re Welsh. Also somewhat of a Northumbrian thing.
Not really. it is being conversational. But if you want me to directly address the idea that Russia and China would end their strategic partnership over a centuries or so long dispute I have a bridge in Sydney to sell to you.
The Australian Labor Party/Greens support of Class Divide is represented here & also strongly supported by Sydney Moaning Herald & The Grauniad, who are visciously anti-private schools!
Labour’s greedy VAT raid on private schools won’t prevent inequality – it will deepen it
Far from making life fairer for all, the party’s proposed 20 per cent VAT tax will make things unfairer still
MICHAEL DEACON – COLUMNIST & ASSISTANT EDITOR
Above all else, the Left claim to believe in fairness.
Hence their support for socialism: a system designed to make life fairer, by taking money away from the people who have earned it, and giving it to people who haven’t.
Admittedly, few on the Left consider Sir Keir Starmer to be a true socialist. Still, they do at least approve of the Labour leader’s undeniably Left-wing plans for private schools.
If, or rather when, Sir Keir becomes PM, he’s going to impose a 20 per cent tax on school fees, with the proceeds to be spent on state schools.
This, the Left argue, is only fair.
Personally, though, I can’t help feeling that Sir Keir and co haven’t thought this through, because in practice, far from making life fairer, Labour’s plans will make it unfairer still.
If, thanks to this vast rise in fees, parents of private school pupils can no longer afford them, private schools will go bust.
In which case, their pupils will have to go to state schools, instead.
State schools, then, will need more money. But the trouble is, they won’t be getting any. Because, with private schools out of business, state schools won’t be receiving that lovely big chunk of their fees promised by Sir Keir.
So, instead of having more money, state schools will have less, because they’ll be having to spread their budgets even more thinly, to fund the large numbers of extra pupils they’ll have.
As a result, it’s not just the children of the rich who’ll receive a less privileged education. Everyone else’s children will, too.
Of course, this outcome won’t necessarily trouble the Left.
They’ll probably be delighted. They’ll argue that, as all children are now at state school, they’re all getting an equal start in life.
Well, in theory. But again, not in practice.
It may seem unfair that some children have parents who can send them to a private school, while others haven’t.
But by the same token, some children have parents who read to them, while others haven’t.
Some children have parents who feed them a healthy diet, while others haven’t.
Some children have parents who take them to museums, help them with their homework and encourage them to play outside in the fresh air – while others haven’t.
In each case, the first set of children enjoy clear and unearned advantages over the second.
And those advantages will lead them to do better at school, and get better jobs.
To ensure every child has an equal start in life, therefore, it’s not enough to drive private schools out of business.
Labour must also ban bedtime stories, require all children to spend six hours a night glued to the TV, and make it illegal to feed vegetables to anyone under the age of 18.
But even then, some children will still hold a significant advantage over others – because they’ll have been born to more intelligent parents.
So, to eliminate this genetic privilege, Labour must decree that, in future, every child in Britain will have the same mother and father.
On the upside, though, I do think Sir Keir’s plans will have one benefit.
As is well-known, nearly all the most fanatical Left-wing activists, artists and media figures were themselves privately educated.
Indeed, this is the real reason they’re so rabidly Left-wing: they’re consumed by upper-middle-class guilt.
If they’d been to state schools, they would never have developed this pathological self-loathing – and would thus have formed healthy, sane political views instead.
So, if private schools are driven out of business, we’ll at least be spared the next generation of insufferable champagne socialists.
This is your legacy, Ita Buttrose, and you have left one hell of a mess for your successor, Kim Williams to clean up. If only you had spent the last five years enforcing the ABC charter instead of being a cipher for a workers’ collective. The more you try to appease the entitled and the outraged, the more they will take advantage of you. That is human nature. Always has been, always will be.
I always assumed that the job of any News was to report the news and not provide opinions. James Dibble used to be able the read the news items and do the sport and weather on the 6.00 pm (or was it 7.00 pm) ABC News Bulletin “On His Own”.
No need then for an army of diverse opinion headed pompous windbags.
Ah…that would be quite a few of my ancestors then.
Oh no!
JC
Feb 1, 2024 11:17 AM
Roger
Feb 1, 2024 10:43 AM
just click on the language icon on the top right and voila, it is in English.
I love the story of Melanie Safka being driven to Woodstock for her stage appearance by her mum.
Wise Mum given the human detritrus with whom she shared the bill.
Sad news of her death, she had originality in spades.
FMD 30 years ago when I be a young lad, Pearl Jam released this
Still have it in the collection. Bloody brilliant
‘Ere! Wot’ve I told you about finking?
Spin the black circle.
Great tune.
A year or so later they released an album with Neil Young.
Also great.
Not quite true.
One Inspector from a suburban station directly involved called it out, but nothing from the higher ups.
Given the incendiary (ha!) nature of the claims made by Mr Buggertory, nothing short of a statement from the Commish and Minister is good enough.
Black Ball, have you seen that 44 days in 1991 meme/photo?
I was in high school.
Twas a grand old time.
dover0beach
Feb 1, 2024 2:51 PM
Now that’s a non sequitur, students.
Not really. it is being conversational. But if you want me to directly address the idea that Russia and China would end their strategic partnership over a centuries or so long dispute I have a bridge in Sydney to sell to you.
dover,
parsley bay bridge?
or
pyrmont bridge
or something cheaper – Bridge Shell Cove Bay Manly Scenic Walk
This rooster was lucky the volunteer firies never got their hands on him.
If you are relying on Phalanx, all your other options have failed. Better hope a transistor or IC in the circuitry doesn’t choose that time to go to lunch.
Phalanx works by the radar looking at the incoming target and in the 20mm bullet stream, each shell has a radar reflector on the back. The system walks the bullet stream into the target.
This is from JWire (an Australian Jewish website for news)
Burger shop fire arrests, police rule out hate crime
Two men have been arrested over a burger shop fire in Melbourne that sparked a violent clash between supporters of Palestine and Israel.
A supplied screen grab shows police arresting a man in the suburb of Carnegie, Melbourne, Wednesday, January 31, 2024. Two men have been arrested over a burger shop fire in Melbourne that sparked a violent clash between supporters of Palestine and Israel.
The blaze was deliberately lit, and it was not a hate crime, Victoria Police said on Wednesday. The Caulfield store of the Burgertory chain was destroyed by fire on November 10. At the time, the owner claimed it was linked to his involvement in a pro-Palestine rally and alleged it was a hate crime.
Hours after he made the claim, two groups of about 200 people each clashed near a synagogue and the Burgertory store.
One man was pepper-sprayed by police and another reported receiving minor injuries after being hit by a rock.
On Wednesday, a 27-year-old man at a Carnegie apartment and a 25-year-old man in Dallas were arrested.
The younger man was taken to hospital under police guard for what officers said were injuries unrelated to the arrest.
A spokesperson for Victoria Police said the men were assisting with inquiries and arson-related charges were expected to be laid.
Victoria Police Inspector Scott Dwyer said the incident was not a hate crime.
“It wasn’t motivated by prejudice or politics,” he said in a statement.
“Not only did this blaze destroy a business, it also put innocent members of the public at risk of being injured.
“Victoria Police will continue to target anyone connected to criminality that recklessly puts others in harm’s way.”
The clash after the fire prompted an extra police presence in the area.
The president of The Jewish Community Council of Victoria, Philip Zajac, told J-Wire: “We thank Victoria Police for making these arrests and, repeating their earlier statement that this arson attack was not a hate crime.
The slander against the Victorian Jewish community after this arson attack was reprehensible. It led to one of the worst nights in our community’s history.
We will never forget the night aggressive protesters descended on Caulfield and led to a situation where Jewish people were injured on the streets of Caulfield and hundreds were left unable to safely attend synagogue, visit family for Shabbat dinner, or walk the streets of their own neighbourhood.
This situation was allowed to get completely out of hand and the JCCV commits to continuing our work with the Victorian Government to develop stronger laws against hate crimes and vilification.”
Zionism Victoria calling for apologies.
Zionism Victoria this afternoon urged all individuals and organisations that stated or insinuated that the arson attack on the Burgertory Restaurant in Caulfield last November was a hate crime perpetrated by members of the Jewish or pro-Israel community to immediately retract and apologise for “concocting and disseminating blood libels”.
Shortly after the Friday, 10th November blaze, police had stated they were confident the fire wasn’t religiously or politically motivated.
In a statement, Zionism Victoria remarked: “However, that assertion did not stop various parties claiming the attack was motivated by hostility to the store owner’s pro-Palestinian stance or see them retracting earlier claims to that effect.
Following the blaze, one organisation insisted “abuse and vilification” of staff at the store since 7th October “fuelled by a campaign of misinformation about Palestinians and supporters of Palestinian human rights, has culminated in the suspicious fire”.
The organisation went on to express “grave concern that this was an intentional act against ‘the owner’ as a Palestinian and Muslim.”
The owner himself linked the fire to his anti-Israel stance, stating “Today’s arson attack will not waver my calling for peace and will not silence me.”
That evening, during the Jewish Sabbath, anti-Israel demonstrators marched from the burger store through the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community on the Jewish Sabbath, forcing a synagogue to be evacuated and leading to clashes on the street.
Welcoming today’s arrests, Zionism Victoria president Yossi Goldfarb said, “Those who helped spread this malicious slur – concocting and disseminating blood libels – are directly responsible for the violent scenes we saw outside the synagogue that night.
And their failure to retract their comments, despite police assurances to the contrary, have helped stoke the flames of antisemitism that have engulfed Victoria in the weeks and months since.”
Noting that the Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre just across the road from the Burgertory store has twice been daubed with anti-Israel graffiti since the arson attack, Mr Goldfarb added, “As proud Victorians, it has been profoundly distressing to witness – and indeed experience firsthand – the deterioration of the multiculturalism we value so much.
Now is the time for all those who cast aspersions on the Jewish community to hold their hands up, admit they were wrong and apologise for their part in the hate, hostility and heinous antisemitism casting a shadow over our state.”
Member for Caulfield, David Southwick, told J-Wire: “Jews were blamed, targeted, and attacked for something they did not do.
Such blatant antisemitism is appalling.
To anyone that jumped to conclusions, the Jewish community deserve an apology.”
CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Alon Cassuto, said: “Accusing Jews of crimes we never committed is an age-old form of antisemitism. It was alive and well on that ugly night in Caulfield where violent thugs attacked Jews in their suburb.
The Jewish community of Australia has always been a peaceful and responsible community. We value the rule of law and have contributed disproportionately to social cohesion in this country.
It would be reasonable to expect the owner of the store, whose claims the arson was racially and politically motivated, will be investigated for the violence his baseless accusations caused.”
It was a blood libel. It was pure unadulterated Jew hatred. The stench was obvious.
Analysis
What the $83b Tesla pay deal setback means for Musk and his empire
The carmaker’s board is under pressure after a Delaware judge ruled this week that its billionaire CEO has to forfeit the largest ever incentive package. What happens next?
London/New York | A Delaware judge has ruled Elon Musk has to forfeit $US55 billion ($83.3 billion) of Tesla share awards from a long-term pay package, causing a storm at the electric-car maker and threatening to distract its boss from troubles at the company and across his business ventures.
“Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” Musk commented on X, the social media platform he owns.
Here is what the ruling means, if upheld, for the billionaire and his empire.
Why was the pay deal so generous?
In early 2018, when Tesla laid out the pay incentive scheme for Musk, many saw it as fanciful. The deal was intended to lock him into the business at a time when the board was worried he might turn his attention to SpaceX or other ventures full time instead.
The scheme set out 16 separate financial targets spread across profits, revenues and market capitalisation, and awarded Musk stock worth about 10 per cent of the company. If he were to hit 12 of the 16, he would be able to vest shares worth upwards of $US50 billion – the largest pay package ever granted.
The most ambitious targets were for revenues of $US175 billion, adjusted earnings of $US14 billion and a market capitalisation of $US650 billion.
At the time, Tesla’s market value was $US59 billion and as part of the deal, Musk – who receives no salary or any other pay from the car maker – would get nothing if the valuation did not reach the $US100 billion mark.
Back then it was not a given prospect: Tesla was in the midst of “production hell”, building cars in a tent in its car park, while making some models without seats or computer modules because of supply chain fumbles.
With previous production milestones missed, just $US12 billion in sales and the company scraping barely $US400 million in profits, targets of overtaking General Motors in revenues and Microsoft in valuation seemed unattainable.
“No one took it seriously,” said a former Tesla insider.
Yet, the company increased output, sales soared, and shares rose past those in Toyota, topping $US1 trillion in overall market value. Last year its Model Y, launched in 2020, became the best-selling car worldwide.
“He did it, and no one else in the world could have done it, and if the price tag is $US55 billion, that’s the price tag,” said one former Tesla executive. “He’s Ronaldo, he’s Messi. He can ask for what he wants.”
The shareholder(s) behind the suit
The lead plaintiff is an individual, Richard J. Tornetta, who attested in a 2018 affidavit filed in Pennsylvania that he was a “continuous holder” of Tesla shares during the time of the Musk stock grant.
Delaware court filings show Tornetta in 2019 had sued Pandora and Sirius XM over their merger whose terms he believed short-changed Pandora shareholders.
Tornetta’s Tesla complaint is filed on behalf of all shareholders and is a so-called ‘derivative’ action, a lawsuit brought by a shareholder or group of shareholders. The initial complaint asked for damages to be awarded though the ruling imposed a penalty of “rescission”, Musk handing back the shares to Tesla.
The Delaware court agreed with the plaintiff that Musk “controlled” Tesla even with just a 20 per cent stake in 2018.
As such, the board had to show it struck the pay package through a “fair” process and at a “fair” price, a steep burden it could not ultimately satisfy.
What the ruling means for Tesla’s governance
The ruling “creates a tornado situation for Tesla’s board”, said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, who believes the board will either appeal against the decision or draw up a new package.
Independence has long been a problem at the company, while past efforts to expand oversight by Tesla’s board have yielded scant fruit.
Tesla directors include Musk’s brother, Kimbal, longtime associate James Murdoch, and JB Straubel, one of Tesla’s co-founders. Robyn Denholm, who has been chairman since late 2018, has been a director for a decade.
After Musk tweeted he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private in 2018 – prompting the US Securities Exchange Commission to charge him with securities fraud – the board tried to curtail his use of the platform.
These efforts have failed: Recent messages from Musk, who bought Twitter for $US44 billion in 2022 and rebranded it as X last year, include opinions on US immigration, handwriting and chickens.
Musk receives little or no resistance from those intended to rein him in, former Tesla executives say.
Is there the slightest bit of pushback?
Philippe Houchois, auto analyst at Jefferies, said the latest saga might spark governance changes. “It is too risky for the board to carry on as it is,” he said. “I think it won’t be rubber stamping [Elon’s wishes] any more.”
Yet if the board’s job is to make shareholders wealthier, defenders of the scheme argue those who purchased shares in 2018 or earlier have been well rewarded.
Tesla’s market capitalisation rose 20-fold to about $US1.2 trillion last year. Even with a recent slide to roughly $US600 billion, investors are sitting on a 10-fold return, a better performance than if they had invested in Amazon, Meta or Netflix over the same period.
A former Tesla director said: “The board and the investors have made so much money that they almost look the other way.”
What is the potential fallout for Tesla?
After a decade of dominance, the car maker is facing stiff competition in EVs: China’s BYD overtook the business late last year to become the world’s largest maker of battery-only vehicles. Tesla is developing a low-cost model due to begin production in late 2025 and is increasing deliveries of its Cybertruck, while contending with slowing growth.
“Tesla was an anomaly in the car industry,” said one former executive at the company and a car industry veteran. “But today it’s behaving more like a car company. It’s falling behind because the market is saying now there are other options.“
As EV demand slows, Tesla slashed prices to boost sales, angering current owners as their cars depreciated.
Some question Musk’s recent decisions, which have coincided with some of its strongest executives departing.
In a recent note, Houchois at Jefferies criticised Musk’s “cavalier attitude towards governance and fiduciary duties”, a record of “misallocating his own capital” and “questionable strategic and product priorities at Tesla that have undermined growth, returns and management cohesion”.
Will there be consequences for Musk’s other ventures?
The Delaware ruling threatens to curtail Musk’s plan to finance his growing business empire by borrowing against his Tesla stock.
Musk said on X this month that he wanted to increase his stake in Tesla to 25 per cent – from his current 13 per cent, according to regulatory filings – in order to develop its AI products. The 2018 plan granted him another 304 million of share options, which, if exercised, would have boosted his stake to about 20 per cent.
When the car maker reported its quarterly results last week, he said he wanted to turn Tesla into an “AI juggernaut” but, he added, “if I have so little influence at that stage I could be voted out by a random shareholder advisory firm”.
Even before the Twitter acquisition, Musk backed a series of ventures. They include SpaceX, his rocket business, Neuralink, which is developing brain implants, xAI, an artificial intelligence venture designed to compete with OpenAI, and the Boring Company, which is digging transportation tunnels under Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The billionaire entrepreneur has long claimed to be cash poor, with the majority of his wealth tied up in Tesla and SpaceX equity. Analysts have estimated he has pledged tens of billions of dollars’ worth of stock as collateral for loans.
In 2022, to help fund his Twitter acquisition, Musk sold more than $US20 billion worth of his Tesla stock, and pledged even more for a $US12.5 billion margin loan.
Tesla’s most recent annual proxy filing last year showed that as of March 31, Musk had pledged about a third of his shareholding – or roughly $US49 billion – including stock received from the 2018 award at issue in Delaware. If the 2018 award is forfeited, more than half of his stock in the car maker would be tied up as collateral.
That level of borrowing has been a concern to corporate governance advisers. “The significant number of pledged shares raises concerns regarding the audit committee’s ability to effectively oversee risk at the company,” warned Institutional Shareholder Services ahead of last year’s annual shareholder meeting.
The easiest way for Musk to shore up his finances without selling more stock in the car maker would be to sell shares in SpaceX. The privately held rocket company was reportedly valued at $US180 billion in a share sale in December and is seen as hot prospect for an initial public offering.
I agree.
Almost invariably polite and hard-working. To the point where I told one young bloke to slow down. At every request for tools or materials he would run from the back of the house to the ute, including hurdling the two foot high dog gate down the side path in his workboots.
Of all the tradies we have had through, there are only two I won’t have back, and both were older principals of their business.
One was a surly plumber who loved reciting the Plumbing Regulations (1987) as a reason not to do something. The other was a sparky with an expensive hobby which was reflected in his pricing.
Of course, it is hard to get people, but I find they generally work hard and charge fairly.
I don’t even mind a bit of shooting the breeze between them on my ticket when there are 2-3 trades on the job. When trades aren’t talking to each other and co-operating is when the trouble starts.
Bern listening to Ten now. This is their best song ever.
“I know some day you’ll have a beautiful life I know you’ll be a star…” Geez that is tear inducing.
It’s one of the most refined weapons systems in the world, likely with redundancy built in. It worked. What that means is there was a close launch or multiple targets. “The AEGIS system failed!”, no, AEGIS is a play on aegis, meaning overseeing. The CIWS may have not been utilised quickly enough without AEGIS. There is a human factor in authentication which means the RIM missiles etc didn’t get used.
Some wag will say I’m coping. Err how? The USN defeated the enemy in the engagement for the loss of no sailors or ships.
We all agree that POTATUS can fund a war but can’t lead his own military. The Houthis should have been smashed already. Trump obliterated ISIS in days, Obama dicked around for years.
Douglas Murray
@DouglasKMurray
An Israeli soldier just gave me this. He found it in Gaza, in a random house.
https://x.com/DouglasKMurray/status/1752271899134964073?s=20
FT View – Tesla
Winning lawyers in Elon Musk’s $56bn pay dispute in line for fee bonanza
Counsel for shareholders who challenged Tesla boss’s remuneration will submit request in coming weeks
The lawyers who represented victorious Tesla shareholders may be in line for a record-breaking payout worth hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars after a Delaware court on Tuesday voided a $56bn pay package for Elon Musk.
Lawyers told the Financial Times that Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, the law firm that led the representation of investors challenging the pay plan, could ask that the Delaware Court of Chancery pay them up to one-third of the “benefit conferred” by the ruling — in other words, how much value was restored to shareholders.
How much that is will be up to the court. When it was initially awarded to Musk, the stock-based incentive package at issue was valued at $2.6bn.
But that ballooned to $55.8bn after the electric-car maker hit financial performance and share price targets set out in the deal.
One lawyer said the court’s calculation of the benefit conferred to other shareholders could ultimately be based on a figure between those two book ends.
The decision on the pay package must also be sound enough to survive any appeal Tesla may take to the Delaware Supreme Court.
“There’s never been a judgment of this size so we are in somewhat uncharted territory,” said another prominent Delaware litigator not affiliated with the case.
“And they will probably make a somewhat more modest ask for optics reasons.
But I’d be stunned if they didn’t ask for a fee, in whatever form, worth multiple billions of dollars.”
Greg Varallo, the lead lawyer at Bernstein Litowitz representing the shareholders, said it could be a few weeks before his side submitted its fee request but declined to comment on what figure they will request.
In the US, plaintiffs’ lawyers often take most or all of their fees from a portion of a settlement or judgment, a so-called contingency arrangement.
Lawyer fee awards have become a hot topic in courts in Delaware, where more than 300 S&P 500 companies are incorporated.
In 2023, a Delaware judge awarded $267mn to lawyers representing shareholders who agreed a $1bn settlement with Dell Technologies over its complex $24bn cash-and-stock merger with VMware.
That fee has been appealed against to the Delaware Supreme Court by multiple investment funds owning VMware shares who claim the amount is excessive.
The highest fee ever awarded to plaintiffs’ lawyers in the Delaware chancery court was $285mn in 2012, which was equal to about 15 per cent of the damages in a lawsuit challenging the merger between two natural resource companies, Southern Peru and Minera Mining.
The fee award in this case will be more challenging, however, given that Musk is simply returning shares he had been granted and that no cash is changing hands between the sides.
Bernstein and two other law firms working with it could end up taking fees in Tesla shares, some lawyers speculated.
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, who issued this week’s ruling on Musk’s pay, is set to rule shortly on a fee award to lawyers representing plaintiffs who separately sued the electric-car maker’s board members, alleging they were overpaid.
Tesla and the shareholders settled that case at a value pegged at more than $900mn.
Tesla and the plaintiffs’ lawyers are disputing not just the fee amount but how much the settlement was worth — which the car company says is ambiguous due to the need to value the shares involved in the settlement.
In the past decade, Delaware courts have cracked down on the previous long-standing practice of awarding nominal fees in routine M&A litigation that followed many deals, resulting in little to no concrete benefit for the shareholders in question.
Instead it has been willing to grant large lawyer payouts based on big judgments or settlements where lawyers involved could demonstrate how their work directly benefited plaintiffs.
Shortly after the decision on his stock grant, Musk on X criticised Delaware as an unfriendly place for companies to domicile.
But Bernstein’s Varallo vigorously defended Delaware as a fair venue for both shareholders and companies.
“The decision demonstrates that Delaware’s historic role in overseeing the exercise of fiduciary duties is alive and well — perhaps better than it has been in some time”.
Didn’t the chap who Keneally fitted up spend time in the clink before he could organise his bail?
Why yes he did.
Mr Moore was charged with using a carriage service to menace and threaten to kill, and he spent three weeks in custody over the phone call.
At the very least, Keneally should have to spend three weeks in custody in the exact same conditions Mr Moore did.
Then he can do the rest at home.
Local volunteer firies preformed a great service that day – they prevented Noble Falls Tavern from going up in flames.
OldOzzie
Feb 1, 2024 2:34 PM
Europe is finished, condemned to death by its deluded, third-rate elites
The continent is incapable of recovering from its present economic, military and demographic crises
ALLISTER HEATH
It’s time to mourn the demise of old Europe.
And the Euro currency. The EU will gradually break up. Countries will go back to their own currencies before the Euro. At least the Brits had the good sense to keep the pound sterling. Not that that is a great currency either.
Postcard from Corsica.
I stayed here in Bastia, overlooking the old port two years ago, in a Genoan mansion, where although my apartment was fully renovated the building was decrepit with a stairwell lacking lighting, windows that looked as though they had been broken since world war two and many of the apartments, in that block and those surrounding having toilets that had been added by breaking open the walls and building external facilities.
It seems the entire area is undergoing urban renewal, the ugly toilet extensions are noticeably gone, the building where I stayed is surrounded by scaffolding and being renovated and the vacant blocks around, from buildings that were destroyed in world war two are finally being infilled with new four storey apartment blocks.
As I said last time, Bastia was bombed by the Allies in error three days after the Germans had evacuated themselves to Italy and many French citizens were killed.
There doesn’t appear to be grudge nursing and demands for revenge 80 years on though.
The harbour too is being renovated and the then new walkway around the cliffs below the citadel which was already damaged and gave me the heeby jeebies so badly I turned back is repaired, I swear they have replaced a wooden slat walkway with a concrete one, anyhow I was able to traverse it in confidence then climb the stairs roads up to the top to visit the cathedral and the citadel.
In the cathedral all the names of
the dead enfants of France on the world war one plaque have Italian
sounding surnames and French
first names, Corsica in a nut shell.
This time I am on the other side of the old port, a few steps from the church of John the Baptist, in a tiny apartment in an ancient building where one has to negotiate a small flight of narrow steep stairs, kindly decorated by the local pigeons, to arrive at the front door.
Typically here 15th century buildings of two stories would have a third and fourth added a century or two later; as the place isn’t earthquake prone they seem to have gotten away with it (unlike Messina)
Do you mean false accusers should suffer the same as those they falsely accuse?
Apologies for commenting many, many hours after a specific post.. reading back and keeping up with this blog is close to a FT occupation, and life has other qualities on offer..
I have to fully agree with Cassie’s post regarding Lizzie, which she made some indeterminate hundreds of posts ago.
Anyone who managed the sling and arrows of Lizzie’s outrageous fortune fully deserves what she has achieved and what life has brought her.
All power to her.. and good luck with the test results!
PS. I honestly don’t know why anyone would care about downticks.
Life’s far.. far too short for that crap.
That Musk ruling is a joke.
It would be a real shame if he let Tesla be totally mismanaged now.
Do you mean false accusers should suffer the same as those they falsely accuse?
I know.
Very barbaric.
I don’t think many, if any Jews live in the suburb of Dallas, Mr Burgatory’s coreligionists, on the other hand…
My memory of the beginning months of TV News here in Sydney was:
Chuck Faulkner on 9 at 6.00pm (he was our favourite news reader then)
and
James Dibble on 2 at 7.pm.
Interesting –
COVID Royal Commission Terms of Reference Inquiry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UH7AgDBUCE
The Greens Senators are weak as piss though.
the case against unwra
Strange decisions coming out of the US legal system these days. I wonder what basis in law the judge made that decision?
It seems so many cases now have to go to appeal in order the correct lower court emotive judgements.
All linked to a couple of families in Altona/ Brooklyn who’ve been feuding for decades.
A few weeks ago a tobacconist in Pier Street Altona went up in flames, but not brightly enough, because they came back the next day and had another go.
Rosie, we stayed on the other side, Sardinia, Port Cervo. We were told a town you could see on the Corsican coastline was where Napoleon grew up.
Not only that, the Commonwealth administered skilled immigration program is not bringing in enough with those qualifications to build the homes the immigrants need to have a place to live.
We are ruled (NOT governed) by idiots, morons and imbeciles.
feelthebern
Feb 1, 2024 3:30 PM
Douglas Murray
@DouglasKMurray
An Israeli soldier just gave me this. He found it in Gaza, in a random house.
https://x.com/DouglasKMurray/status/1752271899134964073?s=20
feelthebern,
France of the Future – Matches thoughts on Telegraph UK Article above
Europe is finished, condemned to death by its deluded, third-rate elites
In France, Germany, Belgium and elsewhere, the failure to integrate many recent migrants, and the ruling class’s answer – to lie that all is well – is paving the way for a cataclysm.
TSLA was 20 USD around March – April 2018.
Now it is 187 USD and has reached a high of 371 USD per share in October 2021.
A “long-term holder” in TSLA has had their equity/wealth multiplied by 900% over 6 years.
The CAGR is 45%+.
That plaintiff is an arsehole.
Just in from the Oz….Cameron Stewart…
Violent pro-Palestinian protests in Caulfield were based on lie
The reckless behaviour of the activists running pro-Palestinian protests in Australia has again been highlighted by news that the violent demonstration in the Jewish Melbourne suburb of Caulfield late last year was based on a false premise.
It is the latest example in the list of misguided and damaging behaviour by pro-Palestinian/anti-Israeli activists in Australia since the Israel-Hamas war which has damaged their own cause and alienated them from many mainstream Australians.
In recent months we have seen a list of self-defeating stunts by activists, including the cruel protest in the lobby of the Melbourne hotel when the families of Israeli victims and hostages were staying and the encouragement of school children to skip class in order to protest and chant genocidal anti-Israeli slogans.
But the anti-Israeli protest in the Jewish heartland of Caulfield in November last year captured national headlines because it led to ugly and violent street clashes after activists baited and hurled insults at local Jewish residents. Such disturbing scenes on the streets of a quiet Melbourne suburb were quickly condemned by political leaders across the country.
The pretext of those protests was always dubious, that an arson attack on the Caulfield branch of burger chain store called Burgertory was a hate crime because the owner, Hash Tayeh, was Palestinian.
Mr Tayeh claimed, without evidence, that his store had been targeted because he had attended pro-Palestinian protests. The Islamic Council of Victoria backed up his entirely circumstantial claim by putting out a furious press release leaving little doubt that it believed the Burgertory fire to be a “hate crime” linked to Mr Tayeh’s calls for “an end to the barbaric assault on civilians in Gaza by Israeli armed forces”.
That was enough for Free Palestine Melbourne to organise a highly provocative pro-Palestinian protest in the Jewish heartland of Caulfield the day after the fire.
Never mind the fact that Victoria Police had stated, only hours after the fire and before the rally, that they were “very confident” that the blaze was not racially or politically motivated.
I watched from the side of the road as that protest, by several hundred activists, turned ugly as the Palestinian side went beyond calls of “free Palestine” and “Free Gaza,’ to more provocative chants including “Israel, USA, how many kids did you kill today,” and “From the River to the Sea”, which is a call to wipe Israel off the map.
Several on the Palestinian side went further, abusing some Jewish women standing nearby who had wrapped the Israeli flag around their body. One started throwing homophobic slurs at Jewish onlookers and at one point raised his arm in what from a distance looked like a NAZI salute.
An adjacent synagogue, where Shabbat prayers were taking place, was evacuated for safety and then several Palestinian protesters suddenly broke through the police cordon and rushed at the Israeli side. Mayhem unfolded as punches were thrown and police fired pepper spray at the brawlers. Injured Jewish residents were taken into a nearby house and treated by doctors.
The following day, amid a public uproar, Free Palestine Melbourne apologised for holding the protest outside a synagogue. But it did not apologise for holding the protests in Caulfield because it said the “demonstrators reiterate that the arson attack on Burgertory was a hate crime”.
Victoria Police this week formally debunked that always dubious claim by stating that two men, aged 27 and 25, had been arrested in connection with the fire and that it was not a hate crime.
‘‘We know this incident was not a hate crime; it wasn’t motivated by prejudice or politics,’’ said Inspector Scott Dwyer.
The hardline activists who caused the Caulfield violence on a false premise and who have carried out other stunts like that odious hotel protest in front of grieving Israeli family members and the misguided school protests seem to have no idea that this does their cause harm in the eyes of many.
There is a perfectly legitimate political debate to be had about the rights and wrongs of the way the war in Gaza is playing out and each side is entitled to its view.
But the pro-Palestinian activists who organise these protests choose instead to adopt provocative bully-boy behaviour where they whitewash the actions of Hamas and promote genocidal, anti-Semitic chants. The shameful scenes in Caulfield based on a falsehood are another blot on their judgment.
I now await for apologies to the Victorian Jewish community from Hash Tayeh, from the Islamic Council of Victoria and from the leftist scum that joined their Islamist comrades. But what’s the bet we’ll be waiting a long time.
THE DAILY CHART: BRING BACK ARRANGED MARRIAGES?
Remember the Obama 2012 campaign’s infamous “Life of Julia” video, which envisioned a world in which the State had replaced men entirely as the support structure for single women?
That astoundingly revealing video and slide show seems to have been scrubbed from the internet (although as the link above demonstrates, the Biden Administration has exactly the same dependency-promoting mindset), but course there are Wayback Machine versions you can see if you missed this horror snuff film.
You also can’t suppress the data that drives the “Life of Julia” political calculation of the left:
Maybe the Trump campaign can call for bringing back arranged marriages, just for grins and giggles.
Chaser—reminder from last Friday’s Daily Chart:
NT former chief minister Michael Gunner quits Fortesque after less than six months to “spend more time with the family”…
War on Jihad
Debunking the ubiquitous ‘pro-Palestine’ claims
Hamas and its allies in the media, Congress, and especially in academia have saturated the nation with propaganda meant to sway the “hearts and minds” of Americans against Israel.
They appear to be winning.
The proliferation of anti-Israel protests across the nation since October 7, attests to the failure of the American educational system and the success of the “Palestine” lobby.
At the forefront of Hamas’s propaganda victories are legions of uninformed college students, aided by professional agitators and biased media figures. Shutting down roads, bridges, and airports with seeming impunity, they have made it impossible for even people with no interest in politics to avoid the war in Gaza.
Anti-Israel propaganda depends on ignorance.
Students chanting “From the river to the sea” can’t identify either the river or the sea in question.
Few have even heard about UN Resolution 181, and fewer still know how a piece of territory roughly the size of New Jersey came to be known as “Palestine.”
They have been misled into believing “a truth” far removed from truth.
To counter the assault of anti-Israel propaganda on the streets of American cities and on American college campuses, the Investigative Project on Terrorism introduces a new series aimed at debunking the ubiquitous “pro-Palestine” claims.
Some entries focus on the various slurs leveled at Israel and on disingenuous representations of Israeli law, for instance the accusations that Israel is an “apartheid, settler-colonial state,” and is practicing “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” against the Palestinians.
Others focus on elements of the “Palestinian resistance” narrative, such as the charge that Gaza is an “open-air prison” and that Palestinian “refugees” have a “right” to return to Israel and claim land lost in the 1948 War of Independence.
Hamas is the enemy of both Israel and the U.S.
While Israel fights the military battle to destroy our common enemy, the least Americans can do is fight the propaganda battle at home.
Part 1: Resistance is Justified When People Are Occupied
Coming soon, “Part 2: Israel is a Settler-Colonial State”
The Greens Senators are weak as piss though.
Always were and always will be. Filth.
Dot
Feb 1, 2024 3:41 PM
That Musk ruling is a joke.
It would be a real shame if he let Tesla be totally mismanaged now.
Dot,
The AFR View
Managing Musk and money
Australian Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm has to renegotiate the world’s biggest pay packet while keeping the creative sparks that fly off Tesla’s founding genius.
Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm must have the biggest expectations management job in history.
Elon Musk, a man considered a modern Prometheus for making electric self-driving cars and commercial space flight a reality, was in 2018 given the world’s biggest pay cheque by the Tesla board: $83 billion in stock options over five years.
They have vested in increments as targets have been met, but $US51 billion remain unexercised. That’s until Tuesday night, when a Delaware court granted a Tesla investor’s objection, and voided the vast payout.
Now Tesla’s board and its spiky, erratic founder have to start negotiating again. But Mr Musk has been doubling down on his demands already. He had sold his Tesla stake down to 13 per cent to fund his disastrous Twitter/X purchase. He wants billions more shares – and 25 per cent voting control – to keep him interested in taking Tesla into AI and robotics, or else he might go elsewhere.
The complaint said the board and compensation committee that paid the huge compensation plan had lacked independence, even after the Australian Ms Denholm had replaced Mr Musk as an independent chair on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s orders. The judge agreed, ruling that the board fiduciaries were not staunchly independent but “quite the opposite” and that Ms Denholm has displayed a “lackadaisical approach to her oversight obligations”.
And Tesla’s earnings are stalling. While Mr Musk has been pushing back the tech frontier and dabbling with X, the carmaker he runs now sorely lacks a cheaper model to see off massive Chinese competition.
Ms Denholm has shared Tesla’s success, selling a “life-changing” $US389 million in shares, with more to come this year.
But it seems she must now earn it:
negotiating a pay packet that matches Mr Musk’s ego, doesn’t kill the creative sparks that fly off him, but doesn’t cost eagle-eyed investors the earth either.
Hard to argue that he hasn’t created that amount of value for shareholders.
The case of the fake piatients!
What did the Minister know and when did she know it?
Claim fake patients used in Health Minister Mary Anne-Thomas’ hospital visit
Claims that 10 staff members at a regional hospital posed as “patients” propped up on sick beds for a ministerial visit have sparked a major probe into the health service.
A major investigation has been launched over a “fake patient” scandal in which a regional hospital is accused of staging a full emergency department for a ministerial visit.
The Herald Sun has confirmed the matter was referred to both IBAC and the Victorian Ombudsman after Health Minister Mary Anne Thomas visited an urgent care clinic run by Colac Area Health in August last year.
The Department of Health is investigating allegations that at least 10 patients, claimed to be Colac Area Health staff and family members, were admitted into a hospital bed where they pretended to be sick ahead of Ms Thomas’ visit.
“The Department of Health is aware of a complaint made and continues to investigate the allegations raised,” a department spokeswoman said.
“We’re working closely with Colac Area Health on the matter and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
The Allan government has threatened “serious consequences” if the allegations are confirmed.
A spokeswoman said it referred the matter to both IBAC and the Ombudsman after a whistleblower made a complaint to the Victorian Public Sector Commission in late August last year.
Each integrity agency said the matter didn’t fall within their scope.
The Department of Health will report back to Ms Thomas once their investigation is finished.
“This alleged behaviour is completely inappropriate and, if found to be true, there will be serious consequences,” a spokeswoman said.
Ministerial visits or events to health services are organised directly by hospitals in conjunction with the Department of Health.
Ms Thomas on Thursday said she was aware of the investigation.
“We take all these allegations very seriously. They are being investigated but that investigation is ongoing and I don’t have anything further to add to that,” she said.
“If these allegations prove to be true this is a very significant breach of trust that has been perpetrated by some in the health service and I certainly would take a very dim view of any employees or others who have been involved in this.”
Ms Thomas said the emergency ward was busy during her visit but she had “no reason to be suspicious about what I saw”.
She ruled out any involvement from her ministerial office.
“This has nothing whatsoever to do with my office and if anyone is suggesting that I take great offence,” she said.
“I don’t need anyone to tell me that our hospitals are under pressure.
“I visit health services all the time. I see what’s happening on the ground.”
Ms Thomas was visiting the hospital’s Urgent Care department after it was awarded $221,500 to purchase new heart monitoring equipment.
It included 13 new cardiac monitors, two central cardiac monitoring screens and two electrocardiogaph strip printers.
Sources close to the hospital said staff felt a desperate urge to impress upon Ms Thomas the need for further funding.
Local MP Richard Riordan, who served on the board of Colac Area Health, said the service had lobbied the government over successive elections for much needed funding.
He said the Urgent Care department still needed extra funding.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto suggested Ms Thomas and her staffers knew about the “fake patients”, accusing the health minister of trying to keep the scandal behind closed doors.
“Does anyone really believe that Mary-Anne Thomas and her office didn’t know about this?” he said.
“It was serious enough for the health minister to refer this matter to IBAC and yet she never told the Victorian people.”
Mr Pesutto called for the government to commission a “truly independent inquiry into this matter, not a sham inquiry that Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas and Premier Jacinta Allan can whitewash and orchestrate.”
Opposition spokeswoman for health Georgie Crozier demanded Ms Thomas “come clean” on the scandal, noting the investigation was occuring while Victorians were facing critical health issues and lengthy wait times for elective surgery.
“It seems that you can’t get a hospital bed in the state but you can if you’re a fake patient wanting a photo op with the minister,” she said.
“You can’t get an ambulance in the state unless you’re a fake patient and you want a photo op with the minister.”
In a statement, Colac Area Health board chair Timothy Greene said: “Our community is at the heart of everything we do, and we take all complaints and feedback seriously.
“We are aware of an anonymous complaint which is being appropriately actioned, and we are unable to comment further at this time.”
The scandal was first revealed by the regional newspaper Colac Herald.
Colac Otway Shire councillor Tosh-Jake Finnigan said the community’s faith in the local health service had been “shattered”.
They alleged that Colac Area Health CEO Fiona Brew, and Board Chair Tim Greene, are “up to their neck in allegations that staff members and their family members were falsely admitted”.
“The board of Colac Area Health must immediately remove Mr Greene from his position as board chair and appoint an independent investigator to get to the bottom of this scandal,” they wrote on Facebook.
“If Mr Greene does not stand down or the board will not remove from this role, Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas must immediately sack him, and any board members seeking to keep him on.”
Sources have told the Herald Sun the health organisation is involved in an ongoing industrial dispute.
Questions have also been raised about the leaking of patient records.
It comes as new data shows Victoria has the equal lowest rate of available public hospital beds, with 2.3 beds per 1,000 people.
Herald-Sun
Staff at the local ‘Health Practitioner’ joint, and their families posing as sick people in hospital beds for a Ministerial visit.
Pure, unadulterated Hollowmen stuff. The scripts really do write themselves.
‘Just put ‘em in there Robbo. Nobody’ll know. Nah, nah, the fake blood’s a bit much. Just get them to smile a bit when the Minister turns up.’
The Houthis have a major advantage in battle for the Red Sea
A massive coalition of military stakeholders desperate to keep the shipping route secure are nonetheless politically divided
TOM SHARPE
The battle for freedom of navigation in the Red Sea continues – and will do so for the foreseeable future.
The reason is simple; it is easier for the Iran-backed Houthis to achieve their endstate of disrupting freedom of navigation than it is for the coalition to restore it.
The Houthis have the home team advantage.
They know the sea and atmospheric conditions inside out, both of which favour the attacking side. Their intelligence apparatus, whilst basic, is well established.
Despite its degradation by the US and UK strikes of Operation Poseidon Archer (OPA), it is still working. I just wouldn’t be volunteering to keep watches in their intelligence ship the MV Behshad.
They have a varied inventory of strike options including ballistic and cruise anti-ship missiles, land attack missiles, seemingly limitless drones, plentiful fast attack craft and occasional uncrewed surface vessels.
They have learnt concealment, mobility and how to hide in civilian populations from their Iranian donors, making “issuing a beat down” very hard to do in practice.
Meanwhile, the coalition is…complex.
There are a lot of players on the pitch and many are playing well, but some are playing a different sport and some have yet to decide which team they are on.
As of today, the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has in it warships from the US, UK, France, Italy, South Korea, Spain, India (also out in numbers further east in the Gulf of Oman), Japan, Egypt, Israel, China and, of course, Iran.
Ships are on the way from Greece, Germany, Denmark (the excellent Iver Huitfeldt), Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.
So you can see why Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), the US led defensive operation put in place to reassure shipping in December, is taking time to bed in.
This is not uncommon. The early days of Combined Task Force 151’s efforts to counter piracy off the Horn of Africa took months if not years to settle, and act as a relevant comparison.
The EU answer to 151, Op Atalanta, likewise took ages to cohere and for some countries was just a box-ticking exercise.
Neither 151 or Atalanta were under ballistic missile attack.
Take away the US logistics machine from a high-intensity environment and you are wading into dangerous waters.
The Indian Navy is doing great work both in the Red Sea and in the wider ocean defending ships from attacks and assisting those in distress – they at least recognise that they need this strait open as a matter of priority.
The Chinese lack of involvement is more peculiar: failing even to answer mayday calls is a pretty galling breech of maritime etiquette.
Egypt are present, but in limited numbers and further north – many believe they should be doing more.
The one navy comparable to ours – if not better in terms of land attack options – are the French, who so far have proven erratic.
They sent a ship immediately following the attacks, joined Prosperity Guardian and secured a shoot-down success of their own from FS Languedoc.
Sadly, they quickly became politically unable to distinguish between supporting the US in their restoration of freedom of navigation and supporting them in the wider conflict, and threatened to leave OPG.
Now they are running back and forth escorting EU ships to their heart’s content and doing so successfully.
Unfortunately, that’s like playing football during a rugby game and shouting “goal” when you bang one past the full-back and under the sticks.
Great stuff, but you’re not really helping the team. An alliance where the solution is “everyone protect their own”, is not much of an alliance.
The Saudis have been reluctant to get involved for political reasons, including their ceasefire with the Houthis and gradual rapprochements with Iran and Israel.
They do recognise that they can still play a role in interdicting Iranian weapons heading to Yemen and were keen to do so with some of the 58 fast ‘interceptor ships’ they had on order from France.
Predictably, the French, through their arms export office ODAS in Riyadh, reneged on so many parts of the deal that the Saudis refused to pay.
The contract collapsed with just seven vessels delivered and the opportunity for a local ally to help in this key area was missed.
If there are any Australian submariners in Riyadh just now, “we told you so” will be close to their lips.
Complex maritime operations are about teamwork.
If political agendas make this impossible, for whatever reason, then the machine works less well.
Your ability to reassure shipping and thus restore freedom of navigation is therefore diminished, whilst opportunities for the opposition to sow discord amongst allies increase.
All the while, the potential for a catastrophic strike (we have been close twice now) remains high.
Compare all this to the Black Sea where shipping exports are restored to near pre-2022 invasion levels.
Russia has been deterred to a level where shipping companies are now prepared to run the gauntlet.
The Houthis have not.
There are differences, of course. An existential threat between two combatants, less prudence required from the defending side, land-based sea denial assets, cheaper cargo types, less risk-averse shipping companies, simpler civil-military liaison and the absence of a viable alternative route are all reasons why this is currently working in the Black Sea.
And they have had much longer to develop the teamwork to make it so.
Unlike many, I don’t see the slow progress in the Red Sea as a failure of US leadership, especially when you consider the case they could build for not being there at all.
This is a wicked problem where the odds are stacked against the defending side even before the wild complexities of the region are included.
Barring a diplomatic miracle, our ships and our people are going to be there for a while.
The more some of these groups continue to run their own agendas there, the longer this phase will be.
Meanwhile, prices of consumer goods continue to creep up and the ever-present chance of a miscalculation followed by massive escalation remains.
Demand response will be utilised at the choice of consumers engaging in new markets, or only in rare and extreme circumstances where emergency intervention is required to keep the system in balance.
The only alternative in such scenarios is the existing load shedding mechanism where power is turned off to entire suburbs to keep the broader system operational.
Simples.
Green/teal electorates off first every time.
Inventing the Perfect College Applicant For $120,000 a year, Christopher Rim promises to turn any student into Ivy bait.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/college-admissions-educational-consultants-command-education.html
That’s USD btw.
Scumbag keneally should have to stump up for all the blokes costs he fitted up, serve the maximum term the bloke would have been charged with, and plod make a very large payout for false imprisonment. Britnee no knickers got about 2.5mil for not remembering coz she was pissed. Start from there. Why is it false accusers get let off with impunity
Sounds like something out of Yes, Minister.
23andMe’s Fall from $6 Billion to Nearly $0
At the center of 23andMe’s DNA-testing business are two fundamental challenges. Customers only need to take the test once, and few test-takers get life-altering health results.
Wojcicki’s most ambitious bet is developing drugs using 23andMe’s stockpile of more than 10 million DNA samples that test-takers have agreed may be used for research. But getting new drugs to market is expensive and takes years.
In another blow to its brand, 23andMe had a data breach this fall that exposed nongenetic information of 6.9 million customers, highlighting the same privacy concerns that Wojcicki once blamed for slowing sales and exposing the company to a class-action lawsuit, which was filed last Friday.
Wojcicki (pronounced woh-JIS-key) attributes 23andMe’s low share price to a broad downturn for small drug company stocks. “It’s definitely been harder than we expected. But I don’t think that we’ve executed yet on what the vision actually is,” which is to use genetic information to give consumers more control over their healthcare, she said. “You know, the thing I found with people who are dismissive is like, you just have to prove them wrong,” she said.
Patrick Chung, a longtime board member, said Wojcicki is a great startup founder because she has stuck to her big vision despite tough obstacles. “Anne has a willful ignorance of constraints,” he said.
She’s also dedicated to her personal brand, those who know her say.
Last March, Mattel made Barbie dolls based on her and her two sisters, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and pediatrics professor Janet Wojcicki, in a promotion for International Women’s Day.
Anne said she had to convince her more press-shy sisters to do it.
Some 23andMe employees had found it odd that she spent time on it so soon after the year’s first round of layoffs. One asked about it at the company’s weekly all-hands meeting, known as “feisty Fridays
Nobody’s Girl’s kid would have to be the stupidest NSW plod (or ex-plod) going around.
Why one would try to stitch up somebody using ‘evidence’ that can be plainly disproven at the first opportunity escapes me.
There would have to be a level of fault for a Sergeant or whoever approved the brief, and also for either the cop or DPP prosecutors for not going ‘geez hang on’ when they read and authorised it to hit the courts, but none of that takes away from the monumental idiocy of trying it on in the first place.
Unless, of course, people had been doing this before and getting away with it – but even that would have taken a degree of complicity in defence counsel in encouraging the bloke to plead up straight away.
The lesson is – if you’re hit with charges for stuff you didn’t do, always go to trial.
Regarding the live sheep trade – the Kuwaiti’s – who buy one third of all live sheep – have said they aren’t interested in chilled meat. If they can’t buy live sheep from Australia, they’ll find other suppliers.
Terry McCrann from the Oz on 25 January.
Dated I know, but he makes a good point not made by anyone else (as far as I know).
And that is that Albo and the rest of the Liars voted for Stage 3 Tax Cuts in full at a time when it was thought the Budget Deficit in 2023-4 was going to be $56b.
Compared to the now expected deficit of just $1b. Meaning they could have spent $55b to provide cost of living relief at the same time as delivering Stage 3 Tax Cuts in ful,l while still maintaining the same original budget deficit.
So, the so-called-changed-circumstances in no way ‘justify’ the proposed changes to Stage 3 Tax Cuts.
But Cats probably already knew that.
Anyway, here is the article:
They could capture a bunch of Houthi ‘civilians’ and have them ‘working’ on the decks of all the ships wishing to traverse the contended waterway. Anyone hitting them with a missile suffers blood guilt by their clan.
Pay the ‘forced labourers’ a USD100 a day per head allowance when released, and a ticket from Tel Aviv home to their hometowns. Deduct the pay from retained pallets of cash owed to Tehran.
In a hotel room near Marvel Stadium, about to sample the delights of the old patch.
The picture wireless just told be Mongyang’s preparing for ‘the hottest weekend this summer’.
Checked. Top temps for Saturday and Sunday of 31 and 34.
Surely, surely they are taking the piss.
*told me*
Oh deary. I blame global boiling. 23 degrees in Mongyang.
A question for computer nerds.
On a few occasions recently, when I have put my laptop to sleep, and closed the screen over the keyboard, I have come back an hour or so later, to find the laptop quite warm, and the battery run down.
This morning, for example, it was fully charged, and I used it for a couple of hours. Then I put it to sleep with a quick touch of the on/off button, and closed the screen over the keyboard while we went for a walk. When we returned, the computer was warm, and the battery discharged so far that it had turned off. I had to connect it to the charger to get enough power to turn it back on.
Any thoughts? It is a Dell Inspiron 14 5000, purchased in August 2020.
43 degress in Perth.
But, it’s summer.
I remember my first job ever in the 90’s pushing trolleys. It got to over 47 one day.
Gilas
Feb 1, 2024 3:38 PM
I agree with you on this.
On your main topic, many of us could write a critic on that, but as calli replied to a question some time ago, ‘I also often write a post and then discard it’.
What’s the point?
Only creates controversy, argument and maybe tears of hurt or anger.
Nomenklatura, or nomenklatura-adjacent is the likely explanation.
Boambee John
Feb 1, 2024 4:55 PM
Not familiar with the model, but if you go into settings, power, you will find a settings for the ‘lid closed’ that could override your sleep settings.
Hairy Festeringpenis – the notorious antisemite, repeats the daily hate direct for Der Hamasian so you donty have to read it.
?Mary Kostakidis
@MaryKostakidis
The ICJ just took the Holocaust monopoly away from Israel – Mondoweiss
‘Golda Meir once told Shulamit Aloni that “after the Holocaust Jews can do whatever they want.” It seems, however, the day of judgment has perhaps arrived. The world hasn’t forgotten the Holocaust. It just turns out that “never again” applies to everyone.’
#Gaza
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/the-icj-just-took-the-holocaust-monopoly-away-from-israel/
I think we need to shut down SBS until we find out how deep the Nazis have sunk their roots.
Lysander
Feb 1, 2024 4:55 PM
43 degress in Perth.
The killer weekend forecast here is for 33 deg. on Saturday and 38 deg. Sunday. I am preparing to die! NW Victoria.
My youngest son aged 27 is a tradie as are all his mates, though my son is now doing a second apprenticeship in gardening, hard labour all day long outdoors, respite occasionally if it rains heavily enough.
His carpenter mates have apprentices, they are other mates in their late twenties who’ve made career changes. All very useful on the job, maybe it just takes a bit of maturity.
BB John – What you have done works with Apple but not Windows machines as “sleep” in Windows requires more than closing the case or lightly touching on/off button.
See detailed instructions for Windows 11 sleep mode here
Also it appears the quote itslf is… to be generous, a vivid reframing of a hearsay conversation.
https://camera-uk.org/2014/09/15/examining-an-alleged-quote-by-golda-meir-about-the-holocaust-cited-by-gideon-levy/
Though Gidon Levy previously told CAMERA in an email that he had no source for the quote in question, we’ve been able to determine there is a source for at least a variation of the alleged quote – the late Shulamit Aloni. However, even Aloni isn’t clear on the details or the exact origin of the alleged Meir quote, and so even this “source” only represents hearsay.
Local machinery dealer says he will only employ adult apprentices – teaching the younger generation the work ethic is an exercise in futility.
Me too.
I attribute this to an interrupted shutdown sequence.
If I just shut it, it goes to partial sleep, mainly screen off.
If I press off button, it starts a full shutdown while storing everything for the wakeup. Shutting the lid partway through the full shutdown interrupts the sequence and leaves the thing running.
Then I stuff it in my bag and head out, and on arrival at destination the thing is very hot and battery nearly flat.
Yet the 20 something have a work ethic.
“weee wull keeep youuuu saaaafe” slurs the Elbonian assistant village idiots apprentice…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-01/immigration-detainee-challenges-dropped-ankle-monitoring-lifted/103409080
Three High Court challenges to the Commonwealth’s emergency monitoring powers for people released from immigration detention have been scrapped over the summer after ankle bracelets and curfews were removed from the plaintiffs.
…
The ABC has been told the former detainees had been subject to ankle bracelets and curfews when their court cases were launched.
However, the conditions of their bridging visas were altered shortly after court paperwork was filed, and the monitoring devices were removed.
This nobbled their chances in court, effectively taking away their legal standing to argue they were being subjected to extreme measures.
The ABC has been told plaintiffs in another two High Court challenges have also been told their ankle bracelets are to be removed by the government, raising questions as to whether that too is a bid to scuttle their cases.
One is a Cuban man, referred to by the pseudonym XTVC, who was charged and found guilty of causing harm to a Commonwealth official while in Western Australia’s Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre.
KevinM
Feb 1, 2024 4:55 PM
What’s the point?
Only creates controversy, argument and maybe tears of hurt or anger.
Are you perhaps referring to my defence of Lizzie?
If so, why should it cause anger, tears etc..?
Everyone here is free to scroll or post a contrary opinion if they disagree, or downtick freely.. to fully satisfy one heart’s content.
No need for a call-out to one’s local mental health team or for unlimited outrage.
That’s what leftards do.
Mary kookynuts doesn’t deserve the oxygen.
I’m seeing a bit on X that more ordinary gazans are fed up with Hamas and Unwra, and being prepared to say so on social meda and meanwhile that Israel is going to bypass both hamas and unwra and organise food and other aid distribution themselves.
Also seeing, in southern Gaza, a new phone shop open for business, shwarma shops doing brisk trade, people showing the quantity and variety of the meals they are preparing, even if they have to use outdoor bbqs, some people have plenty of money in their pockets.
Not seeing anything similar to the starving children of Yemen.
Whatever happened to “the victor writes the history”. Does this general belief in the Palestinian version mean Palestinians have won the war? That even if Israel succedes in all and every one of its aims over time, Israel will for ever be called the ultimate evil.
Thanks, I’ll have a look later.
That Wong chap seems to have nailed its colours to the mast.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-01/australia-stalls-military-export-requests-israel-gaza/103410528
“There appears to be a deliberate ‘go slow’ happening on anything to do with Israel while the war in Gaza continues,” one defence industry insider told the ABC, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“Nobody in the government wants to be seen to be either approving or rejecting Israeli military sales”.
Figures familiar with Australia’s weapons export licensing process say it’s difficult to determine precisely where delays on assessing applications are occurring but they believe Foreign Minister Penny Wong is partly responsible.
“I think Defence is wedged on this because government will be saying they are not approving military exports to Israel but also telling Defence to not process them,” another industry representative claims.
Thanks.
‘Bern at 3:34.
I know I’ll get a backhander from JC for plussing, but here goes …
+ 93.1.
hamas wants it’s murderers back
Thanks also.
fresh fruit and vegetables for sale in Gaza
This Keneally “verdict” absolutely sucks. The thing should serve time behind bars, not swan around doing community service. If we thought Australia was behind the US by twenty years, have a look. This is justice in Australia now. I cannot comprehend it and I cannot accept it.
One of them must have killed all the elderly people waiting at the bus stop who were going on an excursion.
these sweet guys
Cops allegedly beaten by rowdy migrant mob near Times Square — with suspects later freed without bail: horrifying video
It would be funny if it wasn’t so fuked. I am so amazed that vigilantism has occurred big time in the US. Anyway this will be happening here soon. Oh, that’ right, it already has with the suds in victoristan. Probably soon with the pallis everywhere.
Alamak!
Feb 1, 2024 5:06 PM
Any thoughts? It is a Dell Inspiron 14 5000, purchased in August 2020.
BB John – What you have done works with Apple but not Windows machines as “sleep” in Windows requires more than closing the case or lightly touching on/off button.
See detailed instructions for Windows 11 sleep mode here
Switch the power off on the wall. No need to leave them pugged in 24/7.
She did get a bit suspicious when she saw a guy in the Woodcutter’s Arms at 7:30 ordering a parma who looked exactly like the bloke she had seen on a ventilator in hospital at 3:00 that afternoon.
Mike Freer steps down
plugged …
red lines
I’m a
Hey Kez
You know him? His ‘work’ sounds familiar, no?
Katz, all the outpouring of grief for the pali’s from the left is because the left need a victim, even from self inflicted wounds. Remember Trump finally moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, so apart from the lefts anti-semitism even though the left is made up of a lot of Jews, its a get Trump opportunity as well. If the left didn’t have a victim they’d have to invent one or ten, hence the pali terrorist supporters and further down the totem trannies. Maybe we should compile a list of victims and every few months have a winner. Carpe’s arseless chaps come to mind. If we could prise them off him. In the end Israel will prevail and hummus will be dead. Hummus needs to know every one of them is going to die. As we’ve seen a lot of them are not all that eager to get the 72 raisins.
Thanks rosie.
#BREAKING: Prime Minister Netanyahu released the following statement regarding the rumors of a new temporary hostage/ceasefire agreement:
“There is a lot of noise in the media surrounding the efforts to get more hostages released, so I would like to clarify:
We are working towards another deal for the release of our abductees, but I emphasize: not at any cost.
I have red lines, among them:
-We will not end the war
-We will not remove the IDF from the Strip
-And we will not release thousands of terrorists.
We are constantly working to free our hostages and to achieve the other war goals: the elimination of Hamas and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat.
We are working on all three together and will not give up on any of them.”
JC
Feb 1, 2024 5:56 PM
Obsessed? I think so.
Game, set and match to JMH.
Here endeth the lesson.
“Musk owning Twitter is a complete fail, what an idiot LOL!”
From last October, 2023.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/24/pebble-the-twitter-alternative-previously-known-as-t2-is-closing-down/
By christ that is pathetic.
The CEO of Wikipedia.
I can’t stop laughing.
OH PLEASE NO MAKE IT STOP!
They just cost $1100 p.a. as daily users.
Good luck getting any VC funding, let alone paying 6% interest on a business loan with a track record like that.
“Oi you got a loicense for that barker chum”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/01/thousands-xl-bullies-unregistered-ban-england-wales-begins
He also urged the general public to report any dogs thought to be in breach of the rules to police. “My urge to people would be if you do see these types of dogs within the community, who aren’t adhering to aspects of the law, to report that effectively
…
Dr David Martin, head of animal welfare at the veterinary company IVC Evidensia, told MPs last year he believed there to be at least 50,000 XL bullies in the UK, although some estimates have suggested it could be as many as 100,000.
What has happened to western governance that it has become the overflowing septic tank of mongs and mediocrities?
FMD.
Nein Noos.
The lead in says “40 degrees for Melbourne”.
Once the detailed report comes on we get “close to 40” with a Bureau of Mythology fat-head saying “nudging 40 in some Northern suburbs”.
So, yeah.
It will get to 37 in the Coles carpark at Broady.
It was the moaning. When he moaned about the parma it sounded identical to the moaning in the ward when the cameras arrived.
What the Israelis need to do is to ignore the crap coming out of the US, the UN and other busybodies. They need to rid Gaza of Hamas and the Palestinians who willfully support Hamas. Meddling agencies need to keep the F out. Israel has a serious problem. Israel needs to deal with it.
The libs are fuked. They’re all lining up to appear on the abc ‘s version of the rise and fall of tone: turdball’s there, scomo, who is really a slimebag, and sundry other shits flashing their egos and weasel like mentality.
Conversely Latham returned to his regular spot on the Brent Bultitude show this arvo on 2SM. The contrast is striking: the libs are fools and Latham a real pro Australian pollie.
BJ – I’m having a similar problem, although I keep mine plugged into the wall socket, so the battery doesn’t go flat.
Mine is an Inspiron 15 3000 with a Nvidia graphic card. This week it has been going nuts. Whenever I start the browser or the email client the fan goes on and the CPU chews up juice like anything. I checked everything I could and I think it is due to a Nvidia driver update on 26 Jan. After the update the CPU log graph showed lots of activity that hadn’t been occurring before the update. I don’t know what it’s doing. I could not find any way to roll the update back. So I just decided I’d wait until someone works out what the problem is.
At the moment my laptop is very annoying to use since even if I have a browser going on it it sounds like a noisy industrial fan.
Wheres Monty of Malmo.
He needs to go to that country and drape his corpulent corpus over the device to prove its nothing at all.
Police in Sweden destroy ‘live’ device outside Israeli embassy
Police described the object as a ‘dangerous object’ as Sweden’s prime minister condemned the ‘attempted attack’
West Australian Cats may care to note that the Swan Valley has had it’s hottest day on record – 45 degrees.
cohenite
Feb 1, 2024 6:12 PM
Why? Let me guess. They know they have no friends at the ABC but let’s give it a try, shall we? FFS I’m over slow learners. Dutton should have known better than to allow this travesty to eventuate.
You’re kidding!
The folks in the Pilbara, Marble Bar etc are laughing at youze. Swan Valley can’t even manage 50C. Weak as.
They could capture a bunch of Houthi ‘civilians’ and have them ‘working’ on the decks of all the ships wishing to traverse the contended waterwa
Good idea. Hostages is the classic Muz method. But, I am afraid, shock and awe is the only way to stop this. You bomb the bejesus out if the Houthis and they will stop.
Simple. There is no other solution They know the West has lost their cajones.
Just checked my desktop, which also has a Nvidia graphics card but much older, five or six years I can’t remember. No Nvidia update last week and no change to CPU usage on the graph. One difference is my desktop runs Win 10 because it’s too old to run Win 11, whereas the Inspiron now is running Win 11. Dunno if any of that is pertinent Boambee John.
I did try to turn off the laptop Nvidia graphics card and use internal Intel graphics instead, but that didn’t stop the heating issue. So I don’t know what the problem really is but it did start the same day the Nvidia driver update occurred.